OVC Support Toolkit  >  Running a programme  >  Getting Started 

Mobilizing the Community

This section is part of getting a programme started. Community mobilisation is linked to situation analysis and registration of vulnerable children in projects. Situation analysis should be much more than a technical exercise. It should be a key part of community mobilisation, particularly if it uses participatory approaches. Key points about community mobilisation are that:

1. It needs to take place from within a community . External organisations may support the process. However, it should be about communities mobilising themselves to address their priority needs. It should not be about an organisation trying to get a community to carry out activities that it has already planned.

2. Communities will mobilise themselves around situations that concern them . Increasingly, this includes the effects of HIV/AIDS on children. In order to mobilise, communities need to:

• recognise what they are already doing in the area.
• accept responsibility for tackling the issue. This is referred to as 'ownership' and is a key factor in activities succeeding and continuing.
• identify the resources they already have, including people and their skills.
• identify the things they are really concerned about. The views of external organisations may be a real problem here. Communities are often pressured into identifying things as a priority that fit with what an outside organisation wants.
• increase their capacity to carry out their chosen activities. This may involve getting external resources.

Whose needs are being met?

Many of the documents in this section approach community mobilisation from the viewpoint of an external organisation that wants to mobilise a community. External organisations can facilitate this mobilisation. However, they should make sure that they are assisting the community to respond to needs it has identified, rather than imposing their own ideas. This is difficult to achieve, particularly in poor communities who may be used to receiving outside assistance. An NGO wishing to work in a community is likely to have to spend a great deal of time meeting with different levels of leaders and community members. This will involve the NGO explaining what it is trying to achieve and what it can offer and listening carefully to the concerns and advice of community leaders. The NGO needs to gain the community's trust and respect. This may be a slow process. This will be easier if the NGO has a good reputation from work in other areas, has previously worked well in the same community and if the community has had positive experience of work with other organisations. It will be more difficult if the NGO has a poor reputation, has had problems with work in the same community or if the community has had poor experience of work with other organisations. These issues may need to be openly discussed and overcome.

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