Early Bird Registration: By 10 June 2008
Who is it for? The course is designed to support those who are or will be engaged in strengthening community participation in development initiatives. Participants should already have some experience in and understanding of international development.
Course Description: The course will explore the meaning of community engagement and civil society strengthening in bilateral and multilateral programs and how policy change has increased the importance of developing a partnership between government and community in achieving national and international development goals. The course will provide participants with a better understanding of key concepts such as partnership, participation, civil society strengthening, community based contracting, co-management and empowerment and how they apply to donor country and NGO programs for development assistance.
Changes in development thinking towards self management of government services at the local level and the importance of a strengthened community engagement in all aspects of national development will also be explored. Participants will also become familiar with design and implementation of modern frameworks for strengthening community engagement and increasing community responsibility for social sector development. The course will explore current large AusAID and multilateral programs for social sector improvement and service delivery to communities in rural areas of Solomon Islands, PNG, Indonesia, Philippines, East Timor and other countries in our region.
Course Content:
- Modern and traditional understandings of community engagement
- The policy change towards greater community engagement
- What makes up community engagement in practice: social capital, participation and empowerment
- Social inclusiveness, gender equity and the participation of disadvantaged groups
- Modern frameworks for applying community engagement
- Tools for initiating community engagement
- Incorporating strength based approaches in community engagement
- Measuring community engagement outcomes
Learning Outcomes:
- An understanding about the importance of community engagement
- The different ways in which a community can engage with government and donors
- The range of possible tools used for improving community engagement and a description of the more recent and most useful of these
- Outputs of community engagement or what is expected as a result
Facilitator’s profile: Christopher Dureau has been engaged in international development for the past 30 years. This included considerable time living and working as a development practitioner and as a consultant for donor funded activities. Chris has experience in many countries in Asia, the Pacific and Africa as well as remote Indigenous Australia. Chris is an adult educator with teaching and facilitator experience at all levels of society. Currently Chris is Project Director of two large bilateral community development and capacity building programs and advisor to others. Chris is a strong advocate for strength based approaches that encourage the partner community, NGO or government to draw from their own past success (resilience), and mobilise their current assets as they move towards a future which they determine. One of the most significant aspects of this is working with communities in order to enhance their ability to influence decision making.
Training Schedule 2008 - Melbourne
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