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Asset-Based Community Development Theory and Practice

Facilitator: Christopher Dureau & Christine Perkins.

Dates: 8 - 9 April (Thurs - Fri) 2010

Early Bird Registration: CLOSED (1 March 2010)

Who is it for?

The course is designed to support those who are or will be engaged in strengthening civil society 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 civil society strengthening in bilateral and multilateral programs both between governments and Non Government Organisations (NGOs) and how policy change has increased the importance of developing a partnership between the community and outside support agencies including government, church and NGOs. 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. The course will explore concepts that underlie these new ways of operating such as increasing social inclusion, deliberative or democratic governance, collaborative or network government and the different roles government and NGOs can play.

Changes in development thinking towards decentralised management of service delivery, local level management of government services 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. Participants will be provided with a better understanding of how to monitor and evaluate civil society strengthening programs and how to promote greater downward accountability to ultimate beneficiary groups. The course will explore current large AusAID and multilateral programs for civil society strengthening and community capacity building with an emphasis on programs in rural areas of Solomon Islands, PNG, Indonesia, Philippines, East Timor and other countries in our region.

Course Content

Modern and traditional understandings of civil society strengthening;
The policy change towards greater collaboration between community and government;
What makes up civil society in practice: social capital, participation and empowerment;
Social inclusiveness, gender equity and the participation of disadvantaged groups;
The nature and extent of developing partnerships – reality and ideal;
Modern frameworks for paradigm shifts for implementing civil society strengthening and community partnerships;
Tools for initiating community engagement;
Incorporating strength based approaches in community engagement;
Measuring community engagement outcomes.

Learning Outcomes

By the end of the course participants will be able to:

An understanding about the importance of civil society strengthening;
An understanding of partnerships and how the concept is applied;
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;
Indicators that can be used to measure civil society strengthening and community capacity building.

Course Fees

	Early Bird Fee	Regular Fee
Full Fee	AU$700.00	AU$800.00
Staff from ACFID member organisations	AU$650.00	AU$750.00
RMIT University students (with assessment)	AU$600.00	AU$650.00

The above course fees are applicable for participants based within Australia only. All course fees are inclusive of GST and they cover registration, course materials and meals during the course delivery.
To qualify for Early Bird registration fees, course fees must be paid to IDSS within the early bird registration deadline. Beyond that the regular fee will be applicable to all registrations including the existing ones which were not paid within the deadline.
Overseas participants will incur an additional fee of AU$40.00 (inclusive of GST) to cover the additional cost of processing overseas payments and registration. Please click here for further information relevant to overseas participants.
The assessment task is included within the course fees for students of RMIT University who are currently enrolled in academic programs relevant to the course and are going to claim advanced standing/Recognised Prior Learning (RPL) status. Participants who are willing to complete similar follow-up assessment task are requested to contact IDSS directly before submitting their enrolment request. An additional fee of AU$110.00 (inclusive of GST) will be applicable.

Venue

IDSS Pty Ltd

Level 12, 60 Albert Road

SOUTH MELBOURNE VIC 3205

AUSTRALIA

Registration:

Participants are requested to read the IDSS Training Policy before applying for registration/enrolment.

To register/enrol, download the Enrolment Form here and email your completed form through to training@idss.com.au

For additional information please contact:

Ruth Garner

Phone: + 61 8 8919 9767
Fax: + 61 8 8919 9750
Email: training@idss.com.au

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