PACT Foundation’s basic methodology
PACT team’s expertise covers the following areas of community development:
The methodology of our programs and projects is built on a set of values and principles that stand at the basis of PACT Foundation’s entire activity:
PACT’s work strategy consists of creating and building capacity for CBOs that represent the interests of various community groups, as well as supporting the fore-mentioned CBOs in finding solutions to the specific problems they are facing. In the process of developing programs and projects that address disadvantaged/marginalized groups in rural or small to medium urban environments, we use the community development approach through various means (CBO development, community facilitation, consultancy and training for community members and even for other local development agents, seed funding etc.)
In order to put our principles to work, we have designed a mix of learning and action that would stimulate beneficiaries to gain knowledge, as well as practical abilities, and moreover, that would offer them confidence to initiate development actions and projects in their communities.
With respect to learning, through the methodology of our programs and projects, we aim to facilitate learning on three different levels: individual level, organizational level and community level. Thus, the various elements of our programs and projects aim for these three levels, either separately or combined (i.e. residential training aims for individual learning; consultancy, knowledge sharing and experience exchange visits aim for individual and organizational learning; practical exercises/projects aim for all 3 levels - individual, organizational and community learning). Our training programs are based on building competencies, and to this purpose we have adopted a large definition of the term “competence”, to include knowledge, abilities, motivation and a favorable environment.
Based on our work experience, we assert that capacity-building in local communities can be reached by operating on multiple dimensions:
- participation – involvement of community members, as individuals, in small groups and larger organizations
- community leaders (leadership) – tightly connected to the concept of participation; leaders play an important role in the development of small groups and community-based organizations, as part of the continuum of community capacity-building
- organizational structures – such as community-based organizations or informal community groups; their existence and the stage of the life-cycle they have reached is crucial in determining the way in which people meet in order to socialize and to convey attention to common problems and concerns
- needs or problems assessment – in our vision, this element is the more constructive in what concerns capacity, the more involvement it implies from the part of the community, in problem identification, solution definition and action planning
- resource mobilization – the ability of the community to mobilize resources from within, as well as its ability to negotiate and attract resources from the outside
- critical thinking or critical awareness – the ability of a group or community to assess the causes that contribute to their disadvantaging – be they social, political, economical or contextual of a different nature.
- links or relations to other persons or organizations (networking) – including partnerships, collaboration protocols, coalitions or alliances established to address community problems
- project management – contributes to building the capacity of the community and primarily includes the main stakeholders’ control over the decisions regarding planning, implementation, assessment, funding, management, reporting and conflict management.
Participatory methods used by PACT Foundation when working with its beneficiaries
- Community Mapping – this is probably the best way to start working within a community; the community map represents the perspective and perception of those who draw it, namely community members, over local resources, the way local resources are used, household features etc.; this is why the facilitator should have no input in drawing the map; a mental or actual walk in the community is undertaken, together with a group of community members; afterwards, the map of the place is drawn; those who draw the map are encouraged to represent buildings on it – individual households, community facilities (infrastructure), and missing facilities; another way to draw the map is for individuals or small groups to draw each a separate map, and then, as a group exercise, to have all the small groups draw one large common map (using large pieces of paper, i.e. flipchart paper), combining and integrating the representations of the smaller maps.
- Community inventory – this is a method that aims at assessing the strengths and weaknesses of the community; the facilitator’s role is not to make the inventory, but to guide community members in realizing this assessment as a group, and that is why the process is key for the participatory assessment; the half-structured interview is used as a technique; the discussion between participants has a somewhat free character and leaves participants the possibility to analyze the contribution they bring to realizing the inventory; the method does not imply the use of a list of specific questions, but we recommend preparing a list of topics to discuss, that should include both strengths and weaknesses of the community – infrastructure facilities available, their operational quality, current and future opportunities and threats.
- Problem prioritization – when working in communities with various stakeholders’ groups, we recommend realizing a list of problems prioritized by each group of stakeholders; afterwards, these problems should be reviewed, analyzed and prioritized by the larger and more diverse group; prioritizing problems is a good way to start a group talk or interview and helps focus the discussion.
- Prioritizing according to material wealth – this method proves very useful for (1) discovering how community members define poverty, (2) finding out who are the persons affected by poverty in the community, (3) stratifying and prioritizing various examples of well being; it can be best applied when a previous contact with the community has been established; as a working technique, we recommend making name cards for multiple community households; several community members are chosen for completing the task of grouping the name cards according to the various degrees of household wealth; the ones that have placed the cards in various categories will also explain their reasons; the way in which participants group the various community members into categories and the reasons they invoke for placing the various households in each category are extremely relevant for the socio-economic situation of the community.
- Community Institutional Mapping (Venn Diagram) – this methods yields a simple circle representation of various groups, organizations or institutions that are active within the community; the dimension of each circle reflects the importance of each group, organization or institution represented; the smaller the circle is, the less influent is the group, the institution or the organization symbolized; the degree of overlapping between two circles represents the degree to which those two institutions are working or making decisions together.
- The World Café (source: www.theworldcafe.com) – the World Café is an active dialogue method that facilitates information exchange, discovery of innovative solutions and creative action planning; it can be used by an organization, an institution or a public authority, in order to subject a specific issue to public debate; it is also a very good method for public consultation and involving citizens in decision making.
- The Future Search Conference – this participatory planning method lays the foundations for change, by building a common vision and a common work ground for various stakeholders of a specific sector, organization or community; the Future Search methodology presents participants with the possibility to freely assume more control over their future; it enables organizations and communities to learn more about themselves, from all points of view; sharing is the key; when we explore problems together, we free creative energy that can lead to projects that none of us could have undergone by oneself; the Future Search method does not substitute for rational planning, but rather constitutes a framework for involvement and engagement; it enables people to get over obstacles that can stay in the way of putting into practice their dreams and schemes, systems and projects, visions and value. The Future Search Method was used, for the first time in Romania, to shape the final conference of PACT Foundation’s project “Community Based Organizations, Centers for Community Mobilization” (financed by the EU through PHARE 2006), on facilitating the access of local communities to development funds”.
PACT Foundation’s philosophy
PACT Foundation works downright with people living in either rural or small to medium urban environments from South Romania, encouraging them to associate in order to create civil society structures, that we generically call community-based organizations (CBOs). We support CBOs in being active, efficient and effective, sustainable and visible in their home region. The key activity of PACT Foundation is to build capacity for citizens interested in taking initiative and being actively involved in developing local communities.
PACT team has 7 years experience (since October 2002) in supporting the creation and development of citizen groups in South Romania, mainly in rural communities. We have worked with approximately 90 citizens groups from Oltenia and Muntenia regions. Around 3 quarters of these groups have maintained their interest and are currently still active, have registered as not-for profit organizations and continue their work at community or even county level.
PACT Foundations seeks to build collaboration and partnership relations with these CBOs, and avoids creating dependency. Even if these organizations start off as program beneficiaries, PACT Foundation encourages an active involvement from their part from the very beginning, starting with the request that organizations fill in application forms in view of the selection process. PACT Foundation considers this stage a first step in transforming community members from passive beneficiaries to active elements of their own development, as a community. Furthermore, the interest and attention that organizations pay to this first stage of filling application forms is a key element in the selection process. Throughout its projects, PACT Foundation encourages knowledge transfer and gain, strongly connected to practical exercises, in view of enrooting theoretical information combined with practical experience.
As an organizational strategy, PACT Foundation constantly stays in touch and continues to work with community-based organizations that participate in its programs and projects, either as beneficiaries (providing assistance on various activities or processes), or as partners, in order to build capacity for them to become strong, visible and sustainable actors in their home communities. PACT Foundation constantly strives to support organizations it works with, to offer them new opportunities, according to their signaled needs, and to stimulate them to engage in new activities to the benefit of their home communities, so they can set an example for involving citizens in community life and produce sustainable positive changes. To this purpose, PACT team constantly gathers information and ideas from these CBOs, in order to develop together projects and activities that would contribute to local development.
Through its projects and programs, PACT Foundation aims to facilitate open dialogue, collaboration and partnership between community-based organizations and local public authorities and institutions, offering the former the opportunity to promote their causes and to bring their subjects of interest on the public agenda. Through the capital of knowledge and abilities they dispose of, community-based organizations constitute a significant human and informational resource and can act as trustworthy partners of local authorities and other institutions in accessing external funds. In our vision, active, independent and sustainable CBOs become important actors and dialogue partners for the other actors involved in the local development process, in order to create a positive impact in their community. Strengthening their capacity of actively participating in local decision making helps CBOs bring a greater and more significant contribution to the development of the communities they represent, which corresponds, in fact, to the main objective of PACT Foundation.
