TRAINING IN PARTICIPATORY COMMUNITY APPROACHES

Dominique Thaly, together with Günther Heindrich and Marie-Josée DeBlois, experts in communication for development (C4D) conducted three participatory community-based approaches trainings in Côte d'Ivoire, Chad and Guinea in 2016. These trainings were organized by the UNICEF Office for West and Central Africa (WCARO), in collaboration with the UNICEF offices of the respective countries and under the direction of Fabio Friscia, C4D specialist at UNICEF WCARO.

Participatory community-based approaches (CBAs) enable local people to participate in the situation analysis process to identify the problems they face and to find appropriate solutions with the help from an external facilitator. When properly conducted, an PCAs contribute to building the capacity of a community to continually bring about other problems that require intervention.

The objectives of CBAs are twofold and simultaneous: to improve the survival and development of the child and the mother, and at the same time empower the communities so that they can control their own destiny, that they realize their own vision and take charge of their own development. The CBA thus guarantees sustainable development, which is managed locally.

The aim of the workshops was to build the capacities of participants (Knowledge, Ability and Attitude - KAA) to implement community programs by effectively and systematically applying the steps of a community-based approach.

The training was over 6 days, with many interactive exercises, 2 immersions in a previously chosen community, a draft of a community diagnosis and at the end, an action plan for the deployment of the community-based approach in pilot sites within the countries.

These trainings were also an opportunity to test the training manual and the community-based approach guidelines developed by the West Africa UNICEF Office under the direction of Fabio Friscia. These documents were finalized and validated in April 2017.

The main products of the project are:

• About 80 actors from the public sector, civil society and media trained in community-based approach in 3 countries.
• 3 action plans for the implementation of the community-based approach in the 3 countries
• A participatory community-based training manual and the community-based participatory approach guidelines validated.
• A facebook page "Participatory community-based training" for sharing experiences between countries. 

ATI collaborators who have participated in this project :

• Saloua Ayari, consultant, backstopping