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Elements
of Community Strength
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oleh
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ReferenceDocument
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Descriptions
of the sixteen elements of capacity, strength or empowerment
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| Community
empowerment goes well beyond political or legal permission to participate
in the national political system. It includes capacity to do things that
community members want to do. |
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Empowerment
includes capacity building and strengthening in various dimensions. Here
are sixteen elements of a community that change as the community gets stronger. |
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| The
proportion of, and degree to which, individuals are ready to sacrifice
benefits to themselves for the benefit of the community as a whole (reflected
in degrees of generosity, individual humility, communal pride, mutual supportiveness,
loyalty, concern, camaraderie, sister/brotherhood). |
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As
a community develops more altruism, it develops more capacity. (Where
individuals, families or factions are allowed to be greedy and selfish
at the expense of the community, this weakens the community). |
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| The
degree to which members of the community share values, especially the idea
that they belong to a common entity that supersedes the interest of members
within it. |
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The
more that community members share, or at least understand and tolerate,
each others values and attitudes, the stronger their community will be.
(Racism, prejudice and bigotry weaken a community or organization). |
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| Human
settlements facilities and services (such as roads, markets, potable
water, access to education, health services), their upkeep (dependable
maintenance and repair), sustainability, and the degree to which all
community members have access to them. |
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The
more that members have access to needed communal facilities, the greater
their empowerment. (In measuring capacity of organizations, this includes
office equipment, tools, supplies, access to toilets and other personal
staff facilities, working facilities, physical plant). |
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| Within
a community, and between itself and outside, communication includes roads,
electronic methods (eg telephone, radio, TV, InterNet), printed
media (newspapers, magazines, books), networks, mutually understandable
languages, literacy and the willingness and ability to communicate (which
implies tact, diplomacy, willingness to listen as well as to talk) in
general. |
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As
a community gets better communication, it gets stronger. (For an organization,
this is the communication equipment, methods and practices available to
staff). Poor communication means a weak organization or community. |
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| While
expressed in individuals, how much confidence is shared among the community
as a whole? eg an understanding that the community can achieve what ever
it wishes to do. |
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Positive
attitudes, willingness, self motivation, enthusiasm, optimism, self-reliant
rather than dependency attitudes, willingness to fight for its rights,
avoidance of apathy and fatalism, a vision of what is possible. Increased
strength includes increased confidence. |
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| Context
(Political
and Administrative): |
| A
community will be stronger, more able to get stronger and sustain its strength
more, the more it exists in an environment that supports that strengthening.
This environment includes (1) political (including the values and attitudes
of the national leaders, laws and legislation) and (2) administrative
(attitudes
of civil servants and technicians, as well as Governmental regulations
and procedures) elements. The legal environment. |
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When
politicians, leaders, technocrats and civil servants, as well as their
laws and regulations, take a provision approach, the community is weak,
while if they take an enabling approach to the community acting on a self-help
basis, the community will be stronger. Communities can be stronger when
they exist within a more enabling context. |
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| More
than just having or receiving unprocessed information, the strength of
the community depends upon the ability to process and analyse that information,
the level of awareness, knowledge and wisdom found among key individuals
and within the group as a whole. |
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When
information is more effective and more useful, not just more in volume,
the community will have more strength. (Note that this is related to,
but differs from, the communication element listed above). |
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| What
is the extent and effectiveness of animation (mobilizing, management
training, awareness raising, stimulation) aimed at strengthening the
community? Do outside or internal sources of charity increase the level
of dependency and weaken the community, or do they challenge the community
to act and therefore become stronger? |
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Is
the intervention sustainable or does it depend upon decisions by outside
donors who have different goals and agendas than the community itself?
When a community has more sources of stimulation to develop, it has more
strength. |
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| Leaders
have power, influence, and the ability to move the community. The more
effective its leadership, the more stronger is a community. While this
is not the place to argue ideologically between democratic or participatory
leadership, in contrast to totalitarian, authoritarian and dictatorial
styles, the most effective and sustainable leadership (for strengthening
the community, not just strengthening the leaders) is one that operates
so as to follow the decisions and desires of the community as a whole,
to take an enabling and facilitating role. |
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Leaders
must possess skills, willingness, and some charisma. The more effective
the leadership, the more capacity has the community or organization. (Lack
of good leadership weakens it). |
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| It
is not just "what you know," but also "who you know" that
can be a source of strength. (As is often joked, not only "know-how,"
but
also "know-who" gets jobs). What is the extent to which community
members, especially leaders, know persons (and their agencies or organizations)
who
can provide useful resources that will strengthen the community as a whole? |
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The
useful linkages, potential and realized, that exist within the community
and with others outside it. The more effective the network, the stronger
the community or organization. (Isolation produces weakness). |
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| The
degree to which different members of the community see themselves as each
having a role in supporting the whole (in contrast to being a mere collection
of separate individuals), including (in the sociological sense)
organizational
integrity, structure, procedures, decision making processes, effectiveness,
division of labour and complementarity of roles and functions. |
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The
more organized, or more effectively organized, is a community or organization,
the more capacity or strength it has. |
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| The
degree to which the community can participate in national and district
decision making. Just as individuals have varying power within a community,
so communities have varying power and influence within the district and
nation. |
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The
more political power and influence that a community or organization can
exercise, the higher level of capacity it has. |
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| The
ability, manifested in individuals, that will contribute to the organization
of the community and the ability of it to get things done that it wants
to get done, technical skills, management skills, organizational skills,
mobilization skills. |
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The
more skills (group or individual) that a community or organization
can obtain and use, the more empowered is that community or organization. |
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| The
degree to which members of the community trust each other, especially their
leaders and community servants, which in turn is a reflection of the degree
of integrity (honesty, dependability, openness, transparency, trustworthiness)
within
the community. |
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More
trust and dependability within a community reflects its increased capacity.
(Dishonesty, corruption, embezzlement and diversion of community resources
all contribute to community or organizational weakness). |
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| A
shared sense of belonging to a known entity (ie the group composing
the community), although every community has divisions or schisms (religious,
class, status, income, age, gender, ethnicity, clans), the degree to
which community members are willing to tolerate the differences and variations
among each other and are willing to cooperate and work together, a sense
of a common purpose or vision, shared values. |
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When
a community or organization is more unified, it is stronger. (Unity
does not mean that everyone is the same, but that everyone tolerates each
others' differences, and works for the common good). |
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| The
degree to which the community as a whole (in contrast to individuals
within it) has control over actual and potential resources , and the
production and distribution of scarce and useful goods and services, monetary
and non monetary (including donated labour, land, equipment, supplies,
knowledge, skills). |
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The
more wealthy a community, the stronger it is. (When greedy individuals,
families or factions accrue wealth at the expense of the community or the
organization as a whole, that weakens the community or organization). |
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| The
more any community or organization has of each of the above elements, the
stronger it is, the more capacity it has, and the more empowered it is. |
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A
community is a social entity (See Community);
it does not become stronger simply by adding a few more facilities. Community
strengthening or capacity building involves social change –– development
–– and that, in turn, involves all sixteen of the above elements of
strength. |
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| Measuring
These Elements: |
| Participatory
methods to measure changes in these elements, thus changes in the strength
of the target community, are in the training module: Measuring
Strength. |
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For
a two page handout listing these sixteen elements, see Sixteen
Elements. |
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2007.05.22.