COMMUNITY EMPOWERMENT
BUILDING ENGAGED CITIZENS
Our programs are aimed ensuring that citizens are capacitated and empowered to hold elected representatives to account and to speak out on critical issues that are threatening effective delivery of services in their local communities. The aim is to increase good governance and citizen accountability by ensuring that key elements (or indicators) of governance within local government, through public participation; community consultation; transparency; disclosure; eradication of corruption; service delivery; and systems and structures.
AIM
- Municipalities engage with local communities.
- Residents have improved understanding of how municipalities function.
- Municipalities and communities partner in developing interventions strategies aimed at improving good governance.
Our emphasis is to engage in work programs that strive to achieve good local governance, participatory democracy, and an empowered civil society.
APPROACH
Our approach focuses on ensuring that local leadership is capacitated on broad principles of engagement and leadership. Mobilization involves general governance matters relating to the community organisation. Meetings with relevant stakeholders are organized and strengthened around certain core values based on participatory democracy. Our aim is therefore to change how local government engages communities.
ACTION PLANNING
Community-based planning allows for participatory process whereby local knowledge acknowledged and is packaged into an action plans that are linked to Integrated Development Plans (IDP). This participatory community based approached increases the potential of having local leadership and public officials around the negotiation table to focus on bread and butter issues. The aim of this approach is to have plans that are made compliant with business plans requirements for accessing basis services from local and national authorities.
FACILITATION AND PARTICIPATIVE COMMUNITY BASED PLANNING
The capacitation and strengthening of grassroots organizations involved in development work:
Participatory Community Action Planning – working with communities and local government to produce and implement community-driven initiatives. In this programme we work closely with the IDP offices, City Managers to ensure that projects are implemented. Undertake facilitation of conflict\ dispute resolution between communities; Pilot participatory community action plans; Unpacking housing project processes/financing mechanisms for various projects.
Socio-economic surveys - The existing household questionnaire on information pertaining to community needs such as income, savings, schooling, existing housing, tenure, rental, basic services access, community facilities, education, health care, police, and development priorities.
Informal settlement upgrading participation and participative planning – working closely with civic organisations, ward councillors and local communities for the broader understanding of the different needs for the informal settlement communities.
Key areas being explored - Leadership and Citizenship; Community-based Planning; Councillor Training, IDP engagement. In this program, we can provide internship and mentoring for volunteers and interns to work with Ubuntu in order to gain experience and thus develop capacity within the broader sector.