How do you determine the level of community ownership of a project/program?

[How Matters]

The term “community-based” has been hijacked. Just like “rights-based
programming,” or “participation,” or “capacity building,” it has
become over-used and thus less understood in our sector.
Unfortunately, especially within the HIV circles in which I traverse,
the term “community-based” has been reduced to simply referring to the
locality in which services are delivered.

Yet for me, if an organization or a project is genuinely community-
based, it has much more to do with its relationship to its
constituency.

Is there genuine community ownership? Are the people served invested
in the outcomes of the program(s)?

But most importantly, how can we know?

I recently worked with a small foundation that has identified working
with community-based organizations as a key criteria of their
grantmaking to support projects for children in the developing world.
As they grow, however, creating a shared and operational understanding
of the term “community-based” is proving tricky.

Whether on a site visit or reading through a stack of proposals, a
person can be so concerned with what is happening on the ground that
"how" can be overlooked or ignored. Yet the processes of decision-
making within local relationships and power dynamics are often the
make-or-break factor in development projects. (See a great post on
this at Staying for Tea at:
http://stayingfortea.org/2010/08/06/the-second-principle-of-community-development-work/)

Working in places in which I have not been able to use a shared
language or in which I have not had sufficient contextual knowledge, I
know that have made and will continue to make assumptions about
various aspects of local dynamics. In some cases, especially early in
my career, I did this only to find out later that there was some
serious tokenism going on or that the so-called representatives were
not sanctioned to speak on behalf of the community. (See participation
ladders at: http://www.how-matters.org/2011/04/27/not-your-project/)

Over time, I learned to identify and to test my own assumptions about
community ownership. I learned that my gut could tell me quite a lot,
but that it could also deceive me.

I also learned that the questions I ask myself as an outsider could be
useful and important tools to determine if a development initiative is
occurring for or with the community, a sometimes subtle but vital
distinction.

Attempting to make the implicit—explicit can be incredibly valuable
for seasoned or newbie do-gooders alike. Thus I am sharing here a list
of questions I am attempting to articulate and develop to help anyone
else who has an interest in determining the level of community
ownership. What are the things we can look for? What informs our gut
reactions and subsequent thinking?

The following questions are by no means exhaustive, nor are they meant
to be used as a checklist to ensure all aspects of community ownership
are present in a development project. Rather, the following questions
contain subjective ideas that are still dependent on one’s definition
of community, as well as varying contexts. Some may seem rather
obvious, but taken as a whole, I hope they can help us to not only
spot, but also uphold and support community ownership as a fundamental
building block of social change.

QUESTIONS TO HELP SPOT COMMUNITY OWNERSHIP

(1) Who participated in the planning of the project or program? How
were/are decisions about priorities made?
(2) Do community members recognize themselves as part of the local
organization’s constituency?
(3) Are elements of reciprocity present? To what extent are local
resources and/or in-kind contributions being mobilized to support the
program?
(4) How does the project/program build upon the efforts of groups or
relationships that pre-date formal funding opportunities?
(5) Before a particular project began, how did the community
demonstrate stewardship of shared resources or prior accomplishments?
(6) Is the story you are presented about “our problems” adequately
balanced with the story of “our endeavors to change this”?
(7) Can community members of various ages, gender, position, etc.
articulate a projects goals or effects?
(8) Is the local organization (or the on-the-ground implementer in the
case of international NGO projects) clear about what how a strategy or
activity is or will affect people’s daily lives?
(9) What is the quality of interaction between members? Is mutual
respect and care demonstrated? Are more than just a few people
engaged?
(10) To what extent in the project/program you are working on
functioning in collaboration with other neighboring organizations or
government officials?

This list will continue to develop. I kindly encourage group members
to suggest other questions or adaptations to these in the comments.

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This post originally appeared at: http://www.how-matters.org/2010/09/13/spotting-community-ownership/

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Related Posts
Listening to People on the Receiving End of Aid
http://www.how-matters.org/2010/09/02/initial-findings-listening-project/
Rethinking Trust, by Ben Ramalingam http://www.how-matters.org/2010/08/20/rethinking-trust/
More on Why ‘How Matters’ http://www.how-matters.org/2010/07/30/more-on-why-how-matters/
Seeing the future in sovereign local orgs
http://www.how-matters.org/2010/07/25/sovereign-local-organizations-part1/
PBS Documentary Shines a Light http://www.how-matters.org/2010/07/22/pbs-documentary-shines-a-light/