P4CD- Partnerships for Capacity Development

[Claude Salem]

                                                  Please remember the environment before printing 
  

 
 Dear Colleagues

P4cd  cannot claim to be a "grassroots" organization.  But we aim to become, as soon in the near future as possible, an additional resource for those who are the change intermediaries of their respective rural communities. 

The substantive focus of our activities is the Operations and Management of Change for Rural Development in Africa.  This theme covers a broad range of sectors and issues, as well as an equally large number of actors-- local, national, regional and global, public and private -- working directly and indirectly at the level of rural communities . In point of fact, their proximity within the same website environment is a key structural concept. 

At present, lessons learned are still insufficiently shared with others of similar interests or who face similar problems and bottlenecks; and the mechanisms for such sharing are often so formal and bureaucratized that by the time a potential solution is disseminated, let alone available, the problem itself has either morphed beyond early repair or the touted solution is yet again the proverbial "hammer in search of its nail". 

Our's is an attempt to circumvent the shoals at various institutional levels by providing the pertinent socio-professional audiences with a safe and substantive environment :

• enabling the professionals of rural development to communicate  with each other and directly benefit from each others' experience as development practitioners, 
• providing a setting for relevant information and know-how to become directly accessible in text, audio and video formats; and 
• making available a basket of web 2.0 tools both for the purposes of communications and information and as venues for informal learning.   

The current platform at www.partners4cd.net is as "complete" as any newborn : the limbs and faculties are present and functioning but crawling, walking and running is yet to come; and while the vocal chords are mostly operational and speaking in my voice, the time will hopefully come when the speech and ideas expressed are those of participating members. 

The attached presentation lays out the elements of our strategy: to initially become an  instrument of  outreach for those without immediate access to the tools we offer: e.g. professional training institutions, NGOs, CBOs , development projects .The audiences will need to be nurtured from the ground up , and as such we need to draw the attention of rural professionals to ways in which it could become an instrument of their own outreach.  Yet the bekoning reality is that we still operate in an environment where digital access, hardware availability and familiarity with basic software are likely to be major challenges. 

Ideally , we should be operating with additional sector specific coordinators as well as a webmaster/programmer. However, in the present under-resourced economic environment, the learning curve is steeper still. 

I look forward to your reactions, comments, and suggestions to the attached.

Claude 

        

       

Claude  I. Salem,  Coordinator

408 Avenida Victoria,   San  Clemente, CA. 92672
Phone: (949) 544-1948            Cell: (202) 352-1431
Skype: cisalem679    http://www.partners4cd.org                                                      

          

[Sasha Fisher, Spark MicroGrants]

Dear Claude,

This is great to read about. Congratulations on the work thus far! 

I was wondering what has been the most challenging part of attracting partners that steadily use the platform? It seems like there is a huge need for greater communication, and as you mentioned formalized settings can be a challenge, how does the platform differ?

Thanks,

Sasha

--

Sasha Fisher

Executive Director   |   Spark MicroGrants

USA: +1 917 816 6727   |   Rwanda: +250 78 253 5597   |   Uganda: +256 71 861 6714

@sparkmg   |   blog   |   website

[How Matters]

Thanks for sharing this overview Claude! I've added your site to my
compiled (and ever growing) list of online communities related to
international development. You can take a look at:
http://www.how-matters.org/online-communities/
It's great to see something focused at the grassroots level! I look
forward to joining and sharing resources from how-matters.org that
might be useful to your users!

[Claude Salem]

Sasha,

Thanks for the positive feedback.

The bottlenecks are in making the platform known. and in populating
the resource base with relevant materials or with access to those
materials elsewhere. Barely making a dent in the former and severly
short-handed to do the latter. The "access, hardware, software"
challenge is no less daunting.

Though there is much yet to be improved, Potential users ( the 'steady
users' who are now lacking ) should make that determination and guide
the direction of any future changes. The big challenge has been to
make the site known to those who could make use of it. Responses from
Facebook has been mainly from urban college graduates from anglophone
countries in Africa . No surprise there. But that responses are mainly
from Africa is most encouraging. There has been some interest from a
university in Nigeria and an Agricultural Training institution in
Senegal. But the decision is theirs.

We've therefore determined to try and make the period from January --
June 2012 a test period with a few willing sources -- probably 2 each
of a training institutions, NGOs and development projects. I will
commit to work with them to facilitate their use of the platform. Any
suggestions as to which groups with access to Internet may be willing
to take the plunge and try it out would be most welcome. We wont let
them drown !

Thanks

Claude



On Nov 7, 6:42 am, "Sasha Fisher, Spark MicroGrants"

<sasha.fis...@sparkmicrogrants.org> wrote:
> Dear Claude,
>
> This is great to read about. Congratulations on the work thus far!
>
> I was wondering what has been the most challenging part of attracting
> partners that steadily use the platform? It seems like there is a huge need
> for greater communication, and as you mentioned formalized settings can be
> a challenge, how does the platform differ?
>
> Thanks,
> Sasha
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>

> On Sun, Nov 6, 2011 at 7:39 PM, Claude Salem <claude.sa...@gmail.com> wrote:
> >                                                   *Please remember the
> > environment before printing***

>
> >  Dear Colleagues
>
> > P4cd  cannot claim to be a "grassroots" organization.  But we aim to
> > become, as soon in the near future as possible, an additional resource for
> > those who are the change intermediaries of their respective rural
> > communities.
>

> > The substantive focus of our activities is the *Operations and Management
> > of Change for Rural Development in Africa.  *This theme covers

> > a broad range of sectors and issues, as well as an equally large number of
> > actors-- local, national, regional and global, public and private --
> > working directly and indirectly at the level of rural communities . In
> > point of fact, their proximity within the same website environment is a key
> > structural concept.
>
> > At present, lessons learned are still insufficiently shared with others of
> > similar interests or who face similar problems and bottlenecks; and the
> > mechanisms for such sharing are often so formal and bureaucratized that by
> > the time a potential solution is disseminated, let alone available, the
> > problem itself has either morphed beyond early repair or the touted
> > solution is yet again the proverbial "hammer in search of its nail".
>
> > Our's is an attempt to circumvent the shoals at various
> > institutional levels by providing the pertinent socio-professional
> > audiences with a safe and substantive environment :
>

> >    - enabling the professionals of rural development to communicate  with

> >    each other and directly benefit from each others' experience as development
> >    practitioners,

> >    - providing a setting for relevant information and know-how to become

> >    directly accessible in text, audio and video formats; and

> >    - making available a basket of web 2.0 tools both for the purposes of

> >    communications and information and as venues for informal learning.
>

> > The current platform atwww.partners4cd.netis as "complete" as any

> > newborn : the limbs and faculties are present and functioning but crawling,
> > walking and running is yet to come; and while the vocal chords are mostly
> > operational and speaking in my voice, the time will hopefully come when the
> > speech and ideas expressed are those of participating members.
>
> > The attached presentation lays out the elements of our strategy: to
> > initially become an  instrument of  outreach for those without immediate
> > access to the tools we offer: e.g. professional training
> > institutions, NGOs, CBOs , development projects .The audiences will need to
> > be nurtured from the ground up , and as such we need to draw the attention
> > of rural professionals to ways in which it could become an instrument of
> > their own outreach.  Yet the bekoning reality is that we still operate in
> > an environment where digital access, hardware availability and familiarity
> > with basic software are likely to be major challenges.
>
> > Ideally , we should be operating with additional sector specific
> > coordinators as well as a webmaster/programmer. However, in the present
> > under-resourced economic environment, the learning curve is steeper still.
>
> > I look forward to your reactions, comments, and suggestions to the
> > attached.
>
> > Claude

> >     *    *
>
> > *
> > *
>
> > **
>
> > *Claude  I. Salem,  Coordinator*
>
> > ***408 Avenida Victoria,   San  Clemente, CA. 92672

> > Phone: (949) 544-1948            Cell: (202) 352-1431

> > Skype: cisalem679    http://www.partners4cd.org                    **
> >            **     *         *   **     *
>
> > *          *
>
> --
>
> Sasha Fisher
> Executive Director   |   Spark MicroGrants<http://www.sparkmicrogrants.org/>

>
> USA: +1 917 816 6727   |   Rwanda: +250 78 253 5597   |   Uganda: +256 71
> 861 6714

> @sparkmg <http://twitter.com/#!/@sparkmg>   |
> blog<http://blog.sparkmicrogrants.org/>
>    |   website <http://www.sparkmicrogrants.org>
>
>  image001.jpg
> 7KViewDownload

[Claude Salem]

Many thanks! Look forward to collaborating on this endeavour .

[Sasha Fisher, Spark MicroGrants]

Thank you Claude!  Best of luck, and I'll let you know if I think of people to connect you with, I'm sure some groups in Rwanda would be keen on it.

--

Sasha Fisher

Executive Director   |   Spark MicroGrants

USA: +1 917 816 6727   |   Rwanda: +250 78 253 5597   |   Uganda: +256 71 861 6714

@sparkmg   |   blog   |   website