Your insights and experiences are invaluable

There is a wealth of development experiences, insights and knowledge out there. The KPA provides a promising framework for organizing this wealth of knowledge into more useful forms.

Much still remains to be done in this work-in-progress. The role of the partners—CCLFI.Philippines and PEF—is to be a midwife to the birth of the idea and to open the door for other willing and able partners and co-operators to help in furthering the development of the framework and in its further operationalization into useful tools that can produce improved results for anti-poverty projects.

The questions listed on the left represent some of the key issues on which the KPA framework is built. We invite you to take the next step with us by visiting these links, reading what others have said, and sharing your own thoughts using the feedback form provided. It is through our collaborative efforts that the promises of the KPA framework can be realized.

A Vignette: Defining “Success”

Here is an insightful vignette from a 2003 Knowledge and Wisdom Sharing Workshop among best practitioners in sustainable community development conducted by CCLFI.Philippines for the UNDP GEF Small Grants Programme.

Annabelle Echavez, from a fishermen’s association in Bolinao, province of Pangasinan, and Ron Crisostomo, from a coastal resource development organization in Infanta, province of Quezon drew the following, entitled “Ang Tagumpay” (“Success”):

What is “Success”?from Final Report on “Leveraging Best Practices” Project


[View a larger version of Annabelle's drawing]

Annabelle presented and explained their drawing thus (translated from Tagalog language, shortened and edited while maintaining the essential ideas):

For us, the start of development is like making walis tingtingA local broom consisting of coconut midriffs tied together. This broom represents a well-known local metaphor for unity: one coconut midriff cannot do anything; it is powerless by itself. But when many are tied together (unity of the community), they gain strength and efficacy..

First, the leafy part from each coconut leaflet is removed by a knife to produce one tingting [midriff]. This is like individual discipline: it is difficult or painful but when done, it is a small success by itself. Then, many tingtings are tied together to make a broom. This is community discipline and unity – a bigger success. With a broom you can clean the seashore of garbage. If the community is united and a project answers community needs – when families get their own house, land and livelihood and they can help themselves and the community – then the project is successful. However, that is not the end-all of success.

The last stage [last arrow pointing to houses inside a heart] is when you no longer need the broom because every community member understands and respects or feels responsible for the environment, and no longer throws garbage anywhere. That is a far greater success. [source]CCLFI.Philippines (2003). Final Report on “Leveraging Best Practices” Project. Submitted to UNDP GEF-RNE Small Grants Programme.

Final success to community members represented by Annabelle and Ron is an inner, intangible change. We at CCLFI.Philippines call it “sustainable living,” in contrast to the formal concept of “sustainable development.” This is the difference pointed out by Masood Ul Mulk of Pakistan between the “private transcripts” of local community members and development workers interacting intimately together, and the “public transcripts” of development institutions, governments and academe.

Success and Failure Factors in Community-based Development Projects

One of PEF’s development projects is a water and sanitation project for an upland cultural community, the Tbolis, in South Cotabato, Mindanao Island, in the Philippines.

Let us take a glimpse, a short vignette, of Tboli life after the project:

A small boy, aged nine or ten, cut a twig from a medium-sized tree with a rusty bolo. In a few seconds, he managed to fashion it into a pedal for his ageing bicycle that leaned on the wall of a shanty. There was visible glee in his eyes as he looked at the result of his ingenuity – the wooden pedal – before he took off his shirt to take a bath beside a communal tub nearby. After a hurried bath, he was astride his bicycle, speeding past other children and adults gathered for some conversation on a cold Tuesday morning.

Around the communal tub where the boy had taken a bath, some mothers were washing clothes. A few school children were fetching water while others were taking a bath, too. Water was flowing continuously; everyone could have his/her fill of one of nature’s life-giving elements. Because of the communal tub, the lack of clean water for households had ceased to be a problem for residents of Sitio Lamla, Barangay Kematu of the T’boli town in South Cotabato. [source]H. Marcos and C. Mordeno (2007). From Wells of Misfortune to Springs of Health and Hope: A case study of two community-operated water systems in the Municipality of T’boli, South Cotabato. Quezon City, Philippines: Peace and Equity Foundation.

What went right in this successful project?

Examining this project using the KPA lens shows that the Tboli community actually possesses, and used well for this project various forms of wealth (see the plus “+” items in blue boxes in Table 1): stakeholder and social capital, human capital, access rights to water, and technology and infrastructure.

Table 1
[View a larger version of the table]

Community Empowerment

Empowerment is also a concept commonly espoused in most of the asset-based approaches. This is generally defined as the provision of the rights, capability and authority for individuals and groups to freely make their own choices. At the heart of empowerment is the concept of participation. Much has been written about this concept, and evidences do point to the importance of participatory approaches in project success.

TalisayonTalisayon, S. 1989. Designing for Consensus: The ASEAN Grid. Institution of Southeast Asian Studies, Singapore, page 105. Or see also: Talisayon, S. 1991. “Lessons” in: Serafin D. Talisayon (Ed.). Innovative Development Processes in the Philippines: Case Studies. Asian Center, University of the Philippines. observed that the productivity and stability of a project revolves around three interrelated questions which pertain to the extent to which all or most of the affected and concerned parties perceive an interest in, identify with, or are engaged in, the project. A project that is for, by and of the people would be a truly participatory project.

1. Ownership and control: Of whom is the project?
2. Management, from conceptualization to design and implementation of the project: By whom is the project?
3. Benefit: For whom is the project?

We would like to hear about ideas or insights that you think will be helpful in the further refinement of the KPA framework.

What is your definition of “success”?

From you own field experiences, what are the success factors, or what worked well, with anti-poverty projects?
What are the failure factors or what did not work well and why?

What for you is true community empowerment?
When do we say that the community has been empowered?
What indicators point to this accomplishment?