LocationsCOMMUNITY MOBILIZATION TRAININGS – AN EFFECTIVE TOOL FOR DEVELOPING CIVIC PARTICIPATION
August 17, 2023
In modern society, civic participation is one of the most important criteria for community development. Active participation of citizens in solving problems and developing their environment contributes to the creation of a sustainable and prosperous society. However, residents are not always ready or aware of how to contribute to improving the quality of life in their region. This is where community mobilization training could be useful.
Capacity building in targeted local communities aims to identify local needs and develop action plans, i.e. Community Development Plans (CDPs), which are prepared by identifying priority infrastructures for investments with optimal and long-term benefits, through inclusive community engagement (including women and youth) and consultation with regional and local authorities.
Thanks to this tool, every resident has the opportunity to influence the improvement of the infrastructure of their makhalla.
CDP is a plan of goals and actions needed to improve the life of the makhalla. This plan is being developed in cooperation with local residents, activists and makhalla stakeholders and aims to address economic, social and environmental issues.
For this purpose, it was conducted several capacities of targeted local communities of the Republic of Karakalpakstan, Khorezm, Bukhara and Navoi regions.
In particular, to identify community needs, 170 community mobilization trainings were conducted in all four regions between 2021 and 2023 (57 of them – in 2023).
These trainings are an educational component aimed at transferring the knowledge, skills and abilities of participatory design to representatives of local communities in the target regions with the further prospect of improving public spaces using this method.
In 2023, in 57 target communities, more than 3,300 people (of which 1,219 or 37% were women) participated in community mobilization trainings.
In addition, to find appropriate ways and solutions to community problems, the project managers and community mobilization facilitators held working meetings with initiative groups, resulting in the identification and verification of 585 priority community needs - subprojects. These sub-projects were refined during the meetings with regional and district authorities and sectoral ministries and final lists were approved for inclusion in CDPs.
A total of 900 social infrastructure subprojects in the four pilot regions have been included in Community Development Plans and will be improved in the near future.
Presentations of the developed Cluster CDPs to the 170 communities and 20 pilot district hokimiyats are planned for August-September this year.
These activities have been implemented within the framework of the joint project of the Ministry of Economy and Finance of the Republic of Uzbekistan and UNDP "Sustainable Rural Development", financed by Islamic Development Bank and OPEC Fund for International Development.
To learn more about the project follow the link:
https://www.undp.org/uzbekistan/projects/sustainable-rural-development
