Building local capacities
Transitioning of community aspirations from recovery to development is a demanding and also a challenging task. RAHAMA believes that improved capacities of resettled families to effectively participate in services being provided by Government as well as Support agencies is an essential task. Our target groups in this action are community leaders those who are heading civil organizations and a team of Community Mobilizers. Capacity and competence building program in 8 Women Rural Development Societies (WRDSs) was started by RAHAMA after required planning attended in consultation and discussions with Government Departments. This was one of the activities initially approved by the District authorities. To acquaint with current status an initial survey was completed by RAHAMA on 41 civil organizations (RDSs / WRDSs) in one DS’s Division, in collaboration with government officers. In the first phase, Capacity Building guidance were made available for 8 WRDSs in particular for the advancement of management skills of leaders in each society to conduct respective societies in line with the approved constitutions and by-laws.
When the outcome of above intervention is concerned, 33 capacity building sessions were conducted enabling 98 leaders to hold regular meetings with increased participation of members. This was vital since, baseline data had revealed that attendance of members in regular meetings was below average. Positive sharing of information on future actions between Departmental officials and the society members too was a noticeable outcome. Raising attention on savings, and to find solutions for varied hardships being faced by members of each civil society and also to raise attention on income generating actions were some other useful outcomes. Specific results are anticipated after completion of balance sessions. The
below mentioned sessions were focused on improved outcome of Community Mobilizers too which has direct links with the follow up of the next phase of Civil organizations after completion of the planned sessions.
Strengthening civil society conduct for improved governance to ascertain sustainable Livelihoods of participating CSOo.
Except in limited number of locations listed under the purview of RAHAMA no effective community organisations were functioning at the beginning of the resettlement period. In such locations, no democratic membership or operations were seen within the rural organisations. No proper infrastructures were in existence to conduct development programs and community events. Health and education sectors were managed by authorities with limited facilities. In contrast, consumption of alcohol was found increased and it became a problem to sustain households and livelihoods. In these circumstances, RAHAMA Sri Lanka, performed varied assessments and fact finding actions to realize possible ways to capacitate the local organizations in order to strengthen civil society.
Studies revealed that Community organisations intend to reinforce the civil society settings and roles provided that a systematic approach is evolved with improved internal operation of each social entity through a broad spectrum of activities. Accordingly, RAHAMA started building a robust partnership first with more than 10 apex bodies and started collaboration with village based community entities. RAHAMA under the capacity building actions, arranged a study tour to visit India to study several good models on how civil organizations are strengthened and the processes adopted to popularise livelihood and SME actions. RAHAMA also positioned a team of Community Mobilizers to improve the status of 30 to 40 CSOs in three districts. Training for Mobilizers is in focus currently.
Series of capacity building sessions were conducted “For example, promoting enabling environments for civil society, involving CSOs in policy dialogue and monitoring of development activities. Recently there has been a shift towards empowering CSOs to conduct participatory monitoring and evaluation of service and project delivery holding their governments accountable.”
Health and education related infrastructure have been considerably improved with the support of the Government and other Donors and the community organisations are managing them effectively with their improved capacity and systems of operation. Community organisations are linked with government service providers and able to obtain relevant resources for further development. Villages are running anti- alcohol campaigns to reduce the use of alcohol and drugs. 4 batches of Youths are trained in alcohol prevention initiatives.