Concept of Community Learning Movement

National Center for Advocacy Studies, Pune, India, initiated the Grassroots Initiative in some districts of India in 2008 and realized that the initiative was able to mobilize and organize marginalized communities to advocate for their rights themselves more effectively than organizations advocating on behalf of the communities. NCAS felt that it should spread this message to SAARC countries; Nepal, Bangladesh, Afghanistan, Pakistan and Sri Lanka and Sungi Development Foundation was selected as the partner organization to implement the Community Learning Movement in Pakistan.

Concept of Community Learning Movement

Grassroots Advocacy Initiative is a part of the process to build up local level leadership and capacity so that marginalized communities will be able to advocate for themselves. Advocacy is generally perceived as a process of influencing public policies and people’s attitudes on behalf of the marginalized. The people-centered advocacy perspective propounded by NCAS seeks to go beyond the present practice of “advocating on behalf of the marginalized” to a practice of enabling people and facilitating socio-political conditions wherein the marginalized will be able to advocate “for themselves”. However, it does not negate speaking on behalf of people. 

Under the programme of Grassroots Advocacy Initiatives a Community Learning Movement is being launched through an informal network of the grassroots activists with the perspective of social change. It will be done by facilitating capacity building of the village level activists and local community leaders in advocacy (perspectives, issues, knowledge and skills) and to empower them to organize and mobilize people for their rights and against all sorts of exploitation and injustice.

Further, the purpose of Grassroots advocacy Initiatives is to introduce the concept and practice of people-centered advocacy at the village level and facilitate to build up advocacy network of empowered social activists from village level to national level with a rights-based perspective of social change.

The Collaborative Capacity Building Programme

Grassroots Advocacy Capacity Building is a part of the Grassroots Advocacy Initiatives. The Capacity Building at the grassroots level is envisaged as a Collective Learning Process. Under this collective learning process, NCAS seeks to build up collaborative programs with organizations committed to build up the capacity of communities so that they may themselves be able to address the issues of marginalization and deprivation.

This programme is planned in collaboration with different organizations in different parts of the country. NCAS and the collaborating organization, having common social perspectives, will jointly conduct this program sharing the different responsibilities. Both the organizations will sit together and chalk out the nitty-gritty and schedule of the programme. NCAS and the collaborating organization will have to jointly develop a local resource team, say a team of ten to fifteen activists, with the ability to communicate with deep commitment to facilitate grassroots learning process and movement.

After NCAS and the collaborative organization enter into an understanding for the execution of such a Grassroots Advocacy Initiative programme, which will be henceforth referred to as Initiative, a Working Group consisting of two members each from NCAS and the collaborative organization will be formed to manage and monitor the entire programme of the Initiative. The collective learning process will be an 18-month process in six phases of three months each. The Curriculum of the learning process will broadly include social analysis, identification of the issues and addressing them, evolving perspectives/strategy/methods, understanding governance at PRI, district and state level, dealing with the police, and other departments, developing leadership, organizing people, planning campaigns etc. However, the curriculum will be finalized in accordance with the local needs in consultation with the collaborating organization.

A team of resource persons will be formed for facilitating the collective learning process of the local resource team. The team, which henceforth we will be referred to as Principle Resource Team, will consist of resource persons from NCAS, the collaborating organization and outside. The Principle Resource Team will be responsible for designing the programme, working out the details of the learning process, developing and procuring local resource materials, preparing detailed schedule of the programme, and deciding who will conduct which session. There will be two learning processes will be designed, one for the local resource team and the second one for the grassroots activists.

The Principle Resource Team will conduct a collective learning programme for the Local Resource Team which will in turn facilitate capacity building programmes for the village level activists, if need be, in association with resource persons from NCAS and local resource persons.

NCAS will develop/procure resource material in local languages in the form of books, video cassettes etc. with the support of the collaborating organizations. However, initially, the collaborating organization will have to identify the members of the local resource team in consultation with NCAS. Criteria for the selection of the team members will be:

(1) Motivation; (2) ability to communicate; and (3) experience in community organizers for a considerable period of time.

Tentatively, it is envisaged that 4 grassroots activists will be selected from each village on an average and four members of the local resource team will be responsible for conducting the learning process for 40 activists from a cluster of 10 villages.

The local resource team should accomplish the following:

• Identify villages from which activists will be enlisted and prepare a village profile for those villages along with NCAS person. A format is enclosed for the village profile.

• Prepare a list of the activists/community leaders (for whom the local facilitation team will conduct collective learning process), their names, age, experience, education, remarks etc.

Tentative schedule of the collective learning programme for the local resource team:

Phase 1

(Each phase of 3 months )

Social analysis identifying the issues analyzing the issues

Some understanding on governance Leadership

Phase 2

Understanding Self-governance

Phase 3

Police/ Forest/ Networking

Phase 4

Understanding District Administration Role of information

Phase 5  

Understanding Media, Gender

Phase 6

Organizing and Mobilizing, Strategic planning

• There will be sharing of experience, reflection, information and plan of action in every phase.
• The first phase of the programme can be 2-3 days and the subsequent ones will be of 3 days or as required.
• A different schedule will be prepared for the collective learning programme for the village level activists/community leaders. The schedules will be with different modules of one or two days according to the needs and conditions in the villages, and there will be phases of two months each.

Expected outcome of the programme  

• The entire programme of learning process will be so designed and conducted that as a result of the process the empowered grassroots activists will be able to
• Evolve a rights-based perspective with regard to social change and an approach of people-centered advocacy to organize the marginalized and influence public policies and programmes, and be
• Enabled to understand and analyze the exploitative and oppressive socio-political conditions and governance
• Enabled to understand and analyze issues of marginalization and deprivations (particularly the rights of women, landless laborers, minorities etc.)
• Enabled to understand the role, functions, ’spaces’ and dynamics of the institutions of governance
• Enabled to initiate strategic networking with other social action groups, people’s organizations and other advocacy groups at various levels.
• Enabled to work with the institutions of local governance and to effectively deal with the district administration, police, and forest department etc. with regard to different issues.
• Enabled to organize and mobilize people to address different issues and to demand accountable and transparent governance
• Enabled to do Strategic Planning for advocacy campaigns.

As an impact of the collective learning process the activists will ensure that, in the village,

• Schools function properly.
• P.H.C. functions properly.
• District Budget is prepared properly.
• Right to information is achieved
• Culture of library network develops.
• Communal clashes are discouraged.
• People can speak for themselves etc. 

And that each village with a grassroots community leader as its convener will have

1. One book club which will procure a minimum of 4 books every month
2. A discussion group which will meet once in a week
3. A Common board
4. A Wall paper
5. A community newspaper/ Magazine.
6. A committee of 3-4 people to follow up issues.

The Self-propelled Initiatives

• Each initiative will have a local name i.e. an identity of its own,
• It will have a perspective of social change.
• Grassroots initiatives will be a web model of network.
• Each Initiative will be self-propelled in social action
• Each should have its own concept paper and a complete programme document according to the joint vision (of NCAS and the collaborative organization).