Strategic Approach
The IIJD's Strategic Approach:
These recent years, many attentions and debates have been brought to the issues of global warming, global security or terrorism, HIV-AIDS, Malaria, Trade, and poverty, just to mention a few. At the same time, Issues related to the effectiveness of foreign aid in promoting development are increasingly at the center of development discourse. The questions today remain: How do we resolve the problems our world faces today if most of our time and resources are spent on relief and emergency programs? How do we tackle these in a world where the accustomed methods used by nation-states may be reaching their natural limits? Not only do we have to deal with new global challenges everyday, but the time we spend without solutions these problems are getting worse, not better, and the standard strategies for dealing with them are woefully inadequate to the task. Many of the countries of Sub-Saharan Africa have long been among the most aided in the world. They are also among the world’s poorest economic performers. It is difficult to ignore the apparent failure of aid to promote development in Africa. The problems of aid ineffectiveness in developing countries especially in Africa are clearly linked to the particularly difficult development environment in the region and the faulty policies and weak institutions common in many African countries.
At the International Institute for Justice and Development (IIJD), Inc. we look at the big picture of poverty and go beyond the symptoms to confront underlying causes. We seek to tap human potential and leverage the power of individuals and communities to unleash a vast force for progress, creating tools and services to help the less fortunate get on their feet and start more productive and joyful life. IIJD’s strategic approach in promoting justice and development solutions encompasses (1) reforming institutions, laws, policies, and customs that conspire to trap people in poverty forever; (2) dismantling systemic barriers that paralyze the ingenuity of people; and (3) building infrastructure and local capacity while aggressively incorporating stakeholders in decision-making; in program / project design and implementation. IIJD bases its approach on collaboration and participation at the national and international level the organization also plays an intermediary role between Local NGOs and International donors or development agencies.
The Intermediary Role
The IIJD's strategic approach for ending poverty, advancing democratic governance, and providing long lasting development solutions is based on strong partnerships, incorporation of local expertise, participation of local groups, and capacity building at the community level.
Participatory community-based development depends on intermediary organizations with specialized skills and experience to provide links between CBOs and local NGOs on the one hand, and national, international institutions and the funding sources on the other. The intermediary functions include facilitating communication between project beneficiaries and funding source; helping to identify and voice community needs as well as help in solving those needs; supporting participation and group formation; training and building the capacity of community’s groups; and channeling resources to the most disadvantaged groups.
Not many NGOs are participatory, and not all collaboration between funding sources and NGOs has been set up with the purpose of promoting participation. Until recently, banks looked to NGOs primarily for capability in service delivery. We are proud and encouraged in our strategic approach to learn that, in approximately two thirds of projects approved in recent years, the promotion of beneficiary participation was cited as the main rationale for seeking NGO involvement.
For IIJD to succeed, we must aggressively work (1) to identify and recruit experts committed to contribute to our mission and build partnership with organizations whose capacity and orientation match specific tasks at hand, and (2) to ensure that the influence of the funding source or collaborators is to support rather than undermine the participatory character and the capacity of IIJD in providing long-term justice and development solutions for poor communities and under- developed nations.
Understanding the IIJD's Participatory Approach
The challenges that our world faces today require nothing less than a global commitment or coalition to solve them. These global challenges bring up the idea of burden sharing, global solidarity. In this global connected world, small perturbations may have a disproportionate impact, tipping the balance in unexpected directions. How we deal today with several issues that our world faces determine how well the planet fares over the next generation. Traditional mechanisms of debating global issues while avoiding to address their underlying causes have not produce a better and safer world. The real problem in our increasingly crowded, interconnected world is that while most of the world difficulties belong to the future, our means of solving them belong to the past. We clearly need new approaches to the problems of the twenty-first century.
The term "NGO" encompasses a broad array of different organizations, varying enormously according to their purpose, philosophy, sectoral expertise and scope of activities.
A distinction is made between operational NGOs, which are engaged primarily in designing and implementing projects, and advocacy NGOs, whose main purpose is to defend or promote a specific cause. IIJD, while mostly operational, may occasionally become engaged in both types of activity.
IIJD is neither a political party nor a lobby group. In promoting justice for a safer world and providing development solution for a better world, IIJD always presents factual information in an unbiased manner, allowing the public to form its own opinions and to make its own decisions as to what actions should or should not be taken. Besides its educative, collaborative and participatory approach, IIJD does not intend to participate in or intervene in (including the publishing or distributing of statements) any political campaign on behalf of (or in opposition to) any candidate for public office.
IIJD performs an important intermediary role in supplying information, facilitating communication and providing consultation. Generally, however, Bank-NGO collaboration on specific projects is more likely to involve operational intermediaries. IIJD’s orientation, type of activities, and competence may be very similar to private sector firms with whom IIJD, Inc. will be competing for contracts in project implementation or service delivery. Such private sector firms are recognized to be very efficient (and in strong demand) as service deliverers but are also very oriented to meeting the requirements of bureaucratic funding agencies.
What makes the IIJD different?
All IIJD’s projects are implemented under the guidance of the International Institute for Justice and Development. What make IIJD different are our collaboration and participatory approaches as well as our intermediary role. Our commitment to a participatory approach means that we see ourselves as enablers and capacity builders and refuse to compromise our objectives and independence. Practically, it means planning and combining strong technical expertise with effective institutions building at the local level and combining a higher level of competence in service delivery with community capacity building. We at the IIJD believe that development efforts have too long employed relief-based strategies, while the root causes of poverty and underdevelopment are unaddressed or even aggravated by mismanagement of relief funds and resources. Our response to this weakness is two-pronged: The IIJD actively advocates for systemic reform through its Justice System Program, and supports capacity-building and community-based development through its Development Program.
The IIJD considers the development of an independent judiciary and access to a free and fair justice system to be among the most important factors in advancing democracy, protecting human rights, and assuring sustainable development. Only through the reform of these systems can we combat corruption, demand accountability, secure investments, and create an incentive for all citizens to stay and contribute to their countries' futures.
In addition to confronting the underlying causes of poverty at the international and national levels, the IIJD works at the local level to strengthen civil society. The IIJD partners with grassroots organizations and uses local expertise to design and implement community-based projects, reinforcing the efforts of its partners with resources and expertise to achieve long-term solutions. True development, in all its dimensions, cannot take place without this coupling of bottom-up capacity building and top-down reform. IIJD believes that poverty and underdevelopment need to be addressed through a comprehensive approach that combines infrastructure building and institutional reform along with capacity building at the grassroots level. Working with governments, funding institutions and international organizations on building infrastructure and reforming key institutions while focusing on projects at the grassroots level where communities most immediately benefit and more direct progress is often achieved. This two-fold methodology is reflected through the Institute’s programs.
IIJD designs and implements justice and development programs that build on the capacity of local partners, civil society organizations, and local and national institutions through a participatory and educational approach using training, workshops, conferences and debates, technical advice, and consultations. Along with its partners in the field, the Institute also works with disadvantaged communities to help them solve their self-defined daily obstacles while emphasizing sustainability, practicality, and self-reliance.
IIJD’s technical assistance and financial support are useful to many groups working on the frontlines of development efforts across the globe. By assisting communities in need and bringing together members of civil society, international experts and government to address relevant issues, IIJD offers hope while promoting justice, understanding, peace and development. IIJD’s orientation and approach combined with its focus on institution reforms and infrastructure and capacity building makes us different and one of the best NGOs in the fight against poverty and underdevelopment. IIJD’s comprehensive and multisectoral approach is the best way to end extreme poverty.
IIJD is a non-membership based corporation which does not regard community members purely as beneficiaries, or funding agencies as their clients; accountability to IIJD’s clients, communities and people we serve or work with (for example through community contributions of cash, labor, materials or facilities) is an important indicator of IIJD’s participatory effectiveness.
In order to meet the challenge ahead, and to guarantee participatory effectiveness and an intermediary role, the following are essentials to IIJD in terms of technical and operational capacity, outreach potential, skills in community capacity building, and knowledge of conditions in target communities:
Assessments must always be based on a proven track record as well as stated objectives. Dedication, commitment, determination and enthusiasm are often more important than paper credentials and financial or organizational strength.
Illustration of Participatory Process
A problem is identified in a village. A pilot project is realized with the participation of a local NGO whose community workers walk door to door, urging parents to form village committees, identify a potential director or leader for the project maintenance, and select a site for the project. The success of the pilot will lead to full acceptance and ownership of the program by the community and the government that might eventually fund the program on a department, province, or nation-wide basis using development financial institutions.
Because of the experimental nature of the project, funding sources or bank support may only be possible through the new lending approach, which supports the entire program rather than selected components.
If local NGOs succeed in mobilizing community members to establish viable projects, the integration of the projects into the government system will depend on the willingness of the government to relax regulations related to the project and provide additional assistance and support. Only then will it be possible to replicate the process on a large scale and incorporate the projects and their directors into the government system once the projects have proved viable. Government flexibility allows innovative pilot projects by small NGOs to be expanded successfully and linked into government programs.
Participatory Approach Illustration
People tend to think that a participatory approach will work only on a very small scale and that some of IIJD’s programs will depend on staying small and resource-intensive. In fact, by establishing strong partnerships with local community organizations, the participatory process is extended to large-scale programs when necessary. They are also replicable by other organizations or by government agencies on a large scale. Various approaches used enable successful IIJD programs to be scaled up and "mainstreamed", where possible, without losing the essential participatory qualities and without making field or local representation and community-based organizations overly bureaucratic or hierarchical. This involves strengthening the capacity of local NGOs, both through training and partnerships.
Scaling up also involves institutional capacity building and local administration staff training with participatory methods and relaxation of government regulations through reform. When working with governments to encourage CBO and NGO linkages, IIJD insists that government agencies, as well as funding sources, consider scale downs by decentralizing and building flexible, micro-variable operations. Decentralization not only pushes decision-making closer to the populations most affected (and is in this sense itself more participatory), but it also facilitates work with regional and local NGOs. The community support process can be illustrated as follows:
Enhancing Local Organizational Capacity
Training of an NGO’s staff may often be needed to ensure that the institutional capacity of the organization partner matches the scope and demands of IIJD’s programs and projects. Common areas of weakness in NGOs are: limited financial and management expertise; limited number of staff with training and experience in community mobilization; lack of technical capacity; limited coverage, in terms of scale or area; concentration in urban centers; lack of communication or coordination with other organizations (including government agencies); and limited understanding of the broader social and economic context in which they are working. Since institutional gaps can sometimes be difficult to foresee, IIJD builds flexibility into the provision of training.
Facilitating cooperation and partnerships between IIJD and local NGOs or between local NGOs is a highly effective way of organizing training, as well as enabling small organizations to contribute to large scale projects, and developing the capacity of the local NGO sector as a whole
Approach in Encouraging Partnerships
IIJD’s partnership policy encourages alliances between stronger and weaker NGOs, and between older and newer NGOs. That is to stimulate the transfer of methodologies and technology. In this process, international NGOs work together with local NGOs on pilot projects. After the pilot experience, NGOs are brought together with government officials and donors at a workshop to design a new project based on the pilot phase.
Partnership is important because geographic concentration in the capital isolates many large NGOs from target communities. International NGOs might have the expertise and financial resources to submit competitive proposals for inclusion in project activities; however, they often have the least recent or direct experience with potential client communities. Where local NGOs lack transport to access project areas, international NGOs have the necessary equipment and staff, but lack the local contacts.
Pilot projects and training workshops help build consensus and modify projects in several ways, including creating incentives to establish field offices in the project area where IIJD is not represented. By giving regional offices the authority to approve micro-projects and disburse funds, IIJD’s approach facilitates technology transfer and information sharing.
For bank-financed projects, IIJD may team up with local NGOs to strengthen the capacity of local intermediaries to address the issues involved. International Institute for Justice and Development (IIJD), Inc. assists local counterparts in developing primary learning approaches to educate local people about the problem. This collaborative NGO effort is a broad-based initiative to develop education and training programs. It also serves to transfer skills and knowledge among organizations.
IIJD’s projects are coordinated at the national level by IIJD’s field program manager or a representative that works directly with the government to ensure compatibility with national goals and policies. Community based organizations and volunteers are trained in technology transfer by local NGOs. The staff of these grassroots organizations will be trained in turn by IIJD’s experts or larger NGOs with previous experience in participatory management.
Strengthening NGO-Government Linkages
Relationships between governments and civil society organizations vary greatly between countries. Yet historical, political and ideological differences, and even simple lack of communication, are often responsible for mistrust and misunderstanding about the other's objectives, concerns and constraints. International Institute for Justice and Development SM (IIJD), Inc. helps to promote state-NGO communication by sponsoring joint training, workshops and conferences in advance of project appraisal and, in particular, by including both government agencies and NGOs as stakeholders in the project design.
Applying IIJD's Participatory Approach to the Fight Against Global Poverty
Participation of local communities, women, local non-governmental organizations, and small enterprises are crucial from the beginning. Such participatory and gender-aware approaches often have ongoing, permanent benefits. The important role of civil society and new partnerships, including those with non-governmental organizations, trade unions, the private sector, and foundations, will open new possibilities. At the same time, local expertises, traditional and indigenous knowledge contributing to this international response are important parts of IIJD’s approach.
With this approach, projects mobilize communities, improve women's status, build community capacity, increase incomes, and improve environmental practices. |
