Community Engagement, Solidarity and Citizenship

Governor Pack Road, Baguio City, Philippines 2600

Tel. Nos.: (+6374) 442-3316, 442-8220; 444-2786;
442-2564; 442-8219; 442-8256; Fax No.: 442-6268 Name:
Email: [email protected]; Website: www.uc-bcf.edu.ph

S.Y. 2020-2021 Second Trimester Grade Level/Section:

MODULE 4 – CESC Subject Teacher:

Community Empowerment and Advocacy

and Participatory Development
I. LEARNING OBJECTIVES
 Define empowerment, advocacy, participatory development, and gender equality
 Understand the important application underlying the concepts of empowerment, advocacy, participatory
development, and gender equality

II. DISCUSSION

A. COMMUNITY EMPOWERMENT

Community empowerment is relevant to all parts of the public sector and is an area of increasing importance
given developing legislation and policies. Community empowerment is relevant to all departments, roles and levels within
public bodies. It should not be seen as only relevant to staff who work directly with communities. All public bodies
should be involving citizens more in decisions about public services. It needs clear leadership to embed this approach
across organisations and to empower staff to carry out the activities and behaviours required to do this. It will mean more
co-production of services, which will require trust between communities and public bodies and time to build up
relationships.
Community empowerment should not be considered as an add-on or separate to other work, but part of a new way
of working. It can help public bodies to manage the pressures they are facing by supporting communities and working
with community groups to support each other in meeting the needs of communities. Ultimately, community empowerment
should reduce inequalities and improve the wellbeing of communities, particularly those suffering from persistent
inequality.

What is Community Empowerment?

There is no one standard definition of community empowerment:

The World Health Organisation describes community empowerment as: ‘the process of enabling communities to increase
control over their lives.’

Similarly, many countries define community empowerment as: ‘a process where people work together to make change
happen in their communities by having more power and influence over what matters to them.’

Communities may be geographically located, or they may share common interests, concerns or identities. Community
empowerment processes support people to do things for themselves and enable people to take control over the decisions
and factors that affect their lives and communities.

Implementing Community Empowerment

Community empowerment is central to a human rights based approach to policy and decision-making. Community
empowerment is a gradual process which involves continual learning and the constant building of a community’s capacity
to articulate and address their priorities. It also involves communities having greater influence and input to decision-
This module is an intellectual property of the University of the Cordilleras Senior High School. Unauthorized reproduction, modification, distribution, display or transmission in any form,
medium and manner of any of the contents of the modules (digital or printed) for whatever purpose is strictly prohibited.
 Community Engagement, Solidarity and Citizenship
Governor Pack Road, Baguio City, Philippines 2600
Tel. Nos.: (+6374) 442-3316, 442-8220; 444-2786;
442-2564; 442-8219; 442-8256; Fax No.: 442-6268 Name:
Email: [email protected]; Website: www.uc-bcf.edu.ph

S.Y. 2020-2021 Second Trimester Grade Level/Section:

MODULE 4 – CESC Subject Teacher:

making. Public bodies and communities are likely to be at different stages as they develop their understanding and gain
confidence in working together. Public bodies need to invest in capacity building appropriate to their local communities,
particularly in the poorest communities, to successfully address inequalities.
 people should be involved in decisions that affect their rights and be fully supported to take part in developing
policy and practices which affect their lives
 Prioritizing those people who face the biggest barriers to realizing their rights.
 If people are driving the activity, scrutiny bodies need to consider how public bodies help catalyze the activity,
how they respond to it and support it. For example, a local community group developing a befriending project to
link socially isolated people back into the community. They may want to access some training that the council
could provide.
 If public bodies are driving the activity, scrutiny bodies need to consider how effective it is and what difference it
is making to service delivery and outcomes for local communities. Leadership, organizational culture and ways of
working are key to supporting staff to deliver change and work effectively with their communities.

Importance of Community Empowerment

1. Community led and based organizations

Set up by individuals or community groups. Those with a well-established presence in a community, stable
resources and capacity for supporting new developments and activities are often known as community anchors. They can
have different purposes, but generally provide support, opportunities and develop positive cultures for people to feel
valued and able to participate, influence and make local decisions. They are often a community development trust or a
community-controlled housing association.

2. Community Activism
Individuals or community groups have self-organized to tackle a local issue, often known as community activism.
Here, members of a community voluntarily work together, in a planned way, to bring about a clearly identified and agreed
change which contributes to an improvement in quality of life.

3. Participation in local decision-making structures

People have a voice on local decision-making structures and are helping to improve the lives of others in their
community through new or improved services. This could be delivered by individuals and/or co-produced with local
organisations. There are also routes through community councils and local authorities for participating in decisions about
local issues.

B. COMMUNITY ADVOCACY

What is an advocacy?
Before direct action comes planning, and before planning comes an understanding of what needs to be put in the
plan. So first, here's a reminder of what advocacy is (as well as what it's not).
 Advocacy is active promotion of a cause or principle
 Advocacy involves actions that lead to a selected goal
 Advocacy is one of many possible strategies, or ways to approach a problem
 Advocacy can be used as part of a community initiative, nested in with other components.
 Advocacy is not direct service
 Advocacy does not necessarily involve confrontation or conflict

Some examples may help clarify just what advocacy is:

 You join a group that helps build houses for the poor--that's wonderful, but it's not advocacy (it's a service)
 You organize and agitate to get a proportion of apartments in a new development designated as low to moderate
income housing - that's advocacy
 You spend your Saturdays helping sort out goods at the recycling center - that's not advocacy (it's a service)
 You hear that land used for the recycling center is going to be closed down and you band together with many
others to get the city to preserve this site, or find you a new one. Some of you even think about blocking the
bulldozers, if necessary - that's advocacy

This module is an intellectual property of the University of the Cordilleras Senior High School. Unauthorized reproduction, modification, distribution, display or transmission in any form,
medium and manner of any of the contents of the modules (digital or printed) for whatever purpose is strictly prohibited.
 Community Engagement, Solidarity and Citizenship
Governor Pack Road, Baguio City, Philippines 2600
Tel. Nos.: (+6374) 442-3316, 442-8220; 444-2786;
442-2564; 442-8219; 442-8256; Fax No.: 442-6268 Name:
Email: [email protected]; Website: www.uc-bcf.edu.ph

S.Y. 2020-2021 Second Trimester Grade Level/Section:

MODULE 4 – CESC Subject Teacher:

Advocacy usually involves getting government, business, schools, or some other large institution (also known as
Goliath) to correct an unfair or harmful situation affecting people in the community (also known as David, and friends).

Several ingredients make for effective advocacy, including:

 The rightness of the cause
 The power of the advocates (i.e., more of them is much better than less)
 The thoroughness with which the advocates researched the issues, the opposition, and the climate of opinion
about the issue in the community
 Their skill in using the advocacy tools available (including the media)
 Above all, the selection of effective strategies and tactics

WHAT ARE THE BASIC COMPONENTS OF ADVOCACY?

1. Surviving Skills for Advocates

Once you go public with an advocacy campaign, you may draw the attention of a number of people, not all of
whom will wish you well. If things go wrong, you could end up looking very silly in the local news, which would not be
good for your future campaigns. Even worse, in some circumstances a wrong step could land you in court. At the very
least, there's a risk of spinning your wheels if you don't go about the many tasks of advocacy efficiently.
For example, to look at a worst-case scenario, think of what could go wrong with a campaign to promote better
health for the poor:
 You accuse the local hospital of turning away a sick patient, without checking your facts. The hospital proves that
it treated the man, but he discharged himself early.
 You push your allies out of shape by launching a press release that uses their name, without checking the wording
with them first.
 You announce a big demonstration outside the hospital, and only three people show up

2. Understanding the Issue

You probably already have a pretty good idea of what the issue or problem is.
For example:
 You are aware of a growing problem of homelessness, particularly among people with small children
 You feel that not nearly enough is being done in your community to prevent youth smoking
 Your group is afraid that a new industrial park up river will pollute the water

However, it is important to develop a deeper understanding of the issue, including research to analyze of who has
power. Remember, advocacy is about power--who can influence things that matter. You will need to know where the
power of your opponents lies, and how you can most effectively influence or confront it.

3. Recognizing Allies
If you are the only person in town who wants something done about the problem you have identified, your cause
could be in trouble. It’s one thing to fight city hall: much harder to take on a whole community of hostile or indifferent
people. If there are only a handful of people on your side, it may be all too easy for those in power to dismiss you as the
lunatic fringe. One of your jobs will be to make that "fringe" start to look like a representative slice of the whole
population affected by the issue. Then people in power will take notice.
Somewhere, there are allies - people who can band together with you and give your cause bulk, visibility, and
clout. You can use methods such as a "power grid" that will help you pinpoint those groups and agencies in town that
have the power to help your group. This grid will also help you identify specific ways in which these potential allies can
help.

4. Developing a Plan for Advocacy

Planning for advocacy is often a complex program because we have to deal with power and opposition. As you
know by now, an advocate will usually have to overcome obstacles much greater than "mere" inertia, or lack of funds,
which are often the main barriers where other types of community development projects are concerned. In advocacy
situations, there are likely to be well-prepared opponents waiting in the tall grass. And they will need to be out-planned.
You will need to develop a plan based on your knowledge of who those opponents are; and knowledge of who
can help you.
For a useful analogy, we'll invite you to think of the overall campaign as a building project:
 Your vision and mission is to provide a place to live that is warm and safe
This module is an intellectual property of the University of the Cordilleras Senior High School. Unauthorized reproduction, modification, distribution, display or transmission in any form,
medium and manner of any of the contents of the modules (digital or printed) for whatever purpose is strictly prohibited.
 Community Engagement, Solidarity and Citizenship
Governor Pack Road, Baguio City, Philippines 2600
Tel. Nos.: (+6374) 442-3316, 442-8220; 444-2786;
442-2564; 442-8219; 442-8256; Fax No.: 442-6268 Name:
Email: [email protected]; Website: www.uc-bcf.edu.ph

S.Y. 2020-2021 Second Trimester Grade Level/Section:

MODULE 4 – CESC Subject Teacher:

 Your objective is to build a house

 Your strategy will take the form of blueprints for the house
 Your action plan will include the specifics: who will pour the concrete for the foundation, put up a frame, add the
roof, et cetera, and when will they do it

And all will go together as part of one big action plan.

C. PARTICIPATORY DEVELOPMENT
Participatory development planning is more of a general approach than a specific ‘tool’. It can be defined on the
basis of a general set of principles, notable amongst which are: a willingness to involve local people in the development
decisions that will affect them; and a desire to support locally-led development and empowerment as seen in the ‘best
practice’ cases. In other words, the participatory planning process should ideally be followed by a participatory approach
for implementing, monitoring and evaluating the development activities.

The core aims of participatory development are to give people a say in the development decisions that may affect
them and to ensure that development interventions are appropriate to the needs and preferences of the population that they
are intended to benefit. Participatory development can be undertaken by government agencies or other development
agencies and CSOs at the national, regional, municipal or community level. Most of the methods and tools are
inexpensive and simple to use and many have been designed for use with or by community members and do not require
literacy. The types of stakeholders participating in this approach can range from rural or urban local communities,
community-based organizations and other CSOs in the for local development planning, to larger CSOs, international
NGOs, the private sector, and the academia, in the case of national or even regional development planning. The level of
stakeholder participation varies greatly depending on how seriously the approach is being taken, and can range from
minimal i.e. involvement only in information-gathering or consultation to more active forms such as for e.g. in
identifying, prioritizing and designing the development program/activities.

Implementing Participatory Development

a. Methodological steps involved in a government-led participatory development planning process.

It is often difficult to integrate and synchronize these different planning systems, particularly where different
levels of government administration are also involved. Government-driven participatory processes can adopt either a long
or short term approach. The longer-term approach involves several months of participatory research, negotiation and
debate. The short term approach involves community-based planning process spanning one to two weeks that can be
replicated with relative ease using the available resources of the government body/development agency.

b. CSO-led tools to support participatory planning

CSOs can help promote and facilitate participatory planning in many ways such as for
 Campaigns: CSOs can organize campaigns to influence development planning by actively supporting certain
initiatives like for e.g. the provision of basic services to poor communities or demanding the withdrawal or revision of
other inappropriately planned initiatives.
 Mobilizing communities: CSOs can play a key role in mobilizing communities and citizens to encourage them
to get involved in development planning processes. This could include for example in raising the awareness of local
people about particular development issues and building their capacity to seek outside action as well as taking their own
actions to address the pertinent issues.

Importance of Participatory Development

 Strengthened voice: Participatory planning processes can give people, particularly the poor and marginalized
sectors of the population, more voice and influence over development decisions;
 Better informed plans: By consulting those whose needs the plans are meant to fulfill, the resultant development
interventions are more likely to be relevant and appropriate to those needs;
 Strengthened capacity of citizens: Through their involvement in participatory planning activities, local people
and CSOs can learn more about the decision-making processes of government bodies and can acquire valuable
skills for identifying, analyzing and prioritizing development issues, and for articulating their needs and concerns
to the relevant authorities;
 Strengthened capacity of governments: Government staff involved in participatory development planning can
not only learn about the use of participatory methods and approaches but can also benefit from a ‘reality check’
This module is an intellectual property of the University of the Cordilleras Senior High School. Unauthorized reproduction, modification, distribution, display or transmission in any form,
medium and manner of any of the contents of the modules (digital or printed) for whatever purpose is strictly prohibited.
 Community Engagement, Solidarity and Citizenship
Governor Pack Road, Baguio City, Philippines 2600
Tel. Nos.: (+6374) 442-3316, 442-8220; 444-2786;
442-2564; 442-8219; 442-8256; Fax No.: 442-6268 Name:
Email: [email protected]; Website: www.uc-bcf.edu.ph

S.Y. 2020-2021 Second Trimester Grade Level/Section:

MODULE 4 – CESC Subject Teacher:

by seeing for themselves the conditions of the local people and the relevance of existing or planned development
interventions;
 Better understanding: By working together, different stakeholder groups can develop mutual understanding and
trust among themselves and can learn how to collaborate on any follow-up activities and any future joint
initiatives;
 Enhanced transparency and accountability: Participatory planning processes open up the operations of
government and development agencies to public scrutiny and help set up mechanisms whereby these agencies are
held accountable for the implementation of the plans; and
 Strengthened democracy: Participatory development planning can create processes that are more democratic
and equitable, enabling the citizens to share decision-making power with their locally elected representatives and
other external agencies.

III. GROUP ACTIVITY- 3 TO 4 MEMBERS (MIDTERM PERFORMANCE TASK 1–50 points)

adapted from Community Engagement, Solidarity and Citizenship – First Edition (Delos Santos, 2017)

PART 1. Take time to analyze and reflect on your own community and identify three driving forces for positive change
towards our current fight against COVID-19. For each, identify the restraining forces that you think impede change and
the desired outcome for each force. (24 points)

DRIVING FORCES (These are the RESTRAINING FORCES (These are DESIRED STATE (In your own
factors that drive positive change-2 points the factors that impede or are obstacles for opinion, what should the community, state
each) positive change – 2 points each) and individuals do to contribute to the
driving forces and overcome the restraints? –
4 points each)
1.
2.
3.

PART 2. From the assessment above, choose ONE among the identified “workable solutions” (DESIRED STATE) and
propose an initiative or project that can help your community strengthen its fight against COVID-19 based on your chosen
solution. (26 points)

PROJECT NAME (and a brief

explanation of how the name was formed
- 6 points)
AGENDA/ADVOCACY (focal point of
your organization – 5 points)
MAIN OBJECTIVES (3 points each) 1
2
3
4
5

IV. REFERENCES

National Institutes of Health. Principles of Community Engagement (2nd Edition). NIH

Publication. USA; 2011.

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Principles of community engagement (1st ed.). Atlanta (GA):
CDC/ATSDR Committee on Community Engagement; 1997.

This module is an intellectual property of the University of the Cordilleras Senior High School. Unauthorized reproduction, modification, distribution, display or transmission in any form,
medium and manner of any of the contents of the modules (digital or printed) for whatever purpose is strictly prohibited.