Communities resilience building
Resilience Now works directly with vulnerable communities to foster their resilience and sustainability through participatory socio-environmental resilience assessment, capacity development, participatory resilience improvement planning and the implementation of pilot solutions. Resilience Now doesn’t act in place of the communities, but it accompanies it by bringing the method and technique, some ideas, the experience and fresh look.
The “Solutions worth Sharing” program aims to be an incubator for new projects by assembling the conditions they need to happen.
This program works on two levels: directly, it introduces sustainable practices and technics within a specific community. Indirectly, it supports the replication of successful projects by making them known to potential beneficiaries, donors and other stakeholders.
Key to a successful initiative, the approaches implemented in our “Solutions worth Sharing” program include:
- The promotion of local actors and successful projects in the area. Mapping successful projects is the base of our work.
- The ultra-participation of beneficiaries. Rather than stating the problems and providing solutions, we support the community in determining its problems and finding solutions.
- The use of behavior change psychology to create conditions favorable to adopting new practices.
- “Peer to peer” training, which ensures appropriate trainers and solutions that are both effective and adapted to the local situation.
- The use of dynamic interaction such as role play, site visits, storytelling, visual aids, etc.
The preliminary work consists of mapping local initiatives – practices and technologies (see the maps) – already in place in the relevant fields. Projects were targeted that both improve their living conditions and help local communities reduce their pressure on natural resources in the fields of agriculture, energy and livelihoods. This mapping is not intended to be exhaustive, but rather should gather a diverse panel of interesting projects. This map is shared with stakeholders as soon as there are several various initiatives, and is updated as long as Resilience Now works within the country.
A “Solutions Worth Sharing” workshop implemented with a community lasts for about ten days and consists of three steps:
- Situation assessment – Participants evaluate their community’s resilience. They identify the problems they face and are made aware of the importance of the environment. It’s the time of raising awareness.
- Study trip – Participants, divided into two groups, visit solutions implemented by other communities. Each group has to ask a lot of questions because it will have to train the other one! It’s the time of capacity building.
- Action plan drafting – Participants analyze and discuss the solutions, define their selection criteria and choose the solution(s) they want to implement. Most importantly, they define how they will participate. It’s the time of decision making and involvement.
The “Solutions worth Sharing workshops” in pictures
Workshop in Burundi (in French)
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Workshop in Rwanda
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