Three members of Global Fund for Children’s Africa team recently attended the Tostan Advanced Seminar to deepen their knowledge of the community led approach (CLA). In this blog, they share their key learning and reflections from the seminar.

Remijus N. Iweobi, Program Officer, West Africa

Participating in the Tostan Advanced Seminar and learning about their Community Empowerment Program (CEP) along with colleagues and partners was truly an enlightening experience. The seminar was organized and facilitated as a replica of Tostan’s work in rural communities, following the steps of the community-led approach. There were three main themes that I found exceptionally interesting.

The first theme is the power of strengthening individual and community relationships. Tostan’s CEP is built on the foundation of reinforcing and strengthening the relationships between individual members of the community, families, and the entire community as a unit. This encourages continuous open dialogue with community members in such beautiful ways that empower them to be honest and vulnerable in discussions amongst themselves. These discussions are paramount to creating pathways for collective consensus building, which enable community-led development. As development workers, we often neglect or overlook this important step of strengthening relationships not only within communities, but also within the organizations we partner with. Instead, we focus on strengthening organizational relationships but do not facilitate processes to reinforce and strengthen personal relationships from a value-based foundation.

The second theme is wellbeing as a framework for development. The concept of focusing on wellbeing (both at personal and community levels) was a great highlight. This includes the idea of enabling reflective interactions on how every decision, activity, engagement, project, or initiative affects the wellbeing of individuals and entire communities. True community-led development focuses on promoting the wellbeing of all community members, as well as the overall wellbeing of the community, recognizing that every individual plays a role that contributes to the whole. With that in mind, our development initiatives must also center on wellbeing rather than specifically on the issues we want to address. We must also cultivate meaningful spaces and practices that do not harm the wellbeing of individuals, partners, organizations, and communities. Our role as development workers must be to facilitate spaces where community members reflect on their understanding of wellbeing, and to review and adopt practices that promote wellbeing for every individual and the overall community.

The final theme is quality, rather than quantity, of engagement. A lot of the issues we seek to address through our work are complex and compounded over multiple generations. They can only be addressed through quality, consistent, value-based engagements over a long period of time. Change cannot be rushed to achieve results. As someone who works in development, I have learned that true community-led development is only possible through long-term, consistent, value-based engagements concentrated in small groups rather than targeting large numbers of people or communities at once. Tostan’s community empowerment program takes a minimum of 3-years before real quantifiable social change happens. Therefore, community-based organizations adopting the CLA must strive for long-term quality engagement with communities to sustainably drive change. We also need to rethink our grantmaking and philanthropy processes to enable true community-led development through flexible, long-term funding for grassroots organizations.

Bundie Kabanze, Regional Co-Director, Africa

The key message from the Advanced Seminar was that community-led development involves the active participation and empowerment of community members in shaping their own development – rather than tokenistic inclusion. This is a powerful approach that not only fosters sustainable growth but also strengthens local ownership and resilience. Together, we considered examples of community development initiatives led by reputable international organizations that failed to achieve their intended outcomes and recognized that a significant reason for these failures was a lack of understanding and appreciation for the communities’ values. Those failed initiatives tried to change behaviors without considering the value systems that upheld them.

We were introduced to Psychological Reactance Theory, which explains how individuals react when their freedom of choice is threatened or restricted. When people perceive a threat to their autonomy or sense of control, they may exhibit reactance, resisting the influence or changes being imposed on them. In the context of community-led development, failing to acknowledge and respect community values by condemning practices that uphold them can trigger psychological reactance among community members, hindering the success of development projects.

The seminar highlighted that communities are complex entities with unique sets of traditions, customs, beliefs, and values. These values shape their identity, decision-making processes, and behaviors. Using demeaning or forceful vocabulary, images, methodologies, or approaches that show disregard for practices that uphold community values are sure ways to set a project up for failure. Vocabulary such as fight, battle, combat, backward, uncivilized, and barbaric can provoke psychological reactance that leads to the opposite outcome to that intended.

My takeaway from the seminar can be summarized in G.K. Chesterton’s quote: “Don’t remove a fence until you understand why it was put there.’’ Understanding and appreciating community values is crucial for successful community-led development. By acknowledging and respecting these values, we can tap into the collective wisdom, autonomy, and aspirations of the community, fostering sustainable growth, empowerment, and long-lasting impact.

 Amé Atsu David, Regional Co-Director, Africa

Going through the Advanced Seminar was something I truly needed. I had previously attended the Introductory Seminar alongside our partners, which gave us a glimpse into the critical need to shift our approach to development and foster long-lasting change within communities. After supporting our partners to apply the key learnings from that first seminar over the past two years, I realized that a deeper, more comprehensive understanding of the rationale behind the approach was essential to help them solidify and scale their work.

Through the Advanced Seminar, we gained a much deeper and more nuanced understanding of the CLA framework. This reinforced the idea that development is not simply about implementing activities or providing services, but about empowering communities to take charge of shaping their own futures based on their needs, values, and aspirations. The seminar also equipped the partners and GFC team with practical resources, tools, and strategies to continue building on the positive outcomes we had started to achieve after the first seminar.

My key takeaway as someone working with a grantmaking organization, is that supporting local organizations goes far beyond simply providing them with grants. It’s about journeying alongside them, helping them to unlearn top-down practices that are no more relevant, deconstruct traditional beliefs that no longer serve their communities, and relearn new methods that are more aligned with a community-driven philosophy.

As part of GFC’s strategy to foster cross-regional collaboration and learning, the Africa team invited their colleague Indrani Chakraborty, Regional Co-Director for South Asia, to join them at the seminar. You can read her reflections on the experience, and the parallels she identifies with the approach used in the South Asia’s Addressing Root Causes Initiative, aquí.

About the seminar

The seminar was co-funded with and organized by Tostan, a pioneering organization with over 30 years of experience working with communities in West Africa to help them realize their own visions for development. It took place from August 6-22, 2024 at the Tostan Training Center in Thies, Senegal, and GFC’s Africa team took part alongside representatives from partner organizations in Liberia and Sierra Leone.