The Centers of Village Progress Program

The Center of Village Progress as a group of at least ten village communities willing to collaborate together in implementing a Rural District Empowerment and Networking Strategy and are willing to use the 20 Points of Progress Program (20PPP) as the underlining methodology for assessing progress, accountability and evaluation.

We are defining village as any community of people, usually with a population of less than 10,000 people, whose dominant form of employment is in agriculture, fishing or forestry, whose level of income is generally in the bottom quartile of their country, and whose government services (education, health, extension, welfare) are minimal or non existent.

This program seeks to focus on the bottom twenty percent of this planet who make up over one billion people. They are the most vulnerable, have the lowest status in their societies, are generally located in isolated rural areas, and too often are ignored if not forgotten by their own governments and even the international community. In fact, most resources available for the poor tend to go to people living in towns and villages that are closest to the big cities and thus are most accessible to roads, marketplaces, and government services. Most of the poor live in villages that lack electricity, potable water, and the basic social services related to health and education.

Freedom of CHOICE is the foundation of human development and community empowerment. CHOICE and the process of choosing is a significant source of social energy and individual dignity. CHOICE is like a wheel with reinforcing spokes expanding individual awareness and community empowerment. There are twelve spokes in this wheel or circle that synergistically expand this process of greater freedom of choices and opportunities for individuals and communities. The Circle of CHOICE represents the gradual empowerment of individuals and communities, especially in rural areas, as they take greater control over their lives, as they seek to improve the quality of their lives and as they move from small group discussions to expanded community problem solving activities, then on to multi-village coordination, and finally to rural district empowerment and networking.

CHOICE Circle of Village Development

Small Group Development (Implemented in first year of the 20PPP). (1)Participation (2)Awareness (3)Involvement

Community Problem Solving (Implemented in first and second year) (4)Responsibility (5)Ownership (6)Capacity

Multi-village Coordination (Implemented in the second and third year) (7)Confidence (8)Self Esteem (9)Cooperation

Rural District Empowerment (Implemented in the fourth and fifth year) (10)Self Reliance‘ (11)Networking‘ (12)Empowerment

This CHOICE Circle is an interactive process that helps rural people expand an ever-increasing new set of choices.

A. Small Group Development: Awareness and Consciousness Building (20PPP lst Yr.)

1. Participation

The CHOICE process starts with a rural development facilitator (RDF) visiting a village and encouraging several small groups (usually less than 5-10 people in each group) to participate in discussions of their problems and concerns, using the 20 Points of Progress as a guide. Such small groups generally include groups of formal and informal leaders (both men and women), groups of older, middle aged and younger people, groups of larger, middle and small landowners, including perhaps groups of landless laborers, housewives, minority groups, and others that reflect diversity in the village. The RDF must be very patient in explaining the meaning of each of the 20 indicators to each group separately, must in flexible in allowing villagers to disagree on the scores assigned to each indicator, and a willingness in this early stage to let villagers select a score that appears exaggerated, even incorrect.

2. Awareness

Through such open discussions, people begin to develop an awareness of the types of things that might be improved in their community. The 20 Points of Progress are made up of 20 indicators broken down into five dimensions: (1) village literacy and education, (2) village primary health care, (3) village productivity and income improvement, (4) village environmental improvements, including water, sanitation and housing and (5) village leadership, community pride and local culture enhancement.

3. Involvement

Such small groups become involved when they begin to prioritize their problems and to consider the options and choices (solutions) they have. As these small groups discuss the various indicators, their personal interest and involvement is stimulated.

B. Village Community Problem Solving (20PPP lst-2nd Yr.)

4. Responsibility

The RDF invites representatives from the various groups in the village to form into a larger community-based problem solving group which is willing both to establish a community consensus on which indicators are most important and to take responsibility for establishing some type of action plan. By reviewing the 20 indicators of progress, communities can begin to focus on and to prioritize the two or three areas to emphasize.

5. Ownership

The RDF helps these problem solving groups to begin to take ownership for the implementation of the action plans they have developed, first by considering what resources would be needed to implement the plans, what resources might be available from various government agencies, NGOs and other sources of support, then seek to mobilize the resources needed to solve their problems. This can include the labor, resources and funds of the local community, often leveraged by outside sources of help. Such groups are generally called Village Development Committees (VDCs) or Community Action Planning Groups (CAPGs).

6. Capacity

Effective problem solving groups develop their own capacities as they actually work together in planning and implementing their own action plans (a set of their own choices). The scoring system used in the 20PPP allows villagers to measure their progress as they implement their action plans over time. The ability to prioritize issues and develop action plans is a first key skill for the implementation of the Centers of Progress Program.

C Multi Village Coordination (20PPP 2nd-3rd Yr.)

7. Confidence

As successful problem solving groups develop confidence in their ability to solve their own problems, they develop confidence in their ability to work with others in nearby villages, and in their willingness to try new things and to engage in broader systems of participation. RDFs are encouraged to bring leaders from different villages together, to share their own experiences in prioritizing the 20 Points of Progress, in mobilizing their own resources, and in working with various government agencies, NGOs and other sources of help. Such successful linking up with outside sources greatly stimulates feelings of confidence.

8. Self Esteem

As such groups of people develop a confidence in their ability to work with others, and as they begin to meet on a regular basis, develop friendships and collaborate relationships, high levels of self-esteem are stimulated which gives them the motivation and the desire to trust and work with other groups in their immediate area of local communities. The RDF arranges for representatives from surrounding villages to meet periodically to discuss common problems and to develop common action plans to implement projects reflective of one or more of the 20 points of progress.

9. Cooperation

Groups of villagers with high levels of confidence and self-esteem begin to reach out to other villages, cooperating with other problem solving groups in other nearby villages, forming alliances and seeking to implement cooperative multi-village planning and implementation activities which benefit all the participating communities, thereby establishing a broader sense of community. Such processes of cooperation at the multi-village level is a second key skill in the Centers of Village Progress Program.

D. Rural District Empowerment and Networking System (20PPP 4th-5th Yr.)

10. Self Reliance

When a cluster of villages are working together, mobilizing their own resources, coordinating various problem solving activities, they begin to channel their social energy into joint activities that can solve problems . Such activities develop self-reliance, a sense of pride in their ability to cooperate together and actually achieve the goals and results that they have chosen. As this cluster of village communities consistently monitor and assess the progress they are making in the 20 indicators of village development, their sense of self-reliance is strengthened and enhanced.

11. Networking

Self reliant groups of people quite naturally begin to network with other people who have similar interests and desires to improve themselves. Networking is the process by which like-minded people identify potential sources of help, resources, and support either among established government agencies, various non government organizations (NGOs) and donors from local, regional, national, and even international groups and also different private sector companies and businesses. Representatives from each of the participating villages (usually at least ten villages in number) organize themselves into a formal rural district-wide or area-wide Planning and Development Council (PDC).

12. Empowerment

When a group of villages have some high level of self-reliance through the development of their own leadership, the mobilization of their own resources, the solving of their own problems, and the networking with other sources of help, whole groups of communities become empowered to generate sustainable systems of program implementation and the institutionalization of local processes of community development. With this ability to assess their own needs, network with potential partners and actually measure what is working and what is not working, an empowering process of community development is stimulated. This ability to measure progress is a third key skill needed in the Centers of Village Progress Program. As the process of these 12 steps are repeated in other nearby villages, they too can be invited to participate in the Planning and Development Council, until eventually all the villages in a given rural district can be involved in the Centers For Progress Program.

It is the goal of CHOICE-Humanitarian to work with people, organizations, donors and other sources of funding to establish a Center for Progress Program in as many less developed countries (LDCs) as possible over the next ten years and beyond. This Circle of CHOICE represents a set of action steps, not necessarily linear or sequential, but interactive and self-reinforcing, that rural development facilitators (RDFs) can use in gradually developing a set of sustainable programs of village development. For more details on the Circle of CHOICE process, please refer to ‘The Challenges and Opportunities of Dealing With World Poverty, One Can Make A Difference’, James B. Mayfield, (New York: University Press of America, 1997).