Working with local communities

When Genesis hosted 3 community development practitioners from South India last summer we showed them around community regeneration initiatives we support in South Kilburn and North Paddington.  Our Indian colleagues were particularly interested in the Food Co-Op and the South Kilburn community development project, in the way they involve local people and support local residents to play an active part in their community. 

When early this year there was the opportunity for a visit to India I grasped it with both hands.  The visit brought together representatives of community development and environmental organisations from the UK, Ireland and South India with an itinerary that featured discussions and workshops around the theme of local democracy and capacity building.  The key interest for me was to see how different Indian organisations worked with local communities, particularly how they engaged their local communities, and how they supported community groups and local structures.  My questions were; how are they doing things differently? What could I take away with me and apply to the UK context?

In a little over two weeks we visited five different projects - one in Kerala and four in Tamil Nadu - and attended 2 workshops.  The main workshop focused on local democracy in the UK, Ireland and India, with a view to sharing ideas and experience.  This resulted in a report that was sent to UK and Indian Government departments.

What was immediately apparent was that local government does not feature in the lives of local communities in the way it does in the UK. Communities are pretty much left to their own devices, and so are often far more creative with organising themselves and getting things done.  One focus of many of the Non Governmental Organisations (NGOs) in Tamil Nadu over the last few years has been to support local communities to identify and support key representatives to put forward for election to local government.  This is to support their vision that if more community activists are elected to local government this will help to make this institution and its resources more responsive to the needs of local people.  This first step has been achieved.  In the recent elections to the local government many of the NGOs we met had supported elected community members from their groups.

An innovative way that NGOs generate community involvement is through animators.  Animators are local people who live in the community who are trained by the organisation. Their job is to work in their community, make things happen and get people involved in the group and its activities. The animators receive a small salary from the organisation.  They work with the village groups, supporting them and ensuring they keep proper minutes and accounts. For many animators this is a pathway into employment and they end up working for local community organisations.  Most of the groups didn’t have chairs, secretaries, and treasurers, as their experience has shown that these office bearers can get above themselves.  All members are called representatives, and the animator helps with the administering and support functions of the group.

Another interesting activity of NGOs is in the field of social enterprise.  This has developed in India over many years through NGOs that have put the philosophy of Mahatma Gandhi into practice.  Globalisation is having a big impact on local people’s lives as the cost of many products is determined by outside forces.  One organisation we met educates people to use their consumption as their weapon against globalisation.  They have established a number of neighbourhood forums and community members make and sell products within the community. One member is manufacturing organic soap, there are no costs in packaging or marketing as the group members commit to buying the product.  Another is supporting inter-community trading.  Another organisation has set up a craft-making co-operative; another has started a self-build housing project that lends local people the money to build their own home, which is built using sustainable building techniques and materials.

I feel I learnt a lot that I can apply to the UK context.  However, if there were two things I would like to see happen in my work, these would be to develop animators and to see the development of groups without office bearers.