In this Exchange
* Approaching a holiday or milestone? Give a Working Gift! InternationalWondering what to give the person who has everything?
Do you want to build community and global awareness in your school group, faith community, or business? Solve all of these problems with Working Gifts! Staring later this month, you will have a chance to share the excitement of ICA projects by purchasing goods and services that directly contribute to field programs. A photo card will be sent to the person you designate, so that s/he knows that this empowering gift has been made in his/her name. Working Gifts are perfect for the person who has everything! They also make excellent learning gifts, teaching youngsters, friends, colleagues, and family members about activities to help people help themselves in communities around the world. Working Gifts are alternative gifts that teach, inspire, and keep on giving through direct support for ICA human development projects. You will be able to choose from a selection of Working Gifts on our website, deciding on a gift that has a special meaning for your recipient, or a community that s/he cares about. Your recipient will then be able to see their gift at work when s/he receives a color photo showing the purchase being used in the field. National ICAs are on the ground, carrying out projects to empower their communities to address issues of concern like HIV and AIDS, access to clean water, education for girls and boys, sustainable livelihoods, and caring for orphans. The Working Gifts program supports projects that are already underway, and provides a platform for national ICAs to raise awareness about the human development issues in their countries. Keep any eye on the website and plan to make all of your gifts Working Gifts! Share a comment on this article . International Task Force on HIV and AIDS Gets Underway
Imagine communities across Asia, Africa, Europe and the Americas developing local, comprehensive plans for ending the spread of HIV.
Defeating HIV and AIDS requires unprecedented cooperation among governments, businesses, civil society organizations, communities, and individuals from around the world. The ICA network is in a unique position to play an increasingly important role in combating this disease. Some of the key strengths of national ICAs include:
Impressive work is already underway. A number of ICAs have been involved in creative solutions to the pandemic and have been learning valuable lessons in program effectiveness and best practice. But these efforts are just a beginning, as many ICAs have already expressed a commitment to deepening and expanding their HIV and AIDS work. Other ICAs that are not yet involved in HIV and AIDS work are beginning to ask themselves whether now is the time to act.
The ICAI Global Task Force on HIV and AIDS is being created to draw together past and current experience, and look together toward the future. The goal of the Task Force is to create a common story and articulate a common vision about the role of ICA network in addressing the global challenge of HIV and AIDS. With the foundation of our shared ICA values, the task force will look toward establishing common goals, recognising shared assumptions, understanding target populations, and refining outcome-driven plans for the future. It will complement and build on the work that is underway, while expanding the conversation to include the views and visions of all interested national ICAs. Would you like to participate in this global initiative to fight HIV and AIDS? The first task force conference call will take place on Thursday November 15 at 1pm GMT. Please email me to be added to the participants list. A preliminary agenda will be circulated in advance, with opportunity for your feedback before the call. Note: The HIV and AIDS task force is the first of a number of issue-based task forces being initiated by the Policy Unit at the ICAI secretariat. Other task forces, which will get underway later this year, will focus on Youth Participation and Forest Conservation and the Rights of Forest-Dependant Peoples. Share a comment on this article . Extending the Reach of the ICA Approach
Did you work with ICA in Austria, Brazil, Cameroon, Colombia, Croatia, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Jamaica, Korea, Mexico, the Philippines, Portugal, Sri Lanka, Tonga, or Venezuela? Help us explore how the power of the ICA approach can once again take root in these countries. Across the world, new ICAs are taking shape in the form of revived historic ICAs. Newly seeded national ICAs are also being nurtured by people with a vision for the role of cultural affairs in their countries’ development. At the same time, a number of ICAs have closed their doors.
As a pioneer of on-the-ground approaches for engaging cultural affairs in development processes, ICA has responded to this trend with an expanded institutional structure and broadened vision. From our initial work in developing key concepts such as citizen participation, self-help, and local solutions, ICA has played a major role in the history of international development. A great strength of the network continues to be its unique structure, which generates direct benefits from having locally-determined programming carried out by local people familiar with the cultural nuances in each country – while at the same time benefiting from global cross-fertilization of ideas, standards, and best practices via the international association.
Volunteers and individual members with long ICA affiliations are beginning to offer their help and advice. Recently Alisa Oyler in Indonesia helped to contact people associated with ICA in Indonesia. Cristian Nacht in Brazil has reconnected with ICAI in order to explore the revival of ICA Brazil. A long-time development practitioner from Cameroon has connected with the founder of ICA in Cameroon to see how they can revitalize ICA there. What contacts can you help facilitate with ICA colleagues in Austria, Brazil, Cameroon, Colombia, Croatia, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Jamaica, Korea, Mexico, the Philippines, Portugal, Sri Lanka, Tonga, or Venezuela? What ideas do you have to help revitalize human development efforts in these countries? Share your contacts and insights with Sarah Farina, Director of Global Capacity Building.
In the coming months, keep an eye out for more capacity building news from the field! Share a comment on this article .
A New Global Training Program
Next year, fifteen national ICA staff members from around the world will deepen their understanding of ICA history and values, as well as develop management, fundraising, and governance skills to bring back to their national ICAs. This program will be based on a new curriculum designed to address the professional development needs of national ICA staff in the context of the unique ICA approach.
The training program will take participants through both classroom and practical work. Following the classroom training, national ICA staff will have the opportunity to work with Canadian partner NGOs, who will host them through an intensive work experience. National ICA staff participating in the training will therefore gain exposure to INGOs and donors based in the vibrant international city of Montreal. Our bilingual city offers a wonderful example of the importance of culture in shared spaces. Through the theory and experience provided in the program, participants will strengthen their capacity to act as leaders in their organizations. Participants will be expected to return to their ICAs with skills to build strengthened institutions, as well as to ensure the effective delivery of programs using the ICA approach. Other results anticipated include improved financial management, reporting, and evaluation within ICAs. The benefits of these changes in each ICA will not only serve the populations working with each ICA, but also strengthen the ICA network as a whole by building new relationships and collaborative opportunities between and among ICAs. Opportunities to sponsor a participant in this exciting program are available. Want to learn more? Please write to me at sfarina@ica-international.org. Share a comment on this article .
Help Create the 7th Global Conference on Human Development
Despite the enormous efforts made to overcome poverty, injustice, and disease – among so many other pressing challenges – the international community can point to only incremental impact on the status quo. Development efforts are overwhelmingly reactive, responding in piecemeal form to the endless challenges that emerge before us. Given the slow rate of change, many in civil society, government, academia, and the private sector have called for a re-assessment of the underlying assumptions employed in carrying out the work of human development around the world. Such an assessment – a kind of going back to basics – opens the door to envision the paradigm shift or shifts needed in order to put our collective efforts on an increasingly pro-active, outcomes-driven track.
The preliminary lens for the 7th Global Conference is a set of 8 major human development challenges:
You are invited to be part of the unique pre-conference process, which will provide input into the conference working groups and help identify the key focus questions to be addressed in conference workshops. If you are a facilitator, we also invite your participation as part of the facilitation team. Check out our Request for Facilitators or email Mike Watson for more information. The conference website is up and available in English, Japanese, Spanish, and French. Please pre-register today! Share a comment on this article . Australia
Reflections on a National Emergency Following the Australian Government’s announcement of radical intervention into the lives of Aboriginal people in the Northern Territory, it helps to have a sentinel call to remember where have we come from and ask: to where are we headed? While unfurling the stringline, we are relentlessly snared by attitudes, issues, complacency, competing agendas, political bastardry, exhaustion, grief, and, now, the ideology of constraint and compliance. Our understandings cascade, become fluid, and time is breached by the deluge of information and a tremendous sense of urgency. We face big moral questions that roll on without breaking: like the fine balance of safety, like racism; and we encounter “dumpers,” such as the acute disempowerment being generated as the government’s legislated response is pushed through. We hear the voices of Indigenous advocates such as Professor Judy Atkinson and Magistrate Sue Gordon, urging us hold fast to the children, whose safety is central to the government’s motivation to intervene. Others tell us, “Don't let go of the land,” as the government aims to take over control of numerous Indigenous communities. We face the curse of inaction, now that promises have been made – when there are so many disappointments on the slate already. The question I put is: “How would I behave ‘reconciled’?” If there was already a political settlement, a “treaty,” that I had grown up with – where the existence of Australia’s First Peoples, their unique cultures and rights, were not continually contested. That we dwelt on country imbued with limitless obligations and relationships to it. How would I then negotiate my concerns?
In August, two months after the intervention announcement, but before the accompanying legislation, I travelled to the Northern Territory Garma Festival for this year’s key forum on Indigenous health, “Real Solutions for a Chronic Problem.” Garma is a festival of ideas, hosted annually by the Yothu Yindi Foundation at Gulkula, a homeland near Nhulunbuy in northeast Arnhem Land. There was so much heartache in the voices of the Traditional Owners at Gulkula – as Galarrwuy Yunupingu spoke on the first day of the forum, and when the women sang the sunrise and cried out their uncertainty. Out of the Forum, the following core values and major foci emerged:
Near the Forum’s end, I summoned up courage to arrange a meeting with some Yolgnu women to thank them. I brought a message of concerned support from women in NSW, a calico bag with a letter from the Women's Reconciliation Network (WRN) and copies of the WRN’s documentary and booklet, “Around the Kitchen Table.” I opened the calico bag and began my story. The letter, crinkled from being carried around, was quickly passed around. I told the women that many thousands in NSW have been worrying for them, crying with them, writing letters to politicians and newspapers, talking everywhere, not giving up. I spoke of the work WRN does toward understanding our own identity and belonging, towards opening hearts to finally hear. One asks, “Can you read that letter to us please?” One of the lines I recall is “…sharing the dream of a country that is healed and whole...” and signing it, “From the you in me to the me in you.” A more senior woman told me that, before, “We had no word for ‘stranger,’ or for ‘dangerous.’” That made a bell go off in my head. The importance of the permit system, which was being challenged under the intervention, was never more clear. Later we shared damper and danced. Families, kids, aunties roaring with laughter at us, with us – the crazy white dancing women. In recent articles in The Australian, Nicholas Rothwell brings home the “genocidal” aspects of the NT intervention in comments about control and compliance. It is worth us all thinking about how what has now become a “package” of legislation will restrict Aboriginal people’s movement over country, how it will impact traveling for “sorry business” (funerals) with their integral role in the ceremony. This is to say nothing of the “economic genocide” with the pressure anticipated for Aboriginal organizations to comply. There will be many voices to listen to in the coming months. Amidst them all, I ask myself: how would I act if we, as a country, were already ‘truly reconciled’? To learn more about Australian Government’s intervention into the lives of Aboriginal people in the Northern Territory and how you can help, contact ICA Australia and visit these sites: www.federalintervention.info, www.womenforwik.org, and www.antar.org.au.
NepalRealizing Comprehensive Human Development
ICA Nepal carries out human development projects across our country, implementing the comprehensive ICA approach in order to benefit men, women, youth, and children from diverse regions and cultural communities. A few examples: * Hundreds of dalit, or so called “untouchable” women, in Banlek village in Far Western Nepal are now able to read and write after participating in adult literacy classes conducted by ICA. Mrs. Mithila BK, one of the participants, told us she feels that her “eyes have been opened up.” Finally, she does not need anyone’s help to write or read a letter. * In Jogbuda, Dadeldhura – a poor, remote area of Nepal – ICA launched an economic development initiative. The project included distributing over 1200 goats to poor farmers. In addition, residents received coaching through the process of establishing a variety of small businesses. Mr. Gama B. Darjee, who opened his tailor shop after participating in the project, says that now his two sons have enough work to stay in their country, and don’t need to go India for work as he once did.
* In the secluded village in Dadeldhura, Far West Nepal, community members are discussing root causes of forest destruction as a first step in working together to protect their forest. Local Indigenous Peoples now understand that their rights have been violated by others displacing them, and are establishing plans for taking action together. * ICA has been recognized by Government of Nepal’s Department of Education as one of the leading NGOs in the area of enhancing school effectiveness. Since 2004, ICA has facilitated the process of transferring school management to local communities in 23 public schools across the country. Many of these schools are now being highlighted as model schools.
* Recently, ICA also conducted workshops and orientations for school administrators from all of the development regions of Nepal. Gobinda Neupane, Head Teacher of the Mahedra Secondary School, told us that he never realized that there are so many elements required to make his school an effective organization. Through these projects, ICA has introduced participatory approaches in a wide variety of arenas. Slowly but steadily, the message that people must be at the center of development is getting through and tangible changes are taking root in dozens of communities across Nepal. These projects are carried out with the generous support of donors such the World Bank, MISEREOR, the Global Forest Coalition, TUC, and the Government of Nepal. Share a comment on this article. PeruIn the Aftermath of the Quake: The 30-2-5 Plan
The ICA Peru staff was not planning on an 8.0 earthquake on 15 August 2007, nor were the 60,000 families who lost their homes just 200 km south of Lima. Yet within a week, we received a call from ICA Japan challenging us to consider partnering with them to bring disaster relief funds from the Japanese government to the people of Peru. This started a very rapid round of planning, proposal writing, and material purchases, which resulted in an immediate aid program starting just three weeks after the earthquake. That program brought Kaoru Ito from Japan along with money for water barrels and blankets. Those initial distributions gave our staff the opportunity to evaluate needs, resulting in the writing of a proposal to build 1,500 temporary houses in the next three months.
The use of ICA methods to tackle this large task has been highly effective, well beyond our wildest expectations. While we are still in the midst of implementing the project, it appears to us that the methods used are very applicable for any broad-based application of services in a community. For this reason, we will share our process here in some detail, in the hope that it might be used elsewhere as needed. Initially, we met with the government disaster relief agency and also with the Mayor, and received their recommendations of the neighborhoods that most needed our assistance. We then held about 35 informal meetings in the streets of different neighborhoods to get input from the people and allow them to get to know our values and style of service. Finally, over breakfast one morning, we designed the 30-2-5 Plan for implementing the project of building 1,500 houses and equipping 80 temporary community kitchens.
We began implementing the “30-2-5 Plan” by dividing the target geography into 30 sectors, with each geographic area comprising an area containing about 50 families who needed houses. We gave the residents of each sector a guidelines sheet for selecting 2 residents to volunteer part-time (without pay) for 3 months to coordinate the work of home building. We ended up with 60 residents who were selected by the community as their leaders, or Promotores (Promoters). The Promoters were sent off to the ICA training center for 5 days of leadership training, and they returned as new people – highly motivated and with the images needed to lead the project. These Promoters built a model home in each of their sectors, and carried out a door-to-door census of their sectors, creating teams of 5 families each to do the actual home construction. By working in those teams, we could assure that all the families would get their homes built, even the single mothers and aged who needed help. To provide an incentive for families to work as a team, the families only receive their much-desired wooden doors when all 5 homes are completed and ready for doors.
This process has produced an amazingly rapid response to the emergency, with only the 5 full-time ICA staff. Our staff have purchased the materials and provided support services, without being involved in any way in the actual construction process, which has been 100% supervised by the Promoters. Starting with the creation of sectors, selection of 60 Promoters, 5 days of training, and organization of the family teams, the project built over 400 homes by the end of 30 days, and is now building at a rate of over 300 per week, indicating that the project will be completed about four weeks ahead of schedule. Also, since the project is well under budget, it appears that we will be able to build an additional 400 houses beyond the plan. Conversations are already going on about another group of homes to be built in January, and the national disaster relief agency is considering using ICA Peru to assist with their longer-term reconstruction plans. We now can see that the 30-2-5 Plan can be used for other community initiatives such as installing public services like water, electricity, or beautification; delivering infant nutritional service; or implementing family care services such as food, nutrition, or general health care. The potential for ICA leadership methods to implement practical service in the world is unlimited. Share a comment on this article.
TajikistanDemonstrating the Power of Rural People Navbunyod village – home to 500 families – is located near a customs post, on the border with Uzbekistan. Running water first came to the village over a decade ago, during the Soviet period of collective farms. Water flowed into Navbunyod from areas in what is now Uzbekistan. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, the well fell out and Navbunyod was left without a reliable water source.
The Peaceful Communities Initiative – implemented by ICA EHIO Tajikistan together with regional partners, and funded by USAID – facilitated collaborations between cross-border communities in the Fergana Valley region of Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, where conflicts often emerge over lack of resources. ICA’s work in Navbunyod helped villagers realize important structural improvements, while at the same time building skills and gaining confidence in the future. We conducted many community meetings, created a Community Initiative Group (CIG), prioritized problems, and developed a community action plan. This is the story of the results of those efforts. The main problem identified by the village was access to water, which often led to conflicts between neighbors. When our project began, there were no sources of water within a 10 km radius. Only a small stream could be found about 12 km away. The community decided to take matters into their own hands – literally. They compiled a work schedule that included roles for everyone in the village, from manual labor to cooking. Over the course of 40 days, the community dug 2 wells. The first well, at a depth of 13 meters, found no water. But in the second well, water was found at a depth of just 8 meters. Over the next year, CIG members, other villagers, and ICA staff worked in close cooperation to establish a reliable water source. ToP methods served as the basis for every process – resulting in maximum participation, transparency, and attention to detail. State structures soon got involved. And in October 2006, Navbunyod finally received water! The village now has water year-round, resulting in countless benefits for Navbunyod families. The value of housing in the village has even risen several times.
The story of Navbunyod is just one of many stories from throughout the Fergana Valley region that demonstrate the powerful potential of ordinary people living in rural, cross-border villages. ICA helps people understand that they are capable, and that money is not always the factor that determines success. Villagers work tirelessly to improve the welfare of their families, communities, and country – now relying on local resources before looking for outside help. For many of these people, the village is very close to their hearts, and is a kind of motherland. CIGs facilitate effective project implementation, and have resulted in a variety of positive changes, including: reconstruction of schools, first-aid posts, roads, and water systems; and organization of summer camps for children. These successes relied on a combination of local “inspirers” and committees, working together through a strong “backbone” like a CIG. When we rely on local people to develop the solutions that are right for them, the results are transformative. The role of ICA is to find and involve local people, and, in doing so, demonstrate how results are redoubled when people actively participate in development of their villages and make essential decisions for themselves. Empowering these rural people is the most important step we can take in the journey of developing society in the Republic of Tajikistan. The mission of ICA EHIO Tajikistan is to assist in improving the quality-of-life of vulnerable sectors of the population, developing communities and organizations by strengthening their potential, and rendering social services for the implementation of positive social changes in the Republic of Tajikistan. Share a comment on this article. United KingdomYouth Participation Makes an Impact
The Baring-funded Strengthening User Involvement Project is now nearly at its end. We have run the residential for both City YMCA and Castlehaven Community Association, and have met with each of them to follow-up on the progress of their participation plans. A follow-up training with Castlehaven Community Association in June was a hybrid of a GRM-lite and other tools, such as ARTpad games and drama methods, Dynamics in Groups, Hart’s ladder, and the session planning tool NAOMIE. Both organisations responded really differently to the full process, with Castlehaven having a more organic, grassroots approach, and City YMCA seeing it as part of their corporate strategy and direction. The last piece of work was with City YMCA in August, which including the ToP Focused Conversation and Consensus Workshop as well as young people’s needs activities framed around Maslow’s hierarchy of need.
Our v-funded Young Community Leaders Project has commenced in London and Manchester. This intensive involves training young people in teamwork, leadership, and action planning, so that they can run a community project. We launched the project in London with Young Minds on Saturday 23 June, with 15 new volunteers so far. The Greater Manchester project is with Bolton Lads and Girls Club and, at the time of writing, we have had 7 sessions with them, and 17 volunteers are working with us. We are writing the curriculum for the supplementary parts of the training as we go along, but the first half of the course is the Youth as Facilitative Leaders course from ICA USA. Currently, Alan Heckman and I are delivering sessions on the course with the help of Marcus, who was on the Strengthening User Involvement Project. Claire Vermes from the staff team is joining me on Youth Achievement Awards training so she can do our internal moderation, which should commence in the autumn. Share a comment on this article.
See more photos from ICA projects around the world in our online gallery.
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Want to give friends, family members, and colleagues gifts that represent your values?
HIV and AIDS has emerged as one of the most serious challenges facing humanity. While African nations are disproportionately affected, with two thirds of global HIV cases, the disease is quickly making inroads in Asia, Eastern Europe, Latin America, and the Caribbean. HIV affects tens of millions around the world and destroys not only lives, but also communities and entire social, political, and economic systems.
With the strengthening of the ICAI secretariat, and the creation of the units on Policy and Capacity Building, it is now important to concretize what role the secretariat can play in helping to support and promote the HIV and AIDS work of national ICAs.
Yet the inherent, central role of culture in human development has grown increasingly prominent around the world. Culture’s influence on every aspect of human development – from the dangers of ignoring cultural dynamics, to the improved outcomes realized through the inclusion of cultural perspectives – is increasingly visible, and the need for cultural engagement increasingly understood. However, the practical application of methodologies for incorporating cultural perspectives remains woefully insufficient – and the consequences are on evidence in dramatic ways throughout the world, from military affairs to family dynamics.
Historical ICA office locations that are not among the current network of 30 national ICAs are in need of the care, support, and engagement of all of us, in order to help realize the dramatic change that is needed in these countries. Several NGO and human development practitioners have recently expressed interest in establishing new ICAs, and have become individual members of ICAI with this in mind. Each of these potential new members will start by researching the history of ICA in their country.
Plans are getting underway now for the pilot program, which includes developing the core curriculum. Based on the experience of next year’s program, we aim to offer the training as a regular opportunity to national ICA staff members. The training program’s goal is to ensure that all key national ICA staff members are: 1) deeply grounded in ICA’s history, values, philosophy, methodologies, and approach; 2) equipped with essential management and fundraising skills; and 3) understand the role of the global network in supporting their work.
Mark your calendars for 11-15 November 2008!
The conference planning teams in Tokyo and Montreal have worked for over a year now to put in place a journey that engages all of us in a transformative conference experience. The 7th Global Conferencewill bring together more than 1000 key stakeholders from civil society, government, academia, and the private sector. Participants will engage this central question in a dynamic, highly participatory process, and produce a pro-active agenda for the civil society organisations, governments, research institutions, and businesses engaged in the conference.
