LEARNING MODULE SURIGAO STATE COLLEGE OF TECHNOLOGY

MODULE - V

Social Mobilization

Objectives:

1. define social mobilization and the elements of social mobilization

2. discuss the benefits of social mobilization to the community
3. relate the management process and role of community workers
4. draw the mobilization cycle
5. come up with situation analysis report & their community.

Effective social mobilization goes beyond community organizations, harnessing the

potentials and effort of government, non-government sectors and citizens to work for
sustainable social, economic and political development. The benefits of social mobilization to
community organizations and its impact locally and nationally can be best sustained within an
enabling political, policy and regulatory environment and where mechanisms for linking
experiences and lessons at the community level to policy are developed.

The concept of social Mobilization

Social mobilization is an approach and tool that enables people to organize for collective
action, by pooling resources and building solidarity required to resolve common problems and
work towards community advancement. It is a process that empowers women and men to
organize their own democratically self-governing groups or community organizations enabling
them to initiate and control their own personal and communal organizations which enable them
to initiate and control their own personal and communal developments, as opposed to mere
participation in an initiative designed by the government or external organization.

Key Elements of social Mobilization

From worldwide experience there are four basic elements of social mobilization:

Organizational development- a process in which community members, especially the poor

form their own groups or organizations based on common development interests and needs that
are best served by organizing themselves as a group. “Before one becomes a member of a CBO,
the individual struggles against a harsh environment. Once he/she is organized in a broad-based
group, the individual has the leverage with which to address and tackle problems which he/she
could not have done alone’ (Pandey, 2002).

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• Promoting self-reliance, especially of the poor members of the organization which

would in turn enhance their ability to participate in the organization’s affairs on an equal
basis.

Capital Formation for development through Community Savings

Capital formation (through mobilization of savings) enhances a community

organization’s power to realize its full potential. “Savings generated by individual members
are the assets of the community organization and are the first step towards their self-reliance”
(Pandey, 2002). Accumulated savings can be used for internal credit with interest, (to enable
individual members to engage in income generation activities whilst at the same time,
accumulating the organization’s capital base. They can also be used for enterprise development
at the community level. Savings can serve as the basis for access to external services, for
example, micro-finance. They can also form the basis for community organization’s
contribution to local development initiatives, which is essential in localities where government
capacities to address all social needs of a community are very limited.

Training for Human Resource Development

Community members can maximize their potential not only by organizing themselves
but also by upgrading their existing skills to better manage new inputs-business and community
initiatives and establish effective links with local government and other actors. The Change
Agent (i.e. the organization or individual facilitating the social mobilization process) can
support direct training, exchange visits and other capacity building activities based on needs
identified by the members of the community organizations. These can cover. Organizational
development, leadership, savings and credits programmers, agriculture, natural resource
management, and other key areas. Local human resource development can best promoted when
trained individuals take up the responsibility to train other community members.

Socio- Economic development

Socio-economic development initiatives are a great incentive for community members

to organize themselves. It is important therefore that an initiative which includes social
mobilization provides support in the form of matching grants or access to credit, marketing and
other services that will lead to tangible improvements in social economic conditions within the
community. The process of identifying community priorities, participatory planning,
implementing and monitoring of actors helps not only to improve local conditions but also to
empower people and their organizations. If well facilitated, this process can result in increased
institutional capacity, enhanced social status and voice (especially for disadvantaged people,
including women, the poor and youth). These results in turn motivate people to remain
organized as they begin to enjoy the benefits of collective action and recognized its potential
to create or influence change in their communities.

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Facilitating the Social Mobilization Process

There are grassroots or social movements that have emerged from within
communities, the isolation poverty and resulting passivity or powerlessness of citizens,
particularly in rural area in developing countries, calls for external support at the initial stage
of the social mobilization process.

In countries with limited experience of social mobilization, a combination of

international and national community mobilizers brings to bear international experience and
local knowledge which are both essential factors for success.

* The following should be undertaken in social mobilization

Advocacy – element which is focused on various actors who could create the positive
environment for program or service delivery.

Information, Education and Communication (IEC) – a set of accurate and consistent

information on the programs and services as a timely response by those in direct contact with
the communities.

Community Organizing – Individual and Community groups are able to get a sense of what
they can do among themselves to improve their situation.

Capacity Building – Social mobilization can only be sustained if the network of the advocates
and mobilizes are continually expanded through

• Capacity – building (people)

• Institutional Development (Organization)

Community Empowerment and Program Sustainability

• Empowerment is the process of people taking action to overcome the obstacles to

progress where this action involves getting more control over their situation.
• Community Empowerment enables individuals and community to do their own
thinking and reflection to improve their situation.
• Sustainability comes only when individuals, groups, and communities have ownership
of the problem and are able to act in their own.

Institutional Development

• Seeks to improve the ability of the institution to carry out its mandate, mission and
vision and achieve its goals and objectives.
• Key levels: System, process, networks financial capacity, physical infrastructure and
management of resources.

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Networking and Alliances Building:

• Social Mobilization’s success depends on the identification of relevant individuals and

groups who can contribute to the achievement of the program’s goals.
• Partners are those with whom we work directly.
• Allies are those who have similar interests and programs with us, but with whom we
may not work directly.

Benefits of Social Mobilization

Poverty alleviation Social Mobilization is an important tool in the poverty alleviation process,
as it enables communities and the poor themselves to engage actively in solving their own
problems and effectively tackling poverty in its multi-dimensional form. The principles of
social mobilization ensure equity, hence issues of gender based, racial and ethnic based
discrimination are most likely addressed.

Promoting Democratic Governance Experience show that poverty and bad governance
mutually reinforce, as they foster exclusive of citizens from decision making process, lack of
access to basic services, lack of opportunity, dependency, and limited availability of public
goods. Social mobilization must institutionalize within government for it to be effective. This
would encourage participation in decision-making, build capacity for participatory planning,
build a common vision on development and ensure transparency. Institutionalization of such
efforts can only be effective if a decentralized system of governance, including fiscal
decentralization is in place and functional. Social mobilization can facilitate leadership at the
local level, making society more effective as third and legitimate partner in development.

Creating demand for good governance through social mobilization must be completed
with increased capacity of the local government to manage and effectively responds to this
demand and improve its governance practices. Capacity building efforts must therefore target
civil society organization (including CBOs, elected representatives, etc) and government.

Environment – by organizing people to better manage their natural resources and fight
against practices and organization that degrade the environment through promoting appropriate
legal, regulatory and institutional frameworks and policy dialogue.

Conflict Prevention – as people organized to address common problems and to

collectively improve their socio- economic condition in an equitable, democratic and
transparent manner, possibility of conflict can be significantly reduced.

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Sensitization and Clearance Sessions with local leaders and government officials.

Awareness Raising Public meetings with members of target communities.

Mobilizer Training Organizing the community workers.

Community Organizing putting together different communities

Management Training The Training of community leaders and mobilizer (e.g. how to prepare
and write effective project designs).

Participatory Assessment Identify priority problems (therefore priority goals as solutions).

Community Action Plan (CAP) Consistent with District Plans and Community Priorities.

Community Project Designs Created from and submitted by target communities as proposals.

Negotiation Proposals discussed until they meet everyone expectation.

Implementation Begins work starts by community members on community projects.

Monitoring and Reporting a Requirement of implementation.

Work Continues Until Completion Implementation, monitoring, reporting, payments.

Official Completion Ceremony Invite more community project designs.

Community Management Processes

I. Situation Analysis

▪ It is a collective process of examining the prevailing social, political, economic,

environmental, cultural conditions and spiritual conditions of a given community.
It is a preparatory step to actual planning process.

Roles of Community Workers in Situation Analysis

1. Determine how they can improve the prevailing situation to achieve community goals.

2. Collectively understand and define community needs and problems.

3. Identify change strategies and resources, and making decisions on how to implement the
identified solutions.

Step in Facilitating Situation Analysis

1. Community Orientation

2. Data Gathering

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3. Data Processing

4. Preparation of Community Profile

5. Presentation, Validation and Approval of the Community Profile

6. Finalization of the Community Profile and Dissemination

II. Community Planning

▪ It is a process where the people collectively define their priority problems,

determine their development vision, set goals and objectives, identify resources
which they can utilize, and develop a plan of action to achieve community goals.

Roles of Community Workers in Planning

1. Enable them to address their community needs and problems

2. Develop planning skills

3. Involve community member in decision-making

4. Provide the community members with a process where they can plan their own
development

5. Guide the community members in developing a plan of action geared towards achieving
community goals.

Step in Facilitating Community Planning

1. Formation of Community Planning Team

2. Community Visioning

3. Setting of Community goals and objectives

4. Identifying resources and constraints

5. Preparation, Community plan of action and action and budget

6. Presentation, community validation and approval of the community plan of action and
budget

7. Finalization of the community profile and dissemination

III Implementation

▪ It is a process of carrying out the projects and activities in the community action
plan. Its main purpose is to test the feasibility of the planned projects and
activities, and institute necessary change or modifications when necessary.

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Roles of Community Workers during Implementation

1. Oversee and direct the implementation of projects and activities.

2. Conduct an information and advocacy campaign on the community plan.
3. Motivate the community members to contribute to the projects and activities
4. Monitor the status of implementation (come up with a checklist or data board on the
status of projects/activities)
5. Make quick adjustment when problems arise in consultation with the community
members.
6. Coordinate various activities, tasks and efforts of community member.
7. Mobilize community resources for the projects on activities.
8. Conduct regular consultation and feed backing with community members.
9. Clarify roles of each member on projects or activities.
10. Manage interpersonal relationships and conflict management.
11. Facilitate team-building activities (reflection process, values-formation)

Social Mobilization planning Framework

What is Community?

A community as described by Ross (1967) and Tucay (2002) in their paper regarding
community organizing, it is an aggregation of families and individual are, settled in a fairly
compact and contiguous geographical area, with significant elements of common life as shown
by manners, customs, traditions and mode of speech. She further elaborated that the patterns

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or relationship among the people of the community may by ordered by special groups or entities
(schools, churches, professions or welfare bodies). A geographic community must have special
interest groups and sectors, and also a combination of social units and systems: economic,
political and socio-cultural.

What is a Community Organizing?

It is a social development approach that aims to transform the apathetic, individualistic

and voiceless poor into dynamic, participatory and politically responsive community. In other
point, it is similar to a form of experiential learning, and a non- formal learning process. With
this knowledge in community organizing, how do you go about community welfare service?

Community welfare service is applying a collective, participatory, transformative,

liberative, sustained and systematic process or improves the quality of their lives and the
community. It encourages the improvement of the basic and social welfare needs in an area or
community welfare service; you are mobilizing the citizen-based groups to exercise their
collective effort to initiate programs/ projects where we can produce successful results that are
useful to them. Making them aware of the importance of cooperation in their endeavors is one
of the roles of CWTS students in their pursuit of helping the community organize their projects
for their well being.

Conditions to Consider in Community Organization

1. Recognize and deal with the problem accordingly.

2. Provide the community self-determination.

3. Engage the community in the solution of the problem actively.

4. Move at a pace that is deemed comfortable for the community.

5. Encourage growth through problem solving.

6. Encourage community self-integration and understanding.

Goals of Community Organizing

1. People’s Empowerment. It aims to teach how to achieve effective power for the
people in order to overcome their powerlessness to develop their capacity to initiate and
develop their own plans, assert their rights and stand dignity.

2. Building Permanent Structures and People’s Organization. It aims to establish and

sustain aspirations of people to ensure their maximum participation; and to provide a
venue for them to link up with other groups and sectors. It can be internalized to become
the building blocks for a better future.

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3. Improved Quality Life. It is the mobilization of resources (human and material),

clothing shelter, education and health. You can introduce programs that can develop an
environment conducive for use in their resources and creativity in improving the condition of
their lives. Activities should be geared towards the equitable distribution of power and
resources.

Conclusion

Social Mobilization is an approach that empowers people to participate actively in

development process – through their own local initiatives and through well-informed and
constructive dialogue at the policy level. It is an essential tool for mobilizing and engaging
isolated, passive and poor member of society; its popularity with poverty reduction and
decentralized governance programmer worldwide. Its effectiveness depend to a large extent on
the appropriateness of the approaches used within a given cultural, socio-economic a will-
informed, proactive and strong civil society, making it a valuable partner for government and
the private sector in shaping national development that is equitable and sustainable.

Activity 1: Draw me a picture

Purpose: To get the students’ idea on Social Mobilization

Materials Needed:

Several sheets of Manila paper, crayons, pentel pens, masking tape.

Procedure:

1. Explain the purpose of activity.

2. Divide the participants in small groups .Ask each group to choose their facilitator
and documentator. Provide each group with a set of Manila paper, crayons, an pentel
pen.

3. Ask each group to discuss the given questions. Each group member should write
his/her answer on the activity sheet and be summarized by the document for
presentation.

a. What is your understanding of social mobilization?

b. Why do you have to undertake social mobilization?

c. What are the specific objectives of the social mobilization?

d. How would you like to participate in the social mobilization?

e. What are your operation plans for social mobilization?

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f. How would you envision the community you decided to work with after your
social mobilization?

4. Ask them to draw the results of their discussion.

5. During the plenary, ask each group to present their drawing and discuss it in context.

6. Summarize the presentations, and take note of the similarities and differences.

7. Guide the participants in coming –up with a common vision of the community
decided to work with.

Activity 2: ROLE PLAYING

Purpose: To enable the students identify existing problem which they need to be aware with
as their guide in social mobilization.

Materials needed:

Role-play scripts and other materials necessary for the presentation.

PROCEDURE:

1. Divide the students to small groups of four or five each.

2. Tell them to discuss what they think are the major problems confronting their
community and come-up with a play which they think will perform as group.

3. Get feedback from all groups after every presentation.

4. After all groups presented their play discuss the problems presented and try to reach
consensus on what they think should be considered as major problems of the
community.

5. Summarize the results of the discussion.

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6. Results of the discussion should be written by the individual member on the activity
page of his/her handbook.

Activity 3: Social Mobilization Workshop

Purpose: Come up with Situation Analysis Report of your community.

Materials needed: Manila paper, pentel pens and other needed materials.

PROCEDURE:

1. Divide the students into small groups.

2. Identify projects /programs that can the prevailing situation in the community on the
following areas:

• Poverty alleviation
• Promoting democratic governance
• Environment
• Conflict Prevention and Resolution
• Define the community needs and problems
• Identify change strategies an resources, and making decisions on how to implement the
identified situations
• Come-up with base-line data
• Identify Resources and Constraints
3. After the group discussion, allow the students to present their outputs.

4. Encourage the students of other groups to give comments after every presentation.

5. Summarize the group project plans of the student. Recognize the efforts of the students and
guide them in the implementation, monitoring and evaluation of the project.

6. Individual member of the group must write the outputs of discussions on his/her activity
page.

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