SOCIAL AND RESOURCES MOBILIZATION

CONCEPT OF SOCIAL MOBILIZATION

The concept of social mobilization emerged from the recognition that a genuine
participatory to development is essential for success and sustainability. Civil society participation
in development efforts is, therefore, increasingly recognized by agencies and governments as
essential for promoting good governance- improving responsiveness of national policies and
programs to citizen’s needs and ensuring transparency and accountability in policy- making and
implementation processes of such programs like the Civic Welfare Training Service. Genuine
participation of people involved and the citizen’s, however, is very necessary and goes beyond
dialogue with or contracting a few non- governmental organizations. It must engage all citizens
(men and women, in their various capacities, socio- economic status, affiliations and locations)
beyond elections to active participation in making decisions that affect their lives. Involving
people requires efforts and mechanisms that can empower all but, most especially, the
disadvantaged members of society to participate effectively in developmental processes.

The social mobilization concept requires working hand- in- hand with individuals,
organizations, policy makers and communities to forge a collective identity to achieve common
goals. It is through this process that people at various levels of society engage in dialogue and
negotiation wherein collective action emanates. It is also an approach that involves planned
actions and processes to reach, influence and involve all relevant segments of society across all
sectors from the national to community levels in order to effect positive behavior and social
change.

Social mobilization is also an approach and tool for the Civic Welfare Training Group to
adopt whichever can help people organize for collective action by pooling resources and building
the solidarity required to resolve common problems and work towards community advancement.
It is a process that empowers men and women to organize their own democratically self-
governing groups or community organizations which enable them to initiate and control their
own personal and communal development. It is a process of taking action to influence behavior
to positively affect social change at all levels of society.

Effective social mobilization goes beyond community organizations, harnessing the

potential and efforts of government, non- governmental sectors and citizens to work towards
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 where mechanisms for linking experiences
and lessons at the community level to policy are developed.

Social mobilization as a whole aims to involve all the people in the communities and
empower them to act at the grassroots level. The outcomes should be the people’s active
involvement ranging from identifying a need to implementation in achieving the development
objective and evaluation effort. Simply stated, social mobilization calls for a journey among
partners and results in the successful transformation of development goals into societal action.

The societal mobilization strategy calls for partnership with all stakeholders which are the
following:

1. Political-policy makers
Advocacy in this group helps foster the commitment that will clear the way
for action. The goal here is to build consensus with sound data, to create a
knowledgeable and supportive environment for decision- making, including the
allocation of adequate resources.

2. Bureaucratic/ Technocratic- government workers and technical experts

Policy makers depend on the technocrats, bureaucrats, and service
professionals to provide the rationale for decisions as well as to plan and implement
programs. This sector includes disparate groups, each with its own agenda,
conflicting interests and concerns.

3. Non-governmental sector
This covers a multitude of interests. Non- governmental organizations for
special purposes, social institutions and associations that represent organized support,
religious groups with their ideological bends, commerce and industry that operate on
for- profit basis and professional groups that exist to advance their interests are here.

4. Community groups
Community leaders, schools, churches, mosques, and grassroots groups are
critical to get communities involved. They help transform development goals into
action. Popular participation takes place here.

5. Households and individuals

Individual actions are the ultimate pay- off of the health program. In the
household, where such behavioral actions take place, key individuals in traditional
society often hold sway. There is a need for a deliberate action to inform and educate
individuals in the household, so that they can make informed choices.

KEY ELEMENTS OF SOCIAL MOBILIZATION

1. Organizational Development
It is 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 in
organizing themselves as a group.

2. Capital formation for development through Community Savings

This 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. They can also be used for
enterprise development at the community level.

3. 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 governments and other
sectors. Local human resource development can be best promoted when trained
individuals take up the responsibility to train other community members.

4. 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 provide 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 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 recognize its potential to create or influence change in their
communities.

BENEFITS OF SOCIAL MOBILIZATION

1. For Poverty Alleviation

Social mobilization is an important tool in the poverty alleviation process, as it
enables communities and the poor to help themselves to engage actively in solving
their own problems and effectively tackling poverty in its multi- dimensional form.

2. For promoting Democratic Governance

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

3. For Environment
Social mobilization organizes people to better manage their natural resources and
fight against illegal practices of organizations that degrade the environment, through
promoting appropriate legal, regulatory and institutional frameworks and policy
dialogue.

4. For Conflict Prevention

As people organize to address common problems, and to collectively improve
their socio- economic conditions in an equitable, democratic and transparent manner,
the possibility of conflict can be significantly reduced.

Social mobilization is said to be best effective when it reveals that:

1. The organized people representing different ethnic group act as a vehicle to develop
social harmony and peace and increase the general capacity of the people for self-
empowerment. Full participation at the grass- roots is only possible if the rural people
are organized.

2. A properly designed community mobilization process leads community members, both

male and female, to the emergence of self- governing institutions which act as the
sustainable organizations for co-operation, peace and development, helping people to
enhance their receiving and utilizing capacities and also to work together for household
and community initiatives.

3. The result of the social mobilization process is that people get organized to work together
if they live in close proximity and share common interests for community development.
The foremost requirement in this process is that people organize themselves into a broad
based and multi- purpose and multi- ethnic Community Organization (CO).
4. The Community Organization is a mass coalition of all those residents of a village whose
continuing economic and social interests are best served organizing themselves as a
group. Such an organization can be created around an activity of importance to most of
the villagers. Before one becomes a member of CO, 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. The group can function in various fields depending on the needs of the
village or community.

5. Social mobilization is based on the active participation of all households without any
discrimination. For preventive development to be effective, mobilization should cover
each member of the community, irrespective of the ethnic group, economic group or
different settlements at the lower level. Social harmony will be best achieved by forming
social capital through multi- ethnic and multi- economic group community organizations
which will be engaged in multi- sectoral development for themselves and their villages.