Community

Engagement
What are the elements that constitute to
an effective community engagement?
What is human rights?
How is it practiced?
Human Rights
▫ The rights inherent to all human beings whatever
our nationality, place of residence, sex, national or
ethnic origin, color, religion, language, or any
other status. – Office of the United Nations High
Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR)
▫ Basic individual entitlements.
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Natural Rights Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness

Civil Rights Privacy, property, religion, expression, contract,

and movement
Political Rights Assembly, petition, suffrage, direct and indirect
participation, self-determination, self-government
and election to public office
Social and Economic Livelihood, equal opportunities, education,
Rights housing, leisure and recreation, the freedom to
choose one’s occupation to picket and to strike
for better working conditions and various benefits
to improve the quality of life.

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Obligations of the State on Human Rights
▫ Obligation to Respect – states must refrain from
interfering with or curtailing the enjoyment of
human rights.
▫ Obligation to Protect – requires states to safeguard
individuals and groups against human rights
abuses.
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▫ Obligation to fulfill – states must facilitate the
enjoyment of basic human rights.
▫ In a community, each individual is expected to
respect the rights of other individuals and if
needed, join together to assert or advocate for the
rights of a defined group or community.
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▫ Obligation to protect our air, land, and water
resources and allow for a more equitable access to
these resources for all of humanity.
▫ The right to access food, clean water, and livable
environment is connected to the most basic of all
human rights – the right to live.
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Social Justice

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How would people
achieve social justice?
▫ All individuals have rights, but not all are able to
exercise their rights at the same time.

▫ Social justice is the humanization of laws and the

equalization of social and economic forces by the
state so that justice may be approximated.
▫ Justice is the harmonization of function.
▫ Justice is consequential.
▫ The legal tradition of punitive justice evolved in part from
the idea that when we pursue our rights and the consequence
of our action is detrimental to the right of another, we ought
to be punished or our rights are curtailed.

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▫ More people want the same things, thus creating a
social ill that needs to be addressed.
▫ Justice evolved to contractual agreements to
provide fairness and equity to everyone.

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Social Justice according to Diokno
▫ Respect our rights and freedoms as individuals and as people
▫ Eliminate poverty as quickly as our resources and abilities
would allow
▫ First, provide everyone with their basic material needs, then,
improve their standard of living
▫ Change institutions and structures to address inequalities

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Community
Engagement
Pillars of Community Engagement
▫ Information
▫ Consultation
▫ Involvement
▫ Empowerment
▫ - these all aims at the collective change and
importance of building effective partnerships
Goals of Community Engagement
▫ Increase in the knowledge of community members about the issue
that are being addressed
▫ Encourage communities to co-create additional knowledge or views
pertaining to issues being addressed
▫ Shared application of knowledge and new knowledge to address the
issues of the community
▫ Create opportunities for improvement, communication channels,
and engage the community in regular and continuous exchanges.
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Participatory Collective Action
▫ Instead of top-down approach where a small group
of outsiders or community members would be
providing the solutions to issues and problems of
the community, engagement of community
members provided a most potent and lasting
development solution.

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Participatory Development
▫ This directly involves local communities in
development projects.
▫ A process through which stakeholders influence
and share control over development initiatives –
and over the decisions and resources that affect
themselves.
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Characteristics of Participatory Development
▫ Cognitive
▫ Political
▫ Instrumental

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Perspectives in Participatory Development
▫ Social Movement Perspective –characterized by the
progressive actions of a community in fighting injustices and
inequalities in the distribution of political and economic
powers.
▫ Institutional Perspective – scope and gathering of inputs by
various parties on a development project.

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Four Forms of Participatory Development
▫ Passive Participation
▫ Participation by Consultation
▫ Participation by Collaboration
▫ Empowerment Participation

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Pros and Cons of Participatory Development
▫ Participation helps local government units maximize the use of their
resources
▫ Participation reduces the likelihood of contentious confrontation before
LGU
▫ Participation enhances trust in the government
▫ Participation ensures continuity of plans despite changes in leadership
▫ Participation helps accurately identify problems, the needed legislative
action, and for building stakeholders’ support and ownership of development
goals
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Tokenism
▫ Locals are handpicked to prove its participatory
credentials.

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Social Equity,
Gender Equality,
and Community
Engagement
Social Equity
▫ Fair access to opportunities, such as livelihood, education,
and resources.
▫ Unlike social justice that promotes the exercise of basic
rights, social equity refers to standards set or parameters
applied to boost the participation of a particular class or a
select number of individuals.
Gender Equality
▫ 18th century – women are deprived of learning
institutions in every culture
▫ 20th century – women are not considered citizens
and lumped with children the incapacitated as non-
citizens

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Gender Equality
▫ The equal rights, responsibilities, and
opportunities, of women and men and girls and
boys.
▫ Measurable equal representation of men and
women.

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Advocacy and People Empowerment
▫ Highlights the collaborative nature of various
groups and individuals working together.
▫ External drivers of social change
▫ Advocacy is more active
▫ Empowerment lessens external influence

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People Empowerment
▫ Refers to processes that increase community
autonomy and individual self-determination.
▫ Already capacitated groups whose members want
to take a more active role in advancing their
communities.

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Advocacy
▫ Refers to enabling marginalized groups and
promoting their individual rights.
▫ Process of supporting people and communities via
access to information ad services and advancing or
promoting their rights in a larger or more
institutionalized sphere.
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Challenges to Advocacy and People Empowerment
▫ Armed conflict especially in Mindanao
▫ Rising costs of basic commodities
▫ Lack of prosecution powers of the Commission of Human Rights
▫ Judges are often unfamiliar with international conventions relating to
economic, social, and cultural rights
▫ Lack of effective redress mechanisms against human rights violations
▫ Debt servicing
▫ Corruption

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Concerns of the NGOs
▫ Financial Support
▫ Carrying out campaigns
▫ Credibility
▫ Harassment by state and non-state sectors
▫ Ensure the sustainability of the NGO
▫ Campaigning for their advocacies
▫ Lobby for pertinent legislation, government policies, and the implementation of
existing laws
▫ Maintain a trusting and cooperative relationship with the several community

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Performance Task: Paper Analysis
▫ Choose a pair and look for a research article that would
concern any of the following:
Social Justice
▫ Human Rights
▫ Gender Equality
▫ Participatory Development
▫ Empowerment and Advocacy
▫ After which, make a paper analysis on the topic you have chosen
by answering the following questions:
▫ What is the article all about?
▫ What were the issues and problems tackled in the article?
▫ How were the issues and problems addressed in the article?
▫ How can this article be applied as an act of Community
Engagement?

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Thanks!

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