Community Engagement
Draft (for testing, input and suggestions)
UNICEF West and Central Africa Region, Social and Behavior Change Teams, with inputs/feedback from colleagues from [List UNICEF country office and/or other sources of suggestions]
[DRAFT: 17-6-23kg]
Pocket Guides are short, adaptable resources that are no longer than 14 slides/pages. Please feel free to adapt, shorten, improve. You can prototype their use, sharing with others, to see if they are perceived as useful and usable.
We imagine that colleagues can use (and also adapt), this version of the pocket guide, (and other resources referenced above). If you organize a briefing/training, etc, you can print a version for participants (and also share the digital version, if deemed useful). These guides are not designed as training modules, to be presented via PowerPoint (we’re using PowerPoint because it is easy to break up information into sections/chunks).
Pocket Guides complement a set of shorter resources, the “Five Minute Academy” (FMA) (See here for links for the SBC Library, with many adaptable resources).
By July 2023, we aim to have Pocket Guides in multiple languages (FR, ENG, SP and PORT) for each of the ten technical approaches covered in the “Intro Guide to Social and Behavior Change.”
In this document you will find:
Overview of Community Engagement and when to use it
Five key actions for Community Engagement:
Resources and feedback
About Pocket Guides
Source for all images in this document: Thenounproject.com
Overview: What is Community Engagement when to use it?
One way to think about community engagement is as a range of different actions that can be taken, with some being very fast and light and others being deeper and potentially more meaningful (and also potentially more respectful). Community engagement can be done at any time, and it’s ideal when you have enough time to truly listen and discuss, rather than just “informing” people quickly.
You might hear colleagues in a public health emergency say: “We don’t have time to do deep listening - we have to get out key messages fast!” But while it may be fast to push out “messages” that aren’t based on local context and beliefs, and are not co-created with community members, we might waste both time and money with this approach.
We prefer to speak about community engagement as a two-way dialogue.It can also lead to community members giving suggestions and new ideas and proposing actions you had not yet considered. See the next page to see some “levels” of community engagement (Graphic: Levels of community participation and contribution)
When to use?
Action 1: Design for community contributions
Depending on your objectives and the available resources in time and people-power within your team (or your partner’s team), you can design for community contributions, ranging from “light” to more substantial.
Important to avoid: Interactions with the community where they are being merely informed, and have no power to act, or decide, or ask questions and/or make suggestions.
The modified “ladder of participation” at right showcases that low levels of community participation can actually do harm, and can be considered manipulation. If you are simply providing information, or “raising awareness,” you are not doing “community engagement.”
Engagement can be both a noun and a verb:
UNICEF Roger A. Hart, Children’s Participation: From Tokenism to Citizenship (1992) - See page 8, which has a graphic adapted from S. Arnstein’s Ladder of participation (1969)
Levels of community contribution and participation |
Highest: Community control |
Higher: Partnership, Co-Creation |
Medium: Consulting |
Low: Informing |
Lower: Decoration (tokenistic participation) |
Lowest level: Manipulating |
Action 2: Support community members to promote action and inspire others
Community Engagement can be a spark, to inspire civic action. If people become inspired to take action, they can connect with others, using any means possible, using digital and non-digital means. Those who are connected can help inspire action from people without phone and/or internet connection.
A few necessary ingredients for designing strong Community Engagement initiatives include:
We can ask others to help us go “offroad” (beyond the pavement), to connect with the underserved.
Action 3: Promote “double action”
Sometimes we underestimate communities by treating them like a passive “recipient” of information or a “beneficiary” of our actions.
Community Engagement can be a good way to promote action, and to ask community members to also help promote action, with their friends, families and neighbors.
What is “double action”?
We can promote “double action” with communities members, but also with existing networks: Youth groups, parent groups, women’s associations, traditional leaders, religious leaders (even better if they have their own radio station!). When you inspire an entire network to take action, and promote action in their neighborhoods, you can increase the speed and scale of positive actions for child rights.
First action taken is a success.
A second action is a bonus!
Note: You may not get that second action if you don’t ask for it
Action 4: Show progress to motivate
A good way to motivate people to continue contributing is to show them the impact they are having, showing progress over time (increases and milestones):
A few ideas for “showing progress to motivate”:
125
Children vaccinated
Well done!
☺
Action 5: Give public recognition
Giving public recognition is another way to motivate people, and while it can be combined with “showing progress,” it is not the same thing.
Giving recognition is focused on the individuals, groups of people, schools and neighborhoods who have taken action rather than showcasing progress, statistics or milestones achieved.
Of course, ANY group of people who contributes to civic action in their community can be recognized: Women’s associations, community radio stations, traditional leaders, as so on.
Recognition is a “currency” we could all be using much more, and it is low cost and usually widely appreciated. It would be difficult to ever give “too much” recognition.
Click here for two recognition certificates you can adapt and use (Or scan QR code at right to access)
Resources and feedback:
You can also get in touch if you have questions, suggestions or comments. Juan Andres Gil, UNICEF West and Central Africa Regional Office, Social and Behavior Change team - Email: jagil@unicef.org
For the suggestion form, scan the QR code above
For more resources, including all links in this document: Scan the QR code above with your smartphone camera
Pocket Guides are short, adaptable resources that are no longer than 13 slides/pages. Please feel free to adapt, shorten, improve. You can prototype their use, sharing with others, to see if they are perceived as useful and usable.
Any of these would be ideal outcomes from our perspective: 1) You read this; 2) You give us feedback; 3) You use this; 4) You share this; 5) You adapt/improve this; 6) You make your own Pocket Guide using the template; 7) You share your draft guide with us… any of the above!
For sharing with others, you can send electronically, or you can:
The Pocket Guide template is here.
Additional resources on Social and Behavior Change: