Commmmunity Activist Training for Women (February 15 – 21, 2006)

Training Title: Community Activist Training
Dated: February 15-21, 2006
District: Mansehra
Venue: SOU Oghi
Timings: 9:00-4:00
Group: Women (20)

 Session on Development and Participatory Development:

The session was started with introduction of the participants to know the understanding level, and then Brain storming about development the participants explained their view point like:

• Change
• Wealth
• Provision of facilities
• Attitudinal change
• Infrastructure
•  Higher education

After their views she explained the word development in other way as: ”Any socio- economic and technical change, which brings human dignity, economic well being, security, justice and equity, is called development “ Due to top-down approach for development the process of change was very slow. Many problems occurred due to this approach like

• Decisions are taken by the government with out consultation and participation of the people
• So real fruits of development could not be attained
• Planning at higher level
• No involvement of local people in implementation
• Hence no owner ship by the people

Development has two essential parts

• Material Development
• Immaterial development(Mental development, behavioural change, social change etc)

Top –down approach is concerned with material development only. While Participatory development focuses on both.

4 Elements of development:
Any development programme must focus on

• People centred development
• Poverty reduction
• Women development
• Environment friendly development( our development activities should not be harmful for the natural environment)

After that she divided the participants into four groups and gave the task to present their point of views about governmental and participatory level development and its benefits:
Each group presented the work and different questions were asked, finally slides of participatory development were explained to the members:
This is bottom-up approach. According to this approach participation of target group is essential at every level
This creates a sense of owner ship in the people and leads to sustainable development.

• Problem/need identification by local people
• Decisions by local people for the solution of their problems
• Planning by local people
• Participation of local people in implementation.
• Monitoring & evaluation by local people.

 When we talk about sustainable development, with all above points it must focus

This process of participation of people is key factor in development. Government has now started participatory development approach and present local government system is a bright example of it.

Session on Leadership
Resource person started the session with brainstorming about the word “Leader” and the participant’s views are

• In charge
• Who solve the problems of others
• Manager
• Prestigious
• Trustworthy
• Head f the group
• Responsible

Resource person through slides explained his point of view:

• Who influences others positively
• All people are leaders at different levels
• All have give & take relations with others
• Take appropriate actions according to the situation

Then the types of leader were discussed and explained to the participants through board and slides

• Dictator/Autocratic

This type of leaders is self centred people. They do not share things with the people and take decisions with out consultation of the people. They always impose their opinion to others.

• Democratic

Democratic leaders work with people according to their wish. They keep all things open to the people and take their point of view for any matter. They take decisions by consensus.

• Free Rein

This is very week type of leaders. They listen to all and can not make any decision. They cannot say no to others that’s why always suffer.

• Situational

Forth type of leaders is situational leaders. They are a mix of autocratic ad democratic. They move according to the situation for the best interest of their people.

Qualities of a leader were explained as under:

1. Manager
2. Policy Maker
3. Planner
4. Expert
5. Representative of his/her organization
6. Symbol of unity
7. Model character
8. Mediator
9. Purveyor of Reward and Punishment
10. Share the credit of success & own the failures
11. Have participatory approach
12. Honest & trustworthy
13. Takes decisions with the consensus of the group

 Although leaders should have above qualities but there are some basic qualities without which no one claim him/herself a leader. These are

1. Should have clear objectives
2. Have good communication skills
3. Can motivate people for the achievement of the goal

All the participants enjoyed and learned from the session.