Starting Up Child Centered Spaces in Emergencies: A Field Manual

To summarize, community mobilization involves:• Collective empowerment• Activation of different sub-groups• Planning and action by local people to achieve their own goals• Community ownership and management of projects• Ongoing, dynamic processes of collective activationWhy take a community mobilization approach?A community mobilization approach is valuable because it fulfills people’s rightto participate and to determine their own future. Often, it enables groups to createlocal solutions to local problems. These local solutions will probably be moresustainable than outsider solutions that do not fit well with the local situation,culture and practices. When communities themselves define the problem, setcommon goals and work together on their own program to achieve the goals, thecommunities change in ways that will last after the project ends. Since they areseeking to achieve their goals using their methods, their work on child protectionis likely to continue even after funding and support from CFA has ended.What is the role of CFA?CFA’s role is not to tell local villages how to address child protection, be the “protectionpolice,” or provide protection services for communities. Instead, CFA is acatalyst or facilitator that enables local communities to see child protection as ahigh priority and to organize themselves for planning and action to reduce andprevent protection threats to children and families.CFA plays an important role in motivating people, building their capacities andassessing the program results. CFA builds local capacities by helping local peopledefine their own solutions and learn from the experiences and methods ofcommunities in other countries. In addition, CFA provides valuable training andfollow-up support. Capacity building may also involve helping people learn howto assert their rights more effectively and build effective linkages between variouschild protection partners, and between the Afghan government and rural villages.CFA can also provide another perspective regarding the work of a particularvillage, helping the villagers assess the impact of their methods and activitieson children’s protection and well-being. CFA’s role is not to create CFA programsbut to encourage and enable villagers to design and implement effectivechild protection programs with CFA support. In this process, CFA works with varioussub-groups over time, adapting strategies to fit the sub-group and changesin the local context. In summary, CFA’s role is to:• Motivate people to address child protection issues• Build local capacities for child protection• Strengthen networks of child protection• Increase children’s and youths’ ability to assert their rights• Help evaluate the impact of child protection activities80