Community Participation Facilitation

Community participation facilitation refers to the community liaison side of infrastructure projects. More generally, it involves working with people in their community, i.e., members themselves who can become equal partners in development projects.

Overall, the process of community participatory facilitation helps to build a relationship among the various interested and affected parties. Further, it facilitates the preparation of communities for their potential involvement in the proposed changes ahead.

SIAPAC believes that ownership of resources by communities is the only viable option if the aim is project sustainability.

The facilitation of community involvement provided by SIAPAC is based on the fundamental premise that the ultimate owners of development interventions are the community and people reached by these interventions. Given the wide range of stakeholders influencing infrastructural projects, building good relationships between the various parties is particularly important.

SIAPAC’s role is to support community involvement by building confidence and strengthening the ability of communities to define and take their new responsibilities by:

- training
- skills building consultation
- joint problem solving

SIAPAC is able to scale (up or down) community participation facilitation activities to meet the particular needs of the client and the situation. Through such an approach, relevant levels of effort are identified and applied to the project with consequent effectiveness.

Engaging the community early in the process of the development project makes a project more viable and more likely to succeed.

SIAPAC has had extensive experience in the establishment and monitoring of community participation as a strategy to enhance project sustainability.