Blue Ocean Strategy Summary

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A chapter summary of Chan Kim & Mauborgne's book "Blue Ocean Strategy"

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Strategic HR

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A strategic approach to Human Resource Management

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Marketing Strategy

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Excellent presentation slides on designing an effective marketing strategy

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Blue Ocean & Business Model Innovation

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The presentation shows the steps taken following the Blue Ocean methodology in coming to Business Model Innovation


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ORGANIZING THE GRANT WRITING PROCESS

Seven Things To Do Before Writing

by Michelle K. Carter, Grant Writer

The seven steps listed below can be used as a guide to help you to get organized

Grant writing is more than just putting together pieces of information in accordance with funders' guidelines. It is a process that requires organization, especially in light of impending deadlines.

With a limited staff and time constraints, organization is a necessity. In order for your time to be managed efficiently, a plan for organizing grant information should be in place before you begin to write.

1. Identify the Need/Problem:

Funders are looking for ways to eliminate need. That is, to close the "gap" between how things are and how things should be.

You should prepare a statement that substantiates your need including statistical data that supports your need.

2. Collect Background Information:

You should have readily available documentation about your organization. This collection of information should include your organisation's mission statement, a list of accomplishments, a list of previous funders and programs funded, the resumes of key staff members, and financial statements.

3. Develop a Grant Writing Team:

Identify all tasks for the grant writing process. Assess the skills of each staff member to determine who will be responsible for each task.

Who will conduct the research? Who will write? Who will compile the budget information? Who will type, make copies, etc.?

4. Research and Identify Funding Sources:

Many foundations have web sites on the Internet providing guidelines and application information. There are also printed directories that list thousands of foundations and a number of government agencies that provide grants.

As you identify potential funders, ask yourself the following questions: Does the funder's mission match our needs? Do we meet the funder's eligibility requirements? Is the possibility of funding good?

Create a profile for each potential funder.

5. Contact Potential Funders:

To obtain guidelines and applications, contact those funders whose missions match your needs. This initial contact is the first step for cultivating a relationship with the funder.

6. Contact Previous Grantees:

Prior grantees are generally listed on the funder's web site. This list is evidence of what a particular funder is interested in funding.

Contact at least three of these grantees.

Ask them about their experience with the funder and why they think they were successful. Try to get a copy of one of the grants to use as a model.

7. Develop a Proposal Production Plan:

This plan should include: a list of your goals and objectives;
- an outline of the elements of the proposal and who is responsible for each;
- an activity schedule detailing who will do what and when; and
- scheduled meetings with the grant writing team.

COMMUNITY EMPOWERMENT: Resources

PRINCIPLES & TECHNIQUES OF FUND RAISING
by Phil Bartle, PhD

Abstract:

This document provides guidelines and suggestions for methods and principles of fund raising aimed at the financing of community based projects.

Fund raising is a valuable part of the strengthening of CBOs, NGOs and communities; cash (and non cash) contributions are needed by them to carry out their desired and planned activities. The obtaining of resources is therefore a desired and honourable task; fund raisers should be acknowledged and praised. Fund raising is a job to which all should contribute, and for which all should be responsible.

Introduction:

Many of the techniques and skills of fund raising (some of which are included here) can be or have been adapted from the commercial profession of "marketing" (in fact, fund raising is referred to as "marketing" by many NGOs). While marketing and sales skills can be valuable, they must always be applied in an ethical manner. Every fund raiser (paid or volunteer) must first and foremost be completely convinced of the value, integrity and benefits of the organization, and the activities for which the raised funds will be used.

These guidelines, must be modified in each community so as to be adapted to the differences that characterize every community

1. Principles of Fund Raising:

There is a difference between principles of fund raising and techniques of fund raising. This document discusses both. This section concentrates on the principles.

1.1 The Profession of Marketing:

Many of the skills and techniques of fund raising used by NGOs and some UN agencies have been developed by, and adapted from the commercial profession of marketing. Some people (often those outside or unsuccessful at the profession of sales and marketing) see this as a cynical and insincere activity. Maybe that is so as it is practised by some, but it does not have to be, and often is not. If a sales or marketing professional sincerely believes in the value of the product, sales can be effected honestly and ethically.

The principles of sincerity and ethical integrity especially apply to fund raising. Fund raising should be the responsibility of all members of the organization, although they may participate in different ways. It should not be simply left to the professionals. All of us/you, therefore, should know about principles as well as techniques of fund raising. The fund raiser, first and foremost, must be honestly convinced in the integrity of the organization, and in the benefit and value of the activity or project of the organization. Potential and past donors very quickly spot insincerity, dishonesty, and diversion of "their" donated resources.

1.2 Acknowledgement of Donations:

Acknowledgement is a must. Many donors use their donations to gain prestige and honour in their communities. It is a small price to praise every donor. Ensure that communities we assist are aware of the need to acknowledge all donations, and praise the donors for their loyalty to the community and their much needed and appreciated donation (cash and kind).

1.3 Thank You!

The most important two words in obtaining funds, and running a successful NGO, CBO or community project, are the words, "Thank you!"

Many NGO staff have wondered why enthusiasm for their activities has dried up, and funds cease to roll in; and the simple cause is often found to be that the NGO forgot to acknowledge and thank the donors.

1.4 Progress Reports:

Further to a simple "thank you," donors want to know what was achieved with their donated money. The most effective form of thank you is a progress report. Donors are less interested in your activities; they are more interested in the results of your activities; have you reached, or partially reached, the objectives you stated when you asked for the donation? CMP has prepared other documents about report writing; use them and integrate report writing with obtaining resources. Fund raising and report writing are not independent activities.

1.5 Integrity:

A high level of integrity must be maintained at all times. This applies to the set up and activities of the organization in general, and specifically to its fund raising activities. An important aspect of that integrity is full accountability.

All actions must be accountable; all funds must be accountable. This means accurate, complete, understandable and honest narrative reports and financial reports, available at any time to any member of the public.

Along with accountability is transparency. The group must not have any secret agenda, and must be public and honest about all its activities and all its expenditures. Account records must be open, that is available to any member of the public to inspect at any time. Honesty can not be compromised. The good ends (goals or objectives) of the organization must not be compromised by questionable means used to get to those ends.

Those people responsible for implementing the activities of the group, including the activity of obtaining funds, must be honestly and totally convinced of the goodness of the group and its objectives, and the worth while values and benefits of the project. This level of integrity is essential for the sustainability of the group, the completion of the project, and the benefit of the community.

1.6 The Importance of a Positive Attitude:

Not everybody is a donor. Some of the people, agencies or groups can or will not give to your community or organization. If you do not recognize that failure to obtain a donation from one source does not imply that you or your organization is a failure, you may be tempted to be discouraged and give up.

Do not give up. You can not allow yourself to be discouraged; it is a luxury that you, your organization and your community can not afford. You may experience eight rejections; do not give up because the ninth and tenth may bring the needed donation.

1.7 Calculating and Recording Project Inputs:

It is important to maintain accurate records of all resources used in a community project.

Too often some donations (especially communal labour and gifts in kind) are forgotten or under-valued, and the correct amount of the community contribution is higher than what is recorded and reported. This under valuation is detrimental for several reasons: (a) the community members have a lower estimate of self worth and this lowers confidence, (b) the outside donors have a lower estimate of community contribution and will be more reluctant to contribute more or (c) will not recognize the worth of the community inputs.

You/we must ensure that the CBO or the executive committee of the community that is planning to undertake a community based project, recognizes the value of hidden community resources. An accurate estimate of the cash value of donated resources –– eg communal labour for construction, donated skilled labour, time spent by community members and leaders in meetings for planning, or non cash physical donations –– must be made by the community. You/we should encourage the community to identify and record these. These financial estimates should be included in the cost estimates of the project proposal, and should be recorded during the actual construction activities.

When the total costs of a community based project are calculated, they should therefore include the actual cash contributions of donors, international and local, Governmental and non-Governmental, and others, plus the cost estimates of all non-monetary donations, whether in the form of non-cash physical items or services, or human time and energy.

2. Types and Sources of Donations:

This section describes donations from a wide range of potential donors, except those from donor agencies which require formal proposals. (Those are discussed in the document, Resource Acquisition).

That wide range of potential donors means there is a wide range of specific techniques that can be applied to the process of (a) identifying donors, (b) getting a message to them, and (c) collecting the donations. Don't forget the (d): thanking them.

A good workshop handout to accompany this section is: Internal Resources Checklist.

2.1 Urban Versus Rural Communities:

There are several differences in emphasis in techniques of raising project resources, based on the different characteristics of communities. Urban communities, for example, are usually larger, and therefore more full of factions and schisms. Small rural communities are more easy to organize and unite, but there is no guarantee.

Urban communities have more social schisms (divisions/factions), and are harder to organize than rural ones, although within urban areas slums are easier to organize than rich neighbourhoods. Donations in cash are easier to obtain in urban than rural communities, donations of food and agricultural products are more common in rural communities.

2.2 Public Fund Raising Events:

These take many forms. Large community fund raising events can be quite elaborate, with high profile officials making speeches, and rich persons making ostentatious donations. There may be several bands, drummers, dance groups, including singers and dances from the community schools.

In East Africa, the word "harambee" is used to describe such a fund raising event. (2)

In West Africa, especially in rural towns, the town chief may preside, and the entertainment may include dancing, drumming and spirit possession from the local gods or cults.

Such events may draw urban migrants back to their rural home towns and, like funerals, also serve purposes other than fund raising, notably for the migrated and extended community members to keep in touch with each other and to maintain their identity as community members even though residing outside the community. Many liaisons are made on these occasions, for example, that may later lead to marriages or business partnerships.

2.3 Urban Donors to Rural Communities:

Urban migrants maintain links to their home communities. This can be exploited by rural CBOs. A small percentage of the urban migrants make fortunes in the cities, and can be persuaded to contribute to their home community development. A feeling of guilt at not being home, or of loyalty in spite of absence, may result in some very large donations from rich urban migrants.

2.4 Commercial Donations:

Commercial donations include gifts from firms and businesses that want to advertise their good will and support of the community. (They should be acknowledged and thanked in public meetings). The community should be encouraged to identify ways they can convince the commercial donors that it is in the interest of the commercial donor to assist the project (increased publicity and good will for the commercial donor, for example).

2.5 Communal Labour:

This is an important internal resource (sometimes includes labour of volunteers from outside). Communal labour involves time and labour donated by community members, some unskilled (like clearing grass, laying bricks), some skilled (carpentry, masonry), management, leadership, meetings, planning, supervision.

It is important that you/we encourage the planners and designers of community based projects that they should carefully evaluate the cash value of donated communal labour. Too often that contribution is undervalued, because of ignorance of its worth or, more importantly, an indication of a low level of confidence and a low self evaluation of the worth of the community by the community members.

Sometimes some community members wish to hide their resources on the mistaken assumption that we or others will only bring outside resources if we believe that the community is very poor, and that we or other donors may withhold funds if the community is thought to have too many of its own resources. You/we must ensure that all community members understand that they are more likely to obtain outside resources if they demonstrate that they are committing internal resources.

2.6 Agricultural Donations:

Farmers may donate food for the project: (a) to communal workers who are working on the project, or (b) to the executive committee to sell to raise cash for the project. They may also donate other resources off their farms (eg timber, sand, limestone, non-food crops) which may be used directly or indirectly for the project.

2.7 Donated Food Preparation:

While a farmer may donate food to the project, it still needs to be prepared for eating. Other donors may include people who donate the preparing of food and refreshments to the community members on communal working days. Do not forget to thank the people who cook and prepare food for communal labourers.

2.8 Contributions and Pledges:

Contributions and pledges may be made at public community fund raising events. Participants make their decisions to donate in a public meeting or event.

2.9 Raffles and Lotteries:

Raffles and lotteries, gambling-based fund raising techniques. are better suited to well organized, sophisticated urban NGOs, rather than new, rural, small CBOs.

2.10 Anonymous Donors:

Anonymous donors are benefactors who remain unknown. They often have private ideological or religious reasons, but wish to remain unpublicized.

Conclusion:

Whatever our actions in encouraging and assisting communities to plan and implement their own community based projects (including the calculation of financial resources) you/we must keep the following in mind at all times and to guide all our actions:

• Remember and work towards the general goal (reducing dependency);
• Guide, suggest, train, encourage, praise, inform; and
• Do not promise, do not provide and do not dictate.

The calculation of costs of financing community based projects must be fair and accurate, and estimates must not undervalue non-cash community donations. When mobilizing a community to undertake a community based project, we should encourage them to identify a variety of outside resources (reducing dependency on any one donor), and to identify and mobilize many (often hidden) of their own internal resources.

Obtaining resources for a community project is an honourable and valuable responsibility; do it with enthusiasm, integrity and confidence.

Brick Making for Community Project

Footnote (2): A harambee is not always necessarily a community event; nowadays it is often used by a single family to raise money for a student's school fees or a medical bill.

COMMUNITY EMPOWERMENT: Project Design

The Dependency Syndrome
by Dr Phil Bartle

When community members lack attitudes of self reliance, what needs to be changed?

The "dependency syndrome" is an attitude and belief that a group can not solve its own problems without outside help. It is a weakness that is made worse by charity. Why do we fight against dependency?

If an outside agency, be it central Government, an international NGO, a mission, comes to a community and constructs a human settlements facility (eg water supply), it is natural for the community members to see it as belonging to the outside agency. When that outside agency goes away or runs out of funds, the community members will have no motivation to repair and maintain the facility, or to sustain the service In order for a facility to be used, and used effectively, by the community members. In order for the facility to be maintained and sustained, the community members must have a sense of "responsibility" for the facility. That sense of responsibility is sometimes described as "ownership" by the community.

Communal Contribution

Unless the community as a whole has been involved in the decision making about the facility (planning and management) and has willingly contributed to the costs of its construction, the sense of responsibility or ownership will be missing. It will not be effectively used, maintained or sustained. It is impossible to build a human settlements facility or service and not expect that it has to be repaired and maintained. That is like trying to eat once and for all. As their populations grow, governments are getting access to fewer and fewer resources per capita every year. It is simply no longer feasible for communities to be dependent upon central governments for human settlement facilities and services. The same with international donors: rich countries' governments, the UN, World Bank, international NGOs, simply do not have enough resources to give to every poor community, no matter how worthwhile the cause, around the world.

Whereas it was once thought that community self reliance in itself was a good thing, it promoted grass roots democracy, human rights, self development and human dignity, now it has gone much farther than that. If communities cannot become more and more self reliant and empowered, they simply will not develop and so poverty and apathy will eventually destroy them. Counteracting dependency is your prime goal. Dependency in the community must be reduced by every action you take. When training a community organization how to obtain resources, the animator must keep that prime goal in mind and act accordingly. A donor agency should try to avoid giving the community anything for nothing. That encourages dependency. Always encourage community members by stating that they can carry out the project themselves and you are here to offer them some skills and tips, but the work must be done by them. Applying this to financing a community project, you must never offer to obtain project inputs for them. The methods on this web site are called the Community Empowerment Methodology; specifically designed to fight dependency.

You as a mobilizer, can give them guidelines as to how to raise money and other resources, how to ensure that accounts are kept transparent and simple, and how to translate non-monetary donations into financial inputs, but you must always emphasise that the actual obtaining of the resources must be done by the community or its community based organization (eg executive committee) working on its behalf, not you.

COMMUNITY EMPOWERMENT - MOBILIZATION

UNITY ORGANIZING
By Phil Bartle, PhD

What we often call step three in the mobilizing cycle, "unity organizing," can begin even during step one (awareness raising) and continue throughout the whole mobilizing cycle

Communities are Seldom Unified:

The word "community" has the word "unity" in it, but it is a common mistake to assume that any community is united.

Every community has factions and disputes, what we call social schisms, within it. These may be based on religion, clan, class, language, ethnic differences, and other factors.

Note: A "schism" is a divide or chasm between different sides. A "social schism" is a divide between two or more factions in a larger social grouping.

A Community Decision Needs Unity:

Yet when we want the community to make a consensus decision to agree on its priority problem to be solved, that is not possible when the different factions support different goals.

To bring these factions together, then, to promote and encourage unity, is a necessary task for you, the mobilizer. How do you do that?

Techniques to Unify a Community:

When you call a community meeting, insist and ensure that all the different factions attend. Also make sure the meeting includes the disabled, the elderly, the commonly overlooked people.

If you have done your work well in sociology, observing and analysing the community, you will know where the sensitivities lie.

It is useful to be a bit of an actor or "show person" when mobilizing. You can use the match sticks demonstration, for example, but take your time with it. Call for a volunteer or two to help you; repeat yourself in various ways; make a drama out of this. Hold up a single match stick and ask the group to say if it will be easy to break it.

Get their responses. Then ask your volunteer to break it. Congratulate your volunteer and make a big fuss with the group about how easy it is to break the match stick. Then take a hand full of match sticks and tie them together with an elastic band; show the bunched match sticks to the group. Ask the volunteer to break the group of matches as a single item. The volunteer will have difficulty or (we hope) will not be able to break the grouped match sticks.

Thus you say that each match stick is a different faction, but all of them together is the whole community. Poverty and weakness will easily break the community if the different factions continue pulling in different directions.

Show the group the matches again as you explain the analogy (metaphor, parable) again, making one match as you identify it as a faction, struggling to break the bound matches as you identify it as a unified community. Do this in several meetings at different times. (Never be afraid to repeat your principles). Continue it with other demonstrations and stories that you may think up yourself or borrow from other mobilizers.

See: The Role of Food in Empowering Communities.

See: Strengthening Organizations.

Your goal is not to make the community homogeneous (everybody the same); it is to encourage people to be more understanding and tolerant of differences among other community members, and to be loyal and supportive of the community as a whole.

Don't Stop:

Combine this with other unity organizing, efforts, such as ensuring representatives of every faction get on the executive committee, of the CBO that you organize to plan and implement the community project.

The need for unity organizing continues, and you should not stop it before going on to the next steps. Share with other mobilizers, and learn new methods.

EATING WITH FRIENDS

The Role of Food in Empowering Communities
By Phil Bartle, PhD

"Who eats with whom" is a factor affecting mobilization

Introduction:

One aspect of community empowerment, often overlooked in community development text books and teachings, is group eating. Like the celebration of a project completion, and many other important activities, something that may be seen as a vacation or "time off" among the people in general, is an essential part of the work (time on) of a mobilizer.

As a social scientist can tell you, there is far more to food than its physical benefits of nutrition and health. With whom we eat, when we eat, where we eat, what we eat and under what conditions we eat ... are all sociologically very significant. (If logic and nutrition were the only concerns, we would all eat worms).

These concerns are very important, therefore, to the mobilizer, first to know about the community and how to behave in it, and second for including this knowledge in strategies for empowering communities through mobilization.

Community Contribution: Meals for Donated Labour

Commensality:

The word "Commensal" is derived from the Latin (and Arabic) , meaning to share a table. In sociology, the concept of "commensality" is most simply defined as "the people that eat together."

Start with yourself: think of those people with whom you eat, and those with whom you do not eat. In general, the people with whom you eat include your family and your friends.

Those with whom you do not eat, for whatever reason, are more socially distant: much higher or much lower class or social status, strangers, enemies and serious rivals, and sometimes persons belonging to segregated language, ethnic, religious, gender, age or occupational categories.

These, of course are highly variable from community to community, time frame to time frame, and from society to society. They also vary according to social context; some persons you would eat with in a workplace cafeteria, but not eat with them in their or your homes.

As a generality (with many exceptions you can be sure), people tend to eat with other people where there is a sense of solidarity or trust. Sometimes that trust is more apparent than real; some people eat with some others to ostentatiously demonstrate trust when they do not trust at all. Eating with others is, like all cultural things, symbolic, and communicates many values and meanings.

Influence is Two-Way:

The association of (a) social status or relationships and (b) who eats with whom, is known and observable. That does not prove that there is necessarily a causal relationship between them, but it does suggest that there is such a relationship.

Which way is that causality? Experienced community mobilizers know the influence is two-way. How people judge each other may be influenced by who consciously chooses to eat with whom. Conversely, choice of who eats with whom may be affected by how people judge each other.

This has two implications for the mobilizer. (1) The job requirement of knowing the social and cultural features of a community, an important task of the mobilizer, is enhanced by knowing who eats with whom. (2) Setting up situations where people eat with others they might not normally do, is a means of introducing new social relationships, and of enhancing community empowerment by improving unity.

Unity is very important to the mobilizer. See Unity Mobilizing. If bringing people together to share a meal will improve that unity, then this is another tool for the mobilizer's tool box.

Three Eating Situations in Community Mobilization:

There may be many opportunities to allow community or committee members to eat together at a public occasion. The greater the knowledge a mobilizer has of the community, the more opportunities will be revealed.

Three general situations are as follows:
- Feeding communal labourers during construction;
- Refreshments served at executive meetings; and
- Refreshments served at celebrations.

Providing food for community members who come out to a communal "bee" to donate their labour to cleaning the community area, or contributing to project construction, is a valuable undertaking for promoting enthusiasm for the work, and for promoting unity and solidarity.

In rural areas, farmers who may lack cash to donate, are likely to be willing to donate some of their crops for that. Meanwhile some community members, perhaps those not able to do heavy work associated with construction, would be willing to donate their time and effort to cooking and presenting the donated food.

It is easy to dismiss the labour of the implementing or executive committee. They contribute their time, their imagination and their knowledge to a community project. They must also be careful to remain transparent when handling community money, so as to maintain trust and enthusiasm of the people. If community members prepare small amounts of food, even as a token gesture, for their committee meetings, they will be less likely to be suspected of having hidden agendas to enhance their income by misdirecting community resources.

During the public celebrations to recognize project completion, the community is advised by the mobilizer to invite important and well known personalities to attend and officiate. This attracts journalists who will publicize the event. If the community can be seen as providing refreshments to important visitors an, better yet, to all who attend, then the confidence and solidarity of the community will be increased.

Choosing What to Eat:

The mobilizer does not choose what should be served. The job of the mobilizer is to stimulate the committee, if not the community, to decide that food should be served, when, what, where, how much and any other details. If a committee is formed to decide upon food to be served, their choices can be a good source of information for the mobilizer.

The choice of tabooed or controversial food, for example, can be an indicator of factional influence among the executive. Pork, for example, should not be served to Moslems, beef to Hindus, meat to vegetarians. If the committee chooses such food, then the mobilizer has a hint that the committee is biased towards other factions.

The mobilizer should try, quietly at first, behind the scenes, to convince the committee that it should be more sensitive to the varieties of food regulations among the community. If this can not be fixed quietly, the mobilizer might find it necessary to raise the issue publicly in a whole community meeting, indicating that the project is for all members of the community, not only specific factions, therefore the food served should be applicable to all, or else special preparations made to satisfy the food rules of some groups.

In many community projects, especially when important visitors are served refreshments, it has become the practice to serve world famous bottled (or tinned) soft drinks. This author does not endorse the growth of "coca cola- nization" or global brand loyalty by endorsing the use of such drinks. Boiled water, local drinks, and tea and/or coffee are preferable.

Summary:

The culture of food and group eating, "who shares a table," is important to a mobilizer. Knowing eating patterns is an indicator of how well the mobilizer knows the community, and can be used as an indicator of how united or divided is a community.

Suggesting and encouraging the community and its project executive committee to arrange for various occasions where people can eat together will promote greater unity, solidarity and trust, which are important factors in empowering a community.

As with most things done by a good mobilizer, the mobilizer encourages a participatory approach, guiding and stimulating the community and its project executive to make decisions, rather than dictating and making decisions for it.

References:

Food and Culture: http://lilt.ilstu.edu/rtdirks/SOCIAL.html
Margaret Visser: http://www.umanitoba.ca/

Happy Chinese New Year 2008

Participation is the Key to Empowerment

by Benjamin Fleming

Participation doesn't always lead to empowerment. It takes a supportive environment in which to nurture people's aspirations and skills for empowerment to ultimately occur. Some means of achieving this are:

• Don't underestimate people. Give them tools to manage complexity; don't, shield them from it;
• Divide the issues into bite-sized chunks
• Start with people's own concerns and the issues relevant to them
• Don't superimpose your own ideas and solutions at the outset;
• Help people widen their perceptions of the choices available and to clarify the implications of each option;
• Build in visible early successes to develop the confidence of participants; "Staircase" skills, trust and commitment to the process: offer a progressive range of levels of involvement and help people to move up the ladder;
• Direct empowerment training for participants may not be appreciated - it may be better to develop skills more organically as part of the process;
• If at all possible, avoid going for a comprehensive irreversible solution. Set up an iterative learning process, with small, quick, reversible pilots and experiments;
• Continuously review and widen membership. As new interests groups are discovered how will they be integrated into the process?
• Help people to build their understanding of complex and remote decision processes which are outside the delegated powers of the participation process but which are affecting the outcomes.
• Nurture new networks and alliances;
• Plans must be meaningful and lead to action;
• Manage the link between the private ability of the various interest groups to deliver on their commitments and the public accountability and control of the implementation;
• Build in opportunities for reflection and appraisal;

Make sure people are having fun! (from The Guide to effective Participation by David Wilcox)

Ten Key Ideas about Participation.

1. Level of participation.

Sherry Arnstein (1969) described a ladder of participation with eight steps. Briefly, these are:

1 Manipulation and 2 Therapy. Non participative. The aim is to cure or educate the participants. The proposed plan is best and the job of participation is to achieve public support by public relations.

3 Informing. A most important first step to legitimate participation. But too frequently the emphasis is on a one way flow of information. No channel for feedback.

4 Consultation. Attitude surveys, neighbourhood meetings and public enquires. But a window dressing ritual.

5 Placation. Co-option of hand-picked 'worthies' onto committees.

6 Partnership. Power redistributed through negotiation between citizens and power holders. Planning and decision-making responsibilities are shared.

7 Delegated power. Citizens holding a clear majority of seats on committees with delegated powers to make decisions. Public now has the power to assure accountability of the program to them.

8 Citizen Control. Have-nots handle the entire job of planning, policy making and managing a program.

2. Initiation and process.

Participation doesn't just happen, it is initiated. Someone then manages a process over time, and allows others involved some control over what happens.The process is described during four phases: Initiation - Preparation - Participation - Continuation.

3. Control.

The initiator is in a strong position to decide how much control for. This decision is equivalent to taking a stand on the ladder - or adopted a stance about the level of participation.

4. Power and Purpose.

Understanding participation involves understanding power: the ability of the different interests to achieve what they want. Power will depend on who has information and money. It will also depend on people's confidence and skills. Many organizations are unwilling to allow people to participate because they fear loss of control. However, there are many situations when working together allows everyone to achieve more than they could on their own. These represent the benefits of participation.

5. Role of the facilitators.

Facilitators control much of what happens. It is important they constantly think about the part they are playing.

6. Stakeholders and Community.

A stakeholder is anyone who has a stake in what happens. Who will be affected by any project, who controls the information, skills and money needed, who may help and who may hinder?. Everyone affected does not have an equal say. Use the ladder to think about who has most influence.

The community which participates depends on the project as different people are interested in different issues.

7. Partnership.

Useful when a number of different interests willingly come together formally or informally to achieve some common purpose. The partners don't have to be equal in skills, funds or even confidence, but they do have to trust each other and share some commitment. Building trust and commitment takes time.

8. Commitment.

Commitment is the other side of apathy: committed people want to achieve something, apathetic don't. But what leads to commitment? Not telling people "You ought to care," inviting them to public meetings or bombarding them with glossy leaflets. People care about what they are interested in, and become committed when they feel they can achieve something. Hard selling won't achieve that. If people are apathetic about your proposals, it may simply be that they don't share your interests or concerns.

9. Ownership of ideas.

People are most likely to be committed to carry something through if they have a stake in the idea, or allow people to say "We thought of that." In practice that means running brainstorming workshops, helping people think through the practicality of ideas, and negotiating with others a result which is acceptable to as many people as possible. Apathy is directly proportional to the stake people have in ideas and outcomes.

10. Confidence and capacity.

Putting ideas into practice depends on people's confidence and skills. Many participation processes involve breaking new ground. It is unrealistic to expect individuals or small groups suddenly to develop the capability to make complex decisions and become involved in major projects. They need training or the opportunity to learn formally and informally, to develop confidence, and trust in each other.

Taken from The Guide to effective Participation. by David Wilcox. http://www.partnerships.org.uk/guide/index.htm

MERRY CHRISTMAS! EVERYONE

"...Do not be afraid. I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; He is Christ the Lord." Luke 2:10,11

Believe! This is the week of Christmas — and it is so important that we believe God and receive Christ.

When the angel Gabriel spoke to the virgin Mary over 2,000 years ago and said she would have a Son even though she was a virgin, she did not doubt — she believed. She said “How will this be, since I am a virgin?” Mary believed God — and she received God’s promise, the Christ child.

When you celebrate Christmas this year, focus on Christ — the wonderful son of God who came to earth to be our Savior. Believe in Him as the Son of God; receive Him in to your heart if you have not done so already. And let’s pray that:

• Millions of people across the whole world will believe in God and in Jesus Christ as the Son of God
• People everywhere will receive Christ as their Savior and Lord
• Your own friends and family will all welcome Christ as their personal Savior

When Christ came to be born on earth, people had a simple choice — would they believe in Him as Savior?

Would they receive Him into their lives?

Would they welcome Him?

Our choice is the same today.

Let us celebrate the birth of Christ into the world — and into our hearts. Merry Christmas!

Please pray for all the people who are lonely this Christmas.

For many people, Christmas is a time of great joy.

Other people may be alone, and afraid, and not have anyone to spend the holidays with.

Please pray that others would come around them and show them love.

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Politics and Mobilizer Training

The Role of Politics in Community Empowerment
by Phil Bartle, PhD

Principles behind the Methods

Principles behind your appearing apolitical while mobilizing

Politics:

What we usually know as "politics" focuses on two dimensions of culture: (1) the distribution and use of power, and (2) ideological values about what is wanted. Both of these are important to the mobilizer. Because the mobilization of communities as a technique of empowering them is, in itself, a political process, politics in its ordinary meaning can be very troublesome to that process.

This document explains why that is so, and suggests some general strategy considerations to assist you in developing your own mobilization strategy to ensure that "politics" does not defeat your purpose.

Partisan Politics:

Political process is not a choice; it is a dimension of culture and therefore present wherever there is culture (society). The forms that the allocation and practice of power take, like political institutions and practices, may differ from society to society, but there is always a political dimension.

Although political parties (elected or otherwise) are found in most societies, there may be other institutions for allocating power, and for expressing it. Within any society, different levels (national, regional, community, institution) may have very different forms and practices.

When an individual or a party wields power, that power provides some benefits or perquisites which can easily lead to temptations and addiction (to power). This known tendency is expressed in the proverb (cliché) "Power corrupts; absolute power corrupts absolutely.

" However it may be expressed, there is a temptation for people in power to take unfair, even illegal, advantage of being in power, and there is a tendency for those in power to want to hang on to that power. As explained in the "Five Factors of Poverty," corruption (dishonesty) is one of the important causes of the continuation of poverty as a social problem.

The desires for maintaining and misusing power, therefore, are among the factors contributing to poverty. Corruption fertilises poverty. It is not necessarily among the historical causes of poverty, but it maintains, sustains and supports poverty, and must be removed if poverty is to be eliminated.

If politics generates corruption, then it generates poverty.

The Political Dimensions of Empowerment:

Empowerment of poor and marginalized communities, the removal (not alleviation) of poverty -- these are immensely political goals. There are many persons with vested interests who do not want these to happen because they benefit from the overall structure remaining as it is.

It is a huge, global struggle. It involves two cultural dimensions, power and values (ideology).

If your work as a mobilizer is to be effective, it will result in a revolutionary political change, the removal of poverty. It is not an easy job, and it will be much thwarted if it gets mixed up in partisan politics.

Think! If poverty is removed, then there will not be the global schism of rich versus poor. That has huge political ramifications. Obviously there will be many rich and powerful groups and individuals who will not wish to see such a result, and have vested interests in stopping your work.

These vested interests may disguise themselves by the more bland concept, "resistance to change," or even "preservation of ulture." The work of a mobilizer -- the empowerment of low income communities, the democratisation of decision making, the removal of poverty -- have important political consequences.

The Reputation of a Mobilizer:

A bad reputation hinders your work. A good reputation is your major asset. Elsewhere in these pages, you will see that you must learn local values and customs, and avoid doing things that alienate you from community members.

This is important, for example, in your behaviour and attitudes towards sexual activity. Equally important, it refers to your political image. A political reputation puts you into a box; it hinders your movements; reduces your options.

Once people have decided that you support or belong to a particular political party, they have labelled you, put you in an identification box. They will then pay less attention to you, judge your further actions as belonging to that box, trivialise important moves you make, and reduce your effectiveness as a mobilizer.

It is better to have them unsure of where your political alliances lay; they will pay more attention to you (by being kept guessing) and will be more likely to hear your message of community empowerment. To be effective, the mobilizer must work hard to avoid being identified with any political party, movement, ideology, or label.

A Matter of Strategy:

One element of politics, especially prevalent in countries characterised by representational democracy, is the public clarification of political values. In practice, speeches by politicians tend to be similar to preaching by pastors. As explained in the mobilization training modules, preaching is not a good method for use by mobilizers.

A mobilizer should avoid preaching, whether it is on religious or political values. Preaching hinders empowerment. The training on these pages can not dictate your strategy to you. It can only provide you with skills, methods and principles for you to design your own personal mobilization strategy.

There are also some negative consequences even of being closely associated with politicians. See Politicians. When you walk through the farmyard of politics, watch where you put your feet. You might step in something that you would rather avoid.

The Techniques of Mobilization:

Think about social change for a moment. Development is social change; so is community empowerment. In sociology, we learn that change in any one of the six dimensions of society and culture will soon lead to changes in all the other five dimensions.

Just to remind us of the six dimensions of culture and society:

• Worldview
• Values
• Interaction
• Power
• Economy
• Technology

In the nineteenth century, Marx suggested that the bottom two changed independently, and caused changes in the top four. Later Max Veber said that the top two changed and caused changes in the bottom four.

Today we know that social change is much more complex, but that changes in any of them cause changes in all the others.

Generally, if you are interested in introducing changes into a society (or community) it is easier to introduce changes in the technological dimension. For most people, changes in technology appear to be more innocent than changes in values, beliefs, or patterns of interacting.

That is why, in training new mobilizers, or as a mobilizer explaining your purpose and method to community members, it is wisest to emphasise that you are introducing new techniques. Techniques belong to the technological dimension of culture and society.

Do not advertise that you are interested in the demise of poverty; that implies values that people might fear. The techniques are part of the arsenal on the war against poverty. Mobilization techniques. Avoid theory; emphasise technique.

Conclusion:

While it is useful for you to understand the principles behind the techniques of mobilizing communities to empower them, including the political principles, it is important for you not to preach those principles, or even to make their discussion any part of your public work. While empowerment is a macro political process and has important political consequences, it is important, as a matter of strategy for your work as a mobilizer, to avoid being associated with any overt politics.

COMMUNITY EMPOWERMENT

Preserving Culture
by Phil Bartle, PhD

So you want to preserve your culture.

Nice ideal. You might be surprised to discover, however, that you are a danger to your culture if you want to preserve it.

Does that sound like a paradox? Not if you look carefully at what culture is, and how you can strengthen it. The empowerment methodology of this web site has a focus on strengthening, not on protecting.

Do you want to empower your culture or do you want to preserve it? The choice is yours. Choose one only. You can not have both.

Characteristics of Culture

Before we begin discussing the idea of preserving culture, let us first ensure we agree on the meaning of culture. The most elementary definition of culture is that it is composed of everything we learn.

Several training documents on this site discuss culture. See two of them: Culture and What is community? Both emphasise that culture is the sociocultural system or society, that it is all our beliefs and actions that are not transmitted by genes. They are stored and transmitted by symbols. They include six dimensions: the technological, economic, political and institutional (interactional) dimensions, and the cultural dimension of aesthetics and values, and our worldview, or perspective on the nature of the universe.

The common, every-day, or street definition of culture is what we in the social sciences see as one of the six dimensions, the aesthetic. Drumming and dancing in Africa, drumming and singing in aboriginal North America, ballet and opera in Europe, all of these are part of culture but not the whole of culture.

Since those traditional songs, dances and music are important elements in the identity of those who perform and enjoy them, we strongly support the idea of preserving them and adding to them, as well as increasing their presence and profile in all societies, and in increasing and expanding their content. A strong sense of identity is a valuable element in the strengthening of communities and their culture. See Elements of Empowerment. .. It is in the other dimensions, and other aspects of the values dimension, where preserving culture can cause damage to the strength of that culture.

Characteristics of Preservation

Think of things we know that are preserved: pickles in a jar, butterflies in a glass case, leather on a purse, blackberry jam in a jar, lumber for building, insects in amber, frogs in formaldehyde. They all have one thing in common, They were all once alive (or were parts of something alive) and are all now dead.

The process of preservation is one which modifies something so that it will last, so that it will not change, so that it will not live. To be alive requires something to move, to change.

So if you want to keep something from changing for a long time, kill it. It will change eventually anyway (just ask any Buddhist) no matter how it is preserved.

Let Culture Grow and Become Stronger

If you go back to the documents on culture; you will see that culture is a living thing. It is formed of the symbols, meanings and behaviour of people, but can live beyond the lives of those individual humans who carry it. It is like a living organism, although it is not biological. It transcends the biological.

I can not give you freedom. If freedom could be given, it could be taken away (according to the teachings of Lao Tsu) and then it would not be true freedom.

The empowerment training on this web site is aimed at fighting poverty and oppression, not the poor and the oppressed. The method aims to strengthen the communities of poor and oppressed people. For those communities to become stronger, they must change, therefore their culture must change. They must do it themselves; we can only guide and stimulate, but not do it for them or give it to them.

Since culture is everything humans learn, the changes needed to become stronger require culture change. Growth is change (and so is decay). Let them grow.

A flower will grow if it gets enough water, sunlight, soil and minerals. It will not get taller if you pull it from the top. We can provide the water and minerals, perhaps, but it is the flowers (like the poor communities) that must do their own growing. Pulling it up by the top is like social engineering. Stimulating it by giving it water and minerals to grow and become stronger is empowerment methodology for flowers.

Many people believe in a mythological past where traditional culture was utopian. The evidence is different. The "good old days" never existed. No pre colonial community was unchanging. There was violence, there were wars, there were unfair things, there were change and adaptation. We should not believe in an untrue past and try to preserve something that never existed. Then and now, strength, growth and survival required and requires change and assertiveness.

Pick and Choose

We said above that we encourage the preservation of songs, dances and music, because they enhance the sense of identity, an important factor of capacity development. But we think that some practices and values need to change if a community is to get stronger.

Think of culture as clothing for a moment. In fact, clothing is technology, part of our culture. We put on different clothing according to conditions in the environment. We do not wear a bikini bathing suit to hunt seal on the ice, and we do not wear an arctic parka to go swimming in the tropical sea. To grow and adapt to changing conditions, we must be able to wear different aspects of our culture in different conditions.

Another metaphor: think of culture as our means of transport. (Our means of transport is another technological aspect of our culture). We do not drive a four wheel drive jeep into the ocean to fish for salmon. We do not ride in a fishing boat to hunt giraffes in the Kalahari Desert. We pick and choose what is appropriate and effective.

If some aspect of our culture is hindering us from surviving, growing and winning in the environment in which we now find ourselves, then we must don new cultural traits. See the document on FGM.

Some of those cultural traits are very honourable and praiseworthy, but if they cause us to weaken and die out, they need to be changed like a new suit of clothing or a new means of transport. If we say, "Oh we do not litigate and fight," and we are proud of that aspect of our culture, then when it comes time to fight and litigate for what is rightly ours, and we do not, we lose what is rightly ours.

If we say, "Oh we always respect and obey those who are in power," and if those in power are corrupt and evil, then we must either temporarily put aside that cultural trait and don a more useful set of traits. If we do not, then we will be exploited, robbed and oppressed by our conquerors or leaders.

We therefore should not say that we must choose the best of our traditional culture and preserve that. We should say that we must maintain our identity, but we must be able to adapt our values, our habits, our ways of thinking and acting, to use those which will make us stronger (not those which make us honourable but weak). Much as the parka is an honourable set of clothing, it will not serve us well if we are swimming in a tropical ocean.

Modern post colonial Africa and Latin America, aboriginal communities now in Western or European societies, the poor countries of the world, all of those are living in environments which require changes in some cultural traits. We need to consciously chose those that are appropriate for making us stronger, for our own empowerment.

Conclusion; So You want to Preserve Culture?

In the empowerment training on this site, we emphasise that encouraging community participation and community decision making does not mean automatically and passively accepting everything that community members say they want. It means challenging and encouraging community members to clarify and examine carefully what they want and what they want to do. Ultimately they must take responsibility.

Part of your challenge as an activist is to be clear in your own mind what some of these things mean, what they imply and what they might bring. (That is why we reject poverty alleviation and aim for poverty eradication).

The idea of "Cultural Preservation" when unexamined, has a nice warm fuzzy feeling about it. At first we think we can support it. Closer examination reveals, however, that it is just the opposite of what we really want.

Culture and Social Animation

A Taste of Social Science for the Community Mobilizer
by Phil Bartle, PhD

1. Animation Promotes Social Change:

A human settlement is not merely a collection of houses. It is a human (social and cultural) entity. (The houses, which are cultural products of humanity, belong to one of the six dimensions of society or culture, the technological dimension, as will be explained below). Social Animation (promoting community participation and self help) mobilizes and organizes a community. This means that the social organization of the community is changed, however slightly. The animator, therefore, is a social change agent, or catalyst.

2. An Animator Must Know About Society:

It may be dangerous to dabble in changing something you know nothing about. It is therefore the responsibility of the animator to learn something from the sciences of anthropology and sociology. An animator is an applied sociologist, so must know some important features of the subject.

3. Keep Essential Elements of Society in Mind:

The important thing for the animator to note here is the inter-connections between the cultural dimensions which comprise a community. While social scientists may disagree about the precise nature of those inter-connections, all of them will agree that the basic characteristic of society (and thus of the communities within a society) is the interconnection of those cultural dimensions. A community, like other social institutions, is not merely a collection of individual persons; it is a changing set of relationships, attitudes and behaviour of its members.

4. Culture is Learned:

Culture consists of all those things, including actions and beliefs which human beings (as physical animals) learn, which make them human. Culture includes learned behaviour, but not things which are determined genetically. Culture is stored and transmitted by symbols; never by chromosomes. While some culture is learned in childhood (like how to talk, for example), other is learned by adults. When the animator is engaging in promoting social change, she or he is promoting the learning of new ideas and behaviour. Adult educating skills are therefor needed. This sociological definition of culture, which is society itself, is not the common everyday definition of culture, where people usually think only of drumming and dancing, or only the arts (they belong to only one of the six dimensions of culture, the aesthetic).

5. Culture Transcends its Humans:

Culture is super-organic. Understanding this special concept, "superorganic," is important in understanding what is a community. Just as the organic level is based on inorganic (living cells are made up of non living atoms, etc.), so the superorganic is based on the organic (society is not a human being but it is made up of human beings). This means that, during animation (mobilization and organization) of a community, the animator must always be able to separate what is happening to the overall community itself, in contrast to what is happening to particular individuals.

6. A Community is A Superorganic System:

A community can be seen as being something like an organism. It lives and functions even though its human members come and go, are born or die. Just as a living cell, plant or animal, transcends its atoms, so an institution, a behaviour pattern, or a community, transcends its individual humans. A belief, for example, is believed by persons, but that belief may live on through other persons long after the first ones die. The same with an institution such as marriage, an organization such as an air force, a town such as Miri, a custom such as shaking hands, a tool such as a hoe, or a system such as marketing. All of these transcend the individual human beings which carry them. A society, then, is a system -- not an inorganic system like an engine, not an organic system like a tree, but a superorganic system built up of learned ideas and behaviour of human beings. Although a community is a cultural system (in that it transcends its individual persons) do not assume that a community is a harmonious unity. It isn't. It is full of factions, struggles and conflicts, based upon differences in gender, religion, access to wealth, ethnicity, class, educational level, income, ownership of capital, language and many other factors. In order to promote community participation and development, it is the task of the animator to bring these factions together, encourage tolerance and team spirit, and obtain consensus decisions. That is not easy. While techniques of doing this are found in other documents in this series, knowing about social and cultural systems (described in this document) lays a theoretical background upon which the animator can build up professional competence. For the animator to promote social change in a community, it is necessary to know how that system operates, and therefor how it will respond to changes. Just as an engineer (an applied physical scientist) must know how an engine operates, the community facilitator (applied social scientist) must know how a community operates.

7. Dimensions of Culture:

All culture (or social organization) has several dimensions. Like the physical dimensions of length, width, height, and time, cultural dimensions may vary in size but, by definition, permeate the whole. It is suggested here that the most logical set is of six cultural or social dimensions. These account for all systems of learned values and behaviour. All of these are systems within every social system. They are based on learned behaviour, which transcend the individuals who each learned parts of them. Like the physical dimensions of length and time, if any one dimension of culture is missing, by definition, all are missing. These dimensions of culture include: Technological, Economic, Political, Institutional (social), Aesthetic-value, and Belief-conceptual. You can not "see" a dimension of culture or society, as you can see an individual person. Every individual manifests each of the six dimension of culture. To become socially aware, the animator must be able to analyse all six of the dimensions, and their interrelationships, even though s/he can only see individuals, not those dimensions.

8. The Technological Dimension of Culture:

The technological dimension of culture is its capital, its tools and skills, and ways of dealing with the physical environment. It is the interface between humanity and nature. Remember, it is not the physical tools themselves which make up the technological dimension of culture, but it is the learned ideas and behaviour which allows humans to invent them, use them, and teach others about tools. When a facilitator encourages a community build a latrine or well, new technology is introduced. A well (or latrine) is as much a tool as is a hammer or computer. The facilitator must be prepared to understand the effects on other dimensions of culture by the introduction of a change in the technological dimension.

9. The Economic Dimension of Culture:

The economic dimension of culture is its various ways and means of production and allocation of scarce and useful goods and services (wealth), whether that is through gift giving, obligations, barter, market trade, or state allocations. It is not the physical items like cash which make up the economic dimension of culture, but it is the various ideas, values and behaviour which give value to cash (and other items) by humans who have created the economic systems they use. Wealth is not merely money, just as poverty is not merely the absence of money. When a community decides to allocate water on the basis of a flat rate for all residences, or to allocate it on the basis of a payment for each container of water when it is collected, then a choice is being made between two very different systems of economic distribution. The animator should encourage the community to choose what it wants so as to be more consistent with prevailing values and attitudes. (A good animator will not try to impose her or his notion of what would be the best system of distribution; the community members, all of them, must come to a consensus decision).

10. The Political Dimension of Culture:

The political dimension of culture is its various ways and means of allocating power and decision making. It is not the same as ideology, which belongs to the values dimension. It includes, but is not limited to types of governments and management systems. It also includes how people in small bands make decisions when they do not have a recognised leader. An animator must be able to identify the different types of leaders in a community. Some have traditional authority, others have charismatic personal qualities. When working with a community, the animator must be able to develop the existing power and decision making system to promote community unity and group decision making that benefits the who community, not just vested interests.

11. The Institutional Dimension of Culture:

The social or institutional dimension of culture is composed of the ways people act, interact between each other, react, and expect each other to act and interact. It includes such institutions as marriage or friendship, roles such as mother or police officer, status or class, and other patterns of human behaviour. For the animator or mobilizer to be successful, she or he must know what are the local institutions, what different roles are played by men and women, and what are the main forms of social interaction.

12. The Aesthetic-Values Dimension of Culture:

The aesthetic-value dimension of culture is the structure of ideas, sometimes paradoxical, inconsistent, or contradictory, that people have about good and bad, about beautiful and ugly, and about right and wrong, which are the justifications that people cite to explain their actions. Whenever an animator introduces new ways of doing things in the community, prevailing values, however contradictory and varied, must be considered.

13. The Beliefs-Conceptual Dimension of Culture:

The belief-conceptual dimension of culture is another structure of ideas, also sometimes contradictory, that people have about the nature of the universe, the world around them, their role in it, cause and effect, and the nature of time, matter, and behaviour. The animator must be aware of what the prevailing beliefs are in the community. To be an effective catalyst of social change, the animator must make suggestions and promote actions which do not offend those prevailing beliefs, and which are consistent with, or at least appropriate to, existing beliefs and concepts of how the universe works.

14. All Dimensions Are in Each Bit of Culture:

The important thing to remember is that in any society, in any community, in any institution, in any interaction between individuals, there is an element of culture, and that includes something of each of those cultural dimensions. All of these are learned from birth. The new-born child is like an animal, not yet a human being, but he or she begins learning culture immediately (for example, when drinking from the breast) by interacting with other humans, and thus starts becoming human. (Many say that this humanising process begins in the womb). This process of learning, and thus of becoming, continues until death. If you are not learning, you are dead.

15. Interconnectedness Has A Practical Use:

For the social animator, and for anyone who is engages in any development activities, the important part of all this is the variety of interconnections between those cultural dimensions. They may be causally and functionally inter-related. Technology (in contrast to popularly held ideas), for example, both the tools and the skills to use them, is as much a part of culture as are beliefs, dances, and ways of allocating wealth. To make changes in any one dimension has repercussions in each of the other dimensions. To introduce a new method of obtaining water, for example, requires the introduction of new institutions to maintain the new water system. Learning any new ways of doing things will require the learning of both new values and new perceptions. To ignore such interconnections while promoting technology transfer is to do so at your peril (unexpected and/or unwanted results may be produced).

16. Interconnectedness Affects Social Change:

To change something in one cultural dimension not only requires changes in other dimensions, it causes changes in other dimensions. That is why social impact assessment should be made of all projects, large and small.

17. Conclusion; Importance of Culture to Animation:

The inter-connections between these cultural dimensions are neither simple nor easy to predict. The animator must be aware that they exist, and continually encourage observation, analysis, sharing of ideas, reading, and attending lectures or seminars. By working with communities, the animator must learn more and more about their culture, and the dynamics of their cultural dimensions.

( Reference Document )