Meeting to strengthen South-South civil society links

Dialoguing toward new ways of reading and acting in our world

EASUN and IACD (International Association for Community Development) are co-hosting a 3 day workshop from 29-31 March 2010, to put a Southern perspective on the North-South dialogue event held in Moshi, Tanzania, in November 2009. We shall be asking ourselves what we have learnt from the November meeting, seeking to understand how those lessons inform our questions as the South. A natural extension of such learning is the question of how to mitigate some of the negative effects we saw from Northern realities such as those depicted in the role play: "Richard on a string" (see EASUN eNews of 25 November 2009).

We will also be taking stock of the resources in the South, including skills, knowledge, funds and technical capacities. This particular inquiry puts emphasis on the question of sustainability, through increasing South-South cooperation (SSC) as an alternative development approach promising greater empowerment of the South and, therefore, the possibility of more authentic interdependence between North and South. Going back to Moshi in March is extremely exciting because, once again, we come face to face with the challenging question of process vs. product in development work generally and in capacity building work for CSOs. To what extent are these concepts, or approaches, mutually exclusive?

Wangui Karanja is one of the few OD consultants in East Africa and a former staff member of EASUN (now OD Associate). She says: "Yes, I have struggled with "processes" as a way of intervening for capacity development of CSOs in the current realities of planning, funding and reporting with their Northern partners." Her further reflection on this apparent dichotomy suggests that process-based dialogue invites us to challenge normal modes of thinking and approaches to problem solving. This enables us to construct structures and relationships that support personal and institutional transformation.

While the outcomes of process may be inconvenient to the currently predominant political paradigm informing capacity building work and its managerial instruments that shape expected results, Wangui, as a practitioner, finds it necessary to maintain her struggle with the challenge of "process" as a way of intervening for change management. She says:

"We want to emphasise developmental, vision-focused strategies that align to the more pressing questions of the South. Without a doubt this will demand much on the state of consciousness which is creative, long-term and internally driven."

As EASUN and IACD continued to plan the South-South dialogue event, the workshop lead facilitator (Brenda Sonn) emphasised the need to look at "interdependence" of North and South in new and different ways. Brenda is the Executive Director of Transforming Institutional Practices (TIP) based at the University of Western Cape, South Africa. She is also a member of another South-South link in educational leadership development, which built good linkages and relationships between very strong organisations.

"In the end," she says, "many Southern organisations are still heavily dependent on payment for services from the North-to the extent that the network is at risk of collapsing without the donor funding." Brenda will share this as a case-study in Moshi. Looking forward, she says, "I do believe that we have the will and the competence on the continent to strengthen our links with each other and to look at development through new lenses and come up with new ways of reading and acting in our world."
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Learning to off-load the consultant's baggage

Releasing civil society leaders' capacities and potential

Eight women and 11 men graduated after eight months of training in Facilitating Organisation Development (FOD), a course offered by EASUN for leaders and senior programme staff of NGOs based in Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania. The third and last module of the course, cycle "M", was held from 15th to 19th March 2010.

The theme of Module III is "Facilitator as Change Agent," where the focus of training is on "use of self". Sharpening the self as a tool requires conscious self-development which, in Module III, was achieved through a number of exercises. Two particular exercises brought participants to a point of struggle with an interesting paradox related to the authenticity of the facilitator: "Is it ok to be all of me"? and "Is it ok to be more me?"

The first was an exercise based several stories. In the first story, the facilitator had embraced the questions of the organisation in a way that paralysed her ability to support the effective examination of its questions. Consequently, she was unable to see a window that the organisation had provided for her to make a small and possibly critical intervention. "I have hit a stalemate," says the consultant. On further scrutiny, however, it emerged that her stalemate was actually mirroring the current development question of the NGO (i.e., relationship between the board and the secretariat of the NGO itself). How had this become the consultant's stalemate?

In the second story, the consultant demonstrates how he was able to distinguish his personal issues from the organisation's questions, because: "I had come to understand more about what supports or hinders listening. I realise now how personal issues can overshadow my ability to focus attention on surfacing the questions of the organisation I am facilitating."

Authenticity is an important call for consultants / facilitators of change and development in others. Carol, a participant from Kenya, shared how her self-awareness was transformed by the second authenticity exercise: "Is it ok to be more me?" Referring to the various injunctions she has received since childhood, she noted: "I have always been told to shut up. My own development aspirations were sidelined by being told that I would amount to nothing, both at home and in school. As a teacher, I messed up the futures of children by telling them to shut up." She ended up by pleading with colleagues to increase their self-awareness as leaders and facilitators so as not to mess up the lives of others under the guise of being capacity development experts.

Module 1 of the next FOD cycle starts in August 2010. Apply now to ensure you are among the 20 who will secure a place! Contact: alando.anyona@easun-tz.org
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