BACKGROUND OF COMMUNITY ORGANIZATION TRAINING AND LEADERSHIP TRAINING
In 2003, the Asia Desk of the International Work Group for Indigenous Affairs conducted a general needs assessment and priority identification for its Asia program with partner organizations in South and Southeast Asia. What clearly emerged as top priority is community empowerment through training of young community organizers and leaders.
In 2003, the Asia Desk of the International Work Group for Indigenous Affairs conducted a general needs assessment and priority identification for its Asia program with partner organizations in South and Southeast Asia. What clearly emerged as top priority is community empowerment through training of young community organizers and leaders.
Four levels of training needs were identified:
• Training of community organizers
• Training of leaders of indigenous peoples’ organizations
• Training of elders and traditional leaders
• Training of members of local governments
In workshops conducted to develop concrete plans of action to address these needs, cooperation between four partner organizations was agreed upon. These organizations are the Asia Indigenous Peoples Pact Foundation (AIPP), the Cordillera Peoples Alliance (CPA), Partners of Community Organizations (PACOS) Trust, and International Work Group on Indigenous Affairs (IWGIA). Two of the four training needs identified were given priority with respect to concrete action to be taken, while the other two will be taken up at a later stage.
The first is training at the most basic level, i.e. training of community organizers, especially among indigenous communities which are not or are only weakly organized. These are communities which possess neither strong traditional institutions nor a civil society organization helping them to address their needs and represent their interests to the outside world. The focus of community organizers training at this level is on increasing practical skills and knowledge needed for effective facilitation and catalysing of self-organizing at the community level .This training targets mostly young people.
The second is training of indigenous leaders of already established indigenous organizations, i.e. advanced training for those who already have some experience in leadership. This training moves beyond the local level and focus more on network building, exchanges with other organizations, work at the policy level (in cooperation with other organizations), analysis of how to deal with the state, more practice in how to relate to government officials, historical contextualization of the present situation and struggle, introduction to international instruments and processes, etc.
Later on, in 2004, the General Assembly of the AIPP formally decided to adopt a multi-level regional capacity-building program as one of its priority activities for the second UN Decade on Indigenous Peoples. The training program is planned to be implemented in phases over a ten-year period. The Pilot phase (June 2005 – August 2007) has been concluded. The purpose of the pilot phase was to test the inter-peoples exchange approach developed for this program. The evaluation, which is the subject of this report, assessed the experiences made and helped in planning the subsequent steps.
• Training of community organizers
• Training of leaders of indigenous peoples’ organizations
• Training of elders and traditional leaders
• Training of members of local governments
In workshops conducted to develop concrete plans of action to address these needs, cooperation between four partner organizations was agreed upon. These organizations are the Asia Indigenous Peoples Pact Foundation (AIPP), the Cordillera Peoples Alliance (CPA), Partners of Community Organizations (PACOS) Trust, and International Work Group on Indigenous Affairs (IWGIA). Two of the four training needs identified were given priority with respect to concrete action to be taken, while the other two will be taken up at a later stage.
The first is training at the most basic level, i.e. training of community organizers, especially among indigenous communities which are not or are only weakly organized. These are communities which possess neither strong traditional institutions nor a civil society organization helping them to address their needs and represent their interests to the outside world. The focus of community organizers training at this level is on increasing practical skills and knowledge needed for effective facilitation and catalysing of self-organizing at the community level .This training targets mostly young people.
The second is training of indigenous leaders of already established indigenous organizations, i.e. advanced training for those who already have some experience in leadership. This training moves beyond the local level and focus more on network building, exchanges with other organizations, work at the policy level (in cooperation with other organizations), analysis of how to deal with the state, more practice in how to relate to government officials, historical contextualization of the present situation and struggle, introduction to international instruments and processes, etc.
Later on, in 2004, the General Assembly of the AIPP formally decided to adopt a multi-level regional capacity-building program as one of its priority activities for the second UN Decade on Indigenous Peoples. The training program is planned to be implemented in phases over a ten-year period. The Pilot phase (June 2005 – August 2007) has been concluded. The purpose of the pilot phase was to test the inter-peoples exchange approach developed for this program. The evaluation, which is the subject of this report, assessed the experiences made and helped in planning the subsequent steps.
