Concern Universal works to reduce poverty and inequality in 10 countries through empowering communities. They understand poverty as more than just low income, but as a lack of basic capabilities and access to services. Poverty is caused by social, economic, and political factors that perpetuate oppression and limit opportunities. Concern Universal aims to address the underlying drivers of poverty like vulnerability, inequality, and unfair resource distribution through partnerships with communities and governments, empowering people, and holding leaders accountable. They take a holistic, flexible approach focused on facilitating sustainable change led by local people.
The word "community" is derived from Latin and has been used in the English language since the 14th century. The word community is derived from the Latin communitas (meaning the same), which is in turn derived from communis, which means "common, public, shared by all or many" (encyclopedia).
A community is a group of people living in the same place or having a particular characteristic in common such as norms, religion, values, or identity.
This presentation gives an basic introduction to Disaster Resistant Sustainable Livelihoods(DRSL) framework adopted by Practical Action for sustainable livelihood development.
CSCR Community Track #2: Community Resilience: Elan Shapiro and Eldred Harris...Sustainable Tompkins
Climate Smart & Climate Ready Conference Community Track #2 on April 20, 2013 at Tompkins County Public Library in Ithaca, NY. Elan Shapiro and Eldred Harris, Building Bridges. Community Resilience: Developing an Inclusive and Regenerative Strategy.
Multiples, Multiplicity & The Multitude - Stokes Endowment Lecture - George W...Université de Montréal
This invited lecture for the Stoke Endowment dedicated to families and family therapy at GWU udpated my model of cultural family therapy published 15 years earlier in "A Stranger in the Family: Culture, Famlies, and Therapy" (NY: WW Norton, 1997).
Building social capital for effective citizen and state institutions;
Promotion of dialogue, public enlightenment, cultural renaissance, tradition, and renewal
Local Governance and Development
The word "community" is derived from Latin and has been used in the English language since the 14th century. The word community is derived from the Latin communitas (meaning the same), which is in turn derived from communis, which means "common, public, shared by all or many" (encyclopedia).
A community is a group of people living in the same place or having a particular characteristic in common such as norms, religion, values, or identity.
This presentation gives an basic introduction to Disaster Resistant Sustainable Livelihoods(DRSL) framework adopted by Practical Action for sustainable livelihood development.
CSCR Community Track #2: Community Resilience: Elan Shapiro and Eldred Harris...Sustainable Tompkins
Climate Smart & Climate Ready Conference Community Track #2 on April 20, 2013 at Tompkins County Public Library in Ithaca, NY. Elan Shapiro and Eldred Harris, Building Bridges. Community Resilience: Developing an Inclusive and Regenerative Strategy.
Multiples, Multiplicity & The Multitude - Stokes Endowment Lecture - George W...Université de Montréal
This invited lecture for the Stoke Endowment dedicated to families and family therapy at GWU udpated my model of cultural family therapy published 15 years earlier in "A Stranger in the Family: Culture, Famlies, and Therapy" (NY: WW Norton, 1997).
Building social capital for effective citizen and state institutions;
Promotion of dialogue, public enlightenment, cultural renaissance, tradition, and renewal
Local Governance and Development
Community Activities means activity in the community, undertaken by your trustees, directors, employees or volunteers. Activity of community is the Community work involved in local or neighborhood groups or associations, volunteer or unpaid worker involved in a non-profit, not-for-profit, just work for humanity. Activity of community is including the alert, response, emergency, and recovery for an individual, groups, society as well as community.
We’re getting serious about poverty
What we have done in the past has not been too successful: a search for something more effective
Initially: “direct impact on the poor”
Later: a more analytical understanding
Leadership Solutions to Stem the
Crises in Human Development: Volunteers enrich citizenship and serves as an effective conduit for civic education; interjecting public participation in decision-making that promotes social harmony and public trust
Social sustainability. It aims to promote engagement by institutions with communities and global neighbours,
global neighbours, strengthen the surrounding society, foster a sense of social
responsibility among faculty, staff, and students, expand access to education, and empower those who are less privileged.
those who are less privileged.
Women are the backbone: health promotion, gender equity and post disaster rec...Taller Salud
In 2017, two devastating hurricanes impacted Puerto Rico in a three week period. As women and community members became the first responders to the emergency, Taller Salud, a women’s health organization in Puerto Rico, leverage response and recovery relief efforts with a gender analysis approach, health promotion strategies and pursuit of accountable governance in response and resource allocation.
Humanitarian imperative - Murtala Muhammed FoundationMMFNG
Humanitarian Imperative! By Gbenro Olajuyigbe Head, Human Security, ActionAid Nigeria
(A paper presented at MusaYar’adua Centre, Abuja at a Programme on Sustainable Humanitarian Response Mechanism for Nigeria, organized by MurtalaMuhammed Foundation on December 2, 2014).
The current challenges of humanitarian crises in Nigeria have thrown up new images of leadership, technical, capacity, policy deficiencies. The need to reconstruct effective and appropriate proactive response mechanism is imperative
The “Definitions of Empowerment” represents a collaborative effort, made possible by the answers received from people all over the world on the Empowerment theme. Their invaluable contributions were essential for the preparation of the Empowerment Publication.
In order to collect people’s ideas and experiences, the Division for Social Policy and Development (DSPD) of UNDESA launched an on-line survey on “Promoting Empowerment of People”.
Community Activities means activity in the community, undertaken by your trustees, directors, employees or volunteers. Activity of community is the Community work involved in local or neighborhood groups or associations, volunteer or unpaid worker involved in a non-profit, not-for-profit, just work for humanity. Activity of community is including the alert, response, emergency, and recovery for an individual, groups, society as well as community.
We’re getting serious about poverty
What we have done in the past has not been too successful: a search for something more effective
Initially: “direct impact on the poor”
Later: a more analytical understanding
Leadership Solutions to Stem the
Crises in Human Development: Volunteers enrich citizenship and serves as an effective conduit for civic education; interjecting public participation in decision-making that promotes social harmony and public trust
Social sustainability. It aims to promote engagement by institutions with communities and global neighbours,
global neighbours, strengthen the surrounding society, foster a sense of social
responsibility among faculty, staff, and students, expand access to education, and empower those who are less privileged.
those who are less privileged.
Women are the backbone: health promotion, gender equity and post disaster rec...Taller Salud
In 2017, two devastating hurricanes impacted Puerto Rico in a three week period. As women and community members became the first responders to the emergency, Taller Salud, a women’s health organization in Puerto Rico, leverage response and recovery relief efforts with a gender analysis approach, health promotion strategies and pursuit of accountable governance in response and resource allocation.
Humanitarian imperative - Murtala Muhammed FoundationMMFNG
Humanitarian Imperative! By Gbenro Olajuyigbe Head, Human Security, ActionAid Nigeria
(A paper presented at MusaYar’adua Centre, Abuja at a Programme on Sustainable Humanitarian Response Mechanism for Nigeria, organized by MurtalaMuhammed Foundation on December 2, 2014).
The current challenges of humanitarian crises in Nigeria have thrown up new images of leadership, technical, capacity, policy deficiencies. The need to reconstruct effective and appropriate proactive response mechanism is imperative
The “Definitions of Empowerment” represents a collaborative effort, made possible by the answers received from people all over the world on the Empowerment theme. Their invaluable contributions were essential for the preparation of the Empowerment Publication.
In order to collect people’s ideas and experiences, the Division for Social Policy and Development (DSPD) of UNDESA launched an on-line survey on “Promoting Empowerment of People”.
Concept of community "What is community" Concept about itProfessor5G
The word "community" is derived from Latin and has been used in the English language since the 14th century. The word community is derived from the Latin communitas (meaning the same), which is in turn derived from communis, which means "common, public, shared by all or many" (encyclopedia).
A community is a small or large social unit (a group of living things) who have something in common, such as norms, religion, values, or identity. Communities often share a sense of place that is situated in a given geographical area (e.g. a country, village, town, or neighborhood) or in virtual space through communication platforms.It is a social group sharing an environment, normally with shared interests. In human communities, intent, belief, resources, preferences, needs, risks and a number of other conditions may be present and common, affecting the identity of the participants and their degree of cohesiveness. Human beings, like many other species, are essentially social beings, and naturally form communities which often develop into more structured societies.
Concern Universal Theory of Change Background Paper
1. 1
Concern Universal Theory of Change
(December 2011)
‘A business has discharged its task when the customer buys the product, pays for it
and is satisfied. Government has discharged its function when its policies are
effective. The non-profit institution neither supplies goods or services nor controls. Its
product is a changed human being’ (Drucker, 1990)
Part 1: Understanding the drivers of change for Concern
Universal’s work
Overcoming poverty is not a gesture of charity, it is an act of justice.
- Nelson Mandela
Concern Universal‟s vision is of a world where justice, dignity and respect prevail for
all. We work in partnership to challenge poverty and inequality, and we support
practical actions that enable people to improve their lives and shape their own
futures.
Overview
We work in a volatile, challenging and changing environment. As an international
development organisation, with 10 country programmes, we need to understand how
these changes happen and the impact they have on people‟s wellbeing.
This paper sets out how we understand the causes of poverty and how we believe
we can most effectively bring about positive changes to people‟s lives. Our
definitions of the „drivers of change‟ inform our organisational theory of change and
feed in to our country and organisational strategies.
Underlying causes of poverty and vulnerability
Our mission is to reduce poverty. Concern Universal acknowledges that poverty,
injustice, vulnerability and inequality are complex, dynamic, multi-dimensional issues
which impact on livelihoods, the environment, resilience, well-being, quality of life
and standard of living with differing results and consequences.
It is our belief that the concept of „poverty‟ goes beyond an instrumental measure of
low income and can best be viewed as the „deprivation of basic capabilities‟ (Sen
1999). This view, echoed by the views of 40,000 men and women living in poverty in
the Voices of the Poor research programme (Can anyone Hear Us?, D. Narayan,
WB, 1999) sees poverty as much wider than income, and includes access to basic
services such as education and health which are represented in the UN‟s Human
Development Index. Our understanding of poverty, gained from over 30 years of
working with people living in poverty, highlights the individual circumstances of
people such as women, children, people living with HIV/AIDS (PLWHIV), the socially
and economically excluded and the disabled, who often face significant constraints in
their ability to successfully realise their capabilities. From experience of working with
over 100 civil society organisations we know we must take a holistic approach to
development which builds upon community as well as individual capabilities and
resources, which in turn will contribute to broader local and national poverty indices.
2. 2
Our understanding of poverty is in line with the UN‟s 1998 definition of poverty (see
Box 1).
Within the human development approach „poverty eradication‟ is therefore a situation
in which every person has the opportunity to participate effectively in society to the
best of their innate capabilities. Likewise „promoting development‟ involves a
process of positive change designed to enhance people‟s choices, opportunities and
capacity to participate in and actively contribute to society.
We recognise that poverty, inequality, vulnerability, social exclusion and their
associated problems are a result of broader political, social, cultural, economic,
environmental and structural issues. We believe that there is no one underlying
cause of poverty and inequality. Poverty is caused by social structures which
perpetuate dominance and oppression and stifles people‟s opportunities to build
upon their human and social capital. To reduce poverty it is vital to address the
underlying causes of vulnerability and inequality and address power imbalances.
This is best achieved through a combination of active citizens and effective states
(D. Green, 2009).
Vulnerability drives people into poverty, keeps them in poverty and blocks their exit
routes from poverty (ActionAid, 2005). Whilst poverty may be seen as being
„deprivation, lack or want‟, vulnerability is more complex and more commonly defined
as „defencelessness, insecurity, and exposure to risks, shocks and stress‟
(Chambers, 1989).
Inequality and the unfair distribution of resources contribute to people‟s vulnerability.
There are many types of inequality. In many areas where we work gender inequality
hinders the full development of girl children but other types of inequality such as
economic and ethnic inequality may be just as damaging to communities. Inequality
is generated and reproduced in social, economic, political and cultural relations
which generate and reinforce inequalities (Lynch, 2009) within social systems and
society itself. When people are faced with the same hazards their capabilities to deal
with those hazards are often significantly different. Concern Universal recognises
this and therefore aims to support people/communities to achieve the conditions
where they have the equality of opportunity to deal with those hazards and
vulnerabilities. A major focus of our work over the coming decade will be to ensure
Box 1: What is poverty?
“Fundamentally, poverty is a denial of choices and opportunities, violation of
human dignity. It means lack of basic capacity to participate effectively in
society. It means not having enough to feed and clothe a family, not having a
school or clinic to go to, not having the land on which to grow one’s food or a
job to earn one’s living, not having access to credit. It means insecurity,
powerlessness and exclusion of individuals, households and communities. It
means susceptibility to violence often implies living on marginal or fragile
environments, without access to clean water or sanitation”
(UN Statement, UN Economic and Social Council 1998 – signed by the heads
of all UN agencies)
3. 3
people have the skills and resources to increase their resilience to climate related
natural hazards.
How does change happen?
Positive transformational change is not a linear or straight forward process but one
that is dynamic involving many actors collaborating together in often unpredictable
environments to address issues around people‟s wellbeing, unequal power relations,
structural inequalities, allocation of resources, and access to services. Positive
change happens when there is a complementary agenda and collective agreement
that something needs to be done whether in terms of social, cultural or political
issues. Conversely, negative change may take place when social, political, economic
or environmental shocks occur. Change will sometimes be deliberate, a product of
conscious action, and at other times emergent, where it appears to be unplanned
(Mintzberg, 1989) therefore we need to be flexible to respond.
We see people as being the centre of any change process. In advocating for change
we must consider the positive and negative implications on the people we are aiming
to help. We recognise the primacy of democratic government at national and local
levels as being the main duty bearer in ensuring that positive sustainable change
happens. At the same time we also acknowledge that civil society and non-state
actors have a responsibility to ensure that governments and their constituents are
clear about their respective roles and responsibilities and that clear lines of
accountability are established and adhered to.
How will Concern Universal’s work support change in the communities where
we work?
Influencing change requires engaging with government, donors, non-state actors and
communities at a strategic level. At other times it will require much more context
specific and localised knowledge and experience. We will support social change
through:
Promoting partnership Partnership is one of CU‟s core values. Significant change
will only happen if we can harness the collective knowledge, skills, resources and
motivation of a wide range of actors to work in partnership for the long-term. Concern
Universal does not see itself as a primary instigator of change but an active catalyst
in facilitating and supporting others in the process of social development. By building
relationships with organisations and institutions which share CU‟s vision and
mission, creating linkages with communities and grass-roots based organisations,
working in partnership with local governments, partnering with and building the
capacity of civil society, engaging with academic and private sector institutions CU
sees many opportunities for creating an enabling environment which can challenge
and contribute to achieving positive, sustainable and lasting change in the standard
of living and quality of life of those people and communities we work with.
Empowering people and raising their voice To adequately and effectively drive
any change agenda we must empower people to take a stand and have their voices
heard; this is underpinned by our rights-based approach, identifying and building
upon people‟s capabilities and reducing the impact of social inequality and negative
or corrupt power structures. We believe that people should have the freedom and
4. 4
opportunity to unhindered participation in society and that they have the right to be
treated and respected equally.
Holding duty bearers to account We will encourage duty bearers and rights
holders to recognise and adhere to basic human rights outlined in national laws and
international conventions. Human rights are a set of internationally agreed legal and
moral standards that establish the basic civil, political, economic, social and cultural
entitlements of every human being anywhere in the world at all times. Duty bearers
(governments, institutions and individuals) are obligated to respect, protect and fulfill
human rights. Whilst rights holders are entitled to demand their own rights from duty
bearers they must also respect the rights of others.
Programme planning for ‘drivers of change’
To ensure that we integrate our thinking on change in to our planning each country
programme will be encouraged to consider „how change happens‟ within their
country strategy development process. (See Box 2)
Box 2: Strategic questions on ‘How Change Happens’:
Contextualise the background of the need for change in terms of history,
location, socio-economic and political factors,
Analyse the factors stopping change from happening,
Take a holistic view of the underlying causes of the need for change,
Identify who (individuals, organisations, government, etc.) we can
collaborate and work with to bring about change while also identifying who
creates barriers to change,
Clarify what structures are in place e.g. social, economic, political, legal,
local, national, international which create barriers to change or could be
harnessed to enable positive change,
Clearly articulate how the need for change is manifested in the lives of the
people we are aiming to help,
Identify what steps or processes we need to ensure for change processes
to happen,
Be clear about Concern Universal‟s role and contribution to ensuring
change is achieved,
Conceptualise the „bigger picture‟ (What are the long-term implications of
our work?; How does it add value and stimulate change elsewhere?; How
can CU learn from the process? What is happening in areas we are not
working and what would happen if we didn‟t do our work?)
Part 2: Theory of Change - People make things happen!
Our organisational Theory of Change is displayed in diagrammatic form „on a page‟,
please see separate document for the Theory of Change diagram.