Women Community Leaders enjoying group activities in Jharkhand

Short-tailormade services

CSA provides tailor-made services based on specific needs of CSOs around Leadership, Organisational Development, Innovation, Need for High Impact Program Development, and Developing High Performing Teams. These are customized programs, designed based on the specific need of the organization & the participant and often uses multiple tools derived from the CSA toolbox.

The program provides a specific solution to the organization and consists of one or few trainings together with coaching/mentoring support. The overall duration of the support is usually between 1-6 months.

organizational development

With the support of Deutsche Welthungerhilfe, CSA has been working to provide capacity building support that strengthens civil society organizations in Jharkhand, India. Some of the primary objectives of initiating this project were:

Supporting CSOs and community leaders to become more effective and creative in solving social problems.

Building capacities on leadership, innovation, effective program development, and advocacy to create higher impact.

Improving well-being of communities through meaningful engagement of CSOs and community leaders.

Our Vision

swedish organization for individual relief (SOIR-M)

Leadership in the CSOs is more broad based having an effective second line with leaders demonstrating responsibility, empathy in promoting participatory, inclusive governance in their organizations and developing effective programmes that can win funding leading to positive social changes in the lives of the marginalised groups.
Strong grassroots CSO Networks built to support social change movements in Jharkhand.

outcomes

The above objective was planned before the COVID 19 pandemic however the actions were further contextualized to the evolving need of the CSOs of Jharkhand. The COVID 19 had an overwhelming impact as all employees of the CSOs were challenged individually and organizationally. CSA facilitated achieving the following outcomes to help CSOs in adapting to the new situation.

Increased resilience in CSOs through better preparedness and implementation of change processes:
Enhanced capacity of CSO staff to raise funds to scale impactful programmes that responds effectively to the emerging challenges.
CSOs are able to learn, practice and use digital tools for improved online collaboration, emerging as a key challenge after COVID 19.
CSOs have a stronger second line of leadership with inclusive and transparent governance.
The second objective is planned to be implemented in Year 2 of the extended grant, where CSA will facilitate the following activities: 1. Training on Advocacy and Rights Based Approach & Networking 2. All participants of Advocacy, Rights Based Approach & Networking undergo mentoring from an expert mentor hired by CSA.

key learnings

Design thinking

A girl reading a book in a rural district of Jharkhand

The Community Leadership Programme, co-created by PRADAN, SSK, CYSD, and CSA is a leadership program with the goal to develop leaders of community-based organizations (CBOs) in terms of their personality, and their skills as well as their leadership style to achieve positive changes in their community.

Khunti is an overwhelmingly rural district of Jharkhand with 91.5% of the population living in rural areas. Torpa is a tribal-dominated block of Khunti district in Jharkhand. According to the 2011 Census of India, Torpa had a total population of 8,592, of which 4,275 (50%) were males and 4,317 (50%) were females. CSA has set up its first field presence in the Torpa block of khunti district.

objectives

Enhance and strengthen Community Leaders' knowledge and understanding of the "Community" they belong to.
Create opportunities for Community Leaders to recognize, identify and prioritize the issues & problems or gaps vis-à-vis a dream village by empowering them with various tools used to assess village issues and development plans.
Develop Community Leaders' action plans to address the identified issues.

the process

The leadership development programme focused on creating value-based leaders through rigorous training in a phased manner as follows:

The first phase concentrated on "My Skills" as a leader, where a community leader learned facilitation skills, how to conduct good meetings, facilitate participatory planning, and use social accountability tools in various development activities.
The second phase focused on developing "My Leadership Skills" targeting transformational changes, helping them to build self-leadership habits, empathy along with decision-making and conflict resolution skills.
The third phase focused on "My CBO", helping community leaders to facilitate building strong Community-Based Organizations through networking with stakeholders and utilizing their personal and leadership skills.