Presented by Professor A.A. Ilemobade, President & CEO, Upline Resources Foundation, Akure, Ondo State, Nigeria at a 2-day Capacity Enhancement Workshop on Advocacy organized by South-West Freedom of Information Advocacy Network

1. STRATEGIES FOR MOBILISING
COMMUNITIES BY CSO IN MAKING FOI
REQUESTS
BY
PROFESSOR A.A. ILEMOBADE
PRESIDENT & CEO, UPLINE RESOURCES FOUNDATION,
AKURE, ONDO STATE.

2. GENERAL INTRODUCTION
Introduction of Participants
What is Community, Its dimensions
Why Mobilization
Benefits of Community Mobilization

3. COMMUNITY
What comes first to your mind when you
think or hear the word
“COMMUNITY” ?

4. WHAT IS A COMMUNITY?
A Community is a set of people living together with common
interest”
We all live in a community. There are different things
that bind us together. Let us try to identify them.
 Beliefs
 Values
 Language
 Territory
 Religion
 Culture
 Occupation

5. COMMUNITY MOBILISATION:
DEFINITION
Community mobilisation is an attempt to bring both human
and non-human resources together to undertake
developmental activities in order to achieve a common
purpose. – Wikipedia.

6. COMMUNITY MOBILISATION -
DEFINITION
The Act of marshaling and organising and making ready for
use or action or common purpose - Dictionary

7. COMMUNITY MOBILISATION -
DEFINITION
Community Mobilization refers to the
process of building social relationships
in pursuit of common community
interests.
Community Mobilization is seen as being
the foundation of the community
development process.

8. WHY COMMUNITY MOBILISATION?
As a Means or Strategy for:
 Creating demand for interventions
 Increasing access to services
 Scaling up interventions
 Increasing effectiveness and efficiency of interventions
 Contributing additional resources to the response
 Reaching the most vulnerable
 Addressing the underlying causes of Education: gender
disparities, lack of awareness etc.
 Increasing community ownership and sustainability

9. Benefits of Community
Mobilization in a project
 Increase community, individual, and group
capacity to identify and satisfy their needs
 Improve program design
 Improve program quality
 Improve program results
 Improve program evaluation
 Cost effective way to achieve sustainable results
 Increase community ownership of the program

10. STEPS IN COMMUNITY MOBILISATION
Step 1: Define the Problem
Step 2: Establish a Community Mobilisation group
Step 3: Design Strategies, set objectives and
select target groups
Step 4: Develop an Action Plan and a timeline
Step 5: Build Capacity
Step 6: Identify Partners
Step 7: Implement the Plan of Activities
Step 8: Monitor, Evaluate and Improve

11. STAKEHOLDERS
Who are the stakeholders?
Why is it important to coordinate
among all stakeholders?
What can be achieved when we
involve all stakeholders?
What can we assume if we don’t
involve all stakeholders?

12. IDENTIFICATION OF MARGINALISED/DEPRIVED
GROUPS
Economically deprived group (Poor)
Women
Tribal/Ethnic people
Disabled people
Minority Groups
Others

13. Key Tasks involved in
Community Mobilization
 Developing an on-going dialogue between
community members
 Creating or strengthening community
organizations (Committees etc.)
 Creating an environment in which
individuals can empower themselves to
address their own and their community’s
needs
 Promoting community members’
participation

14. …CONTINUING
 Working in partnership with community
members
 Identifying and supporting the creative
potential of communities to develop a
variety of strategies and approaches
 Assisting in linking communities with
external resources
 Committing enough time to work with
communities, or with a partner who works
with them

15. REASONS FOR MOBILISING FOR FOI
What are the reasons why we are mobilising
our Communities under an FOI project?

16. REASONS FOR MOBILISING FOR FOI
• FOI is a basic right of all citizens
• FOI is at the root of achieving a relatively
corruption-free society
• Access to information is crucial to
achieve transparency and accountability
in governance
• FOI provides teeth to the rule of law
• Gives credibility to governance.

17. …CONTINUED
And…..
 Transparency is a key public
policy tool for promoting greater
efficiency in the use and
distribution of Public Resources
and improving public services.

18. SELECT A STRATEGY
Since this is FOIA, plan for
community dialogue and select
a strategy.
Requires sensitization on the
issue.
Calls for mobilization of
community
Need for interaction with
individuals, family members.

19. DEFINING THE PROBLEM
In defining the problem, collect basic
information in order to have clear
statement of the problem and
identify target population in the
community

20. ESTABLISHING COMMUNITY MOBILISATION
GROUP
The aim is to establish a group that can
influence community mobilisation
activities
Usually the group should consist partners
that have a stake in the issue (e.g. CBO,
FBO as well as influential groups and
members of the community such as
formal and informal leaders, civil
servants and political leaders and
traditional leaders)

21. DESIGNING STRATEGIES, SETTING
OBJECTIVES AND SELECTING TARGET
GROUPS
Mobilise resources from Community
and other external partners
Community Mobilisation group to
design strategies the issue of FOI
with objectives that are specific,
measurable, achievable, relevant
and time-bound (SMART)

22. DEVELOPING AN ACTION PLAN WITH A
TIME LINE
• An Action Plan links the general
community mobilisation plan with
time lines for the implementation of
planned activities against target set
for goals to be achieved

23. BUILDING CAPACITY
• Identify existing capacity resources
• Assess the gaps that exist to
implement community mobilisation
• Gaps identified should be
addressed by capacity building of
the community groups and other
relevant stakeholders in the
community.

24. IDENTIFYING PARTNERS
Identify various partners who may be
working to achieve similar goals
through simple mapping exercise.
The following partners may be
relevant: religious institutions,
CBOs, women organizations, youth
organisations, other local NGOs

25. IMPLEMENTING THE PLAN OF
ACTIVITIES
Based on the Action Plans developed
with all partners implementation of
the community mobilisation
activities is the main task.
Clear and unambiguous role for any
partners that may be involved is
given and communicated with all of
them

26. MONITORING AND EVALUATION
Although last activity, it is essential element of
Community Mobilisation
Provides a basis to assess whether or not the
action plan has been implemented effectively
and objectives met in respect to the issue the
community is mobilised to achieve.