Steps in supporting community decision-making

A range of techniques can be used to do this, including hui, fono, focus groups, questionnaires, and more specialised methods.

These government agencies have staff that can assist communities to identify their aspirations and goals.

Key questions to consider when helping a community identify a need

• What exactly is the need?
• Whose need is it?
• What are the options for addressing it?
• Who has been involved in the needs assessment?
• Have any key groups been missed out?
• What does the community hope to achieve?

Developing a plan will require a dedicated group of people. This may be a new group or an existing community organisation. The group will need the backing of its community.

The plan can be as simple or as complex as the community desires. It may include:

• the vision
• objectives, with measurable indicators
• activities needed to achieve the objectives
• governance and management structures
• resources required
• process for ensuring ongoing input from the rest of the community
• process for ensuring accountability to the rest of the community
• monitoring and evaluation procedures.

A community-development approach means that the organising group for the project has financial and management control, even if the funding comes from external sources, such as government. The group is, however, accountable to its funders and its community.

Public servants can assist community groups to work through any problems that arise in implementing the plan.

Both process and outcome are important in community development. It can take time to solicit widespread input, resolve differences of opinion, and achieve joint agreement on how to proceed. Remember, if a new or small community group is leading the work, it may be reliant on volunteer effort.

Key questions as you help a community implement its plan

• Are diverse voices from within the community being heard and taken into account?
• Are community members satisfied with the process and the progress being made?
• If not, what assistance could the government agency provide?
• Are key members getting the training they need to be effective?
• Is the plan realistic, or is there a need to review it?

For major initiatives, such as those involving significant financial cost, it is important to build monitoring into the entire life cycle of the project. In a community-development approach, the community organisation that is running the project leads the monitoring work. Public servants with appropriate skills can facilitate, advise and assist.

Key questions for monitoring a community-driven project

• How will the community know if the project is effective?
• Does the community organisation managing the project have baseline data that will provide evidence of outcomes?
• Have realistic indicators been developed to measure desired outcomes?
• Do the participants need training or mentoring?
• Is there a process for open communication between all concerned?
• Does the monitoring process measure to what extent the project is:
  • addressing the community's needs?
  • meeting objectives or agreed milestones?
  • using resources wisely?
  • having the desired effect?

Evaluation ensures that we learn from experience what does and does not work.

The community should consider the method of evaluation from the outset, because this will influence the design of the project. However, collecting data for evaluation is best left until a project has settled.

If the community group lacks this expertise, your agency will probably want to provide skilled evaluators. The appropriate method of evaluation may be participatory (involving the project management team) or independent (conducted by an external person or company).

Key questions for evaluation

• Do you evaluate all the objectives and outputs of the project?
• Can you identify unintended impacts?
• Are you evaluating relevance: did the project meet real needs?
• Are you evaluating efficiency: were resources used wisely?
• Are you evaluating effectiveness: were the desired results achieved?
• Are you evaluating impact: to what extent have project activities improved lives for individuals or the community?