Developing Leaders Within Communities In 2004, Management Sciences for Health (MSH) adapted its proven and tested leadership development approach to strengthen leadership capacity in rural communities. “Walking Together to Grow Together,” as the program became known in Spanish, focuses on values-based leadership and improved community management. Funded by the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), the program was implemented in Nicaragua with 260 leaders from 30 communities in the sparsely populated highlands, a region still recovering from years of civil war, damage from natural disasters, and marked by extreme poverty, illiteracy, and corruption.
Workshops were held every three to four weeks, two days at a time, often more than 10 hours of training per day. Participants embraced the concepts of the program immediately. Each workshop saw more participants than the previous, as people told their neighbors about the program. More than three years since the program ended, many teams continue to meet and apply the practices they’ve learned to further develop their communities.
Results—Improvements in Social Capital
The Harvard School of Public Health established a baseline before the training, and evaluated the social capital indicators for the participating Nicaraguan communities. Harvard measures “Social Capital” by looking at the community and home involvement of individuals. Harvard’s evaluation showed a marked increase in Social Capital in the targeted communities—more trust among citizens, more social interaction, a higher rate of volunteerism, and an increase in the number of community activities. For example, just prior to the program launch, 23% of the children in the target communities were covered by a community health and nutrition programs. One year later, the same communities achieved a rate of 95%. Communities began meeting regularly, a radio program—“Community Power”—was launched and sustained beyond the program dates with no outside funding, and overall participation in the community increased in every community involved.
In 2006, MSH began implementing the program in Peru, adapting it to the local context. It is being delivered to more than 550 teams in four regions of the country. Additionally, facilitators are being trained to scale up the program to other regions of the country. The program has been so well received, that local governments are now working to expand it to additional communities using their own funds.
Development of the Guide
Following these successful applications of the program, MSH prepared a guide for use in other countries. The Guide for Training Community Leaders to Improve Leadership and Management Practices is designed for people, teams, and institutions working with communities, especially in the context of decentralization. It can be used to complement and strengthen community development programs to reach goals in health, education, and social development.
The guide was written to share the experiences in Nicaragua and Peru and provide a blueprint for implementing the program in other areas. “The guide was written to be simple,” explains the lead author. “It was written so that anyone can follow it. This guide will take you by the hand and leads you through the process of developing leadership capacity based in values.”
Availability
The Guide is currently available in English and Spanish on the MSH website.
