PUTER

FINAL PROJECT STATUS BRIEF 2001

Planning a learning network for the village-based community organizing school

PUTER Indonesia
Jl. Cimandiri Blok A No. 1
Bogor Baru, Bogor, Indonesia 16152
Tel: (62)(0251) 325 810 Fax: 351 357
Email: puter@indo.net.id

Geographical focus

Tropical and subtropical broadleaf forests/ coastal and marine ecosystems

Commencing February 2000

For two decades NGOs in Indonesia have provided services to help rural and urban communities improve their quality of life. But there are still questions among NGO activists about how services can best be provided to facilitate local communities to manage ongoing rapid changes. How far should NGOs and outsiders intervene or change genuine agendas of local communities? How can NGOs guarantee that local communities can continue their programs without ongoing dependence upon NGOs? Should NGOs have responsibility and accountability to the local communities as their clients or just to the donor agency that has funded the program?

Several NGOs have provided community organizers who organize poor and often oppressed people in rural and urban areas to work together to deal with their problems. These NGOs have a wealth of experiences and want to learn from each other. Six NGOs (Yayasan Leuser Lestari in Medan, North Sumatra, Puter Indonesia in Bogor, West Java, Yayasan Plasma in Samarinda, East Kalimantan, Forum Petaupan Katouan in Manado, North Sulawesi, Yayasan Tanah Merdeka in Palu, Central Sulawesi and Lembaga Pengkajian dan Pemberdayaan Masyarakat Adat in Port Numbay, Papua) have agreed to set up a learning network to develop a "Village-based community organizing school". This "school" will not be a physical center, but a pool of learning processes and lessons experienced by community organizers. Puter Indonesia will be the host of this network for one year.

The network activities will be guided by the following general directions:

Document the threats to the community and its environment that have already been addressed by a community organizer;
Facilitate review of effectiveness of the community organizing in addressing threats within the larger region;
Facilitate community organizers to improve their initiatives through access to information and outreach strategies;
Build consensus on communications and interaction strategies for community organizers within a region that is facilitated by the network, in order to share resources and expertise.

To achieve the purposes above, the learning network will implement the following key activities:

Learning process documentation in six nodes. Each node will document their experiences and send it to the network host at Puter; review the draft concept of community organizing prepared at the planning workshop, by comparing it to their own experiences. All nodes will exchange their information among the nodes and with other NGOs.
Regional workshops. Each node will organize a regional workshop to improve the draft concept of the learning network, village-based community organizing, which were formulated at the planning workshop. The node will invite the NGOs in the region to plan, implement and evaluate the workshop together.
Documentation of all information collected from the six nodes will be handled by Puter.
Final Workshop. This workshop will be attended by all community organizers from the six nodes and some resource persons. In the workshop, each node will present their field experiences regarding the village-based community organizing school in their communities. This workshop will finalize the concept of the learning network and consider how to further continue the movement of community organizing in Indonesia, along with other NGOs.

Puter is responsible for the monitoring and evaluation, internally as well as externally. The monitoring will depend upon improved communications, based upon agreed protocols. Internal evaluation including financial matters and management of the network, will be held during the regional workshops.

A planning workshop was held in Makasar during February 2000. The main product of the planning workshop was a concept paper of community organizing, which was formulated from the field experiences of all participants. The strategies of how the learning network and "village based school" will function were also formed, based on their presentations. The final concept paper will contain the working definition of community organizing including steps of community organizing processes, the learning network and being village-based. Some theories of community organizing will also be added. The workshop also produced a communications protocol among the six NGOs, to guide dissemination of the concept paper to their constituencies in every region, and how the nodes will contribute to the learning network.

The six NGOs also documented the process of their own community organizing activities. All of this documentation will be collected and edited by a team of editors. The facilitators from the Makasar workshop had a further meeting to determine the learning network for the community organizing school. They formed an editing team to handle the next set of documents. This team will help the project coordinator to monitor the nodes.

Six regional workshops were held in different regions; Java (organized by Puter); Balikpapan, Kalimantan (organized by Plasma); Bukittingi for Sumatera region (organized by Yayasan Leuser Lestari); Manado, North Sulawesi (Forum Petaupan Katouan); Jayapura for Papua (organized by LPPMA); and Palu for Central Sulawesi was completed in August 2000 (organized by Yayasan Tanah Merdeka). These workshops collected the experiences from participants and completed the concept paper "Learning Network of Village-based Community Organizing". In the last two months monitoring has been done by an NGO activist from Bulukumba, South Sulawesi. He visited the six nodes to look into how the community organizing work is being done by the six NGOs and their local peoples' institutions, visiting both the offices of the NGOs, and the villages themselves. PUTER's secretariat is collecting information from the NGO nodes and then sharing it with the rest of the network. The secretariat also is searching for funds from donor agencies to carry on their activities in anticipation of the closing of BSP-Kemala.

[ Bantaya ] - [ ELSAM ] - [ FPK ] - [ Hualopu ] - [ JKPP ] - [ Jaring Pela ] - [ KalBar SHK ]

[ Kemala ] - [ KonPenMA ] - [ KPA ] - [ KPSHK ] - [ LATIN ] - [ LMAA ] - [ LPPMA ]

[ Pancurkasih ] - [ PLASMA ] - [ Pro Plasma ] - [ PUTER ] - [ RMI ] - [ Telapak ] - [ WWF Sahul ]

[ YBAW ] - [ YLBHI ] - [ YPLHC ] - [ YTM ]



	FINAL PROJECT STATUS BRIEF 2001

Project	Planning a learning network for the village-based community organizing school
Partner	PUTER Indonesia Jl. Cimandiri Blok A No. 1 Bogor Baru, Bogor, Indonesia 16152 Tel: (62)(0251) 325 810 Fax: 351 357 Email: puter@indo.net.id
Geographical focus	National
Biome	Tropical and subtropical broadleaf forests/ coastal and marine ecosystems
Timing	Commencing February 2000
Description	For two decades NGOs in Indonesia have provided services to help rural and urban communities improve their quality of life. But there are still questions among NGO activists about how services can best be provided to facilitate local communities to manage ongoing rapid changes. How far should NGOs and outsiders intervene or change genuine agendas of local communities? How can NGOs guarantee that local communities can continue their programs without ongoing dependence upon NGOs? Should NGOs have responsibility and accountability to the local communities as their clients or just to the donor agency that has funded the program? Several NGOs have provided community organizers who organize poor and often oppressed people in rural and urban areas to work together to deal with their problems. These NGOs have a wealth of experiences and want to learn from each other. Six NGOs (Yayasan Leuser Lestari in Medan, North Sumatra, Puter Indonesia in Bogor, West Java, Yayasan Plasma in Samarinda, East Kalimantan, Forum Petaupan Katouan in Manado, North Sulawesi, Yayasan Tanah Merdeka in Palu, Central Sulawesi and Lembaga Pengkajian dan Pemberdayaan Masyarakat Adat in Port Numbay, Papua) have agreed to set up a learning network to develop a "Village-based community organizing school". This "school" will not be a physical center, but a pool of learning processes and lessons experienced by community organizers. Puter Indonesia will be the host of this network for one year. The network activities will be guided by the following general directions: Document the threats to the community and its environment that have already been addressed by a community organizer; Facilitate review of effectiveness of the community organizing in addressing threats within the larger region; Facilitate community organizers to improve their initiatives through access to information and outreach strategies; Build consensus on communications and interaction strategies for community organizers within a region that is facilitated by the network, in order to share resources and expertise. To achieve the purposes above, the learning network will implement the following key activities: Learning process documentation in six nodes. Each node will document their experiences and send it to the network host at Puter; review the draft concept of community organizing prepared at the planning workshop, by comparing it to their own experiences. All nodes will exchange their information among the nodes and with other NGOs. Regional workshops. Each node will organize a regional workshop to improve the draft concept of the learning network, village-based community organizing, which were formulated at the planning workshop. The node will invite the NGOs in the region to plan, implement and evaluate the workshop together. Documentation of all information collected from the six nodes will be handled by Puter. Final Workshop. This workshop will be attended by all community organizers from the six nodes and some resource persons. In the workshop, each node will present their field experiences regarding the village-based community organizing school in their communities. This workshop will finalize the concept of the learning network and consider how to further continue the movement of community organizing in Indonesia, along with other NGOs. Puter is responsible for the monitoring and evaluation, internally as well as externally. The monitoring will depend upon improved communications, based upon agreed protocols. Internal evaluation including financial matters and management of the network, will be held during the regional workshops.
Results	A planning workshop was held in Makasar during February 2000. The main product of the planning workshop was a concept paper of community organizing, which was formulated from the field experiences of all participants. The strategies of how the learning network and "village based school" will function were also formed, based on their presentations. The final concept paper will contain the working definition of community organizing including steps of community organizing processes, the learning network and being village-based. Some theories of community organizing will also be added. The workshop also produced a communications protocol among the six NGOs, to guide dissemination of the concept paper to their constituencies in every region, and how the nodes will contribute to the learning network. The six NGOs also documented the process of their own community organizing activities. All of this documentation will be collected and edited by a team of editors. The facilitators from the Makasar workshop had a further meeting to determine the learning network for the community organizing school. They formed an editing team to handle the next set of documents. This team will help the project coordinator to monitor the nodes. Six regional workshops were held in different regions; Java (organized by Puter); Balikpapan, Kalimantan (organized by Plasma); Bukittingi for Sumatera region (organized by Yayasan Leuser Lestari); Manado, North Sulawesi (Forum Petaupan Katouan); Jayapura for Papua (organized by LPPMA); and Palu for Central Sulawesi was completed in August 2000 (organized by Yayasan Tanah Merdeka). These workshops collected the experiences from participants and completed the concept paper "Learning Network of Village-based Community Organizing". In the last two months monitoring has been done by an NGO activist from Bulukumba, South Sulawesi. He visited the six nodes to look into how the community organizing work is being done by the six NGOs and their local peoples' institutions, visiting both the offices of the NGOs, and the villages themselves. PUTER's secretariat is collecting information from the NGO nodes and then sharing it with the rest of the network. The secretariat also is searching for funds from donor agencies to carry on their activities in anticipation of the closing of BSP-Kemala.