FAQs Gardening Good Governance - Foundation of the Peoples of South Pacific International

Grassroots Opportunities for Action and Leadership (GOAL)

What is it?
What specifically does it aim to do?
What will the project do to meet its aims?
Who does the project hope to benefit?
Who will the project work with?
What will the Pacific communities gain from the project?
Where can you get more information on this project?

1. What is it?

GOAL is a three-year project funded by the European Union that began in November 2003.The project aims to promote community-initiated development that can link Pacific communities to the Cotonou funding frameworks. The project is being run in 100 communities in Fiji and 70 in the Solomon Islands. GOAL looks to build capacities of communities to facilitate their own development through a structured process of planning, decision making and action that eventuate in Community Life Plans and project generation for funding. To ensure sustainability Pacific Island trainers will be trained in best practices in participatory tools for empowerment and community facilitation.

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2. What specifically does it aim to do?

GOAL takes a bottom-up approach and aims to link policy with action at the grassroots level. Specific objectives include:

Build Pacific civil society capacity in global "best practices" in participatory tools for community-initiated, "decentralised development".

Build capacity in 100 "pilot" villages/settlements in Fiji and 70 village communities in the Solomon Islands to develop and implement village-level development plans or “life plans” through a process of participatory planning, decision-making, action, and learning. In Fiji, village-level plans will focus on rural education, and strengthening the quality of village living whilst in the Solomon Islands the plans will focus on the provision of nutrition, health and sanitation. In addition, the project seeks to sow seeds of stability and reform in the Solomon Islands by working directly with communities who are seeking “a way out” of the current economic and social malaise.

Empower pilot community networks to link village plans/Life Plans with European Union development policy and action at the local, regional and national levels, specifically by informing implementation and monitoring of national-level CSSs and NIPs, as well as project formulation.

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3. What will the project do to meet its aims?

GOAL will train trainers in the use of participatory tools (PRA/PLA approaches, conflict management tools etc) at workshops. These TOT workshops will ensure that Pacific trainers are skilled in the process of facilitating communities (rather than “teaching” or “lecturing” to communities), will standardise approaches as necessary, and will provide the region with a group of skilled trainers.

Following each workshop, PRA/PLA practitioners from FSP Fiji, SIDT, and from the communities themselves, will build capacity of communities in development planning, decision-making and action. PLA practitioners will facilitate communities, “passing the stick” to communities to take charge of the development process themselves. In Fiji, this training will take place on a district level (4 district level workshops), and village-level workshops (20 villages), to develop education plans. Cotonou training (proposal development etc) will take place at the district level for representatives selected by communities themselves. In the Solomon Islands, the training will take place at Provincial level (5 provincial level workshops) and area council ward level (20 wards), to develop health and sanitation plans.

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4. Who does the project hope to benefit?

The target groups include 100 rural villages (indigenous Fijian) and settlements (mixed Fijian, IndoFijians, Chinese and other races) in Fiji and 70 indigenous village communities on Guadalcanal (20), Malaita (20), Santa Isabel (10),Makira (10) and Central Islands(10) provinces in the Solomon Islands. The final selection of village communities in the Solomon Islands will be dependent upon the prevailing security position.

In Fiji, beneficiaries will include pilot villages in the Naitasari, Namosi and Serua Provinces in Viti Levu. Our partner, FSP Fiji, has begun working with district and provincial education committees in these areas to build their capacity to manage rural education. Education committees are non-governmental, community-based organisations comprised of village members concerned and willing to act on behalf of their children’s educational needs. These networks have requested further and expanded training in management and decision-making tools to address their education needs. Through this training, the project will directly impact approximately 20,000 people in Fiji. The Fiji Ministry of Education will also directly benefit from this project, as it builds capacity of communities to take the initiative in education planning, easing the burden on national education authorities.

In Solomon Islands, beneficiaries will include 70 village communities in Guadalcanal, Malaita, Santa Isabel, Makira and Central Islands provinces. Our partner, Solomon Islands Development Trust (SIDT) operates through a wide network of community based volunteers (CDWs). Working in all provinces of the Solomon Islands these volunteers provide an essential link between grassroots communities and local/regional and national government. These networks require further training in management and decision making tools to better teach communities how to assess and address their own development priorities. The enhanced capacity of local communities to take the initiative will remove pressure from government departments but also promote better governance in the longer term by enabling communities to better negotiate with local decision makers.

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5. Who will the project work with?

GOAL is run by the Foundation of the Peoples of the South Pacific International Secretariat (FSPI) and network affiliates Just World Partners (JWP), Solomon Islands Development Trust (SIDT) and Partners in Community Development Fiji (PCDF). The project also forms partnerships with the Foundation for Rural Integrated Enterprise and Development (FRIEND).

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6. What will the Pacific communities gain from the project?

The Cotonou Framework for Development Assistance can play an important role in Fiji and the Solomon Islands to meet the needs of the poor and marginalised. Communities themselves will be informed about Cotonou (to date, only governments and national level NGOs have been informed about Cotonou processes by the Pacific Concerns Resource Centre), know how they can have a say in Cotonou implementation (through monitoring of CSSs and NIPs), and know how they can access funding for their own projects (either through direct application if the community has the structures and resources to obtain and manage funds, or in cooperation with local government and NGOs).

This project seeks to initiate a long term poverty reduction process by empowering communities with the tools to ‘decentralise the development paradigm’, take charge of their own development, and demand change and accountability at the top-level. The project assists communities in analysing their “vision of the future,” assisting them to develop, implement and monitor village level plans or “life plans” that will bring about “development” based on their own needs and priorities.

The Cotonou Framework is the “test case” for communities, providing them with a medium through which they can influence policy (by sitting at the same table as national level NGOs and government officials in formulating/monitoring CSSs and NIPs), and providing them with resources where needed to achieve their vision of the future.

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7. Where can you get more information on this project?

Contact : admin@fspi.org.fj

Project Partners

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