This section of the Community of Practice includes interesting and useful tools our partners in the Urbis cities have created, tools DIG has developed in partnership with our partners around the world, and links to and descriptions of important tools and documents developed by other organizations and individuals. The following is a preliminary list of some of the documents we have identified as potentially useful.
Tools created by Urbis partners
The Urbis team is pleased to share the following tools designed by Urbis partner organizations. While our partners developed these tools taking into account their local context, these materials can provide ideas or serve as outlines for practioners aiming to create capacity building materials for community-based organizations.
Training of Trainers Manual on the Sustainable Access to Water - Abidjan, Cote d'Ivoire (French)
This Training of Trainers (ToT) manual was developed by the Urbis partner Centre Régional pour l'Eau Potable et l'Assainissement à faible coût (the Regional Center for Potable Water and Waste Management at Low Costs, or CREPA) to support sustainable water connections in Abidjan. It is designed to enable local trainers assist poor households connect to a potable water network and maintain this service long-term. The manual includes training on: how to subscribe and connect to the piped water network; efficient and hygienic household water management; financial management to ensure the timely payment of bills; and income generating activities that require water.
Training Module for Drafting Service Delivery Contracts - Abidjan, Cote d'Ivoire (French);
These training modules were developed as capacity-building tools to reinforce the administrative capabilities of waste pre-collector organizations. They provide an illustration of the types of practical trainings that can be conducted during the formation of community-based service provision organizations.
Specifically, the modules focus on fund-raising, contract drafting, and financial and administrative management. The goal of the training sessions is to allow pre-collectors to set up and successfully manage their enterprises.
Strategic Planning Workshop Training Presentation - Casablanca, Morocco (French)
This training tool was developed with the goal of helping RASS, our beneficiary partner in Casablanca, better articulate its mission, objectives, working methods and resource needs. It provides an example of a training that helps organizations develop their strategic plans in order to identify shortcomings in organizational management, help design and effectively implement specific actions to address organizational needs, and ultimately to improve their ability to work effectively with key partners and stakeholders.
Devolved Funds Toolkit - Mombasa, Kenya
This toolkit was created by the Urbis partner Kituo Cha Sheria. It provides an overview of the decentralized funds available to Mombasa's communities. It specifically explains the possibilities for public participation in the implementation of the funds, and reviews the creation of a monitoring and evaluation framework within which the citizens can rate the performance of the funds as a way of making informed decisions on the usage of the funds, as well as to help develop a constructive dialogue with government partners.
Consolidated Community Action Plans - Mombasa, Kenya
This tool pulls together the Community Action Plans (CAPs) developed in the eleven (11) Kisauni Constituency wards of Old Town, Kizingo, Kongowea, Nyali, Maweni, Freretown, Shanzu, Bamburi, Junda, Mjambere and Mwakirunge. The CAPs were developed through extensive consultation between community representatives via forums and workshops organized by Urbis, and implemented by the program partners Kituo Cha Sheria (KCS) and the Coast Development Transparency Initiative (CODETI).
The CAPs were developed in September 2008, with the aim of assisting the communities in Kisauni Constituency to clearly articulate and present the most pressing problems in their commuities. The goal of these plans is to empower the urban poor to effectively participate in local development processes, and to allow them to engage the various devolved funds holders in more productive dialogue.
Local Authority Transfer Funds (LATF) PowerPoint Presentation - Mombasa, Kenya
The LATF presentation is used as a training material to provide an overview of the purpose, benefits, and methods to access this specific devolved fund program.
Principles and Techniques of Fundraising for Community Based Organizations - Mombasa, Kenya
This tool was used by our partners in Mombasa, Kenya, to train community-based organizations on potential sources of money for their organizations, fundraising methods and strategies for sustaining income.
Monitoring and Evaluation and Advocacy Skills - Mombasa, Kenya
This tool provides an introduction and overview of project monitoring and evaluation skills for community projects. It was specifically designed for community-based organizations to advocate and monitor community projects from inception through implementation.
Evaluation Sheet for ESPASO training classes - Sao Paulo, Brazil (Portuguese)
This evaluation sheet was used by our partner in Sao Paulo, Brazil to gather the initial feedback on the courses given via the Urbis curriculum. Each attendee completed the evaluation for the classes attended at the conclusion of the class. This simple template can provide guidance on the design of the first round of evaluation tools in order to provide immediate feedback on the success of the training.
Tools created by the Development Innovations Group
The Development Innovations Group (DIG) is pleased to share a series of tools developed by DIG staff members and consultants to implement the Urbis Program, an urban capacity building initiative. These tools seek to help identify and strengthen organizations focused on the urban poor, referred to as pro-poor urban organizations, effectively assess the needs of these organizations and enhance their performance to help the poor influence policies that affect their daily lives.
Urbis aims to foster inclusive cities. We believe such cities are on the road to poverty alleviation because they have put in place policies that take into account the voice of the poor to improve their quality of life. Inclusive cities have a diverse range of civil society organizations, a high degree of community involvement in government decision-making, and a government that actively seeks to meet the needs of the urban poor. When the poor are involved in developing solutions to urban poverty, these solutions are all the more consistent with their needs. The Urbis program thus aims to enhance the voice of the poor by strengthening the organizations that represent them.
Title: Rapid City Diagnostic and Selection of Organizations Focused on the Urban Poor
DIG developed the Rapid City Diagnostic and Selection of Organizations Focused on the Urban Poor to select target cities and potential local partner organizations under the Urbis program. While there is extensive demand for capacity building throughout the developing world, DIG has developed a selection criteria based not only on assessing needs but also on concrete opportunities the urban poor can access through targeted support to pro-poor organizations. These opportunities could include subsidies, available government resources to local authorities, and government slum eradication projects such as Morocco’s Cities without Slums program. The tool allows practitioners to examine the singular context of a city and local innovative pro-poor organizations to propose targeted capacity building activities. The tool also includes having the user analyze potential challenges and opportunities related to implementing capacity building activities in the selected city.
The estimated timeframe needed to conduct the diagnostic is five days. A team of two people is recommended as the diagnostic entails meeting with a variety of stakeholders.
Example: Phnom Penh, Cambodia Rapid City Diagnostic
Title: Guidelines for the Design of Effective Urban Capacity Building Programs
The Guidelines for the Design of Effective Urban Capacity Building Programs provides guidance on designing capacity building strategies for pro-poor organizations to better address urban poverty issues. This tool is not meant to prescribe one specific way to design a plan, but rather is intended to be an illustrative approach to help yield practical results in a relatively short period of time. Discovering and tapping into local expertise, tools, knowledge and experience is an important aspect of the program design. The approach should also build on the partner entity’s previous organizational and/or technical capacity building efforts, when applicable. Overall, these guidelines are intended to assist practitioners in producing tailored capacity building programs by working with pro-poor organizations to identify and analyze the urban challenges they want to address, creating an action plan, and determining their skills and capacity building needs to effectively implement their plan.
The design of capacity building plans for pro-poor organizations in selected cities entails several steps, some of which may have already been undertaken by the pro-poor organization partners. Through the course of producing a capacity building plan, the following activities should transpire (and/or already exist):
- Conduct a Problem Analysis: Help pro-poor organizations identify the main urban challenges in their city. (Output: Problem Statements)
- Create an Action Plan: Assist the pro-poor organizations identify the most appropriate interventions to have a meaningful impact for a determined target population. (Output: Action Plan)
- Determine Capacity Building Needs, Technical Areas: Users of the tool and the partner pro-poor organizations will identify technical areas that need to be reinforced or developed in order for the pro-poor organizations to effectively carry out their action plans. (Output: Technical Capacity Training Needs)
- Determine Capacity Building Needs, Organizational Areas: As necessary, users of the tool and the pro-poor organizations will identify organizational limitations that inhibit the implementation of the technical interventions and, consequently, institutional support needed. (Output: Organizational Capacity Training Needs).
Example: Mombasa, Kenya Capacity Building Plan
Title: Mid-Term Review of Urban Capacity Building Programs
The Mid-Term Review of Urban Capacity Building Programs is a rapid and low-cost means of assessing the effectiveness of programs to strengthen capacity. The tool provides an overview of a program’s progress to date, including its strengths, challenges, and results. The tool presents DIG and its partner organizations with a chance to address potential pitfalls mid-program and replicate or scale up valuable and effective activities. A key component of the review is a suggested questionnaire targeted at determining program successes as well as potential areas for improvement. The questions seek to gauge the impact of capacity building activities, such as classroom training, technical assistance and/or study tours, on the participants and their organizations at large. The questionnaire also helps define any logistical, organizational, and/or content-based challenges related to capacity building programs so that these can be addressed during the remaining duration of the program. Lastly, the mid-term review encourages the program manager to begin developing an exit strategy that will ensure the sustainability of capacity building initiatives beyond the life of the program.
Example: Sao Paulo, Brazil Mid-Term Review
Tools created by external organizations
Title: A Guide to Budget Work for NGOs
![Text Box: Title: A Guide to Budget Work for NGOs Author: Isaac Shapiro Format: [text] 101 Pages (PDF) Languages: English, Arabic, Russian, Spanish Publication Date: December 2001 Publisher: Center on Budget and Policy Priorities 820 First Street NE Suite 510 Washington DC 20002 PH: 202-408-1080 FAX: 202-408-1056](Images/clip_image001_000.png)
http://www.internationalbudget.org/resources/guide/index.htm
This tool is probably best for NGOs that want to get involved in the budget process.
Abstract
This report highlights methods and implementation strategies for budget literacy in developing countries. Budget trainings, with an emphasis on transparency and participatory budget decision-making are explored in depth, with a focus on the poor. New entrants in the field will find this manual of particular interest. The guide offers a systematic overview of the aspects of budget practice with five parts: Part I: Introduction to the Guide and Applied Budget Work, Part II: First Principles, Part III: Types of Applied Budget Work; Part IV: Additional Resources at the International Budget Group and World Bank; Part V: Appendices including an Index, Case Study, and Map. The guide is available via the Internet, which allows direct linking into related resources. In addition, the guide is available via CD-ROM directly from the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities.
From their website:
Http://www.internationalbudget.org
The International Budget Partnership (IBP) was formed within the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities to collaborate with civil society organizations in developing countries to analyze, monitor, and influence government budget processes, institutions, and outcomes. The aim of the Partnership is to make budget systems more responsive to the needs of poor and low-income people in society and, accordingly, to make these systems more transparent and accountable to the public.
Title: Our Money, Our Responsibility: A Citizen's Guide to Monitoring Government Expenditures
![Text Box: Title: Our Money, Our Responsibility: A Citizen’s Guide to Monitoring Government Expenditures Author: Vivek Ramkumar Format: [text] 166 Pages (PDF) Languages: English, Bhasa Publication Date: February 2008 The document is available in Word or PDF from the website, or by contacting the center directly. Publisher: Center on Budget and Policy Priorities 820 First Street NE Suite 510 Washington DC 20002 PH: 202-408-1080 FAX: 202-408-1056](Images/clip_image001.png)
http://www.internationalbudget.org/resources/expenditure/IBP-Expenditure-Monitoring-Guide.pdf
This tool is relevant to NGOs and CSO interesting in monitoring government expenditures.
Abstract
This Guide reflects the growing focus of civil society organizations on monitoring the results achieved by government expenditures. It offers an overview of government budget implementation, including budget execution, procurement, impact measurement, and auditing and legislative oversight processes. The Guide provides practical, tested tools that can be used by independent organizations with a focus on monitoring government expenditures. Each section is accompanied by clear graphic visual flow-charts which aid in process conception. Chapters on the budget cycle, with real-world examples from Uganda, Malawi and India are illuminating. A detailed description of procurement processes in the Philippines serve as working examples for new practitioners in the field. The last chapter offers practical suggestions for getting started.
From their website:
Http://www.internationalbudget.org
The International Budget Partnership (IBP) was formed within the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities to collaborate with civil society organizations in developing countries to analyze, monitor, and influence government budget processes, institutions, and outcomes. The aim of the Partnership is to make budget systems more responsive to the needs of poor and low-income people in society and, accordingly, to make these systems more transparent and accountable to the public.
Title: Approaches to Urban Slums: A Multimedia Sourcebook on Adaptive and Proactive Strategies (For purchase only)
The document is available for sale at this link:
http://publications.worldbank.org/ecommerce/catalog/product?item_id=7972209
Abstract
This multimedia sourcebook on CD-ROM synthesizes an extensive body of knowledge and experience in managing urban slums accumulated over the last 30 years. The key lessons learned and their implications for future work serve as a useful tool for capacity building and knowledge sharing for policy makers, practitioners, planning institutions, community groups, NGOs, and university students. Approaches to Urban Slums include 14 audiovisual presentations (photographs, illustrations, maps, graphic animations, and aerial imagery, along with voice-over narration) and 18 video interviews.
From their website:
The World Bank Institute is the capacity development arm of the World Bank, and helps countries share and apply global and local knowledge to meet development challenges. WBI's capacity development programs are designed to build skills among groups of individuals involved in performing tasks, and also to strengthen the organizations in which they work, and the sociopolitical environment in which they operate.
Capacity for Development is the ability of individuals, institutions, and whole societies to solve problems, make informed choices, order their priorities and plan their futures, as well as implement programs and projects, and sustain them over time. Building capacity is at the heart of development and development effectiveness. It depends heavily on society’s ability to acquire and use knowledge.
Title: Africa Good Governance Program on the Radio Waves
The documents are available for download at these links
(Part I)
Broadcast June 2007
http://go.worldbank.org/K7WVVYCM80
(Part II)
Broadcast June 2007
http://go.worldbank.org/8Y3MN9KCI0
Abstract
This is a distance-learning program, first transmitted by “First Voice International” via digital satellite radio technology on the Africa Learning Channel to municipalities in Ghana, Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda.
The objective is to support local government capacity building and community empowerment through transmission of key information related to anti-corruption, civic participation and fiscal decentralization. The program draws from the lessons learned from the successful broadcast of a pilot project held in Malawi in 2003.
It is against this background that MDP is pleased to announce the Africa Good Governance Program on the Radio Waves, which is comprised of the following four components: 1) Governing Municipalities without Corruption; 2) Civic Participation; 3) Municipal Finance/Participatory Budgeting; 4) Africa Municipal News Magazine; Africa Municipal News Magazine will use a magazine format and serve as an umbrella program to disseminate information, share experiences and provide news to municipal stakeholders in the region. The other three components will be structured as formal capacity-building initiatives.
From their website:
The World Bank Institute is the capacity development arm of the World Bank, and helps countries share and apply global and local knowledge to meet development challenges. WBI's capacity development programs are designed to build skills among groups of individuals involved in performing tasks, and also to strengthen the organizations in which they work, and the sociopolitical environment in which they operate.
Capacity for Development is the ability of individuals, institutions, and whole societies to solve problems, make informed choices, order their priorities and plan their futures, as well as implement programs and projects, and sustain them over time. Building capacity is at the heart of development and development effectiveness. It depends heavily on society’s ability to acquire and use knowledge.
Title: Baan Mankong Handbook
The document is available for download at this link:
http://www.codi.or.th/downloads/english/Paper/Implementing%20the%20Baan%20Mankong.pdf
Abstract
This brief 15-page report outlines, in a rough English translation, the important steps of the Baan Mankong (“Secure Housing”) project. The report offers sections addressing implementation, targets, development types (including Slum Upgrading, Re-blocking, Land Sharing, Reconstruction, Relocation and Land Purchasing). There is a focus on practical implementation including use of public sector support, housing support and supporting budgets. The Eight Stages “Toward Baan Mankong” include 1: Common Understanding and Sense of Ownership, 2: Individual Savings, 3: Work-Sharing, 4: Community Data and Information Surveys, 5: Arranging Housing Rights, 6: Collective planning for lay-out and construction, 7: Cooperative infrastructre design, 8: Community Security.
CODI is the Community Organizations Development Institute of Thailand.
Title: Pro-Poor Services in Ethiopia: A Pilot Citizen Report Card
The document is available for download at this link:
http://www.pane.org.et/PublicationsandResource/tabid/67/Default.aspx
Abstract
The Citizen Report Card is a tool to provide public agencies with systematic feedback from users of public services. CRC’s elicit feedback through sample surveys on aspects of service quality that users know best, and enable public agencies to identify strengths and weaknesses in their work. This report describes the pilot CRC program in Ethiopia as an attempt to explore international best practices in public service delivery reform. The sector focus was limited to basic services (Drinking Water, Health and Sanitation, Education and Agriculture Extension Services) and to four rural regions with one urban region. Survey issues and sample size were identified, and a methodology was outlined for the report card. There is also a section on budget and budgetary analysis.
From the website:
Ethiopia has a broad and diverse civil society sector, working in different areas but all concerned with reducing poverty. In light of this, civil society has been keen to engage with the government on the policies that work towards poverty reduction. Many organizations saw the launch of the PRSP processes as a good opportunity to do this.
To facilitate this participation the NGO’s PRSP Taskforce was established in 2001. This taskforce produced the ‘NGO’s perspective on PRSP for Ethiopia’ which was shared with the government during the consultation process.
In order to strengthen CSO engagement in the PRSP, the taskforce transformed into the Poverty Action Network of civil society organizations in Ethiopia (PANE) in 2004, and Regional chapters were established in the entire country.
PANE is legally registred with the Ministry of Justice No 1936 in January 2005 and started operation in June 2005.
PANE is now actively working on policy research and has contributed to the development of the second PRSP- the Plan for Accelerated and Sustained Development to End Poverty (PASDEP). We are also working on building the capacity of local CSO groups’ awareness raising and representing the Ethiopian CSOs at various high level forums.
Title: Enumerations
Author: Shack and Slum Dwellers International
Format: HTML
Publisher: Shack and Slum Dwellers International
The document is available for download at this link:
http://www.sdinet.co.za/ritual/enumerations/
This is a concise tool, which could be helpful for both citizens and CBOs looking to direct slum improvement efforts.
Abstract
“Enumerations” is a participatory research tool designed to enable Federations to develop detailed information about their communities, which can then be used to broker deals with formal institutions. Although there are no hard and fast rules, enumeration exercises tend to take the following form:
Teambuilding, Rough Mapping, Launch, Training, Surveys, and Women’s Participation.
From the website:
Shack/Slum Dwellers International (hereafter, SDI) is a confederation of country-level organizations (called federations) of the urban poor from 23 countries of the Global South. It was launched in 1996 and became a formally registered entity in 1999. Several well-developed national federations of community-based organizations of slum and shack dwellers particularly in India, South Africa and Thailand - joined hands to found SDI. Their mission is to link poor urban communities from cities across the South to transfer and adapt the successful mobilization, advocacy, and problem-solving strategies they develop in one location to other cities, countries, and regions.
Title: Enumeration as a Tool for Mobilisation: The Community Census of 
Structures in Dharavi
This tool is helpful for CBOs looking for strategies to lead to more effective advocacy.
The document is available for download at this link:
http://www.sparcindia.org/docs/ennumerations.html
Abstract
In 1985, SPARC (Society for Promotion of Area Resource Centers) undertook an enumeration of over 6,000 households of pavement dwellers in the Island city of Bombay. That census reported on the activities undertaken by SPARC to help isolated groups of pavement dwellers develop insights about their own situation and that of others like themselves. Because the census employed formal data collection methods and reporting style, it became a means to communicate with policy makers at various levels in Government.
This note is an attempt to describe the richness of participatory enumeration. It is especially ambitious because given our involvement in the process it is not easy to be objective. SPARC was working at the time with only pavement dwellers, and attempting to develop women's participation in community decision-making. In fact, much of the preliminary gathering of information about pavement dwellings was carried out in a manner that gave women the confidence to utilize this knowledge.
From the website:
The Society for the Promotion of Area Resource Centers (SPARC) is one of the largest Indian NGOs working on housing and infrastructure issues for the urban poor. In 1984, when SPARC was formed, it began working with the most vulnerable and invisible of Mumbai's urban poor - the pavement dwellers. SPARC's philosophy is that if we can develop solutions that work for the poorest and most marginalised in the city, then these solutions can be scaled up to work for other groups of the urban poor across the country and internationally.
Since 1986, SPARC has been working in partnership with two community-based organizations, the National Slum Dwellers Federation and Mahila Milan. Together, they are known as the Alliance. Today, the Alliance works in about 70 cities in the country and has networks in about 20 countries internationally.
Title: Guidelines for the Implementation of Slum Rehabilitation in Greater Mumbai
The document is available for download at this link:
http://www.sparcindia.org (see Documentation)
Abstract
This detailed booklet was written to provide information on policy and procedures for slum rehabilitation schemes in Mumbai.
Sections are provided establishing the authority of the organization, the process and design of implementation, facilitation of these measures and a conclusion. Detailed charts and graphs aid in understanding the size and condition of plots, population density, and help illustrate the processes that were undertaken. There is also full text of the regulations that were written for the slum upgrade to be in compliance with local code.
From the website:
SPARC also has a number of other documents that are helpful in learning more about capacity building and slum development strategies.
The Society for the Promotion of Area Resource Centers (SPARC) is one of the largest Indian NGOs working on housing and infrastructure issues for the urban poor. In 1984, when SPARC was formed, it began working with the most vulnerable and invisible of Mumbai's urban poor - the pavement dwellers. SPARC's philosophy is that if we can develop solutions that work for the poorest and most marginalised in the city, then these solutions can be scaled up to work for other groups of the urban poor across the country and internationally.
Since 1986, SPARC has been working in partnership with two community-based organisations the National Slum Dwellers Federation and Mahila Milan. Together, they are known as the Alliance. Today, the Alliance works in about 70 cities in the country and has networks in about 20 countries internationally.
