Kinara for Youth Evolution is working with CIVICUS DataShift in collecting data for Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 16 which stands for Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions. The one next step is the additional seventh step in the workshop guideline and which gave small task to participants to work on after they have participated in the workshop and which do not require external financial support. Our groups participated in this workshop include Youth Community Change Agents and our strength of mothers group and they went further by taking actions in the community.
AFTER ONE MONTH AND HALF, KINARA MET WITH THE GROUPS TO MAKE FOLLOW UP
By making follow up Kinara went through the following processes:
- Before the evaluation meeting Kinara translated the Follow-up Survey into Swahili language so as to be clear to participants.
- At the meeting we gave them paper copies of the Follow-up Survey to make it easier to assess what action was done by them.
- Then, we conducted a focus group discussion so that our participants can explain more about their actions taken after they have attended the workshop.
THE RESULTS OF THE FOLLOW UP WERE AS FOLLOWS
Based on the question which asks, “is there anything else that you would like to share about your experience with the workshop?”. Every participant was ready to share a story of what happened after participating in our workshops. The responses we heard from this follow-up process were beyond our expectations.
- The first participant, 29 years old young woman said that “before the workshop I never attended at any meeting but after participating in the workshop I now feel confident to participate in community activities”. She decided to attend the ward development council meeting for the first time and was elected to form a group of seven youth who are willing to collect the garbage regularly in the community as well as creating employment for her and other youth.
- The second participant, 50 years old mother attended the street meeting and there were registrar positions for National Identification Authority (NIDA) announced at the meeting and she was elected to be a member of the NIDA registrar. Currently she is helping to register her fellow community members on the ongoing process of getting the identity card which help people to be eligible to vote as well as get services in different areas including at the hospital, bank and immigration.
- The third participant, 27 years old, reported a case which happened in his community that there was a young boy who was abused by his uncle including frequent beatings, so before our workshops he was not able to face that man and tell him the truth about torturing the young boy and which is against the human rights. He went to nearby police station to report him, the police investigated him, and finally the uncle was arrested and punished. He went further by saying that “now I am confident enough and can face any person and do advocacy in my community, all because of confidence I got from the workshop”.
- The fourth participant, 26 years old, said that “through this workshop helped me to be chosen as the youth leader in my community and I have been asked to mobilize other youth in my community so that they participate in the community development including participating in their street meetings”.
- The fifth participant, 28 years old, said that “after I have participated in the workshop I began to encourage my family members to participate in community matters and this motivated my younger brother as one day he was able to attend the school meeting while at the previous time we left this work to our parents”.
All in all, all participants did something after our workshop in many different ways. Others are now participating in different meetings; some started to share the knowledge with their friends and families about the importance of participating in community issues. As a group they requested to continue providing education to their fellow community members based on the SDG16.
It is important to do follow up because it helps to track how participants have used their skills in the community concerning SDG 16, their confidence in participating in decision making after workshop and their commitment of doing advocacy. We can then measure the workshop’s effectiveness and look for areas of improvements. Following up also helps build a good relationship with the participants because they feel like they are part of the organization’s ongoing activities and that we want to know about their successes and challenges. We expect this will also increase their commitment in Kinara’s other projects.
We learned that to use focus group discussion approach it created a friendly environment for participants to be free and open to share their next steps, so we are planning to use focus group discussion approach in other activities when we do follow up.
CONCLUSION
It was absolutely motivating for our team! To hear that our participants took meaningful and different steps towards greater participation in local decision-making and advocacy made us realize the power of such a workshop and motivates us to reach more people through this approach.
It is very important to give a small task to participants to work on as it gives them a chance to develop their leadership spirit. Every step in development is valued as it accelerates to create change in the community as Hal Elrod said that “the moment you take responsibility for everything in your life is the moment you can change anything in your life”.
Kinara for Youth Evolution is working with CIVICUS DataShift to learn about the process to measure inclusive and responsive decision-making (SDG 16.7.2), using a participatory workshop approach with members of our community. We are a youth-led grassroots NGO based in Morogoro, Tanzania, empowering youth to create change for themselves and in their communities through programs in Sexual Reproductive Health and Gender, Livelihoods, Education, and Citizen Data for Advocacy.