Community mobilisation is central to the impact of Trócaire’s work and approach, and underpins our Governance & Human Rights (GHR) programme theory of change. The purpose of this paper is to briefly describe some of the key features of community mobilisation as it is supported by Trócaire.
Community mobilisation aims to support social transformation, where citizens, especially poor and marginalised women and men, participate in decisions that affect them.
Trócaire’s GHR work has a particular focus on challenging the structures and processes of governance that perpetuate and deepen injustice, poverty, exclusion and abuses of human rights. A key strategy to achieve this is to empower people and to support communities to organise.
The paper begins by setting out some of the characteristics of community groups; it then looks at the practicalities of community mobilisation, and how Trócaire can support the process. Finally, three case studies are provided as examples of community mobilisation in practice in programmes in Liberia, DRC and India.
The intended audience for this paper is Trócaire GHR programme officers who are responsible for the GHR programmes in each country.
