Grass-Roots Work and Participatory Approaches

Many faith-based organizations (FBOs) have in-depth knowledge on the conditions of living and aspirations of the poor in developing countries, so that they can be instrumental in promoting participatory approaches to development work. The Bank’s work on Voices of the Poor study completed in 2004 conveys this well. One of the aims of DDVE is to enable FBOs to document their knowledge through qualitative or quantitative analysis. DDVE participated in October 2008 in a United Nations roundtable on participatory approaches to fighting poverty (see Seminars, Workshops and Conferences since 2008). More generally, several DDVE projects have been implemented over the years in this area:

• Case studies on innovative and participatory development work by FBOs: Two books of case studies originally published by DDVE staff in 2004 and 2007 provide a compilation of case studies on innovative work by FIOs in developing countries. The two books have been made available for free download as DDVE Study 2004-1 (Development and Faith: When Mind, Heart and Soul Work Together) and DDVE Study 2007-3 (Mind, Heart and Soul in the Fight Against Poverty). Both books explore the diversity of collaboration between faith institutions and development agencies ranging from community level interventions in support of excluded populations, work on education, health, and HIV/AIDS, restoring communities after conflicts, and global efforts to bring greater clarity and meaning to challenges such as poor country debt, labor and the struggle against poverty. What is emerging is a set of new partnerships which are founded on common concerns for the welfare of poor communities and the global cause of social justice.
  
• Life stories of the very poor. With World Bank funding, the International Movement ATD Fourth World has written two life stories. The first story is that of a young Burkinabe who migrated to Ouagadougou, and became a child living in the streets. The story tells of how the child ended up in the streets and then progressively managed to emerge from extreme poverty. The story has been reflected in the essay on youth employment in the 2008 Africa Development Indicators, the World Bank’s flagship publication on data in Africa. The second story tells the story of a poor family from Cusco in Peru. Both stories are being edited for final publication.
  
• Participatory Approaches to Attacking Extreme Poverty: This book of case studies published in 2006 is made available as DDVE Study 2006-1. Relying on contributions from the International Movement ATD Fourth World, the book deals with questions such as: What does it mean to live in poverty, and especially in extreme poverty? How can the very poor be reached through development projects? And, how can we assess whether projects succeed in changing the livelihoods of the poorest? In answering these questions, the emphasis is on exploring what type of knowledge is needed to fight extreme poverty. The argument is that apart from academic knowledge, a concerted effort is needed to listen to the knowledge of the poor themselves, as well as to the knowledge of practitioners engaged with the poor on a daily basis to fight poverty.