The “people who we serve” are major stakeholders in all of our planning, strategies, programming, activities and evaluations.

By any definition, “people who we serve” are decision makers and information users, and this applies to even most “passive” beneficiaries. In over 30 years of international development work all over world, I have yet to find a “client” who didn’t make some sort of decision about participation in a program or have questions about it.

These are key decision-makers in any program activity. In English, there is a saying, “You can bring a horse to water, but you can’t make him drink”. The horse makes final decision. As an analogy, you can provide all program and program support you wish, but final decision to participate or “benefit” comes from “client”, not program, sponsors, donors, or boards of directors.

Certainly a good deal of information comes from program implementation staff, and most programs provide as much information as possible for “clients” to be able to make those decisions with respect to participation or “acceptance” in case of beneficiaries .

Nevertheless, once a program is accepted and activities begun, there is often little if any systematic effort to maintain participants informed, and even less in terms of on-going activity decision-making.

The concept and definition of accountability and responsibility to “stakeholders” requires that our local decision-makers be fully informed about progress and interim results of program or project activities. Most NGOs submit a variety of monthly, quarterly and special reports to their donors and internal (executive level) stakeholders. They mostly do a poor job, however, of maintaining their principal stakeholders – participants and beneficiaries – informed. Stakeholder Information for Participants and Beneficiaries

Client-stakeholders – participants, beneficiaries, customers or whatever term is appropriate to your organization – can be informed and consulted with a minimum of resources but it takes considerable internal political will to achieve.

Figure 2 is a generalized diagram of how a more complete stakeholder system might appear.

Figure 2. A more robust model of stakeholder accountabilities and responsibilities.

It should be clear that participants and community leaders are not always same group, and in many instances, project or program target populations and community leaders are at odds with one another. That is, their interests may not coincide or overlap and in some cases may be opposed .

One Strategy for Getting Participants into Accountability - Sustainability Circle

A. Plan for it 1.Develop an agenda 2.The main thing is to invite them

B. Design for it 3.Outline main points of project or program

C. Hold Meeting 4.Specify in detail what your organization wants do, why and when 5.Specify in detail what you expect of participants

D. Find out what attendees think 6.Establish a schedule for feedback and decision-making meetings

E. Review their opinions, doubts, objections and observations 7.Review your operational plan with participants and get their opinions and advice 8.Make appropriate changes in your current activities if possible

F. Hold review meetings 9.Review your operational plan with participants and get their opinions and advice

G. Determine how program or project activities have progressed to this point 10. What to participants think of progress 11. What suggestions do they have for improvement

H. Review results and make decisions on remaining activities of program 12.How can this information plus technical findings of your regular work plan be used to improve rest of activities planned under project or program?

I. Implement changes and maintain accountability system.

Tim Farrell is an expert on strategic planning, management and evaluation of voluntary, non-governmental, social development programs.

When a person is treated like an object, there is tendency to see others that way also. The target of a mobbing or bullying isn’t viewed as a person, but rather as a ‘sort of a person.’ Certainly not as much of a person as someone perpetrator knows well or with whom they share caring feelings.

What happens to school bullies and mobbers when they grow up and become workers? Do they stop that behavior, if it was successful for them, just because they are grown up and ‘big people’ now? No. They often turn to subtlety, because overt bullying behavior can be construed as harassment.

Insight and awareness play a major role in change. So many people engage in this type of behavior without thinking. Prevention includes paying attention not only to what we’re doing but also to what is going on around us. Most people don’t intentionally abuse someone. When Swedish researchers explained to co-workers what had happened to individual as a result of their actions, they were appalled that they could have participated in anything that would have damaged another human being to that extent.

We pay attention to big stories that are showcased in media. Our lives are full of little stories that are never broadcast. We don’t hear about child who is afraid to ride school bus because no one will sit with them or because of what others say to them. We don’t hear about worker who dreads going to work and suffers from nightmares because of work environment. We don’t hear about people who are so distracted by this type of behavior being directed at them that they are involved in an auto accident. We don’t hear about divorces or other forms of personal suffering. Just because a person hasn’t been ‘beaten up’ doesn’t mean that they haven’t been beaten up inside.

Here’s an example of how insight and awareness can make a difference. A woman had read mobbing book and was telling someone about it. These two attended an aerobics class together. There was a relatively new member of class who was rather uncoordinated and as a result was throwing everyone off of their rhythm. Although she was friendly, other class members talked about her, made fun of her behind her back and wished she’d just drop out and leave. Suddenly one of two chatting about mobbing said, “‘Oh my goodness! Are we mobbing this woman??”

It was a revelation. They decided to get to know woman better. They found that she was an intelligent, professional person who did a lot of good work with teens. They found that when they looked past her loud voice and her uncoordinated movements that she was a person who they could like and respect. That’s what word respect means as I interpret it. To ‘look again.’

The woman is still in class. She stands in back row. And others have stopped their mobbing behavior simply because they became aware of what they were doing, and implications and potential result of their actions. Most of us choose to believe that we are basically good human beings. And we’re right. The more aware we become of fact that others are good human beings also, worthy and entitled to be treated with dignity and respect without exception, closer we will be to recreating our world and helping to heal it. Awareness is key.