Building Strategies for Long-term Citizen Engagement

Building Strategies for Long-term Citizen Engagement

Citizen engagement is not just about informing citizens about their rights and responsibilities, it's also about supporting citizens to identify strategies for sustained involvement in governance processes.

Why is it important?

It's in citizens taking part in governance processes that they appreciate how they are governed; how public resources are used/ can be used and the kind of leaders they should choose to achieve their desired development needs. Nonprofits have played a fundamental role in getting citizens into the front line of governance processes. However, many have felt that their efforts have yet to bear the desired changes years after projects are done.

Here are some learnings that could aid in reversing this for non-profits in their citizen engagement projects:

1. Understand Context

Where are the citizens? While understanding the environment where citizen engagement projects will be applied is good, understanding the entry point for the citizens to engage is better. What are their perceptions, beliefs, fears, and desires when engaging in public processes? Understanding these perceptions helps non-profits better design their capacity-strengthening initiatives and have realistic goals for citizen engagement projects. Remember, social value is about the people.

1. Start from the known.

Appreciate local knowledge and expertise - what engagement strategies have citizens undertaken and have worked (or not)? Leveraging existing practices not only builds trust between citizens and nonprofits that support them. It also creates ownership for example, if all citizens have done is attend the chiefs' barazas or local community meetings, leverage that by getting them to be active participants in the conversation.

1. Acknowledge failure by taking time to learn from it.

Not all citizen engagement strategies will succeed. Don't abandon ship! Instead, reflect on the failure - how was it employed, where did it go wrong? What would we have done differently? Pick these learnings to strengthen future engagement strategies.

1. Celebrate the milestones.
   

The change curve in citizen engagement is long and winding! As you establish these engagement strategies, it's excellent to note the long-term change. It's better to set the milestones towards that long-term change. Take time to acknowledge achieving these milestones as motivators to keep at it. It's more of a marathon than a sprint.