Tapping into Community Engagement for Empowerment
The virtual series of webinars has the main goal of reviewing the achievements, potential and challenges of community engagement for empowerment in development and humanitarian interventions and strategies.
On Thursday, 18 February 2021 the first of a series of five webinars called “Community Engagement Days” was successfully launched. Organized by the Rural Institutions, Services and Empowerment (RISE) team of the Inclusive Rural Transformation and Gender Equity Division of FAO, in collaboration with the government of Belgium and thanks to the support of Resource Partners of the Flexible Multi-Partner Mechanism (FMM). The first event showcased the rationale behind community engagement for empowerment approaches, and their potential impact on achieving inclusive rural transformation.
The virtual series of webinars has the main goal of reviewing the achievements, potential and challenges of community engagement for empowerment in development and humanitarian interventions and strategies. Moderated by Marcela Villarreal, Director of the Partnerships and UN Collaboration Division, the event welcomed Professor Robert Chambers from the Institute of Development Studies (IDS), University of Sussex, as the keynote speaker. In his presentation, Professor Chambers discussed the essential role of participatory approaches and people-centered development. He emphasized the importance of looking within communities, as communities are not homogenous, and addressing power dynamics and pre-existing biases. In his concluding remarks he strongly encouraged participants to “Search and share, and beyond that, innovate… Innovate and share what you innovated.”
In his opening remarks, Maximo Torero Cullen, Chief Economist of FAO, welcomed participants and emphasized the importance of overcoming inequality to address some of the most complex challenges that lay ahead in a post-pandemic world and achieve the ambitious 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. He stated that "Inequality is a structural challenge that we need to overcome: there is no way we're going to achieve sustainably SDG1 and SDG2 if we don't touch on reducing inequalities.”
His Excellency Frank Carruet, Ambassador, Permanent Representative of Belgium to the United Nations Rome-based Agencies (RBAs), stressed the importance of multi-partner pooled funding mechanisms, such as the FMM, to achieve catalytic impacts and leave no one behind. H.E. Frank Carruet highlighted the importance of programmes, such as the Dimitra Clubs, which promote community engagement and collective action, with special attention to the most vulnerable (especially women, who are often the hardest hit by inequality).