Concretizing the Grassroots Focus Index (GFI)

 22 August 2008

In its quest to foster collective action and amplify local voices as a strategy of empowering the grassroots, the African Monitor and Inter-Faith Action for Peace in Africa, in May 2008, organised an FBO workshop in Johannesburg, South Africa. 

The primary objective of the workshop was to deliberate on a strategy to mobilize local communities in Africa to take collective action in order to influence policy process and outcomes, especially the way that national governments deliberate poverty and social change and to contextualize poverty reduction strategies by directly relating them to local realities.

The key outcome of this workshop was the birth of an Inter-Faith Partnership Network for Grassroot Capacity Building for Local Monitoring and Advocacy. An action plan for moving the process forward, including developing a core tool for benchmarking and monitoring grassroot development, the GFI, was also developed.

It is within the spirit of taking that process forward, particularly motivated by the need to refocus global awareness and attention, especially of the African leaders, on their poor people’s priorities that African Monitor seeks to develop the Grassroot Focus Index. The Index is expected to be an instrument for sustaining global awareness and momentum on the role of community self-mobilization and participation in influencing development policy outcomes and in eradicating poverty. Especially, as a toll for benchmarking and monitoring governments’ actions, it will assist in refocusing attention and ensuring that Africa’s actions aimed at politically empowering the poor to influence decisions and circumstances affecting their lives are taken.

Our intervention strategy is informed and  hinges on the firm conviction that creating strong local voices through raising awareness, training and advocacy, and through participatory monitoring and advocacy is likely to invoke a community spirit among grassroot communities, as rights holders to empower themselves and make governments, CSO, donors, private sector and other stakeholders accountable for their actions.

For a full report of the recently ended Grassroots Focus Index conference, please watch this space.