Section E: Next Steps to Embed Community Engagement in CDB’s Practice

CDB has a series of useful tools and reports (this guide included) that document approaches to building community engagement and provide detailed community profiles to inform any CE practitioner who may work with that community. However, it appears that once projects and initiatives get started—once a project moves from the initiation and the planning phases, community engagement is often not sustained throughout implementation. This lack of engagement, in turn, means that project long-term impact and sustainability is weaker than it might otherwise be.

In terms of concrete next steps, CDB could do the following:

1. Launch this guide to Bank staff and CE practitioners in the region, shining a spotlight on community engagement good practice and widely promoting the resource to increase its uptake and use.

2. Consult Bank staff about their perspectives on how to better integrate community engagement into CDB procedures and projects. This consultation could be a series of virtual focus group discussions.

3. Consult further around BMC experiences of community engagement: Organise a focused review meeting/s with grant recipients and government stakeholders to explore their experiences of community engagement. The workshop would explore the helping and hindering factors and whether and how projects have sustained engagement throughout a project life cycle. Meetings could be virtual in the first instance.

4. Design and delivery of bespoke learning events for staff and practitioners: Based on the outcome from these review meetings and the contents of this guidance note, organise workshops or learning forums that tackle areas of need for BMCs. Themes could include: • How to move from analysis to action—ensuring that the learning from community profiles and needs assessments is well reflected in planning, implementation and evaluation • Reaching hard-to-reach groups—sharing knowledge and experiences between peers • Using social media for community engagement • Practical application of the tools in this toolkit • Trouble-shooting ‘clinics’ for peer-led problem solving • Community development facilitator skills training • Community engagement for DRR

5. Encourage the development of peer support networks, through which practitioners can share experiences and ask for advice, perhaps following an action learning approach. Peer support networks could be informal groups using media such as

WhatsApp or other chat platform, regular online or face-to-face meetings with a facilitator, or a more formal platform for questions and requests for help, depending on the needs and priorities.

6. Convert this guidance note into online learning materials to reach a wider audience in a more accessible format. A blend of self-paced self-access online modules could be paired with recorded webinars from the training carried out (see point 4).

7. Develop a specific policy or framework on community development: The prominence of

Community Development in CDB’s Strategic Plan is laudable. To offer a roadmap for systemic progress in this arena and to complement tools and outputs of the BNTF and

CDRFF the Bank could develop a policy or framework on community development. This framework could be drafted through a participatory approach inclusive of workshops with BMC representation.