The Learning Trust: Building thriving and sustainable communities one organisation at a time!
Supporting emerging organisations is one of the most fundamental aspects in our quest to build thriving and sustainable communities. As the backbone of any nation, communities comprise of social units which share commonality such as place, norms, values, and identity, but more crucially they are sites of individual and communal agency and initiative. Through supporting emerging organisations, we lay a platform for communities to take initiative in driving the change they seek to see, and further strengthening their sense of purpose which translates into empowered communities that drive solution orientated development. Supporting emerging organisations opens pathways to increased developmental capacity and that enables us to deliver solutions that are more sustainable.
Focused training, mentorship and coaching in a variety of organisational development areas is essential to unlocking the potential of emerging organisations to deliver for their communities. In building thriving and sustainable communities, the process of development must be embedded within these organisations as they are much closer to challenges faced by communities and play a crucial role in the process as they are the fulcrum that anchors social investment closer to where it is needed most. Providing capacity support to these organisations is therefore critical as strengthened organisation are better able to implement development programmes. Thus, the internal capacity of emerging organisations has a direct impact on the positive and/or negative outcomes of the programmes they implement.
As much as organisational development is not a glamorous element in our quest to building thriving and sustainable communities, it is an unavoidable and major aspect of the development process. As much as communities begin at an individual level, the wellbeing of a community is a collective effort that needs to be grounded and participatory. Evidence has shown that some of the most impactful and long-lasting community development initiatives are ones guided by sound governance mechanisms, a clear vision & mission, transparent financial management and strong human capital systems that are underlined by a collaborative approach. All of this evokes ubuntu, which emphasises the interconnected nature of community development. As we strive to build thriving and sustainable communities, we must understand that this process is built brick by brick, layer by layer and organisational development fundamentals are the solid foundation to anchor it.
To conclude, by their very nature thriving and sustainable communities are enterprising communities. A degree of nurturing, coaching, and mentoring is necessary for them to succeed. Times of boom and bust are ever present realities for organisations in these communities and this necessitates patience from all parties including investors. Sufficient funding is the enabler that ensures that all aspects of this process receive the necessary investment to build resilience. At the end of the day, all the investment made in building thriving and sustainable communities, is investment into people through upskilling them to establish and run their own community development initiatives thereby fostering a more democratic and people-centred approach to development.
Opinion piece written by: Malibongwe Nkunkuma from The Learning Trust for the HCI Foundation – conversations titled building thriving and sustainable communities’ series.
