Paciviced.net lessons help in Timor-Leste

Kia ora colleagues!

I just wanted to let you know that the shared lessons developed at our gathering in Suva last year were really gratefully received at a civil society organisations workshop I attended in Dili, Timor-Leste last month. A UNDP project is working with a a range of NGOs in Timor-Leste to develop and deliver civic education out beyond the elections being held over the next couple of months. The workshop was intended to develop a methodology for programme delivery, and the lessons along with the case studies from Papua New Guinea and the Solomons were great thought starters.

Here are the bullet-points I used to describe our best practice consensus...

Features of good civic education
•Civics education is lifelong learning for everyone.
•Civic education involves work in the community, with chiefs, churches, media, and civil society groups - often in partnerships for programme delivery, building an enabling environment, and shared understandings of the role of civic education.
•Civic education helps to develop understanding of links between traditional, local, national, global and builds shared values.
•Civic responsibility is not new - the core ideas are in traditional culture and this should be used as a springboard to build on, a foundation for change and an analytical tool.

Civic education includes...
•information provision
•sharing and demonstration of values
•experience of action
•understanding of how to make the most of opportunities
•recognising everyone needs to be reached.

Effective civics education...
•reflects the local environment
•designed to work for learners first
•ensures ownership by the people
•includes training, in particular of facilitators
•uses partnerships and linkages
•is simple, visual, participatory, innovative
•reaches politicians, public servants, teachers, journalists…
•“lives the lesson” - transparent, inclusive, administered with integrity
•is sustainable with long term commitment

If anyone wants a copy of the presentation and handout I left behind just flick me an e-mail to peter@elections.govt.nz. While in Dili I also ran a covering elections training for reporters, helped the NZ Embassy out with its elections assessment, and scoped some possible projects for NZAID.

So, what have the rest of you been up to? Why not add a comment by clicking on "comment" below, or send me an e-mail and I'll add it as a post!

Regards, Peter

Civic Education - UNDP Practice Note

[This is a sample resource posting, please provide information on others that will be of interest.]

Written in 2004 for UNDP staff, this 40-page four part guide available online in .pdf format is likely to be useful for anyone working in civic education, particularly in developing and gaining agreement to strategy, building partnerships, and developing initiatives. The following description draws on the resource's Executive Summary.

Part One defines Civic Education as learning for effective participation in democratic and development processes at both local and national levels. It goes on to describe the three core elements of Civic Education - Civic Disposition, Civic Knowledge and Civic Skills - and emphasizes the inherent relationship between Civic Education and Human Rights.

Part Two focuses on the practicalities of Civic Education programming. Prior to any programme design the importance of understanding Civic Education needs, and what is being done to address those needs, is stressed. The section then presents six possible ways of engaging in Civic Education: three of these address Civic Education within different thematic areas (electoral assistance, crisis prevention and recovery and HIV/AIDS) and three are modality based. Where possible each engagement option has been supplemented with working examples drawn from a variety of countries. For ease of reference a table setting out sample activities for each of the options has also been produced. This section also identifies capacity development priorities for consideration in Civic Education programming. Part Two concludes with a discussion of the importance of developing mechanisms to measure the impact of Civic Education programmes and presents a checklist of points to consider when programming in this area.

Part Three focuses on building progressive partnerships with a number of different actors. The range of likely partners is set out: national governments, civil society organisations, the private sector, the media and political parties, and some of the principal issues arising from working with them are highlighted.

The final section of the paper, Part Four, signposts additional resources and further reading.