Sustainable Village Development Plan Template and Guidebook

One major reason for my third year extension was to work with the Ministry of iTaukei (Indigenous) Affairs to develop a process and the tools (guidebook, template, trainings, etc) needed for effective participatory community development planning to take place in every  Fijian village.

This project came to fruition because after helping my community through the process of writing a village development plan, I was approached by the Provincial Council to assist them in doing similar plans for other villages. It was about this time that I just so happened to meet the Manager for Provincial Services, the person in charge of overseeing all the Provincial Councils in Fiji (there are 14 of them). I asked him if there was a template that the government wanted communities to use for village development plans. He told me there was none.... and asked me on the spot if I would be interested in helping create one!

It turns out it was included in their strategic plan for all villages to have  development plans, but no one had given any thought as to how they would achieve this lofty goal. While I didn't feel particularly qualified, I told him I was very interested in helping and at least I had the practical experience from working with my community. My only request was that they would have to find a counterpart for me to work with to ensure their commitment and as well as the sustainability of the whole initiative.

Well, it took about a year for this to happen, but I am happy to say that in February we had our first planning meeting. I presented to the team an overview of what I thought the process could look like and proposed questions I needed them to help me answer. It gave us a good platform from which to start and the group dynamic was great!

We want the plans to be comprehensive, covering all important areas of development. Too many times development is equated with economic development and infrastructure only. We are proposing breaking plans down into focal areas to ensure all important topics are covered. The draft list of focal areas is as follows:

1) Cultural Heritage and Governance

2) Administration and Financial Management

3) Economic Development

4) Health

5) Water and Sanitation

6) Energy

7) Transportation and Accessibility

8) Telecommunication

9) Education

10) Women’s Development

11) Youth Development

12) Vulnerable Community Members (Children, Elderly, Persons Living with Disabilities)

13) Natural Resource Management & Conservation

14) Climate Change Adaptation

15) Disaster Risk Management, Housing and Infrastructure

For each focal area, communities would identify the current status (including issues and opportunities), their goals for the future, actions for achieving those goals, and who will be responsible for ensuring that action takes place. We will be able to provide definitions and examples of best practices within each focal area as part of a guidebook.

Using a Training-of-Trainers (TOT) approach, government officers in each provincial office would receive training in participatory planning, facilitation, and project management.  They would then be tasked to raise awareness about sustainable development planning and the process in each village under their jurisdiction. They would advise communities on how to set up inclusive development committees. 

The village and committee would then choose a community facilitator, using a set of criteria, to be responsible for leading their community through the process. This person would then be trained by the Provincial Council in the same areas mentioned above. Upon return to their community, they would have the guidebook and some basic supplies to support their efforts. The Provincial Office will be able to provide support but it is intended for the plan to be written by the community for the community. 

Now that we've been able to develop an overview of what we are proposing, we must present it to the government higher ups for their approval. If/when they approve, it will become a budgeted program and we'll be able to take off running with more planning and stakeholder outreach, as there are a lot of experienced people and organizations we're hoping to collaborate with. Hopefully we will be able to present in the next few weeks! We're just waiting for confirmation of the next meeting date of the Management Board. 

I'm really excited about the potential this initiative could have for helping communities across Fiji and honored to be a part of it. It's a different kind of experience and challenge than that which I have working in the village. However, I am able to incorporate all that I've learned from working with my community, what has worked and what hasn't. Unlike an NGO who might facilitate community planning and then back out, I've been able to see the issues we've had in implementing the plan first hand. I hope we can prevent some of these by tweaking the process for community engagement and expanding the topics covered in the plan template.

Most importantly, it's a learning process for the community. It's almost certain a plan will never follow it's proposed timeline on Fiji time, but it's really the process that's important -- having a community start talking about their issues and what they themselves can do to solve them.