Mobilisation plays a critical role in every development project. It ensures that beneficiaries actively participate in development. It is claimed that the mobilisation brings beneficiaries from a no participation or passive participation scenario to active participation stage. Arnstein, Sherry R. the author of “A Ladder of Citizen Participation,” 1969, explains eight rungs of participation. The highest level in the ladder of participation is “Citizen Control” ideally where good governance comes into action.
Many tools are employed to mobilise people. The argument is “too many mobilisation activities lead to passive or no participation again; going downward the ladder”. Because development issues and constraints drive the participation of rural communities. Unless they are addressed within a reasonable period of time, chances are that communities lose their faith in the process, leading to passive participation. Experiences show that levels of participation of rural communities vary, which needs studying carefully prior to mobilisation activities. Failure to do so, only leads to either passive participation or no participation. It could well be that with some rural communities a whole range of mobilisation activities do not need rolling out as outlined in a project proposal.
As an example, “Urgency” is a prominent characteristic among small scale fisher communities. Their urgency manifests in the process of fishing and literally in every routine action. They are quick in every aspect of life when compared to other communities. If mobilization activities mismatch with the fisher community dynamics, there is less participation or insubordination from them. Project plans or proposal often have time-frames or complicated flow of mobilisation strategies; however, implementers need to understand rural communities first and adapt or adopt mobilisation strategies to match the dynamics of rural communities. With one community, a transect walk will trigger stewardship in natural resource governance whereas in some other, it will happen at the end of a project.
