Hi Didi:

That is a really wonderful concept. Pride and participation are definitely key aspects of community based projects and often these get forgotten within the technicalities. We are trying to target the pride and participation aspects here in Pakistan through a project called Goodnews.pk. It's a completely UGC website which has all the positive, uplifting stories coming out of Pakistan and by Pakistani's around the world. It's a fresh perspective and could also link to the tourism concept as it shows a different side of a country often portrayed in the global media as a timebomb.

Look forward to more of your thoughts and ideas.

I recently finished conducting a study on entreprenuerial youth in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region. One of the study findings highlighted the dire need in that region for a robust ecosystem of support for young entrepreneurs, including collaboration between all sectors (including the youth), in order for success to occur. Howard Gardner ("Multiple Intelligences" theorist) said that authentic alignment in an ecosystem results when the values held by all stakeholders run parallel. In the ecosystem of support for young entrepreneurs, as you mentioned, it is very important to 1) help the youth reflect on and determine their own authentic values and 2) understand from the point of view of society what exactly their need (societal value) is. When these two sets of voices are heard and aligned at the center of the ecosystem, it's much easier for the remaining stakeholders to determine whether they are aligned with the core values/need of society or not and whether and how they can proceed from there. A robust and aligned ecosystem of support for any entrepreneur would be a good surrounding ring to add to this model.

Hi Megan:

Thanks for your comment and questions. They are important questions indeed. The organization I work for has been trying and testing various forms of participation from simple corner meeting style dialogues, to encouraging written proposals for various gaps and initiatives that the community is interested in addressing. Your question has led me to think about and document our observations.

The biggest incentive for communities that we saw was "Implementation." If dialogue and participation led to implementation of programs on the ground, the community was incentivized for the next round. For e.g. we engaged the community in a severely flood affected area of Punjab to discuss what kind of skills training programs could be introduced in the area. The first dialogues were slow and resistant, but when we arrived to some conclusions, along with the community's participation we implemented a Construction Skills Training program within a matter of weeks on the ground. When we went for the second round, to assess more potential trades, it was extremely smooth and the community took the lead role.

So to answer your question, what we've seen so far is that, "Implementation is the biggest incentive." Would love to hear if yourself or others have further observations on incentives for participation.

Thanks again.

Hi Majid,

Thanks for your insight. I really appreciate your example. In a community facing decline, people most often become discouraged and lack a desire to participate - so I imagine what you are saying to be completely true. If people believe in the possibility of results, they are more apt to participate.

Thinking along the lines of your initial example (unemployment among 18-30 yr olds), to gain initial participation, I would imagine using resources already in place such as public education sources, community based organizations and open source applications to encourage a first level of participation. How successful were your corner style discussions and calls for proposals? How did your organization publicize the call for participation? Thanks Majid! great work.

Hi Alicia:

You are 100% right! Although participation is a cross cutting theme of the above model, I should update the Concept to show how participation is reflected. Will try to think about this (God willing).

I also really appreciate your comment about other thematic causes of economic underdevelopment. It made me thing that there should be a series of models like this for each area Education, Health, Livelihoods, Infrastructure & Environment. As my personal area of specialization is income generation initiatives, I would invite specialists in Education, Health, Infrastructure and Environment to brainstorm how we could develop a clean and succinct models for each of these areas to be used in unison.

Regards.

Hi Meena! Thanks for the comment. Can definitely provide some examples and will make sure to update the entry as well. I have provided an example scenario below:

Scenario: A community is facing unemployment in the youth between 18-30 years of age which is causing a lack of motivation, vibrancy, creativity and activism

Using the Sweet Spot model, we would first target the "Will & Skill" segment and go through a series of dialogues with the youth community. What kind of skills and interests do they have? Does this community have a certain knack or aptitude in something? Are there any gaps that need to be filled? For e.g. maybe a lot of youth in the area is interested in contributing to the hi-tech industry but not sure how.

Secondly, we would look at local Market Dynamics. Is there any local industry around that is facing gaps? What are the competitive and resource advantages of the local region? We might find that there are Technology companies in need of highly skilled technicians and are having to source them from outside the region at high rates.

Lastly, we have to look within. What kind of resources do we have as an institution or project, to mitigate these gaps. Does funding have to be raised? Can resources be mixed and matched in order to create value? We might find that a Skill Centre can be lobbied to open up a branch in the locality and money can be raised for scholarships.

Simply by Hearing, Creating, and Delivering (HCD) and finding The Sweet Spot, market linkages can be made to spark economic activity, and restore vibrancy.

Hope that makes sense.

Great example – and so glad you've added it to your concept post as well. Way to go!

Dear Meena. Thanks for your comments and helping me create a more well rounded concept. Hope you could develop on it in some way. What do you do for a living?

Just read your profile for the first time! Dream job that's for sure!