Stichting Connect International

Connect International supports and strengthens local partner organizations in developing countries to facilitate rural communities to achieve the Millennium Development Goals and make an End of Poverty. Together with our partner organizations we have developed an innovative concept for achieving this. We call it:

The SMART Concept.

At the community level the concept has two important principles:

1. People's priorities - Communities are assisted to assess their own circumstances, prioritize their problems and needs, and develop community development plans based on their priorities, taking into account the different needs of different groups (women, children, elderly, poor, rich, etc.) in the community.
2. Self-responsibility - Communities are responsible for their own development. We help them with things they cannot reasonably be expected to do or know themselves.

This leads to ownership over the developments which forms a solid basis for sustainability of achieved results and people's self-esteem and pride. It also enables communities to live in a better and more joyful way together with an attitude changing from pessimism to an enthusiastic feeling of 'We can end poverty ourselves!'

At the community level the SMART Concept comprises the following standard process:

1. Villages are invited and request for inclusion in the program.
2. Village leaders commit to facilitate the program in their community and are trained and coached to do so.
3. The community assesses its problems, needs, priorities, dreams and vision for the future through a Participatory Rural Appraisal (PRA) or an Appreciative Inquiry (AI)
4. Household surveys are conducted to obtain information about the health, health awareness, welfare and well-being of ad randomly selected households, at the beginning, during and at the end of the program activities. The data and reports generated are used for community development planning, progress evaluation, and scientific research.
5. Formation of community committees (e.g. watsan, health and other committees).
6. Other investigations, usually conducted or guided by experts working as much as possible with and through the community members.
7. Formation of Village Action Groups (VAG's) in the community. These are self help groups that meet weekly
8. Community development planning.
9. Training and coaching of the community comittees.
10. Training and coaching of VAG leaders (monthly to bi-monthly).
11. Micro projects such as construction of schools and clinics, water points, agriculture, etc.

For more information about the SMART Concept see the attached document.