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 make an End of Poverty ourselves!'

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

1. Villages are invited and request for inclusion in the community development program.
2. Village leaders commit themselves to facilitate the program in their community and are trained and coached to do so.
3. The community assesses its problems, needs and priorities and also its 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 randomly selected households, at the beginning, during and at the end of the program activities. The data are used for community development planning, progress evaluation, and scientific research. The data are stored in and analyzed with our SMART Survey program which is built in SPSS software
5. Formation of community committees for as far as required and wished by the community (watsan, health and other committees).
6. Depending on the outcome of the self analysis and the household surveys other investigations may be carried out, usually conducted or guided by experts from the NGO, district authorities or another party, and as much as possible with and by community members.
7. Formation of household groups in the community.
8. Community development planning.
9. Training and coaching of the community comittees.
10. Community Vulnerability Analysis (CVA).
11. Micro projects.

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