Data

Face-to-Face, Online, or Both?
Face-to-Face
General Type of Method
Community development, organizing, and mobilization
Typical Purpose
Deliver goods & services
Develop the civic capacities of individuals, communities, and/or civil society organizations
Spectrum of Public Participation
Collaborate
Collections
Linking Participation and Economic Advancement
Links
https://www.sparkmicrogrants.org/
Videos
History of Spark
Open to All or Limited to Some?
Limited to Only Some Groups or Individuals
Recruitment Method for Limited Subset of Population
Captive Sample
Number of Participants
Medium size groups
Small groups
Large groups
Types of Interaction Among Participants
Discussion, Dialogue, or Deliberation
Negotiation & Bargaining
Ask & Answer Questions
Facilitation
Yes
Decision Methods
General Agreement/Consensus
Idea Generation
Scope of Implementation
Neighbourhood
Level of Polarization This Method Can Handle
Low polarization
Level of Complexity This Method Can Handle
Moderate Complexity

METHOD

Spark Microgrants

Face-to-Face, Online, or Both?
Face-to-Face
General Type of Method
Community development, organizing, and mobilization
Typical Purpose
Deliver goods & services
Develop the civic capacities of individuals, communities, and/or civil society organizations
Spectrum of Public Participation
Collaborate
Collections
Linking Participation and Economic Advancement
Links
https://www.sparkmicrogrants.org/
Videos
History of Spark
Open to All or Limited to Some?
Limited to Only Some Groups or Individuals
Recruitment Method for Limited Subset of Population
Captive Sample
Number of Participants
Medium size groups
Small groups
Large groups
Types of Interaction Among Participants
Discussion, Dialogue, or Deliberation
Negotiation & Bargaining
Ask & Answer Questions
Facilitation
Yes
Decision Methods
General Agreement/Consensus
Idea Generation
Scope of Implementation
Neighbourhood
Level of Polarization This Method Can Handle
Low polarization
Level of Complexity This Method Can Handle
Moderate Complexity

Spark MicroGrants provide funding for community-driven development. The Spark Approach is based on six key phases: community building, goal setting, proposal development, technical advisor review, implementation, and future envisioning.

Problems and Purpose

Spark Microgrants is a US-based organization founded to empower community-driven development in response to the marginalization of impoverished communities by foreign aid programs. Without proactive involvement and empowerment of local communities, projects led by external agencies have the potential to fail [1].

In response, Spark developed their six phase process for funding and maintaining development projects. The aims of this approach are to ensure that projects are driven by communities and their participation, and that projects are sustainable in the long-term, beyond Spark's involvement.

Origins and Development

Know how and why this method was developed? Help us complete this section!

Participant Recruitment and Selection

Spark processes have taken place in Rwanda, Burundi, Uganda, Democratic Republic of Congo and Ghana. The projects take place at the village level.

How it Works: Process, Interaction, and Decision-Making

The Spark process fits into the broader approach of community driven development. These approaches ensure that active collaboration with and participation of communities is at the core of proposed development projects. This is in contrast to traditional Western development approaches where outside organizations come into a community and implement a project without community involvement, resulting in ineffective interventions that do not empower or help affected communities [2]

The Spark Approach involves six phases taking place over two years:

  1. Community building: designed to identify expectations between Spark and the community, and begin developing a community vision
  2. Goal setting: identifying and prioritizing objectives and researching how to meet them
  3. Proposal development: developing a concrete proposal including operations and logistics
  4. Technical advisor: an external expert works with communities to review the proposal and support them to strengthen it
  5. Implementation: communities receive the Spark Microgrant and begin implementing their proposal
  6. Future envisioning: communities consider the future of the project beyond the grant and build local networks

Facilitation is a central feature of the Spark approach. A local (to the project) university graduate is employed as a facilitator to guide conversations with the community. This person is involved with facilitating and assisting the community to implement the process over the two years [3].

Influence, Outcomes, and Effects

Spark cites a range of impacts achieved from its initiatives:

  • 50/50 gender balance in community participation
  • 44% elected leaders are women
  • 6/10 communities go on to launch a second project independent from the original Spark process
  • 85% communities continue to meet independently after the Spark process ends
  • 86% projects sustained independently after the two years [4]

Analysis and Lessons Learned

Want to contribute an analysis of this method? Help us complete this section!

See Also

References

[1] Spark Microgrants (2020). About Us. Available at: https://www.sparkmicrogrants.org/about-spark (Accessed 12 August 2020)

[2] McCordic, C., Pardello, R. Artibello, J. and LaLonde, J. (2020). Making Decisions, Not Bricks: Collaborative Decision Making in Community-Led Development Projects. Interdisciplinary Journal of Partnership Studies. 7(1), Article 6. https://doi.org/10.24926/ijps.v7i1.2966 (Accessed 12 August 2020).

[3] Spark Microgrants (2020). The Spark Process. Available at: https://www.sparkmicrogrants.org/the-spark-process#spark-process-the-phases (Accessed 12 August 2020).

[4] Spark Microgrants (2020). Our Impact. Available at: https://www.sparkmicrogrants.org/our-impact (Accessed 12 August 2020)

External Links

https://www.sparkmicrogrants.org/

Notes

Lead image: UN Women Pacific/Facebook, http://bit.ly/2D6vMG2 

The first submission of this Participedia entry was adapted from a research project by the Institute of Development Studies, 'Linking Participation and Economic Advancement’ licensed and reproduced under Creative Commons (CC BY 3.0).

Original source: https://www.eldis.org/keyissues/mapping-participation-economic-advancement