IMPACT OF TRAINING PROGRAMS ON CAPACITY BUILDING OF RURAL COMMUNITIES LEADERS (Case of Guli Locality - White Nile State, Sudan)

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1 I J A B E R, Vol. 13, No. 5, (2015): IMPACT OF TRAINING PROGRAMS ON CAPACITY BUILDING OF RURAL COMMUNITIES LEADERS (Case of Guli Locality - White Nile State, Sudan) Elshifa Ali Mirghani 1 Adam Elkhair 2 Abstract: The objectives of this paper is to examine to what extent the efforts encountered by plane Sudan Organization helped in upgrading the capacity of local leaders in Guli Locality. White Nile State, and to validate the relevance of the training topics and efforts exerted in this field. Fire villages were selected out of 36 villages that plan Sudan supported in Guli Locality, with the aim of commencing and leave behind a sustainable rural development. In each village there was a committee of seventeen (17) members nominated by the community. The questionnaire was prepared to collect the quantitative data, as well as qualitative data were also collected from the key information (non- governmental organization managers). Some of the research findings are: - The committees are not limited to male sex. - 96% of the respondents experience leader s role from one year to five years. - 79% acknowledged the usefulness of the training ad ensure that it help them in upgrading their capacity, as well as it facilitates their leadership role. - 99% confirm that the training affect their capacity; make them seeing nothing value than accomplishing objectives. - All the managers mentioned that the most basic topics for capacity building are: group work, meeting management, participation, transparency and team building. - All managers concluded that training always have a priority in all programs they do. Keywords: Rural Development Leadership Capacity Building I. INTRODUCTION Rural community development encompasses a range of approaches and activities that aim to improve the welfare and livelihoods of people living in rural areas. These approaches pay attention to social issues particularly community organizing. Range of community methods have been created and used by organization involved in international development. Most of these efforts to promote rural community development are led by experts from outside the community such as government 1 Sudan University of Science and Technology 2 Sightsaver Organization Khartoum, Sudan

2 3160 Elshifa Ali Mirghani and Adam Elkhair officials, staff of non-governmental organization and foreign advisers. This has led to a long debate about the issue of participation, in which questions have been raised about the sustainability of these efforts, and the extent to which rural people are - or not being empowered to make decisions for themselves. (Seven, A., 2011). The term development is known as dynamic process of improvement, implementing a change, growth and advancement of urban and rural areas, it is also known as the phenomenon in which people can improve the living condition in the world (Andy, C., 2010). Sustainable development focuses on management of change, not of setting and end goal with fixed outcomes, it recognize uncertainties exist, necessitating flexible and ongoing process. It also support the diversity and differences with the local setting (Carol, J; Cory, F., 2001). Rural development also known as a process in which a large number of actors - in many different sectors of society- are involved from the beginning up to the end, where the process of positive capacity building is the backbone of development. Rural organization are effective means and expression of popular participation, only if set in suitable forms based on the principals of self-help, and above all run by the members themselves (Mirghani, 2004). One of the main actors in rural development is the local leaders, since they are closely linked to their communities and known what problems need to be addressed. Therefore an efficient leadership to guide and direct the rural communities to address their needs and facilitate further development is very important. Traditionally leadership in early years has been associated with individual skills characteristics and personal qualities in the leaders (Nivala; Hujalam 2002). A more recent view of leadership is that it is not an isolated activity invested in a single person, but rather that a variety of people contribute to effective leadership, and that leadership is therefore distributed, if this is the case, then preparation for leadership has to be go beyond individual management training since leadership capacities will need to be more widely develop in the team. Leadership is a process by which a person influences others to accomplish an objective and directs the organization in a way that makes it more cohesive and coherent. Leader s carryout this process by applying leadership knowledge and skills. This is called Process Leadership. However, we know that we have traits that can influence our action. This is called Trait Leadership in that it was once common to believe that leaders were born rather than made (Jago, 1982). But good leaders are made not born. If you have the desire and willpower, you can become an effective leader. Good leaders develop through a never ending process of selfstudy, education, training and experience (Lynne; Mike, 2005). Leadership style is the manner and approach of providing direction, implementing plans, and motivation people. There are three major style of leadership: Authoritarian or Autocratic, Participative or Democratic and

3 Impact of Training Programs on Capacity Building of Rural Communities Declarative or Free Reign. A though good leader use all three styles, with one of them normally dominant, bad leader tend to Stick to one style (Kurtm, 1939). Early research on human behavior was directed towards finding inherited traits that would distinguish between leaders and non-leaders. Most researchers today have concluded that inherited characteristics are not crucial to becoming a leader; instead they have focused on a relationship as ability, a process and product. Ability because a leader must have the intellectual awareness to perform in ways that attract others, a process because being a leader calls for developing positive interpersonal relationships with others and a product, because the initiated by the leader and development among group members result in satisfying the group goals (Kelloy Foundation, 2003). Capacity building of leaders: Also referred to as capacity development, is a conceptual approach to development that focuses on understanding the obstacles that inhibit people, governments, international organization and non-governmental organization from realizing their developmental goals while enhancing the abilities that will allow them to achieve measurable and sustainable results. Development of community leaders is a never-ending process beginning with the identification of potential leaders, drawing them into areas of involvement, and providing training. Capacity building is a process that involves value added instruction, the training of trainers, activities with multiplier effects, and networking. It involves both institutional capacity-building, as well as human capacity-building. It ensures the creation of an enabling environment with appropriate policy and legal frameworks; institutional development, including community participation (women in particular); and human resources development and strengthening of managerial system. Like many rural areas in Africa in general and Sudan in particular, a lot of development work is needed to improve livelihood of population. In our study area White Nile State, Guli Locality, the local people face many problems in their daily life. According to primary and secondary sources of information, the communities have permanently settled there for more than hundred years ago i.e. science Al Imam El Mahdi period (1885). The main activities of the population are agriculture and animals raising some families live parallel to the Nile used to practice small-scale fisheries. Despite this long period of settlement, community in the area still lack basic needs (rights) such as basic education, access to water and basic health services and shrinking of livelihood activities. Addressing the above mentioned needs an efficient leadership to guide and direct the community to address these needs and facilitate further development. A glance at local administrative human resources and cadre in the area; leader are those who have deep social and ethnic background coupled with the personal or family economic status.

4 3162 Elshifa Ali Mirghani and Adam Elkhair Plan Sudan is an international, child-centered development organization without religious, political or government affiliation. Plan exists to enable deprived children, their families and communities in poor countries to meet their basic needs (Plan-International.org). Plan Sudan through its indigenous approach of developing rural communities, the community involved from the beginning stage to form a community development committee in each enrolled community. A community development committee (CDC) is a group of elected representatives of a community, for the purpose of coordinating the self-help development of the community, and mobilize rural community for the purpose of overcoming their problems and needs and the problems of change so they know the importance of desirable change. Capacity building intervention for the development of CDC by plan Sudan is viewed as a process of helping leaders to develop their inner strengths for the benefit of the community. Leaders in leadership training learn about their personality, leadership style, management skill, team role preferences, relationship skills, ability to bundle conflicts in order to understand the impact they have on others and how to perform more effectively. They also need to understand leadership function and issues such as team building, networking, collaboration, prioritization participation, etc The main goal of supporting rural leader capacities is to ensure that a constant supply of new leaders are being trained and encouraged to assume leadership positions within rural areas. Despite the importance role of local leadership and the efforts made by plan Sudan organization to upgrade their capacities, for further sustainable impact, but the information obtained from both primary and secondary sources showed that the current conducted training of leader s selection, nomination, low level of knowledge and skills create a challenge on their effectiveness. So, the main objective of this paper is to assess the impact of local leader s training intervention carried-out by plan Sudan organization on their capacity building. Objective of the paper: 1. To examine the efforts encountered by Plan Sudan in upgrading the capacity of local leaders. 2. Validate the relevance of the training topics and efforts exerted in this field II. RESEARCH FOCUS AND METHODOLOGY This study was conducted in Guli Locality, one of the administrative units of White Nile State. The State lies at latitude N and longitude E. It is

5 Impact of Training Programs on Capacity Building of Rural Communities located on the Northern part of Kosti Locality. The target populations of this study are members of development committees in five villages. In each village three were 17 members in the development committee leaders. A combination of quantitative and qualitative research methodologies were used to collect the primary data. Questionnaires supplemented with open ended questions used to collect quantitative data from the interviewees. Qualitative data was collected by semi structured interviews with key informants in the community representing 12 members from the organization managers. Secondary data collected from community based organization reports, website, papers and other relevant documents. The study employed a descriptive analysis for the qualitative data and statistical analysis for the questionnaire data. III. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION Part One: Frequency distribution and percentage: The study shows that (Table 1) 12% of leaders are females. As presented by active women members, Our participation in development committees services three major purposes: Increase women roles in the community, and fulfill the rights to participate in public life. Women will be able to make their voices heard and lobby for implementation of interventions that are directly related to them and their families. Women participation in public life will help in a meliorating negative attitude towards women participation. It is also found that (Table.2) 42% of leaders were young which indicates important observation in relation to the age composition of leaders, was that the majority of leaders are below 51 years, which indicate that the voluntary work is valued within the rural communities. At the same time 19% of member were from the elder generation (51 and above years) which insures that experiences are shared. In summary representation of all year groups in the committees, sharply reduces conflicts in the communities and within the committees. These findings are in accordance with those of Mirghani (2004) who reported that rural organizations are effective means and expression of popular participation, only if set in suitable forms. The study reveals that most of leaders are literate (Table.3), the impact of educational level on people s abilities is to access information, from opinions and have points of view on everything in life, building on this fact the training and capacity building is possible attribute by the NGOs. The study also revealed that leaders have different occupations and spend sometimes in a leader position

6 3164 Elshifa Ali Mirghani and Adam Elkhair (Tables: 4 & 5), and the most two common occupations were farming and teaching. This diversification in occupations allows leaders to have different levels of knowledge, attitudes, skills and perceptions of their community problems, and leads to sustainability of their efforts and empowered to make decisions for themselves. The result agreed with those of Seven et al., (2011) who reported about the issue of participation, in which questions have been raised about the sustainability of these efforts and the extent to which rural people are or not being empowered to make decisions for themselves. The study indicates that (Table.6) there was overwhelming evidence that leader s capacities in development work as a leader is quite satisfied in addition to that training subject received 18%. Also received training on time management, meeting management, accountability and transparency. Training period spent in such course ranging between 3to 14 days. Table (7) shows that committee s members play different roles in the committee, these roles are viewed as being complementary to each other, and they start functioning as a time they were nominated or elected. Among the interviewed members are two jobs create debates in most of the rural areas, due to their highly work pressure and its sensitivity within the public people towards treasures and financial records similar observation were reported by Jago (1982) and Lynne Wilson et al. (2005) in Process Leadership. The study revealed that (Table 8) 79% from the respondent who attended the training ensure that training help in building their capacity, this raise their willing to approach challenges with trust and confidence, thus they were able to influence others, and gain the full trust with their communities. This result is in agreement with a report by Lynne Wilsons et. al. (2005) good leaders are made not born. Results of this study revealed that the committees involved all families in the program schedules as well as all beneficiaries are informed on all project progress/or failure, (Table 9). Table (10) and observation shows that all people like to share with others all the project procedures, challenges and financial cost. The sense of being transparent is witness for attending the training in this subject. 85% of the leaders attend 14 days training, while 15% attend 3 days training. Table (11) recorded that 98% of respondents are keener enough in encouraging others to be more creative and enthusiastic. The committees involvement and coaching in the documentation of the project progress at every stage, help them to be able to measure their progress thus encouraging them to fulfilling the implementation plan in developing their areas, this was clearly noticed during the meeting, where all people are invited. This result supports the work of most researches today which have focus on a relationship as ability, a process and product. The result of this study also showed that most of the leaders 86% ensure that their end target is rectifying errors, for more actuality, regardless of the implication that result from the practice.

7 Impact of Training Programs on Capacity Building of Rural Communities Part Two: Non-governmental Organization Manager s Views: All managers ensure the effectiveness of the training as practical tool for capacity building. They concluded that the training always have apriority in all programs they do. They believe in capacity building as one of most successful and practical tool to commence and accelerated development. All the managers mention the following topics as the most basic capacity skills that the charismatic leaders should have: Group work. Meeting management. Participation. Transparency. Challenges that faced rural development. IV. CONCLUSIONS Rural communities could possibly work together as one body if they find a charismatic leadership. The community leaders are keen enough to make the villages domestic and services accessible. NGOs manager believe in capacity building as one of the most successful and practical tool. General concern to be noticed and care of: The key to dealing with the challenges that face us today is the recognition of principle-cantered core within both ourselves and our organization. Leading is not just a new understanding of how to increase quality and productivity, but also a new appreciation of the importance of building personal and professionals relationships in order to enjoy more balanced, more rewarding and more effective life. Establishing greater sense of urgency, creating the guiding coalition, developing a vision and strategy, communicating change vision, empowering others to act, creating short-term wins, consolidating gains and producing even more change, and institutionalizing new approaches in the future. Table 1 Frequency Distribution and Percentage of Leaders by Gender Gender Frequency Percent Male Female

8 3166 Elshifa Ali Mirghani and Adam Elkhair Table (1) showed that 21% of leaders are female. This indicates that women s participation in rural communities is gaining acceptance. Table 2 Frequency Distribution and Percentage of Leaders by Age Age Frequency Percent Below 25 years years years Above 46 years Table (2) revealed that 42% were young leaders below 25 to 35 years; this indicates the positive attitude of community towards youth participation. Table 3 Frequency Distribution and Percentage of Leaders by Age Educational Level Frequency Percent Illiterate Primary Education Secondary Education Vocational Education University Education Post Graduate Studies Table (3) Demonstrates that most of leaders are Literate, and the majority of them with secondary education and higher Table 4 Frequency Distribution and Percentage of Leaders by Occupation Occupation Frequency Percent Farmer Teacher Student Housewife 0s Others Table (4) Shows that Leader have different occupations and subsequently different capacities.

9 Impact of Training Programs on Capacity Building of Rural Communities Table 5 Frequency Distribution and Percentage of Leaders by the Time he/she is a Leader Time Frequency Percent Less than 1 year years years More than 6 years Table (5) assures that all Leaders spend some of their time in a leadership positions. Table 6 Frequency Distribution and Percentage of Leaders by the Training Courses Received Courses Received Frequency Percent Community Priority Setting Participation Working Together Other Training Courses Table 6 Revealed that 82% of leaders received training in prioritization, participation and working together. 81% received training in time-management accountability, transparency and meeting management Table 7 Frequency Distribution and Percentage of Leaders by Their Role in the Committee Role Frequency Percent Purchasing Committee Member Treasure or Safe Member Other Job inn Committee Table (7) indicates that 18% of Leaders are purchasing members and 6% are treasure members.

10 3168 Elshifa Ali Mirghani and Adam Elkhair Table 8 Frequency Distribution and Percentage of Leaders by the Benefit Gained from the Training Benefit Gained Frequency Percent Valuable Big and Great Table (8) shows that 79% of leaders reported that the benefit is valuable, while 20% ensure that the benefit is big and great. Table 9 Frequency Distribution and Percentage of Leaders by their Attitude towards the Importance of Inform Beneficiaries with Program Feed Back Feed Back Information Frequency Percent Very Important Not at all Table (9) indicates that 98% of Leaders confirmed the importance of program feed back to beneficiaries. Table 10 Frequency Distribution and Percentage of Leaders by Their Role Believe in Transparency Who believe in Transparency Frequency Percent Who Believe Not Believe Table (10) shows that 85% of Leaders expressed their interest and enthusiasm in the benefit gained from transparency. Table 11 Frequency Distribution and Percentage of Leaders by their willing in encouraging others to be Creative and Enthusiastic Encouraging others o be Creative and Enthusiastic Frequency Percent Those who will Those who didn t will 02 02

11 Impact of Training Programs on Capacity Building of Rural Communities Table (11) revealed that 98% of the leaders are much keener enough in encouraging others to be more creative and enthusiastic. Table 12 Frequency Distribution and Percentage of Leaders by their willing to face danger and social risk when rectify errors Face Danger and Risks Frequency Percent Those who willing Those who are not willing Table (12) shows that 86% of the leaders are willing to face danger and risk. References Andy, C., (2007), Priority- Driven Processes: How to Design Processes for Project that use Priority as a key Management Control. White Paper. Andy, C., (2010), Community Development, Ph.D., University of Glasgow. En-Wikipidia.org. Carol, J.; De Vita and Cory. F., (2001), Sustainable Development, Working Paper. Urban Institute, Washington. D.C. Carol, J.; De. Vita and Cory, F., (2001), Building Capacity in non-profit Capacity. The Urban Institute, Washington, D.C. Jago, A.G., (1982), Leadership: Perspectives in Theory and Research. Newlink.com Leadership Style. Keyloy Foudation, (2003), Partnership Project Between Volunteering q/d.org.au/web/docum. Faculty of Education, Queen Land University of Technology. Lynne, W.; Mike, B., (2005), Definition of Leadership. Working Paper, University of Birmingham. U.K. Mirghani, Elshifa, A., (2004), Impact of Participation in Group-based Credit Programs Activities on Rural Women Empowerment. Sudan University of Science and Technology. Ph.D. Thesis. Nivala, V.; Hujala, E., (2002), Leadership in Early Childhood Education, Cross-Cultural Perspectives. Oulu: Early Childhood Education. University of Oulu. Seven, A. B., (2011), E- Learning for Sustainable Development- Rationale, Strategies, Choices, and Action. International Journal of Media, Technology and Lifelong Learning. Vol.7, Issue