The Empowered Communities Network (ECN)

Since 1991, Tostan has sought to create opportunities for communities that have completed the Community Empowerment Program (CEP), particularly to initiate projects that help them apply the knowledge and skills they have learned towards the development of their community. 

 

Tostan thus created what we call the Empowered Communities Network (ECN) to link Tostan-educated communities with potential African or international partners.
 
In 2000, Tostan began training a Community Management Committee (CMC) in each participating village during the first year of the CEP. Since then, Tostan has trained over 1,000 CMCs in six regions of Senegal and the four natural regions of Guinea, as well as in The Gambia and Somalia. A CMC is a group of 17 members chosen democratically by the entire community to represent community interests. Their first responsibility is to listen to and translate everyone's hopes and dreams for the community's future into an achievable plan of action. Through subcommittees within the CMC focusing on the environment, community health, social mobilization, education, income-generating activities, committee finances and external relations, the CMC contributes to making the community's vision for a better tomorrow a reality.
 
Over the past seven years, CMCs have created grassroots partnerships and sought legal status as official community-based organizations in both Senegal and Guinea in order to partner with local government agencies, microfinance institutions, and service-delivery NGOs. These CMCs have subsequently created federations to share information and propose collective projects in villages within a given region.  

Inspired by these actions, Tostan now facilitates long-term partnerships for dynamic CMCs, connecting them with Africa-based and international NGOs, service providers, businesses, and government agencies interested in funding small and sustainable community-led development projects. These groups are specialized in a wide variety of sectors: microfinance support and training, the promotion of appropriate and integrated technologies (water pumps, solar energy, fuel-efficient wood stoves, etc.), health services, organizational capacity building, natural resource management, and agricultural technologies and training.

Eventually, Tostan envisions federations collaborating across borders at the grassroots level throughout Africa. Autonomous in their search for resources for community development, the communities in the network will no longer need Tostan or any other NGO to facilitate these relationships. Tostan calls on NGOs, governments, and businesses based in Africa and internationally to contribute to this process. As the Fula people of Africa say, "A person cannot sit down alone to plan for prosperity."

For inquiries about how you or your organization can partner with CMCs and federations through the Empowered Communities Network, please email info@tostan.org.