Joseph Rowntree Charitable Trust: Community-led approaches to reducing poverty - international development

Overview

International development engages with economically disadvantaged regions in the world to empower people to improve their well-being and address causes of poverty.

JRF is in the process of developing an Anti-Poverty Strategy for the UK. As part of this we need to broaden our knowledge of community-led approaches. We want to learn from international examples of community-led approaches and explore different models of collective action that have worked towards reducing poverty. We know that international development seeks to implement long-term solutions to problems by working with developing countries to create the capacity needed to provide such sustainable solutions.

What can we learn form from such knowledge and experience to support our work with communities in the UK?

We know that the terms community can mean different things to different people. We want this review to be about place-based action and change. When we refer to community, we are not only concerned with the actions of those who live in a place, but also those who work in a place; have a responsibility for it; or a position of power within it. We are interested in community-led approaches at a local level.

The budget for this project is upto £20,000 including VAT.

The project has a timescale of 4 months, starting October 2015.

Background

In relation to international development approaches we are as interested in approaches that are concerned with the role of individuals and relationships in reducing poverty as those approaches which focus on things such as governance, healthcare, education, gender, disaster preparedness, infrastructure, economics and livelihoods, human rights, forced migration, security, conflict, the environment and other associated issues.

Through this review we want to understand the effectiveness / ineffectiveness of community-led approaches to reducing poverty within the international development sector. The review will be used internally to help shape any further work we do in this area. It is also important that the outputs from the review are accessible to those who are at risk of or experiencing poverty, as well as with those working to reduce it.

Aims

The aim of this project is to undertake an international review of the evidence on community-led approaches to reducing poverty in neighbourhoods. You will be able to:

• Identify effective community-led approaches to poverty reduction in neighbourhoods.
• Identify key lessons around what works and identify gaps in knowledge.

JRF’s focus is on poverty in the UK, reviewers will draw on evidence from international development and its applicability to a UK context.

The review should address the following key questions:

• What evidence is there internationally about how to reduce poverty within developing countries, evidencing sustainable solutions?
• To what extent have different community-led approaches been transferred or replicated in different places? How effective has this been? Or could be for the UK?
• What are the ideas and implications for future community-led approaches to reducing poverty?

Please note that other reviews within this programme have examined UK community led action, regeneration, localisation and personal relationships. Though there will inevitably be some overlap among these topics, the review should identify and focus on the lessons to be learnt from international development, community led action and on how networks and relationships function at this level to prevent and reduce poverty.

Outputs

• A draft report.
• A short (approx. 15,000 words) accessible report and an executive summary. (We may publish these in due course via the JRF website).
• Presentation followed by informal debrief.

Funding criteria

The key criteria against which proposals will be judged will be:

• Demonstration of a robust, good quality design appropriate to the project’s aims and the credibility of proposed strategies for identifying, accessing, assessing and reporting on relevant research.
• Ability to identify research led by or involving people with direct experience.
• A bold, explorative approach to the subject.
• Understanding of the policy, practice and community led research in and anti-poverty context.
• Knowledge of the relevant sources of evidence.
• Knowledge of, and access to, relevant networks and contacts to enable the work to be comprehensive, up-to-date and well-grounded.
• Capacity to deliver a high quality output.
• The proposed team’s experience and credentials in relation to the area of work.
• Adequate identification of the key risks and ways to mitigate these.
• Value for money.