• To reestablish informal local governance in situations of a chaotic or failed state and in the absence of a functioning national government.
• To demonstrate the benefits of participatory decision-making through tangible projects that have immediate benefits.
• To bring former enemies together to decide common priorities.
• To build trust among participants (including trust between the community and donors).
• To identify and facilitate the growth of new leadership within the community.

• Create informal local rehabilitation/development councils with wide community participation.
• Support activities identified by local associations such as shelter, livestock, and income generation.
• Fund grants to communities to repair and re-open community centers, markets, and schools that benefit everyone.
• Find relevant international NGOs and donors to meet community needs in delivery of health and education services.
• Establish links between public officials and ordinary citizens through organization and implementation of community improvement projects.

In post-conflict Kosovo, OTI helped Kosovars establish Community Improvement Councils (CICs). These CICs were composed of 12-15 people who reflected the diversity of their local population. They identified their community's priority reconstruction needs and OTI provided the material resources. Together, OTI and the CICs implemented more than 375 community improvement projects, including the reconstruction of schools, roads, community centers, and markets. The CICs emerged as representatives of their communities, providing other donors and international organizations with information on real needs and priorities as defined by Kosovars themselves.

To facilitate positive, community-based interaction among diverse groups of people in Macedonia and to encourage citizen participation in community decision-making, OTI supported 210 multi-ethnic initiatives through small grants in its first year alone. During FY 2002, approximately 5,000 people were directly involved in identifying, designing, and implementing these local projects, while tens of thousands participated in and benefited from them. Projects included small-scale infrastructure reconstruction, such as repair of schools and clinics; removal of hate graffiti; rehabilitation of parks, cultural centers, and recreation facilities to promote positive social interaction between groups; and multi-cultural events such as volunteer clean-up days, concerts, sports competitions, dance performances, summer camps, and art exhibitions. OTI-funded projects brought together different ethnic groups, members of opposing political parties, and different age groups, some for the first time since the conflict. By providing immediate, tangible signs of peace and progress at the community level, OTI worked to make hope a reality.

Lessons Learned about Community-Based Approaches

OTI's program in Macedonia supports projects identified and implemented by communities themselves. In this village in southern Macedonia, OTI provided the materials, while villagers provided the labor necessary to rehabilitate a road linking their health clinic and mayor's office to the main road.

Participants at USAID/OTI and UNDP/ERD's roundtable on "Community-Based Reintegration and Rehabilitation in Post-Conflict Settings" outlined the following recommendations for these types of programs:

• Allow for flexibility within community-based programs. Flexibility is crucial to allow for changes in the political and economic context, as well as the different needs of each community.
  
  
• Define the objectives of community engagement. There is a need to define the ultimate objectives of a community-based approach, whether it is reconciliation and political empowerment or community engagement and project development. A focus on building democratic processes may mean that projects take longer to implement.
  
  
• Plan for longer-term engagement with communities. International organizations generally do not allow for sufficient time to engage with local communities. Development specialists should be on staff from the early stages of relief operations to improve relations and hand-off between emergency relief and development actors.
  
  
• Plan for consistent funding and program approaches to post-conflict community programming. The international community may take different approaches to engaging local populations in programs. To remedy this, there needs to be a more coherent and continuous commitment to using local structures, supporting local capacities, and building on them through advocacy development, training, and capacity building.
  
  
• Recognize the influence of international organizations on the community. The conscious or unconscious influence from international organizations often subtly dictates the direction of community change.
  
  
• Understand local cultures. International actors need to possess a better understanding of the local cultures in which they work. International organizations should conduct a conflict analysis to include an examination of specific local issues and relationships prior to or at the early stage of project design. Practitioners need to develop a greater understanding of regional politics and influences, as well as a deeper recognition of the root causes of the conflict.
  
  
• Promote better donor coordination. Create a common, country- or region-wide vision that can help to direct resources, diminish the funding and programmatic gaps, and influence the central/local government.