Social Mobilization is the overall process of social change, which happens to some parts of the population in countries shifting from traditional to modern ways of life. Furthermore, this is a process of bringing together all feasible and practical inter-sectoral social allies to raise people’s demand for a particular development program, to assist in the delivery of resources and services and t strengthen community participation and engagement for sustainability and self-reliance (McKee, 1992).
SocMob has six elements namely, advocacy, information, education, communication, community organizing, capacity development, networking and alliance building and monitoring and evaluation (Ongkiko, Ila & Flor, Alexander., 2006).
Advocacy empowers individuals to take action. Stakeholders are using different methods and approaches to convince those who can lay a productive role in the implementation.
Information, Education and Communication (IEC) generates knowledgeable and supportive environment for decision-making. It also involves resource mobilization – allocation of resources to inform and engage various stakeholders.
Community Organizing serves as a catalyst for the people to initiate action. To build the capability for problem-solving, decision-making and collective action.
Capacity Development is the process through which individuals, organizations and societies obtain, strengthen and maintain the capabilities to set and achieve their own development objectives.
Networking and alliance building bring together those who have similar interests and programs. Such in the case of four governance – LGUs, NGOs, business sector and civil society.
Monitoring and evaluation determine the effectiveness of the program. It identifies the weak spots and plans on how to improve it.
A good example of social mobilization coupled with social marketing is the Global Classroom STEAM Challenge as discussed in my first activity.
IVECA (Intercultural Virtual Exchange of Classroom Activities) International Virtual Schooling, a non-profit organization that supports international collaborative learning and Samsung Electronics America organized and hosted the “STEAM Education for Global Citizenship to Achieve the SDGs event” at the New York headquarters of United Nations. Part of the GCSC (Global Classroom STEAM Challenge), high school students from the selected five countries – United States, Brazil, China, Korea and Tunisia must showcased their 10-week collaborative project.
Among the solutions presented by students during the event are as follows;
- Propose a website and an NGO (Non-Governmental Organization) that collects and distributes food, a collaborative project by Ross High School Butler Tech – U.S.A. and Science Academy KAIST – Korea. This is to address the “No Poverty” and “Zero Hunger” SDGs.
- Propose educational programs that create jobs and improve the economy through tourism and equal opportunity workplace by Northwest Pennsylvania Collegiate Academy in U.S.A. and International School from Tunisia. Project is to address “Decent Work and economic Growth” and “Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure” SDGs.
- Co-develop devices to reuse recyclables and plastic to cool and improve the quality of air by Downtown College Prep in California, U.S.A and Zhenjiang Vocational Technical College in China to address “Clean Energy”, ‘Climate Action” and “Life on Land” SDGs.
- Propose a website and a mobile application to reduce and manage waste and litter in the communities by The Lawrence County High School in Alabama, U.S.A. and Luiza Formozinho Ribeiro Public School in Brazil. Proposal is to address “Good Health and Well-Being” SDG (Caro, 2018).
The STEAM challenge utilizes social marketing by targeting the goals in SDG that needs urgent attention. The product is the social marketing material, projects are programs and implementation target social mobilization.
The key highlights of social mobilization include the following.
- It is important to understand the conditions under which they can be successful, and the risks of failure associated with them.
- Lack of understanding is prone to selection bias in selected social mobilization strategies.
- Also lack of understanding lead to inflated expectations of the reliability and efficacy of these techniques
- It is right to acknowledge that social mobilization may not be the solution to every individual’s problems but serves as the solution to address the common issues in the community.
- In the planning and implementation, this should be a two-way action (from social marketers and from target audiences)
- And objectives should be S.M.A.R.T. with Key Results embedded
Some samples of social mobilization programs are
Available through https://www.unicef.org/cbsc/files/Scaling_up_nutrition.pdf
Available through https://www.who.int/healthpromotion/conferences/9gchp/policy-brief3-social-mobilization.pdf?ua=1
Social mobilization plays an important role in the advancement of sustainable development policy by making it more responsive and being able to cater to the people’s needs and demands. It also serves as a backbone for strengthening partnership around the world and ensuring that it remains accountable from these demands may it be through health, gender equality, clean air and water, poverty, employment and etc.
References
Ongkiko, Ila & Flor, Alexander. (2006). Introduction to Development Communication. 10.13140/RG.2.1.2952.6887.
Caro, C. (2018, February 13). Achieving the Sustainable Development Goals through STEAM and Global Citizenship Education. GBC. https://gbc-education.org/achieving-the-sustainable-development-goals-through-steam-and-global-citizenship-education/. Accessed (2020, January 23)