Building trust between ICC and local communities

Involving Communities in Monitoring: A Practical Approach Early in my career as an Accountability to Affected Populations (AAP) specialist, I recognized the importance of placing communities at the center of monitoring processes. One of the practical strategies I proposed to the Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E) teams was the formation of community-based monitoring groups. These groups included secondary school leavers, fresh graduates, and other motivated community members. The process involved: 1. Selection of Community Monitors: Identifying individuals from the affected communities with basic literacy and a strong interest in community welfare, especially young people seeking experience. 2. Capacity Building: Training these community monitors alongside NGO monitoring teams on essential skills — such as data collection, observation, interviewing techniques, ethics, and reporting. 3. Joint Monitoring Exercises: Integrating the trained community members into routine monitoring activities. Their local knowledge often enhanced access, contextual understanding, and trust between the community and program teams. 4. Feedback and Community Sharing: After completing the monitoring process, findings were summarized and shared back with the communities in accessible, culturally appropriate formats — such as through community meetings, radio broadcasts, posters, or even mobile SMS alerts where possible. This helped close the feedback loop, promote transparency, and enhance community ownership of humanitarian interventions. Key Lessons: Community involvement in monitoring strengthens trust, improves data accuracy, and builds local capacity. Young people, especially school leavers and fresh graduates, represent an underutilized resource in crisis-affected areas. Sharing monitoring results in appropriate formats ensures communities remain informed and can hold humanitarian actors accountable.

This is the most frequent question I get from the coliving industry: How do you get the local community so involved? Most projects have an inspiring space. But they often have trouble engaging with the local community. They are sometimes seen an aliens, specially if they are in urban areas. And they do not know what to do. I always answer: "By building trust". This takes time. It is slow cooking. And needs to be in the core of your activity. The same way you invest time and resources in building infraestructure, you should do the same for generating trust. Although there are no shortcuts, there are ways to speed it up.  Or at least to make sure your efforts take you in the right direction. These are my top 10 trust enablers I have learnt and practiced at ROORAL. 1. Who you are introduced by is crucial. Tell me who you go with, and I’ll tell you who you are. 2. There is not a second opportunity to generate a first good impression. Be intentional. 3. Listen more than talk. No one likes a charlatan. And do it with curiosity. 4. Their interests become yours. Take care of them and they will take care of you. 5. Deliver what you promise. You will loose trust in buckets if you don’t. 6. Talk their language. Use their words. Small local gestures take you a long way. 7. Be low profile. Do not over react. Keep your feet on the ground. 8. Gift. Without expecting anything in return. It rewires brains. 9. Go through challenges together. Be ready for them because you will be tested. 10. Be authentic to yourself. Authenticity is the biggest magnet. And the most important: "Trust them. And they will trust you back." Because trust has a multiplying effect. Like love.  The more you give it, the more you get it back. These principles have moved me from urban foreigner to adopted neighbour in the villages we worked with. You can apply them in a rural community. A job. Or even a date. At the end trust is the foundational element of any relationship. What are trust enablers that have worked for you? If you want to receive more rural insights & reflections for a more aligned & conscious life, subscribe to our newsletter. Link in comments 👇

Another mid-week musing...How do we build those important bonds and bridges between our neighborhoods and their anchor institutions? Would love to see cities hiring community organisers (or hosted through PPP's) as a way to deepen civic engagement and strengthen democratic capacity. Community organisers act as trusted intermediaries (reflecting those we seek to represent) between local government and residents, particularly in underserved neighborhoods, helping to build relationships, surface local priorities, and foster inclusive participation. Their role is essential in bridging the gap between institutions and communities, which enhances legitimacy and trust in public decision-making. By embedding organisers within city systems, local governments can tap into existing grassroots knowledge, networks, and informal assets. This enables more effective, place-based problem-solving and supports the co-production of solutions rather than top-down service delivery and finding anecdotal evidence to prove their success. Organisers empower residents to be active participants in shaping their neighborhoods, helping cities become more agile and adaptive in the face of complex challenges. I'm a big fan of localism and this approach reflects the core tenets of that, which prioritises bottom-up innovation, cross-sector collaboration, and the mobilisation of local assets. Employing community organisers embeds these principles into practice, creating more equitable, responsive, and resilient urban governance. It positions cities not just as service providers, but as facilitators of civic power and collective action.