Local Partnerships and Community Mobilization

Involving community members in a way that promotes their ownership over decision-making and builds the knowledge and skills to carry out those decisions is a complex task. Yet Mercy Corps’ experience leads us to believe that it is an essential component of supporting rapid recovery and lasting change. Empowering people to be their own agents of change is the underlying goal of ‘community mobilization.’

In recognition that community mobilization is integral to the success of lasting recovery and development programme impacts, Mercy Corps currently operates upwards of 50 projects with major community mobilization components in over 30 countries worth approximately £180 million dollars. From Afghanistan to Zimbabwe, and across sectors like health, natural resource management and peacebuilding, Mercy Corps applies community mobilization approaches to facilitate the process of citizens organising for positive social change. Sustained mobilization takes place when communities remain active and empowered after the programme ends. Final evaluations from a decade of implementation experience and post-programme research help us understand the community-level transformation and what changes last.

Download our Community Mobilization Approach below to read more about our strategy.

Mercy Corps believes that partnership is critical to achieving deep impact, sustainability, and amplifying reach. We collaborate with a diverse range of partner agencies and institutions at all levels of the public, private and civil society sectors to address the global challenges that drive our work. See the list at the right for a few of our current international partners.