The Coady International Institute is an independent unit of Saint Francis Xavier University. Founded in 1959, the Institute is dedicated to training the leaders of community organizations, NGOs, local governments and institutions to improve the living conditions of poor communities, especially in developing countries.
The Institute's perspective is essentially defined by its training method, its parallel activities in research and development of training materials, and its involvement in international networks.
The Institute works with an annual budget of US$3,700,000. It receives funding from the Canadian federal government through the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA), from public and private donors, and through its own activities (registration fees, projects and consulting services).
The Millennium Development Goals are a blueprint agreed to by all the world's countries and leading development institutions.
Civil society organizations, local governments and NGOs play a crucial role in working towards these global goals. These entities work to improve living conditions at the local level in a way that respects the unique characteristics of each locale and supports community-based development processes.
Today's major development organizations and their leaders must be prepared to respond creatively and dynamically to rapidly changing contexts. Knowledge, training and the ability to transfer development experiences are therefore essential to the success of civil society organizations, especially in today's world, where rapid global transformations can have a profound impact on the organization and mobilization of people and communities around the world.
The Coady International Institute is dedicated to supporting and strengthening associations that work at the local and/or national levels to achieve the Millennium Development Goals through local, community-based development.
The Coady International Institute is an independent unit of Saint Francis Xavier University . Founded in 1959, the Institute is dedicated to training the leaders of community organizations, NGOs, local governments and institutions to improve the living conditions of poor communities, especially in developing countries.
The Institute's perspective is essentially defined by its training method, its parallel activities in research and development of training materials, and its involvement in international networks.
The Institute works with an annual budget of US$3,700,000. It receives funding from the Canadian federal government through the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA), from public and private donors, and through its own activities (registration fees, projects and consulting services).
The activity of the Coady International Institute is based on a tradition that dates back to the 1920s, when Moses Coady began pioneering a popular education and community organizing in the area surrounding Saint Francis Xavier University ( Canada ). In 1928, the university's Extension Department was founded on the six guiding principles of the Antigonish Movement:
The primacy of the individual.
Social reform must come through education.
Education must begin with the economic.
Education must be through group action.
Effective social reform involves fundamental changes in social and economic institutions.
The ultimate objective of the movement is a full and abundant life for everyone in the community.
The following are the main goals of the Coady International Institute:
To provide education for action.
To provide local leaders with a transformative learning experience that equips them with new knowledge and practical skills that they can use to help develop their communities.
To deepen knowledge of local community development proposals.
To develop materials to train grassroots organizations and communities in community organization methods and microcredits.
Due to its extensive experience in the field of adult education, the Coady International Institute initially focused its efforts on training the leaders of grassroots community organizations, NGOs and institutions dedicated to the struggle against poverty. The Institute eventually began to see the need to complement the education of graduate students and to carry out training and research activities tailored to each local context. As a result, it defined two major areas of activity: 1) training, and 2) research and cooperation.
The Institute currently offers four educational programs:
Diploma program: This 23-week face-to-face educational program is designed for experienced leaders of civil society organizations and social movements.
Certificate program: The Institute offers nine three-week courses that focus on specific topics.
Master of Adult Education – Community Development Stream: This program, created in 2005, relies mostly on distance-learning methods, including professional internships at international institutions or foundations.
Distance learning: Since 2006, the Institute has offered a distance-learning course on community-based microcredits.
Women and Aboriginal people are given priority in the student selection process. The Institute only accepts applications from active members of civil society organizations with demonstrable experience. With the exception of the master's program, a formal university education is not a prerequisite for admission to the Institute's programs. However, applicants are expected to demonstrate a minimum level of studies and, most importantly, competence in the English language.
The Institute offers a scholarship program, which also gives priority to women and Aboriginal people. In awarding scholarships, the Institute does not consider income levels, since it is assumed that all participants will use their training for social purposes and therefore improve the general living conditions of their communities.
The research and cooperation projects are:
1. Asset-based community development
The main activities of this international area of research are as follows:
Documenting and analyzing existing international examples of community-driven and asset-based development.
Exploring ways in which an asset-based community development approach can be successfully applied in various international contexts.
Assessing the implications of an asset-based approach for the role of NGOs, local governments and other intermediaries.
Identifying the optimal policy and regulatory environment for the successful application of asset-based community development projects.
2. Microfinance
In 2005, the Ford Foundation entrusted the Institute with assessing the implementation of a rural microcredit program over the course of three years. In 2006, the Institute formed a permanent microcredit group that works on cooperation projects with microfinance organizations in India, participates in international conferences and publishes academic papers and books. The Institute has published three training manuals that focus on microcredits.
3. Peacebuilding and conflict transformation
The following are some of the Institute's most important projects in this area:
A five-year project to develop a culture of peace in post-war Sierra Leone. Three local organizations and two conflict-management organizations are also involved in this project.
Collaboration with the Talaat Harb Center for Training and Consultancy and the Coptic Evangelical Organization for Social Services in Cairo, Egypt, to develop peacebuilding training materials.
4. First Nations fisheries
The Institute collaborates with fishery organizations in three Canadian provinces to promote traditional fishing practices that are sustainable and environmentally friendly. Through hands-on training programs, professional fishermen are taught traditional fishing techniques.
5. Advocacy and networking
Civil society organizations and social movements need to be engaged in influencing political programs and national legislation. Their participation encourages the development of social policies focused on community development and guarantees the transparency of the processes and the commitment of political actors.
The Institute is currently involved in training and support programs in Namibia, Egypt and India that aim to prepare civil society to participate in the development of social policies.
6. Global partnership program
The Institute provides support and trained personnel to local development organizations in various regions of the world. Through these activities, the Institute has formed an international network of local collaborators and partners that provides mechanisms for disseminating best practices and debating issues related to community development.
The overall results of the Coady International Institute can be summarized as follows:
Over the years, 5,000 local leaders from 130 countries have graduated from the Institute, which represents an average of over 100 participants per year in the various training courses.
The Institute engages in an ongoing learning process to refine its educational methods. In order to offer a truly practical education, the Institute continually works to develop innovative curricular content, cooperative techniques and a wide range of focused methods.
The Institute's research—and especially its action research—involves participatory techniques.
The following are some of the Institute's quantitative results for 2007:
Creation of ten community-based development training manuals, which can be used to offer training programmes suited to specific local needs.
Publication of five scientific articles documenting learning processes and innovative practices in various local contexts.
Preparation of five case studies using community-based research techniques.
guninetwork.org | Ph: +34 93 401 70 08 | Fx: +34 93 401 08 55 | C. Jordi Girona, 31. Edifici TG(S1). E-08755 Barcelona
