National tranining workshop : strengthening popular development organization's capacity to effectively make contributions to and influence policy making process

Abstract

The central theme of this paper is that for NGOs to influence policy and maximize their impact in mainstream development, they must acquire appropriate skills that can influence local and national policies, attitudes and practices which impede self-reliant and sustainable development. In other words, for NGOs to influence policy, be it at the macro or micro level, it is imperative that they create the space to step back from their conventional project work to be able to put effort into learning the skills of policy analysis to shape an alternative vision of development out of their experience of working with the poor.