Plan Together

Why plan together?

Many questions arise when we consider bringing different individuals and groups together to plan. Why do we need to plan together at all? Won’t people just take action once they are aware of the health issues? Why not develop an action plan only with the core group? They are the ones who are most affected by the problem.

Why not develop an action plan only with community leaders and health workers? They have the knowledge and power to do something about the problem. Why doesn’t the program team develop the plan and then present it to the leaders for approval? The team has already talked to everybody and is paid to do this. Why go to all the trouble of bringing together all these people who sometimes don’t even speak the same language?

These are among the questions we will consider in this phase. As in all previous phases, we are assuming for the purposes of this field guide that the program team members are not from the community (as the core group is) but belong to an external organization.

It is important to keep the underlying themes and group development stages, including “forming , “storming”, and “norming” in mind as you develop the planning process.