MSF Urban Spaces
ABOUT THIS COURSE

MSF Urban Spaces course is an online opportunity to learn how to organise action with local communities by mobilising volunteers. The course is based on the practical experience created during the MSF Urban Spaces initiative, a TIC supported initiative which run between 2018 and 2021. The initiative has engaged ten MSF entities in Africa, the Americas, Asia, and Europe, and has been implemented in fifteen cities, focusing on the topics of migration, climate change, and COVID-19 response. Through this, over 100 partnerships with civil society actors have been formed and over 10,000 individual citizens have been reached and engaged in solidarity action. Based on this experience, this course explores how organising action with communities is exercised by creating partnerships, developing a concrete strategy, taking action, and sustaining it.  


TARGET AUDIENCE

This course is for everyone within MSF who works with community engagement and who is or wants to become an organiser of action with communities with the aim to create change.  

There are no pre-requisites. Learners with and without actual experience on the topic can find this course equally useful.  

The approach unfolds in four modules and is based on the experience of the MSF Urban Spaces initiative, launched in 2018. The initiative aimed to develop a participatory approach to organising action with communities, by engaging MSF members, volunteers and staff with civil society actors in support of the most vulnerable groups of society. 

Learners with a strong commitment to their role as active citizens will relate more to it. This course will offer them the opportunity to learn through critical reflection on their own experience from connecting and organising action with their local communities. It also requires allowing space to oneself to open up to new ways and to challenge usual practices. Practical tips will also create space for implementation in one’s own initiative, project, and context related to community organising action.  

In a nutshell, this course addresses everyone within MSF (MSF members, volunteers, and staff) who is an organiser of action with communities and who also works with community engagement approaches.  


LEARNING OBJECTIVES

During this course, participants will be able to:  
  • identify how organising action with community works,  
  • describe the role of partnerships to organising action with communities and the steps to it,   
  • identify how to develop strategy for their action, and   
  • assess implemented successful tactics.

LIST OF CONTENTS

The course consists of 4 modules, that represent 4 concrete phases to take place once organising action with communities is planned.  Each module builds on the previous one and gradually leads participants to a holistic understanding of the steps they need to take when planning their own actions. Theory is combined with practical examples from implemented action. 

Below you can find a brief summary of the content of each Module:   

  • Module 1: participants understand the difference between community organizing and mobilizing and they are able to articulate what community organizing action can bring to MSF’s context and projects.                       
  • Module 2 focuses on partnerships. Participants learn how to identify partners strategically, and how to outline the partnership process, as well as to describe the key features of a good partnership.  
  • Module 3 focuses on strategy development. Participants learn what the key questions are to ask themselves when developing strategically, how to plan forward and backwards, and finally how to measure progress and results.   
  • Module 4 focuses on tactics and the key elements of a successful tactic when organising action with communities. Useful techniques like storytelling are part of this module.  


TRAINING APPROACH

The training approach used is a combination of readings, videos, case studies, and quizzes, and evaluation is conducted via a series of exercises in the form of true/false statements, reflective tasks, and drag and drop exercises at the end of each module.   


CERTIFICATION

Participants who have successfully completed all four modules will be awarded a badge upon course completion. One cannot move on to a module before having completed the previous one.