CATALYSE: COMMUNITIES ACTING TOGETHER

Over the past two decades, Mercy Corps has developed and refined CATALYSE: our signature approach to mobilizing communities. CATALYSE builds a community’s capacity to identify and organize around collective priorities, mobilize resources, implement projects and influence leaders. It fosters peaceful, community-led change, empowering diverse community members to work together to address their common challenges.  The iterative process demonstrates the value of collective action while strengthening the capacity of communities to lead their own development. The CATALYSE process also demonstrates the value of good governance as communities experience first-hand the importance of representative participation, transparency and accountability. Ultimately, CATALYSE encourages more informed, connected and active community members that can work collectively, advocate to their leaders and promote change. 

This toolkit is a resource for planning, implementing and evaluating community mobilization processes using Mercy Corps’ CATALYSE framework. It was written with a few audiences in mind: Mercy Corps staff looking to integrate the CATALYSE process into their programs and activities; international development actors interested in strengthening community participation and leadership in programming; citizens engaged in community mobilization processes; and members of government from the local, national, and regional levels, to illustrate how the process of mobilizing communities can link to broader local development efforts.