Foundation For Democratic Reforms

School for Democracy

FDR started 'School for Democracy' at Hyderabad for providing training to concerned Citizens committed to the cause of democracy. The School started functioning in March 2007.

The training focuses on democratic principles, processes and nurturing genuine and sincere democratic leadership.

Leadership Training and Capacity Building

This project involves conceptualizing and organizing focused programmes for identified individuals towards enhancing their leadership and communication skills for advocating citizen-centered politics and leading citizens' efforts (at grassroots, intermediate and State-level) targeted at achieving desired political and governance reforms. (FDR/LOK SATTA has earlier successfully trained nearly 100,000 citizens in Andhra Pradesh under the 'Active Citizens' Training Programme' (2001-2004) to promote collective informed assertion. See www.loksattamovement.in for details).

These training and capacity building programmes will have the following as their key features:

Trainings will be conducted at three levels - grassroots (village/urban ward), intermediate (district/major city) and Andhra Pradesh State-level.
Trainings will be customized for urban and rural settings, with separate modules for each. Each module will be designed to be implemented as a training programme lasting 3-5 days.
Individuals with potential and promise will be identified at these three levels and trained in the normative and practical aspects of citizen-centered governance and political reforms, community and political leadership skills, communication skills and how to effectively utilize various media, and how to lead focused citizens' efforts for specified political/governance reform objectives.
A majority of such individuals identified will be from Andhra Pradesh State, with some drawn from Maharashtra, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Uttar Pradesh also.
Actual training will be preceded by a Training of Trainers (ToTs). This ToT will be held at three or four central locations, in one or two batches. This will be followed by the trainings, to be held at regional levels.
Estimated trainees
- Urban Areas (Target 2010): 4000 'leaders' from all Municipality and Municipal Corporation wards in Andhra Pradesh. Another 500 from Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Uttar Pradesh combined.
- Rural Areas (Target 2011): 50,000 'leaders' from all Panchayat villages of Andhra Pradesh combined. Another 3000 from the rural areas of Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Uttar Pradesh.
Estimated timelines: Urban training programmes will be completed by July-Aug 2010; rural training programmes by June-July of 2011.
Expected Outcomes
At the end of this training programme, 4000 identified individuals from urban areas and 50,000 such persons from rural areas - having promise, potential, motivation and commitment, will be given intensive training in:
- Normative and practical aspects of community and political leadership, citizen-centered governance; politics and leadership from a liberal perspective
- Rhetoric, communication and advocacy skills - how to effectively utilize various communication channels including print and electronic media
- Conceptualizing and leading localized, citizens' efforts for specific governance and political reform outcomes
- Charting individual leadership 'growth paths' and strategies - visualizing and actualizing public service roles for trainees
The successful trainees are expected to become local community/political leaders with a good grounding in liberal political philosophy and are expected to become active and successful in public service in their towns and villages. They are also expected to serve as the flag bearers, public faces and successful propagators of citizen-centered liberal political/governance philosophy in their localities/communities. Some of them would eventually rise from this "breeding ground of new leadership" to higher levels of public service in AP and India.