COALESING SESSIONS

ABP Coalescing Approach

Overview:

The coalescing phase of the ABPs between communities and governments emphasizes
collaboration, consensus, inclusivity, and shared responsibility to achieve lasting change of
agreed ABPs. In Nabadgelinta’s high-level theory of action and the Nabadgelinta Change
Model, coalescing (or Inclusive Negotiation) between the ‘rights-holders’ and the ‘duty-bearers’
is seen as a critical step in communal ownership of problems that need to be addressed and
towards common or inclusive action. The coalescing described here in the ABP Guide is not the
end point, but simply a place to start, bringing formal, informal and community stakeholders
together to agree on an initial set of ABPs. After these ‘Coalescing Sessions’, it is assumed that
the programme will support coalescing to become an ongoing feature of how security and
justice issues are prioritized and acted upon, embedding the idea of consensus building and
coalescing in different structures, institutions, platforms, and stakeholders.

he separate space sessions resulted in the identification of priority issues and ‘champions’ to
take those issues forward to the coalescing stage. The two-day trauma healing and trust
building sessions with the same ‘issue card champions’ prepared them to both understand the
coalescing phase of the ABP, as well as build a sense of responsibility, open mindedness,
empathy and passion to engage in the process in an open-minded and inclusive way.
Participants
As mentioned above the participants for the coalescing sessions are those that were selected to
represent their groups as part of the separate space sessions. Each group nominated 3
participants, who should be split across 3 ‘coalescing clusters’ to ensure a diverse range of
stakeholders from formal, informal and community groups in a coalescing session. Each
coalescing cluster should not exceed more than 30 people.
Coalescing Process and Steps
The coalescing sessions should occur over two days, with the following distinct purpose for
each day:

Day 1 - Provide a diverse range of stakeholders with the space to come together, dialogue and
reach a consensus on which ABPs have both the urgency to be responded to and is something
different groups can agree to come together to work on.
Day 2 – Give space to begin to think about solutions to the identified priorities, as well as which
assets in the group and the community could be mobilized to support action.
Day One: Getting Consensus
Preparation
 (A few days prior to the session) Select a religious leader to run the vision and trust
setting exercise and brief them fully on what is expected at the start of the session. Ideally
discuss what they will say and ensure it is fully aligned with what you want to achieve with the
opening – which is to center participants on a common vision of trust and collaboration and the
essence of responsibility.
 Set up the space so that it is accessible for all participants and is ready for participant
registration and participation. Ensure that access areas are free and easily identified.
 Arrange the chairs in a circle in an open area of the room. Have pens, markers, paper
and flip charts ready and accessible for you and the facilitation team and the participants in
different areas of the room.
 Identify the marketplace cards that were selected as priorities during the separate space
sessions and arrange them on the walls in the following ways:
o Wall 1: Cards that only received 1 vote (i.e. only one group said it was a
priority)
o Wall 2: Cards that both formal and non-formal / community groups
identified as a priority. Stick the cards on the wall in ascending order, with the
card that got the most votes at the top, down to the card with the least votes as
the bottom.
o Wall 3: Cards that were only voted for by formal actors. Stick the cards on
the wall in ascending order (as above).
o Wall 4: Cards that were only voted for by informal / community actors.
Stick the cards on the wall in ascending order (as above).
 Clearly mark above each set of cards what the cards represent / a description of the
cards (i.e. ‘Received only 1 Vote’, ‘Voted for by Formal Stakeholders – Most Popular at the
Top’).
 Identify a facilitator who will stand by each set of cards and explain verbally what the
cards represent / a description of the cards.
 Write out the laws that will govern the space:
o The law of humanity - no one in the room has more rights or more power
than anyone else. Everyone in the room deserves to be heard and respected and
we must all make an effort to ensure those that find it more difficult to participate
are given the space and encouragement to do so.
o The law of movement - if you find yourself in any situation where you are
not learning nor contributing, you move to a more productive place. That could
mean just moving to take a break somewhere (show the area taking a break),
moving to a different group or moving out of the space completely. This is your
space and you are free to leave or move as you want
o The law of vision is to see the broader benefit for all in the district and
overlook personal interests including occupation, status and association to each
other. This is to ultimately think of the future for the next generation, current
realities and their consequential effects and work together resolving community
security and justice needs with honesty, passion and responsibility to achieve the
desired change.
o The law of trust is to let go of limiting beliefs that certain groups cannot
be trusted or something cannot change and believe that they have the best
 interests for the district if engaged candidly. For trust to work, it must be given
and received without deception of one’s or a group’s interest.
 Set up a ‘resting and sharing’ space that includes chairs, refreshments/water. This is a
break away area where participants can go if they need a break from the discussions
 Identify ‘buddies’ (people wearing heart badges) and discuss their role with them.
 Agree with your facilitation team and helpers who will be note take and who will be
responsible for completing the information collation form (see MEL guide).

Process

Step 1: Welcome and Trust Setting

 Welcome participants into the space as they arrive.
 Once everyone has arrived ask them to stand in a circle, so everyone can see each
other and then to introduce themselves with their first name only – be very clear that
introductions should just be your first name and nothing else.
 Explain that you asked them to do this as in this space who you work for, what uniform
you wear, or what group you represent is not important, we are all just people looking to find a
common way forward or issues that affect us all.
 Go on to explain the purpose of the day: “to reflect on and go deeper into some of the
issues that they, and others in their community, identified as priority security and justice issues
affecting them, and to consider which of these they would like to move forward with trying to
build consensus and momentum around for change”
 Explain that you are holding these coalescing sessions with 2 other groups of the same
size and the same diversity of stakeholders. Highlight that after all 3 sessions have been held,
there should be a short list of between 3 – 9 ABPs that will then be discussed by the NS
programme team and the Government more broadly, to agree which they can support action on
and how. After this, there will be a ceremony to introduce the ABPs to the district and signify the
start of the action stage, where groups will work together to bring about change on the finally
agreed upon ABPs.
 Ask the invited religious leader to step into the circle and take everyone through their
pre-prepared vision and trust setting exercise. As part of this, the participant will share their
thoughts on what change is possible if they work together and acknowledge that their mistrust of
one another is a disadvantage to the change process.
 Move on to share the four laws governing the session. Start by explaining that they will
already be familiar with two of the laws ‘law of humanity and law of movement’ and then read
them out to remind people. Go on to say there are two more laws governing this space, the law
of vision and the law of trust – read this out and then ask 1 or 2 participants to tell you why they
think these laws have been added? Depending on the response, fill in the additional details.
 Finally, Remind everyone in the room the purpose of the helpers (wearing the heart - or
similar – badges) and explain these people are here to help, for example if anyone needs help
writing or reading something, are confused about anything, or don’t feel comfortable speaking
up.

Step 2: Gallery Walk

 Explain the 4 walls and that these contain the ABPs that came out of the separate space
session. Highlight how the ABPs have been clustered (1 vote, joint votes, community only,
formal only etc) and let people know they will have a chance in a moment to walk around and
read what is on the walls, with the support of the ‘helpers’ if they have any questions.
 Remind everyone that the purpose of today is to agree on which 3 ABPs to take forward.
Acknowledge that everyone has a ABP that they came into this session with in mind, but that
they should look afresh at all the ABPs today.
 For the first exercise ask people to look at whether any of the ABPs on the single vote or
community / formal only walls can be grouped under ABPs on the joint wall. Split people across
these 3 walls and ask them to take a look, discuss and decide and then move those cards
across to the ‘joint wall’. Give 15 minutes for discussion and moving the ABPs (they need to
move under ABPs on the joint wall that are the same or similar).
 Once this has been completed, explain they will now do another walk around the walls
and think individually about each of the ABPs based on the following criteria:
o Is this an ABP that is connected to improving security and justice for
everyday Somalis?
o Is this an ABP that we can make progress on / find solutions for in the
next 2 years?
o Is this an ABP that diverse groups can come together to support and work
on?
o Can you contribute to change towards this ABP?
o Are there other organisation better placed to work on these ABPs?
 Note that although all the ABPs that got a vote are represented on the walls. They need
to consider whether those that got 1 vote or those that did not get backing from diverse
stakeholders really meet the criteria of an ABP that we can all come together on, versus those
that already have backing from formal and community groups.
 Give the participants 15 minutes to do a gallery walk (supporting anyone with physical
difficulties as appropriate).
 Once everyone has completed the walk, ask them to stand by a wall where the ABP that
they support at this stage is represented. Hopefully the majority of people will stand by the joint
ABP wall and you can agree to go with the majority and focus on the ABPs on the joint wall. If
there are a few people by other walls, ask them to pick out their ABP and explain how it fits with
the criteria for consideration, the rest of the group should agree on whether the ABP joins the
‘joint ABP’ wall or not.

Step 3: Market Place Cards

 Move the cards from the joint walls into the middle of the circle and run the
marketplace activity in the same way it was run for the separate space sessions
i.e. asking people to come forward if there is an ABP they feel most strongly is
the right one to move forward with over the next two years.
 Once people begin to coalesce around different ABPs, have them move into groups with
their ABPs and discuss them against the each of the criteria. Explain you will ask them to
present their discussions to the wider group at the end. For those who cannot decide, they can
move between groups and listen to the discussions. If during the discussions the group agree
that the ABP does not meet all the criteria they should place it back in the center and join
another groups
 Give 30 minutes for this discussion.
 At the end of the discussion, each group should present to the rest how the ABP that
they have coalesced around meets the criteria set. If there are too many ABPs with some
people around, then select the top 6 (i.e. the 6 that have the most people around them).

Step 4: Ranking
 After the Issue Marketplace, bring everyone back to sit in a circle. This time only the
cards that were coalesced around should be in the center.
 Ask each ABP group to present what they discussed in terms of how their ABP fits with
the overall criteria.
 Others should listen.
 Finally give everyone 3 tokens (stones, buttons etc) and ask them to place these next to
the 3 issues they feel most strongly about wanting to change (keeping in mind that they need to
be issues that diverse stakeholder – including formal and informal actors - will also need to
come together on).
 Pull out the top 3 issues and put them back on the village market board for everyone to
see.
o give time for reflections – each person in the room should get the chance
to reflect on all the discussions
o Identify who in the room are most supportive of each of the ABPs to
understand which are most
o Celebrate agreement on top 3!

Day 2: Visioning Solutions

Overview
On the second day, participants will be facilitated through a process of identifying potential
actions and solutions to the agreed upon ABPs that may move forward to the action planning
phase managed by Change Champions. The morning of day two will ask participants to
consider ‘what can we do to address this issue’ and will leverage approaches such as
Action Vison Mapping and Vision & Asset Mapping to develop a menu of solution-based
options ranked according to feasibility and viability and mapped to key stakeholders and assets
who may be able to support the change with time, resources or influence.

Welcome
 Welcome everyone back and thank them for their contributions yesterday.
 Remind people of what was on the 3 voted for ABP cards (these should be ideally stuck
on 3 different walls in the room).
 Tell people that in a minute you will ask people to go and stand by the ABP that they feel
they can personally contribute to solving the most and that they will spend the rest of the day
thinking about solutions and ways forward on this ABP.
 Remind people of the ‘laws’ that govern the room and that every voice is important.
 Ask everyone to now move to the ABP that they want to work on (make a note for later
of who is in which group). Assign 1-2 facilitators to each group to take notes.
 These are now your groups for the rest of the afternoon.

Step 1: The Vision

 Tell everyone that the first thing they are going to do is to create a joint vision for change
around their ABP. Explain that a vision is like a seed, that once planted can inspire us and
others to strive for an achieve change. It gives us a longer-term goal and inspiration to keep
working towards it.
 Highlight that this needs to be a vision for everyone and by everyone. It cannot be a
vision where only one group of stakeholders changes or benefits from it.
 Explain that in a moment each group will get 30mins to spend together working on their
collective vision for change, using the following question to guide them:
o What does the future (in 5 years) look like if your ABP is no longer a
problem?
 o What different policies or laws are in place (if any)?
o What are those working in formal S&J structures / institutions doing
differently?
o What are those informal S&J actors and structures doing differently?
o What are community structures including family, clan etc doing
differently?
o What are those from traditionally marginalized groups / clans, women,
youth, IDPs etc doing differently?
 Highlight that they should use the questions to prompt them but the final vision should be
1 or 2 sentences that creates a picture of what society looks like when the ABP is no longer an
issue.
 Remind people to be aspirational and to think beyond the 2 years of the programme to
the next 5 years.
 Remind facilitators and those in the group to ensure everyone has a chance to speak
and contribute to the vision of change.
 Give people 30 minutes, at the end of the time each group should read out their vision
for change and to reflect on how they found the exercise of coming up with the vision.

Step 2: The Barriers and The Solutions

This step is about identifying what barriers exist and potential solutions to those
 If there is room, have the groups put their ABP Card on the ground at one side of the
room and the vision statement at the other side, have each person walk between the two and
 (Morning) and Nominating Change Champions (Afternoon).
to be trained in Tech Camp methodology, taking forward the menu of solutions and developing
an action plan.