The CINI Method

The CINI Method is the approach we take to tackle entrenched, multi-generational disadvantage in the deprived communities where we work and in doing so create the conditions for change.

It is a result of working alongside, listening to and learning from the vulnerable communities we’ve served for almost fifty years.  Over this period, CINI has implemented a diverse array of projects in complex settings, developed metrics to measure their impacts and innovated to create sustainable solutions to complex challenges.  We’ve learned many lessons along the way and refined our approach to deliver better outcomes.

CINI will always work with communities to meet their most pressing nutrition and health needs, just like we did when we were formed in 1974.  But our approach to addressing the root causes and deep consequences of disadvantage has undergone a paradigm shift over the decades.

Experience has shown us that interventions are only sustainable if partnerships are built with key stakeholders, and a holistic, integrated approach to delivering health, nutrition, education and child protection is taken.

To make sure we adopt this approach in all our project we’ve encapsulated our experiences into the CINI method.  This human-rights based approach (HRBA) is focused on facilitation, capacity building and supporting key stakeholders to achieve long term, sustainable changes.

It’s a three tiered system that focused on building;

• Child Friendly Communities bring rights closer to children and covers implementation of children’s rights at the local level.
• Child Friendly Systems that are responsible for fulfilling children’s rights at the community level.
• Child Friendly Organisations that have the organisational structures and management systems to adopt rights-based approaches in their programmes and operations.

Creating Child Friendly Communities (CFC) is the first and most critical level in the model.  It’s not a programme, but an approach that provides a step-by-step methodology to influence processes for children from a rights perspective.

CFC in the CINI Method has undergone design, field-testing, implementation and progressive corrections for over a decade. It been designed for a community unit as defined by the local administrative constituency (such as a rural Gram Panchayat or an Urban Ward).

The ultimate goal of the CFC process is to turn the local governance system into an effective mechanism for implementing children’s rights, and prioritise prevention over recovery.

CINI acts as a facilitator engaging the local development actors – the community, service providers and elected representatives – in a process aimed to ensure their convergence and thereby strengthen good governance with and for children and women.