UNDP is working in partnership with the Agirre Lehendakaria Center (ALC) on developing community transformation processes rooted in the practice of deep listening.
Deep listening is a collection of listening tools aimed at discovering different meta-narratives and insights regarding local communities and the development projects happening there. Meta-narratives are people’s perceptions, cultural dynamics, hidden thoughts, fears and hopes- things that cannot be expressed through surveys or other forms of data collection.
This work requires immersing oneself in each community, specifically in their values and behaviours, with the firm belief that this is the only way to achieve more effective and appropriate solutions. Built into this process, alongside the deep listening system is also a shift in how we design our interventions away from being linear projects to portfolios of interventions.