The CEP is a three-year, non-formal empowering education model that uses a human rights-based curriculum to reinforce the skills and knowledge of partner communities and empower them to lead their own development. By bringing communities together to discuss and define a values-based vision for their future, the approach embodied in the Community Empowerment Program (CEP) catalyzes establishment of a new social equilibrium based on shared values and social expectations. When empowered with new community-designed norms and the knowledge and skills to apply them, communities will also shift individual and collective behaviors to support the rights and well-being of those who had previously been left on the sidelines of local decision-making, namely women and youth.

The CEP is comprised of two modules - the Kobi and the Aawde. The Kobi (meaning to prepare the soil in Mandinka) modules include democracy, human rights and responsibilities, conflict resolution, and health and hygiene. The Aawde (meaning to plant the seed in Pulaar) modules include literacy, numeracy, project management, and SMS messaging. The CEP is led by a facilitator of the same ethnic group as the participant village, who lives in the community for the duration of the program. It is conducted entirely in local languages.

Community Management Committees (CMCs) - majority-female, democratically elected governance bodies at the community level - are formed in the course of the Community Empowerment Program and are tasked with implementing the community’s vision for the future, which is developed during the CEP. Every Community Management Committee has a list of activities and outcomes they proudly share, all of which link back to their collective vision of well-being. These groups remain active many years after Tostan’s intervention ends, in many cases more than a decade.