Asset Based Community Development Workshop Synergos
   
 

About ABCD & the Workshop

This workshop introduced asset based community development (ABCD) concept to Southeast Asian CSROs as a coherent strategy that can improve or enhance their grantmaking activities. It also served as an opportunity to explore community asset mapping as a tool to be used in determining the feasibility of setting up community foundations.

ABCD has caught the attention of community development practitioners as a strategy for stimulating and sustaining development in urban neighborhoods and rural communities. It has attracted a small but dedicated following among those who are disenchanted with the needs-based approach to community development as it offers the potential to stimulate local initiative and strengthen collaborative action.

ABCD seeks to uncover and highlight the strengths within communities as a means for sustainable development. The basic tenet of this approach is that, although there are both capacities and deficiencies in every community, a capacities-focused approach is more likely to empower the community and therefore mobilize its citizens to create positive and meaningful change from within. As research on development has increasingly illustrated over the past few decades, involving the community centrally in its own development (i.e. using participatory approaches to empower community members) is critical for sustainability.

For a more detailed examination of ABCD, see the ABCD overview prepared by Gord Cunningham and Alison Mathie of the Coady International Institute.

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Workshop Location

The ABCD workshop was held at the:

Rembrandt Hotel
19 Sukhumvit Soi 18
Klong Toei, Bangkok
Tel: +66 (2) 261-7100
Fax: +66 (2) 261-7017
www.rembrandtbkk.com

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Workshop Facilitators

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Workshop Summary

This one-day workshop began with an introduction to the theme and concept of Asset-Based Community Development (ABCD) with some small group discussion on techniques of practicing ABCD. The discussion then moved to look at two examples of how ABCD is being applied in two communities in the Mindinao region of the Philippines (see box).

Key insights, questions and challenges raised included:

    Two Examples from the Philippines

    The experiences from two communities beginning to think about implementing an ABCD strategy to promote heightened community economic development helped to bring together the concept and theory with reality.

    • We learned how in the community of Midkiwan just outside of Cagayan de Oro, Philippines, families and individuals have organized themselves through the Basic Christian Ecclesial Community and subsequently begun to mobilize community action to create change. Through a process of tracing individual, organizational, physical/economic, and external assets, and exploring how these assets are also linked, Midkiwan is beginning to leverage their local assets to promote stronger leadership, sustainable agriculture, formation of cooperatives and micro-enterprises, a health program, and land reform. In addition, the mere process of organizing community members led them to increase their demands on government to install a water system, build an elementary school and construct electrical support for the community.
    • In Tongan-Tongan in the province of Valencia Bukidnon, using the framework of ABCD helped the community become more aware of traditional and indigenous associations that have been overlooked in the past. Working with SEARSOLIN, the community is now considering how to implement a previously developed village development plan. Results to date in the two pilot communities are still very much in the early stages. Assets that have been identified need to be further validated. Evaluating the impact of ABCD itself in terms of how it is helping to increase or transform existing assets remains to be done. One thing that is for sure, however, is that the ABCD process has served to enhance the participation of community members in planning and working for their own development.
  1. What is new in this approach is not so much the mapping and identification of assets but who uses the information gained and how. ABCD involves putting the asset map in front of the community for them to mobilize the assets themselves. As was underscored in the appreciative inquiry exercise, individuals need to "own" their assets in order to be able to recognize and then mobilize them.
  2. Caution was raised regarding the tendency to focus too much on how we determine the assets themselves while forgetting about real problems and issues that exist (such as social justice or equity). A suggestion was made to rename ABCD to Community-Based Asset Development (CBAD) to partly address this concern.
  3. Some within the group raised reservations about making it seem that ABCD is a new "fad." A lot of groups pointed out that communities, and NGOs working with them, are already practicing ABCD though they might not be calling it that. The experience of SEARSOLIN in this regard certainly underscored the importance of making it seem like a "natural" process for communities to undertake.
  4. There is a need to identify ways to mobilize assets by communities themselves. What methodologies exist? Some PRA tools that could be used are historical maps, census mapping, Venn diagram, transect/resource mapping, demographic profiles, etc.
  5. A lot of questions revolved around the role of the CSRO (or what some may refer to as the "external agent" in ABCD writings). Though certainly many would view the CSRO as an asset itself, CSROs can play a critical facilitation role in this process. As was recognized, however, the challenge for CSROs is how to stimulate such a process in communities without having the opposite effect of creating dependency between the CSRO and community. It was recognized that there is a need to "lead by stepping back", a phrase that John McKnight (who contributed to the formation of ABCD theory) has articulated in his writings. ABCD calls for a redefinition of the NGO role, from problem-solver to linker/facilitator. Being a linker calls for a new set of methods and indicators for success and involves managing internal tensions and conflicts over wanting to make change happen (and often quickly!) and being mindful of the process while ensuring that change occurs.
  6. CSROs and NGOs are set up so often to address "problems" and derive their funding from the notion that they are "solving problems." Because ABCD suggests channeling one's energies into focusing on assets instead, it raises a concern that donors need to be brought into this dialogue and exchange too.
  7. More fundamentally, ABCD calls for a review of the structure of development work in consideration of who should be considered clients and who the agents of change. In effect, it argues for community members to reclaim their role as citizens.

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Resources on ABCD

The Coady International Centre's website is now carrying the most recent paper written by Alison Mathie and her colleague, Gord Cunningham titled From Clients to Citizens: Asset-Based Community Development as a Strategy for Community Driven Development

A paper on Appreciative Inquiry is available through Myrada.

The ABCD Institute carries a number of publications on the topic. Alison recommends the one on evaluation of ABCD by Tom Dewar. All publications can be obtained from ACTA Publications in Chicago. The email address for getting a brochure is acta@one.org while the website for perusing the ABCD Institute is at www.northwestern.edu/ipr/abcd/abcdbackground.html.

The Coady International Institute will be conducting a training course on Asset-Based Approaches to Development in May/June 2003. Earlier than that, there is discussion between Coady and SEARSOLIN to possibly run a course in January 2003 on the same topic. Please contact Alison Mathie at amathie@stfx.ca if you would like to receive more information about these courses.

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The Synergos Institute