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Participants
met at a Roundtable on Assets, Livelihoods and Governance
in New York on April 23, 2002 to share experience of asset-based
development approaches from both the USA and less-developed
countries in order to find areas of complimentarity, gaps,
and identify possible areas for collaboration.
Participants
synthesised the development approaches of their respective
organisations: the Synergos Institute; Ford Foundation; British
Department for International Development (DFID) ; the Center
for Community-based Development - Clark University; The Asset
based Community Development Institute at the Institute for
Policy Research at Northwestern University; and the Coady
International Institute
This
was followed by a general discussion between the participants
on the complimentarities between the various organisations
and approaches; and the emerging potential for collaboration.
Discussions focused on:
- the
issue of power differentials in communities and how these
are addressed;
- roles,
processes, ownership and agency in community development;
- the
importance of understanding social, economic, cultural and
ethnic structure;
- community-generated
information and its potential to elicit greater institutional
accountability
as
well as other issues around governance, funding and social
capital.
The
roundtable also identified potential areas of collaboration.
These could be divided into two main types: (1) a series of
specific tasks and (2) an ongoing network of people and organisations
that share this approach.
For
more information on the discussions and suggestions for collaboration
that took place, as well as the development approaches of
each organisation, see: http://www.stfx.ca/institutes/coady/about_publications_new_synthesis.html
An
edited version of the discussions is also available at: http://www.stfx.ca/institutes/coady/about_publications_new_transcript.html
Pippa
Bird
Asesora en Inclusion Social - Social Inclusion Adviser
DFID Bolivia
Email: P-Bird@dfid.gov.uk
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