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Situating
Asset-Based Community Development in the International Development
Context
Megan Foster; Alison Mathie (2001)
This paper outlines the advantages of an Asset Based Community Development
(ABCD) approach. It adds insight to the Sustainable Livelihoods
principle of building on strengths. The authors compare ABCD to
an Appreciative Inquiry approach, finding them similar in philosophy
but with some divergence in practice. They conclude that Asset-Based
Community Development and Appreciative Inquiry should not be seen
as competing approaches, but that progressive development agents
will recognise the similarities and value of both and combine these
proven techniques to enhance sustainable development initiatives.
The paper discusses how Asset-Based Community Development 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 mobilise citizens to create positive
and meaningful change from within. As research on development has
increasingly illustrated over the past few decades, involving the
community in its own development (i.e. using participatory approaches
to empower community members) is critical for sustainability.
Using
an ABCD approach requires thinking about communities in an entirely
new light. Communities can no longer be thought of as complex masses
of needs and problems, but rather as diverse and potent webs of
gifts and assets. Each community has a unique set of skills and
capacities to channel for community development. The ABCD approach
categorises asset inventories into five groups—individuals, local
associations, local institutions, physical assets and the local
economy (including local business assets and local expenditures).
The
authors go on to discuss Appreciative Inquiry (AI) as a contrasting
methodology that also builds on the positive. AI is based on the
theory that positive change comes from focusing on the peak experiences
and successes of the past. It is a highly inclusive process in which
organisation or community members take responsibility for generating
and gathering information (usually through interviews and broader
group storytelling). Then groups form strategies for development
based on the findings from the journey to their positive past. Since
the late 1980s, it has been an example of the paradigm shift from
a needs-based approach to one that builds on a community's past
achievements. It has principally been used for organisational development,
but a few cases of use in community development initiatives are
cited.
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