ABCD Intro

Asset Based Community Development (ABCD) and Organization

PURPOSE ABCD is a strategy for sustainable community-driven development and organization. ABCD’s purpose is to build on the assets and capabilities that are present in the community and mobilizes individuals, (in)formal community structures/groups and institutions to come together to build on their assets, not concentrate only on their needs, and to respond to and create local social economic opportunity. ABCD focuses on what is strong and not what is wrong. To sustain these efforts, the formation and strengthening of diverse community based organizations is essential.

KEY FEATURES Key premise: Change will only happen if we identify and mobilize the gifts and capacities of local people and the social, physical and economic resources in a given locality.

Key features:  Community mobilization and development: ABCD focuses on community assets and strengths rather than problems and needs, and identifies and mobilizes individual and community assets, skills and passions. It is community driven – ‘building communities from the inside out’ and relationship driven. Community groups use only/largely own resources (at least initially) and maintain control of its activities also when external actors become involved. Sufficient time is spent in identifying the assets of individuals, groups and institutions before they are mobilized to work together. Community based groups should drive the community development process and leverage additional support and entitlements. External facilitators lead by stepping back.

Identification of (in)formal community leaders or motivators is a key element in community mobilization. Sufficient time is needed to identify respected and reliable persons that are trusted by the community and that have an inclusive attitude towards all in the community. Good leaders/motivators value the knowledge and wisdom of each community member, particularly those who are poor or who lack confidence.  Enabling society: relations with the external environment are crucial and have basically two dimensions: first, they are based on enabled communities that have enforced their asset/resource/capacity base and therefore are more able to interact with the external environment and second, able representatives seek collaboration with 3rd parties/advocate for access to resources or allocation of government resources on behalf of the community (public accountability). This also relates to downward accountability in which non-government support organizations recognize that they have to be accountable to the people they aim to support. This can be done through participation in the whole project cycle, complaint/response feedback mechanisms, and transparent provision of (project) information. 

ABCD includes in assessing and mobilizing community based assets/resources: o Natural resources: land, trees, forests and water; o Human resources: skills, knowledge, understanding and labor of local people;

Financial resources: money, access to credit and loans, credit unions and government support; o Social resources: culture, traditions, organizations, friends and extended family; o Physical resources: buildings, tools, roads, water pumps and transport; o Spiritual resources: the strength and encouragement that people gain from their faith.

Understanding dynamics in communities and mobilizing people in community driven (in)formal organizations is essential. This includes both community based institutions and organizations: o Community institutions comprise rules that govern intangible institutions like kinship, marriage, inheritance and sharing of assets at community level and organizations that operate at community level and are controlled by their members. These so called nested institutions are informal, unstructured social or socio-cultural institutions (class, caste, gender) that influence interventions and are very relevant and important to be understood and revealed, as they may also relate to power misbalance and inequalities. o Community based organization (CBO) is a generic term applied to all organizations controlled by a community. CBOs can be seen in two broad categories: (a) institutions such as the Village Development Committee that have "public" functions at community level and are meant to represent the interests of the entire resident population, and (b) Common Interest Groups (CIGs) that have "private" functions, and some members of the community come together to achieve a common purpose. Examples of the latter might be a women's enterprise group or a water users' association or a farmers' association, a village savings cooperative, Self Help groups, etc. o

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Key beliefs: focus on personal empowerment and community mobilization. Everyone has gifts, people can contribute and want to contribute, and gifts must be discovered. Build and nourish relationships: relationships build a community, see them, make them, and utilize them. Leaders involve others as active members of the community. People in communities are motivated to act, the challenge is to discover what their motivation is. Asking questions rather than giving answers invites stronger participation.

Time span: initial process of identification and mobilization: 6-12 months. Scale: local + replication unlimited.

Scope: all members of communities, external actors on local and other levels during or after mobilization.

Key successes and pitfalls:  boosts inclusion, serves to bring forth new leadership, promotes internal savings culture, abilities to work with external actors;  ABCD can take long, in small and heterogeneous communities’ replication can be slow, distant role of facilitator results in slow process and progress.

SDG: ABCD contributes to the following SDGs:  Goal 1. End poverty in all its forms everywhere and specifically 1.4 By 2030, ensure that all men and women, in particular the poor and the vulnerable, have equal rights to economic resources, as well as access to basic services, ownership and control over land and other forms of property, inheritance, natural resources, appropriate new technology and financial services, including microfinance;

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Goal 10. Reduce inequality within and among countries, and specifically to 10.2. By 2030, empower and promote the social, economic and political inclusion of all, irrespective of age, sex, disability, race, ethnicity, origin, religion or economic or other status.

Tools: Historical Trend Timelines, Most Significant Change, Appreciate Inquiry, Leaky Bucket, Physical Asset Mapping, diverse other PRA tools.