Asset-Based Community Development in Myanmar: Theory, fit and practice
Effective community development empowers the marginalised, powerless and poor
to achieve better life outcomes and a higher level of wellbeing for themselves. This
requires imagining their world differently and taking action to change their circumstances,
implying a high level of participation and empowerment (Eyben, Kabeer, & Cornwall,
2008, p. 3).
Myanmar has been a highly complex and very restrictive socio-political context for
poverty alleviation and development activity over the past two decades. Attempts to
address the high levels of poverty in the country were frustrated by a government highly
suspicious of the motivations of international agencies, by a domestic priority on security
over poverty alleviation, and by strained international relations over human rights
concerns1
, which resulted in economic sanctions and restrictive international assistance
policies. Recent political reform is bringing very welcome change, however research
conducted prior to this reform (Ware 2012) found highly participatory, community-led
approaches to development to be effective forms of poverty mitigation and community
empowerment even within this restrictive context. One of the more highly participatory
approaches first researched then is now the focus of the discussion in this chapter.