Background
The economic crisis that started in 1997, the first year of the Eighth Plan, affected all groups of people in the society by making a hardship to a daily living and also bringing about many social problems. Therefore, the coordination between public and private sectors was essential in solving the economic and social problems aftermath the crisis by increasing human potential and empowering community in order to actively participate in economic and social development as well as natural resource and environmental management.
The Office the National Economic and Social Development Board (NESDB) then launched the project of "Studying of Supporting factors for Community Empowerment" to investigate implementation guidelines, the participation of people in community empowerment, and supporting factors in order to find strategies and policies to strengthen sustainable community development. NESDB conducted surveys by selecting sample from communities in every region all over the country, totally 23 communities; 6 communities in the North, 7 communities in the central, 7 communities in the Northeast, and 3 communities in the south during November 2000- February 2001.
Factors Generating people's groups
The result of the study indicated that major factors for making people assembled to develop their communities successfully were:-
1. Requirement for increasing income was the main common factor due to having inadequate income for the daily living.
2. Having health problems.
3. Desire of community leader to solve problem in the communities by stimulating people to participate in the problem solving and using a method of "think do and solve problems together".
4. Receiving assistances from external organizations mostly government and non-governmental organizations which were important mechanisms in encouraging people to assemble.
5. Need of funds and knowledge for supplementary occupation that received from public and private organizations.
6. Maintaining their local wisdom by transferring their culture to the next generation and increasing their products such as the silk weaving groups, the bamboo knitting groups and the palm sugar syrup groups.
7. Reserving natural resources in various ways, such as, groups for water source development, forest area reserve, mangrove reserve, and coastal ecological system maintenance.
8. Change in the society had generated various trends such as the macrobiotic trend which made a lot of people switched to consume more of natural products. There were groups to serve the trend, for example, groups for herbal processing, toxic-free vegetable planting, and unpolished rice production.
Factors for the success of the people's groups
1. Internal factors
(1) Leaders or committees : They had to be dedicate, honest, acceptable, open-minded, parti-cipation-oriented, community's benefit-oriented, efficient in solving urgent problems, able to find sources of funds and markets for community products, transparent, accountable and justified.
(2) Members of community : They had to be united, willing to participate in assigned activities, conscious in developing community and in common in religions and culture. These factors closely binded people in the community.
(3) Resources for production : Local wisdom was used to turn existing resources to be goods which could increase income of people in the community.
2. External factors
(1) External organizations : The public and private sectors were the continuously supporters of knowledge, advices, funds marketing and production tools for the community.
(2) A network for developing quality of goods and marketing was an important factor for the community's success. Good management for better quality of goods, marketing, and public relations would raise both domestic and international demand. For example, herbal drink could be exported to Japan and China, and had planned to expand to other countries in the future.
Implementation
The study also showed that each community implemented the activities that were suitable for its area, climate, nature, and way of life. The implementation were;
1) Objectives of groups could be divided as followed;-
(1) To help its members: They gathered to solve problems in the community, such as, lack of fund and technology, and marketing. There were many kinds of groups, such as, saving groups, marketing demonstration centers, technology transfer centers, etc.
(2) To set occupational groups: Members of the community needed adequate income for living and better quality of life. Most of the occupational groups were generated from saving groups, such as silk weaving groups, herbal processing groups, unpolished rice production groups, palm sugar syrup groups, etc.
(3) To make benefits for public: There were community in this category in every region. In the North, they stressed on water sources and forest reserve while in the Central, they focused on water source and marine resources. The emphasis was on sources for cultivating in dry season in the North-east and in the South, they stressed on water sources for agriculture, coastal ecological system and mangrove development. Furthermore, some groups aimed at community development and problem solving , such as, drug problem.
2) Management The implementation was mostly in the form of committees. Members of the committee were selected from community's members to manage, set up rules and regulations for the implementation and mutual benefits, and act as the representatives of the community to ask for cooperation or assistance from other organization.
3) Revolving fund The revolving fund came from 2 sources. The internal source was gained from selling stocks to members while the external source was from the assistance of public and private sectors in the form of grants or loans during the period of setting up.
4) Marketing Marketing management of each community was different depending on the demand. It could be divided in 3 groups:- middlemen came to buy at the production sites; members in the community acted as middlemen; and selling commodities in general store, marketing demonstration centers, cultural fairs or annual fairs in the provinces.
Changes after group setting
The result of being assembled was mainly increasing income of its members and better quality of life. Community's members had better life style as working inside their hometown. They were stimulated to learn because they had better chances to perceive and share information for improving their products.
Moreover, unity of the community members resulted in peace and the participation in the community development because they had had self belonging, been willing to develop their community, and realized the importance of existing of existing natural resources and the environmental development.
Application of Philosophy of Sufficiency Economy
The study indicated a very interesting point that the successful groups had followed the philosophy of Sufficiency Economy. They gradually implemented with patience and persistence. They produced in a sufficient amount and it was suitable for their own savings and the communities' revolving funds. They used the natural resources in their areas without destroying them and used their local wisdom properly. The important thing was that member of the community were generous and willing to participate so that they could continuously learn, practice and share their experiences.
even though this kind of business would not make people rich, but everyone was happier. After that, they would desire to make their community become more livable by implementing activities for public benefits. They also wanted to make the community become more orderly, for example, building concrete roads, fences, or taking care of senior citizen. Therefore, peace would be finally occurred in the community. End
Development News Bulletin, National Economic and Social Development Board, Volume 18, No. 05 : May 2001 End.
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