Local Communities

Local communities’ work is based on Asset-Based Community Development (ABCD) and the Human Rights-Based Approach, a new, innovative, and creative (development) methodology that seeks to promote, protect, and respect the rights of right-holders and uncover strengths within societies as a means to achieve sustainable development and hold duty-bearers accountable for their commitments.

The first step in the community development process is to assess its resources by conducting a capacity inventory or engaging in a dialogue with the community to determine the types of available expertise and skills and rights to be claimed. The next step is to support communities to discover businesses or concerns of interest. The final step is to determine how citizens can work together to achieve those goals.

The local communities’ approach is based on the following elements:

• Supporting the independence of local communities and allowing them to express their rights to claim identity, needs and aspirations.
• Creating unconventional or novel business models is capable of facing challenges and addressing issues creatively.
• Effectively and dynamically investing resources and self-potential, as well as available resources and opportunities.
• Learning from the lessons and best practices of other societies, regionally and internationally, and benefiting from their experiences, successes and failures.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asset-based_community_development