Empowering destitute people towards transforming communities

4.1“Development” vs. “livelihoods”

Even though “development” is the word traditionally used for the empowerment of communities, it has become problematic.
Of course the world does need “community development”, for the world is in trouble: the growing problem of destitution and poverty can be interpreted as the proof of the failure of the current status quo in the world. As Korten (1990) expresses this:

We have become prisoners of an obsolete vision of our global reality and the nature of human progress. This vision equates human progress with growth in the market value of economic output and subordinates both human and environmental considerations to that goal. The result has been the extravagant consumption of the world’s resources by a favoured few with little recognition of the social and environment costs borne by the many. These costs have now accumulated to the point of endangering the continued well-being of everyone on planet earth (1990:3).

Vandana Shiva (1989:5) writes of “maldevelopment”, “the violation of the integrity of organic, interconnected and interdependent systems, that sets in motion a process of exploitation, inequality, injustice and violence”.
Against this background, Gilbert Rist (1997:21) argues that development is “an element in the religion of modernity” allied to western ideas of progress, growth and linear notions of history, a belief that has had disastrous consequences for the world.
This illustrates something of the fact that the word “development” becomes problematic when talking about missions with the destitute, for it implies that we go and do our projects to them, so that we can develop them to our standards. The entire approach to empowering people suggested here is completely different: we do it with the people we try to help, not least in terms of community development. Given the vague nature of the term “sustainable development”, and other problems associated with the term “development”, De Gruchy (2002:2-3) chooses the term “sustainable livelihoods”. He argues:

It immediately does away with all the problems, conflicts and disagreements associated with the term development. It reminds us that development is not the goal of our labours, but rather a process by which we may enhance our lives and our livelihoods. Furthermore, social evolutionary notions like ‘developed’ and ‘underdeveloped’ people, cultures or societies can be avoided, and the focus on lives and livelihoods provides a bench-mark against which different development initiatives and even paradigms may be evaluated.

For Chambers (1997:7) a livelihood comprises “the capabilities, assets (stores, resources, claims and access) and activities required for a means of living”. A more simple definition is “a means of living or of supporting life and meeting individual and community needs”.
De Gruchy (2002:3) continues:

A livelihood, then, is what people do day by day to survive and flourish in the face of what comes their way, given the resources and relationships at their command. In its purely descriptive form, it recognizes that even destitute and vulnerable people – people who are considered by standard formula to be “poverty stricken” or “unemployed” – are active and engaged in ‘making do’, utilizing a range of adaptive and survival strategies to live and enhance their lives.

In doing missions with the destitute, we are not bringing development to them, rather, we are empowering them towards the improving of their livelihood, and the livelihoods of the communities of which they are part – not forgetting that we also constitute part of those communities. Therefore, the term “development” should make room for “livelihoods”.
At the same time the word “community empowerment” rather than “community development” should be used, bearing in mind that the aim of these empowerment efforts is to bring about sustainable livelihoods. Therefore, in the context of missions with the destitute, helpers should rather speak of “community empowerment towards sustainable livelihood”.
If the aim of community empowerment is to create sustainable livelihoods, then “community empowerment” must be seen as the strategy to use towards this aim.

4.2Principles for community empowerment

In recent decades, development theorists and practitioners have come to recognize that a certain number of basic ingredients (principles) are required, if real community empowerment is to take place. From the work of De Gruchy (2003, 2007), McKnight & Kretzman (1993) and others, the following principles can be discerned.

4.2.1Community empowerment must aim to improve livelihoods

This does imply change: not just any change, but a definite improvement: a change for the better. People must be empowered to “make do” in a better way, a non-destitute way, so that their livelihood can be improved and become sustainable.

4.2.2Community empowerment must be in line with the people of the community

It must make sense to people and be in line with their values and their capacity. Development must therefore be appropriate: culturally, socially, economically, technologically, and environmentally.

4.2.3Community empowerment must promote equity and justice

At the heart of any change for the better in communities are the twin ingredients of equity and justice. Change will not be an improvement if it is built on injustice and does not benefit people equally.

4.2.4Community empowerment must handle resistance

Community empowerment, combined with a quest for justice and equity, usually meets resistance from some quarters, which means that struggle, opposition, and conflict of some kind also constitute essential ingredients of development, because relationships are a major factor in determining development. Relationships between individuals, communities, the sexes, the social classes, and power groups combine with international relationships to dictate the equity of community empowerment throughout the world. Effective empowerment will inevitably challenge some of these relationships in the process of changing them.

4.2.5Community empowerment must be driven from the bottom up

Esteva (in Shiva, 1989:13) asserts, “My people are tired of development. They just want to live”. This critiques the efforts at development from the “top down” that outsiders bring with them. Along the same lines Escobar terms development a “top-down, ethnocentric and technocratic approach… a force so destructive to Third World cultures, ironically in the name of people’s interests” (Escobar, 1997:81).
Empowerment from the bottom up means the poor are helped to become active agents in their own growth towards sustainable livelihoods. It includes terms like “participation” and even touches on “consumer involvement” (Chapter 6).
The poor must act as agents in their own “development”. Development theory and practice has been plagued by the insider-outsider, or top down-bottom up, relationships that centre on issues of power, participation and decision-making. However, bottom-up empowerment encourages poor communities and vulnerable people to be agents in rather than clients of their empowerment. It shares the vision of the 1989 Manila Declaration on People’s Participation and Sustainable Development (in Korten 1990:218):

To exercise their sovereignty and assume responsibility for the development of themselves and their communities, the people must control their own resources, have access to relevant information, and have the means to hold the officials of government accountable.

Part of a bottom-up approach must include respect for the fact that the aim of community empowerment should not be to drive our programmes and projects, but to empower the people of the community to improve their livelihood. De Gruchy (2002:7) calls this “The seamless experience of life”. He describes the way in which we tend to drive our programmes, then leave again, often stopping the project or programme because it didn’t work, or funds have dried up, and so forth. However, the people of the community must still continue living in a “seamless” way. Therefore, driving programmes and projects does not contribute to improving the lives of the community in a way that will allow this improvement to remain when the project is terminated.

So, while it is clear that efforts to attract outside resources must continue, and even accelerate, it is also abundantly evident that they will not suffice. As Kretzman & McKnight (1993:4) comment, “help is continuing to evaporate”.

Helpers serious about community empowerment consequently have no choice but to return to basics, to the communities themselves, in order to rediscover and mobilize the strengths, capacities, and assets within those communities.

4.2.6Community empowerment must foster participation

Participation is a critical aspect of equity. If empowerment is really to belong to people, it must be shared by them. This means involving them. It is now a well-known principle that true empowerment can be achieved only by people and cannot be done to people. Representation and involvement in decision-making, action, and outcome are therefore regarded as essential. Many development theorists use the word “democracy” to describe this process.
As research on development has increasingly illustrated over the past few decades, involving the community centrally in its own development (i.e. using participatory approaches to empower community members) is critical for sustainability (Foster & Mathie, 2001:1).

4.2.7Community empowerment must promote sustainable livelihoods

Empowering communities, and any changes for the better that form part of this process, is judged as successful by whether or not it lasts. Sustainability, self-reliance, and independence are perceived as vital ingredients towards community empowerment. Sustainability is particularly important, because it guarantees a future for the improvements brought about by a community or society.
The premise is simple: if we can make communities more sustainable, then the members of those communities will experience much better lives, and their chances of becoming destitute themselves should decrease dramatically.
Chambers (1997:7) argue that a livelihood is sustainable when it:

…can cope with and recover from stress and shocks (drought, floods, political failure etc.), maintain or enhance its capabilities and assets, and provide sustainable livelihood opportunities for the next generation; and which contributes net benefits to other livelihoods at the local and global levels and in the short and long term.

In the same vein, the UNDP (1999:3) describes sustainable livelihoods as those that are:

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  Able to cope with and recover from shocks and stresses such as drought, civil war, policy failure through adaptive and coping strategies;
  
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  Economically effective, or able to use minimal inputs to generate a given amount of outputs;
  
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  Ecologically sound, ensuring that livelihood activities do not irreversibly degrade natural resources within a given ecosystem; and
  
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  Socially equitable, which suggests that promotion of livelihood opportunities for one group would not foreclose options for other groups either now or in the future.
  

In times of crisis (such as a flood, or epidemic), sustainable livelihoods adopt “coping” strategies, and in less stressful times, these become “adaptive” strategies. “The sustainable livelihoods approach stresses choice, opportunity and diversity since greater choice and flexibility yields greater capacity to survive or adapt to shocks and stresses from the vulnerability context” (Butler and Greenstein, 1999:57). These strategies may or may not draw on the natural resource base, and they may draw on a multiplicity of inputs to survive, so it is vital not to make prior assumptions about what poor people do (or should do) for a living (De Gruchy, 2002:10).

4.2.8Community empowerment must be faith based

We engage communities to empower them because we believe in God, we likewise believe in His preferential option for the poor, and we adhere to the quest for social justice that the Bible encourages. According to Ramsey (2001:2) faith-based community empowerment is comprehensive, asset-based, and driven from the bottom up by congregations and helpers that protect control of communities’ powers, as opposed to ceding control to government or other organizations.
Whereas community development approaches are often based on the idea of citizens’ participation in government initiatives, faith-based community empowerment has a biblical imperative to reverse these roles, so that governments (and other organizations) support citizens’ initiatives (Ramsey, 2001:2).

4.2.9Community empowerment must be comprehensive

A comprehensive approach to community empowerment should be comprehensive in the sense that it engages in a range of coordinated activities. In this way it addresses community empowerment as holistically as possible. This must happen on both a micro and macro level, where empowerment efforts aim to engage both micro- and macro-level issues at the same time, emphasizing the dynamic interaction between the two.
De Gruchy (2002: 8) explains the difference in the following way. Community empowerment at the local or micro level will focus on a small social unit and seek ways to make a difference where people are living. Such activities are usually highly participatory and aim for small-scale victories. The classic examples are brick-making or sewing projects, the best of which employ perhaps a dozen people. On the other hand, national and regional development policies, such as the NEPAD process mentioned above, will usually focus on macro-economic and political issues, seeking to reduce unemployment, or enhance access to health care. While they may create conditions in which thousands of people are employed, such activities are usually leader-driven and non-participatory, thus leading to unforeseen consequences in terms of human, financial and environmental costs.
Butler and Greenstein (1999:46) explain the interaction between the two when they state that a community empowerment approach emphasizes “the importance of macro level policy and institutions to the livelihood options of communities and individuals. It also stresses the need for policy development and planning to be informed by lessons learnt and insights gained at the local level. This will give local people a stake in policy and increase overall effectiveness”.
Ekins (1992:150), an economist, developed a “four–capital” model of wealth creation which will create a “life economics” and which affords valuable insights. He contends that the goal of “development” (empowering communities) can no longer be merely growth in production and financial capital, but that it also needs to include positive effects on environmental capital, human capital (knowledge, skills, health and motivation), physically produced capital (infrastructure, machines) and social/organisational capital (legal, political, community, family, organisations and firms). He explained the concept of organisational capital as follows: “For present purposes organisational capital is taken to be quite distinct from human capital, being embodied in the structures, rules, norms and cultures of organisations and societies at large, which enable people to be jointly productive” (Ekins, 1992:150).
A comprehensive approach to community empowerment should ensure the incorporation and engagement of all the different factors involved in the communities named above, as well as any other aspects that might arise when we become involved with communities.

4.2.10Community empowerment must be asset based

In chapter 4 “strength-based” approaches with destitute people were explored; they utilize the strengths of individual people in order to empower them. Asset-based community empowerment applies this principle to communities. We could therefore also speak of “strength-based community empowerment”, but in the community development world, the term “asset-based” is used.
According to McNight & Kretzman (1993:2), this represents an approach to community-based empowerment based on the principles of:

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  Appreciating and mobilizing individual and community talents, skills and assets (rather than focusing on problems and needs)
  
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  Community-driven development rather than development driven by external agencies.
  

Instead of focusing on a community's needs, deficiencies and problems, asset-based community empowerment aids communities to become stronger and more self-reliant by discovering, mapping and mobilizing all their local assets. Few people realize how many assets any community possesses (McNight & Kretzman, 1993:3). This approach is based on the belief that, firstly, communities are built and empowered by focusing on the strengths and capacities of the citizens and associations which call the community "home" and that, secondly, the assets of a community's institutions also can be identified and mobilized to build (empower) community. There are a range of approaches and tools, such as asset mapping, that can put these beliefs into practice. This approach also perceives the community as a “treasure chest” to be built upon; to be used to empower members of that community. Resources from outside the community (e.g., external grants) should be used only as a last resort in order to fill “gaps.”
Such an approach seeks to uncover and highlight the strengths within communities as a means for sustainable development. Its basic tenet 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 to mobilize its citizens to create positive and meaningful change from within. A typical needs assessment may ask, “What is the problem?” In contrast, asset-based approaches might enquire, “How can our community assemble its strengths into new combinations, new structures of opportunity, new sources of income and control, and new possibilities?”
De Gruchy (2007:3) emphasizes the importance of this approach: “Starting with people’s needs, deficiencies and problems ends up creating client communities that are consumers of development services”. Butler and Greenstein (1999: 46) likewise point out that “a key objective is to remove the constraints to the realization of potential. In this way people will be assisted to become more robust, stronger and better able to achieve their own objectives”.

4.2.10.1What assets should helpers look for?

Drawing from the work of Butler and Greenstein (1999:49-54); George (1999:4) and McNight & Kretzman (1993:1-11), a number of potential assets can be determined. These writers use the term “capital” to describe assets:

4.2.10.1.1Human capital

This refers to skills, knowledge, good health, and the ability to labour. It includes the gifts of individuals, whatever those gifts might be. Many communities make use of this concept by means of a simple two-part pledge, which is basic to community empowerment: Every person in this community is gifted, and every person in this community will contribute his/her gifts and resources.

4.2.10.1.2Social capital

This form of capital is taken to mean the social resources upon which people draw in pursuit of their livelihood objectives. It includes networks and connectedness, more formal group membership and trust, reciprocity and exchange. McKnight and Kretzman (1993:6) include local citizens associations, as well as institutions. In terms of local citizens’ associations, it was Alexis de Tocqueville who first named them, these "self-appointed" groups that congregate to take on community problems, or to aggregate their resources and interests in many other ways. In more recent decades, community mobilizers such as Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and Saul Alinsky have recognized the power of local religious, civic, and cultural groups as the bedrock for organizing.
“Institutions” signifies those institutions that are physically located in the community. Though they vary, every community possesses some local institutions. The challenge involves re-focusing at least a part of their mission and resources on community-building activity. How can local schools, parks, libraries, human service agencies, etc. contribute to the revitalization of community?

4.2.10.1.3Natural capital

This term refers to the natural resources that are available to households and communities in pursuit of their livelihoods and includes everything from intangible public goods such as the atmosphere to direct resources such as trees and plants.

4.2.10.1.4Physical capital

This is the phrase used to describe the infrastructure (such as transport, shelter, energy, communications) and producer goods (such as tools and equipment) that is required to support livelihoods.

4.2.10.1.5Financial capital

This encompasses the money that is available to the household, either in the form of stocks, such as cash, bank deposits, livestock, jewellery, and credit; or in the form of regular inflows of money from wages, social security, and other remittances. It will also include economic linkages and business assets.

Two more types of capital should be added, as argued earlier:

4.2.10.1.6Spiritual capital

This includes the inner strengths and attitudes stemming from a relationship with God, and practices stemming from that relationship. It will also encompass beliefs. While spiritual capital may also be perceived as part of human capital, it is sufficiently different to merit being distinguished, even though it is a more intangible asset.

4.2.10.1.7Visionary capital

This represents another intangible asset. It refers to plans, dreams and hopes that can be utilized to motivate communities, such as projects for sustainable community and economic development.

4.2.10.2Strategies to promote asset based community empowerment

Asset based community empowerment is, clearly, a process of self-mobilization and organizing for change (McKnight & Kretzman, 1993:5), The challenge for helpers is to stimulate this process without causing the opposite effect of dependency. From the work of these two authors, the following strategies can be applied:

4.2.10.2.1Discover assets…

4.2.10.2.1.1Through outreach and engagement

Such empowerment begins with outreach and engagement to people and the communities where they live (even the community of the streets). In this way we “find” the people we are to do missions with.
Kraybill (1992:23) writes of “building trust and instilling hope”. Practically, the community of the street must come to know and trust one, before they will allow helpers to help them in any way. For this, a point of contact is needed, from which relationship can be built, such as providing food at some place every night to the community of the street.

4.2.10.2.1.2Through the collecting of stories

In order to begin building confidence in the community, the conducting of informal discussions and interviews that draw out people's experience of successful activities and projects may help to uncover the gifts, skills, talents and assets of people. Not only does this uncover assets that people have not recognized before, but it also strengthens people's pride in their achievements. This celebration of achievement and realization of what they can contribute builds confidence in their abilities to be producers, not recipients, of change and empowerment.

4.2.10.2.2Map assets…

Asset mapping is an inventory of the community’s treasure chest. In the process of this inventorying, important relationships are developed. However, asset mapping is NOT an action step. Asset mobilization IS an action step. Mobilizing assets for collective action requires organizing and harnessing the relationships that exist within the community.

Mapping is more than gathering data. It is very important that citizens and their associations undertake the asset mapping themselves so that they themselves build new relationships, learn more about the contributions and talents of community members, and identify potential linkages between different assets.

Mapping can be carried out at the individual, organizational or the community level. It can be used to identify whom to involve, which issue(s) to work on, or, after the issue is prioritized, to further plan and implement activities. Mapping tools are located at the web site mentioned below¹⁹. The following mapping tools generally apply and can be used:

4.2.10.2.2.1Identify associations (relatedness)

The starting point of this exercise is to identify associations in the community. These relationships are the engines of community action, and are therefore essential.

4.2.10.2.2.2Identify individual gifts, skills, and capacities

There are many ways of trying to elicit individual gifts, skills and capacities. The important thing is to ensure that this is not just a data gathering exercise, but a way in which people feel that their abilities and contributions are appreciated. Eventually a "capacity inventory" is developed, listing these capacities in categories such as "community building skills", "enterprise skills", "teaching skills", and/ or"artistic skills". A simpler approach might be to divide them into skills of the heart, head, and hand.

4.2.10.2.2.3Identify the assets of local institutions

This will include governmental and non-governmental agencies and private sector businesses. The assets of these institutions could be the services and programmes they provide, the meeting places they offer, the equipment and other supplies they may possess, or the communications links they may have. They also employ paid or unpaid staff who may be important links in the community

4.2.10.2.2.4Identify physical assets and natural resources

Assets such as land, water, mineral or other resources can be listed here, identifying those which are communally, and those which are individually, owned and managed.

4.2.10.2.2.5Mapping the local economy

This exercise assists people in the community to understand how the local economy works, showing how well local resources are maximized for local economic benefit. Are products and services imported that could be produced locally?

4.2.10.2.2.6Building and strengthening partnerships among local assets for mutually beneficial problem solving within the community

Mapping can be used to identify and enlist potential partners in ways that are different from the way we tend to recruit (e.g., recruiting participants by approaching professional organizations in the community and asking for a representative). Again, this can be carried out at multiple levels and in the context of the different priority health areas.
There are many examples of means to accomplish this goal. Specifically, recruiting unique individuals who might not otherwise participate; finding persons who can be involved not as clients but as contributors; identifying associations and clubs; local private, public and non-profit institutions; the community’s physical assets (land, buildings, streets, transportation systems) and collaborative leaders who are interested in constantly expanding the numbers and kinds of people involved.

4.2.10.2.3Mobilize assets…

The process of realizing the community vision begins with the community and its associations asking themselves, "What can we do to make this vision happen?" External resources are not tapped until local resources have been utilized. This places the community in a position of strength in dealing with external institutions.

4.2.10.2.3.1By organizing a core group

In the process of collecting stories, particular people will emerge as leaders in the community: those who have shown commitment and leadership in the past or who are currently taking a leadership role. The next step is to organise a group of such committed individuals who are interested in exploring further the community's assets and acting on the opportunities identified. Each of these individuals will have a network of relationships inside the community whom they can draw into the process. Each of these individuals will display a personal interest: something that motivates him or her to act.

4.2.10.2.3.2By convening as broadly representative a group as possible to build a community vision and plan

During this part of the process, assets are matched with opportunities in terms of an "organizing theme": a vision for community development. An activity is selected within that organizing theme which the community can begin working on immediately. It needs to be:

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  Concrete (people know what to do to succeed, and what success will look like),
  
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  Immediate, achievable with community resources,
  
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  Unifying (it brings people together),
  
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  And strengthening (people's skills are used and valued)
  

How is this process managed? It is important that the representative group which is convened reflects the energy that has been identified at the associational level. Institutions take a back-seat role, leaving decision-making to those who have been identified as leaders in the community, with key links to associational networks.

Simple, but compelling questions that can be adapted to the specific community could ask “who are we in this community and what do we value most?” “Where would we like our community to go in the next five, ten, twenty years?” There are many community planning models and approaches. What succeeds in one community will not necessarily be successful in another. The main principles, though, are to begin with assets, expand the table, and combine planning with problem-solving.
Beginning with assets is to start by making a thorough inventory of the capacities of individuals, associations and institutions in the community. Expanding the table refers to making the planning process as open and participatory as possible, including participants not normally thought of as community leaders. Finally, combining planning with problem-solving implies choosing practical activities that the group can start working on in the present, while at the same time planning long-term efforts.

4.2.10.2.3.3By mobilizing assets for community development

The process continues as an ongoing mobilization of community assets for economic development and information-sharing purposes, initiated by the associational base. Associations are encouraged to engage by appealing to their interests, finding common ground and ensuring that they are contributing on their own terms. Eventually, an "association of associations" emerges.

Beyond locating assets and beginning to build relationships, ABCD involves mobilizing all of the community’s assets. Each local association and institution could be urged to begin making its own set of contributions. For example, organizations can provide support (e.g., encouragement, direction, mentoring, guidance, linkages, transportation, etc.) to those who have contributions to make, as part of the solutions/activities that are being implemented. The capacity to exchange information is central to the success of any community-building project. Hence it is important to learn about all those places in the community where communication of a “public” nature takes place: churches, clubs, beauty- and barber-shops, and even street corners. How can these be validated, strengthened and expanded?

4.2.11Community empowerment must combat marginalization

Burns & Santos (1995:6-7) believes that although people are affected by global or national processes over which they enjoy little or no control, local development (empowerment) initiatives still represent the way in which social, economic and political structures will be improved for marginalised people. He names four interdependent types of development (empowerment): human and personal, political, economic and social, which together will create self-reliant communities. I would categorize human and personal development as “inside empowerment”, while the rest would fall into the category of “outside empowerment”.

Friedmann (1992:7), however, believes that self-reliance is not enough, since poor people do not control the resources needed to improve their situation. Really to empower people by means of “alternative development”, we should understand the use of the common resources (usually controlled by the state) and the removal of those structural constraints that help to keep the poor impoverished. “If an alternative development is to advocate the social empowerment of the poor, it must also advocate their political empowerment” (Friedmann 1992:7).