ABCD - Collaborative action research

The Coady International Institute is currently working in Ethiopia with Oxfam Canada and in Kenya with World Neighbors to test an asset-based approach to stimulating citizen-led development in a multi-year collaborative action research initiative. The Institute and its partners are also exploring how community-driven initiatives, indigenous knowledge, experience and capacity can be linked with the resources of agricultural research institutions to generate appropriate innovation for sustained community economic development. Currently in Ethiopia, Oxfam Canada is working to link selected communities to outside institutions in the areas of: improved dairy production and processing; vegetable and fruit production; processing and marketing; and the development of multiple-use water systems. In Kenya, Coady and World Neighbors are using an asset-based approach to work with several communities in one micro-catchment (watershed) to build sustainable livelihoods that build on and complement, rather than replace or undermine, the livelihoods and the physical environment of neighboring communities.

Over the past year the Coady International Institute has also been involved in advising and training the staff of the Rural Community Development Center (RCDC), part of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, in Vietnam. The RCDC has been undertaking action-research in 17 pilot villages - testing how local government can stimulate and support community-driven development using an ABCD methodology.