Grassroots Democracy and Community Empowerment: The Quest for Sustainable Poverty Reduction in Asia

Abstract

Poverty reduction has made a comeback in the agenda of international development agencies in the early 1990s, after almost three decades of being on the back burner.1 The unquestioned belief in the trickle-down model of development underlies the focus on market-oriented growth and global economic integration since the 1970s. As the benefits of economic liberalization have failed to assist the world’s poorest populations, various forms of social movements challenge the Asian states to become more accountable and responsive to basic human needs. Many grassroots organizations and NGOs look everywhere but the state to bring change based on alternative development paradigms. Simultaneously, development practitioners within the interstices of international agencies, national governments and civil society have begun to move in various directions to bring about alternative forms of sustainable development.KeywordsSocial CapitalCivil SocietyPoverty ReductionCommunity EmpowermentGrassroots OrganizationThese keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.