March 17, 2021: More than 40 Community-led Development practitioners and supporters from across Asia – from Afghanistan to Australia – came together last night to discuss the methodologies of two of the largest, oldest and most successful Community-led Development (CLD) programs in the world:
- BRAC’s Community Empowerment Program (link to their website), which currently reaches 12,487 villages across 54 of Bangladesh’s 64 districts, presented by its program head Shashwatee Biplob, and
- The Sarvodaya Shramadana Movement of Sri Lanka (link to their website), which has mobilized 15,000 villages across all 25 districts of the country, presented its President Vinya Ariyaratne, MD.
The speakers addressed how they address some of the most critical issues that are common to virtually all CLD programs: developing local confidence and leaders – particularly with women, linking communities to existing local resources and programs and enabling villages to successfully become self-reliant and self-governing.
The full 90-minute program is below. You can start with the BRAC section at this link and the Sarvodaya section at this link.
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