Thailand Human Development Report 2003 Thailand Human Development Report 2003

THAILAND HUMAN DEVELOPMENT REPORT 2003 THAILAND HUMAN DEVELOPMENT REPORT 2003 THAILAND HUMAN DEVELOPMENT REPORT 2003 United Nations Development Programme The cover photo shows a huge stage poster of the Assembly of the Poor (AOP)’s rally in front of the Government House that says “Assembly of the Poor follows up on the (Government’s) promises”. On the wrist is written “United like sticky rice, together as one for the victory”. The placards mention various problems and issues that AOP have campaigned for or against, e.g. dams, forest-land, alternative agriculture, state’s projects, fake pigs-cows. Photo credit: Friends of the People (FOP) Copyright © 2003 United Nations Development Programme Rajdamnern Nok Avenue Bangkok 10200 Thailand Tel: (66-2) 2882130 Fax: (66-2) 2800556 E-mail: [email protected] Web site: www.undp.or.th ISBN: 974-91116-5-6 ii THAILAND HUMAN DEVELOPMENT REPORT 2003 FOREWORD His Excellency Thaksin Shinawatra Prime Minister of Thailand It is my pleasure and honour to introduce the second UNDP National Human Develop- ment Report of Thailand. At the beginning of the new millennium, all nations are eager to focus on poverty alleviation in its broadest sense, not just from an economic and technical perspective as tended to be the case during most of the 20th century. UNDP’s focus on “human development” provides an excellent framework for this broader approach and matches well with Thailand’s own “people-centred approach” to development. Globalization has tended to divert attention from this broader perspective, focusing too often exclusively on economic growth and its attendant opportunities. While such employment creation is indispensable to poverty reduction, it is not sufficient in itself. Yes, it provides opportunities but it also threatens traditional values. As a result, local communities feel a compelling need to balance these global forces with greater control over their lives, seeking inner strength through community empowerment. In Thailand, itself engaged in a powerful process of democratization, this dialectic – between the global and the local – has been steadily growing, especially in the past two decades. We understand the need to reconcile these sometimes-conflicting forces, and the deeply felt need of people to assert their own interests and values. We know that values and wisdom of all sorts exist in the Thai community and that these must be harnessed for the greater benefit of our society. The challenge is how best to accomplish this and I believe that this report provides many useful insights. It is clear that community empowerment in Thailand means evolving an entirely new enabling environment for rights and accountability, indeed, a whole new way of thinking. “The challenges of today’s problems, and tomorrow’s cannot be met with yesterday’s solutions, suitable as they may have been to yesterday’s problems.” This kind of development is long-term work to which the Thai government is actively committed, inspired by His Majesty the King’s advice on self-reliance and sufficiency economy. I have no doubt that many organizations will be moved and inspired by this particular Report. I believe it will assist understanding of the issue and create an opportunity for us all to support and promote community empowerment both as a means to, and as an end of human development. (Thaksin Shinawatra) Prime Minister of Thailand FOREWORD FROM THE PRIME MINISTER iii PREFACE Dr. Sippanondha Ketudat Former Chairperson, the National Economic and Social Development Board Chairperson, Thailand Human Development Report 2003 Review Board I was honoured and delighted to have the privilege of serving as Chairperson of the Thailand Human Development Report for the second time. Like all sequels, the challenge of the second issue is to be at least as good, if not better, than the first. The task is therefore not easier, but more difficult. But I must say that the difficulty in producing this Report far exceeded my expectation. This, I hope, says something about this Report. It is a product of much expectation exasperation, hard work, long-hours of debate, zigged-zagged and patchy progress, play-by-ear plans, several revisions, contention and compromise. In many ways, it reflects the state of play in community empowerment as well as other developments in Thailand right now. As Chairperson of the Review Board, I shared the stewardship of this Report by negotiating and balancing among different viewpoints, while ensuring that the Report can fairly represents community empowerment in Thailand. As a Thai citizen who has served in the academic, public, private, and civil society sectors, I actively shared my ideas and experiences, and was heartened to observe that, while there were many points of divergence both at the philosophical and practical levels, some fundamentals have been unequivocally established, at least among the diverse groups engaged in the drafting process. Among these fundamentals is the general agreement that the changing complexities and needs of our society far exceed the skills and capacity of any government, and that the solutions often lie where the source of the problems were thought to lie – i.e. the people, especially rural communities. These people, in spite of poverty and deprivation, have demonstrated that they have the capacity to overcome adversities, especially structural and institutional barriers; to stand on their own; to challenge the conventional practice with their local wisdom; and to extend a helping hand to their peers. It is a revelation that is crucially important to the future of this country. It is my hope that the UNDP Report contributes to this empowering process by echoing different perceptions, ideas, stories, suggestions, and sharing them widely within and outside the country. Finally, I hope that the Thailand Human Development Report 2003 will be read, discussed, challenged and enjoyed by all, including the communities – some of whom have contributed their valuable time in making it possible. Dr. Sippanondha Ketudat iv THAILAND HUMAN DEVELOPMENT REPORT 2003 PREFACE Mr. J.K. Robert England Resident Coordinator, United Nations System in Thailand Resident Representative, United Nations Development Programme, Thailand This is the second time that the UNDP is releasing a Thailand Human Development Report. This second Thailand Report joins a diverse family of such reports worldwide – prepared at the national, sub-national and regional levels – which complement our global flagship publication. Each such report seeks to throw light upon a particular dimension of development, as seen from the vantage point of human – or people-centred-development. UNDP has been supporting Thailand’s development efforts since 1955, almost five decades of close and productive partnership. As elsewhere, our work always has as its primary goal the promotion of sustainable human development of the sort that springs from national priorities and is shaped by the special circumstances and local needs of Thailand itself. We are fortunate in that Thailand is widely regarded as a remarkable development success story, and we hope our work has contributed in a modest way to this success. Certainly, we ourselves have benefited immensely from the many lessons learned through pioneering development initiatives undertaken by public, private, and community organizations in this vibrant country. Thailand is a fertile and exciting ground for community empowerment experiences, an important dimension of the development process in many countries. In this country, the government, the private sector, academia and the communities themselves have all been actively involved in this dynamic process. They have variously engaged in studies and research, piloting exercises, comparing experiences, discovering best practices, learning and re-learning the meaning of community and community empowerment, documenting and sharing knowledge, institutionalizing changes to facilitate community empowerment. It was for this reason that UNDP Thailand decided two years ago to make “community empowerment” the focus of the second Thailand Human Development Report. In doing so, we decided to follow the cardinal rule of community empowerment: “the process is as important as the result”. The process of making a community empowerment report should also be empowering for the communities. Put another way, a report about this subject would be hollow if it were not founded on the views and experiences of communities themselves. In the making of this Report, UNDP Thailand therefore provided a continuous forum for an active exchange of ideas and experiences. Contributors ranged from policy-makers, public officials, civil society leaders, academics, non-governmental development workers, and last but not least, community leaders from various regions. It was a difficult, but very enriching experience. We were impressed by the diversity of ideas; the breath and depth of the debate; the spiritual and cultural underpinning of the Thai experience; and the passionate account of bitter but inspirational struggles for self-empowerment of community leaders over the last several decades. If the process of preparing this Report was an especially challenging experience, it was precisely because there is so much energy in the community empowerment sub-culture of Thailand. We hope this is captured in the Report itself. PREFACE FROM MR. J.K. ROBERT ENGLAND v Community empowerment through the making of the Community Empowerment Report Community empowerment through

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