Questions/Answers

“KohKha-a city of social egalitarian and a city conducive to accessing public services for people of all ages”- Thailand has allowed women to vote since 1932. However, the roles of women in politics and social development are not well accepted due to inadequate awareness of genders and traditional social attitudes.KohKha Municipality is one of the local government organizations in the North of Thailand. It was basically a male-dominated culture. Public attitude of the public focused on primary role of the male gender. Hence, there were very few women joining politics. Political leaders had always been men. The development was mainly on public utilities and basic infrastructure. While the developments of environment, health, social and quality of life promotion, including helping the underprivileged and vulnerable groups were very few, social integration in public work had yet occurred. Since 2001, there were never female members in the council. In 2004, there was a new generation of female willing to make changes and was elected as the mayor of Ko Kha, along with all group members. She carried out activities in all dimensions. In 2008, the number of House of Representatives was 5 women and 7 men. From 2014 until now, there are 7 women and 5 men. The mayor implemented a policy of transparency by giving the public an opportunity to inspect and participate in projects implementation. Public consciousness was created through a sense of collective ownership by a community forum (official hearing organized by the municipality) and Khuang Phaya stage (an activity to listen to opinions of everyone). Voluntary and leadership are being emphasized, raising awareness on long-term development and sustainability.Vulnerable groups have been elevated in order to access public services. The goal is simply to not leave anyone behind.

The work corresponding to the category is to establish a policy that prioritizes participation of women and all group members. The rise of genders equality and roles of people with a more equal participation of women in society in problem solving results in collaboration. There is an emphasis on gender related issues and volunteers to take care of the underprivileged in the community. As a result, these groups were well taken care of, creating a warm family. Children can play social service with adults. New information and technologies are being applied to reduce inequality and create social equality.

SDGs 1- to eradicate poverty - There is a project to promote careers for women and elderly which resulting in an integration of various occupation groups according to their aptitude. More than 150 women housewives, disabled women and elderly women have a career that is sufficient to support themselves. Job creation has generated income and lighten the burden on the family. SDGs 5- to promote gender equality – The project is an opportunity for women to participate in analyzing and discussing community issues, making decisions, and participating in planning, and rather they have become community researchers, gained more confident, and been able to express opinions on all public issues through activities. Members of all ages can discuss about public issues with community researchers. An invitation to the “Talk” is sent while issues and suggestions are being collected and return to the municipality. This is to create a process for participation to find patterns and make agreements, as well as to encourage people to know how to manage themselves. The activities are being continued until a community becomes stronger, as well as raising awareness among the members by promoting the role of network.

After years of promoting roles, more women are actively participating in community researchers, volunteer groups, and municipal community organization councils. They know problems of the community very well. The Council of Community Organizations is responsible for scrutinizing and prioritizing social problems. They forward the information to the municipality to consider including the project in the municipal development plan. There is a career promotion program for women groups, the disabled and other vulnerable groups in the community. Later, an integration of occupational groups to produce products for sale has occurred to generate income and value in members. This results in self-reliant.

In the past, during various municipal operations, women play a very limited role. KohKha Municipality has therefore emphasized on working to empower women in the community to become more involved in society by searching for problems that arise, leading to a forum and returning all information to the municipality, creating joint ideas, joint plans, and joint decisions. It can be seen from the area that there are more female leaders, for example, there are 7 members of KohKha Municipality Council from a total of 12 people, 2 women out of 7 village headmen, and every village has 1 female assistant village headman. Groups can gain access to public services, receive physical and mental rehabilitation, and get help with problems that meet the needs. Later, self-reliant in the field of occupation is generated. Four mechanisms are being implemented: 1) to create learning system 2) to participate 3) to build self-management, and 4) to pass on all knowledge to future generations. As a result, problems in government administration like complaints will be reduced, lessen gaps to access public services in various areas, as well as conflicts in the community.

In the work emphasizing on the roles of women in gender equality, there seem to be more women stepped into social and political work. This has elevated Koh Kha to become a city with high proportion of women working in politics and society. Women also join the municipal development committee and volunteer to help the vulnerable. A participatory process has created social opportunities for women and caused a rise to work for society. Through data recovery and think together in the Khuang Phaya stage forum, activities are carried out to solve problems in consensus of the people in the community.

1. There are activities to promote maternal and child health which a child was born alive, the mother was safe. In the past 10 years, there have been no children born with disabilities. 2. There is a promotion on nutrition and development of preschool children regarding nutrition and care to parents. Early childhood grow up with physical and mental readiness. 3. A survey program is used to file information regarding children in the municipality and categorized them into high, medium, low and non-risk groups aiming to create appropriate care and problem solving with women community researchers and volunteer groups. 4. The opening of a public space for children and young adults is a council where they can reflect the needs, giving children a safe social space. 5. 40 people were bedridden, 280 disabled people and 1,340 elderly people were taken care of by volunteers. At present, there are 30 volunteers in the community. 6. More than 300 volunteers were gathered to help the society in various fields of care. More than 70% of the volunteers are women. 7. Women's groups in the area have developed their potential as more than 60% of women are accepted and elected to political positions.

The initial stage is the year 2006 - 2009. Women have very few social roles and no opportunity to share their problems with government agencies. This caused problems that have not been resolved in a timely manner lack of potential development and space to show their talents. Once the problems happened to children, women and the vulnerable, Koh Kha Municipality began to organize the opening of applications. Community researchers are volunteers and want to help in social services without compensation. The municipality organized trainings to promote low-income women. A group was formed to make additional occupations for women. The second phase is the year 2010 - 2016. The concept of gender equality has been established. KohKha Municipality together with community researchers conducted a survey to collect information on all vulnerable groups in the Municipality, followed by data analysis. Vulnerable groups received extensive assistance. Youth in the community gather to form the Children's Council. There is the establishment of a school for elderly in order to gain knowledge on how to take care of their health and to provide space for social activities. The third phase is the year 2016 - the present. While Line Application makes the identification of vulnerable groups in the community clearer and to facilitate communication between groups online, a ramp for the disabled, handicap toilet in the office building area and district offices, parks, and temples, are the examples of how to make it easier for vulnerable groups to access public services onsite.Health Promotion School is for those who are interested in health care program and those with health at-risk problems. While some tasks were subtle, the discussion required a compromising attitude of females. Since then, there has been an agreement that members should consider giving women the opportunity in public management.

At first, projects were mainly on male-dominant task. Once the female mayor emphasized on improving the quality of life of vulnerable groups, annual budget expenditure had been allocated through project and policy for more than 85%. Those with personal benefits were not happy with the mayor. Women were also lacked of confidence to participate for society. There was a lack of acceptance from both the family and the community. But once receiving training from educational institutions, women started to gain confidence. The municipality also provided opportunities for women to work on solving public problems through community forum.

This is a social innovation that uses a process of creating social equality in accessing public services for all groups of people, supporting and enhancing the capacity of women groups to be leaders in the community. It has created engagements and opportunities as a community researcher and expanded the idea of inspiring women in the community to work for the public. A society has overlooked genders differences, focusing on the value of working for participation, has been built. Women are having roles in society, like sharing ideas, planning, and asking for budgets for activities to help various social groups.

It is an innovation implemented by applying the principles of government administration (Governance Innovation) that can use the mechanism of the female network to gain more acceptance in society. This has included Sufficiency Economy Philosophy based on the principles of “moderation”, “reasonable” and “immunity” and two basic conditions: “knowledge” and “morality” helping people to become self-reliant. A strong society will help each other and don't leave anyone behind. Acceptance of equal roles in society is created. An awareness regarding true gender equality is being delivered. In fact, women and transgender people are able to create truly gender-equal societies.

The establishment of a global positioning system (GPS) has been applied for coordinates of homes with children,youth at risk,and handicapped,including a survey of vulnerable individuals.This makes it possible to know the necessary information of each individual, whether it is the condition of the problem, the living environment, the location of the target group and leads to joint planning in solving each case problem. In addition, LINE Application is used for communication regarding the well-being or urgent needs. This has resulted in individual assistance according to the problems encountered thoroughly and to the point.

Yes,KohKha Municipality has been selected by Thai Health Promotion Foundation (ThaiHealth) to be the sub-district host of physical, mental, social and intellectual well-being. There are 60 local government organizations that have been selected nationwide, including KohKha that has analyzed and summarized lessons learned, then created learning resources based on the ideas of people-participation, good governance, and social equality for all groups of genders and ages. By concepts of “leaving no one behind” and good governance, there are different learning topics, namely, communication, environment, social service issues, community development, health care, gender roles and equality, local wisdom and networking, and waste management. Executives, community leaders, children, women, and elderly can learn according to their interests. After attending the study sessions, a condition is that each one must apply what has learned in their own area according to the context of the community. Follow-ups and advice from KohKha Municipality have been provided to help achieve results in those areas. In addition, due to various awards received, many local government organizations and various agencies interested to come to exchange knowledge with the municipality on monthly basis.

KohKha Municipality has already transferred/adapted to other contexts

Although the main resources used in operations are from the Municipality’s budget, the municipality is the key collaborator. In terms of personnel, the municipality has cooperation from all sectors, including public, private, and educational institutions. All public sectors as well as related stakeholders are working together as a team, especially for the field visits. In terms of budget, the municipality also received support from all relevant agencies in co-hosting, whether it was the budget for repairing any run-down houses for poor families, grants to help vulnerable groups, and scholarships for underprivileged children.

1)It is participatory work in raising awareness of public problems and all parties must work together to solve it.And start working on all aspects of social issues, and then creating a sense of ownership2)There is a change in social attitude to accept women’s roles and the identity of the workers regardless of genders and ages. As a result, youngsters come out to work in the community and pass on knowledge from generation to generation. 5)Community database is developed and used as a foundation for development plan and the system is also used to feedback all information to the community.

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This work has been evaluated through innovative submissions in the contest for outstanding local government organizations for women and families, awarded by the Ministry of Social Development and Human Security for six consecutive years (A.D.2007 – 2013). The awards are: Award for Local Administrative Organization with Outstanding Assistance to the underprivileged from the Ministry of Social Development and Human Security(A.D.2014), Outstanding Local Administrative Organization Award for Transparency and People Participation of King Prajadhipok's Institute (A.D.2010 - 2012 , A.D.2014-2015 and A.D.2021), and Award for Local Administrative Organization with Outstanding Management of the Office of the Decentralized Commission.(A.D.2007, 2009, 2011, 2015)

The applied tool was to target KohKha as a social egalitarian city. There are 4 working mechanisms to create the participation of everyone from all sectors, emphasizing on self-management of people in the community to create collaborative learning as a database, leading to a transmission from generation to generation. Everyone in society views public problems as a matter of their own and can be solved through participation and action. This results in participatory work and the creation of working networks from all sectors.

All sectors are sharing a sense of pride and expanding the concept of working on social issues causing women’s network and occupational options. This leads to the start of women's work in society. At present, at KohKha Municipality, there are 34 different social groups in all dimensions, with 70.59% female chairperson, 29.41% male and 73.77% female committee members, 26.23% male. The group consisted of 68.01% females, 31.99% males, and in terms of political community leaders (village headman, assistants to village headman), including the Mayor and KohKha Municipal Council members, 58.82% is female, 41.18% male. This figures of female participation in politics and decision-making positions are much higher than those at the national level. Waste separation resulted in a community agreement to separate waste and grow organic vegetables. This creates a common awareness among the community and views that health problems are another public problem which requires all sectors to help each other in order to achieve equality in receiving services and access to the rights. The results show that Koh Kha is a city based on equality allowing women to access social opportunities and being accepted socially.

Integrated collaboration among departments/organizations includes: 1) Educational institutions such as Thammasat University, Lampang Rajabhat University, and Phayao University are providing trains as a facilitator for the women's group leaders in the area. 2) Public health service units including Koh Kha District Public Health, Koh Ka Hospital, Health Promotions Hospitals promote participation in health care of people in all age groups. 3) Environmental agencies in academic support and giving advice on operations according to the principles of sufficiency economy, separating waste, and how to make fertilizer from wet waste. 4) Private sector supports manpower and budget to help vulnerable groups including the employment and use of women's products and elderly’s in the area. 5) Ministry of Social Development and Human Security in providing budget to promote careers for women's groups and elderly who are interested in career integration. It is also to support the budget for the construction of civilization that is conducive to all people by constructing a ramp for the disabled and disabled toilets in government and public places. 6) Public sector is considered to be a very important sector in driving work in the community and has resulted in addressing the vulnerable groups directly and to the point.

In operating such activities and driving such work to be successful, in addition to the municipality and cooperation from various sectors both public and private sectors, cooperation from the civil society in term of volunteer leaders who was the first group in receiving training with building capacity, and later gained a better understanding of the social work context is considered to be vital. This group of women has the courage to stand up to express and help society in many dimensions. As a result, it has been accepted and created the concept of equal work. The emphasis is on people-centered development approach, creating a working network and expanding the concept of working for volunteers of all genders and ages in the community. As a consequence, social problems can be solved in a timely manner. There is also a group of volunteers and funds raising to help each other. They visit each other to support all vulnerable groups who face social problems whether it is home repair fundraising or donating goods. In addition, the participatory work resulted in community leaders. This results in participation and pride, led to truly sustainable development based on strong community and civil society politics.

Lessons and important concepts gained from the operation will develop a sustainable society providing opportunities for all people to step up, play a role and express themselves in order to create a good society together. This will lead to a participatory and volunteer society, a moral society, and make them realize that a city that is livable must be a city driven by the power of all sectors. The emphasis on networking is an opportunity for all parties to join in the process of accepting diversity to pursuit of equality that brings together people with different expertise. The result is better solutions to social problems where women are being encouraged to increase their leadership skills. Strong leadership is the key to strengthening policy networks, achieving common goals and raising the bar for local innovation. Working together drives problems to be solved and is based on consensus, that is, turning conflicts into cooperation. This can change the attitude of people in society. It's also a stage where women can express themselves more. Correspondingly, public problems can be solved with the power of cooperative networking based on social equality.