Questions/Answers

Rural poverty situation remains a major problem in Thailand and it has been a complex problem for over 20 years. Community Development Department (CDD) is assigned to carry out Basic Minimum Need (BMN) in every community, to measure the quality of life of the households. The BMN indicators determine that the household’s income below 38,000 THB per head a year is the targeted household of the Sustainable Poverty Reduction through Sufficiency Project (SPRS). The CDD tries to educate people to manage and develop their life in an appropriate way. The project integrated cooperation among public sector, private sector and communities, under the Sufficiency Economy Philosophy (SEP) of the late King Rama 9, since 2012 in order to develop quality of life of Thai people. The SPRS is a public service innovation which identify the target by data, collaborate all stakeholders, enhance community participation and encourage the poor to design their life resolution.

The SPRS pioneers innovative targeted poverty reduction intervention in Thailand through SEP. This project initiates the Committee of Directorate Center on Poverty Reduction and Rural Development in Accordance with Sufficiency Economy Philosophy (CDC-PRRD), function as coordinators and supporters at provincial and district level. The operation team is also set up, from public and private sectors and communities, to visit and advice the targeted households and facilitate the support of the community in sub-district. The project addresses the poor household and its members while focusing vulnerable population including elderly, children, women and people with disabilities. Therefore, no one is left behind.

The SPRS helps improve public service that is accessible to all especially the poor and vulnerable people which relate to the SDG goals, zero hungry, good health and well- being and quality education. The main objective of the project is to alleviate the poverty which focusing on the improvement of the quality of the poor and passing BMN of standard 105.50 THB ($3.30) ppp a day by integrating cooperation based on the Sufficiency Economy Philosophy. The integration and cooperation among concerned agencies and community intends to enhance concerned agencies’ services which directly deliver their services to the poor.

Poverty is a complex issue and it’s challenging to find a simple solution to address. Each household have conditions and causes in the same time. Therefore, it requires “tailor- made” solutions and integration between sectors as a network to address this problem. Each household has their own challenges which come from variety causes and involved with one another. The project has positive impact on at least 4 groups of vulnerable population. First, it creates jobs and income for the communities by helping people with low income to access the local fund as members of occupational groups in the village. Also, the children can go to school and receive financial supports from both local government and private sectors. The elderly receives helps from the local government in many forms such as subsidies, hospitalization and necessary utility. Also people with disabilities receive subsidies from the local public and private sectors. Moreover, the CDC-PRRD encourages all stakeholders to share and exchange their works by placing local stakeholders in charge of managing their own local economic development and creating the ownership among them.

Poverty is a complex issue. It could not be solved through occupational promotion to the poor and wish them secured occupation with higher income. There are several causes and conditions affecting the poor. Previously poverty reduction lacked systematic view which did not covered other related issues including nutrition, sanitary, education etc. As a result, the targeted poor did not get helps and supports properly and continuously. As a matter of fact, they are unable to manage their life properly and their impoverishment varies. Therefore, the poor household must manage their living properly in accordance with their cause and condition.

There are 3 characteristics of innovation of the SPRS. First, the integration of the Basic Minimum Needs (BMN) data, the annual survey of rural household in Thailand, and field operation teams and community participation. The BMN data identifies preliminary poor households, below 38,000 THB income, while community approves. Second, there are field operation teams comprising volunteers, CDD staff and concerned agencies’ field staff including health officers, agricultural extension, and non-formal and informal education staff. Third, the project allows the targeted poor household to achieve their goals through self-determination based on their competency and suggestion of the operation team.

The project has disseminated information in two ways: lessons learned and conferences. Firstly, the operation team engaged in knowledge-sharing on poverty alleviation and established lessons learned document. This includes SWOT analysis and success factors which are used as a guideline to increase effectiveness and efficiency on the project. Secondly, both domestic and international conferences are communication opportunities to share experience from the partnership and to collaborate in eradicating poverty. For example, the Director-General of the CDD presented this project in the 2nd BIMSTEC Ministerial Meeting hosted by Nepal in 2012 where Poverty Plan of Action was adopted.

Since the SPRS is the integration and cooperation among concerned agencies and community, it intends to enhance concerned agencies’ service. Once the poor are identified as competent or incompetent, the concerned agencies will take responsibility related to their situation. Therefore, there is no extra budget requires. Most of the budget is used for capacity building of operation team, and meeting arrangement. The community participation also helps lessen budget. There are many local funds in rural villages both self-help funds and government supported fund like Village fund. These local fund can lend low interest loan to the poor for their investment.

The project is sustainable socially, economically and environmentally which are: Socially, it intends to have community taking part in the project. The men, women and youth in the targeted villages are requested to participate in the project. They are trained to conduct a conversation with the poor households getting necessary information related to household situation. Not only the volunteer, but also the whole community participation. Once the BMN data shows the list of poor households, the community meeting is organized to validate the data and approve the poor households. The participation creates the strong community with unity and harmony. Economically, it enables households’ ability to manage their life properly in term of attitude, skill, resources, and solution. Once they develop can-do attitude, know their skills and resources, and discover the solution, they set the goal, plan, and practice as they plan. They earn some income, lessen their expenditure and finally become self-reliance. Environmentally, the project encourages the poor households to practice SEP focused on moderation, reasonableness, and self-immunity. In practice the poor households produce organic fertilizers and organic pesticide using agriculture matter available in their land.

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The project has been formally evaluated through internal evaluation by integrating cooperation from all CDD units. The purpose is to evaluate the development of the raise in quality of life of the poor households and the implementation of the integrating cooperation relevant agencies. The evaluation and analyzation of the success of the project is according to interview questions.

The indicators and evaluation criteria 1. The success of the project 1.1 50 percent of the targeted household with below minimum income pass the BMN standard 1.2 80 percent of the targeted household satisfy with the project 2. Integrating implementation - The number of partner agencies (5 or more) collaborate in the project implementation.

c. As a result, the targeted households improved the abilities of managing their life. Thus, the households achieved a better life and higher income. - In 2014, there were 32,066 competent targeted households involved in the project. The 17,636 households (about 55 percent) passed the BMN standard. The satisfaction of the project was 82 percent. - In 2015, there were 15,373 competent targeted households involved in the project. The 7,687 households (about 50 percent) passed the BMN standard. The satisfaction to the project was 91 percent Moreover, there were 18 relevant agencies collaborated in the project implementation in both years.

In order to stimulate the participation of stakeholder in poverty reduction, the CDC-PRRD in both district and provincial levels, which have been composed of different local government officials and citizen representatives, play a significant role as integrated and collaborated unit (mechanism) to enhance the quality of targeted households’ life by operating their own functional authority. For instance, promoting ‘expenses reduced and more income earned’ behavior (doing bookkeeping, planting home-grown vegetables and making organic fertilizer from home) is the responsibilities of CDD, DLD, DAE. Secondly, increasing access to financing is in the charge of BAAC, GSB, Savings group for production, Thai Women Empowerment Funds, etc. Thirdly, CDD, DLA, Office of the Non-Formal and Informal Education, community leaders, community volunteers, local wisdom intellectuals have been involved in promoting job and occupation. Next, Sub-district Health Promoting Hospital and village health volunteers are to take care of health promotion. Moreover, many more agencies and private sector also have an opportunity to develop community’s products and promote marketing channels. Poor households can become well-being not only from integrated committee that work hard to lift them up, but also their mindset that have been changed by themselves.

The project has several success factors that bring the Thais living a better quality of life. Firstly, the BMN is a reliable tool that the relevant agencies use for ensuring that the needs of the poor are met and improved. In addition, the CDC-PRRD is collaborative mechanisms for determining what solutions or law to use. The sub-district operation team continuously provides a community vocational training and promotes poor people's access to the community capital. Strong community leaders and well-participated in the community are the key factors to help poor people reaching a better future and relying on themselves.