Community Organizing 3:
LOCAL GOVERNANCE for RIGHT LIVELIHOOD
- a Learning Journey

In Asia, civil society has been actively looking for just and sustainable economic models at community levels, as it is hard to expect genuine benefit for ordinary people trickling down from higher level change. Over the last 50 years Southeast Asia – from Thailand to Burma, Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam - has seen multiple experiments in alternative, sustainable economic experiments. Even though the majority of communities have been damaged, harmed or even destroyed by consumerism brought about by Market economy, community-based sustainable projects have slowly been expanding, competing with existing conventional developments, and inadvertently re-defining the Market. 

 

One of these successful examples is the island of Koh Yaonoi, a sub-district community in Phanga Province. During the 3 days, participants will get a chance to visit and learn from this unique community, experiencing and exploring their economic practices, focusing on sustainable tourism. Even though Koh Yaonoi is located in the middle of large tourist business of Phuket and Krabi, the community has so far been successful in preventing the negative effects of modern tourism industry. It has managed to preserve its own local Muslim culture and economic wellbeing of native people on top of having a big say in its own operation. By fully engaging in community life, as well as learning from other successful case studies within Southeast Asian region, participants will get a unique opportunity to understand and draw on lessons learned over decades of implementation, including the contribution to wider community regeneration and self-governance.