FEBA :   Can Asset–Based Community Development (ABCD) approach thwart a community deficit mindset for Irish potatoes cooperatives? The case of cooperatives in four districts of the Northern and Western provinces of Rwanda

By Celestin Hategekimana, PhD

Abstract

The aim of this research is to demonstrate how Asset–Based Community Development (ABCD) approach can thwart a community deficit mindset, with the special on cooperatives in four districts of the Northern and Western provinces of Rwanda. As methodology, this study targeted 20 cooperatives operating in Musanze, Burera, Nyabihu and Rubavu districts – Northern and Western provinces which started in the post-1994 Genocide against Tutsi. This was done through a two months survey research.

A fieldwork research showed that, in spite of a pro-poor rhetoric in National policy, this did not seem to translate into effective implementation. In light of this, rural poor communities grouped in cooperatives have continued to experience themselves as being underdeveloped. A view that is, in itself, self-defeating and counterproductive to community-capacity building.  In fact, before 1994 genocide against Tutsi, years of needs-based initiatives have left cooperatives in Rwanda generally and in the Northern and Western provinces of Rwanda all too aware of their poverty, and constantly looking and expecting outsiders to change their livelihood.

This study concludes that Irish cooperatives in four districts of the Northern and Western provinces of Rwanda before the 1994 Genocide against Tutsi have been usually defined in terms of needs, problems and deficiencies as explained in details by Cameron & Gibson (2005: 275). These resulted in a community that Kretzmann and McKnight identify as, having a ‘deficit mindset’ (1993:2). It further concludes that the people-centred dimension of ABCD is critical to Irish potatoes cooperatives in four districts of the Northern and Western provinces of Rwanda committing to taking responsibility for their own well-being and welfare in the post – 1994 Genocide against Tutsi. Of significant importance, is that these cooperatives recognize that it is not with outsiders, but with themselves that their hope is founded.

Keywords: Asset Based Community Development (ABCD), Cooperatives, Community development and empowerment