Community autonomy Model

POWER3 is the key success factors of the strenght of community and community autonomy.

                I have worked in community hospital in rural area of Thailand for14 years. I and my staff work with member and leader of community to take care of their health. Some villages have an active leader with visionary leadership and working by public interest, but some don't.

                I try to take observation, interviewing, collecting data by myself from 72 villages in Bantak District, Tak province, Thailand. I found that the villages that succeed in development their community have the 7 key success factors. I called these factors that the POWER3 0f Community Model(3 is exponential number of R or 3 R). There are;

P = Participation : join together with thinking, planning, doing, monitoring, evaluating, getting interest.

O = Organization : organize committee, projects, timing, schedule, budgeting.

W = Local Wisdom : apply local wisdom, knowledge both explicit and tacit to develop community, so called intellectual capital of the community, intergrate with appropriate external high technology.

E = Empowerment  : make an autonomy community and population, don't only get but give and take

R = Resources : use both external and internal resource, estrablish the community's fund.

R = Response : everybody cooperate to solve community's problems, do for taking public or collective interest.

R = Results : monitor, evaluate the performance of community by using appropriate quantitative and qualitative indicators.

            So, I'm sure that if the community has these elements, it will be developed for its population. I think that if we do a qualitative research for approve this model, it will be evidence-based model. But now I think that it is practical-based model.

 Phichet Banyati

Verbondstraat 52, Antwerp, Belgium

October, 15th, 2007