Finance Minister H.E. Mr. Arkhom Termpittayapaisith opened with a clear message during his keynote address, stating the importance of empowering local communities, especially vulnerable groups, to participate and receive needed support, and build community resilience to cope with uncertainty or shocks. “Focusing on people-centered development and providing digitally enabled socio-economic support to local communities is a critical pathway for sustained recovery and resilience,” said the Minister.
As a case study of the CDD approach, Ms. Alka Upadhyaya, the Additional Secretary in the Ministry of Rural Development and the CEO of National Rural Livelihood Mission (NRLM), shared India’s experience with the NRLM, one of the largest livelihoods and women’s economic empowerment program in the world. The expansive program has a federated structure consisting of “self-help groups” at the hamlet, village, and cluster level, covering about half of all rural households in India. It offers a range of financial services, from bank credit to insurance to financial literacy training. It also targets youth skilling, including in entrepreneurship.
“In response to COVID-19, the self-help groups demonstrated strong capacity to respond to the pandemic’s impact at the local level, for example in mobilizing the people and resources to produce face masks, sanitizers, and protective gears,” said Ms. Alka. “While large supply chains broke down due to necessary COVID restrictions, rural local supply chains were thus able to step up and support nearby areas.”
Mr. Nirat Phongsittithaworn, Deputy Permanent Secretary of Thailand’s Ministry of Interior, also shared Thailand’s experience in strengthening its grassroots economy through the One Tambon One Product (OTOP) program which was initiated two decades ago to support local economic development at the sub-district level. The program has more recently expanded to e-commerce platforms, particularly in response to COVID-19 impact and restrictions, thus leveraging digital economy for local development.
“Areas with low population density often means a lack of critical mass for public services and infrastructure development, which leads to a low rate of business and job creation,” said Dr. Anna O’Donnell, World Bank Lead Social Development Specialist, who introduced the Smart Village approach in Indonesia to drive rural transformation through community-led digital innovation. “Digital solutions can help to break the cycle by reducing the costs of service delivery and promoting business development.”
A panelist from Indonesia, Dr. Suprapedi, further described the Smart Village model as a way to tackle the digital divide and to support communities to effectively use digital technology to achieve local development priorities. An example of a Smart Village application that brings local innovation onto a digital platform and benefits many villages is Anak Bunda, which helps village health clinics collect health data and provides graphics analysis.
Similar to Indonesia’s approach, Dr. Piyanuch Wuttisorn, Inspector General at Thailand’s Ministry of Digital Economy and Society, shared how digital community centers have been established to provide internet access, host training for digital and entrepreneurial skills, and facilitate access to digital public services.
Participants raised interesting questions around the application of the CDD approach in a middle-income country such as Thailand, and the role of the private sector. The panelists reflected that applying CDD in Thailand can be even easier and more promising, as some of the typical challenges such as access to finance, connectivity or business development capabilities are less restrictive. Further, the private sector, particularly the larger players, can support communities in areas such as product development, standardization, marketing, and e-commerce transition.
