Asset based community development: Focusing on what we have, not what we lack

Community water tub that the youth constructed in Bendum village in Upper Pulangi, Bukidnon, Philippines

Jason Menaling

As one of the participants from the Philippines who joined the Asset Based Community Development (ABCD) workshop that Jesuit Mission Australia facilitated in Bali, Indonesia from 10 to 16 July 2025, I learned that ABCD is an approach and mindset that focuses on what we have rather than what we lack and is an important way to understand how communities grow and thrive using natural and existing resources.

The ABCD approach is also about listening, observing, and thinking deeply about the positive things that already exist within and around us such as the community’s strengths and its inherent resources. This means recognizing the talents, skills, and resources that are already in people, families, and local environments.

As our facilitator Nenette shared, ABCD isn’t something new as it comes from traditional ways of living and knowledge that people have always practiced. It’s just that sometimes, we forget to see the value in what we already have.

This approach helps “unlock and unblock” our minds. It encourages us to think differently about how we engage with our communities, families, and organizations. It guides us to build on what’s already working rather than waiting for external help or focusing only on problems.

ABCD also helps change our mindset and encourages us to better understand our own lives and how we relate to others. It teaches us to look at every situation with balance and deeper understanding.

Part of our learning was a discussion on poverty that is not only about the lack of money. Poverty can also exist in how we think, feel, and care for ourselves, even in our spirit. We reflected on areas where we feel weak or lacking, and how we can strengthen these by focusing on what we already have.

One important lesson I took away is that we should not rely too much on external help or government aid. Instead, we need to learn to stand on our own and create systems that work for us. Hardships and lack of access should not be our only focus. Each of us has the power and capacity to live meaningfully by using what’s already available in our community.

We also identified and mapped the different types of assets we have – natural, human, and material – many of which we often overlook or don’t value enough. Yet these are already present within us and in our surroundings. They are important and should be sustained and developed over time.

Just as important are cultural and social assets that need to be better understood and appreciated as these involve collaboration, relationship-building, and understanding different cultural contexts. This appreciation of cultural and social assets are especially meaningful for the ABCD workshop participants who came from diverse cultural backgrounds and are mostly working in rural communities.

In our activity on discovering financial assets, I learned a lot about how to manage money by starting with what you already have. Through the “leaky bucket” activity, I saw how money flows in and out of a community, from small to large amounts, and realized how important it is to balance these outflows. This helps communities manage their finances wisely and focus on needs rather than wants. This kind of understanding leads to more sustainable financial decisions.

Even though some of these lessons have already been introduced in our community, it’s still important that people fully understand and apply them in balancing and managing family and community resources.

I feel proud to have shared and connected with other participants from Timor-Leste, Cambodia, Myanmar, and Indonesia when I shared my experience in the community and at the Apu Palamguwan Cultural Education Center (APC). It was a meaningful opportunity that challenged me to think about future generations, especially in valuing the natural assets around us that are deeply tied to our culture and daily lives.

Here in Pulangi, Bendum, I realized that these learnings should be shared with the council of elders and members of the Pulangiyēn community to which I belong. We need to go through the same process of reviewing and understanding our community assets before moving forward with planning. This is crucial for the sustainable management and development of our Ancestral Domain Sustainable Development and Protection Plan that is based on our Certificate of Ancestral Domain Title. Recognizing how all our assets are connected helps us take united steps and build long-term plans for the community.

To meaningfully address concerns about community development, we must live with the people, understand their real situations, and apply what we’ve learned within ourselves. I realized too that the Pulangiyēn people are already practicing many of these lessons where we do what is appropriate and meaningful for the community.

This learning is very important to me because it guides how I can plan and act in ways that help people understand their roles, from small daily actions to larger community changes, by making use of the resources we already have.

Jason Menaling is the Forest Management and Culture Coordinator of the Apu Palamguwan Cultural Education Center (APC) that runs programs on strengthening indigenous leadership, forest restoration, and enterprise development in Upper Pulangi, Bukidnon in northern Mindanao, Philippines. APC also operates an upland indigenous K-12 school in the ancestral domain of the Pulangiyēn community using mother tongue-based multilingual education, as well as a technical skills and value formation program for youth who are not in school.