PertanikaJ. Soc. Sci. & Hum. 1(1): 11-18 (1993) ISSN: 0128-7702 © Penerbit Universiti Pertanian Malaysia Participative Villager Empowerment for Socio-Economic Development SULAIMAN M. YASSIN and AHMAD FUAD MUHAMMAD Universiti Pertanian Malaysia 43400 UPM Serdang, Selangor Darul Ehsan, Malaysia Keywords: Empowerment, sustainable, participation, village community development ABSTRAK Pendekatan-pendekatan pembangunan yang membolehkan penyertaan masyarakat miskin luar ban dar telah lama diteliti, diuji dan diselidiki. Di Malaysia, pendekatan ini telah diuji di dalam empat buah kampung dalam mana penekanan adalah dibuat ke atas pemberian kuasa kepada komuniti-komuniti kampung itu dengna kemahiran-kemahiran sosial dan teknikal. Suatu kaedah berdamping telah digunakan oleh agen-agen pembangunan serta menggalakkan masyarakat kampung untuk membuat kepututsan sendiri akan arah-aliran pembangunan mereka. Di dalam kampung-kampung tersebut, aktiviti-aktiviti sosio-ekonomi yang berjaya termasuklah aktiviti pendidikan, pertanian dan penternakan. Keputusan-keputusan positif menunjukkan bahawa masyarakat miskin boleh diberikan kuasa untuk membangunkan idea-idea mereka melalui pembangunan sumber tenaga manusia dan pendekatan penyertaan. Dengan kaedah yang sama, aktiviti projek telah menjadi lebih mampan. ABSTRACf Development approaches that allows for greater participation of the rural poor and that are sustainable in nature have long been examined, tested and further researched. In Malaysia, such a project approach has been tested in four villages with a focus on empowering village communities with social and technical skills. A consultative stance is adopted by the development agents who encouraged the villagers to decide on their own courses of action. In the project villages, socio-economic activities ranging from educatioT)al to agricultural and livestock components were successful. The positive results indicated that the poor can be empowered to develop their own ideas through human resource development and participatory approach. Project activities initiated in this manner were found to more sustainable. INTRODUCTION In recent years, the search for sustainable devel- opment efforts to solve the problems of the rural poor has become a national concern. Approaches that could be sustainable in terms of the ecological, social, cultural and economic contexts loom highest in terms of priority con- siderations in the formulation, identification and selection processes in programme develop- ment. Once found, these approaches have to be tested, demonstrated and later adopted on a wider scale. In Malaysia, a project focussing on model village development has been started by Universiti Pertanian Malaysia with seed money funding of US$5000.00 from the Centre for Integrated Rural Development in Asia Pacific (CIRDAP), a re- gional non-governmental organization based in Dhaka, Bangladesh. Four villages were selected: Kampung Bukit Changgang and Kampung Sungai Buah in Selangor and Kampung Batu 9 and Kampong Jijan in Negeri Sembilan. Similar projects have been started in other CIRBAP Member Countries which have yet to be docu- mented. The long-term objective of the project is to assist national action in Malaysia through the selected poor communities for the purpose of refining integrated rural development strategies by incorporating the community organizing tech- niques, community problem-solving with the use of participatory research and planning system, and implementation of projects that will im- prove the socio-economic conditions of the villages. Specifically the project aims to investigate participatory development approaches in terms of their usefulness, the factors influencing its