Decade of Change: from the Urban Community Development Office to the Community Organization Development Institute in Thailand, A

This describes the innovative poverty reduction programmes set up by the Urban Community Development Office (UCDO) in Thailand and how this fed into a new institution into which its programmes became integrated - the Community Organizations Development Institute (CODI). Both UCDO and its successor CODI provide community-based savings groups with a range of loans to support income generation, community enterprises, housing improvement/upgrading, new housing (especially for squatters threatened with eviction) and community-managed revolving funds. Loans were also provided to networks of community organizations who could on-lend to their members. The loan programmes were complimented with a small grants programme for community managed environmental improvement projects and support for community welfare funds. CODI is also supporting rural community groups, networks of groups (for instance as all community organizations in a city join together to work with the local authorities on a city-wide plan) and is helping to develop the Thai government’s ambitious ‘cities without slums’ programme.