International Institute of Rural Reconstruction
Mission: "[To] work with the poor and their communities as a partner enabling them to improve their lives an achieve their full potential; [to] learn and document practical and innovative solutions to the challenges facing the poor; [to] share our learning and experience through education, training and communication; [to] join with partners to achieve equity, peace and justice for all."
In China since: 1990
Annual China budget: $100,000
Number of staff: 1 national and expatriate
Mainland China contact:
Erika Helms
China Programme Coordinator
Library, Research Room 9
Yunnan University, 2 Cuihu Beilu
Kunming
Yunnan 650091
Tel: +86 0871-5032896
International Contact:
IIRR Regional Center for Asia
Y.C James Yen Center, Silang
Cavite 4118, Philippines.
Tel: +63 46 414 2417, +63 2 886 4385
Fax: +63 46 414 2417, +63 2 886 4385
Activities in Other Countries:
Various countries in Asia, Latin America, Africa
This organisation was founded in 1960 by Dr. Y. C. James Yen (宴阳初, 1893-1990), who had been a driving force of China’s popular education and ‘rural reconstruction’ movement in the 1920s. The Institute is incorporated in the Philippines and the United States, and has worked in developing countries across the southern hemisphere.
Yen argued that “The basic problems of the people – poverty, ignorance, disease and civic inertia – interlock. To address one problem, we must address all.” He also stressed the innate capacity of rural people to develop themselves, and set out to work with them “not out of pity but out of respect for their potential for growth and development, both as individuals and as communities.” In this spirit, IIRR’s rural development programmes are based on collective problem analysis and community learning, and on training for self-help rather than reliance on outside expertise.
In the late 1980’s the Chinese government invited Dr. Yen to make a return visit. This led to a six-year collaboration between IIRR and local authorities in Guangxi on an integrated programme in Heng County (横县). Activities included training in health, environmental education and income generation. Since the mid 1990s, IIRR has also facilitated numerous study tours to the Philippines and Thailand for Chinese government and non-government rural development practitioners. In addition, a number of training workshops have been held in China. Recent examples include workshops, co-organised with Yunnan University’s Regional Development Research Centre on ‘Building Community Social Capital for Sustainable Development’ and on ‘Good Local Governance;’ as well as a ‘Participatory Watershed Management’ workshop, in the Lashi watershed area, in cooperation with Oxfam America.
IIRR expects to continue offering and adapting training courses for Chinese practitioners, while also expanding capacity building activities in southwest China. It is working with Yunnan University’s Regional Development Research Centre to build the Centre’s capacity to offer short courses in participatory development practices for county and township-level government officials. The Centre is also partnering with IIRR in a conference on pro-poor water governance in small and medium-scale watersheds in the Mekong region.
IIRR also hopes to bring to China a ‘Writeshop’ process developed elsewhere, in which representatives of communities, NGOs, government agencies and universities come together to brainstorm, write and edit publications about community development.
IIRR’s total income in 2003 was USD 2.09 million. Of this, around USD 130,000 was donated by individuals and a further USD 755,000 was came from private foundation grants. Most of the remainder was earned from providing training courses and technical assistance.
Links
http://www.iirr.org
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