Appreciative Inquiry in Community Development

New idea time. Appreciative inquiry turns the problem-solving approach on its head. It focuses on a community's achievements rather than its problems, and seeks to go beyond participation to foster inspiration at the grass-roots level. It was developed in the early 1990s by David Cooperrider at Case Western Reserve University, primarily to help corporations sharpen their competitive advantage. IISD is now applying this approach at the community level in two pilot projects:

--Southern India in partnership with MYRADA, a non-governmental organization working to empower the rural poor, and

--Northern Canada, in partnership with Skownan First Nation.