ABSTRACT
This chapter considers Asset Based Community Development (ABCD), as an approach for community-based practice and development, which may allow the integration of macro and micro orientations and skills. The concept of ABCD was introduced by John Kretzmann and John McKnight, co-directors of the Asset-Based Community Development Institute at North Western University, in Chicago, Illinois, using their popular book Building Communities from the Inside Out: A Path Toward Finding and Mobilizing a Community's Assets. Therefore, ABCD replaced the 'needs maps' that demonstrate the problems in community with 'asset maps' that exhibit the gifts, skills and capacities of the individuals within community. The capacity inventory developed by can be applied to community development work in Ethiopia with minor adjustments, since it allows practitioners or community mobilisers to assess and understand existing gifts, skills and capacities in community. ABCD, even if it is considered to be applicable in different parts of world and has been proved to be an effective approach, has challenges.
