Transformative Community Development

Transformative Community Development: Learning from Freirean and humanist praxis in Nepal
Authors: Peter Westoby, Ammar Bahadur Air, Rachael Donovan, Amina Singh
 
This book shares the story and lessons learned of a long-term, people-centred community development practice in Nepal grounded in Freirean and humanist traditions. Drawing on over twenty-five years of work by the Nepali organisation Sahakarmi Samaj, it presents the Facilitation for Empowerment and Social Transformation (FEST) approach as a process-oriented alternative to dominant service-delivery and project-based development models.

Through collaborative research by Nepali and Australian practitioner–scholars, the book explores how empowerment and social transformation are cultivated across interconnected levels of practice—from the formation of community-based facilitators and grassroots dialogue to collective organising, federation building, and policy influence. Combining lived practice stories, theory, and critical reflection, the book offers a grounded account of transformative community development in action, with relevance for practitioners, educators, researchers, and policy makers seeking people-centred approaches to social change.