The Changing role of women in rural development and in construction an NGO in Northeastern Thailand : a case study of Panmai

Abstract

To study the role of women involved in the construction and remodeling of PANMAI as an NGO, and to evaluate the potentiality of this alternative form of NGO in rural development of Thailand. Particular focus of this study will be given to women involved in PANMAI, a non governmental organization (NGO) in Northeastern Thailand, which was one of the first womenʼs weaving groups supported by NGOs in the 1980s. It eventually became registered as a cooperative, which is a new type of NGO, in 1995 after 13 years. By looking at the PANMAI evolution and womenʼs involvement in the activity, this thesis discusses how womenʼs roles have changed and studies the potentiality of the NGO. Based on documentary research on alternative development and womenʼs situations in Northeastern Thailand, this thesis conducts an empirical study of PANMAI and Phoonpap village, and attempts to explore the actual conditions and the womenʼs trials in the activity. As for the empirical research, this thesis will look at the issues from two different aspects: the evolution of the Panmai activity, and the changes of the women themselves who were involved in the activity. First of all, in order to classify the evolution, the phases of PANMAI activities were divided into four phases as follow: initiation period, community development, sustainable systems development and public progress. Then the researcher interviewed as many as 20 village women, as well as the children, village nurses, the members of village council and the village chief, in order to reveal village womenʼs own changes after they became involved in Local Weaving Development Project, LWDP. The findings of this case study have demonstrated that the role of the village women is changing, but have not sufficiently fulfilled the criteria that Caroline O.N. Moser set. After the women started to contribute financially to the family after joining the activity, husbands became more helpful with their routine work. Women became empowered by strengthening their economic power, which foresees the potentiality to bring about a change in roles. Although Thailand stands as a stark contrast of the theoretically ideal model in terms of the NGO potentiality, two perspectives, namely the situation after the economic crisis of 1997 and the result of the case study of PANMAI, shows that NGOs are expected to play prominent roles in rural development.