Anseba Development

ANSEBA DEVELOPMENT

Anseba Development is a registered charity as well as a company limited by guarantee based in London, UK. It was established in December 2000 to relieve poverty and advance education in the Anseba region of the state of Eritrea.

The aims of Anseba Development are:

To support the development process in Anseba region in partnership with local, national and international NGOs through sharing expertise and resources.

To help progress an appropriate and long-term developmental strategy for the region.

To encourage initiatives that develop the resources of education, agriculture, health, water and civic involvement in the region.

This initiative is timely to the reconstruction process in Anseba, but the nature of the initiative is also significant as a response to the diversity and flow of people not just across nations but across continents. Anseba Development enables those who have an association with Eritrea but now living in Britain to play a part in aiding the flourishing of the region. Furthermore, Anseba Development draws on the friendships and acquaintances that have been created by Eritreans as they put roots into British society. This means that the trustees of Anseba Development are not just drawn from Eritreans now living in London, but also from the British Asian community as well as white British community. Anseba Development is therefore a pathfinder model of ‘trans-national’ civil society. Such examples of ‘trans-national’ commitment are vitally important in a rapidly globalising world.

There is a further innovation associated with Anseba Development: The involvement of those who are themselves Eritrean means that an exceptional degree of local cultural knowledge can be harnessed. This ‘knowledge in depth’ is not a resource that most development agencies have to hand. Therefore this resource is important to more established groups, thus giving exceptional scope for Anseba Development to work in partnership with others. A related capacity is the ability of Anseba Development to encourage the formation of partnering networks within the Anseba region. The involvement of local people in projects and in setting priorities is essential to effective development.