Saemaul Undong Movement: Development Facilitation or Vertical Development

Started in 1970s, Saemaul Undong Movement is one of the most successful experiences of rural development across the world. It has been a well-established movement to facilitate an active participation of rural people. The movement has made an appropriate interaction between government agents and the rural people through an election of rural Saemaul leaders by the people. It has focused on improvement of applied education and attitude; however, this has not been limited simply to the rural people but involved, at the same time, managers and agents too. The movement is experiencing a top-down and bottom-up development plan in which people and government have reached a common understanding. It began implementing small and limited pilot projects followed by studying them in terms of their generalization. In effect, the movement is based on action-research. In this development process, all stakeholders have actively and dynamically participated in producing knowledge and implementing the projects. More specifically, it was not limited to men, since women have also contributed by their active participation in the movement trend. Although, Saemaul movement is benefiting from experiences of the other countries, there has been a great effort to maintain South Korean indigenous culture as a development setting. Finally, thanks to such a movement, people have achieved their self-esteem and attitude of “we are able to do it ourselves”.