The Adopting Social Enterprise Model and Sufficiency Economy Philosophy for Alleviating Poverty of Minority in Thailand: A Case Study

This paper aims to investigate the approach of sustainable development for reducing poverty of minority in Thailand by adopting social enterprise model and sufficiency economy philosophy which have been promoted by Thai government for more than 20 years. This case study research is a qualitative study by used CIPP model as the essential concept. Qualitative data were collected through the semi structured interview form, and document analysis. Data were analyzed via content and thematic analysis. The results show that successful sustainable development to reduce poverty, especially among minorities, should consist of the following key elements: 1) Community cooperation is the first element for the success of the development. Thus, the initiators of the development project should be a community member or have a very good relationship with the community in order to reduce the language barriers used in communication as well as to strengthen trust between the project operators and the community to achieve good cooperation. 2) Government agencies and local educational institutes should support the necessary knowledge for social enterprises by training and researches. 3) The goals of the development project, inputs and development processes must be in line with the needs and lifestyle of the community and be able to help solving the real problems of the community. 4) Development implementation must be carried out by increasing income of the family sustainably in term of both household income and expenditure according to sustainable agriculture concepts and social enterprise model, and promoting reasonable spending of households based on the sufficiency economy philosophy. 5) Digital technologies and ICT are the necessary tools to search vital information of production, promote products, and open a distribution channel of products