This paper has investigated prospects for an asset-based approach to community devel¬opment, as opposed to the conventional need-based. This approach has three characteris¬tics. Emphasizing capacity building, it is process-oriented. It is also comprehensive in that it capitalizes on a community's social and physical assets. Finally, it has 'instrumen¬tal' significance because it uses social and physical capital as means to other ends. Conversely however, the need-based approach is outcome-oriented; is categorical, and has intrinsic importance because it views the symptoms of poverty as deficiencies that ought to be addressed separately. This view has 'intrinsic' importance because individual goals become ends in themselves.
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