1.4.4 Policy addressing poverty
In 2025, Srinakharinwirot University (SWU) continued to participate in policy making at the local, regional and national levels to implement programmes and policies to end poverty in all its dimensions. At the local level, SWU worked with subdistrict administrative organisations and community development offices in Uthai District, Phra Nakhon Si Ayutthaya Province, to plan and carry out area-based development that raises household income, improves farm productivity and strengthens household finances. At the regional (provincial) level, SWU worked with the Phra Nakhon Si Ayutthaya Provincial Cultural Council to plan and open a provincial market platform for community products. At the national level, SWU partnered with the Department of Cultural Promotion, Ministry of Culture, to put the ministry's policy of turning culture into a driver of the community economy into practice, helping communities earn income from their cultural heritage. Through these roles, SWU links national development policy with the needs of low-income households and brings its academic knowledge into the poverty reduction work of government.
Local level: area-based development to raise household income in Uthai District
SWU leads the project "Social Development and Community Economic Promotion through the Creative Economy for Holistic Area-Based Development" in Uthai District, under the national Programme for the Excellence of Higher Education Institutions and Advanced Workforce Development (Reinventing University) of the Ministry of Higher Education, Science, Research and Innovation. Through this project, the university works side by side with local government to shape and deliver local development plans that tackle low income and economic vulnerability.
On 19 August 2025, SWU convened the Academic Network Coordination on the Creative Economy meeting with the Pho Sao Han Subdistrict Administrative Organisation, the Uthai District Community Development Office and the Community Development Department, together with villagers and local entrepreneurs. The partners agreed on shared development priorities for the area: strengthening model households under the Household Lab Model for Quality of Life (HLM) of the Khok Nong Na approach, improving the efficiency of agricultural production, and processing and preserving farm produce to add value. The meeting linked national and local development policy with the practical needs of villagers, and SWU faculty members followed it with free business mentoring for villagers who wished to turn their produce into community products.
Figure 1: SWU staff with local entrepreneurs, villagers and the owner of the Khok Nong Na model household (HLM) learning centre, Pho Sao Han Subdistrict, 19 August 2025
Source: https://www.facebook.com/share/p/19gdKDUPr2/
The partners then put the agreed priorities into action. On 14 October 2025, the Faculty of Economics and the Social Service Office, Office of the President, worked with three communities in Uthai District (Ban Chang, Pho Sao Han and Nong Mai Sung subdistricts) to run a workshop at the Ban Chang Subdistrict Administrative Organisation on data recording and management for household and community enterprise accounting. The training gave households and community enterprises a clear and accurate way to record income and expenses, so that they can see where their money goes, plan spending and saving, and run community enterprises that remain viable in the long term. Household accounting is widely promoted by Thai government agencies as a practical tool for reducing household debt and strengthening the financial security of low-income families.
Figure 2: Household and community enterprise accounting workshop at the Ban Chang Subdistrict Administrative Organisation, 14 October 2025
Source: https://www.facebook.com/SocialServicesOfficeSWU/posts/pfbid037XcwqGB4ukRmkTV2DMpaUiVfApmMBN7t3qTACiTQGXvViaz2A91W3LWFm2qQgsLrl
On 16–17 October 2025, SWU returned to Ban Chang and Pho Sao Han subdistricts with the Office of Educational Media and Technology to follow up on the work and plan future activities with the communities, including the promotion of local products and community-based tourism. Faculty and staff from the Institute of Intellectual and Research Strategy also joined the visit, observing a learning model on algae cultivation, attending a lecture on the use of Black Soldier Fly (BSF) products and practising the production of plai oil, local know-how that households can build on to create new products.
Figure 3: SWU follow-up activities with communities in Ban Chang and Pho Sao Han subdistricts, 16–17 October 2025
Implementation continued throughout 2025. Under the same project, SWU ran a community branding workshop at Wat Nong Mai Sung School on 28 August 2025 and a workshop on marketing technology (MarTech) for local entrepreneurs in Uthai District on 13–14 December 2025, so that the income-raising priorities agreed with local government were turned into concrete action.
On 2–3 December 2025, SWU held the project's progress monitoring and evaluation meeting at the Kantary Hotel, Ayutthaya. The project is funded by the Office of the Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Higher Education, Science, Research and Innovation (OPS MHESI), and the meeting reviewed the results of each activity, explained how the university's policy is aligned with the direction of OPS MHESI, and set out the activity plan for continued funding in the next fiscal year. The results are used to improve the project's strategy, so that national policy and local action continue to work together to strengthen the community economy.
Figure 4: The SWU project team at the progress monitoring and evaluation meeting of the Reinventing University project, Kantary Hotel, Ayutthaya, 2–3 December 2025
Figure 5: Presentation of the project's results for the local community development group
Figure 6: Faculty members and staff reviewing activity results and planning for the next fiscal year
Source: https://www.facebook.com/SocialServicesOfficeSWU/posts/pfbid02EEQgekHoVvMM6jA8pgk6LWzMk7LdGy4E5mFz2yPMKcbzXp5FjcRenX6cK9j3273Pl
Local level: community tourism to create income for local people in Pak Phli District, Nakhon Nayok
SWU also works with local government in Pak Phli District, Nakhon Nayok Province, under its project to promote community tourism for the creative economy and to take the soft power of the Thai Phuan community to ASEAN. On 1 August 2025, Mr Sansoen Khamthong, the District Chief of Pak Phli, chaired a preparation meeting at the Pak Phli District Office for Bike for Life Thai-Phuan 2025, which SWU organised together with local agencies and the community.
On 3 August 2025, the Vice President for Social Planning and Strategy of SWU and the District Chief of Pak Phli opened the event at the Na Hin Lat Subdistrict Administrative Organisation. The 44-kilometre route passed through three subdistricts (Na Hin Lat, Nong Saeng and Khok Kruat) so that visitors could experience the way of life, culture and nature of the local community. The activity is driven by SWU's strategy as a university for society and aims to raise the quality of community-based tourism and create income for local people, giving the local community a new and lasting source of livelihood.
Figure 7: Preparation meeting for Bike for Life Thai-Phuan 2025, chaired by the District Chief of Pak Phli, at the Pak Phli District Office, 1 August 2025
Source: https://www.facebook.com/SocialServicesOfficeSWU/posts/pfbid0kPr6hjvpKiNCCPhpRNPzi89dWhAxHLnBWKUi5To5nEPyTJ39iMbjNUbZpGGiLr4Zl
Figure 8: SWU executives, the District Chief of Pak Phli and local partners at the opening of Bike for Life Thai-Phuan 2025, Na Hin Lat Subdistrict Administrative Organisation, 3 August 2025
Source: https://www.facebook.com/SocialServicesOfficeSWU/posts/pfbid0UKJTVvcB8fv2qbwLtaMYqVKi8LPQE2nGR6yN5jnfUsppffMXpvoo5B3R6mWZvMGel
Regional level: a provincial market platform for community products with the Phra Nakhon Si Ayutthaya Provincial Cultural Council
At the regional (provincial) level, SWU worked with the Phra Nakhon Si Ayutthaya Provincial Cultural Council to bring the products of Uthai District to a provincial market. On 5 February 2025, the Faculty of Fine Arts team met Ms Sunisa Kosinanon, a member of the Provincial Cultural Council, together with the coordinator of Central Ayutthaya, to plan a market space and cultural activities linked to the objectives of the Reinventing University project. Central Ayutthaya agreed to support community products, and Ms Rotjana Phoemphun, a Senator from Phra Nakhon Si Ayutthaya and Chair of the Uthai District Cultural Council, and Ms Nalini Danchaiwijit, Vice-Chair of the Provincial Cultural Council, agreed to take part.
Figure 9: SWU team planning the community product market with Central Ayutthaya and representatives of the Provincial Cultural Council, 5 February 2025
Source: https://www.facebook.com/SocialServicesOfficeSWU/posts/pfbid03jg1oXwJ37r9yueKrz5TityyTvGsUY3Y22T5q67kEbnUuVBZ7iMHUXddxR5Db84Zl
The plan was put into action from 20 to 22 June 2025, when SWU, villagers from Uthai District and Central Ayutthaya held the Community Product Market and Creative Economy Exchange on the G floor of Central Ayutthaya. The District Chief of Uthai, the SWU Vice President, two members of the Provincial Cultural Council and the retail manager of Central Ayutthaya attended. Villagers sold local products such as straw mushroom products, mushroom wine, khai pham (wolffia) and other processed goods, alongside an exhibition on the circular economy and a forum on the Bio-Circular-Green (BCG) Economy model.
The project brings together higher education, government agencies, the private sector and civil society, and uses the creative economy as a key mechanism to create income, add value to local resources and strengthen communities in the long term. By opening a modern provincial market to community products, the activity helps to implement programmes and policies to end poverty through stronger grassroots economies.
Figure 10: The District Chief of Uthai, SWU executives, members of the Provincial Cultural Council and partners at the Community Product Market, Central Ayutthaya, 20–22 June 2025
Figure 11: Project partners with villagers from Uthai District (left), and villagers selling their products at the market (right)
Source: https://www.facebook.com/swufofa/posts/pfbid02nWvfevcfAK1LjwwK5GdsPyhDXEKEiPmYAgnYFtLv6xThGCUgC6rXPPGmJrSLURPZl
National level: putting the Ministry of Culture's community-income policy into practice
In 2025, SWU and the Department of Cultural Promotion, Ministry of Culture, carried out the first year of the project Development of Cultural Knowledge for Creative Economy and Soft Power. The project implements the ministry's national policy of becoming a "social and economic ministry", under which culture and creativity lead the development of the Thai economy and society. Its stated aim is to add value to cultural heritage and to help communities earn income, while keeping local wisdom alive. SWU researchers worked with five communities in Uttaradit, Phatthalung, Uthai Thani, Nakhon Nayok and Phetchaburi to record their heritage and to plan, together with each community, prototype products that can become a source of income.
On 5 March 2025, SWU and the Department of Cultural Promotion held a national academic seminar at SWU to present the results. The seminar included a policy panel on "Strategies for Promoting Local Wisdom towards the Creative Economy and Soft Power" with experts from three sectors: a member of the Senate, the Director of the Innovation Division of the Office for National Reform, National Strategy and Reconciliation, and the Dean of the Faculty of Fine Arts, SWU. Representatives of the five communities, officials of the Department of Cultural Promotion, entrepreneurs and members of the public took part, giving communities a direct voice in national discussions on how culture can raise local incomes.
Figure 12: Guests from the Department of Cultural Promotion, SWU executives and the project team at the national seminar (left), and exhibition boards presenting the heritage and prototype product designs of the five communities (right), 5 March 2025
Source: https://www.thaipost.net/public-relations-news/750199/