ABCD-Training-of-Trainers-Tools-July-2013

that are produced or sold by local people. Discuss the proportion of goods that are purchased
outside the community to those sold and consumed within the community. For local government,
which may mean district or regional government, list the types of programs or services delivered.
2. It is helpful to use the thickness of the arrows to represent the relative magnitude of the flows of
money. This allows community members to see which flows are the most important.
3. It is important to allow the community members to do the actual drawing themselves. It is usually
only by struggling to create their own leaky bucket diagram that people become engaged in the
process.
4. Be sure to distinguish between outflows and leakages. Outflows are necessary and natural.
Community economies exist within regional economies, which in turn exist within national
economies, which themselves exist within the global economy. Trade between communities,
regions, and countries has many benefits. If communities tried to eliminate all spending outside
their borders, they would soon see demand for the products they intend to sell to other
communities drying up. Leakages, on the other hand, are monies that are flowing out of the local
economy for one of the following three reasons:
• to purchase items that could be produced locally at equal or better prices or quality;
• to purchase items that have little or no productive use like alcohol or tobacco; or
• to sell unprocessed raw materials when both the know-how and potential
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