At the International Conference for Community Development’s conference in Hong Kong in June 2007, a declaration on ‘Building democratic institutions and civil society in the
Asia-Pacific Region through community development’ was adopted. This builds upon the previous Budapest Declaration aimed at Europe. It promotes community development as “a way of promoting active civil society, sustaining peace based on justice, and creating democratic life by prioritising the decisions and actions of people, their communities, and their perspectives in the development of social, economic and environmental policy.”