About ACCB
Building capacity through knowledge, skills and institutions
Alliance for Community Capacity Building in Northeast India, known as ACCB, is a UK-registered charity working to strengthen education, knowledge, digital capability and community-led development in Assam and the wider Northeast of India.
ACCB was created with a simple belief: communities do not need only temporary help; they need the skills, systems and institutions that allow them to shape their own future. We therefore focus on capacity building — the patient work of developing people, platforms, partnerships and practical tools that continue to serve long after a single project ends.
The charity is registered with the Charity Commission for England and Wales as Alliance for Community Capacity – Building in Northeast India, charity number 1106666. Its public registration record describes its work as supporting educational, information literacy and skill development programmes, including assistance to grassroots organisations.
Our Purpose
ACCB supports initiatives that help communities gain access to knowledge, skills, technology and organisational capacity. Our work has included educational programmes, digital skill development, information literacy, support for not-for-profit organisations, scholarly publishing, and community health-related initiatives.
We are especially interested in the point at which knowledge becomes useful in practice: a learning platform that reaches students, a journal that gives scholars a voice, a website that helps a community organisation function, or a healthcare cooperative that uses technology to serve its members more effectively.
Why Northeast India
Northeast India is a region of rich cultures, languages, histories and ecological diversity. It is also a region where communities often face practical barriers in education, healthcare, digital access, institutional development and public communication.
ACCB’s work is rooted in this context. We support efforts that help local organisations become more capable, more visible and more sustainable. Our approach is not to replace local initiative, but to strengthen it.
We support learning initiatives that encourage access, self-development, digital skills and community-oriented education. This includes interest in open learning, teacher development, early education, and learning models that can reach people beyond conventional institutions.
Many community initiatives fail not because the idea is weak, but because the organisational infrastructure is fragile. ACCB helps strengthen this hidden layer: websites, digital platforms, communication systems, records, workflows and backend support.
ACCB supports knowledge creation and scholarly communication. Through Journal Space and Culture, India, published by ACCB Publishing, England, we help sustain a double-blind, peer-reviewed, international humanities journal that is published quarterly. (spaceandculture.in)
ACCB provides technology and backend support to the Assam Healthcare Cooperative Society, a citizen-driven healthcare cooperative in Assam. The cooperative’s stated vision is to build a community-owned healthcare ecosystem in which quality healthcare is affordable, transparent, preventive, and ethically governed. (assamhealthcare.coop)
Our Approach
We believe capacity building is not a slogan. It is practical work.
It means helping people and organisations acquire the tools to act more effectively. Sometimes this means training. Sometimes it means technology. Sometimes it means publishing. Sometimes it means helping an emerging institution organise itself better.
Our work is guided by four principles:
Knowledge should be useful.
Education and research matter most when they help people understand, organise and improve the world around them.
Technology should serve communities.
Digital tools are valuable when they reduce barriers, improve access and strengthen local institutions.
Institutions should outlast individuals.
Sustainable change requires platforms, systems and organisations that can continue beyond the efforts of a few committed people.
Local initiative should lead.
ACCB supports community-driven work. We aim to strengthen local capacity rather than impose external solutions.
Initiatives we support
ACCB’s impact is reflected in the initiatives and platforms it has supported over time. These include scholarly publishing, open learning, digital infrastructure, healthcare cooperation, education and community capacity-building projects. Current and continuing areas of support include:
- Journal Space and Culture, India
- Assam Healthcare Cooperative Society
- Open learning and digital skills initiatives
- Mother-tongue and community-oriented education
- Public-interest publishing and knowledge resources
- Technology support for grassroots organisations
Our history
Since its formation, ACCB has supported a range of educational, digital, health and community initiatives. Some were short-term projects; others developed into continuing platforms. Together, they form the charity’s institutional memory.
Earlier activities have included skill development, digital literacy, academic writing support, leadership development, teacher training, GIS training, health promotion, and rehabilitation support following the 2008 Assam bomb blasts. The current ACCB website records these legacy initiatives as part of the charity’s history. (accb.org.uk)
Looking ahead
ACCB is now entering a new phase. Our focus is to consolidate our past work into a clearer platform for future action: supporting education, health, open knowledge, digital systems and community institutions in Northeast India.
We welcome collaboration with individuals, charities, universities, community organisations, healthcare groups, publishers, technologists and members of the Assamese and Northeast Indian diaspora.
Partner with ACCB
If you share our interest in education, health, knowledge, digital capacity and community-led development in Northeast India, we would be pleased to hear from you.