Saemaul Undong: Harbinger or mirage of hope for a rural community in Uganda?

Hope is a cornerstone for community development addressing poverty and promoting transformation in the Global South. We examine how a non-governmental organization (NGO) intervention drawing on ideas from a Korea-based Saemaul Undong development approach inspired a rural community in Uganda with the hopeful spirit of nitubaasa (we can do). Combining conceptualizations of hope in positive psychology and critical pedagogy, based on qualitative interviews, we analyze how hope was promoted by introducing realistic goals, tangible pathways, and agency manifested in addressing shared problems, while analysis of persistent systemic challenges and their change as a platform for hope remained unaddressed. We argue that within the context of socioeconomic and political circumstances in Uganda, the initiative was both a harbinger of hope for the community, although, at the same time, that hope remained a mirage due to the focus on changing the mind-set of the poor rather than the circumstances that (re)produce poverty.