Overseas aid - what do Australians think about it? Thanks to World Vision.
"Most of us come into this world amidst a frenzy of pain and emotion and unpredictability, and too many of us leave in the same way. If between the two certitudes of birth and death lies a generous period of love, family, and friendships, free from the shackles of violence and poverty, it is a life to be coveted."
— Samantha Nutt in her must-read book ‘Damned Nations: Greed, guns, armies and aid’
"Four years out from the deadline set for the Millennium Development Goals, not a single fragile state has achieved any of the MDGs. In fact, a growing share of the world’s poor live in fragile states and some predict that this share will grow to more than 50 percent within the next five years."
— Dereck Rooken-Smith is the Assistant Director-General for the Office of Development Effectiveness.
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The evidence suggests that the truth lies in the in-between: Microfinance works really well sometimes – but not always. It works for some people the way we thought it might, and for others in ways we didn’t anticipate. For some people, microfinance doesn’t seem to have any measurable effect…
People in developing countries don’t always make what we might think are rational savings decisions, just like people in developed countries. They may not save because the future is unknown, because they don’t have the self-control to follow through, because they don’t always foresee their future needs, or because they don’t see the point when they’ll just have to share their money with family and community members. All of these reasons sound familiar to anyone who has had trouble making a decision whether to save or spend – be it on budget, diet, or time and energy.
"— Leah Stern asks What do we really know about microfinance? The answer - it works for some people, some of the time, and is not the silver bullet it’s made out to be.
Take a walk through a Dhaka slum with MSF
Take a walk through a Dhaka slum with MSF and explore their incredible Urban Survivors site more. This is communications excellence in action.
The award winning documentary, Good Fortune, takes a critical look at aid work, particularly in Africa, and raises the questions anyone working in aid and development should be asking themselves. Essential viewing:
GOOD FORTUNE explores how massive, international efforts to alleviate poverty in Africa may be undermining the very communities they aim to benefit. Through intimate portraits of two Kenyans battling to save their homes from large-scale development organizations, the film presents a unique opportunity to experience foreign aid through the eyes of the people it is intended to benefit.
"Everyone wants developing countries to escape aid dependency, and most people recognized that this requires sustainable growth and jobs. Because this is such a compelling objective, the development industry has been tempted to justify aid on these grounds. But the evidence from opinion polls and focus groups suggests that the public is willing to support aid which demonstrably meets immediate human needs irrespective of whether this contributes to long-run growth. By setting excessively ambitious objectives for aid, the industry risks alienating the public from their emotional connection with what aid can achieve, and asks to be measured by standards that it is unlikely ever to be able to show that it meets."
— Owen Barder on the importance of being clear about the realistic objectives of aid
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But the sense that the aid agencies are employers not helpers, who probably do more harm than good, is widespread and deep-rooted. In the very popular memoir, The Last Resort, Douglas Rogers quotes a local aid worker who had previously run a tobacco farm where he had to deal with poor soil, frost, infrastructural maintenance and the livelihoods of four hundred workers and their families:
“Now? I drive around in a white Land Cruiser handing out shitty imported maize seed to poor buggers who don’t know how to farm it. Then I collect a salary in US dollars. It’s not very moral and it doesn’t make me feel very good, but it’s easier than farming.”[14]
Or, in the words of another friend of mine (who depends upon aid agencies to fund her work in rural communities, and so doesn’t want to be named):
“They spend millions but they make no constructive difference. They just meet their funders’ benchmarks and get paid. They are parasites on the poor.
"— A comprehensive article on the negative impacts of aid by Diana Jeater, writing from Harare, Zimbabwe ‘Parasites of the Poor? International NGOs and Aid agencies in Zimbabwe.
"I genuinely struggle to understand how, in so many areas of life we are very quick to say, “do it right, or don’t do it at all…” Yet when it comes to the very complex, high stakes endeavor of alleviating poverty in the context of another culture we are too often similarly quick to shrug off misguided attempts to “help” as perfectly acceptable because at least the person did something."
— Tales from the Hood once again raising an important misconception about poverty and the solutions, good intentions are not enough.
International Development in (almost) 7 links
· When is a $300 house a bad idea? Otherwise known as Bad Aid In Action!
· One for the statistic and data nerds among us – poverty in the era of data and why monitoring and evaluation (M&E for the acronym lovers) is the catchphrase of the day
· The 100 Social Enterprise truths – complete with a pic of a granny lighting up. Seriously.
· What do intestinal worms have to do with getting kids into schools? (Otherwise known as ‘Getting smart about aid”)
· Working in the arse-end-of-nowhere in the name of delivering aid – aka an insight into the lives and minds of International NGO field workers.
· A good news story from Karonga, Malawi from the folks at Water Wellness (p.s. keep the challenge of governance in the back of your mind when reading this one)
· Oxfam launches its GROW program with Scarlett Johansen, Desmond Tutu and others, to international fanfare (think food crisis).
· (And just so we remember what we’re up against here, they New York Times appoints its first female editor ever, after 160 years)
Day 1 - Walk in her shoes
Sponsor me as I walk 10,000 steps a day every day this week.
Alright, so it’s 4:30pm, I’ve been up since 7, and my pedometer reads an infuriatingly lousy 3080 steps. That’s despite my relatively active morning giving two presentations to Year 8 and Year 9 students. This 10,000 steps per day caper is going to be harder than I thought….and it’s 6 degrees outside.
Not that I’m complaining. I ate home-made guacamole and stir fry veggies for lunch. I treated myself to a hot chocolate this afternoon. I had vegemite on toast for breakfast. And I’m wearing new sneakers. My life, quite simply, is grand. Much much easier than for the people living in Borena Zone, Ethiopia, for example, where the women are spending hours collecting water.
And this is what I’ll be thinking of while I’m walking the rest of my 7,000 steps in the midst of Melbourne’s winter this evening.
Please sponsor me - it’s amazing just how motivational it is to know I’ve already raised enough money to provide a whole village with a safe birthing kit. But I’m now aiming big! Really big! So please, help me fund a water system for an entire village - that’s just $950.
And stay tuned for tomorrow’s installment…
7 links on international development this week
· One in three Africans is now middle class
· Did you know baby carrots are actually junk food? (This is more relevant to development than you think)
· One third of the world’s food goes to waste – which is particularly interesting given the current world food crisis.
· Could a global databank warn of natural disasters – and thus save lives?
· More than 1 billion people are hungry in the world? – One of the best articles I’ve ever read on food security. Ever.
· Measuring how or why aid works, or doesn’t Two new books on aid and development (and a review of them here in case you don’t actually want to read them)
· Just how dangerous is sitting all day? (Gulp)
[image: sitting down all day]
"…the story of hunger, and of poverty more broadly, is far more complex than any one statistic or grand theory; it is a world where those without enough to eat may save up to buy a TV instead, where more money doesn’t necessarily translate into more food, and where making rice cheaper can sometimes even lead people to buy less rice."
— More than 1 billion people are hungry around the world, but it’s not as straightforward as you think, say Abhijit Banerjee and Esther Duflo. The whole article is worth reading for its insightful examination of the ‘food crisis.’
Motivation - is yours all wrong?
Me ‘on the job’ and loving it, Bangladesh 2009.
I recently read this post on the motivation of aid workers by one of my favourite aid blogs Tales from the Hood. Naturally, it got me thinking about my own motivation for getting involved in the international development scene. First, a quote from the post:
“I meet many people who think of humanitarian work as a “calling.” Maybe they’re called by God. Maybe they feel guilty for having been born into wealth. Maybe they want to “give something back.” Very often they see the life of a humanitarian as a series of sacrifices that they somehow feel compelled to make.” - TFTH.
Do I feel like my decision to move into humanitarian work was a ‘calling’? Er, no. But I did identify, to a degree, having feelings of guilt at having been born into wealth, and while I didn’t think of this kind of work as giving back, I did consider it part of my intention to ‘contribute positively’ to the world.
Tales from the Hood continues on to be quite scathing towards people who think working in the humanitarian field is some kind of sacrifice they are making, worthy of special reconigition from everyone who chooses to stay home in comfy suburbia.
“Using the language of sacrifice to describe aid work implies that you are somehow entitled to something from those who did not make similar sacrifices. Maybe respect. Maybe appreciation. Maybe a raise. Maybe a break on your check-in luggage fees.” - TFTH.
And I agree that this attitude is troubling, but where I disagree is that I don’t think this attitude is such a problem initially.
When I first started working in development, I was definitely aware of a sense of theoretical sacrifice involved. I gave up a well-paying job I loved that included a great career trajectory and an excellent boss who was also my mentor. I gave up my share house, which had been the centre of my social world, and said goodbye to friends and family I knew I wouldn’t see for a long period of time (and yes, I got a break on my check-in luggage fees).
But alongside all this ‘scarifice’, I knew I was gaining some incredible things as well - an international career, the experience of living in another country, a big-leap-forward in professional experience, and all with the security of being supported by my government and a large international development organisation. Depending on which mood I was in, I was either making a sacrifice or accepting one of the best career and life opportunities I had ever been offered.
Of course the reality was a mix of both. And you know what? I don’t mind it that way. Once I actually started working, I never ever thought about the choices I made being anything like ‘sacrifice’ again* - I loved my job way too much.
While I take the point from Tales in the Hood that the motivation people have for the choices they make matter, I disagree that everyone needs to make decisions the same way and for the same reasons in order for it to be ‘right’. I don’t mind what path you take to “be the change you want to see in the world” if it means that you are actually contributing positively to the world around you.
And while my own motivations may have began from questionable origins, according to Tales from the Hood, they very quickly shifted. I went from feeling the need to ‘contribute’, to wanting to continue working in development because I love the day to day tasks of what I do. I love being involved in work which seeks to empower some of the most vulnerable people in the world. I love seeing the process of development itself. I love sharing my passion with people I meet as part of my job public speaking.
And quite simply, I love the feeling of waking up every day and looking forward to another day at work.
As for motivation? It takes all types. It’s not what got you started that interests me, but what keeps you there that matters most.
*Ok, maybe once I did at 3am with my head hanging over a dirty toilet bowl in a strange town in a remote community a twenty hour drive away from my bed, the nearest doctor, and my full medical kit, but that was only once, I swear.
