How do we help a community develop? This is the question which every NGO manager, aid worker, and humanitarian asks themselves. There have been countless books written on the subject, each with its own hypothesis hoping to rock the development world into action. Sachs, Collier, and Farmer- with each turn of the page we learn of new and improved ways to save the world. Through these theories, while all counter to one another and convoluted in their presentation, we are given hope that there is a solution. However, if anthropology has taught me anything - it is that there is no panacea. I believe that it must start with an evident first step, the same first step which alcoholics pass through – the affected communities must first admit and understand that there is a problem. While seemingly obvious to an outsider, this is what people on the inside of the developing world have yet to ascertain. Yes, they can see that they do not have the luxuries which other people have, but the actual problem is never really pin pointed. People know that they are hungry, but they do not see the broken market chains or social history which have led them to that moment – the moment when they have to choose to skip a meal so that there will be a fuller plate later in the day. The trick is, these problems are never the same; it is like a virus taking on new hosts – within each community it changes forms, adds new layers from an individual’s history, and recreates itself to feed off the culture which will unknowingly nourish its spread. The original problem then hides itself within layers of other issues and makes itself like the bucket list which has gone unchecked for years and is now too daunting to even begin. So, how can the layers be peeled back to expose the core problem? Can the education of one child or the survival of a pregnant mother create a ripple effect through all the other problems? Can we name one problem – fix it and then go on the next? Yes... but more on this in a moment... Second, we must also define exactly what development is and what it is not. It is not a satellite dish or luxury SUV – yet these are the things which people envy and count in their successes. When we take outsiders to Usisya all they see are metal roofs, which leads them to comment on the development which must be happening. However, when you look inside the houses you still find an unfurnished living room and hungry people. In West Virginia people will drive the newest and largest model truck but still live in a trailer. These things provide status – and nothing else. Metal roofs and cell phones …. this is not development. I believe development is like the evolving problem: it is different for each community and household. While teaching in Portland I quickly realized that all my students would not get straight A’s; but that some would draw amazing portraits in art class, others would work hard and turn failing grades into C’s, and some would excel in sports. To assume all countries will one day be developed to the standards of the Western world is to have the same ignorance which thinks all children can achieve straight A’s. Development is the hard working student who brings up her grades. Consequently, if development is upward momentum following hard work, then what is the catalyst to starting change? I would first suggest there is a barrier in that outsiders are the ones who want to do all the hard work. This would be like the teacher filling in answers on the math quiz – it will get the kid through that class, but the child will fail the next year when that teacher is gone. Thus, I would suggest that the individual community members are the ones who need empowered and inspired to change themselves. They should be given the tools to pull themselves up, not the handouts which only last long enough to check boxes on grant spreadsheets. Malawi has taken on the culture of accepting and expecting handouts, in fact the largest complaints we get after trainings in that they were not compensated enough in food and per diems to make it worth their time. While the benefits should be marked in the knowledge gain, they are diverted to travel allowances and breakfast per diems. In summation, development is a community’s upward momentum which overcomes the barriers of adversity, bypasses the need for handouts, and provides technical assistance so that ‘this is what my grandparents did’ is no longer the standard of practice. Now, circling back to the problem which is layered into all of the folds working to stop progress; I would suggest it will never be named as its original form. The problem is no longer colonialism, culture, access... it is all of these things and everything else. It is ingrained is every aspect of life within the developing world. There is hope though, in that the solution is in the community itself. If the problem is a virus, then the solution lives within the host. It is an individual looking at the list and deciding that today I am going to check this one box – I am going to send my child to school, I am going to get tested and know my HIV status, I am going to plant my maize using compost as fertilizer... We, the people who want to be the catalysts for change, can talk until we are blue in the face – it has to be the local people who decide they want to change and understand the problems. This should be our role, the role of the outsider is to shed light on their situation, provide them the tools which they need, and step back. This is why I went into anthropology, I want to help people understand themselves so that they can develop into a world which has all they need to thrive. I truly believe this is how we save the world – we show the world who it is and let it decide the next move.
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Bonnie HarveyCurrently working in northern Malawi as Programs and Evaluations Coordinator for Temwa Archives
June 2019
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