An article in the New York Times last week stirred up a long-running and fascinating debate about the role of volunterism and approaches to development. Here are excerpts from the article that started it, which provide accounts of how individuals from the West have tried to make a difference. It's followed by excerpts from the most comprehensive response to the article, which argues that this approach is simplistic and potentially does more harm than good. Click on the articles titles to read them in full.
D.I.Y. Foreign-Aid Revolution - (New York Times)
...And so Scharpf joined a revolution, so far unnamed because it is just beginning. It’s all about what might be called Do-It-Yourself Foreign Aid, because it starts with the proposition that it’s not only presidents and United Nations officials who chip away at global challenges. Passionate individuals with great ideas can do the same, especially in the age of the Internet and social media....
...Are these young idealists unsophisticated about what it takes to change the world? Yes, often. At first, they don’t always appreciate the importance of listening to local people and bringing them into the management of projects, and they usually overestimate the odds of success. They also sometimes think it will be romantic to tackle social problems, a view that may fade when they’ve caught malaria...
...It’s fair to object that activists like Doyne are accomplishing results that, however noble, are minuscule. Something like 101 million children aren’t attending primary school around the world, so 220 kids in Doyne’s school constitute the teensiest drop in the bucket. The larger problem can be solved only if governments make education a top priority (which they haven’t), just as ending the wars in Congo may require the concerted action of states. Well-meaning individuals like Doyne help at the edges but don’t fundamentally change the nature of the challenge; indeed, charitable construction of schools and hospitals may sometimes free up governments in poor countries to use their money to buy weapons instead. All that is true — but it’s equally true that if you happen to be that drop in the bucket, Doyne is transforming your life...
Don't Try This Abroad (Foreign Policy)
...The stories sound lovely. I admit to feeling a little warm and fuzzy inside reading them. After all, this is what drives me to do development work: to make the world just a little better... We all want to tell ourselves the story about fighting through hardship -- each of these women made personal sacrifices for their work -- to make the world a better place...
...Unfortunately, such stories don't reflect reality. Spend a little time in any community in the world, and you'll see people from that community finding ways to improve it -- not outsiders. Yet these sort of people -- local community members helping their neighbors and themselves -- are absent from Kristof's stories. Instead, he gives the reader an American heroine (his stories are mostly about women) who comes to save the day. Local individuals exist as needy targets of the protagonist's benevolence. If they act on their own behalf or the behalf of their community, it's only after the American has prompted them to do so. Developing country governments and domestic civil society are barely mentioned...
...Such implicit arrogance aside, a more fundamental problem is that Kristof's narratives make development seem simple. In his stories, the hero sees a problem and fixes it. Women are suffering from war and rape in Congo? Raise some money, build some homes, and regulate conflict minerals. Lack of affordable sanitary pads keeps women from work and girls out of school? Develop a cheaper pad. Orphaned children in Nepal? Build an orphanage. He even implies that the established foreign aid organizations "look the other way" when it comes to these problems. How could they miss such obvious opportunities for improving lives...
...What Kristof misses is that even seemingly obvious solutions are more complicated than they appear. Development means change, and change is always complicated -- and often political...
...But in this field, amateurs don't just hurt themselves. A project that misunderstands the community or mismanages that crucial relationship can undermine local leaders, ultimately doing harm to the very people it was meant to help...
...The world of aid has spent the last 50 years grappling with these questions. The development industry is by no means perfect, but it has made progress and learned valuable lessons. The lessons are often ignored by newcomers, and the same mistakes are made over and over again...
...We all start as amateurs. The difference is whether we seek to learn more or assume that we can just start doing something, muddling through as we go...
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