Return From Africa

I’ve just returned from a trip to 3 African countries – Kenya, Mali, and Senegal. I was there for 2 reasons: a) to learn about different approaches to integrated community development; and b) to find / evaluate potential development partners for ChristmasFuture. It was an extremely successful trip on both fronts!

During the trip we visited with several NGO’s that do development work. We spent time in the board rooms talking to top management, we spent time in the field talking to the field management and implementers, and we spent time in the villages talking with people that participate in and are impacted by all of this ‘development work’. Along the journey I met so many incredible people – literally too many to mention.

What did I learn about development…let’s see:
• Development MUST be lead by the local community to be sustainable.
• Efforts must be integrated and coordinated with top government initiatives and departments
• Handouts are rarely successful – people must participate somehow in everything. They must own the problems and the solutions as theirs.
• Planning must be participatory, including the community members and other stakeholders must be involved too (Gov’t, NGO’s, Leadership).
• Using and strengthening existing structures / forums is essential - created structures will usually disappear when the project does.
• Integrated models of development are crucial for lasting change – the problems of poverty are interrelated.
• Some form of economy or economic activity is a key to sustainability.
• It is a change of mind and heart that is the key to eradicating poverty – owning the issues that plague them and determining they will do something about it. This leads to a hope for the future – and of course it is important for that hope to be founded on something realistic.
• The evidence of good development can be found in the eyes of a villager who previously had despair and didn’t think of tomorrow because she spent her energy thinking about her next meal, and that now has a vision for her future and her community’s future.

This is by no means an exhaustive list, but it reflects most of what I learned on this trip. Additionally I recognize that these things are all easy to state in a few words, but the doing is quite another thing…and quite a thing that is! Especially when you see it being done!

As far as good models of integrated development – the model that stood out to me the most was the Millennium Villages Projects (Jeffrey Sachs & the UN’s Millennium Development Goals). I was initially quite skeptical about the extent that their approach would be empowering and bottom-up. I was also skeptical about their ability to take the theory developed in New York and adapt it to fit the regional circumstances.

I was pleasantly surprised to see the extent to which the decision making and entire initiative was pushed down to the village level – as one of the community facilitators said to the villagers, “as long as you lead we will follow and help…the moment you stop leading we will leave”. There was so much evidence that all structures and theories were adapted to what the local situation required, both in terms of the definition of a “village”, and with respect to the local committees through which projects are tackled and decisions are made. Additionally, the extent to which government officials and existing structures were involved in the working organization was unique. It was a credit to the excellent teams that have been put in place by the Sach’s group that the theory has been so well adapted to the local demands.

As I mentioned above, so much evidence of success was found in the people themselves - their curiosity and eagerness to learn, their hope, their plans for the future, and the playfulness and trust in the eyes of the children.

We will continue to learn and explore the different organizations and models, but this one sure stands out!