...since we're on the topic of Development!

What happens when well meaning aid and development 'experts' find a hungry man?

Bought this gem of illustrations from the author years ago in Cambodia. It's a riot read for anyone in the field (and managers sitting in headquarters). Available online here.
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An old poem on Development

The Development Set
by Ross Coggins

Excuse me, friends, I must catch my jet
I'm off to join the Development Set;
My bags are packed, and I've had all my shots
I have traveller's checks and pills for the trots!

The Development Set is bright and noble
Our thoughts are deep and our vision global;
Although we move with the better classes
Our thoughts are always with the masses.

In Sheraton Hotels in scattered nations
We damn multi-national corporations;
injustice seems easy to protest
In such seething hotbeds of social rest.

We discuss malnutrition over steaks
And plan hunger talks during coffee breaks.
Whether Asian floods or African drought,
We face each issue with open mouth.

We bring in consultants whose circumlocution
Raises difficulties for every solution –
Thus guaranteeing continued good eating
By showing the need for another meeting.

The language of the Development Set
Stretches the English alphabet;
We use swell words like "epigenetic"
"Micro", "macro", and "logarithmetic"

It pleasures us to be esoteric –
It's so intellectually atmospheric!
And although establishments may be unmoved,
Our vocabularies are much improved.

When the talk gets deep and you're feeling numb,
You can keep your shame to a minimum:
To show that you, too, are intelligent
Smugly ask, "Is it really development?"

Or say, "That's fine in practice, but don't you see:
It doesn't work out in theory!"
A few may find this incomprehensible,
But most will admire you as deep and sensible.

Development set homes are extremely chic,
Full of carvings, curios, and draped with batik.
Eye-level photographs subtly assure
That your host is at home with the great and the poor.

Enough of these verses - on with the mission!
Our task is as broad as the human condition!
Just pray god the biblical promise is true:
The poor ye shall always have with you.
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Foreign aid in economic crises...

In an interview with CNN's Wolf Blitzer, Bill Gates called for a doubling of foreign aid commitment. Even though historically, economic crises tend to suppress aid packages, I couldn't agree more that maintaining and increasing aid is in the US' strategic interests.

No, I'm not affiliated with USAID. Not surprisingly, Germany increased aid-- knock on wood-- ...

When this administration blundered into war it soon became apparent that our goal isn't finding and killing the enemy. It's about rehabilitating zones of chaos where dangerous ideologies grow and breed. The world’s path to progress and stability is increasingly threatened by alarming headlines of terrorist nature, troubling in the fact that their roots lie in failing or failed states, which are numerous and growing in number.

In the fight against terrorism, it is not about crusading for democracy and regime change in a handful of countries. We need soft diplomacy: nation-building and developing government capacity in the world's poorest economies, difficult when the lines between security and development are no longer so clear-cut. Aid can be an effective way to export value systems (since Hollywood exports no longer work) and elicit goodwill (since we squandered that with our 2003 invasion of Iraq), and equity negotiation is one of the least common denominators to maintaining stability in American suburbia.

An aside: With aid diplomacy so crucial to foreign policy strategy, it's a wonder that aid approaches have little changed since its inception at Bretton Woods....? But I digress, that's another post.

Starting in 2006 Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Defense Secretary Robert Gates both started calling for a transformational diplomacy, delivering speeches that finally resonate with logic: "...the lines separating war, peace, diplomacy and development have become more blurred and no longer fit the neat organizational charts of the 20th century."

Rice and Gates jump-started this dialogue about using federal agencies to empower people to install good governance in troubled spots around the world. And Obama thankfully embraced their language. Both Hillary Clinton and James Jones are advocates of this strategy, suggesting that cooperation is possible between the Pentagon, the National Security Council and the State Department.

If this strategy is put into action, it's a welcome continuity from this administration.

Aid frustrations: A Doctor's View Into Humanitarian Aid

Guest Poster: J Chan. She captures quite nicely the frustrations of development work:

I'm back in Mozambique again, now in the 2nd largest city in the country- Beira. It's nice to be back in Mozambique and the 30hr plane rides are getting more monotonous. I hope to spend a little bit more time checking out the towns along the way while I'm working.

I'm here for the 2nd phase of another project. We were able to get the lay of the land of the flood situation back in May and now we are back to perform a more rigorous assessment of the water and sanitation activities in the resettlement camps (like refugee camps in some ways) by the Zambezi River. We will try to link this information with the risk for cholera outbreaks to help the project guide their future programming in the region.

Consulting for a large international NGO such xxx has been rewarding this year, but also a bit frustrating because it has provided the window to much of the disorganization in the humanitarian world. The interplay between government interests, NGOs strapped by funders as well as their own disorganization and at times lack of skills, create a challenging atmosphere for providing services to communities such as those affected by the floods in Mozambique. Services are being provided to some degree, but not often in a timely manner and often without the greatest leadership.

This work is so different from working in the ER in Boston, where flow, efficiency, and quick, accurate decision-making are the keys to making a shift work well. Accountability is also another element of providing medical care in the ED (as with most of medicine in the US), but now being an attending physician I feel that and see that in a whole new light.

In this post emergency phase in Mozambique I wonder who is responsible and even accountable for the fact that many people still are living without homes, little sustainable water and from what we know so far still living in high risk areas of poor sanitation. Is it the NGOs who are in the field, some of whom lack leadership to make decisions and provide water sources, or is it the local government who lack human capacity and support that they themselves don't provide services either... But in the end the communities who live by the Zambezi river are returning to their lives with or without the help of govt and aid workers--as they do this every few years when the Zambezi rivers flood.... It the resilience of these communities and the savvy coping mechanisms they create to withstand these multiple shocks that are most powerful in my mind..

Its a great balance to have both types of work (ER and Humanitarian work) fill my days, and I can't complain at all for these opportunities.