Community dynamics

One of the biggest challenges in development is figuring out who is who, who does what, and what people want. Of course, many donor agencies have approached this by, well, spreading word that these are not problem areas at all - that there is no need to bridge these information gaps, and that responding to the calls of anthropologists and other social scientists to study the dynamics of rural communities is not a priority. Instead, donors have spent millions of dollars to impress upon an ignorant public that everyone in Africa aspires to be a farmer, or that everyone living in coastal India wants to be a fisherman. Is it correct to assume that every man, woman and child in a particular village, be it in Africa, Latin America, Asia, or even Europe and North America, wants the same thing in life?

Why is this happening? The cynical assessment would be to argue that development is an industry, the biggest in the world. But let us assume that practioners are committed to making a difference: to alleviating poverty and assisting impoverished people. Does it not make sense to determine what people want beforehand - that prior to spending millions of dollars on, inter alia, equipment, boreholes, and infrastructure, communities are sensitized or better yet, that interventions have the endorsement of their inhabitants?

It seems so simple, but repeated neglect of the importance of participatory approaches leaves one with the impression that those driving development do not want change. I am sure that many of my colleagues sympathize with my views, and understand why I am so frustrated with what is happening in so many mining communities in the developing world.