NGO "ANOTHER WAY" (STICHTING BAKENS VERZET), NETHERLANDS, SUSTAINABLE INTEGRATED SELF-FINANCING DEVELOPMENT PROJECTS AND ADVANCED DEVELOPMENT TECHNOLOGIES

First, about 200 Health Clubs, each based on 40 families (200-300 people) are set up. They form a platform for women, to make sure they can organise themselves in groups and participate en bloc at local development meetings and to play a dominant role in the various social, economic, service and productive structures set up. This is the most critical part of the project. Without the qualified participation of women, the project will not be able to reach all of its objectives. The project has yet to build up the full confidence of the people, and the women participating in the first workshop to set the health clubs up are asked to dedicate a lot of their time without payment. This may create social difficulties at household level and even loss of income. Full payment for project activities can only be introduced once the local money system is in operation. This can only be done once the health clubs are operative and the social structures have been formed.

If necessary, the workshop for the formation of the +/- 200 Health Clubs will have to be repeated.

Once the Health Clubs are in operation, about 200 tank or local development commissions are set up. They are based on the same groups of 40 families (200-300 people). The commissions each have 3 - 5 members, all or at least most of whom are women. These commissions are the heart of the project. They in turn elect about 35 intermediate of well commissions, which in turn choose a central management unit.

Once the tank and well commissions and the central management unit are in place, it is possible to set up the local money systems which offer the inhabitants in the project area means for the transfer of all locally produced and consumed goods and services. The art is at this point to identify and use technologies enabling most of the goods and services necessary to local development and a good quality of life in the project area to be produced with 100% local value added. Such goods and services can then be produced, installed, maintained and paid under the framework of the local money systems set up, without the need for any formal money at all. An example applied in this project is the possibility to produce, install, manage, and maintain a complete dry composting eco-sanitation structure through out the project area without the need for a cent of formal money. The costs of running the local money systems are covered under the local money systems themselves.

Once the LETS local money systems are in place, a distinction can be made between what can be done under the local money systems and what must be “imported” into the project area. Goods and services needed for basic urgently needed services such as clean drinking water supply, use is made of the project’s seed funds to cover the formal money (Euros) cost of imported goods and services. For other initiatives cooperative interest-free micro-credit structures are put in place. These recycle the users' monthly contributions (usually between Euro 0,60 and Euro 0,75 per person) to the Cooperative Local Development Fund interest-free for credits for sustainable productivity purposes, for the purpose of purchasing goods for productivity increase not locally produced. The micro-credit systems will allow at least Euro 1500 of interest-free micro-credit per family during the first ten years of the project. Probably more, as the Euro 1500 is conservatively based on an average two-year pay back time. The Cooperative Local Development Fund is set up as a project structure. It belongs to, and is run by the people themselves, at the beginning with professional support through the project Coordinator.. The costs of running the micro-credit structures are covered under the local money systems.

Once the cooperative micro-credit structures and the LETS local money systems are in place, the production structures can be set up, and in particular units for the production of articles from gypsum composites. Amongst the priority items for manufacture in these factories are products necessary for the water supply project such as water tanks, well linings, water containers, etc. When capacity is available they can start making the planned ecological sanitation systems, and other necessary items such as high efficiency stoves, rainwater harvesting systems, construction components. Since cheap gypsum or anhydrite deposits are (usually) present or near the project area, no formal money is needed either for the raw materials or for production. Installation and maintenance.

1. Opinion.

On one page explain why the formation of the health clubs is so critical. Think of the time necessary to attend the workshop, the need for the women to make that time available, the cultural difficulties they face to be able to take part in the workshops, logistical problems, the lack of support for the project which is just starting, un-kept promises made on other occasions by national and international helpers.

Protection of funding parties.

For more information on the protection of donors see 17. Protection of the interests of funding parties in section 1 Project costs part of block 8 Economic aspects.

The Model incorporates innovative ways of protecting investors’ and donors’ investments.

Project execution passes through a series of logical steps in the creation of the project structures. First the social structures are created, then the financial structures, then the productive structures, and finally the service structures. Exposure of investors at any one point of project execution is limited. Work on next following structures does not take place until the preceding structures are in place and in operation.

The new capital content of project structures tends to increase with progress in project execution. The first (the social and financial) structures to be set up have relatively low formal money capital content. The second (the productive) structures have an intermediate level of capital content. The last (the service) structures, and especially the distributed drinking water structures, have the highest level of capital content. By the time the service structures are to be installed, most of the work on them can be done under the local money system, operational costs and formal money reserves for maintenance and long-term replacement are already being collected, and local production of items necessary for the service structures is already under way.

2.Opinion.

You are a donor. Write a page with your observations, doubts and criticisms. Have you ever come across these concepts before ? You are expected to raise at least 5 points you are not sure about.

Read the article Welcome to Commonomics : How to Build Local Economies Strong Enough for Everyone, by L. Flanders, Yes! Magazine, Positive Futures Network, Bainbridge Island, 04 October, 2013.

Box 4 Strengths and Limitations of Local Organizations

Strengths

-Local organizations tend to be limited in size and embedded in the community social order, with a true local perspective and trust as an important driver in their activities.

-They are familiar with local resource management practices and challenges, and can create incentives for collective action that national or international organizations cannot.

-Since they reflect the social norms and work ethic of the community, they often can command compliance with ecosystem management rules through social pressure.

-Savings groups, resource user groups and other informal organizations can provide a safety net in times of need and an avenue for the poor to achieve social mobility.

-Local NGOs often provide key services to help strengthen and connect other local organizations, bringing new information, management and skills training.

Limitations

-Many local organizations lack essential skills and business experience required for a viable enterprise, and may be unfamiliar with participatory methods for planning, making joint decisions and encouraging “ownership” of the group’s activities by its members.

-Most local organizations are perennially short of funds, limiting the activities they can undertake. They often lack influential contacts within government or the private sector that could advocate for their work, connect them to government support programs or intervene when they face regulatory obstacles.

-Many groups, particularly informal ones, may not stress participation or democratic processes like elections, and therefore may lack strong accountability to their members.

-The social structure in many rural villages—and local organizations—remains hierarchical and traditional, and thus not very inclusive of women, the poor or other marginalized groups.

-A lack of formal participatory processes often compounds the problem.

Source : (Hazlewood P., Mock G., Enabling Local Success: A Primer on Mainstreaming Local Eco-based Solutions do Poverty Environment Challenges. ( N.B. This is an 11.8 MB file.) UNDP-UNEP Poverty Environment Initiative (PEI), Nairobi, October 2011, p. 12)

[Integrated development projects overcome all the limitations mentioned. Projects apply to all residents in a given project area. All project organs are elective, set up and run by the local populations themselves. Most initiatives take place in the framework of the local money systems set up.]

Nesting and subsidiarity.

The importance of nesting and subsidiarity was raised in 01. The chain of responsibilities in section 2 of Block 3 of the course.

Structures should operate at the lowest possible level. Sustainable management structures are built up by using individual and basic social groups. This level corresponds with the one described in 01. First level : hunters and gatherers in the three-tiered anthropological analysis in Block 3 :The solutions to the problems of the course.

By way of example, sanitation structures provided within the framework of integrated development projects can be installed using items manufactured from gypsum composites by local production units set up in an earlier phase of the project . The production units can only be set up once the local money system is in place. The local money systems cannot be created until the social structures are operative. The social structures can only be elected once the health clubs are working properly, enabling women to organise themselves at the level of the (future) tank commissions and participate fully in the elections.

3. Opinion.

Suppose you have drafted an integrated development project for you chosen area. You have approached a donor for a contribution to the initial funding of the project. He does not think your project is realistic. On one page make a list of 10 items to convince him your project is realistic and the you have « both feet on the ground ».

The selfish gene of development.

Each structure created in the course of integrated development projects is born, grows and develops organically. Just like Richard Dawkins’ selfish gene (Dawkins R., the Selfish Gene, Oxford University Press, Oxford, 1976 ISBN 0 19857519X) the development gene uses any form of «survival apparatus » which is useful for its survival. It is born in the «primordial soup » of human social history and learns to adapt to he changes which take place around. It is the load-bearing element of the individual, of the family, of hunter-gatherers, of tribes, of states , of mass societies. The «survival apparatus » takes different forms, but the development gene itself has not undergone mutations. It selfishly makes use of the means available to it to ensure its own existence.

At the beginning there was only the selfish gene of development.

But it is has weakened. It risks extinction.

That’s why we need to return to basic human societal structures to identify the development gene and help it with its task of adaptation at all levels so that it is equipped with the instruments necessary for is survival.

Think of the contemporaneous activities of +/- 200 tank commissions, 35 well commissions, the central committee as they are all busy independently of each other, with the execution and operation of many social, financial, productive and service programmes amounting in fact to thousands of micro-projects each with its own course.

4. Opinion.

You are a development gene. On one page describe your impressions of an integrated development project.

The concept of on-going dynamic vertical and horizontal interaction amongst numerous independent organs may seem to be an invitation to participate in chaotic games.

However, that’s exactly what happens in our everyday existence. We, our family, our friends, and the members of society around us all go about our own lives, contemporaneously performing all kinds of tasks in some way or another coordinated with each other, without our having the sensation of living in the midst of chaos.

5. Opinion.

On one page explain the parallels between our everyday life situation and integrated development projects.

◄ ►

◄ Fourth block : Section 1. Justification of the order of sequence for the creation of the structures.

◄ Fourth block : The structures to be created.

◄ Main index for the Diploma in Integrated Development (Dip. Int. Dev.)

◄ List of key words.

◄ List of references.

◄ Course chart.

◄ Technical aspects.

◄ Courses available.

◄ Homepage Bakens Verzet

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non-commercial-Share Alike 3.0 Licence.