NGO Another Way (Stichting Bakens Verzet), 1018 AM
Edition 04: 16 April, 2011
01. E-course : Diploma in
Integrated Development (Dip. Int. Dev)
SECTION A : DEVELOPMENT PROBLEMS.
Study value :
04 points out of 18.
Indicative
study time: 112 hours out of 504.
Study points
are awarded only after the consolidated exam for Section A : Development
Problems has been passed.
First block : Poverty and quality of life.
Study value :
02 points out of 18.
Indicative
study time: 57 hours out of 504.
Study points are
awarded only after the consolidated exam for Section A : Development
Problems has been passed.
First block : Poverty and quality of life.
First Block : Section 1. Analysis of the causes
of poverty. [26.50 hours]
First Block : Section 2. Services needed for a good quality of
life.
First Block : Exam. [ 4 hours each attempt]
Block 1 of Section 1. Analysis of the causes of poverty.
[26.50 hours]
Part 2 : In depth analysis
of the causes of poverty. [14.00 hours]
01. In depth : definition of poverty.
02. In depth : some factors linked with poverty.
03. In depth : debts and subsidies.
04. In depth : financial leakages : food and
water industries.
05. In depth : financial leakage : energy.
06. In depth : financial leakage : means of
communication..
07. In depth : financial leakage : health and
education.
08. In depth : financial leakage : theft of
resources.
09. In depth : financial leakage :
corruption.
10. In depth : the industry of poverty.
Report on Section 1 of Block
1 : [06.00 Hours]
Part 2 : In depth analysis
of the causes of poverty. [14.00 hours]
10. In depth : the industry of poverty.
(at least one hour)
Look at
slide :
10. Financial
leakage : development aid.
Read the
notes you made on the law of diminishing returns in 07. Financial leakage : health and education.
Read the universal declaration of human rights.
1. Opinion.
Everyone should be able to benefit from the universal
rights.......shouldn’t he/she ?
Or perhaps, 60 years after the date of
the Declaration, the real-world
situation is quite different from the one described in the Declaration?
Since the
world was not created in one day, priorities have to be set when dealing with
development problems in poor countries.
2. Opinion.
What are these priorities ?
Who decides them ?
It may be necessary
to make «brutal » choices.
3. Opinion.
Where a person suffering from AIDS needs
medicines costing € 1.000 and for €
1.000 a local production unit for
mosquito nets can be set up for the benefit of all of the children in the
village and surroundings, which choice, do you think, should be made? What
about the situation where € 1.000 is enough to set up a cooperative information
system over AIDS and a service for the distribution of condoms ? Which
choice should be made in that case ?
Is a human life more valuable than the
quality of life of the rest of the inhabitants of the village? Is hygiene
education and disease prevention for the benefit of future generations more valuable than the
life of an AIDS patient ?
In
poor communities, the very first
investments of a few Euros per person can bring important benefits to the
population. For example, the installation of just 5 peak watts per person of
photovoltaic energy means a 1000 Wp installation in a community of 200. This is
enough to supply energy for a pump for drinking water, a grain mill, lighting
for evening study, and for the storage of medicines.
As capital
investments increase, their relative benefits tend to diminish, following the
law of diminishing returns.
4. Opinion.
Which criteria would you adopt in this regard?
A new, often
profit-making, industry.
In the slide 10.Financial : leakage:development aid it is
claimed that even money spent on «good» things reduces the amount of funds
available for integrated development of the poor.
5. Opinion.
What do you think about that statement?
In 07 Financial leakage : health and education , an analysis was made of GAVI’s investments and George Bush’s provision for aid for AIDS medicines. The total amount of development aid is about € 100 billion per year. Amounts spent one way for development aid are not available for spending in another way. This means that neither the money spent to make vaccines in industrialised and emerging countries nor the money paid to consultants in industrialised countries to carry out research on vaccines, nor the money needed to pay for the transport of food products (with or without farmers’ subsidies) from rich countries for distribution to the hungry is available for direct investment in poor countries.
6. Opinion.
Who makes these decisions ? Why are the decisions
made ?
What is the relationship between the decisions made and
the priorities established by the local populations in developing
countries ?
In your first
analysis in 10 Financial
leakage : development aid a
list of local projects was prepared.
Resource : Easterly, William, The White Man’s Burden – Why the west’s efforts to aid the rest have done so much ill and so little good , Penguin Press, London, 2006. For a review of the book , read Why doesn’t foreign aid work ? Mercy Corps, Global Envision, April 25, 2006, reproduced by Mercy Corps with the authorisation of CATO Unbound .
Foreign development aid : a very wide definition.
«Throughout the history of the aid program, Australia has consistently used the mantle of ODA [Overseas Development Aid] to protect, bolster and line the pockets of domestic corporations and to maintain our country's commercial presence in the region, with the bulk of project tenders going to big businesses that have diversified their operations to accommodate overseas development in order to get in on the lucrative aid deals.” Aid is increasing, but can we spend it well? (Wheen K. and Lusby S., Aid Watch News, 28 February 2008.)
“The continued effect of tied-aid, an over reliance on
expensive, Australia-based technical assistance including Australian companies,
consultants and contractors, and a common perception that aid can be legitimately
deployed to serve Australia’s own strategic and commercial interests are all
factors that fundamentally handicap Australia’s $3 billion aid program.”
Source : Duxfield F and Wheen K. Fighting Poverty or Fantasy
Figures ? Aid Watch,
8. Research.
The industry of poverty and
arrange them in an order of priority, beginning with the projects you
consider the most “pure” and ending with the ones you think are the
least “pure”.
Next to each project make a note
on the (eventual) corrupting factors.
9. Opinion.
What are your
conclusions?
Experts, expatriates, everywhere.
Clearly, the presence and participation of experts with knowledge which is not available locally is justifiable both in industrialised and in developing countries. For example, for large-scale works such as the construction of dams, motorways, and refineries. This may be one of the reasons why donors traditionally had a tendency to favour large-scale “development” projects.
More recently, projects of more modest dimensions have been preferred. The question is whether this had led to a reduction in the number of expatriates involved in the execution of development projects.
10. Opinion.
Take the list of projects you have made
for your project area (eventually for your country). Why are the participating
experts necessary for the success of the projects?
Could they be substituted by local
people? Could they be substituted by nationals from other areas?
Vaccination
campaigns.
11.
Research.
Make a list of the activities (see your analysis in 07. Financial leakage : health
and education )
which could be executed in your area to reduce the incidence of bacterial,
viral, parasitic and other infections.
You might
wish to consider the following, amongst others :
Active protection against mosquitoes (nets).
Action against flies (all species).
Elimination of surface waters (drainage).
Control over
waste disposal (pest control).
Hand washing.
Use of condoms.
12.
Research.
How many of these activities can be executed at local level?
How many expatriate experts would be necessary?
How much would the activities cost?
What are your conclusions?
Help! We’re
hungry !
Section
05.43 recycling of urines and faeces of
the Model for integrated development projects, the file Agriculture and Food Security, the
block five file Section 4: Food crisis and
the
file 09. CDM funding indications for the selected
applications and methodologies all provide information on how food
security can be reached in project areas.
Read your
notes from section 03. Debts and subsidies of
this section, on subsidies paid to farmers in industrialised countries.
Read your
notes from section 04. Financial leakage : food industries
and water of this section, on food production.
About 11.000 years ago, nomadic groups of a few dozen hunter-gatherers (usually defined as “extended families” or “clans”) began cultivating food and to form village groups (Diamond J., Guns, germs, and steel, Vintage, London, 1998, part 2 : The Rise and Spread of Food Production).
For more
information refer to 01. First level :
hunter-gatherers of the anthropological analysis
in the third block solutions to the problems
of the course.
In the
absence of natural disaster, many communities managed to survive at the same
site for centuries.
13. Research.
Through which passages have some developing countries put themselves
into a situation where there is not enough food to feed and maintain their
populations, while some industrialised countries have a food surplus?
14. Opinion.
Try to relate your conclusions to financial leakage caused by
development aid.
Proceed with the drafting
of your report on Section 1 of Block 1 Analysis of
the causes of poverty.
First block : : Poverty and
quality of life.
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