Director,
T.E.(Terry)
Manning,
Schoener 50,
1771 ED
Wieringerwerf,
The Netherlands.
Tel:
0031-227-604128
Homepage:
http://www.flowman.nl
E-mail:
(nameatendofline)@xs4all.nl : bakensverzet
Incorporating
innovative social, financial, economic, local administrative and productive
structures, numerous renewable energy applications, with an important role for
women in poverty alleviation in rural and poor urban environments.
"Money is not
the key that opens the gates of the market but the bolt that bars them"
Gesell, Silvio The
Natural Economic Order
Revised English
edition, Peter Owen, London 1958, page 228
Edition 01: 16
February, 2007
POLICY
IMPLICATIONS OF AN INNOVATIVE MODEL FOR SELF-FINANCING ECOLOGICAL SUSTAINABLE
INTEGRATED DEVELOPMENT FOR THE WORLD’S POOR
By T.E.Manning*
A model
for self-financing ecological sustainable integrated development for the
world’s poor (referred to in the rest of this article as “the Model”) has been
presented. The Model is in the public domain. It can be downloaded from website
http://www.flowman.nl/, which is
controlled in the public interest by the Dutch NGO Stichting Bakens Verzet in
The Model has far-reaching
policy implications in many sectors. This paper describes some of them. The
Model weaves social, financial, service and productive structures together into
a single tightly-knit development fabric. The fibres of the fabric are
carefully interlinked, so there are several possible ways of making an analysis
of its effects on national and international development policies.
Anthropological, economic, financial, political, social, and service- and
production-oriented paths can all be followed.
An anthropological approach is used for this particular paper. The
development of social groupings of humans, in particular over the last 11.000
years is used as the basis for the choice of administrative levels for project
applications under the Model. About 11.000 years ago, nomadic bands of dozens
of hunter-gatherers (mostly defined as “extended families” or “clans”) started
producing food and forming village groups. (Diamond J., Guns, germs, and steel,
Vintage, London, 1998). Diamond
refers to the village groups as “tribes” comprising several extended families
with an upper limit of “a few hundred” where “everyone knows everyone else by
name and relationships” (Ibid. p.271). Prof. Robin Dunbar of Liverpool
University suggests that the size of the human brain is linked to social
practices developed to bind small groups of 150+ members together. (Grooming,
gossip, and the evolution of language, Faber and Faber, London, 1996).
Even today, many rural villages, especially African villages, typically
have populations of “a few hundred” people. Even larger villages with
populations of a few thousand tend to be formed of clusters of smaller settlements each with “a few hundred”
inhabitants. (See detailed lists of villages for draft projects at website http://www.flowman.nl/, and in particular the
detailed population distribution maps for the Koulikoro project in
The basic administrative level used in the Model is usually called a tank commission. It can also be called a
local development commission. The tank commissions each represent 40-50
families grouped around a decentralised clean drinking water tank. The number of
people served by each tank is usually between 200-350. This corresponds to
Diamond’s “tribes” with an “upper limit of a few hundred”(op.cit.). The members
of the tank commissions are expected to be mostly women. Health clubs are first
set up in each tank commission area to make sure the women there can organise
themselves and participate actively in the election and administration
processes. The people in each tank commission area decide how many tank
commission members they want to choose. The commissions will usually have 3 –7
members. They have many important tasks.
They are the real hub of the many project structures. An active role for women
at this level goes a long way towards addressing the so-called “gender
problem”. Tank commissions also choose a representative to the intermediate administrative
level, called well commissions. These in turn choose central committees at
project management level. Women’s deep and direct involvement in project
planning, execution, and management is therefore actively promoted at all
project levels.
Figure 1 illustrates the main tasks of each tank (or local development)
commission:
(Fig. 1)
Illustration of the tasks of tank comissions.
The second, or intermediate,
administrative level provided for in the Model is the well commission. It can also be called an area development
commission. The well commissions are the equivalent of Jared Diamond’s
“chiefdoms” with “several thousand” inhabitants where “for any person [living
there] the vast majority of other people…. were neither closely related by blood or marriage nor known by name.”
(op.cit. p.273). They developed some 7500 years ago as a result of higher
population densities made possible by the local cultivation of food. Leadership
institutions (“chiefdoms”) are believed to have evolved to create ways of
resolving conflicts naturally arising amongst inhabitants not directly bound to
each other by blood or marriage. Of special interest to integrated development
projects in the modern world is that the first systems for the collection and
re-distribution of wealth and the first forms of division of labour were
established in this phase. “The most distinctive economic features of chiefdoms
was their shift from reliance solely on the reciprocal exchanges characteristics
of bands and tribes……..[to] an additional new system termed a redistributive
economy.” (op.cit. p.275).
(Fig. 2)
Illustration of the tasks of the well commissions.
The well commissions
provided for in the Model typically represent about 2000-2500 inhabitants. This
population base supports some modern essential services, too. A typical working
area for general practitioners in industrialised countries is 1 doctor to
2000-2500 inhabitants. In the Netherlands this was 1 to 2347 on 1st
January 2006 (J.Muysken et al, Cijfers uit de registratie van huisartsen –
peiling 2006, Netherlands Institute for Health Services Research (NIVEL),
Utrecht, 2006.) Well commission areas
can also support a secondary education structure for pupils from the 2-4
primary schools in their area. (Notes on education policies, below). Project
structures at this level include a transactions clearance structure for the
local money systems, and a structure for the manufacture of mini-briquettes for
high efficiency cooking stoves used in the area.
Each well commission has a
member nominated by each tank commission it serves. The number of members will
therefore vary from one commission to another, usually between 5 and 9. Each well
commission chooses intermediate level micro-credits and local money
transactions registration coordinators. It also chooses representatives to the
central structures management committee, and to the central committees running
the local money systems, the Cooperative Local Development Fund, and where
applicable, the Cooperative Health and Education funds. As women are expected
to have a majority at tank commission level, they can be expected to nominate
female representatives to the well commissions. Women should therefore be well
represented, usually with a majority, at this intermediate level too.
The third, or project level
administrative structure provided in the Model represents all 50.000-70.000
inhabitants living in a given project area. Jared Diamond refers to this level
as “states”, with “over
At the same time, the
population in the area must be large enough to offer a market supporting
specialisation of productive activities and services. It must also be able to
provide a variety of productive activities and services wide enough to meet the
basic needs for a good quality of life
for all in the project area. “We may thus define the optimum number of the
population [of an ideal state] as “the greatest surveyable number required for
achieving a life of self-sufficiency”” (Artistotle, Politics, Book VII, Chapter
IV, tr. E. Barker , Oxford University Press, London, 1948).
The choice made in the Model
in favour of local economy systems with an average of 50.000 to 70.000
inhabitants is therefore anything but new. However, there is nothing critical
or mystical in the number. Individual project areas may have fewer or more
inhabitants depending on population densities, and geographic, cultural and
ethnic aspects including language, and in particular on the preferences
expressed by the local population. Project areas in developing countries today
are seldom as densely populated as Greece at the time of the ancient City States. The population of Greece
is believed at that time to have reached 7-9 million (Dioxiadis, op.cit.). Some
project areas under the Model may therefore be larger than areas covered by the
Greek city states, especially where they include regional or national nature
reserves.
Third level project
management structures are formed by representatives nominated at well
commission level. They include central committees for any one or more project
structures, for the Cooperative Local Development Fund, for the Local Money
system, and where applicable, for Cooperative Health and Education Funds. Since
each well commission nominates a member to each central committee, the number
of members will vary from project to project, but will usually be about 35. The
central committees, which can be viewed as “parliaments”, meet once a year or
more frequently if necessary. They choose management teams, which can be viewed
as “governments”. The management teams are expected to be small, with 3-7
members including administrative staff.
Each of the three
administrative levels described has its own clearly defined tasks, including
the election of those at the next level above that it will have to answer
to.
Fig. 3
Chart illustrating the administrative chain.
Figure 4 gives a summary of
common tasking at each of the three levels. The list is not intended to be
complete. The Model provides for the provision of basic social, financial,
productive and service structures necessary to a good quality of life for all.
The same structures also open the way to countless other activities and
initiatives which are as varied as the minds of those conceiving them. No
attempt is made even to imagine them.
Fig. 4
Model for self-financing
ecological sustainable integrated development.
Tank commissions. |
Well commissions. |
Project level. |
Health clubs/hygiene education. |
Management of well sites. |
Supervision and statistics. |
Drinking water.Drinking water. |
Water supply back-up. |
Maintenance & statistics. |
Family sanitation. |
Washing places. |
Training for housewives. |
Rainwater harvesting. |
Water sampling. |
Water testing. |
Local money assistants. |
Registration local money transactions |
Local money statistics, Inter-project relations. |
Collection of contributions. |
|
Conflict resolution. |
Collection of loan repayments. |
|
Conflict resolution. |
About 60% of micro-credit grants. |
About 25% of micro-credit grants. |
About 15% of grants. |
First-level social safety net. |
Second level social safety net. |
Project-level safety net. |
Production bio-mass for local use. |
Production of mini-briquettes. |
Statistics. |
Nurse |
Doctor. |
Local hsopital. |
Primary school. |
Secondary school. |
Trade schools, propadeuse for University. |
Lighting for study purposes. |
|
|
Radio-telephone communications (work for blind) |
|
Local radio station. |
Sports clubs. |
Intermediate facilities. |
Project level competition. |
Theatres, cultural groups. |
Physical Facilities. |
Cultural circuits. |
Personal food storage facility. |
Cooperative food storage. |
Export/import cooperatives. |
The Model applies in
principle both to poor urban and rural areas in both developing and
industrialised countries. However, preference is given to the execution of
pilot projects in rural areas in developing countries. (See further under
“Demographic Development Policies” below.)
Policy consequences
Project execution under the Model has many, far-reaching, policy
implications in many sectors and at all levels. At the same time, it must be
stressed that the Model does not claim to offer solutions to all the problems
developing countries face. Projects under the Model cannot act as substitutes
for state obligations. Some areas of activity mentioned below, such as curative
health and general education issues, are not directly addressed in the Model at
all. Other sectors, such as large-scale public works, defence and security,
fall outside the scope of local economic development and are not even mentioned
below. However, the Model provides for the creation of local social, financial,
service and productive structures. These structures can be used to promote the
gradual development of some services,
taken for granted in industrialised countries, that people in poor countries do
not even dare to dream of. Self-financed where necessary, and at a
surprisingly low cost. In those cases,
the following notes set out where they might want to go, and how they could get
there. It may take many years, even decades, for them to arrive.
In short, the Model
addresses some problems basic to a good quality of life for all in the project
area, and solves them directly. It can contribute actively to solving other problems
over a longer term. Finally, there are some areas outside local economic
development where it has little or no direct influence at all. Notwithstanding first impressions some
readers may have, the following descriptions are not idealistic. The Model does
not restate known development problems. It offers concrete down-to-earth
solutions to them. The paradigms and the concepts presented are mostly so
simple and obvious they should be viewed by most people as an expression of
plain common sense. The common sense of the ordinary man or woman in the
street. No university degrees are needed to understand them. None were required
to develop them. No special expertise is needed to put them into practice. They
enable the world’s poorest to design, execute, run, maintain and pay for their
own development within the framework of open, cooperative, interest-free,
inflation-free economic environments where genuine competition is free to
flourish
If the solutions to world-wide poverty alleviation issues really are so
simple, some readers may wonder why they have not been applied before. That is
a very good question. The answers to it go to the heart and the nature of the
currently dominating economic system. But they do not fall within the scope of
this paper.
Demographic development policies
Centralisation of power through the dumping of vast numbers of people in
mega-slums in unsustainable, uneconomic, ultra-vulnerable mega-cities in
developing countries is unnecessary, foolish,
and ethically unacceptable. In our times, it is politely called “urbanisation”.
Contrary to what we are sometimes led to believe, it is relatively easy to
control vast, poor, unorganised, disconnected, disinherited, urban masses both
individually and collectively deprived of any means of providing for even their
own most basic requirements. Civil disorder may sometimes break out, but seldom
has permanent effect. “Popular riot, insurrection, or demonstration is an
almost universal urban phenomenon, and as we now know, it occurs even today in
the affluent megalopolis of the developed world. On the other hand the fear of
such riot is intermittent. It may be taken for granted as a fact of urban
existence, as in most pre-industrial cities, or as the kind of unrest which
periodically flares up and subsides without producing any major effect on the
structure of power.” (E.J. Hobsbawm, Cities and insurrections, Global
Urban Development Magazine, vol.1, no.1, May 2005.) One of the purposes of the Model is to
counter this “urbanisation” by ensuring that people in rural areas attain a
good quality of life there with a full range of basic structures and services
and employment opportunities. Once a good quality of life in rural areas has
become reality, the Model can be applied in poor urban communities, where its
principles are just as effective. The Model is in principle applicable to
poverty alleviation in depressed rural and urban areas in industrialised
countries as well.
Empowerment of women
The important role played by women in structures at the three
administrative levels has already been described. The Model enables women to
play an active (leading) role in local development issues. They are
structurally freed from the drudgery of having to fetch water and firewood and,
with their children, from the dangers of smoke (air pollution in and around
their homes), water-borne diseases, and diet insufficiencies. Financial
structures such as local money system, interest-free micro-credits, and
cooperative buying groups put at their disposal greatly expand their freedom to
take productivity initiatives for which local and project level markets are
created. Their formal money budget possibilities are extended. They and their
children will have (with time) a better chance of structural medical care and
formal education, including hygiene education. They will all without exception
enjoy the benefits of drinking water, sanitation, and waste recycling
facilities.
Employment and income
Tank commission members, like
all other persons active for the project,
are fully paid for their work under the local money systems set up as
part of project execution. Self-financing sustainable integrated development
projects under the Model will usually have 200-250 tank commission areas. This
leads to the creation of 1000-2000 jobs some of which will be full-time and
others part-time according to the decisions independently taken by the people
living in each area. Projects under the
model typically create up to 4000 jobs and give direct employment to about 10%
of the adult population. The remaining 90% of the adult population is free to
use the local money and interest-free micro-credit structures created by the
project for the purposes of productivity
increase. At least Euro
Financial policies
Projects set up cooperative,
interest-free, inflation-free, local financial environments, within which
private initiative and genuine competition are free to flourish. Basic
financial instruments created include local money systems and interest-free
cooperative micro-credit structures paid for and run by the people themselves.
These basic financial instruments can be supplemented as required by
self-financed self-terminating special purpose buying cooperatives at tank
commission, well commission and project level and by local interest-free
cooperative banking and insurance facilities. All formal money financial
structures are operated within the framework of the local money systems set up,
so not only are they interest-free, but the services are usually supplied without
any formal money cost to users as well. Formal money costs for interest and
services traditionally connected with financial products are retained in the
project areas. Local populations make small monthly formal money contributions
into their Cooperative Local Development Fund. These contributions are used for
multiple recycling in the form of interest-free micro-credits for productivity
purposes. The local financial environments created during project execution
operate in parallel and in harmony with existing formal money structures. The
local systems do not substitute the formal money ones. Except for products and
services provided for project execution, users are always free to choose
whether to conduct a transaction under the local money systems or under the
traditional formal money system. The local money structures are all identically
time-based. They interact with each other to form a patchwork quilt of
cooperative interlinked local economy systems. Cooperation between systems is
always on a zero balance basis, to avoid all risk of financial leakage from one
project area to another. (Model, complete index, section 5.21 –
Interest-free cooperative money structures); (Model, complete index,
section 5.22 – Interest-free cooperative micro-credit structures). The
network of powerful interlinked local economy systems forms in turn a strong,
independent, national economy in host countries.
Social security policies
Few developing countries are
known for their efficient social security schemes in support of the poor, the
sick, the elderly and the handicapped. More often than not, the sick have to pay in cash on the spot for
medical help. If they (or their families) are unable to pay, they cannot get
access to the services. In many countries, parents of schoolchildren have to
pay relatively high school fees and for school books and school uniforms.
Sometimes they even have to pay teachers’ wages where education ministries fail
to fulfil their duty to do so. This means that poorer families are often unable
to send their children, especially their daughters, to school. Project
applications under the Model can make a powerful contribution to social
solidarity in developing countries, as they set up a three-tiered social safety
network for the weakest members of society, both for their obligations under
the local money systems and for their formal money contributions to their
formal money Cooperative Local Development Fund.
Control and ownership of
local project structures
Management and ownership of
all tank commission level structures set up during project execution are vested
by the project in the “local tank commission for the time being”. Physical
service structures vested in them include drinking water and lighting
facilities and project structures provided in schools and clinics situated in
their tank commission area. The tank commissions also manage the operation at
tank commission level of the local money, interest-free micro-credit and waste
recycling systems set up during project execution. They are responsible for the collection of
the monthly contributions paid by each inhabitant into the Cooperative Local
Development Fund and for the operation of the social security or safety nets
set up for the poor, the sick, the aged, and the handicapped. They organise the
election of representatives to intermediate level (well-commission) structures
and of local money transaction specialists. Physical and administrative
structures run by the tank commissions can also be extended to activities in
the health and education sectors, as described below, and to interest-free
cooperative purchasing and investment initiatives. Similarly, intermediate
structures are vested by the project in the “well commission for the time
being”. Project-level structures are vested by the project in the “central
committee for the time being”. The social safety nets set up, together with
strong local social control and extended guarantee structures built into
micro-credit loan agreements should reduce defaults in the payment of contributions.
Default rates for loans made by Nobel Prize winner Muhammad Yunus’s Grameen Bank were less than two percent
notwithstanding interest rates up to 18%. (M.Yunus, Banker to the Poor, Public
Affairs, New York 2003). Micro-credit loans under the Model are interest-free
and free from all formal money costs, as they are managed under the local money
systems set up.
Complementary interests
A qualifying feature of the
activities of the tank commissions and of all other structures set up
under the Model is that they fit in
with, and operate in harmony and in parallel with existing political,
financial, and administrative structures. For instance, the local money systems
set up are operated in parallel with the existing formal money system in the
project’s host country. Except for transactions carried out for the project
itself, users are always free to choose whether to conduct a transaction under
the local money or the formal money system. Tank and well commission members
and management may also be members of statutory or voluntary local development
agencies or organisations. In some cases, the formation of the tank commissions
(independently of or together with intermediate and project level structures)
may be helpful in creating and running, free of charge, local development
organs foreseen in national legislation. For instance, in the case of Togo, the
Village Development Committees (CVD), which are mostly inoperative and lack
adequate finance, could be built into project structures foreseen by the Model.
The administration of the Togodogo Reserve (Yoto District, Togo) can offer work
opportunities to local people under the local money system to help achieve
sustainable management of the Reserve for which no formal money funds are
currently available.
Traditional leadership and
land ownership structures
Project structures are not
intended to interfere with the power and recognition of traditional, elected
and non-elected, institutions such as village heads, chiefs, religious leaders,
mayors, town councils, health boards, water boards, tax department, police
commissioners, or members of parliament. The tasks carried out by the project structures are all new ones,
created by the people themselves (including mentioned local leaders as individuals)
within the framework of each integrated development project. As the quality of
life in each project area increases as a result of project execution, the
status of the traditional institutions is expected to grow. For the tax
department, for instance, a taxation base will be created over time where none
existed before. Traditional leaders are free to take advantage of project
structures for the management of communal property. Management of communally
owned tribal land and natural mineral and renewable income resources can be
brought free of charge under the
financial structures created by the project, so that costs and benefits can be
equitably distributed amongst the owner populations. For instance, income from
the sale of sustainably harvested wood from communally owned forests or from
the use by community members or nomads of communally owned land for grazing can
be distributed amongst the communal owners using the financial instruments set
up by the project. The cost of protecting
natural resources such as flora and fauna can be brought under the local
money systems and divided amongst community members to supplement the limited
formal money resources available at national and regional level.
Millennium development goals
Project applications under
the Model provide complete structures for full, high quality coverage for
drinking water, sanitation, waste
recycling, smoke eradication and other services for 100% of the population,
without exclusion, in the project areas. The global formal money cost does not
exceed Euro 100 per inhabitant. Of this, 25% is provided directly by the
inhabitants themselves, in the form of work done for project execution fully
paid under the local money systems set up and “converted” into formal money at
the rate of Euro 3 per working day of eight hours. The remaining 75% is
initially supplied by external support agencies in the form of seed finance. If
the seed finance is in the form of a grant, monthly contributions paid by
inhabitants into their Cooperative Local Development Fund continue to be
recycled interest-free for micro-credits after the close of the first period of
ten years. If the seed finance is in the form of an interest-free ten year
loan, the contributions paid by inhabitants during the first period of ten
years are sufficient to repay the seed capital at the close of the first period
of ten years. The amount in the Cooperative Local Development Fund in that case
drops temporarily back towards zero. Since the inhabitants continue to make
their monthly contributions after seed loan repayment , the capital in the
Cooperative Local development Fund builds up again over the second period of
ten years to cover the cost of replacement of capital goods after twenty years.
The difference between a grant and an interest-free seed loan therefore becomes
operative only after ten years. In the first case, the flux of funds for
interest-free micro-credits is not interrupted; in the other the fund available
for micro-credits has to build up again during the second ten year cycle as it
did during the first one. Where part of seed funds is made available by way of
grant, the rest may be by way of soft (low interest) loans, including loans
from private sources. Condition for this is that the total sum to be repaid by
the population at the close of the first ten years’ period does not exceed the
total initial seed capital. On this
basis, a country such as Togo with a population of 4.500.000 can be “developed” by 2015 for a
total seed capital investment of Euro
337.500.000, some or all of which can be repaid by the local populations at the
close of the first ten years’ period.
Health policies
The Model addresses
preventive medicine related issues by supplying health clubs and hygiene
education courses in schools, clean drinking water, sanitation facilities,
waste recycling, smoke elimination, better diets and drainage of stagnant
waters. While it is not intended to substitute for the duties of national and
regional governments with respect to remedial health care, it is structured to
help provide local supplementary services in some cases. Tank commission areas
(about 200 people) provide an ideal work terrain for a qualified nurse.
Suitable premises can be built under the local money systems by the community
for nurses willing to work within the local money structures in so far as they
do not receive formal money salaries. The cost of basic equipment and materials
can be cooperatively covered at tank commission, well commission, or project
level by small monthly formal money contributions paid into a Cooperative
Health Fund. The same considerations apply to structures for doctors. Well
commission areas each serving about 2000 inhabitants form an ideal work terrain
for doctors’ practices (J.Muysken et al, op.cit.) and for other professions
such as dentists and physiotherapists. Project areas with 50.000-70.000
inhabitants can support local hospitals, preferably at a central point of the
project area. Once the financial structures for cooperative local economic
development have been set up as a normal part of project execution, basic
health care structures can be provided at little or no extra cost to
financially hard-pressed government ministries. (Model, complete index,
section 5.62 - Health aspects). Project structures provide a natural
framework for middle- and long-term development in the health sector.
Education policies
Some improvements in
education structures, like those for curative health care, can also be covered
under project applications. Single tank commission areas will often be too
small to support a primary school on
their own, as an ideal primary school population of perhaps eighteen pupils for each grade is required. (V. Wilson,
Does small really make a difference?, Scottish Council for Research and
Education (SCRE) Report 107, Glasgow, 2002).
Assuming six grades, a primary school population of 120-150 would be
needed. These requirements can be met by groups of two or three tank commission
areas working together. Simple locally constructed, centrally located buildings
(with clean drinking water, eco-sanitation and photovoltaic lighting
facilities) and locally built school furniture can be supplied by the local
populations under the local money systems set up by the projects. Teachers,
especially teachers originating in the project area, willing to work within the
local money structures can be paid by the residents in so far as they do not
receive (regular) formal money salaries from education authorities. Similarly,
well commission areas are ideally sized to
provide a secondary education structure to pupils from the 2-4 primary
schools in their area. With classes of 18 pupils, they would need to have
350-450 pupils to provide coverage for the various subjects studied. Project
areas serving 50.000 to 70.000 are ideally sized to provide further education
in trades and perhaps a first year preparatory course (propedeuse) for
university studies for which students would subsequently need to go to larger
centres. (Model, complete index,
section 5.63 Education).
Policies for sports and
culture
The financial and social
structures set up under the Model make it possible for individuals and groups
to get cultural and sporting groups off the ground. The Model does not attempt
to list or regulate all of the initiatives which could take place, as these are
as varied as the minds and wishes of the people. They include sports, coaching
and training activities in general, theatre, music, local arts and folklore
groups. Basic facilities can be provided under a combination of the local money
systems and interest-free micro-credit structures. Sports competitions can be
organised amongst clubs in a given project area, and amongst inter-linked
project areas. Cultural circuits can be formed, almost “automatically”, for theatre,
dance and music groups, providing them in many cases with full time work.
Energy, environment and conservation policies
All initiatives taken under the Model are directed towards zero net
energy use, so as to avoid financial leakage from project areas and wastage of
resources. Energy used must be in the form of renewable energy originating in
the project areas themselves, so that they can be produced and paid for under
the local money systems set up. By way of example, the distributed drinking water
systems are powered by solar photovoltaic panels. Locally produced
high-efficiency stoves are fuelled by locally produced mini-briquettes made
from locally grown crops and waste products. Public transport facilities may be
driven by bio-fuels produced locally on a small scale. Local production is necessarily
environmentally neutral and is always intended in the first place for local
consumption. Communities in project areas usually request cooperative food
storage facilities coupled with traditional food conservation practices such as
solar drying and storage in the form of edible oils. National level and
regional environmental and conservation
agencies can receive job-creating support from the local money systems. An
example is the protection and sustainable exploitation of the Togodo National
Reserve already described above, where the Reserve could participate as a
member of the local money system, and use the services of local inhabitants as
wardens and for forest maintenance and services in exchange for sustainable low
level local exploitation of timber, hunting and fishing rights. (Model, Yoto
Nord-Est 10 project).
Wieringerwerf, Netherlands, 14th February 2007.
Terry Manning is a 64 year old New Zealand lawyer. Resident in Italy for
25 years, he was involved with the
development of innovative pumping technologies for the world’s poor and in
particular the spring rebound inertia hand pump technology and the solar
submersible horizontal axis piston pump technology. For family reasons, he has
been living in the Netherlands since 1993. His observations of the world of
development (“the aid industry”) were such that he decided it had to be
possible for even the poorest to self-finance their own basic integrated
development. After many years’
self-financed work, he succeeded in moulding an original combination of social,
financial, productive and service instruments into a Model for self-financing
ecological sustainable integrated development suitable for general application
in rural and poor urban areas throughout the world. The Model enables
interested parties to draft their own integrated development projects free of
charge and to apply for seed financing for them.
Terry Manning has placed his work in the public domain, under the control
of the Dutch NGO “Stichting Bakens Verzet” which means “Another way”. His
address is Schoener 50, 1771 ED Wieringerwerf, Netherlands, tel.
0031-227-604128l; e-mail: bakensverzet@xs4all.nl
Typical list of graphs and
drawings.
List of abbreviations used.
Documents for fuunding
applications.