AFRO-NETS> Technical Cooperation-Perspective from a rural village resident

["Claudio Schuftan" <aviva@netnam.vn>]

Technical Cooperation-Perspective from a rural village resident
---------------------------------------------------------------

I would like to try to set out what Technical Cooperation (TC) looks
like from the view of a person in a remote rural African community.
Needless to say it is difficult to create an accurate impression
because "I have not been walk ing many miles in their shoes"
.. but I think it is worth trying.

It is based on visits to rural communities "doing development" over a
period of almost 30 years. A lot of visits that were done in partner-
ship with an African women who helped enormously with my understand-
ing.

... TC looks like a Toyota Land Cruiser with a big agency  sticker on
the doors to announce who funded the vehicle;

... TC looks like a big sign on a compound.. Inside a place to park
the cars, a generator to give light, and drive the air conditioners
and refrigerators.. And a room with computers and copying machines;

...TC looks like people coming to the village to ask ques-
tions..Sometimes very polite and correct.. Usually very intrusive and
arrogant.. With lots of questions and questionnaires;

  ... TC never seems to ask about what is of priority and
importance to our community. What we need is never on the
agenda of the TC visitors.

... TC people never seem to stay long enough to learn anything; ...
Some people stay a long time.. But usually they are young and really
do not have much understanding of the complexities of our life.. And
they never seem to know anything about our traditions and our values.
We try to be polite, but it is not easy when they are so demanding.
We do not have much material resource, but they want us to use it in
ways that make no sense to us. When they go it takes us a long time
to get back to normal.

... When we have the chance to talk to TC people it is clear that
they offer absolutely nothing that will make a difference in our
lives. In fact it is often the opposite. They create legitimacy for
government rules and regulations that are very damaging to our commu-
nity economy;

... When we talk about the big government programs (funded by World
Bank) and others they are more interested in money made from export
crops than in crops to feed our families. Export crops mostly impov-
erish our community. We only grow them because the government makes
us. We have to use good land for these crops, which could be better
used feeding our people.

... Credit programs.. Why do you make us buy a complete pack of items
in order to get credit when we could buy just what we need and not
have to throw out everything else. It really is very silly.

... Women's programs.. The women are the backbone of our community.
We (the men) have to listen to them. Giving them more opportunity to
work when they are already working enormously hard is maybe not a
good idea.

... Education is very good.. But most of us cannot afford the cost of
fees and uniforms .. And the school is a long way away. Educating
girls.. OK.. But most of the boys are not getting schooling either;

  ... What is the government doing? Well.. making it difficult to
travel because of security check points .. And paperwork .. And doing
nothing about the rural roads, which are awful;

... Telephone, electricity?.. They hardly have it in the cities .. do
you expect anything in rural areas;

... Health .. It was getting better .. the children could get primary
health care when UNICEF teams would visit. Government health programs
have been getting worse and worse for the past ten years (TPB note -
since Structural Adjustment);

... HIV-AIDS .. yes we know .. But what can we do about it ..But what
about behavior change? .. well what change? .. There are no condoms..
there is child spacing to reduce family size, but that is not "safe
sex" .. And we do need  large families in our rural environment;

... Any questions? .. Yes .. Why do TC people and urban people come
to our community and tell us what to do, but will not ask us to tell
them  about our problems and what we might be able to do to solve
them.  Though we may not be able to read and write, we have lived in
this situation for many generations and we have learned a lot.. we
could  learn more, but it would be nice to learn something that has
value in  our community and in our situation.

The above could go on .. I hope I have been fair.

 From my perspective.. I have found that whenever I have tried to be
an advocate for community priorities.. there have been strong argu-
ments against the community perspective from almost all quarters of
the official development assistance (ODA) community.

In too many situations it is impossible for ODA resources to benefit
rural communities simply because of ODA procedures and rules.
.. and there is little feedback in the ODA system to identify success
and failure in the use of resources simply measures to ensure that
disbursement was made according to specified criteria.

Sincerely

Peter Burgess
AfriFund Management Limited
New York
website: www.afrifund.com or www.profitinafrica.com
mailto:profitinafrica@aol.com


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