Kampuchea Crossings

Bump to baby on the beaten expat track

development

crisis innovations

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One of the frustrations of working on a development project with a focus on policy work is that the impact on very urgent needs is years away. There is certainly value to shaping the legal environment to pave the way for changes to set roots. But as I mentioned in an earlier post about why I use twitter, I’m interested in how social issues are tackled now, across different continents.

So check out the practical ideas borne out of  crises around the world. One of them hit the NY Times lately, Africa’s Gift to Silicon Valley: How to Track a Crisis.

@Ushahidi suggests a new paradigm in humanitarian work. The old paradigm was one-to-many: foreign journalists and aid workers jet in, report on a calamity and dispense aid with whatever data they have. The new paradigm is many-to-many-to-many: victims supply on-the-ground data; a self-organizing mob of global volunteers translates text messages and helps to orchestrate relief; journalists and aid workers use the data to target the response.

Ushahidi also represents a new frontier of innovation. Silicon Valley has been the reigning paradigm of innovation, with its universities, financiers, mentors, immigrants and robust patents. Ushahidi comes from another world, in which entrepreneurship is born of hardship and innovators focus on doing more with less, rather than on selling you new and improved stuff.

Because Ushahidi originated in crisis, no one tried to patent and monopolize it. Because Kenya is poor, with computers out of reach for many, Ushahidi made its system work on cellphones. Because Ushahidi had no venture-capital backing, it used open-source software and was thus free to let others remix its tool for new projects.

This and other platforms eg @frontlinesms are available to help villagers self-organise so that resources can be targeted to meet their needs. It has great potential for maternal and child health problems, and for access to health care issues.

It’s time to bounce ideas around..

An old poem on Development

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The Development Set
by Ross Coggins

Excuse me, friends, I must catch my jet
I’m off to join the Development Set;
My bags are packed, and I’ve had all my shots
I have traveller’s checks and pills for the trots!

The Development Set is bright and noble
Our thoughts are deep and our vision global;
Although we move with the better classes
Our thoughts are always with the masses.

In Sheraton Hotels in scattered nations
We damn multi-national corporations;
injustice seems easy to protest
In such seething hotbeds of social rest.

We discuss malnutrition over steaks
And plan hunger talks during coffee breaks.
Whether Asian floods or African drought,
We face each issue with open mouth.

We bring in consultants whose circumlocution
Raises difficulties for every solution –
Thus guaranteeing continued good eating
By showing the need for another meeting.

The language of the Development Set
Stretches the English alphabet;
We use swell words like “epigenetic”
“Micro”, “macro”, and “logarithmetic”

It pleasures us to be esoteric –
It’s so intellectually atmospheric!
And although establishments may be unmoved,
Our vocabularies are much improved.

When the talk gets deep and you’re feeling numb,
You can keep your shame to a minimum:
To show that you, too, are intelligent
Smugly ask, “Is it really development?”

Or say, “That’s fine in practice, but don’t you see:
It doesn’t work out in theory!”
A few may find this incomprehensible,
But most will admire you as deep and sensible.

Development set homes are extremely chic,
Full of carvings, curios, and draped with batik.
Eye-level photographs subtly assure
That your host is at home with the great and the poor.

Enough of these verses – on with the mission!
Our task is as broad as the human condition!
Just pray god the biblical promise is true:
The poor ye shall always have with you.
.

Where does aid money come from?

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This interactive map with accompanying document shows the source of aid by country, and maps other interesting information such as corruption, natural disasters, security risk areas, etc. (If aid map is not the default, click the scroll-down map to ‘aid’.)

Aid began after WWII in the new international economic system. Supporting insufficient capital flows in developing countries became part of the Cold War politics. OECD collects data on Official Development Assistance, which does not include funds from philantrophic sources, private foundations, or NGOs.

To address poverty, in a 1970 UN resolution, industrialised nations committed 0.7% of their GNI towards international aid. Of the 22 OECD Development Assistance Committee (DAC) countries, only five regularly meet this target (Sweden, Norway, Luxembourg, the Netherlands and Denmark). On percentage of GNI, the US is one of the lowest contributors (0.18% in 2006), but in absolute amount, it is the highest contributor by almost twice the next country. That of course is now surpassed by the UK, given the devaluation of the dollar against the pound.

Foreign Aid and Development

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It’s difficult not to be cynical given the futility and waste of many aid programmes, no matter the intent of individuals. The constraints of procurements, lack of transparency and accountability, coupled with donors’ foreign policies, often lead to inefficient and ineffective efforts. All for the sake of creating viable markets out of lagging economies?

The impact of foreign aid and development has received increased visibility and debate among the mainstream media lately. There’s a downloadable podcast on NPR’s Intelligence Squared, which hosts an Oxford-style debate on many topics. Is Aid to Africa Doing More Harm Than Good?, broadcast on 12 Dec 2007, offers interesting insights from both sides of the issue.

And the following is a foreign aid blog in the New York Times, by Nicholas D Kristof. What Aid Workers Do

Aid frustrations: A Doctor’s View Into Humanitarian Aid

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Guest Poster: J Chan. She captures quite nicely the frustrations of development work:

I’m back in Mozambique again, now in the 2nd largest city in the country- Beira. It’s nice to be back in Mozambique and the 30hr plane rides are getting more monotonous. I hope to spend a little bit more time checking out the towns along the way while I’m working.

I’m here for the 2nd phase of another project. We were able to get the lay of the land of the flood situation back in May and now we are back to perform a more rigorous assessment of the water and sanitation activities in the resettlement camps (like refugee camps in some ways) by the Zambezi River. We will try to link this information with the risk for cholera outbreaks to help the project guide their future programming in the region.

Consulting for a large international NGO such xxx has been rewarding this year, but also a bit frustrating because it has provided the window to much of the disorganization in the humanitarian world. The interplay between government interests, NGOs strapped by funders as well as their own disorganization and at times lack of skills, create a challenging atmosphere for providing services to communities such as those affected by the floods in Mozambique. Services are being provided to some degree, but not often in a timely manner and often without the greatest leadership.

This work is so different from working in the ER in Boston, where flow, efficiency, and quick, accurate decision-making are the keys to making a shift work well. Accountability is also another element of providing medical care in the ED (as with most of medicine in the US), but now being an attending physician I feel that and see that in a whole new light.

In this post emergency phase in Mozambique I wonder who is responsible and even accountable for the fact that many people still are living without homes, little sustainable water and from what we know so far still living in high risk areas of poor sanitation. Is it the NGOs who are in the field, some of whom lack leadership to make decisions and provide water sources, or is it the local government who lack human capacity and support that they themselves don’t provide services either… But in the end the communities who live by the Zambezi river are returning to their lives with or without the help of govt and aid workers–as they do this every few years when the Zambezi rivers flood…. It the resilience of these communities and the savvy coping mechanisms they create to withstand these multiple shocks that are most powerful in my mind..

Its a great balance to have both types of work (ER and Humanitarian work) fill my days, and I can’t complain at all for these opportunities.