Village
Earth's Philosophy of Community-Based Development
A set of
basic principles guides the design of a serious
effort at sustainable village-based development.
They are:
1. Participatory, Village-Based Development
2. A Critical Mass for Sustainable
Development.
3. The Importance of Resources.
4. A Trained External Catalytic Force.
5. A New Approach to Stimulating
Village Development.
6. Local Values.
7. Inclusiveness.
8. Self-Reliance and an Entrepreneurial
Spirit.
8. Basic Mutual Agreements.
9. A Systems Approach.
10. A Holistic (Multi-Sector) Approach.
12. Sustainability..
13. Appropriate Technology.
14. Networking.
15. Monitoring and Evaluation.
1.
Participatory, Village-Based Development:
The village or community is the basic unit of
planning and action. Village priorities must be
decided by the villagers and not by an outside
authority. Only when village residents direct
their future will they own it. And only then will
they be able to manage the development process
that will bring them out of poverty. This is accomplished
by providing leadership so that the villagers:
a. Express
their hopes and aspirations for the future.
b. Identify and analyze the problems which stand
in the way of achieving these hopes and aspirations.
c. Find solutions to the problems with the help
of the Service Center staff.
d. Carry out the solutions and then operate
and maintain the mechanisms to achieve them.
Participatory
involvement by all stakeholders in the village
is vital in creating a positive development climate.
Participation is the key to human motivation.
Villagers must have the opportunity to participate
and have ownership in the decisions affecting
their lives. Women must be empowered to play significant
roles in improving village life. Youth need to
express their hopes and dreams for the future
and see them materialize through their own efforts
and actions. Community elders must contribute
their wisdom in shaping the directions of village
life. Each village that supports full participation
of its members is ready for project participation.
Where participation is the motivator of effective
action, broad-based community planning is the
generator of strategic action. Service Center
staff are trained to be skilled in planning methodologies
so that they can transfer these skills to key
village leaders for application in the village
setting.
2.
A Critical Mass for Sustainable Development.
Although the village is the basic unit of planning
and action, a single village is not large enough
to access essential resources. A viable development
unit for supporting the village to access resources
is between 35,000 to 50,000 people -- large enough
to have an effective voice in making village needs
known to resource institutions, and at the same
time small enough to maintain local autonomy.
The Resource Access Unit will be able to effectively
access the necessary external resources through
mobilizing local resources and supporting, in
part, a professional staff competent in the needed
expertise. Historical research indicates that
where development has been pursued in this framework,
the rate of development has accelerated. Examples
include the township in Japan and Taiwan, the
commune in China, and the county in the United
States.
3.
The Importance of Resources.
Resources -- human, information, physical, technical,
energy and financial -- are essential for any
sustainable developmental effort.
a. Local,
often latent, human resources are the most important.
It is the villagers who must draft a plan and
carry out the entire village development program.
They are empowered though participatory planning,
training and action.
b. Information resources are essential for providing
immediate access to the wealth of enabling information
available worldwide.
c. A careful analysis of the available local
physical resources is essential for building
any realistic plan. A Participatory Rural Appraisal
is one tool for facilitating this analysis.
d. Identifying local technical resources --
"technologies that work" -- in and
nearby any development effort provides a base
for increasing viable options for local action.
e. Renewable energy resources are vital to the
sustainability of all economic and social development
efforts, from soil fertility to appropriate
technology innovations.
f. Financial resources are necessary for micro-enterprise
development, small-scale industries and commercial
activities.
4.
A Trained External Catalytic Force.
An external force is nearly always needed to assist
in catalyzing development. However, it should
encourage local initiative and motivation by asking
questions rather than proposing solutions at the
outset. Team members must be trained in participatory
planning and implementation skills. Technical
expertise is required to identify realistic options
to be explored by the villagers in priority areas
which they have identified.
5.
A New Approach to Stimulating Village Development.
The Village Earth model employs a new approach
to development . It is a bottom-up approach in
contrast to the traditional hierarchical, top-down
approach. It is characterized by:
a. Listening
and asking questions, not giving answers.
b. Interaction, discussion and consensus building,
not authoritative imposition of top-down "solutions."
c. Partnership problem solving, not experts
imposing "technically correct" fixes.
d. Active participation in decision making,
not passive compliance to external suggestions.
e. Sharing appropriate technologies, not technology
"transfer."
f. Tandem use of local and scientific knowledge,
not exclusive use of either.
g. Mutual learning, not, "We know what
is best."
h. Village control of development, not external
control.
i. Team building, not control by elites.
6.
Local Values.
Western culture is not determinative. Rather,
indigenous values must be identified and employed
as a motivating force to support the achievement
of locally determined priorities. Both indigenous
and developmental values need to be identified
and understood before full project initiation.
7.
Inclusiveness.
In order to be sustainable, any village-based
development effort must include all members of
the village. Villagers not only must participate,
they must have a genuine voice in the process.
Exclusion of any group risks the failure of the
entire enterprise. Those not included may intentionally
or unintentionally block or inhibit forward progress
of a "privileged" majority or minority.
Women must be assured that their planning and
actions are their own, and that the community
supports their self-help efforts. Caste differences
must not be allowed to exclude a group of people
from participating. Basic mutual agreements at
the very beginning of a project insure a favorable
climate for development which includes all village
members.
8.
Self-Reliance and an Entrepreneurial Spirit.
Opportunities for individual and team initiative
are the heart of any development effort. The future
genuinely is in the hands of local activists and
family members. A spirit of individual investment,
community investment and local responsibility
is essential for achieving village objectives.
This creates genuine ownership of the project.
Micro-savings and micro-lending programs make
financial support accessible to feed that spirit.
8.
Basic Mutual Agreements.
It is very easy to have misunderstandings between
the village leadership and the Service Center.
For this reason, each participating village and
the Service Center will make Basic Mutual Agreements.
Once a participating village has been identified
for project participation, Service Center staff
will devote several days in formal and informal
discussion with village leaders to be certain
that all parties have a complete understanding
about the responsibilities and activities that
the village and the Service Center are expected
to carry out. Then, while all of the details are
fresh in mind, they will commit this understanding
to paper in the form of a Basic Mutual Agreement.
9.
A Systems Approach.
Experience has shown the interrelatedness of phenomena.
When wood is used as a fuel without protective
parameters, forests disappear, water tables drop,
sanitation facilities are abandoned and agricultural
productivity is curtailed. When undisciplined
grazing of livestock is permitted, small trees
are destroyed, forest resources are diminished
and water resources are affected. With this pattern
of development, poverty thrives. Solutions require
a combination of soft and hard technologies, using
a systems approach, to be viable and sustainable.
10.
A Holistic (Multi-Sector) Approach.
A corollary to a systems approach is that all
problems are interrelated, requiring an interaction
of sectors and interdisciplinary solutions. When
a particular sector is emphasized to the exclusion
of others, a sustainable solution is often impossible.
The Drs. Arole's work in India, originally as
physicians, rapidly diversified from treatment
of human illness to agricultural development,
sanitation systems, nutritional supplements and
job creation. Without a holistic approach, their
primary health center could not have been effective.
Usually, this is the case with any single sector
activity. For development to be effective and
sustainable, a number of sectors must be treated
simultaneously.
12.
Sustainability.
There are four dimensions of sustainability that
must be integrated into all aspects of Sustainable
Village-Based Development planning and action:
environment, economy, socio-cultural features
and political sustainability.
Environmental
Sustainability.
Sound scientific procedures must be followed
in measuring variables relevant to adequately
protecting the environment for future generations.
An energy inventory must be taken, identifying
present energy use and evaluating its impact.
All sectors must participate in this energy-use
analysis as well as analyses of other aspects
of potential environmental degradation of the
air, water and soil.
Economic
Sustainability.
It is imperative that each development program
be viable economically -- including entrepreneurial
business activities. Frequently a conflict arises
between making a short-term profit and long-term
environmental sustainability. The Service Center
staff have data and expertise and offer advise
about the most economically sustainable solution
to a problem.
Socio-Cultural
Sustainability.
Any technical innovation must offer a relatively
good fit between local socio-cultural knowledge
and practices and scientific knowledge and appropriate
technologies. Many efforts at technology transfer
have been rudely rejected at the village level,
because outside authorities did not consider
local needs and values. The presence of indigenous
sector assistants and apprentices in each technical
team helps to ensure the appropriate inclusion
of local knowledge, geographical factors, local
practices and other socio-cultural factors in
designing appropriate technology packages and
schemes.
Political
Sustainability.
Links with the local bureaucratic structures
are especially important, as many of these structures
have very well-developed technologies that can
be integrated into an RAU program of action.
Frequently, these institutions are eager to
work with a local Service Center and offer resources.
There is a wealth of resources available for
development if there are institutions such as
a RAU Service Center willing to forge a good
fit between local needs and government resources.
Most often, the missing link is the absence
of an interface, such as a Service Center, to
bridge the gap between the government and individual
villages. Key village leaders from specific
sectors play an important part in building links
to the political and bureaucratic structures.
All RAU Service Center staff are responsible
for forging working relationships with governmental
entities, including departments of agriculture,
business, health and community services.
13.
Appropriate Technology.
Technology generation begins with a need. High
technology for the sake of hi tech is irrelevant.
New for the sake of new may be a waste of resources.
Appropriate technology addressees a need by providing
a solution that fits the village resources and
goals within the local culture. "Appropriate
technology is the skills, knowledge and procedures
for making, using and doing useful things, while
making optimum use of human, natural, and person-made
resources in the village -- with ‘optimum’
determined on a village-specific basis by the
villagers themselves." (Faulkner and Albertson,
p. 128)
Hard technology
does not stand alone.
"Appropriate hard technology relates to engineering
techniques, physical structures and machinery,
that meet a need defined by the village, and use
materials at hand or readily available."
(Faulkner and Albertson, p. 128). Hard technology
must be surrounded by appropriate soft technology,
such as organizational structures, interactive
processes and motivational techniques. Soft technologies
are vital for the success of hard technologies.
Technology
Generation requires:
a. A technology that fits.
b. A package.
c. A plan.Monitoring and Evaluation.
An appropriate
technology fits local resources and knowledge
and fills an expressed need. It is based on local
knowledge of circumstances, social arrangements
and what works, and imported knowledge of innovations
that have worked for others and have solved similar
problems elsewhere. It is sustainable from all
points of view: environmentally, economically,
socioculturally, and politically.For sustainable
development, technologies are not "transferred"
by some external force that "knows best"
what villages need. Rather, effective technologies
must be found which are appropriate to the local
social, physical and technical conditions, using
local knowledge in a good fit with scientific
knowledge to build locally acceptable "technology
generation packages."
The appropriate
technology package is the way a technology is
introduced in terms that make sense to the people
using it. It includes design, installation, operation,
maintenance and rehabilitation as needed.
An appropriate
technology plan is the way a technology is made
usable and sustainable. Nothing happens without
a plan. A plan involves a way to provide the technology,
a way to pay for, develop and maintain it, and
a way to operate and manage it. Plans involve
incentives, agreements, organization and commitments.
For example, the Heifer Project has plans for
cows and milk, and the Grameen Bank has plans
for micro lending and finance.
A final task
of technology generation is ongoing monitoring
and evaluation of results with appropriate modifications,
improvements and documentation of the technology
with an eye to expanding its use.
14.
Networking.
A primary way to access essential resources is
to build and participate in networks. Networks
stimulate access to appropriate information as
well as soft and hard technologies. These networks
must be intra-village, inter-village and beyond.
15.
Monitoring and Evaluation.
It is essential to determine, by scientific means,
whether a technology, be it soft or hard, is actually
working as intended. This information provides
the data necessary to determine whether to continue
the technology, how it should be modified as needed,
and how it might be employed elsewhere. In this
way, only technologies that work are recommended
and made available to the villages. |
