DP #1: Time to Rethink Development Aid
Who am I that I can tell you 
this is right and this is wrong? Who am I that I can force you to take a loan you cannot pay back? Who am I that I can tell you how democracy should work in your country without considering your culture? Who am I that I can exploit your beautiful nature and leave it behind like a battlefield? Who am I – this is what the so called developed countries should ask themselves if they want to consult poorer countries. I just want to best for you! The western countries are shouting. Not considering the problems they have started with their systems, institutions and organizations.
This situation reminds me of a parents-children relationship where the parents think that they know what is best for their child and impose their paradigms on it. But HOW do they know what is good for their child? Maybe they think football is the right kind of sport but the child would love to learn ballet instead. It has no chance to tell them and in the end it believes football is the right thing but it will be a bad player for ever. Why do the parents not ask their child what it wants to play or learn? Why do the western countries not ask the people in the villages what they need most? It might be completely different than what they have thought.
The target of development aid should be not to provide aid anymore. However this target seems far and development aid creates even more dependencies. It does this with a lot of fancy words like “Empowerment”, “Participation” or “Engagement” – this might sound great, but if ones look behind these words the inequalities arise. A change arises in the paradigm of the industrialized countries on what development aid is. A change in the mindset how incredible generous the western world is and that development can be brought from outside. Countries, cultures and groups have their own beauty which one should be considered. There are approaches for radical rethinking from Dambisa Moyo or Esther Duflo. You are welcome to comment if you have other ideas how to approach development aid and how to rethink it.
Resources, last accessed 11.11.2011:
Gallo C (2010) Rethinking the Development Aid Paradigm, http://yalejournal.org/2010/03/rethinking-the-development-aid-paradigm/
Gerhardt K (2010) Time for a Rethink, Why Development Aid for Africa Has Failed, http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/0,1518,712068,00.html
Herrström S (2010) Rethinking Aid and Development in Africa ― but with sense and sensibility, http://www.nai.uu.se/forum/entries/2010/11/23/rethinking-aid-and-develo/index.xml
Who am I that I can say this is right and this is wrong? Who am I that I can force you to take a loan you cannot pay back? Who am I that I can tell you how democracy should work in your country without considering your culture? Who am I that I can exploit your beautiful nature and leave it behind like a battlefield? Who am I – this is what the so called developed countries should ask themselves if they want to consult poorer countries. I just want to best for you! The western countries are shouting. Not considering the problems they have started with their systems, institutions and organizations.
This situation reminds me of a parents-children relationship where the parents think that they know what is best for their child and impose their paradigms on it. But HOW do they know what is good for their child? Maybe they think football is the right kind of sport but the child would love to learn ballet instead. It has no chance to tell them and in the end it believes football is the right thing but it will be a bad player for ever. Why do the parents do not ask their child what it wants to play? Why do the western countries not ask the people in the villages what they need most? It might be completely different than what they thought.
The target of development aid should be not to provide aid anymore. However this target seems far and development aid creates even more dependencies. With a lot of fancy words like “Empowerment”, “Participation” or “Engagement” it might sound great, but if ones look behind these words the inequalities arise. A change in the paradigm of the industrialized countries on what development aid is arises. A change in the mindset how incredible generous the western world is and that development can be brought from outside. Countries, cultures and groups have their own beauty which one should be considered. There are approaches for radical rethinking from Dambisa Moyo (http://www.dambisamoyo.com) or Esther Duflo (http://econ-www.mit.edu/faculty/eduflo/short). Please comment if you have other great ideas how to approach development aid and how to rethink it.
Further Readings, last accessed 11.11.2011:
Gallo C (2010) Rethinking the Development Aid Paradigm, http://yalejournal.org/2010/03/rethinking-the-development-aid-paradigm/
Gerhardt K (2010) Time for a Rethink, Why Development Aid for Africa Has Failed, http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/0,1518,712068,00.html
Herrström S (2010) Rethinking Aid and Development in Africa ― but with sense and sensibility, http://www.nai.uu.se/forum/entries/2010/11/23/rethinking-aid-and-develo/index.xml
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11 Nov 2011
por
Marie Glück
IMSD /
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