More voices against "Hurray for my thingy" December 12, 2010
The "Hurray for my thingy" syndrome - regarding ICTD research - was raised in the pre-conference focus paper for ICTD2010 and mentioned here ICTD2010 - Research needs from a developing world perspective http://dadamac.posterous.com/ictd2010-research-needs-from-a-developing-wor
I have come across a couple of related lively discussions elsewhere:
David Weeks has been writing about "Aid as a conversation between cultures"
As he explained - A few days ago, I posted this statement on twitter: “In my ideal world, aid is a conversation between cultures, on the subject of human development in both cultures.” A few of my fellow twitterers picked up on this idea... @debelzie suggested this required a bit more depth than was allowed for in 160 characters. Hence this page: "Aid as a conversation between cultures"
Ida Horner writes compellingly about outsiders failure to listen at http://www.africaontheblog.com/the-ethics-of-designing-development-programmes/
You can read the post there. It is also generating some good discussion. In response to one comment she replies
"Listening is indeed an important part of designing programmes and this comes through story telling, but because the folk on the ground don't ever get a say their voices are left. I heard a woman in Masindi say last Saturday- " we see these people turn up in our village and say you must do this or the other but they never stop to ask us/find out how practical what they are proposing is" and there you have it lout and clear. I will be writing up my findings in a separate article"
I have joined in a few times (see below) - do come and join in as well.
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Given your rammed earth story, this one may interest you about technology transfer and an ecodome
http://www.dadamac.net/project...
Ref:
“In my ideal world, aid is a conversation between cultures, on the subject of human development in both cultures.”
I am so pleased to read that and to find people agreeing with you.
John Dada and I set up Dadamac http://www.dadamac.net/home
because we saw a need for easier and more effective collaboration between "outsiders" and the grass-roots. I wrote this post about it : Dadamac - the Internet-enabled alternative to top-down development http://dadamac.posterous.com/d...
We have weekly UK-Nigeria online team meetings, and we can arrange similar links for other people who genuinely value two-way conversations and equal-respect, learning-from-each other collaboration.
One of the roles of Dadamac is to be a cultural mediator, assisting cross-cultural collaboration and helping to minimise areas of cross-cultural confusion.
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@karapecknold prepared this graphic comment, which was shared on "Aid as a conversation between cultures"
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ref the graphic - the dadamac logo holds a similar message - communication flow - equally in both directions - back and forth - round and round - not top down.
the dadamac name comes from our two surnames - "dada" from john dada in nigeria - http://www.dadamac.net/about/j...
and "mac" - from pamela mclean in UK - http://www.dadamac.net/about/p...
the top down problem is also raised in the pre-conference focus paper for ICTD2010 - http://dadamac.posterous.com/i...
the long title for the paper is "Moving towards ICTD2010 in dialogue: Creating a reflective space beyond the Great Divides in the ICTD community " and it is written from an academic viewpoint - but some is for the general reader - i particularly appreciated the section on "hurray for my thingy".
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Hi Ida.
This is a great post. As someone from the "developed world" I am repeatedly ashamed and embarrassed by the top down ignorance and arrogance of some things that I read by people "in my culture" who are ready to advise and intervene in situations of which then know nothing.
I am hopeful that people are beginning to be more aware of this - as evidenced in the pre-conference paper for ICTD2010 which I showed to my friends in Nigeria - Research needs from a developing world perspective http://dadamac.posterous.com/i...
As you point out, "development interventions" are often done as clumsily for home consumption as they are elsewhere, so I suppose that it shouldn't come as any surprise when the approach is top down.
I hope it is just ignorance and not cynical self-interest. Tim Unwin raises some interesting points on the thinking behind development in an unpublished paper Africa is indeed rich http://dadamac.posterous.com/t...
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It is encouraging to see more people debating the issue of top-down interventions and the need for change - the big questions of course is - who are the people who will walk the talk and engage in two-way communication and genuine listening.
Posted to Dadamac's Posterous by Pamela McLean
Replies - You can respond publicly by posting a comment on Dadamac's posterous or respond privately by emailing me .
Email - pamela.mclean@dadamac.net
Twitter - @Pamela_McLean and #dadamac
Dadamac - Integrating Education and Development in Africa and Online