During our training we had a class focusing on the potential damage that development work may result in. At first it seemed strange. How can efforts to improve people's lives possibly do more harm than good? Failed projects were understandable, but projects that actually made people's lives worse did not seem possible. The longer I stay in Mali though, the more I realize that harmful projects are not only possible, but frequent! Development often encourages villages to change traditional behaviors and do things in a western way. Such efforts ignore the unique ecology of the village and assume western techniques will excel no matter the climate, geology, biology, culture and history of the village. Changes to traditional agricultural techniques have created tremendous crop failures around the world. "Improvements" to infrastructure have devasted fragile ecosystems. New tools and machinary put excessive pressure on the environment. In my experience so far though, development work undermining a community's own capacity is the most common type of harm.
This last danger of development work is very obvious in Mali. Both at an individual and community level, Mali has lost confidence in its own ability to develop without outside help. It is a serious problem that probably originated with colonialism, and has been encouraged through tourism and poorly executed aid projects. "Donne moi l'argent," or "donne moi un cadeau" are phrases I hear everyday I am not at my village. Basically, a kid sees a white person and asks for money or presents. These kids usually don't even speak french, but they have picked up enough to know that shouting out these phrases could result in a little gift from a random white tourist or aid worker. This phenomenon is generally refered to as "Cadeau (gift) Culture".
Cadeau Culture gets even scarier when it comes to large development projects. Wells, pumps, roads, schools, etc. are often seen as gifts from the white foriegner to the helpless african. Villages tend to wait for NGO's to bring in money for projects instead of organizing themselves to improve their living standards. Even in my village I am seen by a lot of individuals simply as someone who will bring money to the village. I certainly feel pressure to appease my village and raise money or write a grant for money for an expensive project.
Development sucks sometimes because there is a lot of pressure to produce results and not only make the village happy, but make the money donors happy. The village is always more than happy to say "yes yes we need that" because any kind of gift is good in their eyes even if the gift is some sort of failed pump or building that doesn't actually improve their lives. Those who give money towards development are more weary about what a project might be doing, but of course they live thousands of miles away, so it is not very hard for a development project to build a school, do a photo shoot, and tell donors, 'check it out' your money built this. And the donors think 'I'm such a good person all these kids are gonna be happy and educated now.' Of course, the project means nothing when school supplies run out, teachers don't get paid, and eventually there is nothing more than an abondoned building. The village is ok with it though, because they appreciated the money that built the school, the NGO is happy because the pictures prove that the project saved some kids, and the Donors feel all good inside because they feel altruistic or whatever. Unfortunately, the project in reality did nothing more than tell the village that white people have money and they'll build you cool shit.
My village is a victim of this nasty trend. There are two broken pumps, and two failed wells around my village. They were all expensive projects. My first reaction to these ruins was that its too bad and maybe we can try again. But soon it became apparent that these projects not only failed, they did harm. They taught the village to wait for aid. They taught the village that their traditional source of water is an embarassment. They taught the village that their white Peace Corps volunteer is rich and will bring money and build cool shit.
My village fetches their water from year round springs. It is the lifeline of the village. Unfortunately, little has been done to develope the local springs. Few gardens exists. The water sits in open pools vulnerable to contamination. Access to the springs is somewhat dangerous. The men don't know anything about the springs since it is the women that fetch water. The women have plenty of knowledge about the springs, but have no political power. The result is a demand for wells and pumps despite repeated failures.
Its stressful for me that the village sees me as means of producing large expensive projects. I can't blame the village for being a part of the "cadeau culture." They just want water! However, I am committed to keeping my work simple and not crumbling under the pressure of giving lots of money for large projects. Development can be done right, but in my village it has not been done right, and it has really destroyed the community's confidence.
Development is often harmful.
I want to reverse this pattern in my village. I won't raise thousands of dollars for a pump or well. We will develope the local springs.
