Today, I am sharing Part II of my thoughts on why I think we do what we do in international development. If you haven’t read Part I, do check it out here. Today we talk about having a mind for the poor and what makes up knowledge.
Post Map
THE SECOND REASON IS WHAT I HAVE FRAMED AS ‘THE APPROACH’
The case for revising the way we do things is a tad bit hard because the people in international development are those that care for the poor. Before the rigidities of organizational processes and the distorted business of doing development took over their conscience, they were the more selfless and altruistic ones, I think. But, what I think we need to question is the attitude of simply having a heart for the poor. Feeling for someone is good, and has been helpful for donations and sticking band-aids over cracks in the system. What is even better is adding a mind for the poor. Applying our minds to address the root causes of what is hurting our communities.
Take aid, for instance. William Easterly in ‘The Cartel of Good Intentions’ had this to say about foreign aid:
What the above shows is that it is tough work. Simply feeling bad about somebody’s circumstances cannot get us over the stumbling blocks to helping people. It requires more. Trying to understand where the kinks in a system are, where existing capacity and capabilities may be stalling, how to change the incentives of certain players, and how to do things better is not a heart matter; it’s a mind matter. Having a mind for the poor is different from having a heart for the poor. Until we make that distinction and act accordingly, we may continue doing more harm than good.
That reminds me…
If you have Netflix, watch this documentary!! It is not without fault but it is a good one. It changed a lot for me.
The international development space is led by Western actors. If there is anything the current state of affairs should teach us, it’s that the West doesn’t always know better, and they don’t always do better either. They have demonstrated on several occasions how challenging and seemingly impossible it is to create improved living standards for all. Not even in their backyards. Can we trust that they can, without involving us, serve the best intentions of our people?
THIRD, KNOWLEDGE AND ITS USE IN UNDERSTANDING DEVELOPMENT
The issue around knowledge production, dissemination, and use is one I always find intriguing.
Humor me here.
Major research publications put submissions through vetting and editorial processes, as they should. However, as many researchers have complained, and we can all tell by what pieces – and by whom – get published in mainstream top publications, there is a lot to be questioned about what consume as knowledge. The dearth of African scholarship – coming straight from the continent and not African-named professors living elsewhere – is yawning. Might it be that something prevents African scholarship from making it into the more popular journals?
If it does, what does that mean for the resources we look to for academic knowledge, for instance? I remember these four questions one of my professors posed around this issue that got me really thinking.
- How do you yourself ‘valorize’ different research materials (prestige of journal, gender/seniority/geographic background of researcher, methodological choices, quality of ‘theoretical framework’, etc) when you read?
- How do ideas travel and gain influence within international development?
- What is the relationship between transnational research agendas and global economic competition?
- What kind of education and knowledge systems should African societies be prioritizing and funding if they want to structurally transform their economies and have a transformative social agenda, and what barriers do they face?
Interesting much?
It’s what I started to call ‘the epistemic battle of knowledge production.’ Honestly, I wonder if I heard those exact words put together, or if I truly made them up, I am not sure. What I have resolved is that it is a mishmash of ‘knowledge production’ which my professor may have repeated 78 times during that hour and a half lecture, and Thandika Mkandawire’s repeated mention of ‘epistemic communities’ in his 2014 piece on ‘The Spread of Economic Doctrines and Policymaking in Postcolonial Africa‘.
Anyway, the point is that we should be more attentive to who has the power to shape, and determine, what we call knowledge, and how credible that is.
Is the knowledge we receive encompassing differing world views? Is it wholesome? And can our knowledge sources be fully relied on as objectively factual? I do not know but I think about these things a lot.
Concluding thoughts on why we do things the way we in international development
Maliha Chishti gives a lot to think about when she says “The reason why we cannot help vulnerable communities in the world is because our interventions are more about us, a celebration of who we are and who we think we are. When the West engages with other societies, especially non-Western ones, it’s trying to find a glimpse of itself in them. It’s looking for Western values, ideals, and principles and when it can’t find them, it sets up an aid relationship that has very little to do with helping others and more to do with discipline them, reforming them, making them become like us.”
I dont have much else to add there.
Today is a little bit of taking you on a journey through my mind, and I hope you get a glimpse of what is going on there. Next week, in the final piece, I will talk about ‘what then?’ and how all these different factors play together to shape the do-good industry. Until then, share your thoughts below, and please share this with others. 😊
Noelle Wonders
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[…] welcome! To get a better sense of where this conversation is coming from, please read Part I and Part II first. I promise it’s a good sequel. Basically, we are questioning the narrative around why we do […]
And thaaaaat is where the problem is! It has always made me so angry. Development has always been seen as an untouchable industry because it “aims” to help the poor. But it’s never just that. I hate to say it but the poor more often than not become a co-opted bargaining tool that the West then uses to shape non-western states. When Uganda signed the “Anti-Gay Bill” the FIRST thing Obama attacked was… Aid. (Not saying the bill is good, but notice the political response). When the West wanted Africa to democratise how did they reward states? Through Aid. Boris… Read more »
You make really good points Kenni, FOR REAL. I feel like I can live with what their real goals are, we just don’t need it hidden behind “doing good”. Let’s be upfront and know where we all stand. They think there pulling a fast one but in more cases than not, on the receiving side, we pulling the same kind of move. Yes come and help us but the money doesn’t even trickle…at all it seems. This whole DFID thing is very much “let’s be clear” and it’s terrifying but, it’s also like “oh ok, I see how it is.… Read more »
I remember listening to development economics prof at a seminar discussing some of these issues pertaining to Ghana and people nodding and clapping.I was thinking to myself “lies!” the entire time.
It was just weird that they would look to someone who hadn’t even visited the continent for advice on the continent rather than academics from the continent.
sad.
Have a lot to say on african academics but i might be going off topic here lol
It’s so interesting. Those that make it even more laughable are the ones that come for three months and suddenly know all there is. What a world!
Can’t wait for part 3 Noelle, because I was asking myself ‘what then? ‘the entire article. How do we empower people with the true knowledge of the places they’re trying to help without that western influence that we still clearly need. Is the what then question about striking that balance.?
Balance, that’s not a word I thought about but definitely would be quite useful. I don’t know if what may be useful is a balance in the sense of equal but some balance for sure. Oh I like the word and how I can play with it. We gon cooook!
Thanks for checking in K.