This week in development - There you go!

This, pretty much, is development in a nutshell. The narrative (below), written and illustrated by Oren Ginzberg, is better told with corresponding illustrations. The (sad) humor of it can be appreciated regardless whether or not you're one of the "development practitioners." Enjoy.

Our original goal was the same as the usual - to bring them sustainable development. However, in this specific case, we encountered an unexpected challenge (as if it isn't so in any other case). It turned out that these people, in their own kind of way, were already sustainable. So all we could really bring them was Development (without really being able to define what development meant in the first place).

We started Participatory Community Development, but they didn't fully (really want to) participate.

We tried income-generating activities... but some people seem satisfied with less than a dollar a day.

We even tried to empower them... but their reaction was more powerful than expected.

So we opted for Multi-Stakeholder Cross-Disciplinary Integrated approach.

We developed innovative Private Sector Partnerships.

We developed vocational skills adapted to a shifting economy.

We developed tough conservation measures to protect the environment from further harm.

And we developed ambitious Social Safety Nets - for those unable to take care of themselves.

This has been a challenging process with many lessons learned. We certainly look forward to applying them elsewhere in the very near future.

But for now, let us just say,
Welcome to the Global Village.

Now you know what is being vigorously taught to me at Brandeis.

The text and illustrations by Oren Ginzberg (2006), published by and courtesy of Survival International.