Fuzzy Signals

Getting beyond paternalism in development

Paul Theroux, the famous travel writer and former Peace Corp worker in Malawi, weighs in on the pathologies of aid and development in Africa. ("The Rock Star's Burden", The New York Times, Dec 15, 2005).

Theroux criticizes Bono and other rock stars for a simplistic approach to solving Africa's problems, like encouraging more debt relief and more aid. While Bono has probably done some good in raising these issues, throwing more money at Africa's problems will likely make things worse. As Theroux puts it:

When Malawi's minister of education was accused of stealing millions of dollars from the education budget in 2000, and the Zambian president was charged with stealing from the treasury, and Nigeria squandered its oil wealth, what happened? The simplifiers of Africa's problems kept calling for debt relief and more aid... Donors enable embezzlement by turning a blind eye to bad governance, rigged elections and the deeper reasons these countries are failing. (My emphasis.)

Interestingly, Theroux draws a parallel between Malawi and Ireland. "Both countries were characterized for centuries by famine, religious strife, infighting, unruly families, hubristic clan chiefs, malnutrition, failed crops, ancient orthodoxies, dental problems and fickle weather." Of course, Ireland is now the poster child for prosperity, an outcome few people could have imagined given its hapless history. The suggestion is that countries and communities in Africa can make similar turnarounds. Things aren't as hopeless as they seem:

Africa is a lovely place - much lovelier, more peaceful and more resilient and, if not prosperous, innately more self-sufficient than it is usually portrayed. But because Africa seems unfinished and so different from the rest of the world, a landscape on which a person can sketch a new personality, it attracts mythomaniacs, people who wish to convince the world of their worth.

In other words, very often our stance vis-a-vis Africa -- and many "save the world" projects -- says way more about our psychological needs than the needs of the places we are trying to help. This is not to diminish the importance or impulse to make a difference. But we should do so with humility and a healthy level of self-awareness about our own motivations, especially how these might drive our actions and perceptions about the solutions. We also need to be better skilled at surfacing some of the out-dated assumptions in our development approaches, many of which are hard to see, so embedded they are in our institutional arrangements and cultural outlooks.

At the end of the day, I believe we should invest in bolstering human dignity in many different ways, and this will deliver "increasing returns" in terms of social and economic benefits (to use the complexity scientist, Brian Arthur's phrase.) Focusing on dignity is a solution-set that's so simple yet also so complex in practice given how development and aid is delivered today. As Theroux concludes:

Africa has no real shortage of capable people - or even of money. The patronizing attention of donors has done violence to Africa's belief in itself, but even in the absence of responsible leadership, Africans themselves have proven how resilient they can be - something they never get credit for.

Amen to that.