Development in the Field

Sarah Lewis, B.A. Economics. September 24, 2010 for INDEV University of Waterloo

After surviving the travel to your destination, organizing accommodations, testing the local cuisine and meeting a few people, it is your

first day at work.

Why are you here?

One thing is certain, your understanding of the world is about to change

Reasons for being in Ghana (2007)

• To be a catalyst for human development• To experience a new culture• To learn how to best contribute to human development

throughout my career

Presentation Outline• Introduction

• Living and learning

• Field work

• Conclusions

Traditional ceremony at home in Tongo, UER

Geography of my Experience

Kitchener-Waterloo OntarioUniversity of Waterloo Undergraduate Studies

Nipigon, Ontario CanadaEconomic Development Officer

Cameroon, Central Africa PHAST Water and Sanitation

Ghana, West AfricaAgriculture As A Business

Living and Working in the Developing World

• Your profile as a foreigner impacts community trust & learning– Where you live– How you dress– How you act

• Use common sense– Culture shock– Water & sanitation– Personal safety– Traffic– Health care– Reverse culture shock

Enjoy yourself!

Charity in the courtyard in Tongo, UER Ghana

Accelerated Learning

Information is found in the people• Active listening, Careful questioning, • Experiential learning, transect walk, mapping• Crosschecking for accuracy

“the important information is likely to be that which one does not know that one does not know.”

– Eric Dudley (1993)

Village Stay: Experiencial Learning

Stirring Tuo Zafi with Justa’s family

Mapping – Nipigon example

We map what we think is significant. For example, this map centers around roadways, work and home sites. In a mapping exercise, a group develops a map collaboratively and identify sites that are significant to the community.

Field Work... Excited?!

“The successful field worker who is capable of stimulating and supporting well-rounded, community-based integrated rural development has to be a kind of renaissance generalist.

Over stretched and under-resourced, the field worker must juggle the issues and strike pragmatic compromises between policies which tend to come to the field in the form of contradictory messages. “

- Eric Dudley, The Critical Villager

Cameroon: Water and Sanitation• Partner: Engineers Without Borders Canada (EWB) and Projet intégré

pour la promotion de l'auto-développement (PIPAD) a local organisation in Cameroon 2004

• Objective: Reduction of waterborne disease, improved sanitation conditions, construction and community management of latrines

• Funding: Association of Italian Churches, Medical donations from Italy, Engineers Without Borders, CIDA, FAO

• Activities: Participatory Health and Sanitation Transformation (PHAST) program implementation, Project planning and fundraising workshops for community leaders, Evaluation of latrine building project

• Results: Partnership terminated

Participatory Hygiene and Sanitation Transformation (PHAST) Approach

Behaviour change to improve health and reduce waterborne disease

PHAST ApproachDeveloped by the World Health Organization, for more info, follow the link: World Health Organization_PHAST

Participatory Health and Sanitation Transformation has three main objectives:• The promotion of improved hygiene behaviour.• The promotion of improvements in sanitation.• Community management of water and sanitation facilities.

It does this by:• Demonstrating the relationship between sanitation and health status.• Increasing the self esteem of community members.• Empowering the community to plan environmental improvements and to own and

operate water and sanitation facilities.

Project Challenges

• Organizational management in PIPAD & continuity between EWB volunteers

• Politics of latrine location and access• Identifying barriers to hygiene/sanitation• Germ theory of disease

Ghana: Agricultural Development• Partner: EWB Canada and the Ghanaian Ministry of Food and

Agriculture 2007-2008

• Objective: Food security, Dissemination of technology, Disaster relief

• Project: Agriculture as a Business

• Activities: Development of the Agriculture As a Business program with farmer groups and AEAs, Evaluation of profitability of small scale vegetable farmers, Drought and flood impact report

• Results: (EWB report)

Moving to a new equilibrium state

• Developed the Agriculture as a Business Program• If the stages of farming development are like

snakes and ladders... • We create ladders

Majority Subsistence Farming

Mixed Subsistence and Commercial

Small Scale Commercial Farming

Engineers Without Borders Annual Report 2009

Project Challenges

• Competing demands on the Ministry of Food and Agriculture as an implementing agency

• Identifying barriers to agricultural development• History of financial

incentives from past donors

Field Work: Who is Poor?

Expenses Rank Income Rank

Gifts / Local Taxes Subsistence farming

Land costs (fees & prep) Sale of surplus crops

Farming inputs Services

Labour Trading

Supplementary Food Foraging

Debt Remittances from family

Remittances to family Sale of assets (ie goat)Medical expenses

School fees

“I know that a family is poor when I see the boy carrying a goat to the market to sell every week in the dry season when the prices are low. It

means that they are selling stock for food in desperation.”

Introduction to a Household’s balance sheet

Field WorkWho are “target beneficiaries”?

Women Community groups Children

Poor people

Rural farmers

Business owners

Do we know how to identify these groups, what their interests are, and what approach will be understandable?

Field WorkCompeting to implement development

• International institutions• Foreign governments• National & local government• International charities• International development org.• Local not for profit org.• ... field workers

How change may not happen

Intended Beneficiary

Interest

Development Worker

Objective

Development Worker

Objectives

Intended Beneficiary

Interest

Right : When our work is not aligned with the interest of the intended beneficiary, the project outputs/targets may be “achieved”, ie. Goats were distributed in a ‘goat giving program’, but the situation has not actually shifted to a more positive state

Left: When our work is aligned with the interest of the intended beneficiary, the achievement of the project objectives will more likely have lead to a positive change

Development workers aim to create positive change, to move from to

After living and working in the developing world for 8 months, it is your first day back in Canada.

What has been achieved?

Did you have fun?