4603.pdf
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Ona
NEW TACK
This is a booklet from SIDA
(Swedish International
Development Authority) about how
partners in development
now should be able to talk
more plainly with one another
-as methods and roles
are being re-defined.
The overall purpose of development
is to improve the lot of the poor in the developing countries of Africa,
Asia, and Latin America. There are many different ideas as to the best
approach. But most people agree that the basic principle of aid must be as
the Chinese saying has it: “give a man a fish and he will eat for a day, teach
a man to fish and he will eat for the rest of his life.”
Development assistance then, is largely a matter of supporting people
in their own struggle to improve their situation. Developing countries, in
the nature of things, lack the capacity to manage all the factors that spell
development. In a misguided attempt to improve efficiency donors have
been tempted to take over the administration of their “own” projects.
Over the years, there have been many examples of this - and SIDA has
been as guilty as anyone else.
But it has gradually become clear that the donor’s demand for effi
ciency and quick results has actually hindered long-term sustainable
development. Instead, it must be the country itself that takes responsib
ility for long-term development. So now the donor’s main role will be to
transfer knowledge and other resources - to provide the tools, but not to
do the job.
This new vision of the development process makes new demands on
development partners. In recent years we have tried to make SIDA’s
vision known, and to change our own methods to match this vision.
This booklet then, describes how we now work, and why we must
work in this way. The theme is simple: help towards self-help.
Carl Tham
SIDA’S DIRECTOR GENERAL
SlDA (Swedish
International Development Authority) was founded
Ministry of
in 1965. It is a government agency responsible to the
Foreign Affairs
.jL. he very fact that one country
gives aid to another
will always carry its discreet implication:
there is inequality between us.
To overcome this feeling, in order
to talk sensibly and feel at ease
with one another,
may be difficult at times,
for giver as well as for receiver.
The wish to establish
cooperation in development need not be
seen as one-sided: the donor country — in this case Sweden — has some
thing to gain, too.
The donor’s fundamental purpose can be described as an effort to
promote solidarity, justice and equality in the world. Ultimately, this
purpose is in line with the donor country’s own interests.
It is also true that some development projects provide international
opportunities for Swedish companies products and technologies to show
what they can do. Whether we like it or not, aid does have this dimension.
To claim that all development assistance is totally altruistic smacks of
hypocrisy. To pretend that no one ever profits on the Swedish side cannot
be taken seriously by either partner.
However, although much can be said about the mutual interests and
mutual benefits of development cooperation, today and also for some
time in the future, it is the recipient who is directly dependent. This
dependence is most obvious and painful for “them” — not for us.
To pretend that there is an equal partnership is false: one country’ gives
and the other receives. Ignoring this inequality would only produce a
strained, awkward dialogue. In the long run both parties would find such
pretense embarrassing.
As in every relationship where there is clearly a giver and a receiver — in
personal relationships as well as in relationships between governments —
the parties must strive for the right kind of approach, the right way of
tuning in to each other; or else their attempts at an unstrained and
meaningful dialogue will fail.
SIDA’s role in this dialogue has been the object of discussion for some
years now - both within SIDA and elsewhere — and it is still in a state of
gradual change.
GUSTAF ENEROTH
SI DA'S MAIN OFFICE IS IN STOCKHOLM. AND THERE ARE DEVELOPMENT ASSISTANCE
OFFICES IN 17 COUNTRIES ABOUT 550 PEOPLE ARE EMPLOYED AS ESTABLISHED CIVIL
SERVANTS. AND ABOUT 800 MORE ON CONTRACT OR ATTACHED TO PROJECTS.
-^-11 many a poor country, governments are weak
and have little popular support.
Debts may be heavy, education lacking.
What better reason for well-off countries
to act with gusto and zeal, putting things right?
Fly in the experts, use short cuts, get results.
A wave of new optimism, therefore,
could sweep the troubled country for some time.
Indeed, it often did; but only for some time.
7
Aid should produce
something of permanent value. The need for
an immediate response to some sudden catastrophe may foster the atti
tude that quick decisions and prompt actions are more important than
careful planning based on a thorough analysis of conditions in the coun
try. But for every programme and project that is to have a lasting impact,
the proper roles and division of responsibility must be considered, and the
rules of the game followed.
SIDA seeks to establish long-term relationships with its partners.
To attempt something of lasting value for the people while following
the agreed rules of the game may sometimes seem a long and hard road to
travel. This is especially true where the recipient country has such serious
internal problems that it is not really able to manage its own side of the
partnership.
In this situation donor organizations have - quite understandably —
tried to get around the problem: they have put in a lot of expertise and
resources, and they have imposed their own separate organisation.
Sometimes the result seemed to offer new hope to a village or district.
It appeared, to those on the spot, that people were to have a better life.
But so often, after just
a few years, all that
remained were bits of
rusty machines, some
overgrown wheel-tracks,
and a feeling of emptiness
and of disillusionment.
GUSTAF ENEROTH
-clour jaan >.l tocn'
10
The Swedish parliament directs SlDA s work, and activities are
FINANCED FROM TAXES
SIDA's Board includes representatives of the political parties, the unions.
ASSOCIATIONS. AS WELL AS OF SlDA STAFF
F y hen a giver comes along
with his own answers to the problems,
ready and willing to take over things,
the receiver seldom has the strength
to hold his ground, voice a doubt, or
put forward an objection.
So, it is up to the giver
to keep himself in check, asking the question:
how can we, in fact, best benefit
those people we want to reach?
Many of the countries which need help
caught in a vice: they are deeply in debt, and their dependence on aid is
great. How could such a hard-pressed country claim its right to selfdetermination, or throw off or even reduce its dependence? Where would
it find the strength to ask for more responsibility and influence over how
aid is planned?
Over the years the dilemma has grown.
Under these conditions, the governments, authorities and organisa
tions who accept aid must inevitably have come to feel that there are few
options open to them. They are hardly in a position to say no to the
donor’s ideas of how assistance should be planned and put into effect.
In some cases the simple truth must be that, both psychologically and in
fact, the recipient feels duty-bound to say thank you for whatever is
offered, and in whatever form.
When this is the case, the question of responsibility is unclear. If things
start to go wrong, who is responsible for changing direction, or putting on
the brake?
Sweden and SIDA have taken up the question of “changing roles” with
some of the countries and organisations providing continous develop
ment assistance. The point of departure has been that change is needed, or
there is a risk that aid may not produce the desired effect.
Recipient countries have been more and more involved in this dis
cussion.
A general agreement has begun to emerge:
• Both the giver and the receiver need to change their way of looking at
things in the future.
• The recipient countries must be ready and able to take their own share
of responsibility for planning and implementation.
• To make this possible, the donor country must — as one of its most
important responsibilities — contribute to the build-up of the recipient
country’s capacity and competence, as well as its institutions.
This approach will mean that the familiar image of a development
assistance “expert” may change.
The new kind of expert may well know all about power stations, or
wells, or telephone installations, or roads, but will also have another skill
from which the country can benefit: namely, how an effective orga
nisation can be built up and what makes it work.
12
Swedish development assistance has f.ve specific goals to contribute to the
RESOURCES OF THE COUNTRY TO EQUITABLE SOC'Au AND ECONOMIC GROWTH TO ECONOMIC
AND POLITICAL INDEPENDENCE TQ THE GROWTH OF DEMOCRACY. AND TO A HUSBANDING OF
RESOURCES ANO OF THE ENVIRONMENT
new role as donors will mean a change,
replace some habits with a new approach.
To put it briefly: Receivers will have a larger share
of responsibility, more say
in decisions that affect them,
as partners in that work of aid and assistance
that Sweden is prepared to undertake.
And all should be within a framework
that fits their own experience and concepts.
This view is not a sudden
new revelation, of course. From
time to time, and to a greater or lesser extent, it has always guided our
thinking about development. In theory. But when it comes to the practical
13
application, the desire to help and to save time has often taken precedence
over the longer-term question of how the recipient country can best
assimilate, maintain, and develop the values and new opportunities that
aid brings.
Basic conditions in the various developing countries are very different.
Now that roles are changing, bringing a clearer division of responsibility
between the partners and inviting a frank explicit dialogue, these differ
ences must be taken into account.
So, it is not a question of a change in development policy. It is not a rash
assumption of roles so new as to be unrecognizable. Not at all; the
destination is the same — it is just that we are on a new tack.
This new tack can have an important effect. Now, more than before, it
would seem that the experience of both partners will be openly shared - the
good as well as the bad. Now more than before, there should be a mutual
determination to systematically take this experience into account.
GUSTAF ENEROTk
14
Sweden's total appropriation for development assistance in 1991/92 was
13.800.000.000 kronor Of this, just over half was administered by SIDA
Jk^Xweden and sida now stand for a way
of looking at things
that more and more countries
seem to agree with,
based on a great deal of experience:
The time is past when donors
pushed and shoved, “it’s all for the best”,
and then left behind them a growing uncertainty
on the day they departed for home.
Richer countries should give
^0™.^
consistent with the feelings most of us share: when we notice others are in
distress, then we try to help them. This feeling is deeply rooted in our
innermost visions of humanity, in our respect for life, and for the sacred
value of a human being. In view of this, the idea of development assistance
seems timeless and obvious.
Need the realisation of this basic idea - as far as one can, to satisfy the
simple human needs of people who are in the greatest distress - be a very
complicated process?
It could be argued that as long as the resources and the will to help are
there, then development assistance is easy. Why should any very compli
cated process be necessary? Isn’t it enough just to send the food, tents and
blankets — or whatever — to where they are most needed? After all, that is
exactly what we do when there is an emergency.
15
But development assistance does not live in a vacuum. It is part of the
complicated economic, political and social relations between nations,
peoples, and parts of the world — all subject to change. The crises of the
1980s, changes in the world’s economy, the increasing burden of debt of
some countries - these have sometimes prompted a feeling of resignation,
or at least of uncertainty about the future of international aid and
development.
But now people are looking for a new course to take us out of the
doldrums - a new tack.
The Nordic countries have a great deal of experience of long-term
development partnerships with their so-called programme countries.
These efforts and undertakings have earned confidence and respect.
One sign of this is that SIDA’s efforts to establish new roles in its
dialogue with development partners — the new tack — has aroused a great
deal of interest internationally. The efforts are seen as significant: they
could influence the philosopy of development and be applicable to other
partnerships between peoples or governments.
Our efforts have been seen as interesting and promising, by both
developing and donor countries - even at this early stage. Perhaps this is a
sign that the old dilemmas of development assistance are now widely
acknowledged.
There is a wish to gather new hope and a new ambition.
Sweden has not travelled far on this new course. Any progress we have
made should be seen as something to think about, and as a big challenge.
This new tack means we fill our sails with wind, but sail into unfamiliar
waters: we must keep a sharp lookout.
The World Bank ano The International Monetary Fund iiMF) have a crucial
INFLUENCE OVER ThE FUTURE POSSIBILITIES FQR DEVELOP NG COUNTR.ES
The WORLD BANK
is a United Nations organ.sat>on which, by granting long-term loans can
STIMULATE INTERNATIONAL INVESTMENT
ITS S-STER ORGAN SAT.ON
IMF AMONG OTHER
THINGS GRANTS SHORT-TERM LOANS BUT MAKES CERTAIN STIPULATES AS TO HOW THE
ECONOMY OF The COUNTRY Shall BE MANAGED
is inevitable that we, like all others
who give credit and long term aid,
will have a set of conditions
to go along with our offerings of assistance.
Conditions are a way of sending messages
to those in power,
a pressing call for change and progress.
Still, the various demands on a troubled country
must not become such tangles of conditions
- overlapping, confusing, even contradictory that they obstruct rather than encourage.
Discussions about
how these conditions can be made meaningful,
and produce a result, reflect a dilemma. The aid givers want to get the
developing countries on their feet, but there is no ready formula for how
this can be achieved.
No model has yet shown itself to be valid and applicable everywhere.
The countries that need help all have different potentials. The countries
ready to give help have different interpretations of the situation, and
different ideas of what should be done.
So, there is a continous debate, not only between donor and recipient,
but also between the various governments, organisations, and financial
17
OUSTAF eSEROTH
institutions; in fact between everyone
who has the power and the resources
to provide assistance and to formulate
the conditions on which it will be
granted. Some general agreement as
to a way of looking at things has grad
ually emerged:
• A country needing help to get on its feetwill seldom gain lasting benefit
from aid based only on compassion, not properly thought through, and
requiring nothing of the recipient. A tendency to make no demands on the
recipient often works against the effort to encourage social and economic
growth and stability — which was the underlying motive for giving aid in
the first place.
• The recipient country should now take more responsibility for its own
development. It follows that conditions stipulated by the different donors
must not be so restricting as to virtually block any freedom of choice. This
would again underline dependence, obscure a clear view of things, and
spread a feeling of despair.
In fact, the combined demands for change have sometimes been so
great and the pace so forced, that the resultant upheaval is more than an
advanced industrialised country would be able to manage.
Instead, the conditions required of a country in a state of crisis should
be few, very clear, and - as far as possible - the same for all donors. If
international donors can agree about a way of assessing the problems and
the potentials, and about the criteria on which they will base their
judgements, much would to be gained for all concerned.
18
The World Bank and the International Monetary Fund are in the position of
BEING ABLE TO DRAW UP MOST OF THE GENERAL ECONOMIC TERMS FOR DEVELOPMENT
But they also use the.r funds and resources to support particular sectors
OR PROJECTS IN The developing countr.es
> udgements
lZ about the terms and conditions
for aid and development
are formed
among many kinds of decision makers
in concrete and glass offices, world-wide;
in Rome and in Washington
as well as in The Hague and in Melbourne.
The crucial question is ever-present:
by what ways and means can the Earth’s poorest
be given their best chance for a decent life?
Is it possible and likely, then,
that there can be agreement, across the board or that the Swedish outlook, such as it may be,
should prove compatible with the views of others?
The on-going interaction
and exchange - where Swedish ex
perience has played some part - has now reached the point where a
coordinated approach seems to be within reach.
The governments and organisations responsible have now the same
general view of the Third World and how the principle of help towards
19
self-help should be applied - at least in theory.
The Swedish contribution has not been a matter of suppressing or
denying our experience and standpoints. Rather, we have assiduously
argued to win sympathy and acceptance for them. Our views have had
some effect on other donor countries, and even on such powerful and
influential organisations as the World Bank and the International Mone
tary Fund. These have enormous influence on what can be achieved. That
our view has earned respect may be due to the fact that Sweden has been a
relatively large and very active donor over many years.
In the future then, Sweden and other donors will try to be consistent
and restrictive in asking for their own special conditions and terms. This
voluntary limitation means that it will be even more important to decide
just when and how it remains imperative that we express the Swedish
experience, the Swedish outlook. Whatever this should be, it must be
based on our field experience, on reports and evaluations of undeniable
substance. Consequently, front-line experience should carry even more
weight now than before.
Sweden will continue to apply its own independent judgement. Each
proposal for an international aid program will be examined as to how the
conditions, practical content and means of funding are likely to have
effect. Our cardinal principle is that actions should promote democracy,
and help the poor to make a better life for themselves.
An important task for Swedish development assistance in the near
future is to help countries improve their ability to make their own
analysis, their own evaluation and their own negotiating position, in the
planning that will affect their own country.
20
Part of Sweden s contribution is to programme countries
These are countries
with which Sweden has agreed long-term development assistance programmes.
The 19 countries are Gu-nea-B.ssau. Uganda Ethiop a Kenya Tanzania. Angola.
Zambia Namibia. Zimbabwe Mocamb oue Botswana Lesotho Cape Verde. India.
Bangladesh Sr> Lanka Laos V.etnam and Nicaragua
thing is most essential,
and will remain so,
in what we do for any country.
Our job is to stimulate ability, self-confidence,
an organization, a self-reliant way for people
to be getting on, improving and developing
whatever held a promise and seemed useful
- not just in our hands while we stayed on,
but longer; in their own hands, on their own terms.
Development is often seen in terms. . ,.,,™
p
- boring a well, building a power station, laying out an irrigation system or whatever. These are clear and tangible: people and machines are put to
work.
But the lack of development in a country is not only, or even most
importantly, a question of lack of physical resourses.
It is also a question of all the things that have blocked the use of such
resources as there are; not least, human resources. One of the biggest and
most difficult tasks ahead of us, when we give aid, is to try to develop the
country’s own capacity, the institutions and organisations, so that they
will be able to take over the “project”, ensure that it will continue to
function and to benefit people.
21
Imagine a Sweden with the road and rail network fully laid out and
built, but with no agency, board or company capable of maintaining and
running it. Imagine the telecommunication network complete, but with
no-one to operate it. Imagine the hydro-electric turbines humming away
but with no capacity or staff for inspection and service.
Of course this is not exactly the situation in developing countries, but it
illustrates the problems we are facing. In developing countries it is not
only the organisation and upkeep of technical structures that falls short. It
is also such elementary things as the basic necessities of life, food, medical
care, or the chance to go to school.
To a great extent, the individual has every reason to feel that he is on his
own, with no one to help him. He must either provide for himself and his
family, rely on chance, or some remote authority, or even divinity.
This situation actually hinders an
exchange between the individual
and society. In our world, develop
ment has been a result of interaction
between the individual and society.
In developing countries, this interac
tion may take its own, different
form; but it is still needed.
The conclusion? Unless the donor
can bring about an increase in the
country’s own capacity to manage
resources, even an increase in aid
might have no effect.
. uo
0 Mo 3
24
A TOTAL OF 90 COUNTR ES AROUND THE WORLD RECEIVE D'RECT
assistance from Sweden
Costa -R>ca and Chile are examples of
COUNTRIES WHERE ThE AMOUNT OF A D HAS
NCREASED OVER THE LAST FEW YEARS
Eastern European countries have received a d since 1990
giver and receiver
must take on a new responsibility.
This means taking
a closer look at things
that need to be examined and revised,
not always to the delight of everyone.
As for ourselves, we have to assume
a role that is not all pleasantries
but may require clarity, firmness;
all in good cause and for the sake
of an unfailingly pertinent dialogue.
The only way to manage
effective development assistance
is to approach our partners with sincerity and frankness.
We must try to make plain just what it is we on outside arc able to offer,
and on what conditions. We should ask that our partner on the other side
meets us in this same spirit, and is ready to apply the same hard-headed
judgements. Neither side has anything to gain from “well-meant chaos.”
Expectations on both sides must be defined and made clear.
Toadying — either on the part of the rich country because of a bad
conscience about the inequalities in the world, or from the poor country
because of a feeling of dependence — will distort the dialogue and fail to
25
produce the effect we all want.
The problems need to be brought out into the light.
Some examples:
There can be vested interests on either side. One must look out for
these. They could distort the input and reduce its impact.
Politicians and government employees could see the introduction of
new roles as being to their disadvantage, and therefore oppose them.
If we ask the recipient country for details of its budget - for example
how much it intends spending on the armed forces, or on a new govern
ment building - we may be seen as interfering.
GUSTAF ENEROTH
We want to draw more attention and direct more aid to the very poor.
We want to give them the chance of
productive work — preferably, near
where they live. To speak very can
didly: it sometimes seems that donors
are more concerned about the poor
than the government of the country.
These examples show how impor
tant it is that our signals come across
clearly. Rather than trying to please,
we should always say what we mean
as clearly as we can. It is only by doing
this that we give our partners a fair
chance to use their own experience
and criteria to interpret just what we
mean, and what our intentions are.
Sweden development ass stance is not only country-to-country. but is also
CHANNELLED ThROUGm INTERNATONAL ORGANISATIONS — MAINLY THE UN ANO VARIOUS
OTHER INTERNATIONAL ORGANISATIONS SUCH AS THOSE OF THE TRADES UNION MOVEMENT.
the Churches, and the Cooperative movement
evelopment assistance
is also subject
to fashions and trends.
Organisations and countries
can sometimes
seem to all be running in the same direction.
sida must have its ear to the ground,
be well aware of what is going on,
but not necessarily follow the herd.
The key is
to take a long-term view.
'll
GUSTAF ENEPOTH
looking into the future
can be difficult. Donors sometimes
seem to follow in each other’s footsteps, even when the input allows more
time for proper planning than does emergency assistance.
Ideas can pop up as a result of something that catches people’s atten
tion, for example in the media. At one stage perhaps, the prevailing idea
seems to be that the situation in Africa is promising, but in Asia is
hopeless. At some other time the popular belief is that the opposite is true.
Sometimes a particular type of aid gets a very bad name, while another
is seen as a model to be followed - all because a single project worked out
well or badly. What can happen is that a good idea is discarded because of
one failure - the baby thrown out with the bathwater - while the other
which seemed to work well is copied — and results in disappointment.
SIDA takes the longer view, is concerned to share responsibility, and to
develop competence in the country. In this way, the partners will be better
able to analyse and understand whether any success or failure is the result
of some detail or can be traced to the concept as such. The ideal is to
establish such a sound base of understanding that activities can be crit
ically assessed and revised, if need be, while they are still going on.
28
In Maputo The capital of Mocamb oue. wages are higher than in
Still, an average earner in Maputo
must SPEND HALF OF hiS WAGE ON ELECTRICITY AND WATER
other parts of the country
jL
JL. mutual understanding
that encourages
a clear-sighted realistic approach:
the recipient country
shall manage
the funds as part of its own national budget,
shall have the responsibility
that they are paid out
at the right place and time.
Tenders are invited, examined and evaluated
by the country’s own authorities.
Sometimes development assistance
(u„d, BO
directly to the project rather than via the national budget and the minis
tries of the receiving country. The direct route can have advantages. Time
is saved, red tape and waste can be avoided. There is less risk of the
activities coming to a halt while the ministry goes through the procedures
of budgeting and paying out.
But the short cut also has disadvantages. The flow and scale of aid may
not show up clearly in government statistics. And the central government
may feel it has been bypassed. So this short cut will scarcely encourage a
feeling of shared responsibility, of being in control, of seeing the whole
picture.
29
The short cut, by circumventing
the highest and proper authorities of
the country, has another effect: any
weaknesses and deficiencies in the
administration pass unnoticed. Yet it
is just these deficiencies that must be
brought to light and put right if the
country is to take a greater share of
GUSTAF ENEROTH
responsibility, and be more cost-conscious about aid.
SIDA’s policy is, except in exceptional circumstances or unless the
situation in the country demands otherwise, to pay the funds to the
government. They then appear as part of the national budget and are paid
out in the normal way.
The recipient country shall also take more responsibility than earlier
for purchasing — inviting companies to tender, examining and evaluating
the bids, and deciding who shall be given the job.
The progress towards a greater and more clearly defined economic
responsibility must go hand-in-hand with a general agreement of what
now constitutes SIDA’s role.
SIDA’s new role emphasises overall strategies and so increases SIDA’s
chances of doing the checking and evaluating for which it is responsible.
To follow the flow of funds to their target, to check how effectively they
are put to use, to intervene when there is any sign of mismanagement or
corruption; these will always remain our duty. We are answerable to the
people we want to reach and help, as well as to the people who are
actually doing the helping - the Swedish taxpayers.
30
Land that can be cultivated and provide a living for the people working it
IS NOW SO SCARCE
N THE DEVELOPING WORLD THAT MORE THAN TEN PERCENT OF
THE RURAL POPULATION IS WITHOUT SUCH LAND
job should nor be
to get involved in detail.
If the new roles mean
having fewer of our own people
in the country where we participate,
a great deal more may be required
of those who are actually there.
It is no longer sufficient
just to be skilled.
One must also have the special ability
to make others skilled
- ideally, to the extent
that one is no longer needed.
GUSTAF ENEAOTH
31
One of the mistakes
made in development assistance over the
years has been that the ability to put over and transfer knowledge and
skills to the people working with you has been insufficiently emphasized.
Specialists sent to the country often did a valuable job using their skills
and insights. But they did not always have the ability to introduce and
transfer those skills and insights to the people around them.
Some studies — among others by SIDA — indicate that the locally
recruited people were often given rather routine tasks to do, tasks
which did not utilise such compe
tence as they had. In future, more
emphasis will be put on the transfer
of skills. SIDA’s recruitment and
training will encourage this ability to
get skills across to others.
Experts should aim to make them
selves redundant; to put it drastical
ly, work themselves out of a job.
We are presently studying how
contracts and agreements can be de
signed to foster and reward this in
herent ambition.
-DCV- no
OU-603
Ninety five percent of the worlds industries are in what has often been called
"THE WEST”
IN FACT it WOULD BE MORE ACCURATE TQ SAY THE NORTH THE CONCEPT
NORTH/SOUTH IS NOW MORE AND MORE USED TO REFER TO THE RICHER AND THE POORER
WORLD
hat about now, at this stage of change?
Surely - you may ask a quick and obvious leap forward
in some part of the world that really needs it should
not be delayed or passed over
because of an ongoing search for new roles?
The easy answer would be: Certainly not.
A more candid answer is:
We may well run into short term disappointments,
occasionally find ourselves moving sluggishly
for reasons that are not wholly evident.
On balance, however,
new values and opportunities
are at stake,
justifying the long term view.
33
Changing rales
GUSTAF ET.EROTH
I while work is
going on under all sorts of condi
tions, and with many different
partners, cannot be less than diffi
cult. A reappraisal of our work pat
terns and past actions would prob
ably be easier if we were making a
very drastic change in our approach.
But this is not the case. Our estab
lished way of doing things has not
shown itself to be useless — far from
it.
Swedish development assistance
has been so well thought out and has
in many cases produced such posi
tive results, that there is every reason
to move with care and consideration
now, when things are changing. It is important to bear in mind that the
attitudes and methods that are gradually going to change or be replaced
have not come about by chance or without solid practical justification.
As in all human endeavor it takes time for new attitudes and working
methods to gain a footing and prove their value. For this reason, it is
particularly necessary that emergency assistance — needed at very short
notice — should be considered separately.
Emergencies just happen — they don’t wait on our convenience.
34
The population of the world increases by 90 million per year
The greatest increase is n third world countries
A- JLnxiety about the earth,
the air, the water,
the depletion of the environment
that puts all living things at risk
- that anxiety is felt
among all countries and people.
Strangely enough, it is from this very threat
and from these shared fears
that a new opportunity may emerge:
a chance that North will be talking to South
on more equal terms than ever before.
35
That there is an equal
interdependence — this has hardly ever
been the case in earlier discussions about development.
When interests are quite obviously and immediately mutual, when the
same threat may affect the whole of humanity — on whatever latitude,
under whatever constellation of stars we dwell — then people come to feel
that some actions should be taken and some sacrifices made — together.
At worse, this concern for the environment could provoke a free-for-all
which would underline and confirm the contrast between those with
power and those without, between prosperity and poverty, between
freedom of choice and dependence.
But concern for the environment can also lead us into an arena where
the North and South get used to a new relationship, with a mutual interest
in defending certain values, and where neither has any cause to feel more
secure or protected than the other.
36
TwO-THiRDS OF the POPulAT.ON of develop.ng countries
LIVE IN the COUNTRYSIDE BUT HAVE ACCESS TO ONLY ONE QUARTER OF THE SOCIAL
BENEFITS AVAILABLE TO TOWN DWELLERS — FOR EXAMPLE
EDUCAT,ON.
MEDICAL CARE. CLEAN WATER OR SAN.TATION
□the goal for development assistance
remains the same.
As before - progress will be mixed
with setbacks.
It is in the nature of such endeavours,
and those who take part understand it well.
There is always the question:
how did things work out?
There may be clues
in a government report,
or in words exchanged at a high-level meeting.
Yes, it may look fine,
there’s progress, no doubt
- but still a question remains.
That question is crucial.
It aims for the truth of a project:
How many
of the village people were involved?
37
The idea is that it should be possible „ P„.
more responsibility on the recipient country — the ministry, the orga
nisation, the people themselves.
The donor should refrain from introducing such special terms and
conditions as would proscribe this. The donor certainly does not give up
his right to his own general view of things, his right to make demands, to
specify terms. But he will be more concerned with strategy, and less with
implementation.
There will always be a gap between what we would like to achieve and
what we actually do achieve. A crucial precondition for success is that the
people we want to help become ac
tively engaged in what is going on.
All too often, inputs from the out
side world have been such that the
local people have not been consult
ed, or able to take part. Under such
circumstances, it is hardly surprising
that the result has more often been
disappointing than encouraging.
The people we are trying to reach
should take some responsibility and
an active part in the work. This
anchors the project firmly in the
community. It is then more likely to
have a life of its own, even after the
experts have gone home.
GUSTAF ENEROTH
38 I
GVSTAF Ef.EROlH
39
The overall goal for Swedish development assistance is to help
improve the living standards of the poor
-JLo change the roles between partners
in the sensitive area
of development assistance
would be pointless
if only the donor had a say in the matter.
We are able to propose such changes
out of respect for the actual situation
of receivers, as we know it.
Their response, on the other hand,
is founded on respect for a Swedish policy
of support for the poor in the world,
which has earned credibility
for what we propose.
Without this particular background
of long-standing mutual trust,
the dialogue could easily turn sour.
Then, things would remain as they were.
Production: sida’s Information Secretariat 1992
Coverpicture: Heldur Jaan Netocny
Text: LarsErik Olsson. Design: Lars Anderson, telab
The folder can be ordered from Book-siDA, S-105 25 Stockholm
Address: Birger Jarlsgatan 61
Tel 08-7285100
ISBN: 9158601066
V_>hanges in the economical, political
and environmental conditions of the
world mean that the preconditions for
development assistance, as well as the
potentials, are changing too. Within SIDA
there is an on-going discussion about
how these changes affect our work.
Sida presents its views in a series of three
booklets. The first gives the political and
economic context. The second, "On a New
Tack", explains the new roles of the part
ners, and how the recipient countries are
encouraged to take more responsibility
for their own development. The third,
"On the Right Road", gives examples of
projects which have resulted in positive
change for the people we want to reach.
SWEMSH
AUTO0R,TY
S-105 25-STOCKHOLM
Birger Jarlsgatan 61
Telephone: 08-7285100
Position: 4700 (1 views)