Date: 2024-04-28 Page is: DBtxt003.php L0913-TVM-MMW-000024
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TrueValueMetrics ... Peter Burgess Manuscript
Making Management Work for Relief and Development |
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Chapter 24
Issues that Constrain |
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Understanding Constraints
What a mess ... there are reasons It is not enough to do one thing right, when all that happens is that some other constraint makes the effort worthless. There are all sorts of constraints, and success requires that activities that are worth doing also avoid the constraining issues. The are many issues that constrain including. Over three hundred different issues that impact performance have been identified in a separate publication “Hundreds of Issues that Impact Relief and Development Performance”. Obviously, some of the issues are more important than others, but overall it is pretty clear that addressing just one issue is not going to make much of a difference. A few of the big issues are described in more detail in the following chapters. Trust Lack of trust means that it is very difficult for any major economic or financial transaction to go forward efficiently. We ought to be at a point in time where trust can be managed to everyone's benefit, but instead it is a constraint ... and described in more detail in a subsequent chapter. Security, violence, terrorism The whole are of security and violence and terrorism is a great failure of modern global society ... and described in more detail in a subsequent chapter. . The migration problem Migration has been a fact of history, but now increasingly constrained at the same time that it is physically easier, and arguable to great benefit than ever ... and described in more detail in a subsequent chapter. Drugs, sex, ... making money If we really believe in a global market economy, then drugs and sex would be traded in the economic market place and there would be a market driven equilibrium ... but that is not what is going on. Instead there is legalized scarcity, and illegal super-high profits that encourage production ... and described in more detail in a subsequent chapter. . What else? What Children Are Learning I was asked at one point what was the most dangerous thing on the planet. The question was posed by a professor at a college in Africa. He taught the equivalent of global studies, and I believe he expected me to talk about nuclear proliferation and the nuclear standoff between the USA and the Soviet Union. My considered reply was that what we are teaching our children is the most dangerous thing on the planet. I had recently been working in Kuwait, where I had learned a little about what young children in the schools were being taught about Israel and the world's religions. More than anything else the children were being taught to hate others. And in my work in different parts of Africa I had learned something about how children were learning about how the “whites” were responsible for the failed African economy ... albeit independence now almost two generations removed. Overall, it was hate and blame for others that was driving the education, rather than building a world of students that are learning to live together, and to work together and to prosper together. And reflecting more, it is obvious that children in the “north” are also being badly informed about the real world that they will have to live in. Productivity In a world where people make their own decisions, why would anyone buy anything that is not as good and as cheap as it can be? And in a world of this sort, what about production in the “south”. So much of the “south” cannot produce good and cheap, and is bound to be marginalized and fail in the global economy. But some things needed in the “south” do not need to be of international quality ... they can be cheap ... and then affordable and valuable for their communities. As time goes on improved infrastructure, and then improved education and training, and then investment in improved productivity will produce results ... but it will take time. And the process will be never happen if there is huge value destruction caused by high cost infrastructure and high cost financing on top of a poor and unproductive economy. Scale The scale of relief and development initiatives needs to be right. Sometimes this is big, but mainly it is small. The “north” does not work well with small because the profit is not enough ... but the “south” does not work well with big, because it is usually out of scale with the economy and the stage of development. The issue needs to be addressed so that financing from the “north” is done at optimum (large) scale, and implementation in the “south” is done at optimum (small) scale. |
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