Communities ... Where People Live
People live in communities
People live in communities. If the community is working, being
successful and progressing, then people are going to be progressing
as well. The community appears to be the best place to put the main
focus for development.
The idea of community being the center of anything has all but
disappeared in the analysis of the modern economy. Everything but
community seems to be of importance ... national politics ... national
economics ... national security ... the global organization ... all sorts of
macro-information ... but nothing much about the community.
Community focused development is probably the best modality to
facilitate development. It is more practical than a single person. A
community has a scale that is perhaps optimum for progress.
Resources that are available can be used in the best possible way.
Local people often know what they need, but don’t have all the
resources to do what needs to be done. It is up to the community to
lead development and use outside support to facilitate its priority
works.
Community is for ever
People live somewhere. That somewhere is the community. The place where
one lives, where one has been born, where the ancestors are buried has a unique
character in human history. While it is not anymore in the forefront of thinking
in the “north” it is still very important in the “south”.
One of the questions asked in accounting exams is to identify the
reasons for adopting the corporate form of organization. One of the
reasons is that the corporation has perpetual existence. But it is not as
permanent as a geographic community.
Maps that are hundreds of years old, in fact thousands of years old make
reference to the same communities that exist today. And historians ask what it is
that has changed over the years. My home town in the UK is a good example.
When I was growing up it had a population of around 4,000 ... 50 years before it
had had a population of around 3,800 ... and 900 years before the community
was written up in the Domesday Book compiled by William the Conqueror
shortly after 1066. Places really do have a continuity that can be used to track
progress.
And if we apply the same thinking to places in Iraq we go back to Biblical times.
Each and every community has a past, and this can be used to support a positive
future.
Paying Attention to the Past
At one time I worked with Winston Prattley, one of the elder statesmen of UNDP.
He recounted that he had been a junior officer in Iraq in the 1950s working on an
FAO/UNDP irrigation project. During this work they discovered some
archaeological remains, and suspended the project so that the archaeologists could
study what had been found. It turned out to be the remains of an ancient irrigation project ... that apparently had fallen into disuse because of salinity some several thousand years before.
What goes around ... comes around. Salinity remains a problem with irrigation in the present day.
Community Centric Planning
Planning with a community focus
A community focus results in a very different dynamic for
development than what has prevailed in the past. When planning is
community centric, the priorities are much more likely to be of socioeconomic value to the community. Plans that originate in the
community have the possibility of “ownership” by the community,
and there is a strong correlation between what is priority and what is
done. Plans with community focus can be simple and understandable,
and at the same time can be totally suitable for the community. Small
is efficient and allows for the optimization of plans within a
community without the compromise inherent in super-scale projects
intended to satisfy everyone, and ending up satisfying no-one.
Gosplan does not work
Central planning ... Gosplan, as it was known in the Soviet Union ...
is a system that makes decisions and allocates resources based on
what the government thinks. A community focus for planning puts
the community first, and it is the community that drives the allocation
of resources and the priorities for socio-economic development.
In Iraq since the fall of Baghdad, most relief and development resources have
been sourced and controlled within government ... and mainly the within the US
government and its military. All the planning is essentially at a high level with
little input from the communities where people live.
Community goal - quality of life
Quality of life is something that is determined as much as anything by what
goes on in our own community. What goes on at any distance from my
community may be interesting, and may have an indirect impact, but is nowhere
near as important as what goes on in my community.
And within the community, my family is the most important. To the
extent that people are interested in far away places, it is often because
a family member is there.
What is quality of life is very subjective ... it is what an individual
and the family wants.
Components of community planning
The components of community centric planning are the same as for
any other planning. That is: (1) Get facts; (2) Analyze and optimize;
(3) Organize; (4) Implement; (5) Measure; (6) Feedback; and, (7)
Analyze and adjust.
People in the community may not be well educated or academic. Most
will not speak an international language. Some who know the most
may not be literate, but that does not mean they do not know their
community. In practical terms, they will know a lot more about the
facts of their community than outsiders. They may have plans to make
things better but not the resources, and they may have a rather limited
appreciation of what is truly possible.
By making community the focal point of development, organizations in the
community can benefit from assistance in ways that translate into tangible help
for people and value adding for the community.
Importance of trust
Nothing works very well unless there is of trust. Trust is about knowing people
and respecting people. It is an ethical or moral concept more than it is a legal
construct. Trust facilitates progress in a very important way.
Most poor, small or remote communities do not have an incorporated
structure and any global visibility that is “trustable” by the “north” ...
and in due time this has to be addressed. But a lot can be done when
trust is established with a community, initially on a personal level,
and then on a bigger level.
Though it may not be possible to get major external funding
assistance into a community without a formal legal structure of
“trust”, a lot can be done with a combination of information,
organization and personal relationships.
Good place to optimize performance
I have always enjoyed visiting new places. Within a very short time it
is possible to get an impression of what sort of a place it is. This is a
function of geography, of people, of history, of culture ... it is a big
mix, and almost every place has a different feel to it. This seems to
suggest that “progress” is going to be optimized by different
approaches and priorities in different places. It suggests that a
universal standard “silver bullet” approach is never going to work,
and it also suggests that this is a good place to do performance and
progress measurements.
The community has many benefits that make it an ideal entity for
planning and tracking development progress. Every community has a
unique combination of resources and potentials and constraints. Each
community has reached a unique place in the process of development
and has a certain unique standard of living and social structure. A
community can benefit the most when the planning and development
actions are optimized for the specific community and its unique
conditions.
And we also know that there is some corporate operating information in remote
communities in the “south” that is better not easily accessible to the general
public and those who want to monitor and assist in community progress.
So while community information should be easy ... it is not as easy as
all that.
Multi-Sector in the Community
Linkages ... chaotic multi-sector dynamics
There are more or less important linkages between people,
communities, organizations, projects, sectors and functions.
By moving from donor centric development to community centric
development, the performance of the relief and development sector
can be improved substantially. A community centric development
focus is a better way to approach development. It puts community
needs as the priority and power into the hands of local people.
In a community there are usually a number of different sectors at
various stages of development. Some sectors have potential, others do
not. Some sectors are needed to support other sectors ... development
of one sector is a prerequisite to success in another sector. It is not
rocket science, but simply advanced common sense. Planning should
take into consideration the considerable interplay and linkages
between the sectors. A key sector that is non-performing can be a
severe constraint on the overall success of the community.
Success with a multi-sector focus
Most community development “projects” do not have much
thoughtfulness about how best to use scarce resources. I have helped
evaluate hundreds of projects, and almost all of then failed because
they were limited to a single sector, and though well designed with
respect to the sector, ignored the realities of failure in the other
sectors.
One great success was an FAO fisheries community development
project in Shenge, Sierra Leone. It was multi-sector and implemented
with continuous performance improvement for the community. It
would have created an amazing level of durable value for the
community if the country itself had been sustainable. This project
took resources and made the best possible use of them. It was
wonderfully successful ... so much so that the two expatriate CTOs
were honored with chieftaincies by the local community. This project
worked on the basis of doing what is best for the community ... using
scarce resources in the best possible way, and the results were
remarkable.
The FAO Project in Shenge, Sierra Leone
I had the good fortune to do the evaluation of a wonderful FAO project in
Shenge, Sierre Leone some years ago (around 1989 I think). This project used
its rather limited resources and created community benefit that was perhaps
as much as 100 times more than was anticipated for the project. How was this
achieved? Two very competent Chief Technical Officers (CTOs) controlled
the money and used it to do what would deliver a lot of value in the
community ... and people paid for it. Economics 101 says, if I remember well,
that price is determined by supply and demand. If you offer something that
has a good value, people will pay for it, if they possibly can. So everything
done by the project had a price, and to the extent that it was valuable people
paid for it.
The project had a valuable inventory of spare parts for fishing boats and
outboard motors, and fishing gear. These were not given away, but sold at the
local market prices with the money flowing back into the project. The project
bought more inventory, and expanded to have a fuel store with a substantial
inventory. The fisherfolk went fishing much more rather than having to spend
valuable time hunting for fuel, gear and spare parts. The project trained a
mechanic to fix outboard motors, and in turn this mechanic started to train
other young men to be mechanics. His salary was paid for by small fees paid
by the students, and all of them (teacher and students) made money being
paid to service the outboard motors in the community.
The same dynamic took place in the fish smoking area. The project was
meant to teach six local women about fish smoking, but an initial six had
expanded into a group of 60 who were learning new skills and applying them
in the market, and prospering. More fish were being caught. More fish were
being processed for the market. The community was on its way.
But the community needed to expand its horizon. The road was impassable in
the wet season, and the government was not maintaining the road. The
government had a road crew in the area, but not paid all the time and never
with any material for repairs. Courtesy of the project resources, some modest
amount of gravel and cement was obtained, culverts were installed and the
road was made functional. The fisherfolk and traders later paid back the
project.
What else could the project do? The IDA school built some years before and
idle for years because of government budget constraints had great facilities,
but no operating funds. The project started to run evening courses at the
school using the facilities including electric generators, carpentry and metal
working shops, sewing equipment, etc. with people in the village learning and
earning at the same time, and the project being paid so that the project could
pay ... and never have to stop.
Sectors
There are many sectors involved in a successful community
development, these include the public and the private sectors, the
formal and the informal sectors, the production, infrastructure, service
and social sectors, governance and so on. In the production sector
there are, inter alia: agriculture, manufacturing, construction and
more. In the infrastructure sector there are roads, seaports, telecom,
airports, water, etc.. In the services sector there is banking, transport,
trade, religion, tourism and more. In the social sector there is
education and health.
Sectors are a somewhat artificial construct, but they do serve to help
organize thinking and the specialized expertise needed in that area of
socio-economic activity.
Much more information about sectors is set out later in the book.
Linkages and community
The importance of linkages between the various sectors was recognized in the
earlier work. But what was not taken enough into consideration was the
importance of value chain. There are more or less important linkages between
people, communities, organizations, projects, sectors and functions ... but they
remain theoretical constructs until there is an understanding of the value chain,
and structures that can take advantage of the value chain.
It is said that “All politics is local” and I like to say the “All life is local”. Quality
of life is something that is determined as much as anything by what goes on in
our own community. What goes on at any distance from my community may be
interesting, and may have an indirect impact, but is nowhere as near as
important as what goes on in my community.
And within my community, my family is far and away the most
important. To the extent that people are interested in far away places,
it is often because a family member is there.
Functions
Within a community, an organization and a sector there are a number of
common functions. Functions are the activities that are needed in a community,
organization or sector that have common characteristics. Accounting for
example is a function that exists in communities, organizations and sectors.
Marketing is a function. Transport is a function, as well as being a sector. Thus,
an ambulance is part of the transport function in the health sector. The success
of relief and development and socio-economic progress depends on how all of
this comes together.
Within a community, an organization and a sector there are a number of
common functions. Functions are the activities that are needed in a community,
organization or sector that have common characteristics. Accounting for
example is a function that exists in communities, organizations and sectors.
Marketing is a function. Transport is a function, as well as being a sector. Thus,
an ambulance is part of the transport function in the health sector. The success
of relief and development and socio-economic progress depends on how all of
this comes together.
The Idea of Community Information
Community information ... meta-data
It is vital to get to know a lot more about communities. In order to be
of value, however, these data need to be compiled in a useful way that
can be used for meaningful analysis. Data are most valuable when
they can be used in some form of numerical analysis. Information that
comes from accounting systems is denominated in money terms, and
this is the conventional way of getting both financial and economic
information.
In order to be supportive of community activities, information about local
community and country organizations needs to be valid ... accurate and
meaningful. But information also needs to be accessible, and current.
Modern technology allows community information to be updated
easily, and can have considerable depth. It can document what is
happening today in the community, and how the community can do
better?
Good information starts to give answers that make sense, and can be
the basis for some sustainable progress. Up to now remote rural
communities that are also poor do not have access to much
information, but perhaps more important, planners at the top of the
pyramid rarely plan in ways that will get desirable socio-economic
development at the bottom of the pyramid.
Metrics of community progress
The community is a good place to see socio-economic progress ... or
regression. It is very obvious what is happening, and how it is
happening. Sometimes it is less obvious why it is happening. The
community is where the measurement of relief and development
progress should be taking place, and where incremental resources
should being used. The metrics of community progress can be quite
simple ... or very detailed and complicated.
Accounting gives a simple construct for measuring progress. If the
corporate idea of balance sheet is applied to a community, then the
change in the balance sheet is is a measure of progress.
If the resources and situation in a community are documented at a
point in time, and then the same documentation is done a some time
later, for example the beginning and the end of a year, then the
difference shows what has happened over this time.
There is “progress” if a year later the same set of information shows
there has been an “improvement”. There is regression if the
information shows that there has been a “deterioration”.
What is a Profit?
Sir Henry Benson (later Lord Benson), at the time one of the Senior Partners at
Coopers and Lybrand in London, was asked in the High Court “What is a Profit?”.
After a moment of deliberation, Sir Henry replied “My Lord, a profit is the
difference between two balance sheets”.
This is, in my view, one of the most powerful concept in all of accounting ... it is
totally principled ... and allows for all of the issues that seem to confuse in modern
legalistic accounting.
In most communities to stay the same requires a year of hard work
from everyone. If the rains are good, and the harvest is plentiful, then
the work for the year may show a situation that is significantly
improved over the prior year situation.
On the other hand if there is drought, then the crops fail and the
situation will deteriorate over the prior year situation.
Progress can be measured looking at the change in the status of the
community over time, and without having to know very much about
the activities of the community in the time. But if there is also some
measurement of the activities, it then becomes possible to see why the
community has performed in the way it has. When this is understood
it is possible to design development interventions that are the least
cost way of improving the communities performance.
Much is possible ... framework for good information
Much is possible, but it requires a new framework for the management of
information. Such a framework is technically feasible. Maybe because
powerful people do not want management information that shows
performance ... or lack of it ... socio-economic performance at the
community level has never been on the agenda and has never been
implemented on a broad scale
Compiling Community Information
Getting to know about a community
There is nothing particularly difficult about getting to know about a community.
Basic information about any community in the world should be reasonably easy
to find. But the fact that information about communities is very difficult to find
suggests that there are some important constraints.
Village People Know About Their Communities
I learned a long time ago that village people, and especially some of the old people
in the village had amazing knowledge about the community, its history, its people,
its problems and its opportunities.
I made visits to villages over several years and in many countries, and often with a
female colleague from Ethiopia. Together, we learned a lot more than I would have
on my own, especially about women and the community from their perspective.
One thing that became clear was the need to design development initiatives so that
they were what the village needed, and not merely to do things that would satisfy
our own, the donors', prejudices. Almost everywhere we went there were some
modest and very tangible things identified that would have improved the village
situation significantly
After one visit to a village ... it was in Mali in the late 1980s ... I was able to learn an
enormous amount about the history of rainfall in the area, going back to the 1930s. I
started saying to myself after this experience that “the fact that I do not know
something does not mean that it is not known”.
I learned from this that one of the big opportunities to improve the process of relief
and development is to incorporate community information into the planning
process, and use community priorities to drive the decisions.
The relief and development sector data collectors have done a lot of
data collection, but almost none of it is about community nor
organized in a useful way for relief and development performance
analysis. Sometimes there is a focus on individuals and households,
or some aspect of sector activity, such as health, but nothing very
much about the performance of the community and the impact
therefore on people and families. The leaders of the community
probably know what to do to make the socio-economic conditions
better, and they also know the constraints they have to face.
Collecting community information
A lot of information about communities is known, but it is often in
forms that are difficult or impossible to access using any form of
modern technology. Old people know lots about their communities,
but it is in their heads. It needs to be collected and put into some sort
of record. And some of the information then needs to be put into
some sort of electronic record. This is easier said than done, but I
believe it is both worthwhile and quite possible.
Probably the best way to do this is to encourage it to be done by
community people for their own information and guidance ... and to
get it put into a form that can also be used as a component of a
universal system of public information.
It is worth noting that some of the best information about
communities is contained in travel books. The information included
in travel books is information that the authors consider will be useful
for people who are visiting, mainly for their own amusement and
pleasure. Much of this information is also of considerable value for
understanding the socio-economic status of the community and what
the community should be doing as a priority to improve its socioeconomic situation. Travel books are often improved by feedback
from travelers. Community socio-economic information can be
improved by feedback from anyone with better or more information.
Sometimes there is a lot of interesting information compiled in
political party data systems. This information is not usually easily
accessible, but it is sometimes of considerable value.
There may also be valuable information about communities in
military information systems. This information is not usually easily
accessible by the public at large, and much is geared to destruction
rather than construction. Sadly, in our modern world, more is
probably known about communities so that they can be bombed than
is known so that they can be helped ... something that ought to be
changed.
Community information to support a development process is needed.
The technology to do it is quite easy, but it is not yet organized to be
used in this manner.
Important Caveat
Making the World a Fairer Place
A community focus for development should be for all communities
and not just for a select few. Over the years there have been a number
of initiatives where a lot of money has been deployed in limited
areas ... in my view a very bad idea. The idea of outsiders selecting
communities to support seems to me to be totally inappropriate. I
have seen UN experts trying to do this in the past, and it goes on
today, but it is just plain wrong.
Focal Point for Development – A Wrong Idea
I am reminded of a discussion in Ethiopia some years ago with (I think) the UNDP
Deputy Resident Representative who was explaining that because of a shortage of
development resources that the UNDP was recommending that there be focal points
of development, that is the scarce development resources would be concentrated in
just a few locations in the country, leaving the rest of the country unserved by the
international relief and development community. I was horrified by the idea ... the
development experts essentially choosing to play God in terms of who deserved
assistance.
In a place of chronic resource scarcity, this was a potential death sentence for people
in the unserved areas ... but a convenient rationalization.
Making community development a “reward” is not a good strategy ... such a
strategy does more to set the stage for future conflict than it helps to move to a
peaceful future.
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