Commentary
This is a good film. but very annoyiong It is about two cases of questionable development in Kenya, one in the Kiera slums in Nairobi and the other around the Kala Swamp im Western Kenya.

The film will entertain some people, and will raise awareness in certain ways about the nature od development and the unintended consequences. The film raises lots of questions, but does not get to the nitty gritty question of what might be the answers. This is not the film's fault, and in fact, in all probability it was not the purpose of the film.

The problem is that there is no structure to address socio-economic development performance, to dialog about policy options and to measure and report on progress and performance. The official development assisstance (ODA) establishment like the UN, the World Bank and various bilateral government donor agencies like USAID might be expected to have some part of this role, but they opted out of objective measurement of progress and performance a very long time ago. What these types of organizations do in terms of monitoring performance and reporting is little more than se;f serving PR to satisfy the donors who fund the activities.

I worked in the Horn of Africa during the famine of the 1980s and became engaged with the issues being addressed by the community living by the Kala swampt and earning their livelihood from a pastoral economy. While it is not a lifestyle I would want for myself, changing the culture is a slow process, and too many international experts are in too much of a hurry and do not adequately understand the issues and the local values. These may change over time ... but rapid change and disruption is most likely to be counter-productive. Learning should be 'pulled' in rather than being 'force fed' and 'pushed'.

I have also worked on urban housing in developing countries. The key is to think community more than to think construction, to think about home rather than house ... and to recognize that informal slums are a lot more liveable than some of the rigid constructions that get built and lack critical social funtionality.

Progress is certainly possible ... but this film tends to make one despair!
Peter Burgess

Chapter 1

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