And so it happens again.<\/p>\n
A benevolent funder\/project sponsor breezes into our city with a great project to build social capital, spread information, to raise the profile of local issues and to \u00a0report on the local political process.<\/p>\n
And just as things start to find their feet and make a real difference, they breeze out again.<\/p>\n
It happens all of the time. \u00a0Funding runs out. \u00a0Patience\u00a0runs out. Commitment runs out.<\/p>\n
Because for the project\u00a0sponsor\u00a0this is little more than ‘an experiment’. \u00a0Or ‘a contract’. \u00a0A community to dabble in. \u00a0A kind of train set for grown ups.<\/p>\n
This is not their community.<\/p>\n
This is not where their children will grow up or their parents will grow old. \u00a0Of course they will have local people on the ground – but the ones that really call the shots? \u00a0This is not THEIR community.<\/p>\n
This is what passes for community development work these days. \u00a0A never ending stream of short-term projects that raise aspirations, engage people, make ground and then, in the vast majority of cases, fade away – leaving behind a\u00a0sense\u00a0of betrayal, frustration and in some cases apathy.<\/p>\n
But it is alright\u00a0because\u00a0there is always another funding stream to apply for, another gig to get, another project to manage. \u00a0We just need to secure the standard evaluation that declares ‘Much has been achieved – but much remains to be done’ and we can all move on holding our chins up high. \u00a0This is the standard pattern of the ‘development industry’ – less so in the developing world these days but still almost exclusively on domestic ‘projects’.<\/p>\n
And most of us development professionals are complicit in the process. \u00a0We kid ourselves that THIS funding stream is different, that THIS\u00a0project will help to shift things, that THIS building holds the keys to the kingdom, or at least pay our mortgage for another year or two until the right\u00a0opportunity\u00a0comes along.<\/p>\n
At some point we have to recognise that change that is prompted from outside, that is funded by someone else, that delivers someone\u00a0else’s\u00a0policy goals or answers someone\u00a0else’s\u00a0questions is really\u00a0unlikely\u00a0to provide us with any hope of transformation.<\/p>\n
At some point we have to recognise that for any real long-term\u00a0success we have to start from where WE are, and work with what WE have got, and break this dangerous habit of relying on external ‘benevolence’.<\/p>\n