Here's another book that sounds like it's worth looking up when i've got a few hours....



http://www.cbc.ca/news/world/story/2011/11/23/f-vp-stewart.html

Samantha Nutt and the 'Damned Nations' of guns and aid

By Brian Stewart, special to CBC News 

Posted: Nov 23, 2011 8:09 PM ET

Every so often a new book arrives with the force of a much-needed whack over the head.

That's the jolting effect of Samantha Nutt'sDamned Nations: Greed, Guns, Armies and Aid, which is causing a sensation within the increasingly troubled world of humanitarian aid.

Written by one of Canada's most influential humanitarian activists, it's the clearest examination I've read in quite a while of the economic incentives — and our own Western inadequacies — that fuel the seemingly intractable violence in so many war-torn countries, particularly in mineral-rich Africa.

A medical doctor and the co-founder of War Child Canada, Nutt is someone who speaks with remarkable moral authority, after spending more than 16 years struggling to help the most vulnerable targets, children and women, in the world's most dangerous conflict areas.

Thoughts on the role of religious groups in development.

So, I just got back from a day at the Canadian conference of Engineers Without Borders (conference site).  It was interesting to see the assumptions in development about how it should be governments leading the infrastructure building in developing communities.

I think it is worth noting that in North America, as we were developing, a significant portion of our infrastructure was initially build not buy local or foreign governments, but rather local and foreign religious groups, particularly Christian groups in the case of North America.  It was these religious groups that saw the needs of the people, looked on them with compassion, and organized to build those things that were needed and did not exist, not out of a patriotic duty or political will, but rather out of a loving heart.  The examples here i refer to are the schools and hospitals.

In Ontario, where i'm from, the Catholic church set up schools, and the protestant churches set up schools.  Then, the protestant churches got together and said, hey, we can be more effective if we agree and work together, so they did and that became the public school system.  Later the government took over funding both the Catholic and the Public (protestant) systems through taxes.  (If I understand correctly, part of the curriculum for becoming a teacher in Ontario is to study this history, so any teachers out there paying attention can correct me.)

Many hospitals, and medical clinics around the world were started by religious organizations as well. This pattern continues around the world.  In the case of libraries, it was often wealthy philanthropists that funded the building of the first community libraries, believing in the importance of ongoing education opportunities for the general population, not just those that could afford it. Then these were turned over to local governments to support.

I think it is important to recognize that religious groups can still play an important roll in development in the modern world.  Many of those that are passionate about development or certain sectors with in  development, are passionate about it because of their religious beliefs, and bring a suitable compassion, humility and hope that are clearly necessary to do development work successfully.

Looking at the example of libraries, and that many of those philanthropist that funded them were the captains of industry at the time, leads me to think that in the current case, there is also a roll for corporations to play in development as well.  That idea will need further exploration, since there are issues there, just as there are issues with religious groups in a development context as well. There certainly are issues with governments involvement in aid; the very existence/ubiquitousness of the NGO term shows that there are some things the government should not be doing.

Anyway, that's enough for now....

Agriculture policies and ideas...

Another one to look up sometime: International Assessment of Agricultural Knowledge, Science and Technology for Development (IAASTD) from 2008.  It's a report reviewing what's working in world....


Keeping an eye on the nourishing the planet feed from the worldwatch institute....


article

Most Effective Micro-finance

If you are getting involved in anything, it always makes sense to figure out who's the best in that field and keep an  eye on what they are doing.  You may chose to be different, but it's still important to know what's going on.  With that in mind, in the micro-finance world, Accion are one of those organizations to keep an eye on. They've been named the most effective microfinance non-profit by Philantropedia.  Fast Company had this article about it.

Support systems...

Here's an article recently published in the ontario society for professional engineers news letter. (link) It talks about how important it is for the local system to be in place to support infrastructure development.  Things like management, construction standards, accounting systems must be in place for large infrastructure systems to work.  Even for relatively small systems, if the support structures are not there, the projects will eventually fail.  This means its not just the technology, its the people and how they relate, the responsibility and social structures that are as important as the tools....

International Interdependance

Here is an interesting statement from one of our friends in the states:

http://www.fastcodesign.com/1661846/a-modest-proposal-the-new-declaration-of-interdependence

It talks about how nations are no longer independent, and how americans must make better decisions about what they value and consume.  I think it applies to a lot of wealthy people all around the world.

I've been a fan of Vinay Gupta since i first ran into his Reykjavik breifing a while back.  Here's another briefing he gave to another group in the US government.

http://files.howtolivewiki.com/star_tides_ndu_briefing_8_apr_08/

It includes lots of links.  Alot of the focus is on disaster relief, but Vinay throughout and particularly at the end links the two concepts of disaster relief and development to the same fundamental issues of protecting life and building infrastructure.

Role of Government

Okay, so here's some thoughts on the role of government.

The purpose of government is twofold. First, government is about ensuring equity among the population it serves. This takes many forms, including the judiciary, the legislature, the regulators, the police services. The second purpose is about distributing common wealth for the common good. This includes the executive branch and public service, including things like infrastructure (physical and systemic). In both cases, the role of government is to improve the quality of life for the whole of the population. To do its work, the government requires money, which must somehow be drawn from the population. The challenge then becomes how to improve the quality of life for the population to the maximum amount. This implies wise use of resources, since each dollar earned by the population may either be spent by the person who earned it, or by the government on that persons behalf. In either case, the quality of life for that person should be improved. Which will improve the life of the total population more, having each individual spend the dollar on himself or herself, or pooling that money together and spending the dollar on some project or service that will benefit all? This question must be answered case by case. Since it is impossible to predict what one person would do with his dollar, it becomes difficult do determine whether or not a government expenditure is justified. Certainly, some basic level of policing, infrastructure, legal system, etc. is justified, since the stability these provide are necessary for individuals to be able to earn a living successfully. The question which politicians and statesmen have argued for a long time is where the line should be drawn between what is justified and what is not. Those that lean to the right would prefer that as much money as possible remain in the hands of the individual. Those that lean to the left would suggest that we pool our resources for the common good. We have seen problems when either of these ideas are taken to the extreme. In the first case, we have capitalist anarchy, where government does not regulate sufficiently to prevent those with money and power from taking advantage of those who do not, and there becomes drastic differences between those with wealth and those without. Those without wealth do not have the means to produce more wealth, even if they have the skill. On the other hand, in Stalinist regimes, we have seen how the central control for the good of all has also removed the motivation from those with skills that could produce wealth, so that in the end they do not produce wealth because they do not get to control the enjoyment of it. In the end such systems have failed eventually, and where they survive, there is still generally less wealth in the society.