Unsustainability in today's international development.

• Author: Matuella, Jeffrey Tyler
• Position: Worldview - Essay

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THE AXIOM "Give a man a fish, feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish, feed him for a lifetime" is accepted widely among the international development community--and for good reason. Taken on its own, however, this axiom leaves out very important principles. What if the man is not convinced that he needs to fish or does not have a reliable way to obtain fishing supplies in the future? You can teach a man anything you want, but that does not mean he wants to, or can, use the skill regularly. It" given the opportunity, most people not only will want someone else to teach them to fish, but provide all of the fishing supplies and even cook for them if the option is available. Thus, the manner in which a person is taught or helped has real implications as to whether he or she will he incentivized to practice the skill regularly and feel inspired to teach that skill to others.

Today's development efforts sometimes produce admirable short-term results, but the way in which they are implemented may hinder the effectiveness of long-term development programs. Sustainable development has two components: environmental and lasting power. Environmental simply refers to the degree to which the development effort affects the environment-the idea is not to damage it irreparably or drain crucial natural resources. Lasting power refers to the degree to which the project has the drive and resources available to continue indefinitely, eventually with minimal or no outside assistance. An intrinsic element of lasting power is behavioral change: the local population is empowered to adopt fully the technology on an individual level and take collective responsibility for the project even when the foreign aid leaves.

During this past year, a project team from the University of Virginia has worked with the city government and a local university in Bluefields, Nicaragua, to try to establish a ceramic water filter enterprise that would combat the serious problem of contaminated drinking water. An international support network was set up that included potential financiers of the project and technical specialists such as Potters for Peace. The team envisioned itself as facilitators between this international support network and the institutions in Bluefields because it believed that the local people responsible for the project's success in the long run should have a vested interest and a meaningful role from the start.

However, the team learned that the local institutions in Bluefields did not wish to take a leadership role in this initiative despite frequently affirming their sincere interest in the formal proposals that were presented to them. Afterwards, the team drafted a full debrief that detailed possible reasons why such local leadership did not occur. It discerned that the underlying cause of the disconnect has its basis in the current system of international aid and economic development that frequently is practiced in Bluefields and around the world.

The nature of international development in Bluefields is very similar to many other global...