Neil
Thin, in his book Social Progress and
Sustainable Design, asks why do we need to be reminded that human
well-being is a top priority? He
illustrates this question with the first sentence of the first UN World Summit
on Social Development:
For the
first time in history, at the invitation of the United Nations, we gather as
heads of State and Government to recognize the significance of social
development and human well-being for all and to give to these goals the highest
priority both now and into the twenty-first century.
In,
Thinking in Systems, Donella Meadows
pointed out that too much emphasis has been put on the quantifiable. In terms of development, if we focus too much
on what we can count and measure, then only what we can count and measure becomes
important and we miss out on the true goal- human well-being. Instead of focusing on the ends, we end up
focusing on the means. This holds true
when too much emphasis is put on macro-economics. An increase in GDP doesn’t necessarily mean
an increase in human well-being. In
fact, it may lead to a decrease in absolute or relative well-being, especially
because disparities between genders, regions, ethnicities, etc. are not taken
into account in macro-economic measures.
There
has been a recent shift in the development aid community towards resilience
building. This is especially true in the
Sahel area of Africa where droughts and famines are common. Aid in this region has focused on lessening
the burden of shocks such as droughts and famines, rather than empowering
households and communities to bounce back themselves. In Ending
the Everyday Emergency: Resilience and Children in the Sahel, Save the
Children and World Vision emphasize that focus needs to be brought to the problems
of food insecurity and malnourishment on a long-term basis, not just during
crisis. They propose the following ways
to overcome the resilience deficit:
·
Make reduction of child under-nutrition central to resilience
·
Harness small-scale agriculture for resilience and improved
nutrition
·
Invest in social protection and services for the poorest
households
·
Develop a new plan for how the national governments, international
donors, and agencies should work together to prevent hunger crisis
1. Theory: a tool to ‘unpack’ abstract ideas like community and sustainability.
ReplyDeleteThe Sahel report is a chance to ‘test’ your understanding of community and sustainability issues embedded in the report. You could begin by using what’s reported of the Sahel drought and child malnutrition as a case study. Your goal would be to apply your own emerging ideas and analytic frameworks (working theory) of community and sustainability to the story the author, Peter Gubbels, tells in the report.
This would probably translate into two types of refinements in your own thinking. One would be a quick ‘critique’ of issues and themes Gubbels develops his story to support the argument that child malnutrition is more than a linear, cause-effect relationship between lack of water and grain production (i.e., stocks, flows, and oscillations). The second area of refinement might be questions his story raises on what you’d include that he omitted, and how you’d dig deeper into some of the storylines. An example of an omission might be the relatively ‘light’ treatment of local community, notwithstanding the several vignettes and pictures of kids included in the report. An example of an underdeveloped theme might be the dynamic interplay of ‘transnational community’ and remittances on the cash economy of primarily small, rural, and poor agricultural local communities. ‘Transnational community’ encompasses human displacement/mobility, disruptions in family structure, unpredictability of income, and loss of readily available technical skills.
2. You may already know about SXSW Eco scheduled for next week – a sustainable food event. Most events are scheduled for ATT Executive Conference Center. Unfortunately, there’s pretty hefty registration fee.