Theory in Practice

I confess - I've been following the saga of the American Red Cross in Haiti as avidly as I follow celebrity gossip on people.com (everyone needs a place to escape to). Six houses built for USD 24 million – yes, I’m cherry-picking the facts to create a snazzy headline - but the whole saga is nonetheless shocking. Yes, there were property title issues and materials issues - things that can dramatically slow down reconstruction, or even change its course. Challenges such as these are always anticipated, but in most cases the information informing of the challenge is transparent, as is any information on a change to a recovery programme, alongside a fairly clear accounting of how money is being spent.

I recall sitting in a meeting a few years ago to review the draft of our organization’s new five-year strategic plan. Most of my memories of the meeting revolve around the chair of the meeting going on and on about ‘what is new, what is different?’ Having reviewed a significant portion of the plan, an amalgamation of the strategic plans of different teams in the organization, I had to agree with the sentiment in principle. A few new terms stuck here and there, a couple of new projects but nothing ground breaking or agenda setting. To be honest, it was disheartening because I knew my colleagues were far more inspiring in their work than what we were reading on paper. In fairness, however, how could we possible expect ‘new’ and ‘different’ with a moment’s notice to make the plan, and nothing more than a vague idea about what was supposed to be ‘new’ or ‘different.’

Denika Blacklock Originally Published in Kanava Global Connection http://www.kanavainternational.com/2015/04/can-sustainability-really-be-achieved-without-government-led-development/#.VTe2s_mUemM Parallel Programming – ‘Speedier’ But At what Long-Term Cost? You have most likely heard the term ‘parallel programing’ – but do you know what it really means? It is the process of implementing development programs outside (parallel to) the official government process. It means that government, whether national or local, is not the final decision maker and the program funds are not implemented through the government financial management system. This often takes place due to weak accountability and transparency mechanisms within the government (particularly local government), and the potential for speedier implementation of development activities and thus more immediate impact with targeted communities.

Denika Blacklock  Originally Published on AidLeap https://aidleap.wordpress.com/ ‘Asia’ as a singular region is massive – it has a population of 3.73 billion people. The Pacific, in contrast, consists of 22 island nations with a population of just over 10 million people. Yet, time and again, development analysis looks at the ‘Asia-Pacific’ as a singular entity, with the Pacific constituting 0.2% of the population of the ‘Asia-Pacific’ region. Indeed, the entire population of the Pacific barely equals the population of a single Asian country. However, culturally, economically and historically, Asia and the Pacific are vastly different. The remoteness of Pacific island countries means that challenges which have mostly been overcome in Asia – such as the accessibility of technology, transportation and access to markets – are daily challenges; not only between countries, but within them, too. And while all countries are vulnerable to climate change and its associated risk...

Denika Blacklock Karim Cyclone Pam tore through the Pacific in March 2015, the second largest cyclone to make land fall in recorded history. The cyclone affected four countries, lefts dozens of thousands homeless, destroyed infrastructure including hospitals and schools and resulted in severe flooding in some areas. And yet only 10 people died, which is a dramatic reduction in the loss of human life if we compare to Cyclone Haiyan which devastated parts of the Philippines in December 2013 in which more than 6,000 people died. This is an impressive indicator of how much early warning and disaster preparedness components of disaster risk management have improved over the course of the past 10 years. Nonetheless, lives and communities were destroyed in Pam’s wake and we must ask ourselves why we, in the development community, have not seen a comparable increase the risk reduction aspects of disaster risk management - in the ability of communities to increase their resilience to dis...

Denika Blacklock Karim It is quite tiresome to read commentaries that discuss ‘conflict resolution’ in the context of the content of a peace agreement. Although not an expert in the field of conflict resolution, I have fairly good knowledge of what ‘resolving’ a conflict entails, and I’m sure I’m not the only person who wants to bang her head against her desk (or table at the local café, if I’m being honest) in frustration at this conflation of peace agreements with resolving conflict. In fact, in my experience working in post-conflict environments, the gaps in the content of peace agreements made resolving the root causes of the conflict more difficult, not easier. This is not to say that peace agreements are not an integral component of the conflict management process – they are critical to bringing about an end to violence, but they rarely resolve conflict in and of themselves.

Denika Blacklock Originally published in Kanava Global Connection http://www.kanavainternational.com/2014/12/good-practices-sometimes-better-best-practices/#.VRLZC_mUemM The sobering reality of “best practices” is that they are often only “best” where they are conceived. Unless the foundations for success where a practice first emerged are thoroughly understood and can be adapted to a different context, it is probably doomed to failure. Based on my experience, most development practitioners have become wary of importing “best practices” generated in contexts foreign to the locale in which they are working. This is not a pessimistic view; but a realistic one. Why? Because context – culture, history, language, politics, religion, geography, economy – underpins the success or failure (or mediocre outcome) of any development initiative. Policies, laws, and planning processes all hinge on a specific context and what works in one country is unlikely to work in another unless i...