---------- Forwarded message ---------
De: Claudio Schuftan <cschuftan@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: sáb., 20 jul. 2019 a las 23:24
Subject: Human rights: Food for a faulty dominant thought 'HR and the
prevailing development paradigm'
To: Mario Parada <mario.parada@xxxxx>
Human rights: Food for faulty dominant thought ‘HR and the prevailing
development paradigm’ Human Rights Reader 489 THE PREVAILING DEVELOPMENT
PARAD
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Human rights: Food for faulty dominant thought ‘HR and the prevailing
development paradigm’
Human Rights Reader 489
*THE PREVAILING DEVELOPMENT PARADIGM ALLOWS TO MANIPULATE, DOMINATE,
EXPLOIT, EXPROPRIATE.* (Ivan Illich)
-When we talk about a development paradigm shift, we are talking about
*applying
the human rights (HR) framework* to the current development approaches and
this *requires nothing short of a paradigm break.* (I hate that Roman
called Status-Quo…!)
*Does foreign aid really help developing countries?*
1. To the contrary of what foreign aid promises, *such aid contributes*,
not to the development of those countries, but rather *to keep them
underdeveloped and dependent* of the rich countries. (Boaventura de Sousa
Santos) Aid for development still represents a relationship of dependency;
it attributes the imbalances of power to knowledge and capacities’
deficits. *It is very much a one-way street*. But *the alternative HR-based
approach* is far from having gained consensus --and *has moved little
beyond discourse*. (Viva Salud)
2. *Development agencies forever keep their long established frameworks
just enhancing them with ‘some add-ons’* like ‘streamlining’ (a favorite
piece of jargon) HR and gender issues, adding (non-emergency) food aid(i)
and supporting ‘some kind’ of participation, empowerment and environmental
sustainability. The dominant approach *remains prescriptive* though, *targeting
individuals rather than addressing the structural determinants* of
maldevelopment (not underdevelopment!). Furthermore, the much pushed
evidence-based approach championed by these agencies may (just may) be a
good input, but *is definitely not what leads to the needed changes.*(ii)
(i): While the rich get richer, the poor get …food aid (or more children…).
But *food aid applies a first aid measure to a chronic condition* of
deprivation and exploitation.
(ii): Another dead-end approach promoted by them is their calls for
‘inter-culturality’ that are nothing but a trap. First, *the local culture
needs to be empowered* to stand up to the invading culture so as to have
the final say and have a chance to prevail.
3. Yes, *the top-down approaches of foreign aid operate within the dominant
paradigm. Bottom-up* (or bottom-centered) *approaches* are the HR way to
go, but *raise various challenges* for HR advocates. They require great
commitments of their time and scrambling for very few resources.
Furthermore, these advocates run up against entrenched roles, outdated
training and, last but not least, egos. *They often devolve into a level of
micro-advocacy that loses sight of the forest for the trees* (i.e., the
larger institutional power dynamics). (Chris Jochnick)
*Development occurs where challenge is followed by homegrown response*
4. Although Gramsci did not talk about HR, he was of the opinion that:
*“Struggle
is indeed a principle of development*:To be is to do.” This is why
development is more than the translation of all our scientific, ethical and
historical knowledge into society’s management. (D. Najman) *The political
and HR angles are thus indispensable.* We cannot de-couple development from
‘the economic and the political’ and from HR and pretend we are
‘automatically’ coupling it with ‘the social’.
5. Only now are we starting to *wake up-to and face the challenges of HR*
--and to actively work towards applying the HR framework *as a key tool and
response*. For a while, *this may have to* require external inputs/inroads
to *stimulate dormant internal potentials.* (Reinhard Thiele) A tree cannot
grow through the action of external forces; it needs the activation of
internal forces.
*A plan is like the high beams of a car; it allows us to see ahead*
-Modern societies are interventionist (no laissez-faire) so *people are
pushed around* not only by existing policies, but also when policies are
inexistent.
6. Development planning is a means to make sure needs are transformed into
effective demands.(iii) But *top-down planning has been used to maintain
the existing power structure!*
(iii): We define Need as a sense of want; Demand as the willingness to give
up resources (human, financial physical facilities) for getting access to
services. An Effective Demand we define as spending (or investing) the
above resources as decided by claim holders.
7. The *World Bank’s World Development Reports cannot* thus possibly, by
themselves, *empower people. They can actually disempower them* if they
follow the traditional pattern of coming up with authoritative findings and
recommendations that justify certain conservative government policies (the
paradigm again…). (Mike Waghorne). The technically motivated process pushed
by *the Bank*(iv) is not associated with the true and realistic
engineer-versus-activist (conciliatory-versus-confrontational) narrative so
that it *dodges what is essential for comprehensive development to happen*.
(iv): Beware: *Technical issues are not a-political*. They do influence
political processes towards particular ends; *they blunt genuine
participative popular processes*. (Rene Loewenson)
*Will decisions taken by the-whole-of-society always benefit the
whole-of-society?*
8. The response to this question depends on what meaning you want to give
it; and the meaning is purposely fuzzy. In development work, *the world
loves to blindly cling to either obsolete or creatively introduced new
ideas and slogans (as a delaying tactic)*. Other ‘fuzzies’ that I love are
‘health-in-all-policies’, ‘evidence-based’ ‘stakeholders’, ‘green
development’ …*all used in a vacuum of their political, structural
connotations for change* --and none addressing the key role of claim
holders and duty bearers. When new evidence matures, instead of rectifying
the mistakes, *the haves punish those who spread the new evidence* --yes,
to defend the paradigm! (adapted from Marcos Aguinis)
9. So, to answer the question above it will depend on who the
whole-of-society will be. This Reader has told you perhaps ad-nauseam who
the whos ought to be so I will just leave it here.
*It is not about improving the existing society as establishing a new one.*
(Marx)
10. Establishing a new society (via *replacing the obsolete paradigm) is
where the key is*. It is not about reforming, hiding or cosmetically
making-up something old giving the illusion that real change is being
made.(v) From the HR perspective, *we are talking about profound changes*.
Of course, this is monumentally difficult; *it is about reinventing
humanity guided by an avant garde* attempting to dynamize and push the
process of change. (Marcelo Colusi)
(v): To continue the Marxist thread of thought, most often, those who pay
the social costs of production are not the people who also gain from the
benefits of production. Governments and businesses invest only in what is
directly productive (or, these days, speculative…) and shift the greatest
percentage of the social costs to the poorest quintiles in the population.
Claudio Schuftan, Ho Chi Minh City
Your comments are welcome at schuftan@xxxxxxxxx
All Readers up to 480+ are available at www.claudioschuftan.com
[image: Myphotwithquote]
©2019 Claudio Schuftan | 121 38 St BTT D2, Saigon, Vietnam
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