Dignity before Development?

The longer I work in The Industry the more I think about dignity. What comes first dignity or development? Some would argue that development needs to happen before people can lead dignified lives, but I actually think it’s the other way around; dignity needs to happen before development ever will (credits go to John Githongo for inspiring this thinking).

In a Ghanaian context I think dignity is directly related to an attitude shift, one away from expecting and waiting for others to provide opportunities for you to live a meaningful life, and towards an understanding that you have the power to create opportunities for yourself. This is not a new phenomenon in the development world. Everything now is community-driven, or participatory or a partnership that hopes to create an environment in which local actors solve their problems with their own solutions. However, there’s one big issue with this approach. The money, and hence the power to lead any change still comes from outsiders, is not community-driven, and its allocation is certainly not participatory.

As a result you get people who don’t really believe they have the power to create a different future for themselves but rather will participate in any discussion or activity that will ensure them or their community some amount of development dollars supposedly targeted towards long-term, systemic, positive change (poverty reduction). There is usually no dignity value-add as a result of these traditional approaches to development project planning and implementation. The development sector is often too focused on the now. We need to develop NOW, we can worry about dignity later! Now I’m not suggesting that donors and NGOs should just throw money to the wind, giving people full freedom as to what they use it for. Otherwise, you’ll probably end up with Western governments funding mosques and churches (community perceived needs), instead of schools and health centers (maybe the actual community needs based on objective data).

But what I am saying is that before any form of development aid can lead to meaningful results, the recipients need to have dignity. Dignity doesn’t come from outsiders giving you handouts, or a reliance on the government for services but rather comes from working through a particularly challenging situation and creating opportunities for yourself to move forward. Some would call this choice. The longer I work for the Government of Ghana the more I believe that the greatest thing any donor could do for somebody is give them a job. And, I don’t mean a job in the development industry.

There are a few fairly innovative projects being implemented in Ghana right now looking at improving markets for individuals in the agriculture sector. These market facilitation types of projects are focused on creating innovative, sustainable private sector industries that will in the future employ regular Ghanaians. In my opinion, development initiatives need to shift away from providing basic needs, and focus more on economic growth. Does that make me a neo-liberal? Perhaps. But, I really believe in the power that markets have to create social good by giving people back their dignity, through meaningful employment. Yes, I know that there’s an assumption here that market driven growth will lead to meaningful employment. But there’s no doubt, that with time, individuals will be presented with more choice for how they want to lead their life. And what could be more dignifying than this?

The way I see private sector growth in Africa is that there is huge potential to learn from the mistakes of the West. The private sector in Africa has the potential to be far more innovative and socially minded then in the West. For example, let’s say an entrepreneur wanted to start a chain of coffee shops for the growing middle class in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). Instead of starting off by exploiting coffee farmers, why not bypass that dirty phase, and source ethically grown coffee from the beginning. If the private sector in SSA can operate with these types of values, then there’s no doubt that dignity will lead to development.

But I guess, the question at the end of the day is simply how? I know I don’t have the answer. But if we take a dignity focused mindset towards development, I think we’ll be able to find something that can create long-term, sustainable change.

Anyway, just some thoughts on a slow Tuesday morning!
Take care.