There is a thread that runs through the history of South Asia
Partnership - a search for alternatives.
For new systems to manage the transfer of resources, for new
institutions to nurture
relationships among voluntary agencies and among peoples' groups, for
new equations that question
and sometimes threaten traditional power groupings; for new understandings
of emerging movements and institutions in South Asian countries as
well as in Canada.
This search opened new
horizons; it has its share of risks (upon which perhaps this paper will focus) as well as its
consolations. It is motivated by a vision which has to be periodically
refurbished if it is not to be eclipsed by the pressure of day to day
demands from
administration, from pulls and pressures that may seem more relevant
in the short term or to
which SAP (1)
may feel it is to succumb
in order to survive and gain favour. A vision
is not an achievement; it cannot be quantified in terms of dollars,
rupees, takas (2)
; in terms
of projects funded and budgets spent; it, to use a popular phrase
`non-viable'; and from this
flows the risks. A vision has to be supported. One cannot mount an
expedition to climb Everest
without support. Once on top, the advertisement on your shirt and
gear, the demand to address
conferences all over the world will bring in the funds, but not before. These are the risks of a
vision; it makes you dependent for funds, for favour. And yet
it is the soul without which SAP would be dead; without which the
expedition to conquer a
mountain will never be mounted.
The history of relationships
between Canada and the South Asian countries has been characterised
by common perceptions and shared concerns. The fifties and sixties
were marked by major
collaborations and transfers of technologies, mutual efforts to
maintain peace in the
Congo, Korea and Vietnam; mutual support in areas of policy with a
bias towards the poor and
oppressed - The Colombo Plan and recently the Africa Fund. This underlying commonness has survived
disagreements and even wars.
SAP is based on this
commonness. It is unique in that it has to cope both with the complexities
of a South-south dialogue and the fragility of a North-South
partnership. The latter
relationship has in turn to cope with the pressures of managing funds.
This is particularly true
of SAP Canada which is a channel of funds unlike some of the National SAP councils, like India, which
till today has managed to avoid playing this role because it believes
that it will impinge on its image as a facilitating institution and
project that of a power
broker - a role that tends to suppress alternatives rather than to
respect and support them.
Yet funds have to be
transferred; there is no way to make a search viable. And the initiators
and managers of the South Asia Partnership can say with a degree of
pride and in all honesty,
that the transfer and use of funds has been true to Canadian and South
Asian traditions. Unlike several
other instances where funds from the developed countries have
been used to disrupt linkages among the developing countries or to
exaggerate differences and
division, the funds transferred through the South Asia Partnership
have been utilised to build
bridges, deepen mutual understanding and bring committed people together to overcome a common
problem - poverty. To quote the annual report of SAP (85-86).
Amplifying on the brief submitted to the Canadian Government which was
conducting a review of foreign
policy "they (SAP Canada representatives) stressed that South
Asia represents not only a developmental challenge for Canadians and
their Government, but an
opportunity to strengthen and explore many rich relationships between different sectors of society for
the mutual benefit of Canadians and South Asians". This quotation
enshrines a vision on which SAP survives.
The goals of SAP repeatedly
highlight the words `support, strengthen, encourage, build linkages,
share'. The significant features to my mind are `the building of
linkages' and `sharing'.
Linkages cannot be supported without a degree of sharing.
Sharing does not mean that
every one participating in LEAP has to drink mineral water because
one group understandably needs it. It means giving up ones
predilection to share rooms
with a compatriot and to live with others; it means responding to the
limitations of fellow
travellers who come from a society that is just different; where
vehicles are driven with
the horn, where noise is at a premium; it means subscribing to the
basic tenets of decent
living and not using the hosts room as a common dustbin. It means that
the `host' must make allowance for delays, breakdowns and other
eventualities which result in late arrivals, and not punish people by
denying them breakfast for coming late. The relationship
must be based on `empathy' which is characterised by sensitivity,
ability to listen and
respond, to be open or transparent, to give of self, to desist from
drawing ones boundaries and
establishing territory; to put the other and the last first both as
persons and as
institutions. To quote from the minutes of the SAP Canada Board
"there is a need to go
beyond promoting our own agencies. We need to advance development in
South Asia" (May 20,
1987) - and may I add "in Canada as well". This goes beyond
the transaction of mobilising and channelling funds, an operation that
has the tendency to obscure, not to increase
transparency, to develop a relationship of donor and donee not of
partners, where an object
is given, not oneself, where the pressure to extend ones sphere of
influence needs to be
controlled by the willingness to cooperate and over-lap.
Will the move to handle funds
for the Social Forestry programme in India without a policy on
the subject and to become a coordinating agency channelling funds in
Sri Lanka enhance SAP's
image as a growing funding mechanism or as the inspirational source of
alternative strategies to
provide people with a fuller and more humane existence?
SAP's direct involvement in the
Sri Lanka programme is a special case for reflection. It was
a laudable effort to ensure that the Canadian Government does not
establish a direct funding
relationship with NGO's; but has the SAP structure taken over? Is this
anappropriate substitute for the direct relationships that Canadian
Volags have maintained with
local counterparts - or is it a tertium quid which is neither here nor
there? Or was the decision
a compromise and the best one negotiable in the circumstances?
It is most encouraging to read
that the SAP Canada Board of Directors (Meeting May 20, 1987)
discussed this issue extensively not only from the administrative
implications but more on
the impact this move would have on SAP's basic concept and vision.
With growing
institutionalisation - which characterises SAP - the need for empathy increases. With new people guiding
SAP and sharing responsibility to make it run, the need to
share the vision is imperative. SAP developed and grew from the
experiences of people which
were similar and which made empathy possible; besides, their links had
a long history. While the
demands of institutions may require periodic if not regular turnover,
it has its risks. These are
even more pronounced in SAP where the wealth of shared experience
and oral tradition played a far greater role in its early history than
written and documented
material.
True institutionalisation is
inevitable; it is idealistic to expect the initial enthusiasm to be sustained without it; but the
risks are there. Will it assist or foster the development and emergence
of alternatives or become frozen in one pattern, will it continue to
build bridges or begin to
start staking out its territory; will it resemble a mini- UN
institution that has a bureaucracy
spread all over the world but waits for instructions from
headquarters; will the
members of the National Councils continue to be inspired by the
initial vision and guide the
organisation or will the bureaucracy take over as it does in most
countries?
The move to register SAP in
India is part of this institutionalising process. But de-linking SAP from its hosts which are
operational will tend to give SAP the image of a funding agency
which in India has a culture and relationships that tend to make it
more vulnerable, less
responsive to emerging pressures from the field and guided more by
pressures and policies from
above and outside the country. Given this development it may be
appropriate for SAP to
consider increasing its capacity to achieve goals it has set for
itself which go beyond the
management of projects. For example :
-
To encourage interaction
among volags within the country both to gain from an exchange
of experiences as well as to unite to exert pressure and mobilise
public opinion when
required to change policies and practices biased against the poor
or to develop
alternate/new strategies and programmes which are more effective
and relevant.
-
To become involved in
strengthening regional/state groups of volags and in fostering such groups at the District
level and below.
-
To build a resource base of
skills and facilities which would support volags especially
those who are small and who have chosen alternate and new
strategies to overcome
poverty and oppression. Such a base would be able to relate with
similar efforts abroad
and in the country which are concerned with similar structural issues that govern relations
between North and South as well as among the countries
in South Asia. SAP Nepal is thinking, I am informed, about an
institute which can
fill this role. Care, however, should be taken to staff such
institutes with people
who are not only academicians but who have also had field
experience.
-
To raise funds within the
country not only from the Government (here India has gone
ahead and SAP hasno role to play) but also from the general public
(here SAP can assist
in India as well as in other South Asian countries where there is
a significant number of
well-to-do).
These are areas where SAP
could search for, support and initiate several alternatives.
But some questions need to be raised. Will these objectives be
achieved only by enlarging
SAP's organisation or should SAP encourage other volags (large and
small) to add these
dimensions to their work? Or does the strategy have room for both alternatives?
LEAP : This
is a programme that has contributed to SAP's objectives that go beyond
project management. There are
however certain indicators that should encourage us to search
for alternatives. The pace of the programme at times puts the
participants in a pressure
cooker - with the safety valve jammed. In the last experience each of
the 3 vehicles carrying
LEAP participants covered approximately 4000 kms. during 16 days. There is a broad spectrum of
difference among participants regarding back-ground experience,
language, expectations and interests. The Canadians (atleast most of
them) should have been
given at least a week to settle down and get acclimatised before the programme began. It may be useful
to consider organising in-country LEAPS, before participants
for the cross country programme are selected. It may be useful to
consider "mini-leaps"
where a few participants of one country spend a longer period in
another. In such an
experiment, greater care and attention can be given to each individual
and a programme can be
designed that will be more appropriate to the person's needs. One of the most interesting and mutually
useful exposure programmes was the six month stay in MYRADA
of a Canadian student sponsored by HIDA.
These alternative
strategies which are required to cope with the present situation where
volags are represented by
participants ranging from 20 to 70 years old; with differing ideologies
and backgrounds. The older participants have arisen from movements - Independence, Gandhian - and from
church related development institutions; next come those
who grew out of the radical movements of the early seventies and
lastly there is a large
group of young people who have entered the Voluntary Agency field for
a variety of reasons but
who have little experience of movements and even of field work. On the
Canadian scene, the era of the
ex-clerics and ex-cusos is past or passing; those still in development
have moved upwards into positions of authority and policy making; they
had the benefit of
extensive field exposure before they stepped into development administration.
A FUNDING MECHANISM :
Granting that SAP will continue to be involved with the management
of project funds - an operation
that at present absorbs a major share of time and attention - can SAP
not turn its attention to
alternatives systems of credit management at the level of the people
who we call
"beneficiaries" - term that reduces the responsibility of
managing ones resources to
a garland of gratitude when the donor appears.
The entire thrust of SAP's
attention as regards funds is on the "delivery system". If attention is given to the
management of funds at the other end it is restricted to utilisation
certificates and audits. What about working to evolve rural credit
systems that are an
alternative to the money lender and the Banks which do not cover all
the credit requirements of
the poor (leave alone the problems involved to mobilise loans). MYRADA
has given attention to this area
of alternative rural credit systems which the poor can manage.
NABARD has come forward under its rural development programme to
support these rural credit
systems. MYRADA is not alone in these efforts, but in India there are
just two or three others. SAP could foster and encourage these
alternate credit systems.
One cannot do better than quote
from the SAP Evaluation Report to conclude this part. No
doubt the report has had an impact on SAP's performance during 1987
and as a result several of
its recommendations are being implemented; but its comments are valid.
"Projects are not part of
a larger strategy or even of a larger vision thereby
reducing substantially their potential impact ........ lack of context
or strategy ... of
direction gives way to the imposition of mechanical rules to guide
the work: one year funding; one-time funding; arbitrary limits as to budget size; limited period of
time.... The project machine syndrome is only a
symptom of deeper causes. There is no longer a vision shared by those involved in SAP... The weakness in
the overall vision, of strategy and of leadership
permit the unbridled growth of the easiest thing to package and produce: repetitive, unimaginative
projects of the least controversial nature....
Not having their own development plans to guide them, the Asian
counterparts let themselves be unduly influenced by that they think
Canadian agencies will support. .... the partnership is at times
reduced by mutual
acceptance of each other's weaknesses. When critical judgement and
trusts are confused with criticism and blind faith, it is extremely difficult to exercise
leadership... to the degree the currency of partnership remains
dollars in a one-way exchange, we have not moved very far along the path of resolving the inherent
donor-recipient relationship and its inherent attitudes
of dependency".
There are several instances of
partner organisations threatening to leave SAP because the `project machine' does not produce enough or is not large enough -
SAP India's ceiling of Rs.200,000/- for example was one such issue that caused
such a
reaction. Let us have alternatives for threatening to leave: If SAP's vision
is not
refurbished; if the commitment to this vision is not increased; if partnership
does not
become a major thrust; if sharing is not the basis of relationship. These
are the
alternatives. When will they begin to have an adequate impact on all SAP
partners and on policy?
|