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Energising Livelihood Capabilities
Our
generation has been brought up to believe that ‘change is the only
constant’. The intensity, speed and all-encompassing nature of change
(social, economic, technological) is referred to at virtually every
conference and written about in almost every journal. Why then, is it,
that most of us, particularly those in the development sector, are
averse to path-breaking ideas and new ways of doing things?
Civil society seems to have a
remarkable ability, on the one hand, to proclaim that there is an
urgent need for change and on the other, do very little about
promoting new forms of knowledge and alternative institutional
structures that can actually inspire change in a methodical and
largely non-confrontational manner. Amongst the numerous reasons is,
of course, the sad fact that civil society organisations (CSOs)
continue to draw most of their sustenance from state, national and
international bureaucracies which are, almost by definition,
programmed to tell us why something cannot be done. In this day and
age, it is still not possible for village communities in India to
exercise control over how they would like to use state support for
housing, infrastructure and income generation needs.
Is there, then, any hope that
we can become more agile in actually effecting change? The answer
probably lies in understanding where innovation is most likely to take
place. Innovation that meets the needs of the people (as distinct from
discovery and invention) is necessarily influenced by contextual
factors that govern the lives of communities. Breakthroughs are made
when a diverse group of stakeholders - who could include a change
agent - collaborate together to make a departure from the normal. If
the new solutions and behaviour are found to be useful, they are
accepted and imitated. What is learnt locally can be applied on a
larger scale, provided there is suitable contribution from higher
level institutions. We must also accept - often against our natural
instincts - that development processes, which cause rapid and
widespread change through methods of viral replication, can be
sustained only through collaborative behaviour between different types
of role players. As such, development projects can, at best, provide
impetus for the desired development process. The implication should be
obvious: creating models of collaborative behaviour amongst
stakeholders and increasingly higher systemic levels is a necessary
objective of any development intervention.
Global sustainability must be driven by a
mix of clean and efficient production systems at all scales - micro as
also macro. Material intensities, movement of resources, transport
energy and distribution costs associated with ‘people friendly’ scales
of manufacturing and marketing will take place at levels that nature
can continue to support. This issue highlights and focuses on the
demand generation and innovative delivery mechanisms to ensure
fulfillment of basic needs in order to ‘energise’ our lives.
q
Shrastant Patara
spatara@devalt.org
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