Academia

In less than a week I have a 3,000 word essay to hand in. Two days before that, I have to give a 10-minute presentation on five readings for a seminar on Foreign Aid. So it makes perfect sense that I am sitting here in the library – down in the dungeons where talking is prohibited – updating my blog, staring out of the window at a column of golden trees and an overcast sky and flipping through the pages of Cosmo on Campus (I kid you not).

I sat in this same seat yesterday until 8pm, next to the same woman whose name I still do not know, as all we do is smile our greetings. At least yesterday, I got the last reading done for the Foreign Aid seminar: Judith Tendler's 1975 book, Inside Foreign Aid, a look at the organisational environment of USAID, the US government's development arm, and how the very nature of it being a government agency compromised its development mission.

Quite revolutionary for its time – written just a decade after AID was set up (incidentally, the gov't expected it to close within a decade or two) -- although now there are a raft of articles and a whole shelf of books on what's wrong with foreign aid and aid agencies. One of my other readings, by a UK-based governance research group looks at the strategies African countries adopt in negotiating with donors, what factors lead to strong or weak negotiating positions and how a weak position can often push a country to accept projects/programmes that do not fit within its national strategy and ignore some of the key issues that need addressing in favour of donor “pet projects”.

Its readings like these, and indeed, in researching this essay (yes, I have done some work!), that I question what role or even why I want to be involved in such a paternalistic industry. But it's not even that, it's that there isn't an answer on 'how to do development' and so in the process, we, as the west, are continuously screwing up countries by trying to squeeze them into a model that worked previously. Like Tendler says, development approaches have to be innovative, creative, responsive. Different approaches work in different countries, but because gov't development agencies such USAID, which must be the largest (aside from Word Bank and IMF) donor, has to account to Congress and various oversight committees for its expenditure, often goes for non-risky programmes that may have been effective elsewhere.

What really has shown to be effective in bringing greater freedoms and accountability to people is their own participation and ownership; but how does the US get its name on that?

Anyway, I think this is part of the course. They want us to question why we are here; our 'positionality' as they call it.

The essay title, in case you're interested is: “Development is about making the world a better place, discuss the disadvantages and advantages of this definition.'

When I tell my classmates I am struggling with my essay, they look surprised. “It's easy for you Cassie, you're a writer.”

True, but that doesn't mean I don't agonise over every word and sentence, in fact, having looked at some of their essays, I probably worry about words, rhythm and structure too much.

My biggest concern, and which is probably why I am sitting here flicking through the pages of Cosmo (skimpy shorts over black tights, preferably ripped or torn at the sides, if you are curious), is that I am a bit at a loss when it comes to writing like an academic. When we first arrived we were asked to write an introductory essay on the challenges of studying development studies. I waffled, threw in some of the names of those whose books I had flicked through, added a bit historic context, and mostly talked about my own personal challenges and experiences. I thought that was what we were here to do.

Oh, how wrong I was. Seems I was supposed to present a “balanced argument”, not, as my professor said, with strong statements, and make reference to specific authors and their books, articles and even page numbers. PAGE Numbers!!! Who remembers page numbers??? 

 Surprising how people can assume you are together when deep down you are just held together with bits of frayed string you found at a bus stop.

Oh well, back to the essay.

Back to School

Ok, so I'm using my blog as an excuse to avoid working ... I've always been like this. When I was a teenager, instead of writing an essay on the betrayal of Julius Caesar or memorizing quotes from Coriolanus, I wrote poetry and short stories. When I was at college, I started a journal where I opined about the state of England while avoiding writing my thesis on why women are funnier than men. And in every case, when I eventually knuckled down to work, when I had hoovered every inch of the floor, scoured the baths, rearranged my bedroom and DVD collection and made the necessary drinks and snacks needed to work, I found that I actually enjoyed it and wished I had more time.  

 

But I have been meaning to update this blog for some time – so much has happened – and I need a bit of practice writing again, so here goes.

I left Afghanistan in July after spending my final three months there setting up a training and community media centre in Herat, -which was amazing, and needs a whole entry of its own. And, after 11 years on the road -- almost to the day --  I moved back to the UK, as ever to start something new.

This time, I've embarked on a Masters programme, something I had been thinking of for a while.  I'm at the Institute of Development Studies, in Brighton, on their Governance and Development programme.

Yesterday was the first real day and it started with a four-hour "participation" workshop with Robert Chambers, who if you don't know (and why would you) is THE rock star of the development world. He has been at IDS since the 60s, as an undergraduate, then later as a professor and researcher, and revolutionsed the way in which development was "done". He advocated for a “bottom up” approach to development, in which the marginalised; women, poor, disabled, excluded, were asked to participate when it came to policies that affected them. It's startling really to think that it took until the 1980s for this to be taken seriously … now it's de rigour in development work, with varying degrees of success.

So, yesterday, there he was, Robert Chambers, turning 70 next year, tall, wiry, with a shock of white, untamed hair and a megaphone, encouraging us to ride our bikes to uni no matter the weather. I had had a bit of a heads up that he would want us to be doing some touchy feely type of bonding with fellow classmates, so was not really looking forward to it. Like most Brits, there is only so much bonding I can do outside of the pub.

But, Chambers had a surprise for us, well me:

"I want everyone to walk around the room, weave in and out of people, but keep your eyes on the ground, don't look at anyone."

Oh phew, I thought … I can do this!

Of course we weren't allowed to stay in our own private bubbles for ever; he then had us greeting each other with smiles, elbows, knees and then bums (the bottom up approach?); but it broke the ice and when you've gone bum to bum with a woman from the Congo, you've got nothing left to hide.

So the rest of the time he had us running around, forming groups identified by our MAs:

Governance

Globalisation

Gender

Participation and Social Change

Science, Technology and Development

Vulnerability and Poverty

Knowledge and Power

Human Rights

Climate Change and Development

Anthropology and Social Transformation

And into our previous occupation. Surprisingly, there were a few journalists, but also doctors, engineers, local and international NGO workers, social workers, government officials, think tank analysts, consultants, a sports therapist and those who had come straight from undergraduate degrees.

And then it was outside, where we split into our countries; India, the largest contingent occupying the much of the bottom end of the grassy hill. Snuggled up alongside them; Bangladesh, Nepal, Pakistan and Afghanistan. 

The African continent. Ethiopia, Sudan, Somalia, Nigeria, Kenya, Ghana, Gambia, Congo, Zimbabwe, Sierra Leone, Central African Republic and South Africa. 

From the Middle East it was only Iran and Egypt; from Asia, Japan dominated followed by South Korea, then China, Indonesia and Thailand.

From the West, or the Global North in development speak; a smattering of Brits, Americans, Canadians, Italians, Spanish, an Estonian, Germans, Swedes and French.

Brazil was the sole representation from the central and South Americas.And from Mexico (which although is in North America geograhically, it is considered the global south here).

I admit, I did have fun; people have the most amazing stories. I met an English woman with an American accent, who like me turned chameleon to adapt to different school environments, an American journalist my age with a friend in common, an Indonesia woman who I knew in Afghanistan, a Pakistan government official who I spent hours with talking about Haqqani and the ISI, a Canadian guy who spent the last four years working for the UN in Bangkok, an Egyptian who has been working to get youth involved in the reforms there ... and there are so many more to meet. At least I found out  am not the oldest person on the course, in fact, the average age is about mid to late 30s.

I will try to keep my blog updated as it'll be a great reminder of what it's all been about. Let's see what happens.