Currency can and should be given to poor people’s experiences

 

In the development arena, currency to poor people’s experiences have been partly recognized in the requirement for participation, human rights based approach and poor people’s perspective as important to sustainable development outcome. Despite this, development industry disadvantages and unevenly weighs the value of poor people’s experiences.

 

A number of years ago, the Chief Executive Officer of a leading Western aid organization attempted something very daring. She would for one day, visit a village in an African Country, and like the many poor local people, experience in real life what it meant to live on less than a dollar a day.  I mentioned that this was daring, because even if this Chief Executive Officer lived with the reality  that it was only for one day and  that she will return to the comfort  of her real life, such an experience exposed her to unfamiliar and harsh living conditions – inadequate water and sanitation, inadequate nutrition, to name a few.

Unlike the local residents, the CEO lacked the coping strategies which are the combination of  social networks, skills and experiences that they have built over time to endure their realities.

In recent time, the involvement of consultants – national, international and contractors hired to research poor people’s situation either as evaluators of interventions or as assessors for the development of projects. These consultants are well paid. The communities that are subject of this research and evaluation and development learning are not paid. No currency is given to the validity of their experiences. Development industry has got accustom to paying for experiences and expertise packaged in ways with criteria that exclude the validity of poor people’s experiences. No they won’t be able to supply the evaluation reports with the same tools and scientific rigor that the educated consultant can. Yet, it is undisputed that they can tell their full story better.

No amount of education, position or influence, as illustrated in my example above, can truly replace the lived experiences of people living in poverty. These people live, think, love, learn, decide, analyze, plan, prepare. They are human beings with rights. Development industry can and should find ways to harness and value these experiences as important criteria for industry success.