Post Three.

Last Saturday I participated in the ‘Melbourne Development Un-conference’ hosted by the Melbourne Development Circle. I came across a very interesting and successful development project that targeted vital development issues including; economic prosperity, sustainability, nutrition and community building and infrastructure. The project in question was initiated and run by Co Design Studios, Agile Development Group and Rural Friends for Community Development. In conjunction with the local community they designed floating vegetable gardens for the floating villages on Lake Tonle Sap in Cambodia.

 

Village residents do not own land and therefore are unable to grow vegetables. This impacts on how often vegetables are consumed by the community which has obvious health impacts. The three NGOs found that families on Lake Tonle Sap were consuming vegetables approximately twice a week, as they had limited access to vegetables and they were expensive for them to buy on a regular basis.  The team worked with a particular community to design floating vegetable gardens through low cost solutions from recycled and locally available materials (CoDesign Studio, 2012).

 

 
Economic prosperity and economic sustainability are major factors in this development project. As the majority of the families in the Tonle Sap community are classified as ‘poor’ to ‘very poor’ by the Cambodian government (CoDesign Studio, 2012), it was important to ensure that the floating vegetable gardens were inexpensive to make (less than $25), and made from local materials that could be easily sourced by the communities. This ensured that floating vegetable gardens could be easily rebuilt if they were damaged without substantial costs.
 

The Floating vegetable gardens offer families of the Lake Tonle Sap community the ability to generate extra income. Families are able to sell produce that is not consumed or needed by the family. This generation of extra income helps to target the number of people living on less than US$1.25 a day. According to the OECD, economic growth is the most powerful instrument for reducing poverty and improving the quality of life in developing countries. The floating vegetable gardens have made it possible for families on Lake Tonle Sap to generate more income than they would normally.

Environmental sustainability was a vital component in this project. The floating gardens were made from plastic bottles which were used as floatation devices, as well as large rice bags, cane baskets and natural products including wood, bamboo, scrap tin and rubber. Employing waste to produce the floating vegetable gardens helped in reducing the amount of solid waste dumped in and around the lake. Swapan (2009) states that informal waste recovery and recycling is important for developing countries, where public authorities are financially incapable of handling the major proportion of solid waste. Communities recycling and utilising solid waste enables them to produce products that not only offer families economic benefits, but helps to control the destruction of the environment in which they live.   

Nutrition and hunger was targeted in the project by allowing families to have access to vegetables, so they could be consumed on a regular basis to help improve health outcomes within the community. Along with improving nutrition, floating vegetable gardens help achieve better food security, reducing the number of people suffering from hunger as well as providing opportunities for productive livelihoods. AusAid (2012) reports that hunger places serious constraints on economic growth as workers are less productive. Improving food security enables the poor to earn an income and become more resilient, allowing them to participate in economic activity and contribute to social development needs including health and education, important for the economic growth of a country. What is also significant to note is how small projects that target individual households can have more success in dealing with issues such as hunger and nutrition, whereas large projects believe nutrition and hunger can be combatted by allowing more produce in the market economy.    

Infrastructure development and community building were key features in the success of the project. Community building was initiated by the three NGOs using participatory methods, allowing local Tonle Sap communities to come together and plan the infrastructure of the floating vegetable gardens and to allow communities to witness the finished products. This turned out to be significantly important as other communities on Lake Tonle Sap began making their own floating gardens. When the NGOs returned to evaluate the success of the project, they found that communities had used their own innovation and creative thought, and expanded beyond floating vegetable gardens to creating floating pig stys and floating duck farms. These animals were sold off to other communities and helped in generating extra income for families. The community’s innovation in creating floating livestock gardens demonstrated how the communities had become empowered in developing their own ideas at producing an income and become more resilient.   

To ensure economic projects in the developing world have a positive impact, it is vital to ensure that local customs and cultures are not ignored in the process, but instead are included in the development of programs. The NGOs involved in the project did acknowledge cultural barriers and gender issues however, this was not necessarily included in the finished products. In the communities of Tonle Sap, the women already have many responsibilities including fishing, fish processing, cooking, housework, caring for the children and the elderly and educating children. Even though the women liked the idea of the floating gardens they had reservations about them as they felt they would add to their heavy work load (CoDesign Studio, 2012). The women outlined for the floating gardens to be successful, their husbands and children would need to cooperate and help out with maintaining the floating vegetable gardens. As the evaluation stage has not been concluded it is unclear as to whether this issue was overcome in this particular project.       

        Investing in agriculture and rural development is essential to improve incomes and employment, food security, enterprise opportunities, gender equality and the environment for the majority of the world’s poor who often rely directly on agriculture for subsistence. What is interesting to note about this project is that it was small and relatively inexpensive to conduct, and most importantly it was successful. This illustrates that there is not necessarily a need for vast amounts of endless resources to be pumped into developing countries. What is needed is creativity, initiative and team work between NGOs and the beneficiaries.  

Bibliography

Australia Agency for International Development (AusAid). 2012 ‘Sustainable Economic Development – Improving Food Security’, Thematic Strategy, Commonwealth of Australia, Canberra, Australia, Pg. 1 - 19

 

CoDesign Studio. 2012 ‘Cambodia Capacity Building Project: Report 1 - Scoping and Visioning’, CoDesign Studio Limited, Carlton, Australia, Pg. 1 - 28

 

Swapman, M. 2009 ‘Socio- economic Aspects of Solid Waste Recovery and Recycling in Bangladesh: A Case Study of Khulna City’, The Annual Conference of Australian Sociology Association, The Australian National University, Canberra, Australia, Pg. 1 – 14

 

Post Two.

              Naila Kabeer’s article ‘Women’s Economic Empowerment Offers a Win-Win Scenario’ (2012) in the Guardian’s Poverty Matters blog, reflects on the link between gender equality and economic growth. Kabeer states that gender equality and economic growth are not reciprocal. Whereas greater gender equality in education and employment has a positive contribution to economic growth, economic growth has a less consistent and sometimes even negative result on gender equality.

Kabeer details how the relationship between gender equality and economic development follows at least two paths. Firstly, by educating women and allowing them to gain higher levels of education as this expands the talent pool, resulting in improved human potential within a market. The second path develops economic prosperity for the country through women’s positive effect on the next generation of workers. When women have more resources they are more likely to promote nutrition, health and education of their children.

Kabeer is undoubtedly correct in illustrating the positive link between the promotion of gender equality in education and employment and economic development. Evidence suggests that increasing participation of females in education improves human development outcomes such as child survival, health and schooling. The impact of these outcomes are larger for society when women’s access to education is improved compared to only educating men. Various studies have shown that when women engage in the labour market it enhances a women’s domestic autonomy by giving them a source of income. Economic independence for women leads to a greater sense of self-sufficiency and improves their capacity to provide for their families and shape their own destiny (Mallika, 2012).

Economic development on the other hand does not result in greater gender equality. Kabeer shows how the forces that give rise to wealth do not equate to gender equality by citing various examples. Saudi Arabic is among the wealthiest countries in the world however, it only ranks 131 out of 135 countries in the World Economic Forum’s 2011 Global Gender Gap Report. China and India too have good economic growth rates, yet report high mortality among girls relative to boys. Men are given priority within their society as a whole, in education, medical treatment and the allocation of food within the family.  

At the micro level development there is a strong correlation between woman’s economic productivity and gender outcomes; however, at a macro level finding a correlation between improved gender equality and economic developmenthas been more challenging  (Morrison, Raju& Sinha, 2007).

Kabeer hopes that women’s economic empowerment will transform the opportunities generated by economic growth into broader gender equality. Kabeer also states that affirmative action needs to be taken by states to address the constraints that firstly hold women back, and secondly prevent women and men sharing in the benefits provided by women’s increased prosperity.

Although what Kabeer says is true, that governments need to ensure that laws and policies are put in place to ensure women’s full participation so men and women share the benefits of economic growth, it is important to acknowledge that economic development does not necessarily stop discrimination towards women (Duflo, 2012). Governments need to develop policies that address gender imbalances in economic development and also ways of empowering women to ensure they are given rights, resources and a voice.

 

An insightful book that discusses these issues in great detail is ‘Half the Sky: How to Change the World’ by Nicholas Kristof and Sheryl Wudunn - A great read for the inspiration and hope it brings to the possibility of releasing women from oppression, abuse and economic independence on others


http://www.ted.com/talks/sheryl_wudunn_our_century_s_greatest_injustice.html

Bibliography

Kabeer, Naila. 2012 ‘Women’s Economic Empowerment Offers a Win-win Scenario’, The Guardian, http://www.theguardian.com/global-development/poverty-matters/2012/nov/06/women-economic-empowerment-win-scenario

Duflo, E. 2012 ‘Women Empowerment and Economic Development’, Journal of Economic Literature, Vol. 5, Iss. 4, Pg. 1051 – 1079

Mallika, M. G. 2012 ‘Labour Market Dynamic of Kerala: A Gender Perspective’, International Journal of Research in Commerce, Economic and Management, Vol. 2, Iss. 7, Pg. 95 – 100

Morrison, A. Raju. D & Sinha, N. 2007 ‘Gender Equality, Poverty and Economic Growth’, Policy Research Working Paper, The World Bank, Gender and Development Group

First Post.

John D’Emilio’s article from 1983 ‘Capitalism and Gay Identity’ explores how the development of capitalism, in particular the free market, has allowed homosexual behaviour to flourish.   He states that over time capitalism has gradually undermined the self-sufficient base of the nuclear family and allowed family members to sell their labour and move away from an interdependent, nurturing family life.  This has allowed the gay community to develop an identity separate from traditional family life. Although D’Emilio raises some interesting points, I disagree with various parts of his argument.

One of the arguments in the article highlights the idea of how capital growth and wage labour has eroded self-efficient, independent and patriarchal family units, leading the way for people to have other opportunities and sexual choices in their life. Although this is true, and gays and lesbians have been able to find autonomy and self- identity, influencing the expansion and development of homosexual communities, wage labour has given other people options also, especially hetero sexual women.

D’Emilio believes that gay men and lesbians were not as prevalent in the past. This statement is easy to disagree with as there are numerous forms of evidence to suggest that erotic actions of gays and lesbians have existed for many centuries in all cultures, it was just suppressed (Weeks, 1981). What hasn’t existed is a ‘label’ for homosexuality or the ability to have gay or lesbian social identity.

Another argument raised by D’Emilio is the strong correlation between years of schooling and lesbian activity. It is possible that women spent more time in education to avoid pressures of marriage, however, there are also various other possibilities that come into play as to why women attended college, for example the strong desire to support oneself economically rather than being dependent on others for your welfare.

While D’Emilio raised some thought-provoking notions about the changing role of the family due to the development of capitalism, his ideas about homosexuality, identity and prevalence cannot not be proven and supported on economic changes alone.  

 

Weeks, J. 1999 ‘Discourse, Desire and Sexual Deviance: Some Problems in a History of Homosexuality’, in Aggleton, P & Parker, R. ‘Culture, Society and Sexuality: A Reader’, UCL Press, London - http://www.femeti.org.mx/femetimgt/img_circular/Cambridge%20University%20Press%20-%20Culture,%20Society%20and%20Sexuality.pdf#page=118