Food for a new mission
----------------------
As some of you know, the World Bank had a discussion list on their up-
coming 2001 Development Report devoted to poverty. In their closing
statement, and among other, the moderators said something like this:
Some list-server participants saw limits to the micro-level approach
(to poverty) and advocated a macro-level approach; the latter requires
co-operation among NGOs and other actors and would likely imply a
transformation of said NGOs.
I wanted to share with you my micro-comment on this macro-issue:
In these times of widening gaps between haves and have-nots, NGOs sim-
ply cannot continue conducting business as usual. The vast majority of
them are long overdue for "REVISIONING/REMISSIONING EXERCISES". These
are literally "retreats" in which NGO staff ask themselves: What are we
all about? In the present climate of Globalisation and pauperisation,
are we part of the problem or of the solution? How are our activities
contributing to combating poverty and bringing about greater equity in
a sustainable, empowering way? If they don't like the ring to the an-
swers to these questions (and many others like these in the same
vein).....well,...you guessed: It's time to remission the organisation!
A few NGOs (e.g. ACHAN in Madras) have successfully done this and are
proactively convincing others in Asia to do likewise. Get your planning
going for the most important workshop held by your NGO in the last "x"
years...
Claudio Schuftan
Hanoi
mailto:aviva@netnam.org.vn
--
Send mail for the `AFRO-NETS' conference to `afro-nets@usa.healthnet.org'.
Mail administrative requests to `majordomo@usa.healthnet.org'.
For additional assistance, send mail to: `owner-afro-nets@usa.healthnet.org'.