Community-grown versus foreign intervention – what works best? Hub/ Vienna, Austria

•   How to measure development impact? – GDP, Happiness Index, HDI (depends on the scale)

•    ”I’m happy when I have free WiFi”

•    Beer Brewers without Borders “Grassroots beer brewers” – controversial to spend money on beer instead of school fees, families etc? – what about other drugs, chewable betelnut?

•    How can we translate micro-level impacts into macro-level change?

•    ”for me change is more micro/ individual level”

•    social entrepreneurship = self motivated thinkers and doers

•    Society affecter “saffecter”!?

•    How can you measure micro-level progress?

•    ”I’m an economist and I need to measure?”

•    ”you dilute the experience”

•    Do we even need economic growth?

•    Poverty is man-made – in theory we can get rid of it

•    ”I’m a human being”

•    How do we know the local people know what they need?

What is the value added by foreigners? Hub/ Vienna, Austria

•    How to evaluate aid effectiveness?

•    From what perspective do we / should we evaluate?

•    Where do funds go? – Transparency

•    ”Aid is not exchange”

•    ”We need a World Union like the European Union”

•    One more person who cares

•    People are their own change agents

•    Financial support more easily raised – plus time

•    Change political systems to make large scale change

•    New perspectives = change

•    will ‘we’ always be useful or will things move to a  ‘south-to-south’ exchange?

•    ”useless to talk at a generic level – ideological discussions too broad”

•    top down and bottom up HAVE to work together – will not work alone

•    technical expertise

•    attitude

•    ”Aid is increasing power imbalance”

•    Need to define why a country is giving aid. Find out why and power imbalance diminishes

•    mandatory school exchange

•    Exchange instead of help/aid

•    ”grassroots movement cannot effect large scale change”

Do people in Africa want to live at a ‘Western’ standard? University of Economics/ Prague, Czech Republic

•    Who knows what others need?

•    People should decide themselves – but do they know what they ned?

•    Ownership – how to establish ownership?

•    In movie, Joel said “I want to study in US” but does he know what it means?

•    What is dream?

•    People in slums see TV and are attracted to the ‘lifestyles’ shown there but even ‘us’ (US/EU) get sober after getting out of the cinema

•    You as a foreigner should not give out money and stuff (creates dependency) but rather knowledge

•    The ‘white’ lifestyle is idealised by people in Africa

•    Based on Ghana example, Africa probably needs safety, democracy, business.

•    There is sheer diversity in Africa – whatever you say about Africa is true as long as you agree that the opposite is also true (someone said that of India before)

Is it important for organizations to be run by locals or foreigners? Columbia/ New York, NY

•   Conclusions/ thoughts: “Foreigners may have the financial means + desire to start up their own development initiative, and are able to do good work”.

•    ”Many of the grassroots NGOs we saw in the movie seemed to be using their own personal funds; Many of these individuals have been in Africa for a very long time. They have made it their home, and may never leave. However, in order to ensure longevity for an organization, we agreed that it was still essential to have a local partner”.

•    “The stakes of having an organization suffer, because it’s foreign founders have to leave for some unforeseen reason, is too high”.

•    “Need to build partnerships with local organizations; If foreigners have gained experience from being both home and abroad, they can apply their ‘holistic’ knowledge to teach/collaborate on best practices with local initiatives”.

•    Question: ”Should it be mandatory for every foreigner working in the developmental aid space to take on a local partner?

•    “Probably best not to implement such a rigid structure. Nonetheless, the organization itself and the people it helps must be looked after no matter what!”

Reconciling foreign vs local involvement in development. GWU/ Washington D.C

Time frame of the relationship between International NGOs (foreign groups) to Local groups

1.    Int. NGO to Local Group: Send scout

2.    Local group to Int. NGO: Info / research

3.    Int. NGO to Local group: commodities, knowledge, people, momentum

4.    Then Local group becomes sustainable micro-economies

5.    After this the local group will exit the relationship with Int. NGO

“The world is flat man” – Decker, Program Coordinator Mobilize.org

How can we make change come from within? Hub/ Zurich, Switzerland

•    Focus on pulling out and education

•    What are the barriers?

•    What do we need to unlearn?

•    Where do the lack of inspiration and the frustration come from?

•    Build upon their values (what values – how do we find what their values are?) and culture (sports)

•    It’s so obvious, so why is it not working?

•    It’s not ‘something’ that is broken. it’s the whole system!

•    microcredits

•    Inspire them that they take responsibility

•    They shouldn’t take ‘help’ for granted

•    give them options and confidence

•    Identify local leaders, game changes and structures

Own development versus helping others. Hub/ Vienna, Austria

•    ”The last 50 years were not about helping Africa”

•    ”It’s their responsibility to change the system”

•    ”the issue where money comes from is not important, what’s impotent is who is implementing”

•    Sometimes people who go to change something in Africa are even more canted by it

•    Creating things can get complex as you may impose your own values, ideas, ego

•    Own motivation can be ego – valid

•    Development tourism

•    Cannot cause damage individually

•    Inspiring others by your uniqueness

•    Call for help due to lack of human resources

•    What does Africa need?

•    If you treat them like kids this is how they are going to act

•    What if they are not able?

•    Give a sense of responsibility

•    Create leadership, not be the leader in the community

•    Help governments

•    Aid as in institution is faulty

•    Local aid with foreign money?

Is it fashionable to care? LSE/ London, UK

What can we learn from Africa (and how)? The Hub/ Zurich, Switzerland

•   Saving the West! – Obesity – can Africa solve this problem for us?

•    ’we’ are very formalised

•    informal networks are powerful

•    positive attitude – happiness factor

•    dance and movement – expression through body – inhibition

•    slowing down, living in the present

•    structure of the society

•    interaction with nature and the earth

•    simple living

•    HOW?

•    physical exchange

•    recognising the intrinsic value of everyone

•    talking to people – building relationships

•    technology – internet

•    in the exchange, discover what solutions you can bring home

•    absorb and listen

•    look with your heart

•    ”we have lost our connection to our heart”