Message-ID: <33941C3A.6CA1@m.cc.utah.edu> Date: Tue, 3 Jun 1997 07:29:30 -0600 From: "James B. Mayfield" <mailto:james.mayfield@M.CC.UTAH.EDU> Subject: One Can Make A Difference To: mailto:DEVEL-L@AMERICAN.EDU
Dear Professor Hari SrinivasJust thought you would like to know of my new book, One Can Make A Difference: The Challenges and Opportunities of Dealing with World Poverty -The Role of Rural Development Facilitators (RDFs) in the Process of Rural Development (New York: University Press of America, 1997). The Foreward of this book has been written by Professor Muhammad Yunus and the book is divided into four sections.
In the First Unit I seek to outline various explanations often given as to why there is world poverty, to consider various approaches, theories and strategies that have been used over the past fifty years or so and to suggest a process of rural development that might be appropriate for our day and age. In the Second Unit of this book, a series of case studies is presented to help identify the ways in which one might make a difference. These case studies suggest in specific terms how one individual with energy and commitment was able to introduce interventions that were both sensitive and efficacious in introducing change and improvement. Each case study takes place in a less developed country, each individual approaches the problem of village development from a slightly different perspective, and each one had to confront a very different set of social, political, economic and cultural conditions. Yet it will be the contention of this section, that there are some common principles that characterized all of these efforts at village development and that anyone seeking to make a difference must be aware of and willing to consider these principles. The Third Unit seeks to introduce to the reader the process by which one might become a rural development facilitator (RDF). Within the broader field of Development there is a sub field that focuses on the processes by which village communities can be energized and organized to confront the challenges of poverty, illiteracy and disease. This new sub-discipline requires special skills and awareness that are not readily developed simply through the reading of a book, or the completion of a university degree. In fact, one of the challenges of this new field of activity is the observation that the work of an RDF requires considerable time in the field, time to live and work with peasants, to appreciate the constraints of their lives. Also in the Third Unit, the three stages of rural development will be defined in some detail, and the processes of empowerment at the individual and at the local community levels are outlined, including a description of how and why the processes of networking and coalition building are so crucial for any long-term process of rural development The Fourth Unit will present field-tested programs, strategies, approaches and action step interventions in various activities in what I am calling the five dimensions of rural development: literacy, health, income generation, environment protection, and local culture enhancement. In writing this book One Can Make A Difference, I am very much aware of the fact that rural development facilitators that will make a difference must have the commitment, the cultural sensitivity, the social awareness, and field experience needed to help people help themselves, but also they will need specific information, knowledge, and competency in areas of interest and relevancy to villagers themselves. One of the interesting dilemmas of this work of village development facilitation is the seemingly contradiction that the more effective the RDF might be, for example, the more technically trained and the more competent the RDF might be in programs related to rural health, village literacy, small-scale enterprises, village credit systems, or in organic agriculture, the greater the danger that the villagers will remain dependent upon that RDF and thus will fail to generate their own sense of responsibility and as a consequence, will be unwilling or unable to take initiative in their own development. Clearly, there are certain skills, competencies, and technical abilities that an RDF needs to be aware of in order to work in a village setting. However, experience also suggests that there needs to be a balance between what the RDF does for the villagers and the extent to which such an RDF is willing to let villagers make mistakes and learn for themselves. In the final analysis, RDFs must continually support local people to take responsibility for their own development, to let the villagers develop a sense of self-esteem and self-reliance, quite independent and often in spite of the RDF's efforts. Finding this balance and conceptualizing this process is the purpose of this book. I hope you will let your friends and associates know of this book, and I hope that it will be of value for people seeking to work in the processes of rural development, especially in seeking to set up rural credit systems (Chapter 13) in rural areas. Copies of the book can be obtained from University Press of America, 4720 Boston Way, Lanham, Maryland,20706.
Sincerely, James B. Mayfield.
-- --Jim Mayfield ================================================== mailto:james.mayfield@m.cc.utah.edu CHOICE Homepage: http://burgoyne.com/pages/choice