Beyond the Linear Logic of Project Aid
Alternative Understandings of Participation and Community Vitality
Dr. Amanda Kiessel
Sewalanka Foundation, Sri Lanka
Development Aid
The Response…
1. ‘Participatory community development’
– Social mobilization
– Participatory assessments and planning
– Capacity building of community-based organizations
– Revolving loan funds for microfinance
The Response…
2. Targeted project interventions
– Logical Framework (Logframe)
– Measurable outputs (deliverables)
– Project Cycle Management: complete activities and deliver
outputs according to pre-determined timeline and budget
Intervention
Logic
Goal
Purpose
Outputs
Activities
Objectively
Verifiable
Indicators
Means of
Verification
Assumptions or
Risks
Participatory
Community
Development
Targeted
Project
Interventions
• Both are responses to critiques of development aid
• Both intended to increase accountability, effectiveness
BUT…
• Based on contradictory understandings of the nature
of social transformation
World views make a difference
Linear Paradigm
• Emerged in the 17th century
• Scientific Revolution - advances in
our understanding of linear systems
Linear systems
– Same association between specific causes and effects at
all times and in all places
– PREDICTABLE, can be described by universal laws
– Orderly path, reaches equilibrium or endpoint
Linear Social Systems?
• Provides a sense of security in an uncertain world
• Future is predictable, controllable
(Dewey 1930, Toulmin 1992)
If we uncover the ‘universal laws of
development’ and have the right experts
at the controls, we will move quickly and
certainly towards the desired end state…
a DEVELOPED society
Assumptions of Conventional Project Aid
EXPERT ASSUMPTION
Those who are ‘developed’ have the ability
(and obligation) to intervene on behalf of
those perceived to be less developed.
(Cowen and Shenton 1996)
PREDICTABILITY ASSUMPTION
It is possible to direct social change and achieve predictable
results through planned development interventions.
X inputs + Y activities = Z outputs
Challenges to Project Aid Assumptions
EXPERT ASSUMPTION
(Bunch 1982, Chambers 1983, Haverkort and van der Kamp 1991, Roling and Wagemakers 1998, Uphoff 2002 )
PREDICTABILITY ASSUMPTION
– Experiences of participatory development practitioners
– Ancient Eastern philosophies/religions
– Scientific research on non-linear phenomena and complex
adaptive systems
Beyond a Linear Paradigm
“In chemistry, when Carbon and Oxygen come together, you get Carbon
Dioxide. It’s crystal clear. It’s always the same. But in social science, in
social mobilization, when people come together, it’s different every time.”
• Complex, unpredictable
• Incessantly in motion (no end state)
• Context matters (no universal formula)
• Everything is linked and interdependent
(no objective observer/planner)
• Personal transformation is at the basis of
social transformation
• Change emerges from within the system
(cannot be imposed or planned)
Social Change in a Complex World
Social Change in a Complex World
If you give me a fish you have
fed me for a day.
If you teach me to fish…
…then you have
fed me until the
water is polluted
and the beach is
seized for hotel
development…
…but if you teach me to
ORGANIZE…
…then whatever the challenge, I can
join together with my community and
we will develop our own solution.
Social Change in a Complex World
1. Agent rule sets and reactivity
• Change attitudes, increase likelihood of acting and interacting
2. Interactions between agents
• Density of local network
connections, capacity to act as a
single agent
• Links with external agents and
institutions
3. Policies and institutions that contribute to an enabling
macro environment
Implications
Development Aid
• Projects with pre-determined inputs, activities, budget
allocations, and outputs unnecessarily restrict the process of
change they claim to support
• Funding for ‘participatory development’ should be flexible,
process-oriented, available in smaller amounts over more time
Research
• Project evaluations do not look at underlying assumptions
• Need more in-depth ethnographies of specific interventions
– Unanticipated consequences
– Role of individual ‘agents’
– Influence of context and changing conditions
GNH and a Complexity Paradigm
• Provides value-based ‘mark at the top of the page’
– Flexible reminder of where we want to go
– Maintain focus despite daily complexities of social change
• Provides space and flexibility to adjust to local context,
adapt to change, and learn from experience
• Highlights role of individual agents in system-level change