| www.mincode.org |
mindanao coalition of development NGO networks
| kalinaw... kalambuan... |
| WELCOME TO MINCODE WEBSITE |
| _____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ www.mincode.org © 2008 all rights reserved |
 |  |  |  |  |  |
articles
NOTE:
IF YOU WANT A COPY
OF THIS PUBLICATION,
PLEASE SEND US A
REQUEST LETTER
THROUGH E-MAIL @
secretariat@mincode.org
and we will send you a
PDF file on your E-MAIL
address. Thank You!
IF YOU WANT A COPY
OF THIS PUBLICATION,
PLEASE SEND US A
REQUEST LETTER
THROUGH E-MAIL @
secretariat@mincode.org
and we will send you a
PDF file on your E-MAIL
address. Thank You!
DEVELOPMENT FOR WHOM?
By DOLORES S. CORRO
THIS SEEMS TO BE A QUESTION THAT is asked time an again but we still haven't find the answer. Ideally
development is supposed to bring wellbeing and happiness to all. But contrary to what we imagine
development to be, we realized that it's quite difficult to define development without bringing what we believe
development to be or whether we think of it as positive or negative. In our own context, what happens when
development occurs? We are all witnesses of the general transformation and destruction of natural
environment and of social relations. We can cite several cases here a classic example maybe the case of
indigenous peoples who eventually become divided over the issue of mining industry in their ancestral lands.
The whole of Mindanao is not spared over the issue of land and in the name of development.
When a country becomes developed, natural and human resources are all commodified It enters the whole
chain of economic system legitimized by licensing procedures. Social relations then undergo the same
commodification process. Paid labor and work making subsistence dependent on prices on the labor market.
Prostitution may be officially suppressed but it has become a common lot , in a developed country everybody
is on sale.
At the moment, the development industry sees its mission as one of providing opportunities to the developing
world via transfers of money and technology. The poor become owners and operators of existing models but
rarely creators of their own. This technical model tens to inhibit local expression and development is found in
the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). Signed by the heads of states of 189 including the Philippines in
the year 2000. The MDGs represent a common agenda for the international community. Appearing highly
practical, measurable and feasible, they have been firmly endorsed by international financial institutions, such
as the World Bank, and have also become a major focus for many NGOs and civil society organizations,
mobilizing support and engagement across different areas of expertise and geographical locations. MDGs
could represent important stepping stones for a more humane, just and sustainable world.
“But our experience with development over the past fifty years reveals fundamental shortcomings in this
paradigm. For one thing, quantification alone cannot provide us with adequate or accurate indicators of the
quality of life, and aggregate measures give us no useful information about how gains and losses may be
distributed. For another, a focus on short-term economic gain pays much less attention than it should to
issues of long-term sustainability in broader and less economic senses.
Most important, the current paradigm fails to link development activities to their surrounding context. Actions
are isolated and discrete, experiments are performed on the environment rather than within the environment.
Because the local context is so often disregarded, our development institutions have built up very little
understanding about this context and how to operate within it. At the same time, however, development
projects often succeed by design or default in altering these contexts in negative ways.”
One size does not fit all, that polices and prescriptions emanating from the world's financial capitals cannot
serve as the basis for a sustainable response to problems of poverty and inequality. There is a need to
comprehend the importance of according primacy to local reality in our plans and policies, of involving local
actors, and of connecting these at the top of the hierarchy with those at the bottom. We have to accept that by
doing this successfully, it will take much longer- and be much harder- than we originally imagined.
It called for structural transformations in the global order, rather than mere palliatives. We need to strengthen
the capacity of the poor for self-reliant development and to transform socio-economic and political structures,
including redistributing wealth and means of production.
The emphasis on growth and the use of gross national product as an indicator of progress should be
criticized. “Development is a whole. Its ecological, cultural social, economic, institutional and political
dimensions can only be understood in their systemic interrelationships, and action in its service must be
integrated.
As such, a framework for a holistic development should therefore consider the following processes:
• Need oriented Development should be geared to meeting human needs, both material and non-
material.
• Endogenous It should stem from the heart of each society, which defines in sovereignty its values and
the vision of its future.
• Self-reliant The development of each society should rely primarily on its own strength and resources in
terms of its members' energies and its natural and cultural environment.
• Ecologically sound. The resources of the biosphere must be utilized rationally in full awareness of the
potential of local ecosystems as well as globaland local outer limits imposed in present and future
generations.
• Based on structural transformation Structural reforms are needed so as to realize the conditions of self-
management and participation in decision-making by all those affected by it, from the rural or urban
community to the world as a whole.
Development framework should challenge existing models and definitions of development. It should reject the
idea of a one-size fits all development, stressing instead pluralism, diversity and the need for societies to tap
the reservoirs of their own cultures and histories a new paradigm of development which aims to satisfy basic
human needs on the basis of self-reliance and harmony with the environment and with emphasis on
endogenous and equity.
A paper presented during the Mindanao Studies Conference “Checkpoints and Chokepoints:
Learning from Peace and Development Paradigms and Practices in Mindanao,
Waterfront Insular Hotel, Davao City, February 26-27, 2007
By DOLORES S. CORRO
THIS SEEMS TO BE A QUESTION THAT is asked time an again but we still haven't find the answer. Ideally
development is supposed to bring wellbeing and happiness to all. But contrary to what we imagine
development to be, we realized that it's quite difficult to define development without bringing what we believe
development to be or whether we think of it as positive or negative. In our own context, what happens when
development occurs? We are all witnesses of the general transformation and destruction of natural
environment and of social relations. We can cite several cases here a classic example maybe the case of
indigenous peoples who eventually become divided over the issue of mining industry in their ancestral lands.
The whole of Mindanao is not spared over the issue of land and in the name of development.
When a country becomes developed, natural and human resources are all commodified It enters the whole
chain of economic system legitimized by licensing procedures. Social relations then undergo the same
commodification process. Paid labor and work making subsistence dependent on prices on the labor market.
Prostitution may be officially suppressed but it has become a common lot , in a developed country everybody
is on sale.
At the moment, the development industry sees its mission as one of providing opportunities to the developing
world via transfers of money and technology. The poor become owners and operators of existing models but
rarely creators of their own. This technical model tens to inhibit local expression and development is found in
the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). Signed by the heads of states of 189 including the Philippines in
the year 2000. The MDGs represent a common agenda for the international community. Appearing highly
practical, measurable and feasible, they have been firmly endorsed by international financial institutions, such
as the World Bank, and have also become a major focus for many NGOs and civil society organizations,
mobilizing support and engagement across different areas of expertise and geographical locations. MDGs
could represent important stepping stones for a more humane, just and sustainable world.
“But our experience with development over the past fifty years reveals fundamental shortcomings in this
paradigm. For one thing, quantification alone cannot provide us with adequate or accurate indicators of the
quality of life, and aggregate measures give us no useful information about how gains and losses may be
distributed. For another, a focus on short-term economic gain pays much less attention than it should to
issues of long-term sustainability in broader and less economic senses.
Most important, the current paradigm fails to link development activities to their surrounding context. Actions
are isolated and discrete, experiments are performed on the environment rather than within the environment.
Because the local context is so often disregarded, our development institutions have built up very little
understanding about this context and how to operate within it. At the same time, however, development
projects often succeed by design or default in altering these contexts in negative ways.”
One size does not fit all, that polices and prescriptions emanating from the world's financial capitals cannot
serve as the basis for a sustainable response to problems of poverty and inequality. There is a need to
comprehend the importance of according primacy to local reality in our plans and policies, of involving local
actors, and of connecting these at the top of the hierarchy with those at the bottom. We have to accept that by
doing this successfully, it will take much longer- and be much harder- than we originally imagined.
It called for structural transformations in the global order, rather than mere palliatives. We need to strengthen
the capacity of the poor for self-reliant development and to transform socio-economic and political structures,
including redistributing wealth and means of production.
The emphasis on growth and the use of gross national product as an indicator of progress should be
criticized. “Development is a whole. Its ecological, cultural social, economic, institutional and political
dimensions can only be understood in their systemic interrelationships, and action in its service must be
integrated.
As such, a framework for a holistic development should therefore consider the following processes:
• Need oriented Development should be geared to meeting human needs, both material and non-
material.
• Endogenous It should stem from the heart of each society, which defines in sovereignty its values and
the vision of its future.
• Self-reliant The development of each society should rely primarily on its own strength and resources in
terms of its members' energies and its natural and cultural environment.
• Ecologically sound. The resources of the biosphere must be utilized rationally in full awareness of the
potential of local ecosystems as well as globaland local outer limits imposed in present and future
generations.
• Based on structural transformation Structural reforms are needed so as to realize the conditions of self-
management and participation in decision-making by all those affected by it, from the rural or urban
community to the world as a whole.
Development framework should challenge existing models and definitions of development. It should reject the
idea of a one-size fits all development, stressing instead pluralism, diversity and the need for societies to tap
the reservoirs of their own cultures and histories a new paradigm of development which aims to satisfy basic
human needs on the basis of self-reliance and harmony with the environment and with emphasis on
endogenous and equity.
A paper presented during the Mindanao Studies Conference “Checkpoints and Chokepoints:
Learning from Peace and Development Paradigms and Practices in Mindanao,
Waterfront Insular Hotel, Davao City, February 26-27, 2007
