From poverty to power - Oxfam-Québec

ANNEX HOW CHANGE HAPPENSTechnological literacy: Science and technology are central todevelopment (with both good and bad impacts). Debates on the use ofIT, mobile telephony, intellectual property rights, technology transfer,GM, nanotechnology, and a host of other issues are only likely toincrease in importance in the coming years. Nevertheless, manyNGOs have a serious blind spot on science and technology, eitherignoring them altogether or focusing purely on their downsides, as inthe case of GM or TRIPS.Disregarding the environment: Most development strategies fail tosituate their approach within a sustainable development paradigm(see page 113). This will have to change to take into account factorssuch as climate change and the loss of biodiversity.Overlooking personal relationships and mutual understanding:Development strategies display an overwhelming focus on individualactors, organised social groups, and institutions, with littleacknowledgement that societies and institutions are composed ofhuman relationships that are a potential locus of change. There ismuch greater scope for development organisations to pursue strategiesthat encourage mutual understanding, empathy, and trust by creatingpersonal relationships between those who have and those who havenot, and which contribute to changing the attitudes and beliefs ofthose in power.DOES COMPLEXITY INVALIDATE THINKING ABOUTCHANGE?If all change is unpredictable and complex, if we can never tell whichbeat of which butterfly’s wing will trigger the hurricane, is there anypoint in trying to analyse unforeseeable events? One possible answeris,‘No’: given such complexity, all international NGOs can reasonablydo is to show solidarity with poor people and their organisationsengaged in unpredictable struggles, accompanying them withouttrying to foresee the future or ‘pick winners’. However, there are severalflaws with this argument. First, ‘solidarity’ itself involves a choice:NGOs select who to work with and who to support as partners on thebasis of criteria that involve implicit assumptions about what isimportant for development and how change happens – for example,‘the best path to change for poor people is through social movements’.443