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NEF Online Discussion Groups allow busy practitioners, development
program managers, interested students and academics to explore with
colleagues issues facing contemporary development practice.
By reading the short descrption,
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Name |
Moderator
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Messages
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Last
Post |
Local Economic Development in a Global Economy |
Jonathan-Belke |
11 |
1/1/2002
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| For the past ten years my agency has been involved in providing loans to low-income individuals for establishing small income-generating projects, primarily at the household level. With the limited capital we have, we've managed to reach several hundred individuals and can fairly estimate that we have helped those individuals to increase their monthly income by an amount which lifts them out of the range of necessity into having some choice in their lives. Recent government reforms have focused attention on assuring the availability of capital for and outreach to what are termed "small enterprises," businesses which to date are based primarily in the capital and provincial cities. This change in policy has caused the collapse of a significant number of smaller projects for which we as an agency provided capital. Folks seem to be back where they started. I want to continue to help people but it all seems so futile and a bit unfair. I've set up a meeting with my Director for a frank discussion on the issues. How can I approach this topic? Should I just give up? Is this a realistic analysis or just a momentary frustration? What response might I anticipate from my Director? What alternatives might be open for myself and for my agency? |
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Whatever Happened to Poverty Alleviation |
Mohamed-Abdel-Hafiz |
16 |
1/21/2004
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| Let’s face it, I got into this kind of work because people need my help and I like helping them. Now it seems that all I ever hear about is human resource development, institution building and economic reform. Worst of all, most of these activities seem to ignore the very people I want to help. Aren’t we off track? Shouldn’t we get back to the basics? |
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Professionals and Professionalism |
Roger-Hardister |
2 |
1/1/2002
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| I’ve noticed over the years that the further away you are from the people you aim to serve, the more status you seem to have in the eyes of many others and the more “professional” you are often considered to be. Real professionals all to often don’t seem to bother too much about getting to know first hand the people who need their help. They don’t seem to have much time to understand what the people themselves think they need. I guess that’s what being a real professional is all about – previous experiences and really knowing what’s best without having to waste too much time in futile investigations and discussion with people. I guess knowing and following the rules gives you an advantage which new folks such as myself don’t have? How long and what does it take to become a real professional? |
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Staff Development and Training, Whose Problem? |
Majdi-Al-Qorom |
3 |
1/1/2002
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| As a member of the Board of Directors of a large local development organization, I’m concerned about how we as an agency conduct our affairs and how we relate to the people we are trying to help. Management in our agency keeps calling for more “training and staff development” for the folks who work for us. Our resources are limited and as far as I’m concerned should be spent on helping those who need us most. Staff can get by on their own. Don’t we hire them because they know how to do what we need? Many colleagues in other agencies agree with me – training and staff development don’t seem to have an impact on what we do. They don’t produce results in terms of the people our agency was set up to serve. But then, I may be wrong. Have I misunderstood the situation? Is there something I’m missing here? |
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Culture and Development |
Abdel-Rahman-El-Mahdi |
0 |
1/1/2002
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| Culture seems to me to be about something artists do or maybe something anthropologists study. It’s a waste of time and money for us when we have so many people in need who lack the means for earning a livelihood, basic education and health services. We should be thinking about how to increase the incomes of these people, improve the health of mothers and children, and in general, to raise their standards of living. Maybe then we can talk about culture? |
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Promoting Institutional Change |
Alaa-Saber |
0 |
1/1/2002
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| In our agency we want to help to enhance the capabilities of existing institutions in our country to be more responsive to the needs of people. We’ve talked among ourselves and we feel that change is necessary. We think we have a role to play in bringing about this change. Where do we start if we want to be effective in promoting and facilitating institutional change? |
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From Development Worker to Social Activist |
Tarek-Abdel-Ghany |
0 |
1/1/2002
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| There’s a lot of talk in some countries about the difference between being a Development worker and a social Activist. Aren’t they the same? Don’t they need the same skills? |
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Development Practice Theory |
Roger-Hardister |
0 |
1/1/2002
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| I’m a practical Person. I enjoy working and achieving, not simply reading and talking. I want to get things done and I don’t find what I read helps me much. My supervisor tells me I’ll never really be good at what I do Because I don’t really understand why I’m successful in one case and not in another. I guess it’s just the circumstances or luck? She talks about something called “practice theory” and why it’s important for me as a development professional. I don’t get it, where do such theories come from and why do I need any kind of theory. I work according to my experience, isn’t theory for students and academics? |
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Contextualizing Civil Society |
Abdul-Majid-Haddad |
2 |
1/21/2004
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| The government has a new approach. The agency has a new project. They say we are building something called “Civil Society” it’s a new idea, something that everyone else has and we somehow lack. But don’t we have our own forms of social organization, don’t we interact with one another, set up institutions and govern ourselves in ways which suite our own culture and traditions? Do we really need these outsiders to tell us how to do these things? Do their ideas really fit our needs and priorities? Don’t we have our own forms of organization and governance and aren’t they more suitable for us? |
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