Background and Code for
Reading Max-Neef
Manfred Max-Neef is a Chilean development economist, and these
chapters are a fragment of his book From the Outside
Looking In. Here we have a bit of his
reflection on a development project undertaken in 1971 in Ecuador. His
book's title refers to an "inside" which is elite First World economics,
and an "outside" which is the perspective of nearly all the world (beyond
institutionalized economics).
The project --ECU-28-- was
sponsored by the "Andean Mission of Ecuador" (MAE), which was begun in
1955 as an arm of the International Labour Organization, a UN agency. Its
purpose was development: to promote "the improvement of living conditions
among Indian communities." By the time ECU-28 got underway, however, MAE
had become part of the Ecuadorian government itself, expressing the "National
Rural Development Plan" of the Ministry of Labour and Social Welfare.
ECU-28 was formally titled
"Planning of Zonal Programmes for the Modernization of Rural Life in the
Andes", and Max-Neef was hired to head it. He read the project as "a mandate
to mobilize the peasants of the selected area, giving them the opportunity
to design their own plan." (p. 27) The meetings he
reports on here are meetings of the local people, through representatives,
to determine what might be done. To Max-Neef, the whole project was to
be defined by the targets of the "modernization":
While all the different
communities had established their individual channels of communication
with higher government authorities, they completely lacked similar communication
channels between themselves, on a horizontal level. Such horizontal communication
was deemed fundamental to the formation of a regional consciousness, itself
indispensable for the design of coherent solutions to be tackled with governmental
support. (p. 65)
That's all
you need to know to read past the flurry of initials, etc. Read it as a
story.
Notice that the peasants involved
here are not necessarily from the mountains: "Andes" here seems to refer
to all of Ecuador, even coastal pieces like Esmeraldas.
Finally, here's a quote from
M-N on the highland parts of the area. It applies in general to the situation
and views of peasants:
The Sierra is a
tragic environment. The accumulated resentment is so great that any person
with any degree of sensibility can feel it surfacing through even the apparently
passive and humble mien of the Indian peasant. It therefore requires much
effort, dedication and, above all, sincerity to gain his confidence. He
has been deceived so many times by so many people, that words no longer
suffice to convince him of one's good intentions. This was the situation
that prevailed in the Ecuadorian Sierra, although improved interrelationships
had been established with a number of Indian communities, thanks to the
sensibility and devotion of many of the MAE field workers. In other communities
the distrust had not yet been overcome, and some MAE members had been killed
in their attempts --mistaken for land robbers or potential exploiters.
In such communities, feelings and reactions bred by more than four centuries
of injustice were extant.
What sorts of goals should we be pursuing when we intervene in other people's
lives and ways? How should those goals be determined? Who should have a
say? The issue here is not just "values", but deep cultural commitments
of which we may not exen be aware.
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