Elephants and white elephants (buildings) are
found freely throughout Africa…and both are hungry!
An elephant eats more than 1 ton of food per
month. This awe-inspiring animal shoves huge amounts of fodder down its massive
throat…only to vanish into the not-very-effective digestive system. (It only
digests 40% of what it eats.) This continues for most of the day. When we see
them in the nature reserves, we cannot help but wonder how nature can sustain
these beasts and we worry about food for them after 10 years.
It seems that things are out of balance, as it
appears that the elephant consumes more than what Mother Nature can reproduce.
Fortunately, most elephants live in fertile fields of Africa and India where
nature can cope with the onslaught.
However, man does not cope so well with the
demands of white elephants. According to Wikipedia, a white elephant is an
idiom for a valuable but burdensome possession of which its owner cannot
dispose, and whose cost (particularly cost of upkeep) is out of proportion to
its usefulness or worth. The term derives from the story that the kings of Siam
(now Thailand) were accustomed to make a present of one of these animals to
courtiers who had rendered themselves obnoxious, in order to ruin the recipient
by the cost of its maintenance. In modern usage, it is an object, scheme,
business venture, facility, etc., considered to be without use or value
The White Elephants of Job-creation Projects
Many organisations jump into job creating projects
without having any idea of what will happen to the recipients of their
"bleeding hearted" efforts. They never consider whether their
attempts will really empower the recipients and they tend to do all the
thinking for the so-called poor in whose name they launch the project.
Usually their first step is to build a job
creation centre to house the project. Why do they always first think about a
centre? Is it because they want a fixed environment in which to function, or is
it to contribute selflessly to community development? Apart from the cost of
salaries and benefits for the community workers, the building consumes most of
the budget.
The Funders
Let’s consider the funders. They are organisations
or individual who monthly give a certain percentage of their income to poverty
alleviation. They usually agree to the grant after they heard a nerve touching
and emotional proposal about poverty.
The Centre
Right, so now they have the centre and the
salaried employers. The next step is to consider the maintenance costs of the
building and offices. Then, “oops, we forgot about the project that will create
jobs”… and the budget is busted and the poor are still poor.
In the Name of Poverty
In the land of the blind, the one-eyed man rules.
So here, we have a one-eyed, single focussed organisation that starts trial and
error projects to see what works.
Apart from this, internal politics reign supreme
and since no one has any clue about community development, organisational
dynamics take priority. Many organisations focus on marketing themselves
because it is something that they know what to do...and the poor remain poor.
On top of this, instead of creating jobs, more
policies and procedures are written and communicated to cope with the
under-achieving organisation... and the poor remain poor.
Funding
Ah, so it’s almost year-end, and funders must be
shown what was and could be achieved with new funds. The focus is on balancing
the budget...and the poor remain poor.
After years of insanely wasting millions, no job
creation project is visible. Of course, in the proses, both community workers
and the poor become dependent on the funders and neither learn or benefit from empowerment.
The Organisation
Are these bleeding hearted people not the real
white elephants? They are valuable (to make the funders and themselves look great)
but they serve no purpose. The cost of running the organisation and centre is
far higher than the real value that can be gained from them.
Something’s Gotto to be Wrong Here!
How many sustainable and long-term job creation
projects are really established? Are we simply using the poor as a marketing
gadget? Poverty remains and is yelling “feed me! Feed me!”... and the poor
remain poor.
So, what must be done? How does one start a job
creation project that really works? Does the chicken that comes before the egg?
Isn’t the egg before the chicken? If you really want to make a difference - the
right way - then send your questions to info@a2bmovement.com
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