July 1982 RAIN Page 15 government" will no longer be able to supply all needs is becoming more common and, with this, the idea of self- help is becoming more acceptable and necessary. What role should development agencies and private voluntary organizations play in the self-help movement? Learning from the experience of Amasaachina, their greatest contribution can be in providing "encouragers" who are culturally sensitive and have a commitment to using facilitation skills in partnership with local people. "Topping up" contributions in money or hard-to-get supplies can be made after a project is selected and started. Finally, when the project is completed, extension services can be provided in locally-identified areas of need. In this way a holistic, locally controlled development cycle takes place where encouragement and facilitation may lead to a self-help project, which may itself lead to extension, which may lead to more encouragement and another project, and so on. This cycle con- hnues as far and as quickly as desired by the communities involved. The problem with the model described above is in its extreme decentralization. Instead of one or two capital- intensive, flashy showpiece projects, the result is a whole group of small, usually labor-intensive, self-help projects; none of which can be pointed out as "our Project" to donor and host-country officials. Other examples of communities gaining control of their own development process can be found in many parts of the world. Villages in Tanzania, Malaysia, and Bangladesh illustrate just three examples of what can happen when a community relies on its own ingenuity and resources to initiate and carry out projects rather than acting only as the recipient of development "aid" as defined by outside sources. • Tanzania requested the Swedish International Development Agency (SIDA) to study the grain storage problem and suggest ways to deal with the 25 to 40 percent loss of grain due to mildew, vermin, and insect infestation. The consultants hired by SIDA took three years to produce four reports "recommending highly mechanized, extremely expensive silos, and all requiring foreign technicians to run them. An additional $0.75 million was recommended for further designs by consultants!" (from Aid as Obstacle, Lappe, et al., 1980 [see RAINVII:2,18]). A short time later, the Economic Development Bureau (EDB) was invited by the government to examine the problem. The EDB approached the problem with the attitude that their technical know-how could be of use only after the community had become intimately involved in the decision making process. They went straight to the villages involved and facilitated discussions to help the people identify the scope of the problem, not only in terms of physical but also social and economic factors. Unlike most "development" groups, they had no preconceived solution to drop down on the community. As a result of the discussions, a system was designed that combined the best aspects of several traditional methods of grain storage and produced a rat- proof, elevated structure. More importantly, the people gained a new sense of power over their own lives which could be used to deal with other problems facing the community. • A small fishing community in Malaysia found itself downstream from an industrial factory that dumped pollutants into the river in large quantities. At first, they noticed that the fish began to surface frequently, gasping for air. Within a short time, the fish were found floating dead in the water. Their livelihood on the verge of destruction, they had tests done to check the level of the pollutants — which were tens of times, in some cases hundreds of times, higher than government standards. Using this information, they submitted a proposal to the government asking for either intervention to end the pollution or a provision of indemnity payments to the villagers. Discouraged by the lack of action on the part of the government, they initiated and set up a project to farm cockles (a freshwater shellfish) in order to replace their lost fishing industry. Cockles are less susceptible to pollutants and don't concentrate harmful minerals as most other water life does. Due to media pressure, the industry reduced the amount of pollutants that it dumped into the river. The cockle farming project has been so successful that several social service programs and cooperatives have blossomed out of it; yet another example of the achievements of a self-directed community. • In the Sylhet District of northeast Bangladesh over half of the population is either landless or owns less than four acres and must work to cultivate the lands of others. Their reimbursement is next to nothing and, consequently, they have had little control over the factors that influence their lives. In response to this situation, several villages have organized themselves into irrigation cooperatives with the assistance of the International Voluntary Service (IVS). The irrigation teams hire themselves out to landowners and cultivators during the normally unproductive dry season and are able to earn enough to pay off loans (for the pumps) and distribute the profits among the members. The usual "agreement" in this area is that the farmers bear the cost of all the inputs and receive half of the proceeds. With their strong cooperative base and collective bargaining strength, one of the groups of landless farmers made an agreement with the landowners to divide the cost of the inputs. This was at least a step toward a more equal distribution of economic power and is another example of what can be achieved when people band together and use their own resources to reach a common goal. We see many similarities between these examples and our own experience in Ghana. Common to all are the importance of group facilitation and problem solving skills, the synergy that is found when outsiders and insiders work together, the training of local leaders, the involvement of women in the decision making process, and the role of development agencies in providing "encouragers." Self-help as a development strategy can be abused in a number of ways, too. A facilitator may use his/her position of trust in the community for personal gain. Unless
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