we hear a lot about failed development projects, things that implementers can improve on, wasted development aid funds, development projects which do more harm than good...you get the picture. think bill easterly.
i listened to a talk from the positive deviance initiative (based at tufts university, although that's not why i'm writing about them) yesterday. the positive deviance method focuses on what is working, and allowing people to live better, right at this moment. instead of going into a community and telling people what will work, the method listens to members of the community and identifies the outliers. those who are succeeding against the odds. not the sick, but those who are thriving. and again, instead of telling the community what they need to do to improve their predicament, the method encourages the community to realize the solutions--and implement them.
yes it sound a little crunchy, and yes, it's probably really difficult to monitor and display concrete results (good or bad). but, it sounds like a good way to work in this field if you want to be an optimist.
http://www.positivedeviance.org/
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