Thread by @dociftee

Underrated Change

Change takes years, consists of many very small victories, contains concessions at every stage, and is accompanied by many humiliating ups & downs. This sounds very "unromantic" and that's the point.

The only way to achieve the change we need is to change our understanding of how change actually happens. Work in development is about change. And change brings conflict, pain, confusion. Only out of this emerges a new understanding.

This being so, we might as well face change straight-on and, in our case, this means for us to start deconstructing the whole existing development delusion with its myths that have led us to the unwarranted situation in which people have come to accept scarcity and poverty….

as inextricable facts of life. But the universe does not have unmovable laws that lead to poverty (!); it has habits --and habits can be broken. (A. Anand, W. Morehouse, and T. Robbins)

How? Through social organization and mobilization that are the basis of a strategic resource for a sustainable HR-based development --and sustainable development cannot be achieved through micro-projects divorced from the people.

The development perfectionists -leading exponents of the efficiency-above-all-school-never show distributional concerns. Ignoring this continues to lead us to the kind of disasters in development schemes that we have grown so accustomed to accept with remarkable little criticism.

The world as we have created it is a process of our thinking. It cannot be changed without changing our thinking.” ― Albert Einstein

Totalitarian interventions may occasionally achieve progress in social policies. Totalitarian ideologies have always liked to wear a mask of 'reason', but have also skillfully exploited the emotional inclinations of their subjects. (Friedrich Durrenmatt, Swiss playwright)

Current changing circumstances require that we more-than-think about new approaches. At this juncture,then, we need people who can rescue themselves from their own modest objectives (&others’ myths); we need development thinkers (and practitioners) of consequence. (E. D. Jaffe)

The West won the world not by the superiority of its ideas or values or religion (to which few members of other civilizations were converted),but rather by its superiority in applying organized violence.Westerners often forget this fact;non-Westerners never do(Samuel Huntington)

The intention across current global development governance institutions is for Multistakeholderisms (PPPs) to actively replace multilateralism (UN).(vi) By way of example, consider the ACT-Accelerator which includes COVAX (run by GAVI).

The Accelerator was deliberately constructed outside WHO so that the voices of developing countries in the World Health Assembly would have no say in the policies put in place around medicines, diagnostics, vaccines and health systems regarding Covid-19.

The Accelerator includes Gates, the International Federation of Pharmaceutical Manufacturers and Associations (IFPMA), the Global Fund, UNITAID and the Welcome Trust, among other. It was this group that designed the COVAX Facility including the limit of COVAX

to 20% of the populations in participating countries --nice reinterpretation of HR… (David Legge)
Multistakeholderism simply increases the (undue) influence of big business and those rendered rich.

Better late than never, in these platforms, trust must be replaced by vigilance and accountability --long recognized conflict of interest principles are thus in need of revival! (Judith Richter)

@threadreaderapp please compile