As part of the marching orders for my first EVOKE mission, I spent some time reading and contemplating on the
"Innovation in Africa Tips" compiled by Dave Tait for his
Design in Africa blog. In this article, Tait consolidated lists from social innovators like Harvard's
Ethan Zuckerman, MIT's
Amy Smith, and
Paul Polak, the founder of International Development Enterprises. Tait also tacked on 7 of his own tips to the end of the article for good measure.
The entire list was well worth reading (and re-reading), but I was particularly drawn to Amy Smith's list. Her commitment to solidarity with the developing world is inspiring, and her challenge to live a week on $2 a day is one that I plan to take up very soon. The item I was most challenged and inspired by, though, was the second one on her list: "Listen to the right people."
Smith explained what probably seems so obvious to many people involved in social change that we take it for granted: that listening to the stories of those you are serving is not just a kindness to be shown to them but an absolutely essential part of any true development. I'm reminded of Pope Benedict XVI's recent encyclical,
Caritas in Veritate. In it, the pontiff writes that "the dynamics of inclusion are hardly automatic. Solutions need to be carefully designed to correspond to people's concrete lives, based on a prudential evaluation of each situation... International cooperation requires people who can be part of the process of economic and human development through the solidarity of their presence, supervision, training and respect" (paragraph 47). That element of respect for the real human beings who are a part of any given community is often lost in thinking of them as one more variable in the "problem" that needs "solving." Smith's strong reminder that "using your imagination is not good enough" should call us back to that appreciation of the actual lives of those we're hoping to impact, and then to initiating real interactions with those people to eliminate any future urge to make "educated guesses" about the way they live.
You need to be a member of Urgent Evoke to add comments!
Join Urgent Evoke