Why Development Is Not Sexy
Being the hero is sexy. It sells. The picture of a smiling kid who received food because of your donation is instant gratification. Big numbers with high success rates are valued. Work is fast-paced, with hard data outlining success and it seems that everything follows an onwards and upwards trajectory. How many websites make you think you can solve world hunger or poverty through your donation?
We all love to see clean, packaged solutions that follow a plan and see it through, right? But how often does that actually play out in our own lives? How often do our daily lives go to plan? How often has your life been on a strictly onward and upward trajectory?
Systems of poverty and oppression have been in place for hundreds, if not, thousands of years. The hard work of change and growth is messy and full of ups and downs. We have all seen that in our own lives. Now expand this to a community, and it’s even messier and slower. Throw in systemic injustice and it is even more complicated.
Development work is not sexy, and it is not sexy because change takes a long time. Our attention spans are short and sustainable change takes longer than we can hold our attention. Any positive breakthroughs are quickly met with new challenges. When a single mom finds a much-needed job, she now has to find childcare and needs help with meal preparation and planning.
Personal change and transformation are deeply vulnerable and private. Do you share your counseling breakthroughs publicly? Do you want your job loss and subsequent career shifts publicized? Doing good development work means treating others the way we ourselves want to be treated—not using other people’s misfortune as an opportunity to make money or raise awareness. If development workers are partnering deeply to see transformative change, many details aren’t publicly shareable.
A practical example of good development work comes from H.M. King Bhumibol Adulyadej The Great, also known as King Rama IX, King of Thailand from 1946 to 2016. He was a gifted development worker who understood the nature of the work deeply. Here is an excerpt defining his approach:
His Majesty gave a simple formula for these projects: “Understand, Access, and Develop.” Understand means understanding the geographical and social makeup of the location, access refers to having access to geo-social information so that the project can truly answer the needs of the people, while development means setting the guidelines to the development project based on a holistic, multi-dimensional approach incorporating all aspects of knowledge and folk wisdom, as well as the potential to further experiment and improve the procedures that are sustainable and infinitely applicable.
https://www.senate.go.th/assets/portals/1/news/1346/1_the_wisdom_of_monarch_eng.pdf
pg.18
Quality development work embodies these principles. Understanding takes time. Access takes trust. Development requires flexibility and experimentation—being willing to adjust the process to achieve the desired outcome. We all need each other and good development work depends on this. Improving broken systems requires patience, creativity, adaptability, and hope. It means those of us from the Global North acknowledging our privilege and partnering with locals to achieve long-lasting and sustainable change. It is slow and messy work. That is what we are committed to—the hard work of sustainable development.
