There is continual debate on how to best use the money of developed countries to aid undeveloped ones. Personally, I think that there is a fairly simple strategy worth trying. Certainly in the part of Africa that I know, and I assume in many other under-developed places in the world, people lack simple reading material. Almost daily I am asked for “les documents”. People just want something to read. While this makes for a convenient disposal of old magazines and the copious amounts of would be fire starter that Peace Corps sends me, it could also be a huge opportunity for development projects, especially those that are somewhat abstract and hard to explain, like say gender equity promotion.
What if a sizable portion of foreign aid monies went to the production and distribution of pamphlets that explained various aspects of our work here? So far the only such publications that I know of are religious, followed (oh so distantly) by a Peace Corps production, Leve-Toi Jeune Fille, which targets youth, primarily girls and discusses health, education, and important life skills. I can’t say to what affect that the Jehovah’s Witness pamphlets have on people’s faith here, but they are very popular and there doesn’t seem to be a shortage of faith.
Much of my work is spent explaining the definitions of complex foreign terms like gender equity, harassment, and stop beating that small child for apparently no reason. Okay, well maybe not that last one, because that’d be impossible to really get through here. But for the others, I’m in the process of designing a petite guide to being a Man As Partner (despite the grammatical shortcomings of that sentence, it works here in French and is a part of our Men As Partners program). It will be a kind of reference for men and women who are looking to be examples of equality in their communities. I think it’ll be useful because not only will it serve as a reminder of “all that stuff that the crazy American was talking about,” but also it will probably make up about 50% or more of the reading material in any given house, so it will be read over and over and etched in to minds craving knowledge.
So, how hard would it be for USAID or a large NGO to produce a bunch of copies of 10-20 page pamphlets on a few issues that are designated as pressing? For example, Peace Corps Togo has four programs. What if we made a little pamphlet for each and set them loose in villages? As it turns out, we kind of do have something for each program: Farm to Market from our environment and business Volunteers, Et la Santé? from our health Volunteers, and the soon to exist The Small Guide for the Make Better of the Situation of Men and Women (again, it sounds better in French and that’s just a working title). These help explain our messages and projects and the best part is that their circulation could stretch farther that we PCVs can. People could know that the US thinks that the empowerment and education of girls is important before I show up and have a long conversation that leaves them thinking that I’m nuts for agreeing to this work.
I think this is a pretty good idea and would certainly cost less than many of the development projects out there and I find it hard to see a downside as long as we are careful with what we put into these cheap little pamphlets. We could make it the mailbox stuffer of Africa, except here people (who can) will absolutely read it.
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