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When the music changes, so does the dance

Op-Ed

When the music changes, so does the dance

Ballyn, John

When the music changes, so does the dance1 After fifteen years absence it was wonderful to return to India, meeting friends and colleagues from the past and encountering new people working in the crafts and other development sub-sectors. The visit provided opportunities for new understanding of this hugely energetic nation shifting and evolving at a tremendous pace in urban areas, while rural communities seem to have changed little in comparison with the 1980s.Most fascinating was learning that most of the new generation of workers in projects were suffering identical or similar challenges in obtaining support for their work as those endured by myself and colleagues working during the 1970s and 1980s. Having worked during the intervening years in other countries in the Far East, Africa and Latin America, it is clear that these challenges are not just Indian or even sub-continental in nature. The impression gained from people of many nations is that a generic state of near dysfunction has existed in the development sector for a very long time, particularly in the support provided to workers in the artisan and other creative sub-sectors.Over many years, development agencies at international, national, provincial, and even NGO levels have used intensely hierarchical, usually internal, and top down procedures for:
  • identification of potential projects and "target groups",
  • project proposal preparation;
  • s...

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