NGO "ANOTHER WAY" (STICHTING BAKENS VERZET), NETHERLANDS, SUSTAINABLE INTEGRATED SELF-FINANCING DEVELOPMENT PROJECTS AND ADVANCED DEVELOPMENT TECHNOLOGIES

Millennium goal 8 is a large group of vague indications and provisions confusedly massed together to please the various parties present at the Johannesburg meeting, and in particular the rich countries and the multinational corporations. Targets 12-18 seem to be intended to double the certainty for rich countries and multinational organisations that in the highly improbable case there should be an inadequate coverage of their interests under Millennium Goals 1-7, their interests would be protected under the targets in Goal 8, which therefore has the function of a general safeguard clause.

Refer to your analysis of the Global Partnership for Development.

Here are some aspects which are in any case covered by integrated development projects under the Model.

All structures set up in the course of the execution of integrated development projects are permanent, democratic, ecological, and sustainable. They are managed by the populations themselves. (Details : block 3, section 2, 06. Cooperative for the permanent management of project structures. )

The three-tiered social security system set up guarantees participation in all structures by all the inhabitants, without exclusion.. (Details, block 4, section 2, 5. Three-tiered social security structures.)

The local money system introduced during the course of each project ensures a strong purchasing power for all of the inhabitants. (Details : block 4, section 3, 3. The local money systems - introduction ; 4. The local money systems – in-depth analysis. )

The interest-free, cost-free cooperative micro-credits system stimulates local productivity. (Details : block 4, section 3, 5. Interest-free micro-credit systems – introduction ; 6. Interest-free micro-credit systems – in depth analysis.)

Women play a dominant role. (Details : block 5, Section 1: Gender.)

Relationships with other project areas and with other local money systems guarantee a reciprocal balance tending towards zero. (See : Seventh block: Regional and national planning.)

The reciprocal formal money balance between each project area and other areas in the country where each integrated projects takes place tends towards zero. (See : Seventh block: Regional and national planning.)

The reciprocal import-export between each project area and countries outside the country where each project takes place tends to zero. (See : Seventh block: Regional and national planning.)

A cooperative interest-free inflation-free local economic environment is set up in each integrated development project area.(See : Seventh block: Regional and national planning.)

1. Opinion.

On one page explain in an introductory paragraph what you think target 12 means. Then give your opinion on the relationship between target 12 and the features of integrated development projects mentioned above.

Integrated development projects are about LOCAL development:

1. A cooperative interest-free inflation-free local economic environment is set up in each integrated development project area

2. A patchwork quilt of local economic environments is sewn together to form cooperative regional and national networks.

3. «Commercial » relations amongst local economic environments aim at having a reciprocal balance tending towards zero so as to avoid financial leakage from one project area to another.

4. The drafting of regional and/or national integrated development plans costs between 2.5 - 15 Euro-cents per inhabitant according to infrastructures and communications systems available and the population distribution in each area.

5. The initial formal money capital requirement for the execution of an individual integrated development project is Euro 75 per person.

6. Formal money capital needed for the execution of integrated development projects is 75.000.000 for each million people, or Euro 150.000.000.000 for the poorest 2 billion people in the world. This is :

Four times the INCREASE in 2002 of the United States defence budget, duly authorised by Congress.

Six months of the cost of the Iraq war.

The expected purchase price of 850 Joint Strike Fighters.

Three months’ commercial trading deficit of the United States (US$ 60.000.000.000 per month).

Half of the subsidies paid to farmers in industrialised countries in 2001 (US$ 350.000.000.000).

Two and a half times the amount paid by OECD countries for development aid in 2006 (US$ 103.900.000.000).

6% of the money (US$ 2.300.000.000.000) spent by donors on development aid over the last 50 years.

Most of the rich countries are busy reducing their development aid, and are including relief from their existing debts as part of the development aid capital . Above all, aid seldom arrives to the poor in poor countries, is not always constructive, and, despite official denials, is often still today «tied » aid.

2. Opinion.

On one page explain how, in your opinion, a country applying the principles of integrated development according to the Model would qualify for aid under target 13.

Target 14. Address the special needs of land-locked countries and small island states.

The concepts under the Model for integrated development projects apply without modification to land-locked countries and small island states, as well as to poor rural and urban areas in industrialised countries.

Target 15. Deal comprehensively with the debt problems of developing countries through national and international measures in order to make debt sustainable over the long term.

Interest-bearing debt is not, by definition «viable » , as it necessarily causes financial leakage from poor areas to rich ones.

Financial leakage is one of the most important causes of poverty.

The purpose of integrated development projects is to create a good quality of life for all in each project area.

"Money is not the key that opens the gates of the market but the bolt that bars them." Gesell, Silvio, The Natural Economic Order, revised English edition, Peter Owen, London 1958, page 228.

3. Opinion.

In one paragraph discuss the concept of viability of debt and how the Model for integrated development projects proposes to solve the debt problem.

Target 16 : In cooperation with developing countries, develop and implement strategies for decent and productive work for youth

Target 16 may cause more questions than it answers:

And older people?

And “sweat shops”, poisons, monocultures, exploitation of women and children, and modern slavery? In whose benefit do these exist today ?

Integrated development projects respond this way :

Each project area creates at least 4000 occupations. This means work for 10% of the adult population.

Full occupation for all in each project area within the first years of operation.

Projects support initiatives in favour of local productivity at individual, family, and cooperative level.

Employer-employee relations continue freely in the formal money sector of the economy in each project area. However, integrated development projects do not support them.

4. Research.

In one paragraph describe how integrated development projects eliminate unemployment.

Target 17 : In cooperation with pharmaceutical companies, provide access to affordable essential drugs in developing countries.

Target 17 expressly protects the interests of the pharmaceutical industry and the pharmaceuticals multinationals, which are nearly all in the rich countries.

Medicines are seen as the sacred cow of development.

Medicines are a cause of financial leakage, which is in turn is the main cause of poverty.

The contribution of funds spent for the purchase of medicines towards local economic development in poor countries is very low.

Integrated development projects privilege the eradication of the causes of diseases rather than their treatment.

Under integrated development projects much can be done with very low formal money input, Many actions can be taken without the need for any formal money at all.

Necessary formal money purchases are made cooperatively interest-free and in bulk within the framework of the structures set up in each project area.

5. Opinion.

In one paragraph describe the relationship between integrated development projects and the pharmaceuticals industries.

Target 18 : In cooperation with the private sector, make available the benefits of new technologies, especially information and communications technologies.

It is clear that intelligent use of new technologies can bring major benefits to poor populations.

However, this does not mean giving commercial interests carte blanche to make the poor poorer still. The issue is the productive application of the technologies within the context of integrated development projects.

One much promoted technology is the use of the mobile telephones in developing countries. It has been claimed that mobile phones have been successfully used in some African countries to follow market price developments and transmit payments for commercial transactions. Although this last implies non-cash monetisation of productivity via commercial banks and payment systems, these applications are potentially useful. However, the bulk of mobile phone communications throughout the world is used for social contacts. In poor countries, this must lead to serious financial leakage to large centralised, often multinational, corporations as people struggle to pay their fixed and pre-paid accounts, depleting the meagre funds they have available for their basic living needs. Reliable independent research on this subject is awaited.

Caution is still needed in the assessment of the constructive use of mobile telephones in poor countries in sectors like health services.

“The researchers identified 42 controlled trials that investigated mobile technology-based interventions designed to improve health-care service delivery processes. None of the trials were of high quality—many had methodological problems likely to affect the accuracy of their findings—and nearly all were undertaken in high-income countries… trials that used mobile phones to transmit photos to off-site clinicians for diagnosis reported significant reductions in correct diagnoses compared to diagnosis by an on-site specialist…SMS reminders were no more effective than postal or phone call reminders, and texting reminders to patients who persistently missed appointments did not significantly change the number of cancelled appointments.” (Free, C. et al, The Effectiveness of Mobile-Health Technologies to Improve Health Care Service Delivery Processes : A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis, PLOS Medicine, www.plosmedicine.org, Cambridge, accessed 18 January, 2013.)

Here are some comments on target 18 :

A-critical service to the interests of elites in industrialised and developing countries must be avoided.

New information and communications technologies are the new sacred cows of the industrialised countries. By definition they tend to be generally without advantages for poor populations.

The structures of the new technologies are centralised.

The technologies therefore cause financial leakage from poor areas.

Much caution is required in the choice of applications considered necessary, or at least useful, to local development.

Most individual projects provide for the establishment of a local radio station.

Radio-telephones, pigeons, messengers, bongos, and smoke signals can constitute local alternatives to modern technologies.

The Model for integrated development projects is critical with regard to industrial aid of the type foreseen in target 18.

6. Opinion.

In one paragraph, explain why the Model is so critical of industrial aid as foreseen in target 18.

◄ ►

◄ Second block : Problems to be solved.

◄ Index : Diploma in Integrated Development (Dip. Int. Dev)

◄ List of key words.

◄ List of references.

◄ Course chart.

◄ Technical aspects.

◄ Courses available.

◄ Homepage Bakens Verzet.

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