NGO
Another Way (Stichting Bakens Verzet), 1018 AM
01. E-course :
Diploma in Integrated Development (Dip. Int.Dev.)
Edition
01: 04 December, 2009
Study points
: 05 points out of 18
Minimum study
time : 125 hours out of 504
The study
points are awarded upon passing the consolidated exam for
Section C : The Model.
Seventh block:
Regional and national plans.
Study points : 01 point out of 18
Minimum study time: 24 hours out of
504
The study
points are awarded upon passing the consolidated exam for Section
C : The Model.
Seventh block: Regional and national plans.
Section 1: Regional and
national plans.
Minimum study time : 5 hours out of 504
Section 1: Regional and
national plans.
Regional plans.
(At least 2 hours).
Warning : The national structures in this section are
the very last to be set up, once more than one regional system is already in
operation. Regional systems are set up once there are more than one local
projects in operation in the region concerned
The volume of transactions between regions should, furthermore, not
exceed 0,25% du 100%.
For regional
level structures see part 06.
Drawing showing regional plans in section 1 anthropological analysis of the
third block solutions
to the problems of the course.
The Model makes the drafting of fully detailed national or regional integrated
development plans to meet nearly all of
the Millennium goals quick, easy, and cheap. How quickly the plans are
prepared depends on the number of people (usually students or active members of
grass-roots NGOs) and the number of individual projects (about 20 for each
million inhabitants) involved. The maximum period for plan preparation is about
three months, the minimum period one month. Plans involving populations over
10.000.000 cost about 2.5 eurocents ( €
0.025) per person. Smaller plans involving up to 1.000.000 inhabitants
may cost up to 15 eurocents ( € 0.15) per person, depending on population
spread and the size of the project
areas.
National and regional plans involve the
drafting of individual project documentations under the Model for each area
with about 50.000 inhabitants in the country or region. Their preparation has
practical advantages. Authors of the individual project documentations receive
direct personal hands-on training on the application of the principles behind
the Model, so that they qualify to act as coordinators for the projects they
have drafted. Another advantage is that the financiers of the plans, the costs
of which vary from about € 100.000 to
€ 300.000 depending on the
populations, get to know the local grass-roots NGOs involved. Successful
preparation of the national or regional plan should make it easier for the same
financiers to contribute to the cost of pilot projects in the poorest areas
covered by the plan.
In each of the project areas with 50.000 inhabitants an interest-free,
inflation-free, cooperative environment is set up where individual initiative
and tru competition are free to flourish. Together, the projects, after their
execution provide occupations for about 10% of the adult population in the region and powerfully influence
the possibility of economic development of the remaining 90% of the
inhabitants.
A sort of patchwork quilt of independent local economic areas is set up
in each region. However, while independent, the local systems cooperate closely
with one another.
The greater the number of local economies in a region,
the greater the possibility that a given product or service will be available
there. Since the local money in one system has the same value in all the others
(10 local money units per hour of work), the local systems can trade with each
other without needing to use formal money.
Refer to local money system - introduction and a more detailed analysis of them in section 3 the
financial structures part of block four the structures to be created of
the course, for detailed information on local money systems..
The aim of regional networks is to ensure a balance between export and
import transactions amongst individual local money systems is maintained. This
is because a large debit balance of one system towards another is an indicator
of financial leakage from the debtor area to the creditor area. Local group
coordinators must then intervene to correct the situation. They might, for
example, elect to increase temporarily the range of goods and services
exportable from the debtor region to the creditor region, or organise special
markets for the sale of the debtor region’s products in the creditor region. Key to he success of
the system is that exports and imports between regions remain balanced, tending
towards zero.
Ecological aspects – balance between regions.
Purpose of local economic development systems is
always the reduction of the ecological footprint, whether it is related to
transport costs, packaging, deterioration of fresh goods etc.
The supply of goods and services following the shortest
possible line between supplier and consumer is a leading objective.
Regions with three levels of transactions.
The general vision is that of a three-tiered regional system.
The first level is at individual project level, with a market of +/- 50.000
persons, which is large enough to support a pronounced specialisation of
products and services.
The second level is a ring of adjacent individual systems where more
specialised products and services can be traded.
The third, regional, regional is for even more specialised gods and
services It is made up of all of the
local economic systems in a regional.
Competition.
An hour of work under the local money systems is
worth (indicatively) 10 local money
units. The local money structures will themselves decide if they wish to set a
minimum (possibly 7-8 units an hour) and a
maximum (maybe 14-15 units an hour).
Where there is specialisation of activities the
supplier of a product or service may be in a monopolist position. This might
occur at individual project level, or in an adjacent systems area, or even at
regional level. The people who are duly elected to manage the local money
systems will in that case support the formation of competing suppliers at local
level. They may choose to allow the
importation of similar products and services from other systems. In any case
consumers are always free to buy competing goods and services using the formal
money system.
Limitation of exports.
Integrated development projects aim at promoting
sustainable local structures, including those for the local production of food
for local consumption. The export possibilities of productive and service
initiatives receiving assistance from project structures will be subjected to
limitations to ensure that the bulk of the goods and services is retained and
consumed at local level. For this reason, multiple small-scale initiatives are
preferred to large-scale ones.
Formal money transactions.
Except for products and services necessary for the
basic structures of individual projects,
populations are always free to elect to pay for goods and services using the
formal money of their country. Local money does not substitute formal money.
The two system operate in parallel. This possibility puts a brake on monopolist
activities at both regional and national levels. Where the price expressed in
local money terms is considered too high, populations can refuse toi trade with
their local economy suppliers through the purchase of competing goods and
services in the formal money system.
1. Research.
Open zero-balance systems are proposed.
Give a one-page explanation of this concept..
2. Research.
After having discussed the issue with at
least one women’s group in your area, make a one-page list of at least 10
common and necessary products and services which could not be
produced or carried in your area within
the framework of an integrated development project there. Indicate why.
3. Research.
Make a very simple sketch of your
project area and of the areas adjacent to it each with +/- 50.000 inhabitants. Indicate the adjacent
areas where the good and services from your previous list could be produced
under the local money systems there. Make a list of the products and services which are still
«exposed », that is, without productive coverage.
4. Research.
Fill in on a simple map of the region
(or province, or district) where your
project area is situated all of the areas with 50.000 inhabitants which would
together form the «patchwork quilt » of the region. Colour your
own zone and the ones adjacent to it
in.. Indicate on the map the other local systems in the region closest to
your project area which could supply the goods and services from your list in
exercise 3 which are still without coverage.
Make a list of the remaining products
and services which are still «exposed », that is, without productive
coverage even at regional level. What are your conclusions ?
5. Opinion.
The managers of the financial structures
in your project area have asked you to make recommendations on how to guarantee
balance between local production and the requirements of local consumers.
Provide them a one-page opinion..
◄ Seventh block : Section 1: Regional and national plans.
◄ Seventh
block : Regional and national plans.
◄ Main index for the
Diploma in Integrated Development (Dip. Int. Dev.)
"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,
“Poverty is created scarcity”
Wahu Kaara, point 8 of the Global Call to Action Against Poverty, 58th
annual NGO Conference, United Nations,
This
work is licensed under a Creative Commons
Attribution-Non-commercial-Share Alike 3.0 Licence.