NGO Another Way (Stichting Bakens
Verzet), 1018 AM Amsterdam, Netherlands.
Edition 04: 26 March,
2009
(AUCUNE VERSION EN FRANÇAIS DISPONIBLE)
POLICY IMPLICATIONS OF AN INNOVATIVE MODEL FOR SELF-FINANCING ECOLOGICAL
SUSTAINABLE INTEGRATED DEVELOPMENT FOR THE WORLD’S POOR
By T.E.Manning*
A
model for self-financing ecological sustainable integrated development for the
world’s poor (referred to in the rest of this article as “the Model”) has been
presented. The Model is in the public domain. It can be downloaded from website
http://www.flowman.nl/, which is
controlled in the public interest by the Dutch NGO Stichting Bakens Verzet in
The
Model has far-reaching policy implications in many sectors. This paper
describes some of them. The Model weaves social, financial, service and
productive structures together into a single tightly-knit development fabric.
The fibres of the fabric are carefully interlinked, so there are several
possible ways of making an analysis of its effects on national and
international development policies. Anthropological, economic, financial,
political, social, and service- and production-oriented paths can all be
followed.
An anthropological approach is used for this particular paper. The
development of social groupings of humans, in particular over the last 11.000
years is used as the basis for the choice of administrative levels for project
applications under the Model. About 11.000 years ago, nomadic bands of dozens
of hunter-gatherers (mostly defined as “extended families” or “clans”) started
producing food and forming village groups. (Diamond J., Guns, germs, and
steel, Vintage, London, 1998).
Diamond refers to the village groups as “tribes” comprising several
extended families with an upper limit of “a few hundred” where “everyone knows
everyone else by name and relationships” (Ibid. p.271). Prof. Robin Dunbar of
Liverpool University suggests that the size of the human brain is linked to
social practices developed to bind small groups of 150+ members together. (Grooming,
gossip, and the evolution of language, Faber and Faber, London, 1996).
Even today, many rural villages, especially African villages, typically
have populations of “a few hundred” people. Even larger villages with
populations of a few thousand tend to be formed of clusters of smaller settlements each with “a few hundred”
inhabitants. (See detailed lists of villages for draft projects at website http://www.flowman.nl/, and in particular the
detailed population distribution maps for the Koulikoro project in
The basic administrative level used in the Model is usually called a tank commission. It can also be called a
local development commission. The tank commissions each represent 40-50
families grouped around a decentralised clean drinking water tank. The number
of people served by each tank is usually between 200-350. This corresponds to
Diamond’s “tribes” with an “upper limit of a few hundred”(op.cit.). The members
of the tank commissions are expected to be mostly women. Health clubs are first
set up in each tank commission area to make sure the women there can organise
themselves and participate actively in the election and administration
processes. The people in each tank commission area decide how many tank
commission members they want to choose. The commissions will usually have 3 –7
members. They have many important tasks.
They are the real hub of the many project structures. An active role for women
at this level goes a long way towards addressing the so-called “gender
problem”. Tank commissions also choose a representative to the intermediate
administrative level, called well commissions. These in turn choose central
committees at project management level. Women’s deep and direct involvement in
project planning, execution, and management is therefore actively promoted at
all project levels.
Figure 1 illustrates the main tasks of each tank (or local development)
commission:
(Fig. 1) The Tank Commissions
The
second, or intermediate, administrative level provided for in the Model is the
well commission. It can also be called
an area development commission. The well commissions are the equivalent of
Jared Diamond’s “chiefdoms” with “several thousand” inhabitants where “for any
person [living there] the vast majority of other people…. were neither closely
related by blood or marriage nor known
by name.” (op.cit. p.273). They developed some 7500 years ago as a result of
higher population densities made possible by the local cultivation of food.
Leadership institutions (“chiefdoms”) are believed to have evolved to create
ways of resolving conflicts naturally arising amongst inhabitants not directly
bound to each other by blood or marriage. Of special interest to integrated
development projects in the modern world is that the first systems for the
collection and re-distribution of wealth and the first forms of division of
labour were established in this phase. “The most distinctive economic features
of chiefdoms was their shift from reliance solely on the reciprocal exchanges
characteristics of bands and tribes……..[to] an additional new system termed a
redistributive economy.” (op.cit. p.275).
(Fig. 2) : The Well Commissions
The
well commissions provided for in the Model typically represent about 2000-2500
inhabitants. This population base supports some modern essential services, too.
A typical working area for general practitioners in industrialised countries is
1 doctor to 2000-2500 inhabitants. In the Netherlands this was 1 to 2347 on 1st
January 2006 (J.Muysken et al, Cijfers uit de registratie van huisartsen –
peiling 2006, Netherlands Institute for Health Services Research (NIVEL),
Utrecht, 2006.) Well commission areas can
also support a secondary education structure for pupils from the 2-4 primary
schools in their area. (Notes on education policies, below). Project structures
at this level include a transactions clearance structure for the local money
systems, and a structure for the manufacture of mini-briquettes for high
efficiency cooking stoves used in the area.
Each
well commission has a member nominated by each tank commission it serves. The
number of members will therefore vary from one commission to another, usually
between 5 and 9. Each well commission chooses intermediate level micro-credits
and local money transactions registration coordinators. It also chooses
representatives to the central structures management committee, and to the
central committees running the local money systems, the Cooperative Local
Development Fund, and where applicable, the Cooperative Health and Education
funds. As women are expected to have a majority at tank commission level, they
can be expected to nominate female representatives to the well commissions.
Women should therefore be well represented, usually with a majority, at this
intermediate level too.
The
third, or project level administrative structure provided in the Model
represents all 50.000-70.000 inhabitants living in a given project area. Jared
Diamond refers to this level as “states”, with “over
At
the same time, the population in the area must be large enough to offer a
market supporting specialisation of productive activities and services. It must
also be able to provide a variety of productive activities and services wide
enough to meet the basic needs for a
good quality of life for all in the project area. “We may thus define the
optimum number of the population [of an ideal state] as “the greatest
surveyable number required for achieving a life of self-sufficiency””
(Artistotle, Politics, Book VII, Chapter IV, tr. E. Barker , Oxford University
Press, London, 1948).
The
choice made in the Model in favour of local economy systems with an average of
50.000 to 70.000 inhabitants is therefore anything but new. However, there is
nothing critical or mystical in the number. Individual project areas may have
fewer or more inhabitants depending on population densities, and geographic,
cultural and ethnic aspects including language, and in particular on the
preferences expressed by the local population. Project areas in developing
countries today are seldom as densely populated as Greece at the time of the ancient City States. The population of
Greece is believed at that time to have reached 7-9 million (Dioxiadis,
op.cit.). Some project areas under the Model may therefore be larger than areas
covered by the Greek city states, especially where they include regional or
national nature reserves.
Third
level project management structures are formed by representatives nominated at
well commission level. They include central committees for any one or more
project structures, for the Cooperative Local Development Fund, for the Local
Money system, and where applicable, for Cooperative Health and Education Funds.
Since each well commission nominates a member to each central committee, the
number of members will vary from project to project, but will usually be about
35. The central committees, which can be viewed as “parliaments”, meet once a
year or more frequently if necessary. They choose management teams, which can
be viewed as “governments”. The management teams are expected to be small, with
3-7 members including administrative staff.
Each
of the three administrative levels described has its own clearly defined tasks,
including the election of those at the next level above that it will have to
answer to.
(Fig. 3) : The administrative chain
Each
project structure is managed via the three administrative levels described as
shown in Fig. 4.
(Fig.4) :
The administrative lines
Figure
5 gives a summary of common tasking at each of the three levels. The list is
not intended to be complete. The Model provides for the provision of basic
social, financial, productive and service structures necessary to a good
quality of life for all. The same structures also open the way to countless
other activities and initiatives which are as varied as the minds of those
conceiving them. No attempt is made even to imagine them.
(Fig.
5) : Tasking at each level
Model
for self-financing ecological sustainable integrated development.
|
Tank commissions. |
Well commissions. |
Project level. |
|
Health clubs/hygiene education. |
Management of well sites. |
Supervision and statistics. |
|
Drinking water.Drinking water. |
Water supply back-up. |
Maintenance & statistics. |
|
Family sanitation. |
Washing places. |
Training for housewives. |
|
Rainwater harvesting. |
Water sampling. |
Water testing. |
|
Local money assistants. |
Registration local money transactions |
Local money statistics, Inter-project relations. |
|
Collection of contributions. |
|
Conflict resolution. |
|
Collection of loan repayments. |
|
Conflict resolution. |
|
About 60% of micro-credit grants. |
About 25% of micro-credit grants. |
About 15% of grants. |
|
First-level social safety net. |
Second level social safety net. |
Project-level safety net. |
|
Production bio-mass for local use. |
Production of mini-briquettes. |
Statistics. |
|
Nurse |
Doctor. |
Local hsopital. |
|
Primary school. |
Secondary school. |
Trade schools, propadeuse for University. |
|
Lighting for study purposes. |
|
|
|
Radio-telephone communications (work for blind) |
|
Local radio station. |
|
Sports clubs. |
Intermediate facilities. |
Project level competition. |
|
Theatres, cultural groups. |
Physical Facilities. |
Cultural circuits. |
|
Personal food storage facility. |
Cooperative food storage. |
Export/import cooperatives. |
The Model
applies in principle both to poor urban and rural areas in both developing and
industrialised countries. However, preference is given to the execution of
pilot projects in rural areas in developing countries. (See further under
“Demographic Development Policies” below.)
Policy consequences
Project execution under the Model has many, far-reaching, policy
implications in many sectors and at all levels. At the same time, it must be stressed
that the Model does not claim to offer solutions to all the problems developing
countries face. Projects under the Model cannot act as substitutes for state
obligations. Some areas of activity mentioned below, such as curative health
and general education issues, are not directly addressed in the Model at all.
Other sectors, such as large-scale public works, defence and security, fall
outside the scope of local economic development and are not even mentioned
below. However, the Model provides for the creation of local social, financial,
service and productive structures. These structures can be used to promote the
gradual development of some services,
taken for granted in industrialised countries, that people in poor countries do
not even dare to dream of. Self-financed where necessary, and at a
surprisingly low cost. In those cases,
the following notes set out where they might want to go, and how they could get
there. It may take many years, even decades, for them to arrive.
In
short, the Model addresses some problems basic to a good quality of life for
all in the project area, and solves them
directly. It can contribute actively to
solving other problems over a longer term. Finally, there are some areas
outside local economic development where it has little or no direct influence
at all. Notwithstanding first
impressions some readers may have, the following descriptions are not
idealistic. The Model does not restate known development problems. It offers
concrete down-to-earth solutions to them. The paradigms and the concepts
presented are mostly so simple and obvious they should be viewed by most people
as an expression of plain common sense. The common sense of the ordinary man or
woman in the street. No university degrees are needed to understand them. None
were required to develop them. No special expertise is needed to put them into
practice. They enable the world’s poorest to design, execute, run, maintain and
pay for their own development within the framework of open, cooperative, interest-free,
inflation-free economic environments where genuine competition is free to
flourish
If the solutions to world-wide poverty alleviation issues really are so
simple, some readers may wonder why they have not been applied before. That is
a very good question. The answers to it go to the heart and the nature of the
currently dominating economic system. But they do not fall within the scope of
this paper.
Demographic development policies
Centralisation of power through the dumping of vast numbers of people in
mega-slums in unsustainable, uneconomic, ultra-vulnerable mega-cities in
developing countries is unnecessary,
foolish, and ethically unacceptable. In our times, it is politely called
“urbanisation”. Contrary to what we are sometimes led to believe, it is
relatively easy to control vast, poor, unorganised, disconnected, disinherited,
urban masses both individually and collectively deprived of any means of
providing for even their own most basic requirements. Civil disorder may
sometimes break out, but seldom has permanent effect. “Popular riot, insurrection, or
demonstration is an almost universal urban phenomenon, and as we now know, it
occurs even today in the affluent megalopolis of the developed world. On the
other hand the fear of such riot is intermittent. It may be taken for granted
as a fact of urban existence, as in most pre-industrial cities, or as the kind
of unrest which periodically flares up and subsides without producing any major
effect on the structure of power.” (E.J. Hobsbawm, Cities and insurrections,
Global Urban Development Magazine, vol.1, no.1, May 2005.) One of the purposes of the Model is to
counter this “urbanisation” by ensuring that people in rural areas attain a
good quality of life there with a full range of basic structures and services
and employment opportunities. Once a good quality of life in rural areas has
become reality, the Model can be applied in poor urban communities, where its
principles are just as effective. The Model is in principle applicable to poverty
alleviation in depressed rural and urban areas in industrialised countries as
well.
Empowerment of women
The important role played by women in structures at the three
administrative levels has already been described. The Model enables women to
play an active (leading) role in local development issues. They are
structurally freed from the drudgery of having to fetch water and firewood and,
with their children, from the dangers of smoke (air pollution in and around
their homes), water-borne diseases, and diet insufficiencies. Financial
structures such as local money system, interest-free micro-credits, and
cooperative buying groups put at their disposal greatly expand their freedom to
take productivity initiatives for which local and project level markets are
created. Their formal money budget possibilities are extended. They and their
children will have (with time) a better chance of structural medical care and
formal education, including hygiene education. They will all without exception
enjoy the benefits of drinking water, sanitation, and waste recycling
facilities.
Employment
and income
Tank
commission members, like all other persons active for the project, are fully paid for their work under the local
money systems set up as part of project execution. Self-financing sustainable
integrated development projects under the Model will usually have 200-250 tank
commission areas. This leads to the creation of 1000-2000 jobs some of which
will be full-time and others part-time according to the decisions independently
taken by the people living in each area.
Projects under the model typically create up to 4000 jobs and give
direct employment to about 10% of the adult population. The remaining 90% of
the adult population is free to use the local money and interest-free
micro-credit structures created by the project for the purposes of
productivity increase. At least Euro
Financial
policies
Projects
set up cooperative, interest-free, inflation-free, local financial
environments, within which private initiative and genuine competition are free
to flourish. Basic financial instruments created include local money systems
and interest-free cooperative micro-credit structures paid for and run by the
people themselves. These basic financial instruments can be supplemented as
required by self-financed self-terminating special purpose buying cooperatives
at tank commission, well commission and project level and by local
interest-free cooperative banking and insurance facilities. All formal money
financial structures are operated within the framework of the local money
systems set up, so not only are they interest-free, but the services are
usually supplied without any formal money cost to users as well. Formal money
costs for interest and services traditionally connected with financial products
are retained in the project areas. Local populations make small monthly formal
money contributions into their Cooperative Local Development Fund. These
contributions are used for multiple recycling in the form of interest-free
micro-credits for productivity purposes. The local financial environments
created during project execution operate in parallel and in harmony with
existing formal money structures. The local systems do not substitute the
formal money ones. Except for products and services provided for project
execution, users are always free to choose whether to conduct a transaction
under the local money systems or under the traditional formal money system. The
local money structures are all identically time-based. They interact with each
other to form a patchwork quilt of cooperative interlinked local economy
systems. Cooperation between systems is always on a zero balance basis, to
avoid all risk of financial leakage from one project area to another. (Model,
complete index, section 5.21 – Interest-free cooperative money structures);
(Model, complete index, section 5.22 – Interest-free cooperative
micro-credit structures). The network of powerful interlinked local economy
systems forms in turn a strong, independent, national economy in host countries.
Social
security policies
Few
developing countries are known for their efficient social security schemes in
support of the poor, the sick, the elderly and the handicapped. More often than
not, the sick have to pay in cash on the
spot for medical help. If they (or their families) are unable to pay, they
cannot get access to the services. In many countries, parents of schoolchildren
have to pay relatively high school fees and for school books and school
uniforms. Sometimes they even have to pay teachers’ wages where education
ministries fail to fulfil their duty to do so. This means that poorer families
are often unable to send their children, especially their daughters, to school.
Project applications under the Model can make a powerful contribution to social
solidarity in developing countries, as they set up a three-tiered social safety
network for the weakest members of society, both for their obligations under
the local money systems and for their formal money contributions to their formal
money Cooperative Local Development Fund.
Control
and ownership of local project structures
Management
and ownership of all tank commission level structures set up during project
execution are vested by the project in the “local tank commission for the time
being”. Physical service structures vested in them include drinking water and
lighting facilities and project structures provided in schools and clinics
situated in their tank commission area. The tank commissions also manage the
operation at tank commission level of the local money, interest-free
micro-credit and waste recycling systems set up during project execution. They are responsible for the collection of
the monthly contributions paid by each inhabitant into the Cooperative Local
Development Fund and for the operation of the social security or safety nets
set up for the poor, the sick, the aged, and the handicapped. They organise the
election of representatives to intermediate level (well-commission) structures
and of local money transaction specialists. Physical and administrative
structures run by the tank commissions can also be extended to activities in
the health and education sectors, as described below, and to interest-free
cooperative purchasing and investment initiatives. Similarly, intermediate
structures are vested by the project in the “well commission for the time
being”. Project-level structures are vested by the project in the “central
committee for the time being”. The social safety nets set up, together with
strong local social control and extended guarantee structures built into
micro-credit loan agreements should reduce defaults in the payment of
contributions. Default rates for loans made by Nobel Prize winner Muhammad
Yunus’s Grameen Bank were less than two
percent notwithstanding interest rates up to 18%. (M.Yunus, Banker to the Poor,
Public Affairs, New York 2003). Micro-credit loans under the Model are
interest-free and free from all formal money costs, as they are managed under
the local money systems set up.
Complementary
interests
A
qualifying feature of the activities of the tank commissions and of all other
structures set up under the Model is
that they fit in with, and operate in harmony and in parallel with existing
political, financial, and administrative structures. For instance, the local
money systems set up are operated in parallel with the existing formal money
system in the project’s host country. Except for transactions carried out for
the project itself, users are always free to choose whether to conduct a
transaction under the local money or the formal money system. Tank and well
commission members and management may also be members of statutory or voluntary
local development agencies or organisations. In some cases, the formation of
the tank commissions (independently of or together with intermediate and
project level structures) may be helpful in creating and running, free of
charge, local development organs foreseen in national legislation. For
instance, in the case of Togo, the Village Development Committees (CVD), which
are mostly inoperative and lack adequate finance, could be built into project
structures foreseen by the Model. The administration of the Togodogo Reserve
(Yoto District, Togo) can offer work opportunities to local people under the local
money system to help achieve sustainable management of the Reserve for which no
formal money funds are currently available.
Traditional
leadership and land ownership structures
Project
structures are not intended to interfere with the power and recognition of
traditional, elected and non-elected, institutions such as village heads,
chiefs, religious leaders, mayors, town councils, health boards, water boards,
tax department, police commissioners, or members of parliament. The tasks
carried out by the project structures
are all new ones, created by the people themselves (including mentioned local
leaders as individuals) within the framework of each integrated development
project. As the quality of life in each project area increases as a result of
project execution, the status of the traditional institutions is expected to
grow. For the tax department, for instance, a taxation base will be created
over time where none existed before. Traditional leaders are free to take
advantage of project structures for the management of communal property.
Management of communally owned tribal land and natural mineral and renewable
income resources can be brought free of
charge under the financial structures created by the project, so that costs and
benefits can be equitably distributed amongst the owner populations. For
instance, income from the sale of sustainably harvested wood from communally
owned forests or from the use by community members or nomads of communally
owned land for grazing can be distributed amongst the communal owners using the
financial instruments set up by the project. The cost of protecting natural resources such as flora and fauna can
be brought under the local money systems and divided amongst community members
to supplement the limited formal money resources available at national and
regional level.
Millennium
development goals
Project
applications under the Model provide complete structures for full, high quality
coverage for drinking water, sanitation,
waste recycling, smoke eradication and other services for 100% of the
population, without exclusion, in the project areas. The global formal money
cost does not exceed Euro 100 per inhabitant. Of this, 25% is provided directly
by the inhabitants themselves, in the form of work done for project execution
fully paid under the local money systems set up and “converted” into formal
money at the rate of Euro 3 per working day of eight hours. The remaining 75%
is initially supplied by external support agencies in the form of seed finance.
If the seed finance is in the form of a grant, monthly contributions paid by
inhabitants into their Cooperative Local Development Fund continue to be
recycled interest-free for micro-credits after the close of the first period of
ten years. If the seed finance is in the form of an interest-free ten year
loan, the contributions paid by inhabitants during the first period of ten
years are sufficient to repay the seed capital at the close of the first period
of ten years. The amount in the Cooperative Local Development Fund in that case
drops temporarily back towards zero. Since the inhabitants continue to make
their monthly contributions after seed loan repayment , the capital in the
Cooperative Local development Fund builds up again over the second period of
ten years to cover the cost of replacement of capital goods after twenty years.
The difference between a grant and an interest-free seed loan therefore becomes
operative only after ten years. In the first case, the flux of funds for
interest-free micro-credits is not interrupted; in the other the fund available
for micro-credits has to build up again during the second ten year cycle as it
did during the first one. Where part of seed funds is made available by way of
grant, the rest may be by way of soft (low interest) loans, including loans
from private sources. Condition for this is that the total sum to be repaid by
the population at the close of the first ten years’ period does not exceed the
total initial seed capital. On this
basis, a country such as Togo with a population of 4.500.000 can be “developed” by 2015 for a
total seed capital investment of Euro
337.500.000, some or all of which can be repaid by the local populations at the
close of the first ten years’ period.
Health
policies
The
Model addresses preventive medicine related issues by supplying health clubs
and hygiene education courses in schools, clean drinking water, sanitation
facilities, waste recycling, smoke elimination, better diets and drainage of
stagnant waters. While it is not intended to substitute for the duties of
national and regional governments with respect to remedial health care, it is
structured to help provide local supplementary services in some cases. Tank
commission areas (about 200 people) provide an ideal work terrain for a
qualified nurse. Suitable premises can be built under the local money systems
by the community for nurses willing to work within the local money structures
in so far as they do not receive formal money salaries. The cost of basic
equipment and materials can be cooperatively covered at tank commission, well
commission, or project level by small monthly formal money contributions paid
into a Cooperative Health Fund. The same considerations apply to structures for
doctors. Well commission areas each serving about 2000 inhabitants form an
ideal work terrain for doctors’ practices (J.Muysken et al, op.cit.) and for
other professions such as dentists and physiotherapists. Project areas with
50.000-70.000 inhabitants can support local hospitals, preferably at a central
point of the project area. Once the financial structures for cooperative local
economic development have been set up as a normal part of project execution,
basic health care structures can be provided at little or no extra cost to
financially hard-pressed government ministries. (Model, complete index,
section 5.62 - Health aspects). Project structures provide a natural
framework for middle- and long-term development in the health sector.
Education
policies
Some
improvements in education structures, like those for curative health care, can
also be covered under project applications. Single tank commission areas will
often be too small to support a primary
school on their own, as an ideal primary school population of perhaps
eighteen pupils for each grade is
required. (V. Wilson, Does small really make a difference?, Scottish
Council for Research and Education (SCRE) Report 107, Glasgow, 2002). Assuming six grades, a primary school
population of 120-150 would be needed. These requirements can be met by groups
of two or three tank commission areas working together. Simple locally
constructed, centrally located buildings (with clean drinking water,
eco-sanitation and photovoltaic lighting facilities) and locally built school
furniture can be supplied by the local populations under the local money
systems set up by the projects. Teachers, especially teachers originating in
the project area, willing to work within the local money structures can be paid
by the residents in so far as they do not receive (regular) formal money
salaries from education authorities. Similarly, well commission areas are
ideally sized to provide a secondary
education structure to pupils from the 2-4 primary schools in their area. With
classes of 18 pupils, they would need to have 350-450 pupils to provide
coverage for the various subjects studied. Project areas serving 50.000 to
70.000 are ideally sized to provide further education in trades and perhaps a
first year preparatory course (propedeuse) for university studies for which
students would subsequently need to go to larger centres. (Model, complete index, section 5.63
Education).
Policies
for sports and culture
The
financial and social structures set up under the Model make it possible for
individuals and groups to get cultural and sporting groups off the ground. The
Model does not attempt to list or regulate all of the initiatives which could
take place, as these are as varied as the minds and wishes of the people. They
include sports, coaching and training activities in general, theatre, music,
local arts and folklore groups. Basic facilities can be provided under a
combination of the local money systems and interest-free micro-credit
structures. Sports competitions can be organised amongst clubs in a given
project area, and amongst inter-linked project areas. Cultural circuits can be
formed, almost “automatically”, for theatre, dance and music groups, providing
them in many cases with full time work.
Energy, environment and conservation policies
All initiatives taken under the Model are directed towards zero net
energy use, so as to avoid financial leakage from project areas and wastage of
resources. Energy used must be in the form of renewable energy originating in
the project areas themselves, so that they can be produced and paid for under
the local money systems set up. By way of example, the distributed drinking
water systems are powered by solar photovoltaic panels. Locally produced
high-efficiency stoves are fuelled by locally produced mini-briquettes made
from locally grown crops and waste products. Public transport facilities may be
driven by bio-fuels produced locally on a small scale. Local production is necessarily
environmentally neutral and is always intended in the first place for local
consumption. Communities in project areas usually request cooperative food
storage facilities coupled with traditional food conservation practices such as
solar drying and storage in the form of edible oils. National level and
regional environmental and conservation
agencies can receive job-creating support from the local money systems. An
example is the protection and sustainable exploitation of the Togodo National
Reserve already described above, where the Reserve could participate as a
member of the local money system, and use the services of local inhabitants as
wardens and for forest maintenance and services in exchange for sustainable low
level local exploitation of timber, hunting and fishing rights. (Model, Yoto
Nord-Est 10 project).
*The author
Terry Manning is a 64 year old New Zealand lawyer. Resident in Italy for
25 years, he was involved with the
development of innovative pumping technologies for the world’s poor and in
particular the spring rebound inertia hand pump technology and the solar
submersible horizontal axis piston pump technology. For family reasons, he has
been living in the Netherlands since 1993. His observations of the world of
development (“the aid industry”) were such that he decided it had to be
possible for even the poorest to self-finance their own basic integrated
development. After many years’
self-financed work, he succeeded in moulding an original combination of social,
financial, productive and service instruments into a Model for self-financing
ecological sustainable integrated development suitable for general application
in rural and poor urban areas throughout the world. The Model enables
interested parties to draft their own integrated development projects free of
charge and to apply for seed financing for them.
Terry Manning has placed his work in the public domain, under the
control of the Dutch NGO “Stichting Bakens Verzet” which means “Another way”.
His address is Schoener 50, 1771 ED Wieringerwerf, Netherlands, tel.
0031-227-604128l; e-mail: bakensverzet@xs4all.nl
NEW HORIZONS FOR DEVELOPMENT: SOME SHORT POWERPOINT PRESENTATIONS
MORE ON SOME BASIC ISSUES COVERED BY THE MODEL:
