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“Obsession with ending poverty is where development is going wrong\u201d –\u00a0By Efosa Ojomo<\/p>\n
Almost all development projects focus on alleviating poverty rather than creating prosperity.<\/p>\n
This is a fundamental flaw<\/p>\n
Because poverty almost always shows itself as a lack of resources in poor communities \u2013 food, safe water, sanitation, education, healthcare \u2013 it\u2019s reasonable to theorise that poverty is a resource problem. So, based on that assumption, we execute a push strategy of development \u2013 pushing the resources poor communities lack in order to solve the issue. But while we might alleviate poverty, we don\u2019t do much else.<\/p>\n
Our strategies WILL NOT create sustained growth that leads to prosperity because we are solving the wrong problem.<\/p>\n
What is the value of teaching a five-year-old to read in a country where millions of 25-year-olds are out of work?<\/p>\n
This does not mean that we stop these programmes altogether, but rather that we complement them with programmes that ensure their sustainability.<\/p>\n
But, because the fundamental question that guides our theory and strategy focuses on poverty alleviation, these interventions by themselves seem reasonable. However, by asking a different question, development practitioners can derive entirely new theories that will ultimately lead to a very different development strategy.<\/p>\n
How can we create prosperity?<\/p>\n
The eradication of poverty is not the same as the creation of prosperity.<\/p>\n
Development practitioners should focus on the latter.<\/p>\n
Having your child attend primary school when your household still lives on less than $10 a day does not exemplify prosperity.<\/p>\n
The theory that poverty is a resource problem cannot answer both questions.<\/p>\n
In fact, creating prosperity is a process problem, not a resource problem.<\/p>\n
A process is the way people use their resources.<\/p>\n
For example, if I had $100 (a resource) and I chose to purchase alcohol to feed my habit (a process), the impact of that resource on my life would be vastly different than if I chose to invest it in starting a small business.<\/p>\n
Same resource, different processes, different impact.<\/p>\n
In order to create prosperity, development practitioners and programmes such as the SDGs must focus on fostering processes.<\/p>\n
This focus on processes leads to developing innovations that people can pull into their lives to help them make progress.<\/p>\n
Consider for example how the Kenyan mobile money platform M-Pesa came to dominate cash transfers in the country. In Kenya, it took more than 100 years to establish a network of 1,045 bank branches and 1,500 ATMs. But soon after M-Pesa was released, the process of money transactions in Kenya changed drastically. More than 19 million Kenyans pulled M-Pesa into their lives because it was a significantly better way for them to transact.<\/p>\n
If the founders of M-Pesa had framed the problem in Kenya as a resource problem, they would have built significantly more banks and ATMs. This would have had less impact on mobile money transactions in Kenya. Unfortunately, many of the SDGs are pushing resources anchored in the wrong question.<\/p>\n
What might happen if the SDGs, and the whole development community stopped treating development as a resource problem and began treating it as the process problem it is. And most importantly, how might the development community be transformed if we simply asked \u2013 how can we best create prosperity in poor countries?<\/p>\n
Efosa Ojomo is a research fellow at the Clayton Christensen Institute for Disruptive Innovation.
\nFollow @EfosaOjomo on Twitter.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
“Obsession with ending poverty is where development is going wrong\u201d –\u00a0By Efosa Ojomo Almost all development projects focus on alleviating poverty rather than creating prosperity. This is a fundamental flaw Because poverty almost always shows itself as a lack of resources in poor communities \u2013 food, safe water, sanitation, education, healthcare \u2013 it\u2019s reasonable to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"ocean_post_layout":"","ocean_both_sidebars_style":"","ocean_both_sidebars_content_width":0,"ocean_both_sidebars_sidebars_width":0,"ocean_sidebar":"","ocean_second_sidebar":"","ocean_disable_margins":"enable","ocean_add_body_class":"","ocean_shortcode_before_top_bar":"","ocean_shortcode_after_top_bar":"","ocean_shortcode_before_header":"","ocean_shortcode_after_header":"","ocean_has_shortcode":"","ocean_shortcode_after_title":"","ocean_shortcode_before_footer_widgets":"","ocean_shortcode_after_footer_widgets":"","ocean_shortcode_before_footer_bottom":"","ocean_shortcode_after_footer_bottom":"","ocean_display_top_bar":"default","ocean_display_header":"default","ocean_header_style":"","ocean_center_header_left_menu":"","ocean_custom_header_template":"","ocean_custom_logo":0,"ocean_custom_retina_logo":0,"ocean_custom_logo_max_width":0,"ocean_custom_logo_tablet_max_width":0,"ocean_custom_logo_mobile_max_width":0,"ocean_custom_logo_max_height":0,"ocean_custom_logo_tablet_max_height":0,"ocean_custom_logo_mobile_max_height":0,"ocean_header_custom_menu":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_family":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_subset":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_size":0,"ocean_menu_typo_font_size_tablet":0,"ocean_menu_typo_font_size_mobile":0,"ocean_menu_typo_font_size_unit":"px","ocean_menu_typo_font_weight":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_weight_tablet":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_weight_mobile":"","ocean_menu_typo_transform":"","ocean_menu_typo_transform_tablet":"","ocean_menu_typo_transform_mobile":"","ocean_menu_typo_line_height":0,"ocean_menu_typo_line_height_tablet":0,"ocean_menu_typo_line_height_mobile":0,"ocean_menu_typo_line_height_unit":"","ocean_menu_typo_spacing":0,"ocean_menu_typo_spacing_tablet":0,"ocean_menu_typo_spacing_mobile":0,"ocean_menu_typo_spacing_unit":"","ocean_menu_link_color":"","ocean_menu_link_color_hover":"","ocean_menu_link_color_active":"","ocean_menu_link_background":"","ocean_menu_link_hover_background":"","ocean_menu_link_active_background":"","ocean_menu_social_links_bg":"","ocean_menu_social_hover_links_bg":"","ocean_menu_social_links_color":"","ocean_menu_social_hover_links_color":"","ocean_disable_title":"default","ocean_disable_heading":"default","ocean_post_title":"","ocean_post_subheading":"","ocean_post_title_style":"","ocean_post_title_background_color":"","ocean_post_title_background":0,"ocean_post_title_bg_image_position":"","ocean_post_title_bg_image_attachment":"","ocean_post_title_bg_image_repeat":"","ocean_post_title_bg_image_size":"","ocean_post_title_height":0,"ocean_post_title_bg_overlay":0.5,"ocean_post_title_bg_overlay_color":"","ocean_disable_breadcrumbs":"default","ocean_breadcrumbs_color":"","ocean_breadcrumbs_separator_color":"","ocean_breadcrumbs_links_color":"","ocean_breadcrumbs_links_hover_color":"","ocean_display_footer_widgets":"default","ocean_display_footer_bottom":"default","ocean_custom_footer_template":"","ocean_post_oembed":"","ocean_post_self_hosted_media":"","ocean_post_video_embed":"","ocean_link_format":"","ocean_link_format_target":"self","ocean_quote_format":"","ocean_quote_format_link":"post","ocean_gallery_link_images":"on","ocean_gallery_id":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[299],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7094","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-opinion","entry"],"yoast_head":"\n