M.C.: Times have changed, Man is being replaced by machines, mechanization means progress.
D. P.: Are you familiar with any organised fishery on the Indian coast? It seems that a thousand year old fishing tradition has prevented the Norwegian mechanisation experience to bring about good effects, despite the considerable resources which have been invested in this experience.
M.C.: I do not know why this experience failed in India.
D. P.: It seems that tradition is extremely hard to change. When I was priest in a church, I tried to change the time of the office, I was confronted with strong resistance.
Objectives of an intervention of Islands of Peace
Food security
Food security is the capacity of individuals to gain access to food in sufficient quantity and quality today and tomorrow. It is achieved through agricultural production, as well as through the development of opportunities of income besides that from agriculture, the development of mechanisms of stockage,...
Thus on one hand, there is the aspect of the availability of food and on the other hand, the question of acquiring the food. Therefore, an area can present an agricultural surplus, while conserving a large portion of the population in a situation of food insecurity.
A group of producers of tomatoes from an African country of West Sahel are currently faced with a dilemma of food security, even though its production of tomatoes is excellent. The wholesaler-transformer who used to buy their whole production has passed away and they are not able to sell their stocks at a reasonable price. The food is in abundance, but the people are hungry.
Since 1962, we have gained much experience in the pursuit of this objective. For example, in Timbuktu, the improvement of food security has taken the shape of an increase in the production of traditional agriculture through the irrigation of the plains of Korioume.
Capacities of organisations and individuals
Effective development assistance does not consist of implementing solutions which correspond to problems of a population at a certain given period.
Ideally, the ultimate aim of any assistance is to render oneself superfluous. Therefore, it is essential to act structurally at the level of the causes.
In this vision, the reinforcement of capacities and organisational skills is the central pillar of our development support strategy. What is the use of eliminating certain obstacles faced by a community, if when new difficulties arise, this community is still unable to face them alone? In this extent, the durability of an intervention of development must not be measured to its degree of persistence after a few years of autonomy, but rather to the capacity of the population to pursue, alone, its path of development.
In this respect, as soon as an intervention begins it is important to enable the population to develop its own financial, intellectual, technical, material,... resources. The dependence and inferiority complex in regards to Northern countries' resources which slows down local dynamics, is slowly resolved rather than exacerbated; the community regains self-confidence.
Thus, the reinforcement of local capacities aims to enable individuals or communities to regain confidence in their internal capacities for development. Built on a base of real problems, lived situations and local knowledge, training activities enable our partners to build new knowledge which is not "imported" and to contemplate concrete solutions to new situations.
The reinforcement of organisations equally increases the guarantees of durability of the supported dynamics. By providing better tools to the communities in order to analyse the stakes in the projects they undertake, they are able to establish rules of functioning of the group of which everyone understands the ins and outs. Moreover, these groups are capable of facing the difficulties of functioning as well as innovate.
The elements of an Islands of Peace action
Self help
Self help is the opposite of help, or assistance. Inasmuch as we are convinced that development is achieved, above all, by the mobilisation of the communities' own resources, our interventions are built around these local energies.
Self help goes beyond the concept of "participation" introduced in order to bring closer the foreign development projects and the aspirations of the benefiting populations. Our interventions bring a complement to local dynamics undertaken by the concerned actors. These men and women are at the centre of their development process and bear the responsibility for it.
A policy of self help succeeds when the people that we help forget the role played by the helpers in their development, when an assisted population completely takes on its own development even at the cost of an apparent ingratitude towards those who helped them at the start.
Brotherly dialogue
"If I am different from you, I do not harm you; I increase you" said Saint-Exupéry.
The cornerstone of the thinking of Dominique Pire, brotherly dialogue is at the heart of our actions. It implies listening as well as permanent attention to specificity, differences and respect of others.
Long term
The interventions of Islands of Peace are based on the long term. We commit ourselves to local communities for the necessary duration, inasmuch as in-depth transformations take time.
The duration is not an objective as such. When our partners are able to take up their challenges alone, we distance ourselves while sustaining contact during the stage of continued support.
Oil stain effect
In order to be efficient, our interventions are limited in space. We attempt to inspire the supported dynamics the will to expand. The neighbouring communities of those with which we work must be welcomed by the latter to enable them, if they desire, to repeat their experiences.
Concrete forms of intervention of Islands of Peace
Our interventions on the field take two specific forms.
Human investment
Human investment implies reinforcing capacities of both organisation and action of the partner communities. The objective is to provide the communities with which we are working, all the necessary tools for the autonomous pursuit of their own development process.
According to specific objectives of each action, this investment can take the shape of literacy classes, processes of research/action or in-depth training emphasising the transfer of a learning method rather than the knowledge itself.
In this scope, the technique of research/action is particularly interesting because it enables us to methodologically follow the reflections of the groups confronted with concrete problems, without bringing ready-made solutions. Through such a process, they analyse their environment and choose solutions from which they appropriate all the facets (assets, implementation difficulties, responsibilities,...).
For example, In Mahadaga, the Commission for the improvement of seeds of ATS, composed of peasants, led in 1999, a study of improved seeds to be diffused in the region. Varieties to be tested were selected according to their theoretical interest, channels of supply were then identified, technical constraints were studied, tests on the field were organised and results were analysed. Of course, an engineer in agronomy could have reached these results in a few days, but what is important here is, above all, a transfer of a method of problem solving.
This process of research can ultimately lead to the acknowledgement of the necessity of physical investments or complementary training.
Physical investments
The road to food security sometimes implies the investment of important means.
In Yalogo, a region situated on the border of the Sahel, the stabilisation of agricultural production and the increase of income went through the development of 200 hectares of irrigated perimeters. The 800 tons of paddy rice produced every year are not only consumed locally but also sold on the markets to provide for various needs or to invest in other productive activities (live stock-farming, gardening, commerce,...).
Beyond the material and technical aspects of the physical investments, from the beginning, we attach great importance to the organisational aspect. The durability of a physical investment depends above all on the group which has the responsibility of this investment. Therefore, the human investments are entirely complementary with the physical investments.
The actors of an Island of Peace
A population undertaking projects
At the heart of an Island of Peace intervention, there are, above all, men and women who show their determination to take on their own development. They are groups who undertake their own projects and who adopt a particularly active attitude in the resolution of problems to which they are confronted.
An accompanying team on the field
Great responsibility is given to groups regarding the conduct of activities and projects that they undertake. However, in order to insure the ideal effectiveness of the support provided, a team catalyses theses efforts of the population by a methodological, organisational or technical guidance, co-ordinates the activities of different actors and serves as a relay between these groups and our organisation.
In the scope of such a partnership, a genuine dialogue is built with the local organisation. We do not limit our support to funding our partners' activities or its members themselves or have our projects executed by the local organisation. Partnerships are built, above all, on the understanding that together we can improve ourselves mutually. On one hand, we support our partners on the technical, methodological or organisational level, and on the other hand, our partners participate in development education which is undertaken in the North.
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