Profiting from poverty? The question of “development professionals”

I recently read this post http://chrisblattman.com/2010/05/12/poverty-professionals-and-poverty/ (reading the full original paper is highly recommended…it’s only 6 pages long!)

I’ve had the same question in my head for a long time, especially when I was ‘out in the field’ in Uganda and Tanzania. Seeing the UN and other aid agency workers driving around in expensive 4 wheel drives compared to the people who could barely afford bus fare that they were trying to ‘help.’ There is no wonder that resentment abounds.

But how can we reconcile these differences? Should development workers have to live in the same way as those people they are trying to help? Is it impossible to make good policies without first understanding how people who are you making policies for live?

For something closer to home, should all politicians and policy makers experience “normal” life a bit more? How can we design a good public transport system when the majority of the designers actually don’t take public transport (or bike) on a daily basis?

One thing that really stayed in my mind when I watched the movie “Gandhi” is that Gandhi was determined to live a ‘normal’ life. He spun his own cloth, planted his own food, and washed his own clothes. The other leaders probably thought it was a waste of time. But he insisted. I think he had good reasons.