Un/Making CSC
Damages

Damages

‘Damages’ of development refers to the historical erosion of traditional assets, sysrems of care, capacities, and homegrown initiatives1. Explore some perspectives on some of the damages observed experiences through international development.

A digital photograph of a lego Giraffe eating a plant; a material metaphor to represent development as the giraffe always eating the fresh leaves at the top, leaving those at the bottom to wither.
Development is like the giraffe always eating the fresh leaves at the top, leaving those at the bottom to wither.
Digital photo of a drawing of a crocodile in the lake. A material metaphor that represents the idea that donors are a lake, offering a reservoir of funds from which African and economically disadvantaged nations like Malawi can seek financial assistance. Although their support may not always come in the form of direct monetary aid, they often provide essential resources like food, similar to the lake's provision of fish. However, it's crucial to recognize that within this lake, there are also some predators such as crocodiles. Similarly, within donor funding, the presence of corruption and embezzlement by administrators is a constant concern, as the funds are readily available and susceptible to misuse.
The crocodile in the lake.
A digital photograph of shiny ribbons. A material metaphor that represents the idea that some projects come with much hope represented by the shinny ribbons but do not bare any positive results, in some cases things become worse, represented by the torn clothes after the ribbons.
Some projects come with much hope.
A digital photograph of a piece of paper with a fluffy ball, two colour swatches and a peg that represent a road. This material metaphor represents the idea that YONECO is the yellow fluffy ball, and the goal is the pole with the shiny material, the goal we want to reach symbolizing the ideal society, where all the rights and everything we fight for are accomplished. On the road to our goal we have these gaps that are here, caused by the donor landscape. The landscape is uncertain. And these gaps make us fall down every time we try to move forward. So what we are trying to do with the social enterprise is we are trying to fill in these gaps so we can reach the community. The fillers have different colours, like the yellow one could be the radio, the pink one the car hire. So we’re trying to find these solutions so we can make the journey easier to accomplish our goals.
This is like a road, and YONECO is the yellow fluffy ball, and the goal is the pole with the shiny material, the goal we want to reach symbolizing the ideal society, where all the rights and everything we fight for are accomplished.
Here we see a peg with a fabric hair band pinned in between the peg.

References

  1. Boateng, O. A. Building Africa’s Homegrown Humanitarian Systems: Restoration as an Alternative to Localization. Front. Polit. Sci. 3, 1–16 (2021). ↩︎