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Burgess Manuscript
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Hundreds of Issues
From the book 'Hundreds of Issues that Impact Relief and Development'
Section TTT
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Issue
Temple
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Basic observation
All types of religious places need to be given due respect.
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Prevailing response
The role of religion and spiritualism has been marginalized by the relief and development experts.
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A better response
A better outcome from relief and development sector interventions are possible when religion and spiritual issues are part of the total thinking about RDS work.
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Issue
Terrorism
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Basic observation
Terrorism has been a big part of international life over the past several decades.
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Prevailing response
Modern society seems to have fostered a high level of anger about the status quo in a significant part of the global community. This has translated not into dialog but into action and the creation of terror in many different ways.
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A better response
A part of the problem of terrorism is the alienation of parts of global society. This is not simply economics, nor simply religious, but a complex mixture of many elements. Terrorism is difficult to eliminate totally, but a better job can be done to reduce global divisions and to have a greater level of justice.
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Issue
Tertiary education
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Basic observation
Tertiary education is becoming increasingly important.
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Prevailing response
Tertiary educational capacity has increased substantially over the past four decades, and there are much bigger flows of graduating students now than in years past.
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A better response
But the full value of tertiary education will not be achieved until there are much better opportunities for educated young adults to have good jobs and to do useful and valuable work. The migration of university educated young people from poor countries to rich countries is very good for the individuals but not a good outcome for the country of origin.
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Issue
Tertiary health care
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Basic observation
Tertiary health care is widespread in the rich north but rare in the south.
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Prevailing response
Tertiary health care is available for only a small elite in poor countries in the south, and must be paid for privately. The health budget in most poor countries will not support good tertiary health care, even though it would be very valuable.
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A better response
The whole structure of the health sector and public finance needs to be reworked in order for better health outcomes to be possible. In absolute terms the funding is inadequate, but the health strategy needs to be based on how best to use scarce resources to achieve the most valuable aggregate outcomes.
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Issue
Totalitarianism
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Basic observation
Totalitarianism is a common and nasty outcome of both communist and fascist governments.
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Prevailing response
Violence associated with totalitarianism serves to empower the governing elite at the expense of the population as a whole. The organs of government are capable of being used for good and for evil, and too often in recent times, government has been an instrument for evil.
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A better response
There is a need for continuing vigilance so that people's human rights and freedoms are respected and preserved. This must be an active vigilance rather than passive, because power elites more often than not will continue to expand their power unless there are ways for this power hegemony to be controlled.
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Issue
Tourism
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Basic observation
Tourism can be a valuable economic driver when it is planned and set up well.
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Prevailing response
Tourism has been a driver of development, but far less than the total potential. The enabling environment for tourism development is often not available, and leadership often has little interest in getting the investments made so that tourism is possible.
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A better response
Tourism can be successful, but it needs a lot of different parts of the socio-economic structure to become suitably engaged from the powerful elites to the ordinary people. Suitable investment in infrastructure needs to be made, and in institutional courtesy so that tourists are welcome.
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Issue
Trade
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Basic observation
Trade has been a big driver of economic progress at many times in history.
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Prevailing response
But trade has not served poor countries well for the best part of the last 50 years. In many cases the terms of trade have deteriorated dramatically and trade has served to impoverish rather than enrich the poor countries and the involved communities. Trade is distorted in part by modernization in rich countries, but also by subsidies, duty and quota regimes and a multitude of regulations.
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A better response
Trade should be encouraged, but only where the terms of trade make sense and where the value chain produces value in the poor country as well as the rich country. The use of value chain analysis in determining what value trade has for a poor country is essential to future success in socio-economic progress.
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Issue
Traditional Law
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Basic observation
Traditional law is really the foundation of all law.
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Prevailing response
Traditional law exists everywhere that modern law does not reach. In English jurisprudence, traditional law has standing, until super-ceded by some specific statutory law. Poor countries need low cost traditional law, because modern law is often too costly and there is not the budget and the resources for modern law to work.
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A better response
Respect for traditional law at the same time as modern law is evolving is going to be essential in order to having a functioning society with respect for some form of governing authority. Community centric development involving local traditional law can be effective, especially when it is combined with some elements of modern law.
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Issue
Traditional Leadership
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Basic observation
Traditional leadership has a powerful role in a lot of places, though in some places it is no longer a factor.
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Prevailing response
Communities usually have local leadership, and this leadership in some cases has traditional history that is important. This has not been used very much by the relief and development sector experts who have tended to work solely with leadership at the country level.
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A better response
Community leadership and traditional leadership are key to success all over the country. If this can also be linked with central leadership, so much the better, but community progress depends very much on local leadership and local priorities and local commitment.
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Issue
Training the trainers
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Basic observation
Training the trainers is a commonly used phrase, but rather less accomplished.
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Prevailing response
Training the trainers has been a component of many many projects, but rather few have been very successful. It is thought that this is because the subjects have often not been relevant both in terms of what community needed and what the trainees could understand.
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A better response
Training the trainers has to be a key focus of relief and development activity, but it needs to be done very carefully with careful matching of what is needed, and what is possible both in terms of human resource capacity and in terms of training resources. Local people with little prior formal training are a tremendous resource if the training is designed correctly.
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Issue
Training ORDA experts
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Basic observation
Experts have been trained in the prevailing paradigm for relief and development, and there is now a serous question about the effectiveness of what has been taught.
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Prevailing response
Educators are faced with a difficult situation. Change in academia is high risk and much safer not to make essential changes.
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A better response
By putting effective performance metrics in place, relief and development experts will be identified not with academic measures, but with relief and development performance. Needed skills are technical and professional more than ORDA specific.
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Issue
Transparency
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Basic observation
There has been growth in dialog about transparency over the past 20 years, but not very much change in access to meaningful useful information.
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Prevailing response
More data is becoming easily accessible, but very little of the data are useful data that can be used for accountability and performance analysis.
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A better response
Modern ICT enables data to be processed very powerfully and at very low cost. In order for this power to be applied there needs to be an independent information infrastructure with a focus on making relief and development performance data easily accessible
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From 'HUNDREDS OF ISSUES THAT IMPACT RELIEF AND DEVELOPMENT'
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