Sometimes people ask me what they should know about international development. Sometimes they’re new professionals in this field, or people who want to be educated donors. Sometimes they’re health care professionals interested in international work. And sometimes they’re my mom. (Hi Mom!)
It’s a hard question to answer. This work is not easily summed up, and there isn’t a lot of advice that is one-size-fits-all. I usually end up stuttering and mumbling and then saying something trite like “It’s hard but it’s worth it,” or “There’s so much good we can do!” These are true statements, but it’s not exactly useful advice. You’d really think an international development blogger could do better. It’s embarrassing.
It turns out I have exactly one useful thing I can tell everybody: be very suspicious of the easy stories. That’s my very best guide to understanding international development. (Probably understanding everything, for that matter.) People aren’t characters, our problems don’t resolve easily, and it’s hard to understand us. Easy stories aren’t true.
It doesn’t matter if the easy story is about how an outsider can solves problems quickly, new tech immediately fixing things, or how nothing can ever change because we’re all too flawed. It’s not true. The difference between truth and fiction is that in fiction there’s usually a narrator to tell you what’s going on. Outside of fiction, we spend our whole lives in the muddle.
If someone tells you the answer is simple and obvious, they’re deluded or they’re lying. Don’t trust them.