Hold the cynics

Once upon a time, American volunteers abroad were not regarded as uncomfortably-dressed gypsies hawking western remedies to skeptical villagers like scenes from a Marquez novel.  

But after 50 years and over a trillion dollars of development money to Africa, western aid has yielded growth in little more than cynicism towards the “goodwill” of the First World.

Coupled with impotent promises, poor coordination, competing national priorities and trade barriers, much of western aid has revealed itself to be nothing but a well-versed colonial wolf trussed up in Kantian undertones.

Instead of waiting for another delayed roundup of Organization for Economic Coopoeration and Development aid, the Democratic Republic of Congo President Joseph Kabila recently signed a $5 billion deal to give China access to the country’s natural resources in exchange for infrastructure.  

On the micro-side, graduation speaker Muhammed Yunus’s Grameen Bank catapulted small-group lending and saving into the poverty alleviation limelight, and microfinance now resides on the agendas of Goldman Sachs and liberal college campuses alike.  

These leaders articulate a common message from sub-Saharan Africa to the developed world: Don’t give us your development money, your tears, your Live 8’s, your regurgitated guilt, your human rights imperatives, your mosquito nets. Your goodwill does no good here.

We want business.  

The new agenda for economic development is demand-driven, heavy on capital and bottom lines and low on interference from the west. The do-gooder glamour of volunteering abroad, working for non-profit organizations, donating money to charity and clothing to Goodwill appears to be passing.

Are bright-eyed and idealistic recent college graduates also becoming obsolete in economic development?  

Fifty years ago, many idealistic college graduates joined the Peace Corps. The program has since suffered from budget cuts and a legacy of stereotypes inherited from its funder’s complicated history with placement countries. Jeffrey Sachs’s blindingly ambitious Millennium Village Project has been stifled by Adam Smith’s invisible fist, and religion-based NGOs have gained negative stigmas. As cynicism and disillusionment becomes endemic in the international development field, the career path has been thrown into question as countries repeatedly call for change within, and treat western volunteers with suspicion and derision.

Circumstances may be changing, but I’d argue that there is, in fact, no better time to join nonprofits, volunteer and work in developing countries.

First, engendering the types of accountability and self-sustainability that developing countries want and need requires community workers to build capacity, catalyze change and share new information. After all, money is best utilized when it reaches the hands of those who know how to use it well.

Second, private capital and profit may be emerging as the force of economic growth, but the compass that provides the direction of that change can only come from the minds of flesh and blood people.  

In that sense, business may be the engine, but people, with their knowledge, attitude and goodwill, remain the drivers.  

Just as the demand for western volunteers should be revised, the supply requires a change as well. Developing countries seriously committed to economic growth deserve a new type of volunteer.   

This volunteer 2.0 treats his job as a trade and seeks to do more than just acquire pictures for a scrapbook. His warm and fuzzy urge to help is grounded in specific skill-sets and delivered with humility, since past mistakes have taught us that idealism must be built on a solid foundation.  

He must also be versatile, and juggle roles as community organizer, student, salesman, teacher, cheerleader, small-business enterprise consultant, finance and guidance counselor.

Most importantly, the 21st century volunteer must recognize that projects fail not because of a lack of goodwill or brains, but because of a lack of understanding.  

From what I’ve learned after four years at Duke, the real booby prize of a rewarding experience—and what investment, indicators and bottom lines can never provide—is that human connection. Capital can help, business can help, but neither can replace the spark of revelation that can only come from a conversation between people shaped by very different experiences, memories and callings.

For all the community organizers, nonprofit workers, future Peace Corps and Teach for America volunteers, and to this summer’s DukeEngage students about to get their first taste of the field, remember this:

When working with people, the heart is worth more than the brain. There will always be a place for idealists in international development, and it all starts and ends with a human connection.

Courtney Han is a Trinity senior. This is her final column.