Sustainable Development

Why am I here? A goal of mine is to be involved in the development of Honduras. Here is a little of what we have discussed as development, and more importantly, sustainable development.

Step 1: What is development?
Process that promotes the dignity of a people and their capacity to improve their own lives.

This joins into the fact that we are not here to do work for people. We are here to work with people, so that when we leave, our information and part of our skills stay here.

Step 2: What is sustainable?
When the community is able to continue on its own without outside support.

There is more to this, because we are working in a new place that may not trust American volunteers, women volunteers, or is rejecting the information for many reasons.

Culturally sustainable- This addresses whether or not this is an outside concept, or if the people can adapt this new method into their lives, their beliefs and traditions.
Politically sustainable- Will this be able to continue after you leave or will there be splits in the group which destroy the effort?
Economically sustainable- Easily understood, will there be enough money to pay for this afterwards, because if the people are forever in need of outside money, the project is not said to be sustainable.
Managerially sustainable- Can the people take charge after you leave? Do they have the knowledge and materials required?
Environmentally sustainable- Will the project destroy the local environment and/or can they continue with the project without using all of their resources?

Step 3: How does this apply to my work?
Unknown. Basically, I cannot pass down all my knowledge, but I will be participating in several trainings that will work to make this more sustainable. The agency I am working with seems to be pretty knowledgeable and is working in these areas.

The hardest area that I have seen so far is the culturally sustainable. People have their own way of doing things. This is true for people everywhere, you will have some people who are willing and want to try new things, and others who insist that their granddaddy’s method is just fine for them. Here we have a problem with deforestation. Don’t worry, eventually I will make a nice little page up with that information. Here, people just clear large tracks of land, and burn the brush. Some areas have a lot of cattle (how did that McDonald’s hamburger taste?) so a lot of land has been cleared for grazing land.

Step 4: How can you be sure this will last?
In general, I have no idea. There is a lot more I can go into here on the importance of community involvement. I wont do that though. My agency works with the juntas de agua, which are the community members, and offers trainings for them, which passes the information down the line.