Unwanted Gifts

Many NGOs have online shops where visitors can buy people out of absolute poverty through nothing more than a simple click of their mouse. Providing practical small gifts for people who are in obvious need seems like a great idea. Visitors are told that these simple tangible “gifts” are the very items that can make the biggest differences, because they empower the poor by providing them with the most appropriate tools to match their needs and their locality. This, in turn, means they work themselves out of poverty. It is perhaps true that people who have to walk long distances just to fetch water or to take their produce to a market would rather a donkey carried that load. But it is certainly not the case that people in the developing world have a romantic emotional attachment to donkeys or other “four-legged friends”. If asked whether they would prefer a concrete road and a car, leading to a more accessible supermarket with cheap food, they would pass off a donkey in a heartbeat. That is what development has meant for countries in the West; we have moved from fetching water from wells to having tapped water in all our homes. And this came about from a belief in modernity, growth, industrialisation and, even more importantly, aspirations; not from small gifts from nice people.

Sadly, acting within the framework of basic needs rather than aiming for more means that there is very little possibility of changing the status quo or promoting equal levels of development. Westerners are asked to buy (along with their little gifts) into the idea that small is beautiful, that “over there” very little is a big help. Westerners are viewed as individuals who cannot be expected to do much more with our busy lives than give a little online. No doubt there are some prosperous Western spenders who choose these gifts because they have grown disillusioned with the perceived consumer culture that exists over here. So being able to buy basic farm tools, a goat or a donkey for an impoverished farmer means the philanthropist can indulge their romantic fantasy that in poor countries people live a more simple and basic life. Meanwhile drudgery is a demeaning reality for those living in the developing world.

Most of us, however, know that survival is not a life, certainly not a good life. Yet, in the absence of anything more imaginative and worthwhile, we are drawn to the simplicity and ease of programmes that allow us to give goats and other basic tools to the poor and feel we are making development a reality. Don’t be fooled.