Department of Global Political Studies Peace and Conflict Studies 91-120 ECTS August 2010
Learning for Development:
Constructing Inclusive Work Relations in a Nature
Conservation Project in Dondo, Mozambique
Christina Hansen
email@christinahansen.se Supervisor: Maja Povrzanovic Frykman
Development projects often conceptualize target groups that are identified as – ‘the poor’, ‘the underdeveloped’, ‘the illiterate’ – with the aim to ‘help’, ‘develop’ or ‘educate’ them. The definitions of ‘problems’ are based on knowledge deriving from the same source as the ideas of development interventions, and therefore may ignore local knowledge. By analyzing one micro-level case this thesis suggests that projects aiming to promote development may in fact fail to accomplish their goals.
This study is based on ethnographic material collected through fieldwork in one local neighbourhood of Dondo, which is a rural town in central Mozambique. It explores how development discourse and practice are introduced in a local setting, how they operate, and the way in which they are transformed and utilized.
The encounters between outsiders and insiders in conditions of economic and material inequality, and the work relations between superiors and socially less privileged people, are characterized by reciprocal preconceptions and stereotyped images of ‘the Other’. In Dondo historically and culturally normalized social relations have come to marginalize economically less advantaged residents. The divisions between ‘insiders’ and ‘outsiders’ may legitimize and maintain the marginalization of local knowledge, as well as local people’s participation. At the same time, a lack of trust towards outsiders’ expertise exists amongst insiders, which impedes recognition of ‘outer’ knowledge that could contribute to local development.
These factors obstruct the creation of inclusive work relations; a give-and-take relationship in which both sides learn and benefit from each other’s experience and knowledge. Therefore, this thesis argues for mutual learning as a precondition for development. Certain leadership approaches may enable development, if it is practiced with the aim to challenge existing power inequalities and discursively created images of self and others that operate within development contexts.
Key words Development, development projects, inclusive work relations, mutual learning, leadership,
Utvecklingsprojekt förutsätter konstruerade målgrupper – ”de fattiga”, ”de under-utvecklade”, ”analfabeter” – som man ämnar ”hjälpa”, ”utveckla” eller ”utbilda”. Vad som definieras vara ”problemen” baseras på kunskap som härrör från samma källa som idéerna till utvecklingsinsatser. Detta riskerar att ignorera lokalkännedom. Denna uppsats visar, genom analys av ett fall på mikronivå, att projektmål som syftar till att främja utveckling inte alltid lyckas.
Denna studie är baserad på etnografiskt material hämtat från ett bostadsområde i Dondo, en landsortsbygd i centrala Moçambique, genom fältarbete. Studien utforskar hur en utvecklingsdiskurs och praxis införs i en lokal ort, hur detta påverkar människorna, samt hur de används och förändras.
Mötet mellan utomstående och lokalboende i ekonomiska och materiella ojämlika förhållanden, och arbetsrelationerna mellan ledare och personer med lägre social status, kännetecknas av ömsesidiga fördomar och stereotypa bilder av ”den andre”. I Dondo har historiskt och kulturellt normaliserade sociala relationer kommit att marginalisera ekonomiskt mindre gynnade invånare. Uppdelningen mellan insiders och outsiders legitimerar och upprätthåller marginaliseringen av lokal kunskap och exkluderingen av lokala invånares deltagande. Samtidigt finns det en brist på tilltro till utomståendes expertis bland lokalboende, som hindrar erkännande av ”yttre” kunskap som kan bidra till lokal utveckling.
Dessa faktorer hindrar skapandet av inkluderande arbetsrelationer, det vill säga ett ge-och-ta-förhållande där båda parter lär och drar nytta av varandras erfarenheter och kunskap. Denna uppsats hävdar därför att ömsesidigt lärande är en förutsättning för utveckling. En viss typ av ledarskap kan möjliggöra utveckling om den tillämpas i syfte att utmana befintliga ojämlika maktförhållanden och diskursivt konstruerade bilder av sig själv och andra som cirkulerar i utvecklingssammanhang.
Nyckelord Utveckling, utvecklingsprojekt, inkluderande arbetsrelationer, ömsesidigt lärande,
CISV Children’s’ International Summer Villages
CIA Central Intelligence Agency
FLVida Fundação Lusalite Vida
HDI Human Development Index
IDRC International Development Research Centre.
IIED International Institute for Environment and Development
IMF International Monetary Fund
IPP International People’s Project
LDC Least Developed Country
MFS Minor Field Studies
NE Nationalencyklopedin
NGO Non governmental organization
PAR Participatory Action Research
SIDA Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency
UN The United Nations
UNDP United Nations Development Programme
Map of Mozambique
Beira is Mozambique’s second largest city after the capital Maputo. Dondo is situated 30 kilometres northwest of Beira.
PREFACE 2
1 Introduction 6
1.1 The purpose of this study and the notions employed 8
1.2 Theoretical vantage points 9
1.3 Delimitations 11
1.3 Aim and research questions 12
1.4 Presentation of research participants 13
The mamãs and the youth 13
The leader 14
2 Methodology 15
2.1 Being there 15
2.2 Ethical considerations in ethnographic research methods 16
2.3 Participation 17
2.4 Methodological limitations and challenges 18
Language and communication 19
Participant or observer 19
3 Making development 21
3.1 Mozambique: a ‘developing’ country? 23
3.2 A current development discourse and its effects 25
3.3 ‘A paradise to preserve’ - A nature conservation project 27
4 ’To enter history’ – The challenge of inclusion 29
4.1 About poverty, becoming a category and the creation of otherness 30
4.2 Contextualizing inequality 32
4.3 ‘Insiders’ and ‘outsiders’, ‘inferiority’ and ‘superiority’ 33
4.4 Building trust (needs time) 37
5 ‘And then?’ – Problematizing development 41
5.1 Hierarchies of knowledge 43
5.2 Rethinking development: Learning from reflection 46
5.2 The outcomes of the project 47
6 Redefining work relations 53
6.1 Transforming through leadership 56
7 Developing mutual learning 58
EPILOGUE 61
PREFACE
– You are the ones who make history. We do not make history.
This was stated by Gonçalo, an eighteen-year-old youngster I got to know during my time in Dondo, just when we were about to end an interview. He asked me whether Swedes had suffered from colonialism. I told him we did not have that experience, and that is when he made the above remark. I am still in doubt about what he meant by this statement.
The first time I visited Mozambique was in 2008. I volunteered in a development project in a rural agricultural neighbourhood called Lusalite, situated in the periphery of Dondo village. Since then I have gone back twice. In a Malawian native language ‘Dondo’ means a place covered by bushes. It is hard to imagine that this whole area once was tropical forest.
Driving into the private area of Lusalite Company one passes through a gate followed by an alley of high cassias. The trees are about sixty years old, planted when the country was under colonial rule. They make straight lines dividing up squares of gardens next to each of the white repetitive houses along the sandy, but tidy lanes. I didn’t take as much notice of these trees during my first visit as I did on my second.
When I returned for fieldwork in 2009 I was anxious to reach the main building at the end of the alley where the Foundation’s office was. I wanted to see if the three baobab trees1 that we
planted the year before, right by the entrance, had survived. I could hardly distinguish them from the dusty road. The grey, thin and thwarted little trees that constitute a triangle, were supposed to serve as a small roundabout. Fourteen months had passed since I had last seen them, and they
1 The baobab, also known as the tree of life, is widely present through the savannas and drier regions of Africa. The species
reach heights of 30 metres and trunk diameters to 11 metres. Its trunk can hold up to 120,000 litres of water. It provides shelter, food and water for the animal and human. The cork-like bark is fire resistant and is used for cloth and rope. The leaves are used for condiments and medicines (Wickens & Lowe 2008).
were perhaps an inch taller. The project leader of the Foundation, Mércia, assured me they were fine. “But we should really do something to protect them. Some people don’t seem to take notice of them. They might be run over.” We stopped outside the kitchen to meet the staff I made friends with the year before. I was surprised to see how much the Moringa trees2 had grown in
contrast to the baobabs, planted at the same time. They almost reached the height of the roof. They were planted right by the kitchen so the nutritious leaves could be used when cooking for the children who attend the local youth recreation centre run by the Foundation.
The youngsters of the neighbourhood had heard the car coming, and had been told about my arrival that same morning. Mutually shy we greeted and exchanged a couple of memories from last year. “Wow, we sure had a lot of fun. Hard work, though, but lots of fun”, Gonçalo, the most outgoing guy said. “Yeah!” we all agreed in chorus. “Have you seen what the tree nursery and gatehouse looks like?” Not yet, I told them, and also that I couldn’t wait to see what had become of our three weeks’ effort. From the main building one can see a neat wooden house by an entrance of a little forest, and right beside it, there is a small tree nursery. They were both built during the nature conservation project two years ago.
My learning journey started with the participation in this project, which eventually resulted in this thesis. My return to Dondo within the academic framework of thesis work would not have been possible without the Minor Field Study-scholarship that was granted to me at Malmö University.
First of all I would like to thank Fundação Lusalite Vida for letting me do my study, and for generously letting me stay in their guesthouse during my fieldwork. I would also like to give my appreciation to the residents in the vicinity who warmly received me and made me feel welcomed, especially the mamãs, the youth and família Mota. I am also grateful to Allan Schwarz, my supervisor in the field, for letting me visit and stay at his farm and teaching me about trees, timber, agroforestry and much more that was new to me. I would particularly like to thank him for the enthusiasm he showed in commenting on my early drafts during my third visit to Mozambique. I am also grateful to friends who gave me feedback to improve the content and structure of this thesis, in particular Ivan Kruzela, who tirelessly supported and encouraged me from the very beginning of my master’s degree project. My ability to go back to Mozambique for a third visit was due to my parents’ generosity and support.
My thesis supervisor Maja Povrzanovic Frykman’s guidance, encouragement and inspiration throughout every stage of the writing process have been crucial for what I have learnt and achieved. Therefore, I owe her my deepest gratitude and admiration.
2 Moringa trees grow quickly in many types of environments, and much of the plant is edible. The leaves contain all essential
Finally, I want to give thanks to Lúcia Mércia da Conceição Chande who showed interest and commitment to my study. Without her my fieldwork would not have been possible, and my thesis would not have been completed. I feel privileged to have shared this learning journey with her.
Tree nursery
Gatehouse Pictures taken July 2010
1 Introduction
During three weeks in July of 2008, the International People’s Project (IPP)3 built a tree nursery
and a gatehouse beside the Lusalite forest, situated in a rural agricultural area of Dondo, a town in the Sofala province in central Mozambique. It was a collaborative nature conservation project between the local partner organization Fundação Lusalite Vida4 (hereafter the Foundation) and the
non-governmental organization (NGO) CISV International (see note 3), with the general theme ‘Sustainable Development in Developing and Developed Countries’. A group of about thirty foreign volunteers cooperated with as many local participants.5 The work consisted of mainly
physical work, like carrying, cutting, sawing, and fixing wood, but also digging and planting trees. The aims agreed upon, within the group of foreign participants, were ‘to provide tools, inspiration and
visions to start new things and continue the projects, to learn about the thoughts, needs and priorities of the local community, and to experience new cultural perspectives and learn about ourselves’6. The official predetermined
idea, set by the international project staff in accordance with the Foundation, was to trigger a
3 IPP – a specific partnership programme within the organization CISV (see http://resources.cisv.org/ipp/). Children’s
International Summer Villages (CISV) is an international youth organization aiming at building peace through global friendship starting with children (see www.cisv.org).
4 The Lusalite Life Foundation was founded in 2003 with the aim to fulfil a social responsibility of the private Lusalite
Company – a factory producing construction material placed in Dondo that was founded in mid 20th century, -with the
objectives to ‘improve and develop the quality of life’ of the residents of the Lusalite neighbourhoods. Three separate neighbourhoods (north, south and mixed zone) are made up by approximately 400 families. The foundation works directly with about 70 families. The neighbourhoods encircle the Lusalite forest. During the last couple of years, the main focus of the foundation has been to ensure that children in the area achieve improved living conditions. The Foundations runs a youth recreation centre where between sixty to hundred children come to play, read and write. Most of the children also attend the formal public school in the town of Dondo. Beside the recreation centre, the foundation organizes and carries out activities, which involves the local women and youth (of which husbands and fathers work for the local company), enabling them to engage in work that can be useful in their daily lives and even generate a small income. For more information see www.fundacaolvida.org.
5 The group of foreign participants consisted of women and men between 18 to 55 years old. Volunteers came from Brazil,
France, Germany, Italy, Portugal, Sweden, UK, the USA and Mozambique.
6 The agreed aims resulted from discussions during the first days upon arrival to Dondo among the group of international
process of calling attention to the indigenous forest in the area, and to promote local consciousness about its biodiversity, ecological value and the beneficial use of its resources by the people living around it. Fetching firewood is a local practice of basic subsistence. Therefore, the aim was to illustrate through collaborative activities how a process of preservation and reforestation can be initiated and developed. The tropical forest expert and architect Allan Schwarz7 was contacted prior to the project, invited to supervise the building of tree nursery and
gatehouse, and to help in identifying trees and opening trails throughout the forest.
The nature conservation project was the starting point of something different in the area. However, the process turned out to be difficult to implement and to realize in accordance with its original aims.8
Published research in the field of peace and conflict studies and development studies indicates that projects aiming to promote ‘development’ many times fail to accomplish their goals (Eriksson Baaz 2005; Ferguson 1994; Nederveen Pieterse 2010). All realizations of projects in a certain locality involve people with different backgrounds and roles; those who came up with the idea, those who plan, organize, finance, and coordinate the project, those who carry out the idea in practice, and last but not least, those who will live with the results. Lately awareness has grown of the complex relationship between conservation actions and the livelihoods of local people, especially the impact that protected areas have on rural communities (IIED 2010). There is a tension between the increasing climate-change measures undertaken for nature conservation, and upholding and respecting of the rights of local people. However, Allan Schwarz (2010) maintains that these two sides do not need to be in conflict, saying that conservation and human development must go hand in hand if either is going to work.9
Development projects concern people’s real-life problems. Their day-to-day realities need to be studied in order to explain the successes and failures of activities that aim to ‘develop’. When doing research on this it is relevant to ask how people, who are supposed to contribute to, and benefit from the projects, experience and think about ‘development’. The renowned book
Power of Development (Crush 1995), critically points out that “the power” of development lies in the
power to generalize, homogenize and objectify, which may be devastating considering the
7 Allan Schwarz is an architect and sustainable resource businessperson from South Africa working in central Mozambique.
For more information see www.allanschwarz.com.
8 The forest was already protected before the project as a private area. After the project the protection was carried out with
objectives of conservation (Mércia 2010).
9 According to Allan Schwarz, nature and people cannot be separated since he believes that: ”’Poverty is at the root of forest
destruction. My dream is to break the economic necessity of such destruction by economically empowering the forest’s inhabitants while building a culture of giving back what is taken or used from the forest and the landscape.’ In a region where both poverty and forest loss are extensive, Allan is conserving forests by investing in, developing and managing the resources in a sustainable way for the benefit of all the forest inhabitants; thus guaranteeing the survival of his beloved timbers and all the creatures around it” (Schwarz 2010).
diversity of people and places. In order to challenge this homogenizing power, researchers should communicate experiences of development expressed by the individuals involved (Crush 1995:22).
Against that background, my local-level ethnography presented in this thesis brings forward personal experiences of five women in between the ages of 32-50 – a group I will refer to in this thesis as the mamãs10 – and a group of six youths, 18-21 years old, which I will refer to
as ‘the youth’, and finally Lúcia Mércia da Conceição Chande (hereafter Mércia). Mércia is a 23-year old11 sociology student who is employed by the Foundation and has the responsibility of
coordinating all social activities. All of the people introduced above were participants in the nature conservation project in 2008 and were the ones who continued working with the project after its implementation. This thesis also presents my interpretations of their statements, as well as aspects of the project and the place that I observed during my three visits to Dondo (in 2008, 2009, 2010) – a total stay of 16 weeks.
1.1 The purpose of this study and the notions employed
This thesis intends to explore processes of learning in conditions of inequality. Learning12 is here
referred to skills and knowledge13 collected from daily life experiences and personal interactions
that are preceded by a process of reflection, and dependent on the individual’s previous experiences and knowledge (Granberg 2009; Cohen 2001). Inequality means the differences among people in their command over social and economic resources (Osberg 2001), which must be contextualized in order to be studied. My analysis is based on some current perspectives on
development (Nederveen Pieterse 2010; Ferguson 2006; Crush 1995) and leadership (Granberg 2009;
Gill 2006). The main aspects relevant here are social processes between ‘insiders’ and ‘outsiders’ towards inclusiveness in which both sides gain and contribute with knowledge and experience,
within the context of a development project. Leadership is defined as a relationship between
co-workers – not a position – in which learning occurs. Both leadership and development thus imply relational processes of learning.
10 Mamãs is a plural form of mãe in Portuguese, which means mother. 11 Mércia was born in 1987.
12 Learning ”is usually defined as a change in someone's behaviour, knowledge, level of skill, or understanding which is
long‐lasting or permanent and is acquired through experiences rather than through the process of growth or ageing. In this sense it is difficult to draw a clear distinction between what is learned through education or training and what is acquired through conditioning or exposure to propaganda. Some educationalists, therefore, would prefer to link definitions of learning to the concept of self‐actualization or personal development, situating the process in a humanist context rather than a purely behaviourist one (Wallace 2009).
13 Knowledge is defined by the Oxford English Dictionary 2005 as (i) expertise, and skills acquired by a person through
experience or education; the theoretical or practical understanding of a subject; (ii) what is known in a particular field or in total; facts and information; or (iii) awareness or familiarity gained by experience of a fact or situation.
For the purpose of this thesis, I constructed the term mutual learning in order to stress that it is a precondition of collaborative activities in the attempt to foster inclusive work relations. Mutual implies the relations between project participants, as well as planners, financers, leaders etc., who normally do not live in the area in which the project is implemented, and the project participants who are native to the area and are supposed to carry the project out and live with its consequences. Inclusive work relations between insiders and outsiders do not necessarily imply ‘equal’ relations, since the groups are diverse and in which social, material, economic and symbolic inequalities do exist. But ‘non-equal’ does not necessarily mean not equitable, rather it is an inclusive relation that refers to an equitable and fair relation where local participants are encouraged, acknowledged and valued. Mutual learning between insiders and outsiders assures that local knowledge is recognized, validated and incorporated in projects.
The duality of ‘insiders’ and ‘outsiders’, which are the terms that I mainly use here, are not to be interpreted as fixed, but fluid and contextually defined. Other terms commonly used in the same sense are ‘benefactors’ and ‘beneficiaries’, or ‘developers’ and ‘receivers’. These divisions, however, are patronizing since they connote one active and one passive part, which speaks against the necessary mutuality of input and benefit in this relation. In this thesis, the insider-outsider relationship is best seen in terms of different roles and positions that are occupied by two diverse groups of individuals who learn at different pace and stages. A key characteristic of this relationship is that it recurs in conditions of economic and social inequality. An ‘outsider’, however, does not need to be a “wealthy foreigner” who works with a “poor local”, but can be an educated fellow-national from the city, who leads projects in a place where the living conditions and people are unfamiliar to him or her. Therefore, inclusive work relations and how to achieve them through specific leadership processes are crucial in any development context that involves insiders and outsiders in the conditions similar as the ones presented here.
The theoretical concepts introduced above are used and exemplified in an accessible way in the following chapters, and are closely related to the specific issues explored here. This thesis is not necessarily providing a full overview of all the nuances of these concepts, but rather they are used in order to analyze my fieldwork material.
1.2 Theoretical vantage points
In order to explain how inclusive work relations and the mutual learning resulting from them can occur amidst conditions of economic, material and symbolic inequality, it must be clarified how the concepts and positions of ‘insider’, ‘outsider’, ‘leader’ (or any superior) and ‘knowledge’ are
perceived14 by the people involved. Also the impact of discourses in creating these meanings and
their effects in practice must be clarified.15 The focus of this thesis will be on the interpretations
and meanings that the local participants attach to the concepts stated above. These representations influence the outcomes of project activities and need to be understood from a contextual and historical perspective (Eriksson Baaz 2005). It is well known that preconceived ideas affect the way people act in situations of participatory face-to-face activities, where socially constructed differences are apparent (see Schwalbe et al. 2000). How then, can conditions of mutual learning be created to assure that the viewpoints of less privileged people are voiced and their knowledge utilized? I recognize the importance of mutual and individual responsibility in all human relations, yet, I argue that people in superior positions (possessing some kind of power, skills and hopefully wisdom to control the course of activities), whether it be symbolically or formally, do have a major responsibility in creating the conditions for mutual learning, so that economically and socially less privileged people can come to see themselves as worthy and capable of voicing their knowledge and opinions.16
People may experience inequality in different ways. Inclusiveness and mutual learning are defined subjectively. It would thus be easier to study differences between people in mere material terms, yet I argue that subjective perceptions have greater impact on how we experience ourselves and others, than gaps in economical status do. Who can accurately pinpoint when mutual learning has occurred? Mutual learning is per definition something that occurs among people who act in a joint effort to achieve a shared aim. Through communication, ”people will develop a shared vision of the world … to be able to decide collectively on actions” (Habermas in Buchy & Ahmed 2007). Mutual learning therefore implies interaction between group members. In this thesis I attempt to look closely at such interactive processes. However, I maintain that
mutual learning and inclusive work relations are not solely dependent on sharing same worldviews, but
also on power relations and the groupings that the different actors represent and are capable of implementing.
I don’t direct my attention to differences as a characteristic for human relations in general since that would implicitly undermine the vast similarities between people of all social, cultural and economical backgrounds. My own experiences in the field taught me about similarities
14 Perception is an active process in each individual aiming at getting adequate information from the context (James Gibson
in Granberg 2009:79).
15 The conceptualization of discourse used in this thesis is mainly influenced by the scholars; Ferguson (1994), Crush (1995),
Nederveen Pietersee (2010), and Eriksson Baaz (2005), of which all approach the issue of discourses in contexts of “development” practice.
16 In relation to inequality and poverty, the anthropologist Arjun Appadurai (2001), states that poverty is material deprivation
and desperation, lack of security and dignity – it is inequality materialized. But emphasizes the fact that being economically and socially less privileged is also about a lack of recognition. Less privileged people are in positions where social norms constitute constraints for them to strengthen their capacities to “exercise voice” – that is the capacity to debate, contest, inquire and participate critically.
between me and my fellow project- and research-friends in our ways of thinking, wishing and planning for our futures. But my main concern here is with the differences that are reproduced in ranks of social scales that organize the rules of behaviour.
By exploring how people view and experience the relations they are involved in, I attempt to challenge the ‘mental paternalism’ implied in social categories and stereotypes that suggest ‘superiority’ or ‘inferiority’ of for example ‘European’, ‘the poor’, ‘the African’ etc. While analyzing a particular project, I aim to clarify the constructed feature of such categories, and to shed light on superiors’ normalized patterns of social behaviour.
Inequality will not disappear due to only social and cultural measures, no more than deep injustices in the liberal capitalist societies will vanish by proclaiming each individual’s right to equality under the law (Ferguson 2006:23). The economical aspects such as control of production and access to material resources are inevitably crucial in strategies for a more just and fair society. Concretely, the most pronounced differences on the micro-level of the project that will be analyzed in the following chapters, are the housing conditions, possession of cars, paid work, wearing sandals or heavy boots, and whether people got water from the tap or had to fetch it at the nearest pond.
1.3 Delimitations
Due to limited time for research, as well as limited length of the text, this thesis does not present the foreign volunteers’ perspectives (who were in Dondo for three weeks in 2008). Neither is this thesis an evaluation of the specific nature conservation project. It is not my task to evaluate the activities and policies of the local partner organization, neither will I explore the organizational structures and activities of the NGO.
Trees play both a symbolic and concrete role throughout this thesis, since my point of
departure is the nature conservation project. However, I do not study any environmentalist or naturalist perspectives in relation to the indigenous forest.
Although the economical and material aspects of inequality remain the crucial context, they are not explored here.17
17 In order to explore some basic measurable benefits e.g. food, fuel and money earned, access to education, health, basic
housing needs etc., it would be necessary to spend a longer period in the field, and using another methodological approach than this thesis applies.
1.3 Aim and research questions
This thesis is devoted to the modalities of constructing inclusive work relations in a project involving ‘insiders’ and ‘outsiders’, ‘inferiors’ and ‘superiors’. The aim is to exemplify the theoretical issues presented above by describing and analysing a project involving foreign volunteers and local participants in Dondo, Mozambique. This study looks into how collaborative activities in the context of social inequalities affect people’s learning processes, by exploring the meanings and values that local participants invest in the project.
Therefore, the central research questions are:
• How did local participants perceive the relations they were involved in within the context of this particular project?
• How are their perceptions related to scholarly discussions of development and the role of development projects?
By going to the field and collecting material through ethnographic methods I got in-depth insights into one particular project. These insights serve to illustrate and confirm, or challenge theoretical stances about inclusive work relations, mutual learning and leadership. The subsequent, more detailed questions thus involve both empirical and theoretical dimensions:
• Have inclusive work relations been achieved within this project? How do, in the perception of local participants, conditions of inequality influence the creation of inclusive work relations? These empirical questions will be explored in Chapter 4 in relation to the theoretical question: Do notions of ‘insider’ and ‘outsider’, ‘inferiority’ and ‘superiority’ help us to understand the dynamics of this particular project?
• Did mutual learning occur in this project? How did perceived inferiority/superiority influence learning? How did work relations affect learning? These empirical questions will be explored in Chapter 5 in relation to the theoretical question: How is the notion of development related to processes of mutual learning?
• What kind of leadership style was employed in this project? Did it effect work relations and mutual learning? What were the difficulties met by the different participants? How is the leadership employed in this project related to the theoretical discussions of successful leadership? These questions will be explored in Chapter 6.
1.4 Presentation of research participants
A stone’s throw from the tree nursery in Lusalite, one can see a couple of small houses with faded paint or no paint at all, only grey concrete. They make part of the south zone of the Lusalite neighbourhood18, a community consisting of about 30 houses inhabited by workers of
the local Lusalite factory and their families, which is located by the forest. The mamãs and the youth live there. The people who have participated in this research through my observations, interviews and conversations with them are called research participants19 in the methodological
chapter. With the term ‘participant’, I intend to convey their active involvement in the research process.
In the beginning of fieldwork (2009) the Foundation’s leader Mércia helped me to arrange a meeting where the research participants were introduced to the purpose of my ten-week presence in the community, my methods and the aims of my study. Mercia has given her consent to have her name published. The mamãs’ and the youth’s names are invented in order to safeguard their anonymity.
The mamãs and the youth
The mamãs20 is a group of five middle-age women who all participated as local volunteers building
the tree nursery.21 After the project implementation phase they continued nursing the plants and
trees voluntarily. Eventually they got paid job in the machamba, a cultivation farm.22
‘The youth’ is a group of six youngsters, three girls and three boys. During the project implementation they built the gatehouse and marked out trails in the forest together with the foreign volunteers. After that they worked in the tree nursery and as guards in the forest. Their
18 The neighbourhood of Lusalite was built in the colonial time when the Lusalite factory was built, around 1940’s. The
neighbourhood is divided in three separate housing areas; the north zone, where the biggest and neatest houses were built for the Lusalite Company’s managers and their families. In the south zone, the houses are small, with asbestos walls and galvanized steel roof, often consisting of two rooms accommodating families with up to ten children, with no running water. These were constructed for the factory workers and their families. The mixed zone is the smallest area where the poorest families live.
19 Other commonly used terms in this context are ‘respondents’, ‘informants’, or ‘research subjects’. Due to these terms’
implicit connotation of passivity in relation to the researcher, they would mislead the roles that the local residents play in this particular study.
20 Mamãs is a plural form of mãe. Mãe is in daily speech used referring to a married woman, a woman with children or an
elderly woman, and as 'dona da casa' (housewife). It is a way to show respect and reverence.
21 I was one out of four foreign participants in the nursery project group (out of total 27 foreign participants) who worked
together with these mamãs. The mamãs had previously been engaged in social projects organized by the Foundation, such as cultivation of piripiri (spicy chilli). The foundation offered women of the community plants for them to nurse and harvest in exchange for a small income.
22 In this case, the research participants, initially working voluntarily for the foundations, eventually got paid jobs. This
means in practice an increase of income to the family household. This change of income mainly resulted in an increase of material consumption (clothing and other consumer goods for the household). But so far, I could not see that the local projects had introduced new relations of production, or any significant economic transformations.
job mainly consisted of nursing plants and patrolling the trails and watching for ‘intruders’ (locals who come to fetch firewood), telling them that it is prohibited to cut wood. Besides these duties all of them attended school in Dondo.
The youth spoke Portuguese well, while most of the mamãs mostly spoke their native language Sena. Luiza, one of the mamãs, told me:
I couldn’t study because of the war. We were afraid, and … many teachers were also threatened and assaulted. So I had to stay at home […] I wish all my children could study… but it is not possible. If God wishes perhaps one of them can, if we have enough money.
She is in her early forties and has ten children. She completed 7th grade, however, which explains why she could speak Portuguese. The other women had only attended school for a couple of years, or not at all. Inez was Luiza’s classmate, but she dropped out earlier because she married. Inez gave birth to ten children, but only five survived.
The leader
By the time the nature conservation project was carried out Mércia had just started to work at the Foundation. Her job consisted of supervising all social activities that aim to involve and empower women, youth and children from the area. She explained to me it is by means of education and providing ‘tools’: “We teach them how to use these tools in order to develop themselves”.
Mércia was born and raised in Maputo, the capital, but now resides in Beira, Mozambique’s second largest city. She enjoys working with people, and was therefore very fond of her job at the Foundation. Most of all, Mércia likes to involve women in projects because, as she said “… it is more difficult for women to get paid jobs. Men can leave their house, cut firewood, or carry something... They can always find a small job to do here and there.”
Mércia was a volunteer in the conservation project in 2008, not as a leader, but she did stay together with the foreign volunteers. She was my key informant23 during my fieldwork in 2009.
This explains the number of her quotes in the text. Most of the interviews and conversations with her were held in Portuguese, and some in English.
23 One definition of ’key informants’ is ”those research subjects in ethnographic studies who have a disproportionate weight
2 Methodology
This thesis relies on a constructivist24 approach. It is based on project participants’ views, my
interpretations of their statements, and my observations of their actions. The data on which my analysis is based are acquired by qualitative methods.
2.1 Being there
Descriptions in this thesis are based on observation as a means of collecting data within the process of ethnographic fieldwork. One must go beyond ‘just getting the facts’ in order to study human, political, social, and cultural contextual elements (Walliman 2006:38). The outcomes of fieldwork are not intended to represent “the way that things really are”, or “how they work”, but to “represent the meaningful constructions which the individual actors or groups of actors create in order to make sense of the situations in which they find themselves” (Walliman 2006:39). Further, this approach recognizes that the constructions, i.e. the meanings that people invest in their own and others’ actions, are influenced by the researcher’s questions (or mere presence). Also they are inextricably linked to the specific contexts within which they are formed, and are dependent on viewpoints and subjective perceptions of the research participants.
Fieldwork is central to ethnographic research. It could generally be defined as the
researchers personal investment of a considerable amount of time with a group of people, participating in their daily lives, watching what happens, listening to what is said, asking
24 Constructionism is a perspective that considers facts, descriptions and other features of ’objective reality’ and social
phenomena to be in constant state of change because they are totally reliant on social interactions as they take place (Jupp 2006:38, Walliman 2006:205).
questions, while they aim to shed light on the issues that are the focus of their research (O’Reilly 2005). Fieldwork could be said to have much of the same characteristics “as one long conversation with someone you are fascinated with” (Rubin and Rubin in O’Reilly 2005). There is an emphasis on trying to see things from the point of view of the “insider”. Therefore the question I had in mind when doing my fieldwork was not what I saw these people doing, as much as what they saw themselves doing.
The main ethnographic methods used in this study were participant observation and interviews that were mostly unstructured. Participant observation basically means to participate and record as much as possible from the events under scrutiny. Ethnographers believe that the unstructured discussions with research participants give time for individuals to express their doubts, fears, and hopes. In this way the researcher can learn about people from their own perspective, and get the views from within, which can hardly be done by imposing straightforward - and even less so - closed questions (O’Reilly 2005).
The empirical data in this thesis is based on the research participants’ statements and remarks, the revelations of their views, feelings, intentions and actions, as well as the contexts of their lives. The insiders’ views are complemented by my observations in the field. All above are crucial to the analysis in the following chapters.
2.2 Ethical considerations in ethnographic research methods
The study of human beings needs to be particularly sensitive about issues of ethical behaviour and considerations (Walliman 2006:151). The balance of power in research is always angled in favour of the researcher who is in a position of being able to exploit people by making them feel that they should respond (O’Reilly 2005:64). Ethics is about trying to ensure that one causes as little harm as possible and not exploiting people for own ends. One has to be aware of the effects of research on the participants (ibid).
Prior to my fieldwork I carefully studied social research methods. I discussed my concerns with my supervisor who, as an experienced ethnographer, advised me about practical situations in the field. My interest in anthropology and its methods made me thoughtful, more informed, more reflexive and more critical to my own actions, perspectives and responsibilities. Further, the grant I was awarded to carry out this post-graduate project was accepted by a scholarship committee in the application process.25
25 The Minor Field Studies (MFS) scholarship financed by SIDA (Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency)
2.3 Participation
‘Being there’ somehow involves participation, independently of the ethnographic approach one might choose. Personally, I felt the urge to see the results of the project that I myself had participated in as a volunteer worker in 2008. My curiosity that motivated this research came along with ambiguous feelings. Was the project a failure, or a sustainable implemented project benefiting local residents?
Action research is a practice of engaging in research (searching for knowledge and
understanding) and action (attempting to change the situation under scrutiny) at the same time (Bloor & Wood 2006:9).26 Participatory Action Research (PAR) is one of the subcategories of action
research, where the research projects explore questions of exclusion, marginalization and disadvantage. This approach intends to include research participants “as active collaborators who are capable of representing themselves rather than just simply being given a ‘voice’ by the researcher”. The editors of Participatory action research approaches and methods (Kindon & Kesby 2007) encourage cycles of action and reflection, and conclude that PAR can be “emancipatory and empowering so long as researchers remain mindful of the importance of cultivating trust and respect, always interrogating their own positionality”. PAR must be dealt with as a long-term process combined with a strong element of learning by experience (ibid). By adopting a PAR approach I aimed to contribute with relevant and constructive perspectives and understandings about the people and the place involved in one particular project. I see action research as an important approach in both creating theory and mutual learning between the people involved in the field (the observer included).
Mércia appreciated my interest in exploring the conservation project and eagerly agreed to comment and talk about my results and analysis. On my third visit to the field she read drafts of my results, and based on that we had various conversations concerning my interpretations of the empirical data. Mércia’s participation was aimed to serve as an encouraging message acknowledging her experiences and knowledge, and also to foster mutual learning and an exchange of perspectives between us concerning the matters discussed in this thesis. Through a dialogue I hoped to provide a richer understanding of the complex nature of ‘development’ in relation to the needs and experiences of the local residents themselves, and to empower her in the processes of our mutual learning. Additionally, I felt that by reviewing my findings with Mércia, who is very familiar with the field, prevented an uncritical adoption of a ‘western gaze’ bachelor or master thesis. The committee working under the International Office at Malmö University requires that applications state ethical considerations in the project description (see www.mfs.se for further information).
26 ”The origins of action research are usually credited to Kurt Levin (1946) who argued that social science should be
and resemblances of a paternalistic discourse in my thesis, when studying people living under conditions different than my own.27
2.4 Methodological limitations and challenges
Fieldwork is time-consuming since it requires building relationships based on trust. Time is needed for a fieldworker to stop feeling uncomfortable, to fit in, to get to know the people, and for the people to accept the newcomer’s presence. Moreover, there is never a guarantee for the researcher to be accepted into the context he or she wishes to observe (Bengtsson 1998). Since I had already met and made friends with the people from the Lusalite neighbourhood as a volunteer in 2008, my access to the field and the people as a student researcher upon my second visit was uncomplicated. Another and probably more important factor that facilitated my access was Mércia’s supportive and collaborative approach, both to my research, and my participation in the activities of the Foundation.
However, there were several markers of difference that I was constantly reminded of in relation to the place that I was in, and people that I was with. My white skin colour did not only make me look different from most of my fieldwork friends, but it was something that evoked history, meaning and values. I felt that this sometimes created a distance to the people I wanted to get to know most of all. Also I was one of the economically privileged in a place of deep economic inequalities. It was an ‘identity’ I did not choose, yet could not escape from. Also the fact that I was a young woman influenced my relation to others, and the way that other people perceived me. Most of the time my age and gender were clear advantages in relation to my aim of creating close relationships with the people who were central to my study.
Furthermore, I sometimes found local manners of social interaction challenging (and even immoral) since they were framed within a strictly stratified hierarchy of social status that I was not used to. I realized that access to the field not only entailed ‘making way’ to the people who were focus of the study, but also that there was a value to build friendly relationships with, and entering the social spheres of the economical privileged residents and people in chief positions of the foundation (even if they were not in the centre of my study).
I have transcribed most interviews from Portuguese to English. All transcriptions entail not only a risk of meanings getting lost in translation, but also an influence of the meanings held by
27 Each research participant ought to be economically compensated for engaging in PAR activities. I did not have enough
time or the economical possibility to involve the mamãs and the youth, as much as I would have liked to. I was also concerned that my social position and our power inequalities would make them feel ‘obliged’ to participate if I asked them to.
the translator. I believe that, thanks to Mércia reading my interpretations, the translations correctly convey the intended meanings of those being interviewed.
Language and communication
I posses a relatively fluent level of spoken Portuguese, which is the official language in Mozambique. Throughout my time in the field I became more and more familiar with the characteristics of the locally spoken Portuguese, which enabled me to understand the people more fully. Yet, the native languages Sena and Ndao, played a dominant role in the lives of the
mamãs.28 Only one out of the five women spoke fluent Portuguese, and therefore she was more
confident in speaking freely with me. However, all of them did master some Portuguese. Even if the language difficulties created a communicative distance I struggled to reduce it by an increasing daily use of phrases and words in Sena (the most spoken language in the area out of the two mentioned above), which the women taught me during the days we worked in the farm plot. The time I spent in the field enabled me to build friendly relationships with the research participants. “Now when you work here together with us, you will also become a mãe29, like us”,
Inez, one of the mamãs, said to me after some three weeks of fieldwork. This metaphor was very important to me.
Participant or observer
I was well aware of the three ‘parallel roles’ that I adopted in the field. First, being a friend and working colleague with the mamãs, trying to be “one of them”. Secondly, remaining a “neutral researcher”, a young female academic student and an outsider observing “the subjects” of my field study, and thirdly, engaging voluntarily on the managerial level of the foundation in collaboration with Mércia. I consciously tried to find an efficient balance between my roles in order to keep my eyes on both “the trees and the forest”, especially so in the final writing phase of this study.
28 Thirty-three languages are spoken in Mozambique. “While Mozambicans use Portuguese as the language of government
and education, they are increasingly turning to English, too, as they develop deeper political and economic links with other nations. Nevertheless, the large majority of all people in the region continue to rely on local Bantu languages in their homes” (Thornton 2001).
29 Mãe is singular of mães (commonly used in Portugal), or mamãs (commonly used in Mozambique). Mãe is a polite and
respectful way of addressing each other in speech, usually women of age who have children and husband. Although I was neither mother nor married, they somehow gave me the trust as to becoming a ’mãe’.
As the methods adopted in this research are dependent on personal observations, there is a risk that distortion of data occurs (Walliman 2006:38). To avoid this as much as possible I have stayed reflexive and mindful about my own positions in the field.
3 Making development
‘Let’s talk development’ was the title of an article I read in Skyways (Pithouse 2009), an in-flight
magazine from Johannesburg to Beira. It was in August 2009, on my way to do fieldwork in Dondo. The writer was saying that everybody in South Africa ‘speaks the language of development’. I dare say they are not the only ones. In so-called ‘developing countries’, large parts of the population live in conditions of deprivation compared to the material and economic conditions of people in so called ‘developed countries’. Therefore, official strategies, policies and projects are made to promote something called development, most often with the help of the international community. Hence, it is not surprising that we all come to ‘speak a similar language’.
The question of ‘development’ is debated in all sectors of society across the globe; governments, municipalities, world institutions (eg. International Monetary Fund (IMF)), banks (eg. World Bank), aid agencies, NGO’s, workers’ unions, global top meetings (eg. G8, G20, UN), research institutions, student seminars, media, and even in family households. Yet, there is no comprehensive and accepted definition. Researchers, professionals and officials are deeply divided about the issue of development. Throughout the past century, international agreements have resulted in formulations and reformulations of the notion of development, what it is, and what it could and ought to be. I agree with the anthropologist James Ferguson (1994:14), saying that it is important to move the discussion on the ‘development industry’ beyond the ideological fixation with the question whether it is to be considered a ‘good thing’ or a ‘bad thing’, “a benevolent force to be reformed or an exploitative manoeuvre to be denounced”.
In abstract terms, development could be interpreted as a continuous linear process where everyone eventually gets equally ‘developed’ (Nederveen Pieterse 2010). The Oxford Dictionary of English (2005) explains the word as “the process of developing or being developed; a specified
state of growth or advancement; an event constituting a new stage in a changing situation”. However, the notion of ‘development’ has been contested. The meaning and properties of development have been changing in relation to power and to the ‘language of development’ that has gained the most credibility in a given time and place in history. Therefore, as the sociologist Jan Nederveen Pieterse (2010:9) states, the relationship between knowledge and power is a central issue when talking about ‘development’.
When pointing out the relationship between knowledge, meanings and practice, the issue of discourse becomes relevant. Discourse is primarily about the production of meaning; a temporarily fixation of meaning (Eriksson Baaz 2005:11). According to Michel Foucault30 (in
Ferguson 1994:18), discourse is a practice, it is structured, and it has real effects. The anthropologist Maria Eriksson Baaz (2005:13) describes discourses and representations as
institutionalized and materialized through actions.31 She acknowledges the importance of social
practices, saying, “just as discourses define and restrict the ways in which a phenomenon can be understood, so they also define a certain type of practice” (ibid).32
The donors have the power to define “the problems” and the “target people”, thus also defining ‘development’ in practice. Yet, the less privileged people – the supposed beneficiaries of development promotion – are not necessarily passive recipients, but do have ways to deal with the situation that they are in. Power is not only a top-down process. It is exercised through communication, embedded in all intrapersonal actions (Nordstrom 2004:73). The donors are therefore not the only ‘makers’ of development activities. However, Eriksson Baaz (2005) shows that the creation of a non-paternalistic partnership – that is the relation between ‘donors’ and ‘receivers’ – has proven difficult to achieve in practice. How can an inclusive development be made, to assure local people’s accountability and participation? She is nevertheless critical to the idea that the concept of ‘partnership’ is simply a ‘cover’ for other motives, as if it were a conspiracy on the part of the donors, and therefore failing in practice. Instead, she argues for the need to separate intentions from outcomes, in order to understand the workings of development interventions.
30 ”The influential writings of Michel Foucault (1972) brought the term ‘discourse’ and a scholarly practice known as
‘discourse analysis’ or ‘the archaeology of knowledge’ to the fore in a wide range of disciplines” (Briggs 2001).
31 Eriksson Baaz’s (2005) conceptualization of discourse is as follows: ’a partial, temporary closure of meaning, a closure
which is never fully successful and which implies the exclusion of other possible meanings’.
32 Artur Escobar (1995:40) says, “To understand development as a discourse, one must look not at the elements themselves
but at the system of relations among them. It is this system that allows systematic creation of objects, concepts, and strategies; it determines what can be thought and said […] The system of relations establishes a discursive practice that sets the rules of the game: who can speak, from what point of view, with what authority, and according to what criteria of expertise; it sets the rules that must be followed for this or that problem….”. Ferguson (1994:xiv) says that the production of ideas play a crucial role in how certain sorts of development activities are carried out, since interventions are “organized on the basis of this structure of knowledge”.
In line with what have been said, I maintain that the complex features of ‘development’ cannot be reduced to the duality of ‘good’ or ‘bad’, but have to be seen in concrete situations in which people communicate and act.
As argued above, language has the power to construct ideas by providing “us with the tools for thought, for memory, and for imagination, and allows us to share with our fellows these thoughts, accounts of experience, and plans for meeting the future” (Eriksson Baaz 2005). So, just as the ‘talking’ changes, so does the ‘making’. We make development, which “after all, is an ongoing process shared between people and with the world” (Marchand 2001)33.
3.1 Mozambique: a ‘developing’ country?
When heading for Mozambique for the first time, my flight from Copenhagen via Lisbon had a brief stop at the International Airport in Johannesburg, South Africa. Most passengers left the plane and a couple of new boarded before we headed off again towards Maputo, the capital of Mozambique. I remember observing Johannesburg city from above. It was in July of 2008, just after the worst series of riots of anti-immigrant violence that killed over 60 people and injured several hundred in different cities in South Africa. Immigrants were beaten, stoned and burnt to death in the streets, and many thousands fled the attacks. Who were the killers, and who were the killed? Why? Looking down from a distant above would not give any answers. I was later told that many of the victims were Mozambican migrants. About a million Mozambicans have in the past decades strived to establish a life in the neighbouring country (BBC 2009).
Mozambique is situated in southeastern Africa.34 The country is about twice the size of
Sweden, and the population is nearly 23 million. Mozambique was colonized by the Portuguese in the sixteenth century and became independent five centuries later, in 1975. The independence was preceded by a decade’s warfare between the colonial power and the Front for the Liberation of Mozambique (Frelimo).35
Many “problems” are explained in terms of lack of development (Ferguson 1994). According to the UN human development index (HDI), Mozambique is categorized as the sixth
33 ’Making development’ is in this context drawn upon the anthropologist Trevor Marchand’s ‘making knowledge’ (2001).
Marchand uses the term ‘making’ to illustrate the processes of knowledge formation, “rather than being suggestive of hierarchical and methodical transfer, it fosters thinking about knowledge as a dialogue and constructive engagement between people, and between people, things, and environment”. Marchand aims to progress anthropology’s thinking about human knowledge through exploring the interdependence of minds, bodies, and environment.
34 Borders with Swaziland, South Africa, Zimbabwe, Zambia, Tanzania and Malawi, and the Indian Ocean to the east. 35 Mozambique is clearly part of the Southern African region culturally and historically, despite the Portuguese colonial
heritage. Mozambicans have long been intensively involved in the South African economy, first as labour migrants to white farms from as early as the eighteenth century, and later as labourers on South African mines from the late nineteenth century until the present (Thornton 2001).
least developed country (LDC)36 in the world. This index looks at three criteria; low income,
human resource weakness and economic vulnerability (for a critical approach to the notion ‘LDC’, see Ferguson 1994). The benefits of the postcolonial transition to democratic politics were limited, mainly due to the destructive and brutal postcolonial civil war that lasted for 15 years, from 1977 to 1992. Approximately one million Mozambicans were killed, and in 1992 almost two million people were refugees in the neighbouring countries while three to four million people were displaced in their own country. In addition, large-scale departure of Europeans (for example, most medical personnel from Europe left in the initial period of independence), large economic dependence on South Africa and severe drought lead to increasing poverty and environmental damage, which hindered economic changes until the mid 1990's (UN, Thornton 2001, NE 2010, Landguiden)37. Frelimo has ruled the country since independence in 1975, first as
a one-party Marxist-Leninist regime, then as a democratically elected party in government after the first free elections in 1994 (Frelimo officially abandoned Marxism in 1989). Despite a multi-party system, the country’s politics has been dominated by two parties, Frelimo and Mozambique National Resistance (Renamo), who fought each other in the civil war. During the first four years of Frelimo’s government, the number of children who went to school doubled. But the warfare during the 1980’s was hard on the educational system. Half of the country’s schools were destroyed or closed down due to attacks by the Renamo-gerilla. Frelimo’s government strived towards a modernization of the country, and did this by condemning the widespread traditional religious practices and faith in nature’s powers. The traditional system of local chiefs was brutally replaced by Frelimo’s military officers (NE 2010).
In 1987, a series of macroeconomic reforms of liberalization and increased privatization designed to stabilize the economy were introduced, but they proved to be very demanding for large parts of the population (UN, NE 2010). Ferguson (1994:15) states that the critics blame ‘capitalist development’ - the neoliberal reforms founded on the Washington Consensus38 - as the
cause of poverty and not its cure, and for not being in the interest of the rural poor at all. The idea
that deregulation and privatization would be a universal remedy for economic recovery in Africa
36 ”Least Developed Countries (LDCs) are countries that exhibit the lowest indicators of socioeconomic development. The
United Nations uses three criteria to define whether a country is a LDC: low income, human resource weakness and economic vulnerability. Currently, there are 49 LDCs in the world” (UN).
37 The droughts were followed by severe problems of maintenance. For example, due to the drought in 1982-1984
approximately 100 000 people died of starvation, and in 1992, approximately 3 million people suffered a immediate famine (NE 1994). Furthermore, the country was stricken by devastating floods in 2000 and 2001, which destroyed much of the infrastructure, and another severe drought in 2002.
38 “The Washington Consensus is a set of economic practices and reforms that were deemed by the IMF and the World Bank
(located in Washington, D.C.) to be helpful for financial stability and economic development. They were often set as compulsory conditions for developing countries to receive assistance from these institutions. John Williamson coined the phrase “Washington Consensus” in his 1990 article on the subject. Neoliberal economic policies advocate for minimal government intervention markets and the removal of barriers to trade and finance” (UNDP).
