Lessons from Uganda

I'm not sure what the explanation is but as soon as I came back from my trip home to Canada, everything began to change in Kampala, mostly for the better but also not in the easiest way.

Both of my room mates have decided to move out, one wants to live with her boyfriend, the other wants to live closer to town. This is not that much of a problem since I found the living situation a bit tense and received little help with cleaning and other fun stuff like that. It's a bit of a problem because I'm not sure whether we'll be able to fill one of the rooms and so it might be better to move on altogether but I'm only here two more months.

At work I was finally able to visit one of our four field offices in Lira, which was eye opening. After some careful thinking I concluded that most of the delays I've been encountering with my work are as a result of the fact that I was sent to work on a project that had not yet been approved which will begin being funded on February 1st. This leaves me with 8 weeks in which to do approximately 5 weeks worth of field work. You can probably see the difficulty there.

These changes have prompted me to delve a little bit deeper into my work and think about the theoretical and practical implications of travel and development work which I will now bore you with.

Lesson 1: Development is not entirely compatible with Capitalism

On my way to Lira last week I suddenly understood why most of the professors in my graduate program at Dalhousie were of the Marxist persuasion. I was still feeling quite angry about the fact that I had been sent to a project which had not been approved which resulted in major delays to my program and inhibited my ability to maximize the benefits of my internship. I understood that CIDA provided the organization that sent me all of the funding for the internships at the same time and so it might have been challenging to send interns at a different time but also felt that this did not seem like the best use of government money, in a time when International Development programming funds are being cut.

I was also reflecting on the observation of an Austrian colleagues that many aid organizations compromise the quality of their work through their constant fight for the next contract in which they might take up work that they are not specialized because it is trendy and attracts donors. This was also a sentiment I had heard reflected at Dal.

It was at that point that I understood that to a large extent international development is incompatible with capitalism. Broadly stated, international development is based philosophically on the idea of the redistribution of wealth to provide equal opportunity to people around the world and offset the negative impact of the colonial past. It is very much based on equality and community. In contrast capitalism reinforces competition and individualism.

Capitalism in development practice leads aid organizations to compete for funding while providing it at the lowest possible price. It encourages governments to undertake development interventions which support their own dominance and it suggests that the individuals in developed countries may not be able to enjoy the same level of comfort if others are brought out of absolute poverty which interferes with the independent and competitive nature of capitalist societies. Of course these are some of the multitude of reasons that contemporary development thinkers suggest that aid doesn't work.

Now, before you go labeling me a Pinko, I'm not suggesting that the adoption of global communism is the solution to this problem, I'm simply observing the incompatibility between capitalism and just and equal global economic distribution.

Lesson 2: Responsibilities for travelers and aid workers

Sometimes I loathe myself in Kampala. It is usually while I am walking down the street or I am waiting at a stoplight and a small hand reaches up or a face comes into view of one of the many child beggars that occupy the streets here and they pleadingly ask me for money. Knowing that by giving them money I am only sucking them further into the cycle of violence and extortion that they unjustly find themselves in. Yet, all I really want to do is take them home with me and give them an opportunity to be educated and safe. Not knowing what else to do I usually ignore them which makes me feel like a really awful person, particularly given my history of supporting the anti-poverty movement in Canada.

The alternatives of course either to give them money or to break the law and kidnap them, and I don't particularly feel the need to explore the Ugandan prison system. Some tourists do give these children money, which is contrary to the recommendations made by child protection organizations because it gives their parents, guardians or captors a reason to bring the children back to the street the next day. It has also been suggested that providing food or money to these children might result in direct violence being perpetrated by them. The best solution is for these children to be taken in by the police, but I see the police walk by these children almost on a daily basis without batting an eye.

What do you do?

Another question that I think needs to be addressed involves relationships. I have heard that quite a lot expatriates engage in relationships of different natures in Uganda. Some are relatively innocent, others are individuals seeking sex and some individuals even take advantage of the individuals who they are with. For the latter two types of relationships it must seem very simple to the expatriates who after a period of time simply leave and wash their hands of the relationships, but what of the people left behind? Many women in Uganda engage in sex work, whether formally or informally, to provide for themselves. So although she may not ask her mzungu companion for the night for money she (or he) may be hoping for a longer relationship in which they might receive some benefit like food. Further, regardless of the nature of the relationship, unless you are really committed chances are you will be leaving the person behind.

Yet, at the same time short term relationships can work out quite well for some people when there is a mutual understanding of the nature of the relationship and a relative balance in relation to power. Also, I suppose it would be unfair to suggest that just because someone has chosen to travel it should not preclude them from love or relationships. So the question becomes how to conduct such relations responsibly.

I suppose the important factor in both of these examples is self reflection. During the training session I attended in Ottawa before I came to Uganda one of the facilitators suggested that we should try not to worry about things like if we only had expat friends or if there were a national who was better qualified to do the job we were doing. I absolutely think that those are things that we as interns in our program should reflect on, along with other travelers, aid workers and expats. By behaving responsibly in relationships we can promote equality, womens' rights and human rights. By adopting accepted practices for things like approaching beggars we can prevent to continued victimization of children. By thinking about the nationals who are better qualified to do our jobs we can look for ways to engage those people in our work which may open up to opportunities for them, and through being friends not only with expats we can promote intercultural understanding both in our own lives and in the communities we live and work in.

Lesson 3: Communication and Consultation

You might notice at this point that these lessons are becoming more personal as they go and so I will end with a very personal lesson. Since I have had to try to conduct my work with very few resources I have been trying to find ways to build my organization's capacity for conflict sensitivity through a variety of means including networking with peace-organizations. I was very excited when I arrived in Lira because I knew that I would have the opportunity to go and visit a group I made contact with in Kasese in November called the Women's Peace Initiative: Lira. So on the second morning that I was in Lira I set out on my own to visit Catherine, one of the board members at WOPI. We had a great discussion in which she suggested that the project I'm working on might provide management training to the Village Savings and Loans Associations that they work with and the WOPI could in turn offer training on womens' rights and peace building.

Later in the day I sat down with two of the field officers in Lira and I started telling them about the meeting I had, had and the plans that we had made. Although I was telling them so that I could put them in touch with the organization so that the idea could be discussed further, I realized my mistake before I could even finish my first sentence. I had gone to meet with WOPI without ever having mentioned the contact to the field staff or consulting on what their possible expectations of a partnership with the organization might entail. I also might have invited them to come with me.

Realizing my mistake I apologized once I finished explaining. Although the field staff did not seem particularly affronted by my overeager actions, in the future I will know to consult further with the individuals responsible for advancing the partnership when I'm not around before trying to come up with a brilliant idea. I provided the field officers with the contact information for WOPI, I don't know whether either organization has followed up.


Before I left for Kampala I had the opportunity to have dinner with Megan Leslie (if you don't know that is you should because she's awesome) and she shared a story with me from when she was working in Ghana. After a particularly rough day, her mom sent her an email stating "Even when you fall on your face, you are still moving forward."