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Editorial
8-9/2006 |
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Real life
Local affairs matter. “All politics is local” is an old political adage from the USA. In Germany, we know that political parties start qualifying for government at the municipal level, have to win their spurs at the Länder level next, and only then become ready for taking part in the federal cabinet.
In development matters too, it has long been known that success does not depend solely or even primarily on national governments. When expert opinion endorsed the strategy of integrated rural development decades ago, attention turned away from the capital cities. For some time, a “rural bias” supplanted the “urban bias”, which initially had really been a post-colonial “capital bias”. Today, we see that some rural areas did experience progress; but success was by no means as far-reaching as had been hoped.
One thing is clear: whether in rural areas, sprawling conurbations or even the ministerial precincts of capital cities, poor governance all to often leaves its mark on local affairs, and thus on day-to-day life. Such phenomena undermine the credibility of any nation’s government, not only – but particularly so – in developing countries.
Most journalists will tell you that it is in the local pages of a paper that you will find “real life”. Colleagues in prestigious positions are fond of speaking of how their careers took off at a provincial editor’s desk. They recall with relish heading from a council meeting to a local gala event and then, still quite tipsy, rushing on to the scene of a blaze around midnight to cover what the local fire department was doing. Few of them, however, would like to return to local journalism. Like local politics, that is very hard work. Everyone has a view on local issues. Whether their opinions are informed or not, is a totally different matter.
People who want to make a difference in their home town are permanently on duty and enjoy no private life. The persons they must deal with are only rarely smooth professionals. Key contacts are volunteers with personal quirks and profile neuroses – and one can only meet them after their paid work is done.
From a distance, violence and crime may hold a gruesome fascination. On one’s own doorstep, they are nothing but frightening. Social justice is a fine subject to muse about, but poor people really live somewhere. Unarticulated anger may be nationwide, but demonstrations or even militant protest are always localised.
Whether a polity is dysfunctional or not is apparent to everyone in it. The evidence is in daily life. Do the children learn in school what they will need later in life? Are health facilities ready when they are needed? Does the judiciary settle disputes fast and fairly? Are the police “friends and helpers”? Do people feel safe in every neighbourhood? Is there piped water, and is it fit for drinking? Are roads serviceable, busses and trains dependable? Where many people’s response to such questions is “no”, development has seriously failed.
Unfortunately, the governance debate in the international financial institutions has for some time now been revolving mostly around budget processes, audit offices and bureaucratic accountability for use of funds – predominantly at the national level. These issues are, of course, relatively easy for donors to assess. Genuinely political decisions are much trickier. But donors are risking to lose sight of the crucial local dimension. They would do well to bare in mind that all governance is local, too.
Dr. Hans Dembowski
Editor in Chief of D+C Development and Cooperation/E+Z Entwicklung und Zusammenarbeit
euz.editor@fsd.de
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