Skills for Social Change Across Cultures

1
Skills for Social Change Across Cultures

• Nancy Bacon
• Bahia Street
• Anita Verna Crofts
• Global Health

2
Cross-cultural communication
3

• Power
• Reflexivity
• Trust

Power
Reflexivity
Trust
4
Poverty exists within a context

CultureSocial systemPolitical systemEconomic
systemHistoryGeography
5
(No Transcript)
6
Power
Political
Social
Economic
Individual
Cultural
7
Development
Local culture and context Institutions
culture and context
Your culture and context Institutions
culture and context
You
Local Counterpart
8
Reflexivity
9
Development Spectrum
Transactional Transformational
Beyond basic needs Long term Gradual impact
Basic needs Short term Immediate impact
Minimal societal change
Fundamental societal change
10
Transactional Transformational
Local culture Local capacity Local power
11
Changing a culture in the long term requires
the full and equal participation of those within
that culture
12
Trust
Time Knowledge Shared Leadership
13
There is no Western solution or blueprint that
will solve African problems, and, unless both
Africans and the West realize that, all efforts
to address them will continue to fail. All
societies, no matter how poor, have resources.
The trick is to recognize them and harness them
effectively Africa has the potential to take
off, but it will only do so if it listens to its
own beats and its own logic. - Manuel de Araujo,
President of the Mozambican Association (2004)
14
Logic model
PROBLEM? SOLUTION ? MISSION
Resources Activities Outputs
Outcomes Indicators

• CARE Our mission is to serve individuals and
  families in the poorest communities in the world.
• USAID U.S. foreign assistance has always had the
  twofold purpose of furthering America's foreign
  policy interests in expanding democracy and free
  markets while improving the lives of the citizens
  of the developing world.

15
Development frameworkTraditional
Mission
Who creates the mission? Whose culture is
dominant in determining internal capacity? Whose
culture is dominant in building external
support? Whose culture is expected to change when
change is needed? Whose culture sets indicators
for success?
External support
Internal capacity
Mark Moore
16
Development Frameworks For equality
Mission
Shared governance across worlds
Developing world-centered governance
17
The goal of a local non-profit is to build
community to solve a problem, not solve the
problem
18
Principles for Collaborative International
Development

• Do no harm
• Support public institutions and transparent
  decision-making
• Invest locally
• Serve local agendas and priorities
• Foster equitable relations
• Developed by Margaret Willson (Bahia Street) and
  Aaron Katz (UW School of Public Health)

19
Critical questions

• What is my culture? My institutions culture?
• What is the culture and reality(ies) of the
  people with whom I am working?
• What impact do I have on my surroundings?
• Who holds the power? Who does not?
• Whose culture is implied to be superior?
• Who trusts whom and why?
• What is my (our) intended outcome?
• Will things be different 10 years from now?