A Burman University professor recently returrned from Oxford, England following an invitation to lecture on his book about international development.
Adam Kiš, an associate professor of anthropology at Burman, published The Development Trap: How Thinking Big Fails the Poor in 2018.
While in Oxford, he spoke to the Oxford Society for International Development about his bookand his thoughts about fighting poverty in general.
"I entitled my presentation 'Living in the Future: Predicting the Evolution of Development'," he said. The talk was also a bit reflective as well, in terms of looking at his own book and commenting on which trends he had previously explored have actually played on on the international stage.
Kiš explained that many development organizations talk about an absolute end to poverty.
"They will say it's just around the corner; that we just have to try this or that strategy and we'll ge there." On the other end of the spectrum, there is little effort to do much of anything, or to take ineffective routes to try and combat the issue.
It was through reading these types of theories that Kiš was inspired to write his own book, with the goal of finding a realistic and balanced view of both international development and the battle against poverty.
"It doesn't matter what strategy we use, we are not going to completely eradicate poverty," he said. "That needs to not be our motivation because then we are always setting ourselves up for repeated disappointment. We need to re-orient our motivation.
"We can maybe get rid of pockets of it here and there, and we definitely should. it's worth fighting. But not because we think we are going to eliminate all of it."
Another danger of declaring an end to poverty, and then not seeing that goal come to pass, is that some just become cynical about the issue.
Kiš noted the fight against poverty is typically seen as linear; as though it's always going forward. But this just isn't realistic, he said, adding the pandemic, and ongoing conflicts in the world tend to push back progress to a degree.
"Rather than making these grand promises that we can't keep, let's make promises we can keep. We can tackle a specific problem in a specific area. It's on. smaller scale - but it can be achievable. There are a lot of organizations out there doing this. They get funding for a specific project in a specific area.
"This past summer, I applied for research funding from the International Development Research Centre in Ottawa," he said, adding that the university ultimately teamed up with Canadian and Kenyan NGOs, a Kenyan academic partner, and a government liason.
The goal? Ultimately, the funding will go to a three-year research project that beings in January in Kenya.
He said that in a certain region, marriages involving young girls have become far more common over the years. Very poor families sometimes receive a dowry if they marry their young daughters off. The result? Girls of adolescent age can end up in marriages with men in their 40s.
"(Adventist Development and Relief Agency) Kenya wants to figure out the best strategy to reduce child marriage, and to increase the average age for getting married. That's what this research project is going to do. We are going to try different strategies in various communities, and measure over time which are the most effective," he explained.
"That is an example that I gave in my presentation in Oxford of looking at a specific problem in a specific area with a specific focus. We are not claiming that we are going to end all child marriages or all poverty. We are focusing on something that is within our reach that we can do concretely.
They will also working with local people and utilizing local resources as much as possible. This is key to achieving real change, too - not just in this project, but in much of the work in helping local populations work towards more promising futures.
"If it doesn't come from the community, they aren't going to buy into it."
The Development Trap: How Thinking Big Fails the Poor is available for purchase on Amazon.
