Principles of Engagement

This document explains the principles Beyond Borders & Fodasyon Limyè Lavi should follow when financing a project.

>> See the Creole version of this document.

April 1999 Draft

The old saying is true, “The rock in the water doesn’t understand the misery of the rock in the sun.” It is the people who suffer with some problem who understand their problem the best. They also have the greatest interest in finding some resolution to the problem.

Organizations which have funds, technical resources, and materials and who have a mission of helping people in need are the rocks in the water. The problems they are trying to resolve are other people’s problems, not their own.

Often, these organizations end up doing a lot of harm even while trying to do good. For example:

• They sometimes support people who end up exploiting others in the community.
• The way they intervene leads people in the community to believe that they can’t really do anything to help themselves without the help of foreign aid.
• They can lead local people to believe that everything they have is really worthless, what comes from outside the community is superior.
• They can lead people to become dangerously dependent upon outside help.
• The resources that are shared sometimes never make it to the people in real need.
• The aid can upset the local social equilibrium. Even if the social equilibrium was unjust to start with, if the community is turned upside down by outside involvement, it can get even worse.

Because of these sorts of problems there are sometimes local reactions against some organizations. Some organizations have been pillaged. Sometimes suspicions grow so great toward some organizations that local people begin to believe that the organization is part of a plot to keep the community under domination.

Limyè Lavi believes that it is nevertheless possible for funding organizations to play a positive role in a number of different ways.

• They can encourage local people who are organizing in their work for improvement.
• When someone is working for change they can sometimes be targeted for persecution. When someone has a relationship with an outside organization, that can provide a measure of safety.
• If there is an outside organization collaborating in an activity it can help local people take the activity more seriously. This can increase local participation.
• They can provide support with their financial resources and technical expertise.
• They can help people who are in need and working for change make contact with others who are involved in the same struggle.

In light of this reality, we must ask ourselves a question: How can Limyè Lavi have a positive impact for people in need while avoiding the risks of intervention? In an attempt to respond to this question we have developed these principals which should guide us when we fund a project:

1. As people who don’t suffer a problem may understand it differently from outsiders, members of Limyè Lavi should sharpen their hearing so they may hear those who are in need. We should not isolate ourselves in such a way that we don’t taste anything of the suffering of the poor.

2. The suffering of the poor is not simply an accident. Their suffering is related to the fashion in which riches arrive into the hands of those who are rich. We should each act responsibly to avoid participating in the exploitation of others.

3. They who are in need, the “rocks in the sun,” have the greatest interest in their problems being resolved. If work is being done that aims to be in their interest, they should have control over it. In other words they should be an active part of every aspect of the work.

• They should be involved in identifying their needs
• They should participate in brainstorming how their problems can be resolved.
• They should be involved in developing a plan to respond to their needs.
• They should be involved in searching for resources in order to realize their plan.
• They should participate in the execution of the plan.
• They should participate in the evaluation of the work.

4. If the people in need are to be able to participate in all of these activities they must be organized. An outside organization can help provide the training they need in order to organize. This is why Limyè Lavi puts so much emphasis on training and education that leads to liberation, that helps individuals and communities hold in their own hands the tools for building better lives.

5. Limyè Lavi should not initiate a project on its own. There should be local organizations that invite Limyè Lavi to come work with them. Limyè Lavi should support the work the local organizations are doing.

6. Limyè Lavi should do research on local organizations before it decides to finance them. When an individual or a group says it represents the community, we must be very careful too that they are not simply representing their own personal or their group’s interests.

7. Limyè Lavi should give its support built on the support of a clear agreement.

• The agreement should explain why Limyè Lavi and the local partner(s) are collaborating together.
• The agreement should explain what role both Limyè Lavi and the local organization(s) will play.
• We should make copies of the agreement available to any party who is interested. Anyone concerned should know what it contains and should have the possibility to question it.
• Everything that Limyè Lavi does should respect the accord.
• Limyè Lavi should not commit to fund any project perpetually. The accord should define how long Limyè Lavi will give its support and what should follow afterwards.
• The accord should define when the work will be evaluated and how.

8. A community should not become dependent upon outside aid. Limyè Lavi should support projects that lead to the community becoming more autonomous.

9. Limyè Lavi should support work that helps local people recognize all that they have that is of value, their culture, their understanding, their capabilities, etc.

10. Limyè Lavi should work in the interest of people in the greatest need. We should support work that is being done in the most neglected areas and that reaches the people most marginalized (for example, children in domestic servitude, illiterate peasants, women, elderly people, etc.).