by Zachary J. Patterson

The PBS documentary film Good Fortune shows viewers that modern international organizations’ actions, although rooted in good will, often do more harm than good.  Throughout the film Director Landon Van Soest and Producer Jeremy Levane explore how large-scale global development efforts by international organizations (the United Nations) and multi-national corporations (Dominion Farms LTD) can have negative impacts on the people that these efforts are intended to benefit.

[Provocate invites you to see Good Fortune at the Indianapolis Museum of Art on September 30;
afterwards join a discussion with local groups who are trying to avoid the problems illuminated by the film.]

The film vividly displays the lives of two Kenyan families battling to save their homes and livelihoods from thoughtless large-scale development endeavors.  Jackson was a farmer that lived a productive life in rural Kenya until a nearby corporate rice field development flooded his land (and about 500 neighboring families’ properties) when they constructed a dam to be used for area irrigation purposes.  The dam construction caused flooding that displaced the entire local community of Yala Swamp (farms, homes, markets, schools, and clinics), while the rice field operation itself offered job opportunities to only a small percent of the local men and women.  The film highlights only one family, but the massive investment affect hundreds if not thousands of Kenyans in the area.  During one part of the film Jackson argues against the corporate investment and possible job opportunity by saying “I am not poor”.

[You can hear about this dilemma from the very top and the very bottom:
December 3, World Bank CEO Robert Zoellick speaks at the Economic Club;
September 8, Ellen Einterz talks about “The Give and Take of International Aid to Health and Healthcare in Africa: A Village-level View”.]

While visiting the Nakuru area of Kenya this past July, I had the opportunity to witness another form of international economic development with a profound impact on local communities: microfinance.  Previous academic literature on microfinance and years of practice of the approach have helped to define the idea as providing financial services (loans, appraisals, investments, and secure savings products) to the low-income clients (often the poorest within a nation and/or the self-employed) mainly in developing nations.  Although most think of microfinance as strictly offering small interest loans to the poor, many of the newly established microfinancing institutions (MFIs) offer investment, savings, and insurance services as well.

[For Zach's views on microfinance before his trip to Kenya,
read "Kijiji Benki: Microfinancing in Kenya" and "Microfinance and Cultural Norms"]

While in Nakuru, during my travels and volunteering with The Village Experience, I was able to witness the creation and deployment of newly established microfinance funding operations.  In the Mwariki Village area of Nakuru (very near the Lake Nakuru National Park) The Village Experience works with a group of women named the Mwariki Heart to Heart Women’s Group.  These women create fair trade products (clothing, jewelry, etc.) that are sold at local shops, the Lake Nakuru Lodge gift shop, and the Indianapolis Village Experience store.

[Read about Zach's experiences in "The State of Kenya"]

Through this group the women work to create a better livelihood for themselves, their families, and their local community.  As members of the self-help group the women can apply for low-interest, small business loans for their own income generating efforts.  The funds for these microfinance loans come from a financing account set up by both The Village Experience and the people of the local Lake Nakuru area foundations.  The funds allow women to begin projects like egg-generating chicken coops, fish farms, and fruit tree farming – all of which allow a woman and her family to generate an income.  Once a loan is repaid, a woman can apply for another loan (perhaps even a larger loan) in order to expand the income generating operation.  In the Mwariki Village families are benefiting from the small-scale, grassroots efforts of microfinancing.  The powerful and unforgettable women (and their families) I met while working in Mawriki might not live the life of a modern-day American woman, but they, like Jackson, are not poor.

[Another perspective on economic independence in Africa will be September 3, in the discussion of water politics in Niger with Mohamed Ixa. Or if you are more of a film buff, watch Ixa in the Matt Damon produced Running the Sahara September 4.
For a non-Kenyan example, attend the lecture on microfinance in Canalni, Mexico, October 5.]

The fact that both Jackson and the women of Mwariki believe and live as if they are not poor does not mean they don’t need assistance in establishing a sustainable means of livelihood in Kenya.  Many of the people I met throughout Kenya welcome Western efforts to improve the standards of living in their country (whether those efforts through large-scale international agencies or small-scale NGOs).  Kenyans generally want development help in order to reduce unconditional poverty and promote self-sustaining income generating initiatives.  Therefore, perhaps major-scale development investment and assistance efforts miss the mark (and often actually become more destructive then beneficial), by trying to offer Kenyans more than what they themselves (Kenyans) really desire.  Most Kenyans do not want a Western lifestyle; they just want a self-determined life free of poverty and disease.

[The successful programs in Kenya may be those that treat Kenyans as equal partners.
For examples, September 4 attend the Kenya Carnival interfaith youth in Indy partner in planning a major fundraiser with Kenyan counterparts;
October 23 celebrate the biggest partnership of them all, that between IU and Moi University med schools.]

Microfinancing approaches and efforts could be the best solution to aid most Kenyans who are not poor, but yet desire a stable and prosperous livelihood and future (economically, politically, and medically).  Another area where microlending is beginning to transform lives is in an Internally Displace Persons Camp (IDP Camp), outside of Nakuru, named Nawamu.  On this hillside where 255 families have settled due to the post-Election violence of 2007, various Kenyan tribes are working together to create a new community.

Here a newly established microfinance program and fund, the Black Rhino Microfinancing Program, will give loans to families and self-help groups so that they can attain their basic needs and achieve self-determined income generating activities.  Other than the initial efforts of the UN’s Refugee Agency (UNHRC), no large-scale investment or assistance efforts have been employed in Nawamu.  However, over the past two years, through small-scale NGO and foundation donations, as well as initial microlending efforts, the new Nawamu community has progressed from a cluster of UN refugee tents into a village of established homes.

The people of Nawamu might be worse off economically than Jackson and the women of the Heart to Heart group, but through small-scale philanthropic efforts and microfinancing loans these Kenyan families could also soon consider themselves to be not poor.