During past fieldwork experiences in Rwanda, I met with the country’s indigenous minority population and observed development projects that had been started by a local NGO with long-standing ties to the two villages I visited. I was there with a group of volunteers and we had a very specific purpose—monitoring the progress of the projects and evaluating their effectiveness for documentation in outreach materials that we were producing for local and national donors. Still, the very act of trudging through their villages, staring at their work, and making our own uninformed assessments felt wrong. I had very little prior knowledge of the situations in the respective villages, or past attempts to address crucial areas of need. I did my best to ask pertinent questions and write intelligently about what I had seen, but I always felt that I was not qualified to be making assessments based on a few hours of quiet observation.
I experienced the same feeling today as we toured a local village and observed several projects in Thpong Province where a local NGO, Life With Dignity (LWD), is working actively with local residents on community development. The residents of the village that we visited were very welcoming and hospitable. They spoke with pride about their bio fuel project, which uses cow dung to create gas for cooking and heating, and excitedly showed us the brace of ducks that they raise for sale. Although our presence was welcomed, I questioned how much impact our observation will have on our understanding of the village’s specific needs and ways to address them, as well as measurable impact on the work of LWD.
After our tour of the village, we surveyed several dams and even visited a rice field. Walking out uninvited into the field, where two young women were busy harvesting, I couldn’t help but feel that my presence was disruptive. The women were gracious and curious about our visit, but they seemed preoccupied and the other workers quickly walked away and watched us from afar. To them, we were probably little more than a passing interruption in their work schedule.
Despite my own conflicted feelings about these short-term trips, observing community development projects is crucial for gaining a better understanding of how people in isolated, rural communities are putting aid money to use. I would assume that very few international representatives from multilateral institutions actually step foot in such villages during their visits to Cambodia. They are probably confined to meetings in air-conditioned offices and rarely, if ever, leave Phnom Penh during the few days they have to spend discussing developmental aid in the country. This type of visit does not provide any insight into the lives of the people most directly affected by the aid the international community allocates to Cambodia. If one wants a better understanding of where money goes and who benefits from it, it is important to follow the money trail to the beneficiaries and see how it’s put to use.
In the end, the benefits of touring local communities and observing the important projects being done by both local people and organizations outweigh the drawbacks. Being able to see where aid money is going is an important way of understanding what is working in a specific context and what isn’t. When working with people, the personal connection is key and being present and willing to help, even if just observing and documenting the work being done, is a great first step.
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