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The Poor of Noakhali: Danish Development Assistance Policy and Rural Development in Bangladesh

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  08 April 2011

PETER YDING BRUNBECH
PETER YDING BRUNBECH*
Affiliation:
Department of History and Area Studies, Aarhus University, DK-8000, Aarhus, Denmark; [email protected]
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Abstract

The Danish integrated rural development project in the Bangladeshi district of Noakhali (1978–92) was in many ways the largest aid project in the history of the Danish aid agency, DANIDA, and was intended to break new ground by reaching the poorest and weakest directly. Despite elaborate planning and a small army of Danish experts, however, the project failed to reach the targeted groups and would ultimately be viewed as a partial fiasco. By analysing the historical context of the project, this article will show how both the project and the problems it encountered were a by-product of the basic principles of the Danish aid policy developed in the 1960s and 1970s: the same factors that produced the high level of Danish aid spending and the will to embrace new agendas in development assistance such as the ‘basic-needs’ approach also created a number of problems with regard to the implementation of Danish policy on the ground.

Les misérables de noakhali: la politique danoise de d'aide au développement et le développement rural au bangladesh

Il est possible d'affirmer que sous beaucoup d'angles le projet intégré de développement rural mené par les Danois en Noakhali, une région du Bangladesh, de 1978–1992) fut le plus grand projet développemental jamais tenté par l'organisation humanitaire danoise DANIDA, fruit d'un concept innovateur qui cherchait à toucher directement les plus misérables et plus faibles. Malheureusement, l'énorme envergure de la planification et l'engagement de tout une armée d'experts n'ont pas réussi à atteindre les groupes-cible et en fin de compte, le projet a été jugé comme un échec, sinon total, certainement éclatant. Dans cette étude nous analyserons le contexte historique du projet pour montrer que le projet lui-même, aussi bien que les problèmes qu'il a rencontrés, ont été un résultat indirect des principes fondamentaux qui sous-tendaient la politique danoise d'aide au développement telle qu'elle a été conçue dans les années 1960 et 1970. En fait, les considérations qui ont poussé les Danois à verser des sommes énormes sur l'aide au développement et à adopter les approches les plus innovatrices, telles que l'attention aux «besoins fondamentaux», ont aussi créé pas mal de problèmes lorsqu'il s'agissait de mettre en action la politique danoise sur le terrain.

Die armen von noakhali: dänische entwicklungshilfepolitik und ländliche entwicklung in bangladesch

Das dänische Projekt zur integrierten Entwicklung des ländlichen Raumes im Distrikt Noakhali in Bangladesh (1978–92) war in verlerlei Hinsicht das größte Entwicklungshilfeporjekt in der Geschichte der dänischen Entwicklungshilfeagentur DANIDA. Sein Ziel war eine Neuentwicklung der Entwicklungshilfepolitik dadurch, dass man die Ärmsten und Schwächsten direkt erreichte. Trotz dieser heeren Ziele und detallierter Planungen scheiterte das Projekt jedoch in seiner Umsetzung und wurde letztlich zumindest teilweise als Fiasko gesehen. Indem dieser Artikel den historischen Kontext des Projekts in den Blick nimmt, möchte der Artikel zeigen, dass sich die Schwachpunkte direkt aus den Grundlinien der dänischen Entwicklungshilfepolitik ergaben, wie sich sich in den 1960er und 1970er entwickelte: die gleichen Faktoren, welche das starke dänische Engagement in der Entwicklungshilfe und ihre Offenheit für neue Strategien erklärten, waren letztlich auch für ihr Scheitern bei der Umsetzung vor Ort verantwortlich.

Type
Articles
Information
Contemporary European History , Volume 20 , Issue 2 , May 2011 , pp. 183 - 205
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2011

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References

1 Danish International Development Agency (hereafter DANIDA), Evaluation. In the Wake of a Flagship – Ex-Post Impact Study of the Noakhali Rural Development Project in Bangladesh. Main Report (Copenhagen: DANIDA, 2002).

2 Pratt, Cranford, Middle Power Internationalism – The North–South Dimension (Montreal: McGill-Queen's University Press, 1990)Google Scholar; Stokke, Olav, ed., Western Middle Powers and Global Poverty – The Determinants of the Aid Policies of Canada, Denmark, the Netherlands, Norway and Sweden (Stockholm: Nordiska Afrikainstitutet, 1989)Google Scholar.

3 Noël, Alain and Thérien, Jean-Philippe, ‘From Domestic to International Justice: The Welfare State and Foreign Aid’, International Organization, 49, 3 (1995), 523–53, especially 549CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

4 Paldam, Martin, Dansk u-landshjælp – Altruismens politiske økonomi (Aarhus: Aarhus University Press, 1997)Google Scholar.

5 Until 2006 the main work on Danish development aid history was still Claus Jørgensen's dissertation on development aid in the 1960s from 1977: Jørgensen, Claus, Hjælp fra Danmark – En studie i dansk u-landspolitik (Odense: Odense University Press, 1977)Google Scholar.

6 Bach, Christian Friis, Olesen, Thorsten Borring, Kaur-Pedersen, Sune and Pedersen, Jan, Idealer og realiteter – dansk udviklingspolitiks historie 1945–2005 (Copenhagen: Gyldendal, 2008)Google Scholar; Olesen, Thorsten Borring, ‘Between Words and Deeds. Denmark and the NIEO Agenda 1974–1982’, in Pharo, H. and Fraser, M. Pohle, eds., The Aid Rush, Aid Regimes in Northern Europe During the Cold War, vol. I (Oslo: Oslo Academic Press, 2008), 145–82Google Scholar; Peter Brunbech, ‘Dansk udviklingspolitik 1949–71 – en analyse af den tidlige udviklings- og bistandspolitik over for ulandene og dens funktion i dansk udenrigspolitik’, Ph.D. thesis, University of Aarhus, 2007; Peter Brunbech, ‘Early Danish Development Assistance Policy 1945–1962’, in Pharo and Pohle Fraser, The Aid Rush, vol. II, 285–315; Jan Pedersen, ‘Danish Bilateral Aid 1962–1991’, in Pharo and Pohle Fraser, The Aid Rush, vol. I, 183–221.

7 Brunbech, ‘Dansk udviklingspolitik’, especially 298–310.

8 Ibid., especially 244–64.

9 Bach, Idealer og realiteter, 128–30; Brunbech, ‘Dansk udviklingspolitik’, 351–71.

10 Brunbech, ‘Dansk udviklingspolitik’, 239.

11 Jørgensen, Hjælp fra Danmark.

12 Brunbech, ‘Dansk udviklingspolitik’, 322–37.

13 Ibid., 384–88.

14 Principles inspired by (but not identical to) Holm, Hans-Henrik, Hvad Danmark gør . . .: en analyse af dansk u-landspolitik (Aarhus: Politica, 1982)Google Scholar.

15 This section draws on Brunbech, ‘Noakhali – Drømmen om det store projekt’, Den Jyske Historiker, 120 (2008), 73–93.

16 Author's translation.

17 Brunbech, ‘Noakhali – Drømmen om det store projekt’, 77.

18 Brunbech, ‘Noakhali – Drømmen om det store projekt’.

19 Ibid.

20 DANIDA, Appraisal Report on an Integrated Rural Development Project in Noakhali, Bangladesh, vol. 1 (Copenhagen: DANIDA, 1977), 3–4.

21 Brunbech, ‘Noakhali – Drømmen om det store projekt’.

22 DANIDA, Appraisal Report; Brunbech, ‘Noakhali – Drømmen om det store projekt’.

23 DANIDA's annual report: Dansk deltagelse i det internationale udviklingssamarbejde 1975/76 (Copenhagen: DANIDA, 1976), 13–20.

24 Brunbech, ‘Noakhali – Drømmen om det store projekt’.

25 DANIDA, Appraisal Report.

26 DANIDA, Evaluation, 41–2.

27 DANIDA, Appraisal Report; DANIDA, Report of a Mission to Evaluate the Noakhali Integrated Rural Development Project (report prepared for DANIDA by the Christian Michelsen Institute, Bergen, 1983), 135–62.

28 DANIDA, Report of a Mission, 135–62.

29 DANIDA, Appraisal Report, vol. 2, 178–98; DANIDA, Report of a Mission, 113–117; DANIDA, Board (Styrelsen for internationalt udviklingssamarbejde) minutes, 16 Jan. 1980 and 15 Feb. 1981 (Styrelsen for internationalt udviklingssamarbejde), 104.DAN.2/1, records of Ministry for Foreign Affairs 1973–88 (Udenrigsministeriet), Danish National Archives (Rigsarkivet), Copenhagen.

30 DANIDA, IRDP/DANIDA Project Noakhali – Educational Pilot Scheme (Copenhagen: DANIDA, 1981).

31 DANIDA, Evaluation, 101–9; DANIDA, Report of a Mission.

32 DANIDA, Appraisal Report, vol. 2, 46–80.

33 DANIDA, Report of a Mission; DANIDA, Board minutes 10 June 1981.

34 An ethnographical study has been made into the project advisory team of the Noakhali Integrated Rural Development Project: Lis Garval, ‘Rapport fra en dansk ekspertkultur’, Field Report, Afdeling for Etnografi og Socialantropologi, University of Aarhus, Denmark, 1981.

35 DANIDA, Board minutes 14 Dec. 1983; DANIDA, Evaluation, 42–7.

36 DANIDA, Evaluation, 42.

37 Christian Michelsen Institute, Rural Poverty in Bangladesh: A Report to the Like-Minded Group (Bangladesh: The University Press Limited, 1990).

38 DANIDA, Board minutes 13 Feb. 1980, 14 May 1980, 10 June 1981 and 23 June 1982; DANIDA, ‘The Boat Building and Mechanization Scheme in Bangladesh. Report Prepared by an Evaluation Mission Visiting Bangladesh from January 8th to 30th 1987’, in no. 104.Bang.18, records of the Ministry for Foreign Affairs 1973–88, Danish National Archives, Copenhagen.

39 A collection of newspaper articles can be found in DANIDA, Presserejsen til Noakhali og Chittagong (Copenhagen: DANIDA, 1979).

40 Thorning, Peder, Som ringe i vandet . . . Noakhali-projektet og bistandsdebatten 1975–1995 (Copenhagen: Center for Udviklingsforskning, 2002)Google Scholar; Den Ny Verden, vol. 16, no. 2 (Copenhagen: Center for Udviklingsforskning, 1982).

41 DANIDA, Board minutes 15 April 1981.

42 DANIDA, Board minutes 10 Aug. 1983.

43 DANIDA, Board minutes 10 Aug. 1983.

44 DANIDA, Board minutes 14 Dec. 1983.

45 DANIDA, Evaluation, 42–7 and 121–38.

46 Ibid., 139–54.

47 DANIDA, IRDP/DANIDA Project Noakhali Educational Pilot Scheme Final Report.

48 DANIDA, Board minutes 14 Aug. 1985.

49 Christian Michelsen Institute, Rural Poverty in Bangladesh.

50 Various views presented in Christensen, Lars, ed., Bistand og fattigdom i Bangladesh (Copenhagen: Mellemfolkeligt Samvirke, 1987)Google Scholar.

51 DANIDA, Evaluation, 139–50.