Do you agree with the view that increasing dependence on donor agencies for development reduces the importance of community participation in the development process? Justify your answer.(UPSC CSE Mains 2022 - General Studies Paper 2)
- Donor agencies are the agencies which provide financial help in the developmental process. It may be a national or international agency, like Japan International Cooperation, World Bank, Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation etc. In recent times, development processes have been getting dependent on donor agencies for the obvious reason to have easy access to funds.
- However, this increasing dependence devoid of community participation is fraught with risks. In simple terms, community participation means involving the grassroot level stakeholders in the developmental process.
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- Given the strong financial backing of donor agencies there is less hindrance in the development process. However, they have less accountability in the whole process because they are very objective in nature rather than participatory.
- In the developmental process, donor agencies can have their own rules related to labour wages and their working conditions. This often reduces community participation to the extent that it even alienates the same communities for which it is vouched.
- They are more technology-oriented and productivity-focussed. This often causes a decrease in labour force participation. Additionally, donor agencies can also promote favoritism, this means that they help as per their choice not as per need. This can lead to regionally skewed development.
- Thus, to ensure effective development process, community participation is a must to illustrate, consider the tribal areas. The best way to ensure its development is to involve the tribals by means of manpower contribution, social audit, allowing them to promote their language & culture, promotion of cooperative culture, etc.
- If one gets dependent only on donor agencies then it is like a top-down approach to the development process which can often be away from the ground realities.
- Thus, Donor agencies are humanitarian but if we get over-dependent on them, then they will ignore domestic or local needs and, in some way, it is like colonialism and this will affect community participation. So, a balanced approach is more suitable in any developmental process between donor agencies and communities.
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