Ten Traps to Avoid if Aid Programming is Serious About Engaging with Context - Lessons from Afghanistan
Identifying and avoiding common traps in aid programming in fragile contexts using lessons from Afghanistan, emphasizing the importance of understanding and engaging with local context for effective interventions.
odi.cdn.ngoIt’s obvious to ask what’s wrong, so also ask: how did we get here, where are we headed, and what is still working well? ‘Don’t be an unthinking intervenor and destroy the system’s own self-maintenance capacities,’ she warned. ‘Before you charge in to make things better, pay attention to the value of what’s already there.’49
read about them in Systems Archetypes: Diagnosing Systemic Issues and Designing High-Leverage Interventions by Daniel H. Kim (1993, Cambridge, Mass.: Pegasus Communications). Or see The Fifth Discipline, pp. 378-90; issues of The Systems Thinker;
The result was a combination of anarchy and Orwellian bureaucracy with horrifying consequences. Trucks with water and food were halted or diverted or refused entry by authorities—the supplies were not part of their plan. Bus requisitions were held up for days; the official request did not even reach the U.S. Department of Transportation until two d
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