Jacqueline Novogratz: Investing in Africa's own solutions

Here we were listening to Jacqueline Novogratz's plea for a chapter two to the End Poverty campaign of the G8 forum. Her chapter two is about the how to and the effectiveness of aid delivery. How to build viable systems on the ground that deliver critical and affordable goods and services to the poor which are financially sustainable and scalable.

We became very interested in her idea of scaling successful systems up and down. We could all think of resources spent on good intentions that had been absurdly useless in delivery, aid from a great height and delivered from the paradigm of the giver, without conversation or direction from the receiver. We thought about this in terms of community work: how to get people to step up: what do you want for yourselves and your children? How do you want to use these resources to be used? What are the businesses that could emerge from this set of needs?

We described this as a movement from the beneficiary approach to the participatory approach. It would cost less in the long term and would not create a class of professional helpers. One of our group had some examples of local social entrepreneurs coming up with creative and startling solutions in partnership with local people.

We then went on with a really engaging question of the place of self-interest in systems. When does enough resources become enough for us? When does getting and spending become a kind of addiction?

What could be achieved if community and social agencies developed better collaboration? Sought to solve social problems rather than organize them? One of us suggested that 805 of New Zealanders get their needs met and the other 20% miss out and get blamed for it. What if outcomes were adjusted to include the whole 100% of New Zealanders, having their housing needs, the education and health needs met. What if public servants saw themselves as paid to steward these outcomes? We create professionals to "help" our poor so we don't have to feel responsible or change our lifestyles. How could we create a system which changes beneficiaries to participants and releases creative responses to entrenched social system?