What is International Development: Reflections from a [U.S.] American
- Heather J. Huhtanen
In September 2008 I moved from Eugene, Oregon to The Hague, The Netherlands to study International Development at the Institute of Social Studies (ISS). Many people have asked me ‘why The Netherlands, why the ISS’? The answer is related to both the purpose of the funding I received from the Rotary Ambassadorial Scholarship Program – to promote cultural understanding and world peace – and my own interest in attending an international school in a socially liberal country in the middle of Western Europe. Indeed, the ISS is attended by students from over 50 countries, most of which are located on the African and Asian continent and in Latin America and The Netherlands itself is often described as one of the most socially liberal countries in the world. I believed that this intersection of culture, language and history presented an invaluable opportunity for learning and reflection. Moreover, after working in the end violence against women field for the better part of my 14-year post-undergraduate career I was eager for the opportunity to expand my notion of development from a strictly domestic perspective to the international realm.
I learned from the ISS that conventional development thinking largely assumes that development involves specific activities e.g. economic development, governmental development, etc. in a specific location, e.g. namely less developed countries or the ‘third world’ if you will. Consequently I felt a certain tension in my attempt to situate my work experience and knowledge base – was I a western social activists, someone with experience doing social development work, a feminist in the end violence against women movement…all of the above, none of the above? Was my perspective and experience relevant to development studies or valuable to the work of addressing violence against women outside of North America?
What I learned during the course of my 16 months at the ISS encompasses so many considerations, intellectual, theoretical and socio-cultural, that I find it difficult to narrow it down to something concise. I’ll therefore address my top three ‘ah-ha’ moments and reflect on the consequent meaning I have ascribed to international development after my time at the ISS.
My first ‘ah-ha’ moment, while not necessarily a moment in the concrete sense but rather more abstract, relates to my own national identity. That is, I’ve come to believe that Americans are pretty darn parochial in their perspective, understanding and politics about the world around them. We tend to live in relative geographic and political isolation and arguably this is supported or even underpinned by the institutional interests of the U.S. (e.g. maintaining an identity as the world superpower means caring little about the world outside of the U.S.). A parochial perspective is likely to translate into assumptions about socio-cultural habits, customs and values and a belief that these assumptions are objective. No doubt this is an issue with which we all, as in all human beings from across the globe, might struggle. Nonetheless, I would contend that the cultural, political and geographic isolation that many Americans experience in combination with socio-culturally embedded assumptions about what is ‘normal’ or ‘acceptable’ or ‘polite,’ or any other value laden adjective, positions Americans to be particularly at risk of parochial thinking. There is a saying about how awareness is half the battle -- hopefully I’m halfway to being a more thoughtful, self-aware and culturally competent person. I suspect, however, that this journey will be a life-long process.
My second ‘ah-ha’ moment relates to the issue of development itself. This ‘ah-ha’ moment involves a certain amount of irony. Irony inasmuch as a parochial thinking American concluded that ‘Europe’s leading school on development’ was approaching the issue of development from a largely myopic perspective. I found myself consistently making the argument that development is something that can, does and should occur everywhere – even in ‘developed’ countries. And that developed countries are actually not developed – by some standards they may be more developed in terms of infrastructure, stability and standard of living – but this does not mean that they have reached the pinnacle of development; indeed, there is much work to be done. This is illustrated by the concept of the ‘global south’ – a concept that originated from the recognition that ‘developed’ countries also struggle to address poverty, illiteracy, violence against women, corruption and economic stability. Nonetheless, it remains difficult to find research, writing or lecturing on subjects related to ‘development’ in the West from a development perspective. While you can find plenty of research on racism, violence against women, poverty in the U.S. or other social development problems, this work is largely if not entirely left out of any analysis about development. Rather, research and writing on the U.S. and other developed countries tends to focus on their role, or lack thereof, providing aid and creating aid related requirements for less developed countries. A second irony attached to my observation is the extent to which this practice further entrenches the arguably arbitrary and highly political division between ‘developed’ and ‘less developed’. It is interesting to consider the ramifications of this practice as well as the degree to which this practice has already deeply informed development practice, theory and research both historically and in the contemporary context.
My final ‘ah-ha’ moment, I’m pleased to share, was significantly informed and shaped by the research paper reading and writing process. It is actually quite exciting for me to reflect on just how much I learned from the entire process of completing a research paper; reading, reading and more reading, identifying a theoretical framework, working with specific analytical tools, conducting qualitative interviews and finally, writing the actual paper. What I learned from this process was further informed by my other coursework and more importantly, the direction, support and insights of my professors and fellow students at the ISS.
And what I learned brings me full-circle in my top three ‘ah-ha’ moments. I learned or perhaps rather, I have come to believe, that the greatest development work I can ever hope to do will occur on a one-to-one or personal level – not structural, not institutional, not political and certainly not broad and expansive. That is, development is not just aid from wealthy ‘developed’ countries to poor ‘less developed’ countries; it is not just programming to address social, governmental or economic problems; and it is not just structural change, the creation of laws or institutions – development is actually how we live day to day, how we interact with those around us, our willingness to exchange ideas and information and our potential for learning, reflection and growth. Indeed, development is us to the extent we wish to participate!
Published May 2010 in DevISS Vol 12 no.1 www.iss.nl/DevISSues
Heather is a Project Coordinator for the DCAF Gender and Security Program. DCAF is an international non-government organization based in Geneva, Switzerland whose mission is to address security, development and the rule of law. She is currently responsible for the Western Balkans region and in that capacity engages in gender and security sector reform (SSR) development activities primarily in Bosnia and Herzegovina and Serbia. Additionally, she engages in research, conducts training and provides technical assistance on gender and SSR in collaboration with other Gender and Security Program staff.
Prior to joining DCAF Heather worked for the U.S. Department of State, Police Development Program in Iraq (and Kurdistan). As a Gender and Human Rights Advisor, she worked with local and international counterparts in Baghdad, Erbil and Dohuk to facilitate organizational and operational development on gender and human rights within the Ministry of Interior. Additionally, Heather served as a consultant to the Organization for Security and Co-Operation in Europe-Uzbekistan to develop and deliver training to promote women’s participation in policing. Heather also had the opportunity to work with the UN Police Division on a long-term consultancy in support of their development of a ten-day sexual and gender-based violence training curriculum for UN Police. Her domestic experience includes serving as a program director for the Oregon Attorney General’s Sexual Assault Task Force to address criminal justice and law enforcement capacity building to improve the response to sexual assault.
Heather’s academic background includes a Master in International Development with a specialization in Women, Gender and Development from Erasmus University, International Institute of Social Studies in The Hague, The Netherlands. Heather was a Rotary Ambassadorial Scholar to The Netherlands for the Rotary District 5110 in 2008-09. She has a Bachelor of Art in Political Science and Women’s Studies from the University of Oregon in Eugene, Oregon, USA.