Category: Poor

Having looked at some of the characteristics that relate to the secular agencies we will now look at some of the distinctives of the church in its development work. However, I must stress that this is inevitably a somewhat simplistic overview and there is often significant overlap between the practice of the church and the world. Gospel impact In the recently published book ‘In His image’ p137 (2010 Authentic Media) Andy Matheson says ‘Because all people are made in the image of God, all people need to be reconnected with Him if they are truly going to experience transformation in their lives. Transformation cannot come simply through helping people with employment, health, or any other area of physical or emotional wellbeing’. The most significant difference between the secular agency and…

In the last blog I looked at the first three of five characteristics which I consider to be particularly applicable to a secular agency namely: 1. Expertise 2. Resources 3. Size 4. Quick fix 5. Staff mobility We will now look at the fourth and fifth characteristics. Quick fix An aid agency may be particularly good at providing a ‘quick fix' solution to a problem. However, sustainability and on-going maintenance may be weak, particularly if inadequate attention has been paid to community participation in defining the problem and determining a solution. Failure to involve the community adequately in the process may result in a lack of ownership by that community and thus also a lack of motivation to maintain the activity or project (e.g. maintaining a bore hole and pump)…