Person-to-Person Hopebuilding

My thought about your question is that it is about more than fundraising mechanisms. I believe that the process of international development/community development generally is changing dramatically as the internet makes it possible for people to communicate directly.

The philanthrophy, it seems to me, is only a part of the person-to-person connection that is made possible through the internet. People who feel connected to another person and their activities and challenges then want to help, and the advances in micro-philanthropic technology are making that possible in a way that wasn't possible even just a few years ago.

My work with Hopebuilding wiki suggests to me that there is an enormous amount of person-to-person "international development" going on around the world, even as many international development agencies get larger and more imperial in their approach. Many agencies are responding to this development by focusing on the individual stories of achievement that are facilitated by their programs, hoping to benefit from the person-to-person approach.

I think that this "micro-development" follows logically from micro-finance and micro-governance. It reflects something we know well in community development, that working from the grassroots up is far more effective than trying to drive change from the top of the system, which is increasingly disconnected from people at the bottom. Part of the success of all these forms of "micro" activity is that they facilitate small-scale action by people, rather than forcing people into a standardized larger program (as much international development has done over the years); the internet then effectively acts as a "talent scout" and relationship facilitator by bringing people together to work on small scale activities who never, before the internet, would have been connected or have found each other.

Regards,
Rosemary
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Rosemary Cairns
MA Human Security & Peacebuilding, Certified Professional Facilitator
Uzice, Serbia
Share in building hope at http://hopebuilding.pbwiki.com