Bwera and the Collective Action Problem

My job is highly problematic. I am a development worker in sub-Saharan Africa. I am a middle-class, white American with a bachelor’s degree in international relations and few vocational skills. While I have relevant coursework, research experience, and a passion for development, I struggle to speak Kinyarwanda properly, and I have no experience working in the field. Simply put, I am in over my head and the fact that I feel I can contribute to Rwandan development is a highly problematic notion. What’s even more problematic is that it’s not unusual for people with my background to enter the development field. I don’t have the data to support this, but from my experience, it’s probably the norm.

 The international development community operates on the assumption that white men from the Western world know more about international development than the communities that are facing development problems. This is where I hope to subvert this problematic norm. I am working with Young Adults in Global Mission, a development branch of the Lutheran Church. This organization touts a model of accompaniment which emphasizes the importance of solidarity, mutuality, and interdependence. Rather than entering my communities with jingoistic notions and unrealistic schemes of how I can improve their lives, I am walking with these communities. I will be listening to their voices and opinions on how they can best improve their communities, and then supporting not only those initiatives but also those individuals to the best of my abilities. I hope that I can offer the few useful skills that I have to the communities within which I am living. More importantly, I plan to engage, study, and learn from these communities, which are driving their own development.

Over the next year, I will be working as a partner with the Lutheran Church in Rwanda on a community organized educational development project in Bwera, a town within Matimba, a small sector of the Nyagatare district of the Eastern Province of Rwanda. Bwera is an incredible case study in overcoming collective action problems. In the field of development, community funded projects, like the primary school that the people of Bwera are building and equipping, are known as collective action problems. In these scenarios, participating in the funding and construction of a school has a cost or an opportunity cost on each individuals who participate, yet the benefits of the school or another public good are shared by everyone, regardless of whether or not they participated and incurred a cost. Basic game theory predicts that the rational choice for each individual is to not sacrifice their time or money to the construction of the school. Essentially, everyone wants a school to be built, but no one wants to do it. The result is that, in much of the developing world, community organized projects traditionally fail.

However, the Bwera community is defying the logic of the collective action problem. Despite incentives to defect, the Bwera community is already in the process of constructing the school. The entire Bwera community – Lutherans, Catholics, Muslims, and others - has committed to the project and the government of Rwanda has taken notice by granting land to the community to build a school. What is truly remarkable about this initiative is that it is entirely driven by the local community. Through the use of the PICO model of community organizing, which consists of one to one engagement and collective ownership, Bwera appears to be overcoming the collective action problem. Over the next year, I will be contributing to the project using my English writing skills to draft proposals for funding and possibly for future development initiatives. However, I will also be studying and learning from the community.

 If the steps that Bwera is taking towards community driven sustainable development are replicable across other contexts, this small, dusty town could provide new insight into how the international community can best foster growth in developing countries. However, there are numerous factors specific to Rwanda, and the Bwera community that make it a unique situation. The historical institutions, the genocidal legacy, the recent economic growth, and the geo-social aspects of the country distinguish Rwanda from its neighbors. Additionally, this could merely be a case of strong community leadership overcoming challenges. Over the next year, I hope to study and evaluate Bwera’s development initiatives to determine whether its community development initiatives are both sustainable and replicable. If this is the case, the small town of Bwera will not only shape my approach to my career in international development, but perhaps it will inspire other communities to enact similar initiatives and change the way we as a community look at international aid and development initiatives.