A cause that's definitely worthwhile

I didn’t really want to go to Costa Rica. My heart is in Africa, the birthplace of civilization, and I want to visit the motherland more than anywhere else in the world. I wanted to go abroad to a less developed nation (Costa Rica is sort of the jewel of Lain America). But what drew me to Costa Rica was the program. It’s the absolute perfect program for what I’m interested in and for what I want to do with my life. It’s an opportunity for me to take courses I would never find at Elon. And from what I learn here I can apply to work in any part of the world. Sustainable Human Development, if implemented correctly, is the solution to ending world poverty. A lot of people probably don’t know what exactly SHD is, the word sustainability is usually associated with the environment but it is much more than that, it deals with improvements in the quality of life for all people.

Here’s a little explanation of what sustainable human development actually is. It believes priority should be given to the needs of the poor and that we should never “compromise the capacity of human beings to survive” (I like that description). However, the purpose of SHD is to enlarge all human choices not just their income. It stands on four pillars: productivity, equality, sustainability, and empowerment. To briefly explain these pillars and the role they play: productivity – the way in which we use resources to create an environment which allows for people to then give back to the community. Equality – equal access to opportunities and the distribution of productive assets and the distribution of income. Sustainability – recognizing the right of future generations to enjoy opportunities and benefits enjoyed by the present generation. Empowerment – putting people in the position to exercise choices of their own free will.

The key concepts of sustainable human development are the generation of opportunities and the development of capabilities of, for and by the people. To chop that up, development of the people means investing in human capabilities like education, health and creative employment. Development for the people (empowerment) means providing opportunities to participate in decision making processes. This means treating the people as the subject rather than the object of development. For instance public assistance and charity (giving money to those living in poverty) is treating them as the object of development. We should be treating them as the subject on development and this means government assistance to help people become sustainable and able to survive on their own. And finally development by the people (enable people) this means equal opportunities and access, universal access to health care, education, and social security.

Sustainable Human Development makes me think of one of my all-time favorite quotes; it’s by Dr. King:

“True compassion is more than flinging a coin to a beggar; it comes to see that an edifice which produces beggars needs restructuring.”

I’m not sure exactly in what way I can fully contribute to sustainable human development but I have decided that I want to dedicate my life to furthering it. A great example of sustainable human development is micro-credit institutions like the Grameen Bank which recently won the Nobel Peace Prize. Micro-credit is giving small loans to the poor who cannot get traditional credit and it allows them to take part in self-employment projects so they can generate wealth and get out of poverty. I’m hoping to get an internship with a micro-credit organization down here and I sent them my resume and I’m going on Monday to meet with them. I’m so glad I chose to come to Costa Rica; I have discovered what I want to do.

I'll be putting up more pictures from Montezuma and from this past weekend soon.