A Simple Take on Sustainable Development – The Case Study of FATIMA Women’s Network

 by Betty Okot

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Have you ever wondered why there is no single definition of development? Questioned why there are views and there are views but no ‘finite’ description? This is the interesting part. Without a one size fits all definition, it is implied that development should be flexible, appreciate and support our efforts but ask questions too. Take a look around you and you are quite sure to see a lot being done to make the world a better place. Quite certainly, there are many out there promoting dreams, fulfilling promises and taking actions to drive change- but how many do believe all those efforts or good deeds are really making an impact or reaching desired beneficiaries? Well, answers could be up for debate until the cows come home but my humble belief is that those are the tough issues development should engage with.

Luckily, the development sector is an environment in which you could say, ‘I really would like to have an opinion’ and be allowed to. And now and again we get away with statements such development is a gimmick! An excuse to force us to read hard, work hard, be compassionate, volunteer our time and resources…It is riddled with politics, contradictions, wealth,  poverty and all sorts. One could even go further to suggest that the word be banned and everything development oriented be declared illegal, unless we all genuinely agree to do our best to make the damn thing work! Well, as a matter of opinion of course.

Anyway, let us take a short journey to one of six organisations which participated in this case study and offered alternative views of sustainable development (SD). Like a little voice in your head, this study almost says that although we embrace developmental programmes and champion them, it appears the world hardly ever stops to take a case by case analysis of what is being done, where, by whom and why. This case study is just a glimpse into the multifaceted world of development practice.

FATIMA WOMEN’S NETWORK(1)

FATIMA Women’s Network (FWN) was established in December 2002 (Leicester). It works with women at local and national levels through consultations, advocacy and all levels of service delivery. It aims to bring about positive changes in the lives of women especially those from the disadvantaged and diverse minority communities in the UK.

Sustainable development at FATIMA

Rather unsurprisingly, FWN like all the other organisations that took part in this study did not offer a one size fit all definition of SD. Their responses were interestingly refreshing because they made me appreciate their basic views of what SD means to them. Indeed, they reminded me why I was comfortable on the Education for Sustainability (EfS) course. As a result, I realized that having the refined book knowledge of SD was one thing but being able to appreciate alternative views, work with people who practice development from their own initiatives was another.

The study revealed that FWN understands and practices SD, within a wider stakeholder(2) context. Its entire Board is concerned with SD policy development and they use it to reinforce the idea of women’s financial empowerment. Their vision for SD includes women’s financial autonomy, sustainable partnerships and adequate micro-level business support for women from disadvantaged communities. The Network’s SD practice is hinged upon the need to promote women’s financial independence. To achieve this, the organisation leads by example. They raise funds through contracts rather than grants seeking. Their philosophy being that they cannot champion women’s economic freedom if they cannot stand the test.

Nature of activities

The organisation is involved in less formal micro-level development initiatives. Although their projects are so small and hardly comparable to programmes ran by larger institutions, they seem to be making a mark. As a result, the discussion should not be on how big or small an organisation is. Rather it should focus on what they do, where, how, why and what value they add to macro-level development in the long run.

FWN for example provides regional and national support to women through advocacy, business-networking, volunteer programmes, and skills up-grading. All their interventions are based on identified areas of need. Also they ensure grassroots participation in all projects. Those initiatives confirm their desire to fight the cycle of dependency often associated with underdevelopment. Most interestingly, FWN’s contribution is a building block for promoting sustainability through Diaspora women entrepreneurs. Moreover, their activities feed indirectly into Millennium Development (MDGs) goal-3.

This, to a degree is an indicator of the complexities within the development sector. First of all, no single textbook definition actually accurately describes development or its fringe fields such as SD, development education etc. This lack of a single definition thus implies that the world ought to be more flexible and willing to deconstruct the philosophy of development, respond to grassroots views, accept less known actors, and work with whoever has the will to be the change they wish to see or drive change.

In FWN’s case, success is measured on the basis of the amount of support they get from other known agencies such as Future Builders(3), with whom they developed a partnership after successfully running a training project co-financed by the Learning Skills Council (LSC) and the European Social Funds (ESF). It was said 600 women gained from this programme instead of the originally proposed 400 annually.

FWN’s level of women’s engagement is an indication that sustainability or indeed SD can be achieved through a number of means including women’s empowerment. If we are to think unconventionally, we could say that achieving development does not come with a manual of ‘dos and don’ts.’ Take for instance FWN’s approaches to SD- there is every indication that their successes feed into some of the SD outcomes ‘indirectly’, even though the organisation is small or little known. In all respects, their efforts echo the growing awareness in some quarters that smaller voluntary sector organisations and the Diaspora civil society especially have the knowledge and understanding of what works in their communities and that they feed into mainstream development goals in more ways than one.(4)

Sadly, despite this increasing awareness, very little has changed in the way you and me perceive or choose to practice development. There is instead more divergence between and among development practitioners, which has nearly resulted in a mesh of differences of ideas, terminologies, approaches, sizes and scope of development. The obvious losers in this confusion are those most in need of better qualities of life and not the actors. To some degree, it look as if reason and conscience should prevail over ‘egos and fears’ if the big and small in the development sector are to work together or achieve any lasting positive impact on SD or development in generally.

CHALLENGES

To minimise the chances of any misplaced illusions that FWN or other smaller organisations like them are enjoying a smooth ride, the challenge is for us to ask how on earth they manage to work in the UK and sometimes cover overseas projects small as they are. Again what this organisation experiences, is not unique to them. Ask any small organisation, and their answer is not going to be too far from the following response from the Women’s Network: “The greatest challenge is getting people to recognize that BME(5) organisations can be professional and deliver projects. It is disappointing because we are taken as quite unprofessional and are expected to do little. Also there are difficulties in accessing public sector contracts…”

There is no doubt that the above does sound like a common rhetoric to some. Also, many may think it an unfounded sweeping comment and to others it may be a statement of fact. Nonetheless, that is the beauty of development discourses. Almost every assertion is contestable. At least such contest makes the development field a knowledge friendly environment, where voices and opinions will be heard even though they may never be taken up. At least, there is some comfort in being allowed to have and express an opinion.

Anyway, that excerpt shows that the challenges this organisation faces affect their effectiveness on the ground. It particularly implies that smaller NGOs view the UK domestic and international development policy context as quite unfavourable to them. This is something that has been mentioned in voluntary sector researches.(6) It is believed that the lack of support stems from the inadequate advocacy on behalf of smaller NGOs.

However, this case study established that, there are better and more visible channels for especially Diaspora engagement in development. This is in the shape of Connections for Development (CfD), which is supposed to advocate for, represent these smaller NGOs and make them more visible.

In all these discussions about challenges, nature of activities, involvement or lack of it, the role of the policy environment in ensuring how successful an organisation becomes is incontestable.  Common sense suggests that smaller organisations can only thrive in an environment that enables them to build all necessary structures, alliances as well as raise funds to realise their full capacity.

ACHIEVEABLE OPPORTUNITIES

Then again, no discussion of development is complete without mention of realistic opportunities and impact of particular interventions. With reference to FWN, the hope of establishing the USA model of Supply Diversity(7) was one of the opportunities they were keeping their eyes on. Supply diversity is said to be a system that persuades major companies to grant a percentage of their profits to Ethnic Minorities Women’s organisations to support them in increasing their proceeds and activities. Additionally, Fatima also thought the scope of CfD’s networking activities qualify as realistic opportunities for promoting not only their agenda but the wider Diaspora sector’s interests.

IMPACTS

Beyond focusing on how to develop the world, we ought to think of the possible impacts of our development initiatives. In FWN’s situation, their hopes materialised in the form of Supply Diversity UK, which was established a few months prior to this study. It begun with a 2-year regional pilot programme facilitated by corporations like IBM(8) and Coco Cola(9). It was said that FWN being a women-and-BME-led organisation, met the criteria for Supply Diversity and this gave them the flexibility to subsequently support their members.

The organisation progressed to setting up a Business Network in association with the Leicester Strategic Economic Partnership (LSEP). Upon self-reflection, FWN said that despite their relative successes they were yet to fully achieve all their SD objectives.

Hence, this case study confirms that FWN has so far learnt the following SD lessons: 

• That more can be achieved through collaboration and partnership working;
• That there is need for representation on strategic bodies; and
• FWN should ensure that they never lose touch with their members’ needs because their strength is in them.

CONCLUSION

FWN’s objective of promoting women’s financial self-reliance involves nurturing partnerships and networking habits among women from minority and disadvantaged communities in the UK and overseas. The organisation shows a deeper commitment to their stakeholders and mission and maintains close contact with them. Overall, this study highlights that Fatima understands and practices SD within the MDGs concepts and objectives of women’s empowerment. To them, women’s economic autonomy is an added dimension to the global search for SD. Moreover their focus is on minorities and the disadvantaged. This implies that FWN’s simple take on SD reaffirms the need for mainstreaming gender issues and the role of women more prominently within the SD framework. It reflects their consciousness of the international and domestic policy spheres in which they operate, as well the need for constructive social change. At the international level, the idea of women empowerment and reduction of gender imbalances is an MDG target, which demands such social efforts such as FWN’s at all levels of society. 

Notes

1   See www.fatima-network.com for background information on FATIMA Women’s Network.

2   Their stakeholders include funders, government departments and agencies, clients and their families or networks.

3   Future Builders: Supports community initiatives in the UK, especially the Voluntary Sector. Also see: www.hm-treasury.gov.uk for more information.

4   See www.cfdnetwork.co.uk to download Murray. P (2007) Mapping Exercise.

5   BME is an acronym commonly used in the UK to refer to Black and Minority Ethnic groups, communities etc.

6   For more arguments related to the constraints limiting Voluntary Community Organisations’ or Diaspora Civil Society Organisations’ performance in the UK and globally refer to footnote 4 or see Bhutta (2005)  Shared Aspirations on www.ncvo-vol.org.uk

7   Supply Diversity:  See: www.sbs.gov.uk/sbs More information can be obtained from Fatima Women’s Network

8   IBM: International Business Machines: See www.ibm.com 

9   Coco Cola: The said partnership between communities and Coco Cola is part of their community engagement initiatives.