Dialogue in Pursuit of Development - Are you looking for one of ...

Dialogue from a Field Perspective
Peter Spink 1
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In 2001, the World Bank set up a special project with support from the
Netherlands under the title of The Governance Knowledge Sharing Program.
2 It originated from concern by the Dutch Government about the lack
of success of many technical assistance programs in effectively developing
government capacity, especially amongst the poorer countries. The mission
of the program is “to improve the capacity of the World Bank client governments,
through better governance knowledge, to use donor technical assistance,
where necessary to challenge it, and to generate effective government
reform solutions”. In a circulated discussion document, the project team
leaders put forward four propositions on why development assistance was
apparently less effective than it could be in the governance area. These were:
that the messages of donor assistance, the knowledge that donors wished to
impart, could be the wrong ones; that the messages could be too costly to
implement; that the messages were not being well delivered and as a result
not being absorbed; or that the messages were not welcome. Whether or
not these four are the only four, they are sufficient to illustrate why the
invitation from the Swedish Foreign Ministry to discuss dialogue has come
at an appropriate time; for both the special project and the invitation point
in the same direction; concern with the quality of the discussion of development
action.
This simultaneous recognition by the Bank and members of the donor
community that all is not well in aid relationships is a very important pinprick
of light in a tunnel that has been growing increasingly darker over the
years. Many of us can testify to a narrowing and growing homogeneity in
development approaches (Spink, 2001 a) 3 and to an increased intolerance in
accepting the messy ways by which people construct their destinies. More
and more agencies and field staff appear to be ‘sure’ of what is required and
1 Peter Spink (Brazil) is a social and organizational psychologist with a PhD from Birkbeck College,
University of London. He was a member of the Tavistock Institute of Human Relations from
1970–1980 before moving to Brazil. He is currently Professor at the Getulio Vargas Foundation in
São Paulo where he directs the Program for Public Management and Citizenship and also a Professor
in the Postgraduate Social Psychology Program at the Pontificial Catholic University where he
leads a research group on organizational and social change. He has carried out advisory work for
Sida on questions of State reform and Local Government development since 1988.
2 Further details can be obtained on the site of the program www1.worldbank.org/publicsecotr/
bnpp/goals.htm.
3 This is very much the case in the State Reform arena.