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Reminiscences of a Dialogue in Rural Development
from the Integrated Rural Development Programme of
Sri Lanka (1976–2002)
Ran B. Morapaya 1
The challenge of partnership
Human interaction is basic to the development of thoughts, ideas and action
responses which leads to managed and directed changes. Left to itself
the world is constantly subject to change, but for the human being to effect
conscious and desired change interaction among different stakeholders in a
society full of diversity is needed. When it comes to a partnership in development,
when one party is a recipient and the other is a donor, the interactions
are very challenging as regards content and methods. The language
itself, which in some cases is foreign to both parties, is bound by culturally
dominant meanings. Person to person communication is also biased by one’s
own prejudices. The development dialogue encompasses exchange of information,
opinions, ideas, views, determinations and judgements and projects
are carried out through representatives from both parties. The give and take
is not purely personal as in a business deal. The resource is commonly owned
and transferred in the name of the poor who do not directly negotiate the
deal. This outline reveals the complicated, ever changing facets of the role
and function of dialogue in development. It encompasses the formal and
informal talking, the exchange of ideas, face-to-face discussion, the question
and answer session. It happens at all levels, in international forums, in seminar
sessions, at the government to government level, at the level of political
heads, agency representatives, at programme and project level, at beneficiary
levels at the grass roots. This narrative is based on the project and programme
experiences of Rural Development in Sri Lanka that commenced in the
mid-seventies and continued until the turn of the century. The programme
was called The Integrated Rural Development Programme of Sri Lanka
(IRDP).
1 Ran B. Morapaya (Sri Lanka) holds a M. Sc. in Regional Science from the University of Queensland,
Australia. He is at present working as a National Consultant for UNDP. He has a long working
history with the Sri Lankan government, particularly in the field of Integrated Rural Development
which he left in 1990. After a year as Project Management Consultant for the World Bank funded
Health and Population Project in Lesotho, Morapaya returned to Sri Lanka where he worked as a
Programme Officer for Sida in Colombo until 2000.