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OECD 1999
Real Progress: Fifty Years of USAID in Costa Rica
example, both villages fielded women’s soccer teams. Women in 1995 were also
more likely to attain leadership positions in the community than in 1950, though
they have yet to achieve full social equality with men.
Some customs have changed because of encroaching values from outside the
village. Improved conditions have spurred other changes. For example, in 1950,
community rituals, including a procession associated with the death of an infant,
were a weekly occurrence in San Juan Sur. This has disappeared as improved health
conditions have transformed this from a normal part of village life to a rare event.
Independent small farmers versus employees
Though similar in many ways, the two villages provide an interesting contrast
that highlights the multidimensional character of development. Contrary to standard
assumptions about the exploitative nature of plantation life, the hacienda
workers in Aquiares were consistently better off in some respects than small
farmers in San Juan Sur. Aquiares children had six years of school when the latter
had only three; they had water, electricity and health care earlier, too. Even today,
water availability is better in Aquiares, and all have health care coverage under the
social security system, while some in San Juan Sur do not. Contrarily, incomes are
higher in San Juan Sur, and long traditions of community self-help and political
activism have created a more self-reliant social pattern.
In sum, both communities have provided paths to better economic and social
conditions for their residents. But those paths meander over different portions of
the steep hillside of development. Even progress in the organisation of the household
can be attained in substantially different ways. In Aquiares, 44% of women
manage the family household budget, while only 19% of men do so. In San Juan Sur,
48% of men manage the family household budget, while 29% of women do so. This
could be related to the fact that household finances are closely tied to farm management
and investment decisions in the latter case. Or it may indicate that farm
ownership reinforces patriarchal traditions in a way that the wage system of
employment at Aquiares does not.
What progress has done, and what it has not
While all objective indicators of development are positive, we cannot conclude
that development has been easy in San Juan and Aquiares. Neither can we say that
residents are happier, though we can confidently say that they have greater longevity
to experience happiness, or misery; and any misery they face is at least more
comfortable!
Several further observations might be made. First, while the changes in both
villages are dramatic, one cannot expect the citizens to be aglow with the progress
already made. People there have problems like anywhere else, e.g. love, marriage,
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