Barefoot College

In this e-magazine article from The American, Bunker Roy advocates a creative, bottom up approach to meet the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). He cites as problematic the fact that these goals were set up by international donors, governments, and academics in compartments that fit donor intentions. He states that these are bureaucrats who speak for, rather than with, economically poor communities.


Roy 's strategy for successful programmes begins with the following approach: "Tackling poverty requires a fundamentally different approach: one that starts with people themselves and encourages the initiative, creativity and drive from below that must be at the core of any transformation of their lives if it is to be lasting."

In the article, Roy cites corruption as a barrier to MDG 1, the reduction of poverty and hunger. On MDG 2, universal primary education, he indicates that reporting only on the performance of formal educational structures put in place by international donors and national governments will not satisfy 60 percent of rural children who work, rather than attend school, and suggests that "[o]ther outside-the-box innovative solutions have to be found. [R]unning schools at night for the convenience of the children and training semi-literate but unemployed rural youth in villages to become part time “barefoot teachers” in these night schools is one such simple answer. The Barefoot College in India has started these night schools." For MDG 3, he cites a step toward gender equality, the empowerment of women, taken by the Barefoot College: "semi-literate rural women have been trained as solar and water engineers: repairing handpumps, constructing rainwater harvesting tanks, solar electrifying their villages, and feeding data into computers with no ongoing technical support from the outside."

On health-related MDGs, Roy points to expanding the training of traditional midwives, already functioning as care-givers in many communities, using the approach of David Werner’s book Where There is No Doctor. For a number of the MDGs, Roy suggests working within the existing indigenous institutions, using traditional knowledge and the practical wisdom of the elders, and focusing on south-to-south exchanges between economically poor communities. He encourages development practitioners to provide the space for communities to develop themselves by breaking the hold of corrupt vested interests.

e-CIVICUS, Issue 350, August 2007. Image credit: Photo by Flickr user Carolonline.