Collective action key to alleviating social problems

Njeri Kiereini

njeri.n.kiereini@gmail.com

The NGO model as we know it must die if we will see the light of development in this country. Regulation is viewed as an instrument of punishment rather than accountability. It will be the ultimate test of the elasticity of the mind and sentiment for humanity within the NGO sector.

In order to create sustainable development we must build partnerships for collective action to galvanise citizen ownership and demand visible and sustainable development results as envisaged in the national development goals. It is practically inhuman to imagine that community development can be sustained based on the concept of pure altruism; countless examples of pathological altruism abound within the NGO sector; where the intended outcomes and actual outcomes do not mesh and eventually end up hurting the recipients.

I once spent some time with a lot of focused and exasperated Kenyans. They hailed from places like Solai, Ndungiri, Mekene, North Kitutu and Suswa. The Kenyans in those villages were able to clearly articulate their problems and the solutions they saw at hand and they were willing to carry the solutions forward. They expressed frustration with government stimulus programmes and NGO rhetoric.

The seedbed for social entrepreneurship is not in corporate boardrooms, it is within the villages where focus is placed on community development. There is a distinct difference between classic business entrepreneurship and social entrepreneurship.

In my view, a core component of the character of an entrepreneur is audacity in light of obvious challenges. In the villages I visited, I observed an apparent divide between how the women versus their male counterparts expressed their issues. They centered on social problems; disease, deforestation, alcoholism, drug abuse, promiscuity, sanitation and many more.

What was most impressive was the fact that each woman had found a solution with or without resources. One in particular, collected sputum from TB sufferers, took it to the clinic for testing and took back the drugs to patient who could not find his way to the clinic.

Isn’t that audacious determination? That is your definition of a social entrepreneur. Social entrepreneurship enforces innovation that will spur development.

So where do proposed solutions and sustainability mesh? In the woman’s mind that’s where. Men were simply not built that way. That being said, shall we wait for the NGO sector to wake up to the current reality? I don’t think so! Would you say the question of sustainable development is too fluid a problem? I would say it is both fluid in the sense that we learn as we go along and a problem that has solutions.

One solution is to form public, private sector partnerships in conjunction with Wanjiku…..and I am not talking about the wananchi Wanjiku, I am talking about Wanjiku in relation to women.

The writer is a Founder Sensational Women