Imad al-Saqqaf
Farook al-Kamali
The main cause of development failure in the third world is fundamentally ascribed to administrative and financial corruption. Developmental backwardness could also be attributed to corrupt political systems or weak public participation in decision-making. Despite the fact that 3rd world countries suffer from technological and industrial backwardness, industrial countries refrain from facilitating transfer of technology to them. Instead of that they offer assistance which imposes additional burdens on these poor countries and keep them at a low level of development.
The largest part of these aids go to destinations and purposes other than basic humanitarian needs such as food, health, housing, sewerage, education, etc. and other important issues such as illiteracy eradication, creating more job opportunities, transportation, social security and justice.
Most international aid offered for some foreign projects goes to experts working in these projects. The daily income of the expert equals many times the average annual income of the Yemeni individual. The foreign expert has to train a group of citizens for the job he is doing. However, this does not happen in many countries. People in Arab countries highly doubt the ability of the International community to produce a tangible change in their countries. However, there are always exceptions.
Yemeni Ministry of Planning and Development has signed agreements with foreign organizations on providing Yemen with aids and to implement projects aimed at fighting poverty and developing local societies.
This article is to shed light on a successful project carried out in Taiz by DIA, a French organization working in field of international development. The organization’s aims are to establish development projects in different sectors including educational, social, health, local economic, environmental fields. The organization also encourages and works for a sustainable human development preparing citizens capable of shouldering responsibility. The DIA’s currently implemented European Union-funded 2-year project is an integrated experimental one for rehabilitating the infrastructure. The project focuses on immediate help to improve the living conditions of the people by youths’ active participation.
The organization’s headquarters is in Taiz and it has a branch in Sana’a. Mrs. Aan Joruo is the representative of the organization in Yemen. Mr. Radlf is the technical coordinator of the organization who talked about the organization and its objectives and said “DIA is a French non-governmental organization. It exists in the south of France, working specially for young people to improve the quality of their life. We are mainly funded by the European Community. We are also working in different countries, in Portugal, Morocco, Iraq, and Bosnia. There we focus on the program of improving lives of young people. Here in Yemen it is quite larger. We focus on education, schools, health centers, specially in Taiz governorate. We are working in two districts al-Muwaset and Shamaiteen. We are also working in Lahj in the district of Wadi Duban. We have settled here in Taiz .
We came to Yemen in 1999. This is the first program we are implementing in Yemen. Our main office is in Taiz governorate and there is another office in Sana’a, which is a representative office. We are two groups: the technical group which takes charge of keeping agreements and the social group which takes charge of involving working and participation of the people with the community.”
Mr. Farook al-Saqqaf, financial and administrative manager of the project, talked about the project and said “Foreign projects have important role in economic development in Yemen. Our country suffers from economic depression, social problems, unemployment, etc.
DIA is an organization working for people and trying to develop people’s abilities particularly of the youth. There are many latent talents which are not polished and are not made use of due to the limited resources and lack of encouragement on the part of the government. The organization tries to help upgrade youth abilities by holding training courses through setting up local committees. . The organization has also organized training courses for school principals to develop their administrative skills. During these courses we discover latent talents and we encourage them.
As for the project now being carried out by DIA, it was already studied two years ago by a specialized committee from the EU, the organization and Yemeni government. Three districts were selected for this; two in Taiz and one in Lahj. In Taiz, 16 schools will be renovated in addition to 14 health units. We have started renovating some schools in some districts and are still working on the other ones.
Technically we are doing the same activities as those done by the Social Fund for Development. At times we come to find that we both intend to work on the same site. However, one of the parties withdraws and goes to other districts in more desperate need of help.”
Fahmi al-Sharif, a chief Engineer, said “Our activities and projects are different from those of the Social Fund for Development in the sense that the Fund establishes projects from loans with profits, but our projects are without any profit aiming at renovating and establishing schools and health units.”
As for the social aspect of the project, Mrs. Sawsan al-Adimi said “Social activities of the organization are represented by organizing rural societies in which DIA is working. The organization organizes different rural committees consisting of some youths, males and females, and some people from villages. Through these committees problems facing these villagers are studied establishing the priorities the society should deal with and the role of the organization in solving these problems.
The organization is interested in exploring latent talents. For that reason, the organization organized, in coordination with the Ministry of Youth and Sports office in Taiz and Hail Said Group of companies, a camp for 30 youths from rural areas. Other courses are organized for developing the rural women.
In town, we set up a committee for youths from different sources and organize for a workshop to define mechanisms of the committee’s work objectives and to draw up a training plan for youths in the organization. Through this committee we discuss their needs, social problems, etc. One of the problems is unemployment prevalent among graduates from Taiz university. We had made a questionnaire about this phenomenon to point out the reasons. Now we are working to sort out the results of this questionnaire.”
DIA organization is pursuing commendable activities in the country. We hope that other organizations will follow suit and do something to relieve the suffering of the miserable section of the society.