Month: June 2017

Power Sharing for Post-Conflict Development: The Case of Rwanda and Burundi

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Photo of Kigali, Rwanda by Flickr user oledoe under an Attribution-ShareAlike 2.0 Generic license.

By Francis Jung

Introduction

According to the World Bank, the IMF and the US Agency for International Development (USAID), Rwanda is doing exceptionally well at attaining the development goals outlined in its Vision 2020, despite the Rwandan Genocide of 1994.  Burundi, on the other hand, is not doing so well; especially since President Pierre Nkurunziza’s announcement to run for a third term in April of 2015.  Why is Rwanda doing so well, while Burundi is doing so poorly when it comes to achieving human development goals?

At face value, the question seems broad and mundane to which any number of people in the development community could provide a separate answer, half of which would start out with, “that depends;” but a deeper analysis of their similarities suggest that it would be reasonable to draw from the two something specific that explains why one country has driven down poverty and infant mortality while maintaining stable growth rates and the other is all but re-immersed back into conflict.

This article establishes that the reason Rwanda is doing so well is mainly due to two factors:  first, the consolidation of power, the exclusion of opposing parties and the establishment of a single-party state early on its post-conflict development and second, Rwanda’s focus on implementing the Sustainable Development Goals; and Burundi is doing so poorly because the government is vulnerable to power seeking, would-be political entrepreneurs.

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International Documentaries in Global Development: Outreach, Measuring Impact and Engagement

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By Julie Tumasz

Public and private organizations can use documentaries to widen the public’s awareness of development issues, motivate public involvement, and have a beneficial impact on non-profits’ social change goals. Non-government organizations (NGO), federal governments, and the private sector use a variety of different strategies to reach, impact, and engage documentary audiences – both while watching the film and afterwards, through activism and advocacy. Measurable outcomes of documentary films can be seen in several steps of the documentary process: the story, outreach, impact and finally, engagement.  The best strategies for organizations to effectively complete these steps are to engage the viewer before, during, and after the viewing.

This article will examine two widely distributed feature-length documentaries from two different American filmmakers that focus on promoting the same social goal of education. World Vision Documentaries describes the importance to tell a development story from the perspective of an outsider because that is the same perspective as the audience the filmmakers are targeting; these films were primarily aimed at American audiences. These feature films, making use of long-form storytelling, appropriately match the complexity of development work unlike short-form advertising, spots or social media.

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A filmmaker captures a rural school in Kabwe, Zambia. Documentaries inform and motivate the global public to participate in international development issues. Photo courtesy of Flickr User Francesco Volpi, under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic License.

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