International Development: The Strengths and Weaknesses of Using New Remedies to Improve Social Development - Term Paper Example

Critically discuss the strengths and weaknesses of using new remedies (sports, art, music, mobile phones, tourism, and the internet) to improve social development Introduction Over the past 50 years the world has made tremendous progress in every sphere of human endevour. Tall claims have been made with regard to reduction in poverty, climbing life expectancy, declining infant mortality, and universalization of education opportunities. These achievements raise the possibility and the hope that unprecedented levels of prosperity could soon spread to all humanity. But the facts speak otherwise. More than a billion people live in abject poverty. Experts working in the field of social development attribute poverty and all the malaise that accompany humankind to limiting development to state-centric top down approaches for a long time. They assert that as the society becomes more complex and the multiplicity of factors enter into play to determine social development, more innovative approaches are warranted to engage the people, the beneficiaries in their development. Social development is a function of society’s capacity to organize human energies and productive resources to respond to opportunities and challenges. As the problems surrounding social development are becoming more complex, new remedies like power of sports, art, music, tourism and the internet are tapped into for their immense potential for social development. I have critically discussed these new remedies as a new way forward for social development. Harnessing the power of sport for social development Sport for development is not a new phenomenon. It has been used to promote development oriented objectives since the 1920s. The United Nations “humanitarian aid workers have tapped the potential of sport as a means to improve the conditions of victims of conflict and natural disasters for many years (www.sportanddev.org). Sport over the years has evolved into a major humanitarian and development asset the world over. The potential of sport as a tool to reach personal, community, national and international development objectives are immense and individuals, organizations, governments and the private sector are investing all efforts to unleash the potential of sport for social development. More recently more and more national and international development organizations are tapping into the power of sport into their approaches in local, regional and global development and peace promotion activities. It has been observed that sports create local economic opportunities through sports tourism, hosting of sporting events, and manufacture of sports equipments. Local communities can use their own capacities to organize the sporting events, showcasing the community’s abilities in progressively gaining recognition in the region. The United Nations for decades has used sport as a tool in development cooperation and humanitarian aid efforts. In recent years, the United Nations and its specialized agencies have increasingly recognized and harnessed the power of sport to achieve their objectives, particularly the eight Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) adopted in 2000 (www.un.org). The UN system draws on the unique convening power of sport for fundraising, advocacy and raising public awareness about the development potentials of sport. Over 75 famous athletes have been appointed as ‘Ambassadors’ or ‘Spokespersons’ for the UN (www.sportanddev.org). In July 2002, then United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan convened an ‘Inter-Agency Task Force on Sport for Development and Peace’. The task force brought together 10 UN organizations with varying levels of experience using sport in their work, including the ILO, UNDP, UNESCO, UNEP, UNHCR, UNICEF, UN Office on Drugs and Crime, UN Volunteers,  UNAIDS and the World Heath Organization. These UN agencies now have the mandate to use sport for development (www.unicef.org). Sport has a positive effect on those who play it, both in terms of health and life skills expressed in values of team spirit. But beyond that the game serves as an effective tool in community programmes for social development. Sport like football has become a fundamental instrument in the social development work of hundreds of organizations and communities across the globe. In 2005, international football’s lead body launched ‘Football for Hope’ movement aimed at engaging the sport for social change (www.fifa.org). FFH movement spearheads a critical evolution from “charitable giving” to meaningful “socially responsible, involved, and committed” development cooperation. The objective of the Football for Hope Movement is to establish a sustainable social and human development programmes to promote health, peace building, children’s rights and education, anti-discrimination, social integration and the environment, thus supporting best practice in the field. The movement aims to fully utilize the power of football in society to contribute to the achievement of the UN Millennium Development Goals (FIFA, 2005). Since the launch of Millennium Development Goals in 2000, FIFA has committed at least 0.7% of its total revenues to its CSR initiatives, which as of 2005 are grouped under the umbrella of Football for Hope (FIFA, 2005: 9). The concept of sport for development is not just an end in itself, but also an effective tool to help improve the lives of children, adults, families and communities. At the most fundamental level, sport and play are a child’s right, as detailed in article 31 of the Convention on the Rights of the Child: States shall “recognize the right of the child to rest and leisure, to engage in play and recreational activities appropriate to the age of the child and to participate freely in cultural life and the arts" (www.unhchr). There is a broad consensus that sports enhance children’s physical, mental, psychological and social development. Involvement in sport can boost children’s health, improve academic performance and help reduce crime (www.unicef.org). UNICEF through its sports for development initiative has achieved goals in health, education, gender equality, HIV/AIDS, child protection and child development. However, sport has its fair share of negative press and accusations that children were being exploited in sports industry that remain largely unregulated. Children have been used as cheap labour in football making for a long time in Pakistan, the largest producer of football. Research reveals that leading names like Nike, Adidas, Puma, Reebok and Decathlon were known to employ children (www.globalmarch.org). Culture: art and music advancing the cause of social development Art and music are potent tool for social development. Drama, film, story telling, music are all creative manifestations of art which people use to get to grips with their own lives. Artistic expression gives people a sense of self-respect and belief in the future. It provides an open platform for freedom of speech for effectively exposing social, political and economic issues. Art and culture are powerful means for improving the quality of life as there is an economic aspect to any cultural manifestation of art. The recent times have witnessed the emergence of a new development paradigm that links economy and culture. Central to the new paradigm is the fact that creativity, knowledge and access to information are increasingly recognized as powerful engines driving economic growth and promoting development in a globalizing world (UNCTAD, 2008: 3). Artistic creativity manifested in original ideas and novel ways through text, sound and image. Cultural products combine human creativity, production and commercialization and therefore they must be protected by copy rights and traded like any other goods and services. The main point is to better understand the dynamics of cultural creativity and its overall interactions with the world economy. However, many artists are not happy with the emphasis given to market aspects in the debate on the creative industries. They assert that these cultural products are more than simply utilitarian insofar as they additionally serve some larger purpose. The British Department for International Department (DFID) funded project ‘Pathways of Womens Empowerment Research Programme’ (in short, Pathways research) is working with photographers, artists, film makers and story tellers to engage people’s imagination in the struggle for social justice. Aiming to initiate global social change, Pathways is using different forms of art to set examples for communities around the world about positive change in women’s lives. Pathways is working in partnerships with networks of institutions and individuals from Bangladesh, Brazil, Egypt, Ghana, Nigeria, Palestine, Pakistan, Sierra Leone, Sudan and the United Kingdom. The main aim of the Pathways is to advance women’s empowerment, challenge the existing power imbalances detrimental to women, change false stereotypes and prejudices and to facilitate reflective for those working for women’s empowerment in global policy spaces (Abdoun, 2009). For example, a photography competition in Bangladesh has produced a series of images of how womens lives are changing. Similarly, Pathways’ partners in Cairo and Khartoum have generated a series of short stories that portray women as energetic and empowered. In Brazil, women have used disposable cameras to document their everyday lives (www.research4development.info). In Ghana, Pathways researchers have been working with popular music artistes to analyze and change lyrics, so as to represent women in more respectful and empowering ways. Internet, mobile phones and digital devices: building social capital in the cyberspace for social development Internet is an organized medium for bringing all existing social organizations into greater contact to release the maximum energy of society leading to unprecedented levels of social productivity and development. Research on internet usage and its impact on society reveals that internet builds a social capital among its users. The development of future digital society would depend on building close relationships with others and restoring common ties that bind people. People meet others in cyberspace, not knowing each other, share their interests, exchange information they need, help each other, and participate in social activism. All of this strengthen human relations and increase social capital (Chung, 2007). Chung emphasizes that application of ICT may lead to major cultural impacts. We are entering a stage where we may experience unprecedented human-cyberspace interactions, thereby, resulting into substitution of human mental and physical functions by ICT. The development of ICT may lead to weakening of collectivism and strengthening of individualism. To illustrate internet’s power as a tool for providing public the platform for sharing information and discussing their grievances, especially in a communist country where media and all information channels are state controlled, I am taking the example of China. In China the state owned media offer limited information about critical public issues and few opportunities for citizens to debate about issues. The Internet is helping Chinese citizens to become better informed and more engaged. This is evident in the proliferation of information on the internet. The internet clearly already plays a central role. The internet is used to relay news and information which the local newspapers in China often pick up and publish such information from online sources, thus channeling online discourse into the offline sphere. The internet serves as an important tool for civil society’s popular protest and social movements against state power. In recent years the internet has become an invisible tool for systematically fighting social injustices and violation of human rights. It is the most viable platform for public debate. The internet has led to the proliferation of online communities which may be quickly turned into platforms for protest. They transcend geographical boundaries and overcome some of the political barriers that exist in China. Tourism and its impact on local development It is widely accepted that tourism can play a significant role in helping people lift themselves out of poverty. International tourism is one of the few ways in which the least developed countries participate in the global economy. In all but a few of the least developed countries, and notably the small island developing States, it is the primary source of foreign exchange (Annan, 2005). Today, tourism is one of the largest and most dynamic sectors of economic activities. Its high growth, development rate, considerable volumes of foreign currency inflows and infrastructure development actively affect various sectors of economy, which positively contribute to the social and economic development of the country as a whole. Socially tourism has a great influence on the host societies. Tourism can be both a source of international amity, peace and understanding and a destroyer and corrupter of indigenous cultures, a source of ecological destruction. So, social contacts between tourists and local people may result in mutual appreciation, understanding, and tolerance. Local communities are benefited through contribution by tourism to the improvement of the social infrastructure like schools, roads, and health care institutions. Tourism in the developing world has the potential to be an agent of social and economic development. This is so mainly in small island developing states which get most of their foreign exchange earnings from tourism related economic activities (United Nations, 2001). However, it must be pointed out that tourism may jeopardize, through insensitive development, the very source of its existence, or to create a symbiotic relationship with the natural environment, preserving it, enhancing it for future generations to enjoy. Developing countries with their distinctive cultural and environmental characteristics are often seen as primary locations where tourism can flourish. These locations are less likely to have regulatory mechanisms in place to protect their rich heritage. Tourism as business can have a tremendous harmful impact on the social fabric of a country if it is not guided and contained in the appropriate way. These include destruction of natural heritage through overbuilding; ever higher demands on scarce water and energy resources; damage to ecologically fragile areas caused by irresponsible development; threats to indigenous cultures; exploitation of workers; organized sex tourism, and most tragic of all child sex tourism, which affects millions of children each year. The benefits of tourism are not evenly distributed across the population as not everyone participates in the same capacity. Who benefits financially from the tourism sector; how tourism affects moral values; and what influence tourism has on cultural life, are some of the serious concerns which the industry has to grapple with. Conclusion The new remedies like sports, art, music, internet and tourism are effective approaches to address social development issues. Much of these remedies draw from people’s experiences and traditional knowledge bases. Initiatives like story telling and street dramas are powerful medium of expression. An important characteristics of these remedies is that they are mostly people-driven and bottom up and informal in nature. These remedies are a means to participation in social development by making people self-driven agencies of their own development. Bibliography Abdoun, S., “Pathways of Women’s Empowerment”. Daily News, Egypt. 6 February 2009. http://www.thedailynewsegypt.com/article.aspx?ArticleID=19582 Annan, K., (2005). “Tourism can Help Poorest, but Careful Management Needed to Prevent Harmful Effects”. Secretary General, SG/SM/10234. Department of Public Information, News and Media Division, New York. http://www.un.org/News/Press/docs/2005/sgsm10234.doc.htm Chung, I., (2007). “Roles and Impacts of IT on New Social Norms, Ethical Values and Legal Frameworks in Shaping a Future Digital Society”. National Science Foundation/OECD Workshop, Washington DC, 31 January 2007. http://www.oecd.org/dataoecd/60/10/37985728.pdf FIFA, Fédération Internationale de Football Association (2005), “Football for Hope: Football’s Commitment to Social Development”. Zurich, Switzerland http://www.fifa.com/mm/document/afprograms/worldwideprograms/footballforhope_e_47827.pdf http://www.globalmarch.org/campaigns/worldcupcampaign/positionpaper06.php3 http://portal.unesco.org/culture/en/ev.php- URL_ID=34603&URL_DO=DO_TOPIC&URL_SECTION=201.html http://www.research4development.info/news.asp?ArticleID=50371 http://www.sportanddev.org/learnmore/what_is_sport_and_development/the_un_s_perspective_on_sport_development/ UNCTAD, (2008). “Creative Economy Report 2008”. UNCTAD/DITC/2008/2. United Nations. http://www.unctad.org/en/docs/ditc20082cer_en.pdf http://www.un.org/millenniumgoals/ http://www.unhchr.ch/html/menu3/b/k2crc.htm http://www.unicef.org/sports/index_23624.html Read More