Development, Indigeneity and Existing Tables

For real and collective development, we must stop insisting on localising strategies, frameworks, tools, or whatever else our Pacific communities keep getting fed with, because it worked somewhere else. We require indigeneity, an approach centered in local Pacific agency and knowledge, supported by relevant development tools.

If we are to claim any impact in our intentions in leaving-no-one behind, then development must ensure that indigeneity is meaningfully at the helm. Development in our communities need to grow beyond the adolescent teenager phase it seems to have become stuck in, into a reflective and mature adult. Without a genuine intention to engage at existing tables, we will be stuck with repetitive cycles that stifle community-led action.

When the United Nations (UN) Secretary General, Antonio Guterres recently spoke of bridging the gender divide at the 76th Session of the General Assembly (GA) on 22 September, he touched on what we consider one of the cornerstones of our approach at Rise Beyond the Reef, RBTR: that bridging the gap will be a “game-changer for humanity”.

Seven years into working with women in remote villages in the interior of the main island of the Fiji Group, Viti Levu, has underlined that it is not just about ticking the box of working with women (for women’s economic empowerment (WEE). It is a lot more than just being able to say we are changing realities on the ground. For us, it is most importantly also about the mechanisms involved in achieving actual progress.

We’ve been privileged to work alongside more than 500 women, and their approximately 1800 dependents, in one of the most remote part of Fiji’s interior. It is a long way from New York City however we must be cognizant of discussions in these faraway places because they impact development trajectories in our island homes. Development thinkers and partners must also find ways to actually connect to unique and Pacific-owned experiences.

When Mia Amor Mottley, the Prime Minister of Barbados spoke at the same General Assembly in September (2021), she called for a new UN Charter: one that would accurately reflect this day and age. Mottley and Guterres’ unapologetic frankness was refreshingly hopeful.

Development practices must respond genuinely to the needs of the communities we want to or are working in. Guterres and Mottley called for fundamental shifts in the way the UN does development. This could mean new strategies, frameworks, workshops, or it could mean real action. Changing the way we do things in order to get a different or desired result is a sign of maturity.

For us who are working with mainly rural women artisans, some of whom still use a trusted family horse to transport their products to the scheduled product pick-up site, the need to be flexible enough to factor in ongoing shifts is the norm. The impact of the afore-mentioned faraway discussion may have on our partnership lives rent free in our minds.

Existing tables matter

We are handed a lot of paper, referred to numerous studies, toolkits, examples of how and what to do, and the way it (should) could be measured. From our rural perch, this is how the development sector ticks and we acknowledge that it does contribute to our learnings and ensures accountability.

We are however conscious of how such prescriptive status quo impacts our listening and learning from existing tables. There is an assumption that our tables are the same. They are not. This disqualifies the assumption that we just need to “localise” approaches.

The prerequisite paperwork and the recommended tools is good development practice, and some lessons from these do complement our learning. However, if we are not careful, all these development tools and frameworks, strategies and case studies will drown the lived experiences of those at existing tables.

We need not only be aware of these existing tables; we must be thoughtful and intentional about where we sit as development professionals.

In any movement, in any village, in any community, there is always an existing table. It is likely that there were more than one, long before you or I came along. These existing tables were our starting point, core to natural community building and an approach we argue a development and aid sector fundamental. We should be about connecting, understanding, bridging and building upon the existing tables. Regardless of what you bring to the table, approach it with the respect it deserves. It has proven itself key to sustainable practices in our partnerships.

Our program was developed under the radar. Friends and family donated US$5,000.00 that helped us start a trial project. We were apparently viewed as just another small and random thing happening in some isolated area. We spent the majority of our time and energy on the mat in our partner communities. Over the last five years, we are still on the mat, but there are now 28 mats (communities we work with now) and artisans will surpass close to $1,000,000FJD in earnings this year since our program’s inception.

We have been invited at some development and aid sector tables and being included in these conversations have been affirming, with some real takeaways. Almost two years of going into Fiji’s capitol, Suva, for these discussions an anxiety has set in. The proverbial record player is skipping — a new framework, roundtable, consultant. The phrase “but there is already an existing table….” is not sinking in, is not being seriously considered.

Rise Beyond the Reef (RBTR) is one of the largest home-based industries in the artisan sector in the Pacific. Remote work can and does work, but it must be formalised, visible and protected. For the artisans, 70% of doing business is spent on transportation alone. It’s critical therefore to buy from village gates. The creativity of these women is rooted in tradition. It’s harnessing through RBTR maintains connections from their past and present, into the future.

We listened at their mats. We recognised the innate value in their identity and knowledge and in doing that, reinforced those values back to them so that they started this partnership from a strengthened position of self-value and confidence. We knew we needed to develop a structure that would enable and sustain a women-led supply and value chain.

We then developed mechanisms that would work for all parties. Buying at village gates for example would not only be the most economic approach for them, but it would also mean more time at home. Such structural interventions imbedded in communities meant our COVID19 pandemic and post-humanitarian efforts already had pathways to use.

Artisans are paid cash at village gates. The more they produce, the more they get paid. Village and district coordinators are the first quality control checks before it is taken to a centralised point (the RBTR office in Nadi), where final touches are made and post village production takes place to meet packaging requirements, while ensuring order fulfillment.

The women work collectively in a common house, usually the village meeting house. Lunch or afternoon tea are usually dropped off by their husbands. They have developed a culture of production, their version of what indigenous Fijians refer to as solesolevaki. Working from existing tables provides space for innate knowledge that, when effectively worked into a commercial setting, ensures ownership that entrenches sustainability.

Seeding conversations

We do not presume the right to tell communities what to do or how they should think. That would be neo-colonialism in action. What works in a workshop, may not work in a community. We cannot weaponise white western feminist frameworks in indigenous communities, and expect (progressive) change.

We see ourselves as vessels. The journey begins at the existing tables, then we travel with our partners towards an envisioned, different, better reality. The soil must be prepared well for something new to seed. That’s how we think about our work in economic development — it’s a tool for organizing, for building trust, for shifting norms and attitudes, for creating space where harder conversations can take place and stay.

When New York speaks of a new charter and reminds us of gaps that remain, we are hopeful that these messages are considered with existing tables in mind. What they can offer has never been fully realized because they require long-term commitments that’s about sustained and real change, not ticking boxes before the reporting cycle.

Existing tables don’t just matter, they are key to sustained and progressive development, culture and community.

(Co-authored with Janet Lotawa, Director & Co-Founder, Rise Beyond the Reef. First published by Islands Business in 2022)