Yogesh Jadega (Arid Communities and Technologies) on Failure: Knowledge gap

Does bad training or a lack of it altogether lead to failure? Are good intentions enough when you can’t influence the right people? What is the right way of going about convincing people that they require help without being patronising?

For the taciturn Yogesh Jadeja of Arid Communities and Technologies, these were the questions that he wrestled with.

The Context

As someone from a scientific background, the first challenge that Jadeja faced was attempting to communicate his technical expertise to the people that he worked with on a daily basis.

He developed new ways of going about this task, but one thing that struck him deeply was the need to address this knowledge gap. Being a shy person, Yogesh found it difficult to approach people who mattered over important changes in policy.

Moreover, he had noticed flaws in how people were targeted for interventions, a fundamental failure that carried serious repercussions.

The Failure

Jadeja does not hold the view that this technical expertise can be imparted to people working in the sector, but he does notice the dire lack of training modules that can help people serve communities better.

When it comes to approaching people who matter, Jadeja feels that people are often reluctant to approach higher, important officials, working more towards addressing and micro-managing people who are placed on a lower scale in the pyramid. Yogesh also points to our fundamental flaw in targeting and informing people who these interventions were carried out for, claiming that we often miss and entire chunk of people who require it urgently.

The Diagnosis

If there were more training modules, Yogesh argues that the quality of work provided would be better. Incorporating local knowledge and methods in these modules is something Yogesh feels would contextualise the problem for people working in the field.

An important facet of development is approaching the right people, while time is often consumed trying to convince people who don’t hold important positions when it comes to policy and change.

Another important virtue that Jadeja stresses is our patience when it comes to informing and educating communities about interventions, a better outcome can be reached when people have a richer understanding of the purpose of such interventions.