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Rural development: putting the last first

The extremes of rural poverty in the third world are an outrage,’ argued Robert Chambers, a fellow at the Institute of Development Studies, UK in 1983. Poor rural people are largely unseen by ‘outsiders’ – people who are themselves neither rural nor poor, such as aid workers, donors, government staff and researchers.

His book - Rural Development: Putting the Last First – sees outsiders as having two opposing approaches to rural development: one of academics who take a critical and pessimistic view; and one of practitioners who are more actively engaged and optimistic. The views of both are ‘top-down’ with limited understanding of rural poverty. Their knowledge of rural areas is limited to two main sources: large-scale questionnaire surveys which often simplify and mislead; and the brief and hurried visits from urban centres of ‘rural development tourism’ with their many biases against seeing, meeting or learning from the poorer rural people.

To replace and improve these, Chambers argues for reversals of learning and values by putting first a third culture, that of poor rural people themselves. A range of actions for outsiders is outlined to change the ways they learn about poor rural people and their conditions. More cost-effective ways of learning have shown the benefits of inventive, adaptable and open approaches and methods such as those of Rapid Rural Appraisal.

He proposes a new professionalism which:

• puts first the realities, knowledge, resources, technologies and places of poorer rural people
• recognises, starts from and works with poor people’s knowledge, farming practices, abilities and experiments
• starts with poor people’s experiences, then recognises deprivation as a trap with five linked clusters of disadvantage: not only poverty, but also physical weakness, isolation, vulnerability and powerlessness.

Chambers emphasises personal action as the most important factor in rural development. This includes spending more time with rural communities, and reducing the importance of the outsider over the local person. The book suggests a number of ways each individual could change the way they work, by:

• sitting, asking questions and learning, with an emphasis on a relaxed and respectful approach
• learning indigenous knowledge and local ways of communicating from the poorest groups
• carrying out joint research and development with local people
• learning by working with poor people in their daily routines, especially in agriculture
• empowering poor people to control and make decisions about their resources
• changing management and communication practices and reducing the turnover of staff.
  

He concludes on a positive note that ‘By changing what they do, people move societies in new directions and they themselves change. Big simple solutions are tempting but full of risks. For most outsiders, the soundest and best way forward is through innumerable small steps and tiny pushes, putting the last first not once but again and again and again. Many small reversals then support each other and together build up towards a greater movement.’

Contributor(s)
Robert Chambers

Further Information
Robert Chambers
Institute of Development Studies
University of Sussex
Brighton
BN1 9RE, UK
Tel: +44 (0)1273 606 261
Fax: +44 (0)1273 621 202
Email: R.Chambers@ids.ac.uk

Source(s)
Rural Development: Putting the Last First, Longman: Harlow (now Pearson Scientific), by Robert Chambers, 1983

Funded by IDS and Ford Foundation India

July 2006

See also
Robert Chambers - a short biography on the Institute of Development Studies website

'Whose reality counts? Putting the first last'

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