The Problem with Solutions: Development Failures in Bangladesh and the Interests They Obscure

Abstract

Long described as the “largest poorest” country, Bangladesh has been a prime target for massive infusions of foreign aid for decades. Through historical and ethnographic investigation, I document how flood control and agricultural intensification projects underwritten by foreign institutions exacerbate vulnerability to water crises in Bangladesh. These ostensibly pro-poor water governance and economic development programs engender cycles of crop loss, groundwater and soil salinization, reduced fisheries, and impeded navigation that erode agrarian livelihoods, thereby reproducing the conditions and rationale for continued flows of aid dollars into the country. Shifting attention away from depoliticized problems and solutions, I develop the concept of the interest-shed as a broadly applicable method for intervening in cycles of failure by examining the interests that they serve. This framework can also be used in the planning process by enabling differently situated groups to evaluate how proposed schemes include, ignore, or prioritize their interests.

长久以来，孟加拉国素有“最贫穷大国”之称。近数十年来，其始终是大量外国援助的主要目标。作者根据历史和人种调查，记录了外国机构资助的防洪和农业集约化项目如何加剧了孟加拉国水危机的脆弱性。这些项目表面上有利于扶贫水治理和经济发展，实则使其环境陷入了恶性循环：农作物损失、地下水和土壤盐碱化、渔业减产和航运受阻，侵蚀农业生计，为援助资金继续流入国内创造了条件和依据。作者的关注点不是非政治化问题和解决方案，而是提出通过审视投资所带来的利益点，将利益保护的概念作为一种广泛适用的方法，干预失败循环。本框架也适用于规划的过程，让不同处境群体都能评估提案如何涵盖、忽略或优先考虑其利益。

Descrito desde hace tiempo como “el más grande de los países más pobres”, durante décadas Bangladesh ha sido un objetivo primordial para infusiones masivas de ayuda externa. A través de investigación histórica y etnográfica, yo documento el modo como proyectos de control de inundaciones e intensificación agrícola patrocinados por instituciones extranjeras hacen más compleja la vulnerabilidad a crisis hidrológicas en Bangladesh. Estos programas, ostensiblemente diseñados en favor del manejo de condiciones de pobreza hídrica y de desarrollo económico, engendran ciclos de pérdida de cosechas, salinización del agua freática y el suelo, reducción de pesqueíras y obstrucciones a la navegación que merman el sustento agrario, replicando de ese modo condiciones y bases para flujos continuados de dólares de ayuda hacia el país. Apartándome de la atención hacia problemas y soluciones despolitizados, desarrollo el concepto de área de interés, como método de amplia aplicación para intervenir en ciclos de fracaso examinando los intereses que ellos sirven. Este marco también puede usarse en el proceso de planificación capacitando grupos situados de manera diferente para evaluar el modo como los esquemas propuestos incluyen, ignoran o priorizan sus intereses.

Key Words:

• Bangladesh
• failure
• interest-shed
• international development
• water hazards

关键词:

• 孟加拉国
• 失败
• 利益保护
• 国际发展
• 水害。

Palabras clave:

• área de interés
• Bangladesh
• desarrollo internacional
• fracaso
• riesgos del agua

Acknowledgments

This article is the product of many people’s time, energy, and thoughtful input. I thank Kazi Matin Ahmed, Riton Camille Quiah, and Samia Noor for their invaluable assistance with field logistics in Khulna and Dhaka, as well as all of the study participants who shared their time and perspectives with me. I am deeply grateful to Jolyon Thomas, Phil Hirsch, and Sean Tanner for indulging me in numerous conversations about interest-sheds and how best to conceptualize them. My thanks go as well to the anonymous reviewers whose detailed feedback was crucial to the development of the article. James McCarthy provided patient guidance throughout the review process, for which I am indebted.

Notes

1 People residing in some project areas do claim benefits of flood protection (Paul 2003), but the benefits accrue unevenly and typically only toward politically connected individuals (Thompson and Sultana 1996; Warner 2010). Furthermore, polders consistently fail to meet projected targets in terms of area protected and crop yields (J. W. Thomas 1972; Brammer 1983; Nowreen, Jalal, and Khan 2014).

2 Nonhuman interests are omitted for graphical clarity.

3 Interest-sheds can also accommodate nonhuman interests (Panelli 2010), which might be reflected in the maintenance or destruction of critical habitat, for example.

Additional information

Funding

Field research was made possible by generous funding from the Fulbright U.S. Student Program.

Notes on contributors

Kimberley Anh Thomas

KIMBERLEY ANH THOMAS is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Geography and Urban Studies at Temple University, Philadelphia, PA 19122. E-mail: [email protected]. Her research takes a political ecology approach to understanding the ways in which uneven power dynamics and various axes of social difference shape human vulnerability to environmental hazards.