Way back in the 70s I was friends with a Yankee couple. Both psychologists, they had been recruited by JFK's peace corps to find out why none of the programs designed to help Pacific island people were working.

They had bought a passing yacht, & stayed on for a while, after 10 years in the islands.

Their conclusion, giving people things did not help. A government established plantation went to ruin very quickly, as no residents had anything invested in it's success. The government would provide anyway, so why work on a community project.

Their answer, proven many times, was to pick a couple of the more dominant residents, & help them establish a private plantation. It did not take more than a couple of years for the increasing wealth of those selected to become obvious, & others to want a bit of the action.

Within a few years they had Copra, cocoa & vanilla exports leaving islands where previously the only traffic was medical goods & rice handouts going in.

Unfortunately, as is the way with most yachting friendships, they went west, & I north east, & we lost contact. I don't know if much their work survived their departure. I did visit Kapingamarangi a few years later, & it was more prosperous than our New Guinea atolls thanks to their work. It was also better than the British Solomon outer islands, so looked promising.

Appealing to personal ambition does appear more successful than to community aspirations, & the success of a few does at least provide jobs for the less ambitious.

I think it is an approach we should be applying in our north. It could help a lot of our people, where current practices, like the yanks experience in the islands, is failing.

The problem with helping people is corruption, where the money enters the country politicians have there hand in the cookie jar.

If you give the money directly to the people, which people do you give it too.
The so called village leaders have there hand in the cookie jar so you can't give it to them.

Given to lazy people, you just waste the money.

Given to the right people it will help, but finding them is the problem.

I would suggest sending experts who have done things them self to show locals how they can also do it to improve there lifestyle.

I can speak about the village in Fiji which I and my partner have an association with. It is an interior mountain village , about 200 people, accessible by 4WD, due to the poor road conditions. What has aid/government provided for the village, the biggest things, the village primary school, well run, kids are keen could do with some more resources, teacher is good and she has a couple of teachers aids, local girls to help out. The medical "center" is okay, the nurse comes once a week, does a good job, but medical emergencies are a big problem, no doctor on call and Nandi is difficult to get to, could use a helicopter at times, if one was available.
The water supply to the village from a clean spring through a 2km piping project works really well. Housing is not a big issue, the housing is spartan by our standards, no TV no electricity, house consists of one room, not much furniture, lounge chair maybe, a small table, mats for sitting and sleeping. the "kitchen" is a lean-to on the side or cooking is done in the open. Some houses have an "entertainment area" a veranda on the front. The biggest structure is the church/meeting hall, everyone goes on Sunday.
What do the villages do all day, the men work 6 days a week in the gardens, growing crops for the village and for sale. The woman spend their days washing, cleaning looking after the pre- school kids. Don't get a lot of tourists trade, but the girls do make some things to sell later, down in the market or in one of the Fijian shops in town.
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The biggest thing that will make life a whole lot easier for the villages is a decent road. At the moment the bus up from Nandi terminates well short, because of the road and its a long long walk home. High school is in town, kids need to stay with relatives or board and that is a real problem for most. Funny, aid was cut off by Oz and NZ and who has stepped in and is providing road money the Chinese. get the cash crop to market is a problem, the village does not have a truck and for one to come up, if there is no heavy rain, it was $160 last time, a lot of money, but necessary. Aid is certainly not the be all or end all, but is most useful.

Paul405,

That is a prime example where the villagers can help themselves. There is a wealth of information available om practical road building for low environmental impact and sustainability. There are examples of roads hundreds of years old that were built with basic tools and using locally available materials. It is still being done.

They can build and maintain the road.

There is a saying that when the student is ready the teacher appears.

Wow I didn't realise the men folk of Fiji were so dumb. Must be the Indian influence.

In PNG it is the women folk who tend the gardens. The men raise a bit of livestock, go fishing, & some do a little commercial activity.

As for schools, the village has to build the school house, & housing for the teacher & their family, if any. Only then will a teacher be provided by the government.

The road network has exploded as more commercial production has developed in villages, changing many villages beyond recognition. In some areas they were even connecting electricity to the more sophisticated thatched huts.

I'm not sure the westernisation is necessarily a good thing for many villages. A few district officers I knew reckoned schools gave villagers where there was no regular transportation to large towns enough education to be discontented, but not enough to get or hold a job in the larger towns. It increased squatter populations around larger towns for no advantage.

In places like Rabaul roads stopped within 20 kilometres. PMVs, [trucks with seats on deck] brought a large workforce in from this area, but after that it was walk or boat.

Perhaps this is simply the islands now going through the difficulties the west suffered during the industrial revolution.

I always found it funny that we would work for 40 years to retire to go & do what islanders particularly, did all their lives. I couldn't understand how we could con them to take our lousy jobs, but so many did.