World Ark Magazine - March/April 2008 - (Page 30) 1 2 3 4 5 67 by Paul Polak Paul Polak is co-founder and president of International Development Enterprises, a nonprofit dedicated to ending poverty by helping poor farmers invest in their own success. He is also the inventor of, among other things, the treadle pump. Polak has a new book, Out of Poverty: 12 Steps TO PRACTICAL P R O B L E M S O LV I N G One of the things that always piqued my curiosity about poverty is that most people see it as more permanent than the Rock of Gibraltar. But I know that people are capable of moving out of poverty, because there are simple and obvious solutions to it. Anyone can come up with obvious practical solutions to just about any complicated social problem by following a few simple, basic steps. What Works When Traditional Approaches Fail, out this month from Berrett-Koehler Publishers (www.outofpoverty.info). Go to where the action is. In 1981, when I was working on a project to build and sell 500 donkey carts to refugees in Somalia, I met a pleasant middle-aged man who managed five health clinics in refugee camps for a major international relief organization. “How often do you get out to the refugee camps to visit your clinics?” I asked. “I haven’t been there yet and I don’t plan to go soon,” he said with considerable pride. “If you go to the field, it’s mass confusion. Managers have to be able to think clearly, without distractions, to make good decisions, and you simply can’t do it in the middle of the noise and chaos of field conditions.” I was so astonished that for once in my life I was speechless. I simply can’t imagine how anybody can make realistic plans to eradicate poverty or to address any important problem without visiting the places where the problem is occurring and talking with the people who have the problem. 1 30 go March/April 2008 | WORLD ARK www.heifer.org http://www.outofpoverty.info http://www.heifer.org
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