Talking about stories
a conversation with a development practitioner
From the CDRA Annual Report 2000/2001
Q: I want you to tell me about storytelling as a central way of measuring in development.
A: Okay my point about stories is that measurement is actually not difficult to do you can describe development as having taken place or not taken place quite easily. So what is the problem why all this hullabaloo and academics and researchers getting involved in measurement where good practitioners can see it?
Firstly you must have an understanding of what development really is not so straightforward to understand, but it is quite possible. Then you have to apply the basic principles of measurement (which people write about using all kinds of big words) but it is basically understanding where things are now and creating a picture of that, and then intervening into that picture is some way, and then developing another picture of how it is after you have intervened. So there are three essential elements: there is the before, the intervention, and the after.
At the point of planning you have to generate a picture of the relationships that define the situation you are moving into. And you have to identify the relationships you are particularly trying to impact on, and obviously those relationships have to be central in the picture you use in describing the present. The picture, that I am suggesting is one of the easiest ways, is a story it is a narrative description of the situation you describe.
Q: So you are also saying measurement is integral to development practice, not just an "after" but continuous you cant practise developmentally unless you engage in some sort of measurement?
A: Absolutely. It is an intervention and there must be purpose for your intervention and you must have a means of gauging whether your intervention is achieving its purpose or not so in that simple sense, measurement, or assessment, is just integral to everything. It is very difficult to act in the world in a purposeful way without an element of measurement.
But what about stories? You can tell a story of a community you have got to know (ideally before you intervene) and this is what you have begun to understand about this community, and then you would describe the community, particularly from a relationship perspective all sorts of levels of relationships the way people relate to themselves (how do they perceive themselves?) how are they oriented towards the world and simple words like pride, and dignity, and assertiveness? Then describe that condition of how people engage with themselves or relate to themselves. Right through you could target, for example, specifically women in the community. You could describe their traditional relationships with men, elders and with decision-makers and the quality of leadership styles in the community. You could describe the obvious dependency type relationship the political relationships who makes the decisions who calls the shots who has access to the most fundamental resources, the land?
Those kinds of things can all be described in the picture I think that there is skill in really understanding. The tendency is to fall into the stereotypes and to paint women as powerless without understanding the ways in which women do exercise their powers in communities and equally for anybody else there is superficial stereotypical stuff and the deeper stuff describing that is part of the development skill.
Q: It depends on what you are looking for in your story if you are looking for the victim then you will find the victim if you are looking for the potential you will find the potential and then your story will reflect that, wont it?
A: Both are important there is no more vital contributor to real development than a shift in the victim relationship. So it is very important to identify that, but it is equally important to look for the potential because that is what your intervention should be related to. Many interventions are related to the victim part of it, which is patronising. So your "before" picture is only used as a benchmark it is an analysis which is used to inform your intervention as much as the starting point what existed before your intervention took place? So youve got to do it anyway for good development practice you need the picture. In fact you need more than the picture in order to build the picture you need to engage in relationships and to build the picture through relationship itself. If you maintain the distance and dont really enter the situation but act as an external observer, it will not reveal the nuance.
The second step is obviously the design of the intervention in response to the picture you draw, and the implementation thereof, which is a linear process. The simple process is to stop for a while and see if the picture has changed, and see what has changed, and you need to have the vocabulary to describe the new picture that has emerged. And obviously some objectivity, some ability to really look at relationships in which you are very often involved a player and that makes it extra difficult because of the emotional component of being involved. Very commonly, when development really starts taking place one of the first indications of that is that people will start testing their new found confidence and authority on those figures of authority closest to them and very often it is the development practitioners themselves who start being questioned and challenged. And the ability to read that shift in relationship is often lost in the emotion of the moment the development practitioner is so hurt that their community/ committee is now pointing fingers at them that they dont see that this is the first real celebration of a measurable shift in the nature and quality of the relationship over time but because you are hurt and you have to shift your way of relating you write it off you move on you reject them you go and find another recipient that will be more grateful for what you have to offer.
Stories are the simple vehicle through which you describe very complex situations. The art of capturing complexity in stories is one which people say is being lost I am not sure that it is I think it is like all the artistic skills they exist within all people we are all brought up on stories. Even modern children are brought up on amazing stories conveyed through their video-games etc but I mean storytelling is there it is a very deep seated means of communicating complexity and it has just always struck me how powerful it is in conveying the most important things.
Children before they can read, before they engage in more technical rational learning activities learn their basic values and basic approach through stories in the very early years of their lives. In many of the communities we work with we find that goes on way beyond childhood and people are masterful in their ability to tell stories and they are full of subtlety and depth and incredible complexity, but they can be told very simply. The other point about stories is that they have more power than graphs and tables and pie charts and statistics, which people are not really impressed by anymore.
Q: What about the donor who has 50 projects in the region and they work sensitively with those projects. They get them to do their self-reflection, self- evaluation pull them all into a story that has a fabulous essence, and they sit with 50 stories on their desk what do they say to their bosses who dont go into the field and what do the bosses say to the back-donors what happens to all these stories?
A: I believe donors biggest anxiety is that they are being ripped off. For good reasons not every development practitioner is an angel and many people in the field are there to steal whatever they can get and to misuse and abuse the resources they are given. So I think before we get into the fanciful story stuff .. if stories are seen as being used to mask inefficiencies or dishonesty, they will never achieve their rightful place.
So we must have the simple reporting on activities and what money was spent on. But it is simple that is my point it can be done so easily. And thats the nice part of the log frame it has an incredibly simple aspect to it that needs to be in place. My prediction is that if they can first reassure their bosses that they ask for money for certain activities and that these activities have been performed immediately they are relaxed. I think donors should be more rigorous and disciplined in getting the information quickly, efficiently and easily. They must make an absolute condition of the money not turn them into big log frames that pretend to do other things. "This is what we want to know you said you were going to do that with the money have you done it, yes or no?"
Then I predict if they have 50 stories lying on their desk well-written stories they will take them home at night and read them, and it will bring meaning to their jobs I am convinced of it. And they will use that to tell the public of their countries in ways which will really move that public what is being done with their money they will start producing creative documentaries and books, they will start celebrating what is really happening with their money.
About the Community Development Resource Association (CDRA)
The Community Development Resource Association (CDRA) was established in 1987 as a non-profit, non-governmental organisation (NGO) to build the capacity of organisations and individuals engaged in development and social transformation. We are based in Cape Town, South Africa and work mostly in Southern and East Africa.
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