Bricks, Mortar and Capacity Building: A Socio-Cultural History of SNV Netherlands Development Organisation Brinkman, I. Citation Brinkman, I. (2010). Bricks, Mortar and Capacity Building: A Socio-Cultural History of SNV Netherlands Development Organisation. Leiden [etc.]: Brill. Retrieved from https://hdl.handle.net/1887/18539 Version: Not Applicable (or Unknown) License: Leiden University Non-exclusive license Downloaded from: https://hdl.handle.net/1887/18539 Note: To cite this publication please use the final published version (if applicable). Bricks, mortar and capacity building Afrika-Studiecentrum Series Editorial Board Konings Mathieu Posel van de Walle Watson VOLUME 18 Bricks, mortar and capacity building A socio-cultural history of SNV Netherlands Development Organisation Inge Brinkman in cooperation with Anne-Lot Hoek Brill Cover photo: ISSN ISBN © Brill Contents List of photos and figures vi Foreword vii 1. Introduction 1 2. Merchants and ministers: Understanding SNV’s background 25 3. SNV’s start: Bricks, mortar and the transfer of knowledge (1963-1972) 45 4. The years of radical commitment: Democratisation and secularisation (1973-1984) 95 5. Expertise expected: The professionalisation of SNV (1985-1994) 145 6. Building capacity: SNV at the millennium (1995-2005) 193 7. Final remarks 235 Interviews 245 Written sources 261 Abbreviations and glossary 271 Appendix 1: Ministers and State Secretaries for Development Cooperation 276 Appendix 2: SNV chairpersons/directors 277 Appendix 3: SNV countries 279 Appendix 4: SNV activities 281 Appendix 5: SNVers 282 Appendix 6: SNV finances 283 Appendix 7: Chronology 284 Index 287 v List of photos and figures Photos 1.1 SNV logo, Lusaka, Zambia, 1968 viii 1.2 Making new knives from old iron, Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, 1976 24 3.1 Queen Juliana bids the first JVP team farewell, 1963 44 3.2 Team II setting off for Colombia, 1964 53 3.3 JVP float at the annual celebration of independence, Korhogo, Ivory Coast, 1965 74 3.4 ‘Gerard Wesseling (Community Planning, Kasempa) with a farmer who asks for agrarian advice’, Zambia, 1968 90 4.1 ‘Marcel Krom talking to a local counterpart’, Dockyard, Mwanza, Tanzania, 1976 94 4.2 SNV’s B Objective: ‘Bram Schutte in Burkina’ 115 4.3 ‘Gerrit Ponjé at work as a woodwork teacher’, Lower Technical School, Tabora, Tanzania 1976 136 5.1 ‘SNVer Pierre de Kock is having a concersation with staff of the city hall in Gedaref’, Sudan 1989 144 5.2 ‘SNVer René Stam teaching concrete technology to builders’, Bluefields, Nicaragua, 1987 153 5.3 ‘Full attention for the cheesehead who just arrived at the airstrip of Jinka (Gamo Gofa) together with his parents’, Ethiopia 1991 178 6.1 Boating, Zambia, 1990s 192 6.2 Jan Pronk giving a speech on the occasion of SNV’s 30th anniversary 195 6.3 Local staff visiting Rheden during their introductory course in The Netherlands 227 6.4 SNVers hosted in Palmira, Lomerio, Bolivia, 1991 232 7.1 Learning to dance, Colombia, 1966 243 NOTE: We have made every effort to contact all the photographers listed above and copyright agreements have been signed with most of them. However, we have unfortunately been unable to trace a few of them. Figure 5.1 ‘So you are the representative of the target group’ 160 vi Foreword This book offers an introduction to the history of SNV Netherlands Develop- ment Organisation, which has now been in existence for over forty years. Though commissioned by SNV, the African Studies Centre had a free hand in outlining and implementing the research and many people helped to make this endeavour a success. Not everyone can be mentioned here by name but we would like to assure you all that your participation was much appreciated and that the ASC is extremely grateful to you. It is not customary for historians to thank their sources but as this study is partly based on oral material, the first acknowledgment goes to all the people who talked to the research team about their experiences with SNV. All inter- viewees are thanked for contributing to this project! The research team visited several countries in order to gain a detailed picture of SNV’s activities. We acknowledge the hospitality and assistance of SNV Guinea-Bissau, SNV Mali, SNV Cameroon, SNV Tanzania, SNV Zambia, SNV Bolivia, SNV Nepal, and SNV The Hague. We would especially like to thank the local support staff in the countries the team visited for their friendly wel- come and all the assistance they so generously provided. Research into SNV’s past in these countries was undertaken by Raúl Fernandes, Younoussa Touré, Saibou Issa, Yusufu Lawi, Marja Hinfelaar, Clara Lopéz and Kathinka Sinha-Kerkhoff. Their contributions to this project are highly appreciated and we want to thank them for the positive and fruitful ex- changes we enjoyed with them. At the African Studies Centre, Inge Brinkman and Anne-Lot Hoek carried out the research very conscientiously. Jan-Bart Gewald, who initiated the pro- ject, and Mirjam de Bruijn, the head of the (then) Agency in Africa theme group, also gave useful feedback and support, as did Jan Ubels of SNV. We are grateful to Ann Reeves for her editorial work and to Mieke Zwart for doing the layout. The ASC also wants to acknowledge the assistance of staff at the archives of the Netherlands Ministry of Foreign Affairs, IISG (International Institute of Social History), KIT (Royal Tropical Institute), PSO Capacity Building in Developing Countries and KDC (Catholic Documentation Centre). Though many people have supported the project, the ASC carries full responsibility for this publication and the authors alone are to blame for any mistakes. Leo de Haan Director African Studies Centre October 2009 vii Photo 1.1 SNV logo, Lusaka, Zambia, 1968. Source: SNV photo archives, Blue, Zambia, SNVers. Photographer: Unknown. viii 1 Introduction Stating the case Within Third World Studies in general, and African Studies in particular, cul- tural encounters have always been pivotal in research. Over the years we have learnt a great deal about the interaction between colonisers and missionaries on the one hand, and those colonised and (possibly) converted on the other. In African Studies, there are debates on colonial stereotypes about ‘Africa’ and ‘Africans’, colonial violence and African resistance to colonialism. The history of missionary societies has likewise received ample attention. The missionaries’ relationship with the colonial state, their influence in areas of religion, medicine and education, their reaction to local beliefs and practices, and local interaction with the missions have been the subject of many historical and anthropological interpretations.1 The situation is very different in Development Studies. The history of the ‘Development Era’, as it has been called, dates back to the 1940s, with some development organisations having been in existence for over fifty years. Yet few studies to date have been devoted to the history of development. The advantages and disadvantages of ‘development’ have been intensively debated but little is known about the history of development practices and the changing ways in which development institutions have operated over time. If there is any mention of the past at all, it is usually limited to statistics and comments about its bureaucratic, formal history. Interpretations that view the history of devel- opment in terms of a cultural encounter are few and far between. 1 For an overview, see Frederick Cooper, ‘Conflict and connection: Rethinking co- lonial African history’, American Historical Review 99, (l5): 1516-1545; Henry Bredekamp & Robert Ross, eds, Mission and Christianity in South African History (Johannesburg, 1995). 2 CHAPTER 1 SNV Netherlands Development Organisation, a Dutch development organi- sation that started its activities in the 1960s, is no exception to this general rule but this study hopes to offer an interpretation of its history. The aim is to pre- sent SNV’s history through the eyes of those involved in the organisation and the people in the communities in which SNV has been active. SNV The Stichting Nederlandse Vrijwilligers (SNV) was formally founded on 16 July 1965. The first groups of volunteers had left two years earlier for Camer- oon and Brazil under the name JVP and in 1965 the state-led JVP and the JVC, an initiative organised by various private Dutch organisations, formally joined forces to form SNV. Since its inception, SNV has been striving to reach its main aim of contributing meaningfully to the economic and social development of societies in the developing world. Initially SNV sought to do this by dispatching young, single volunteers to work on practical projects. Later, the focus changed to sending out technical experts and professionals, and in recent years SNV has been transformed into a professional advisory organisation. Since the 1990s, the number of staff from the developing countries themselves that are working for the organisation has increased rapidly and relations between SNV and its partners in the Third World have changed considerably. Initially, the idea was to integrate local people into projects that had been designed in The Netherlands but, at a later stage, the wishes and ideals of local partners became ever more important. Within the Netherlands, major changes have taken place in relations between SNV and the state and, having initially been set up as part of the Netherlands Ministry of Foreign Affairs, SNV is now an independent NGO. These changes are related to both external and internal factors. The devel- opment concept itself has been radically revised since the 1960s. International relations, world politics and ideas about what development work should entail are now so different from what they were forty years ago that all development organisations have, in one way or another, felt the impact of these changes. Furthermore, the course of Dutch development policies has altered in many ways over the years.