GUIDELINES FOR INTERNATIONAL DEVELOPMENT PROJECTS AND SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT IN TIBET

I. OVERVIEW Violence These guidelines are addressed to donors, lenders and Environmental destruction investors who are working in Tibet or might consider becoming involved in Tibet in the future. Whether the Social exclusion and economic motive for working in Tibetan areas is to make grants, marginalisation of Tibetans lend capital or invest in commercially profitable Direct or indirect population transfer of non- enterprises, all international interventions come under the Tibetans to Tibet scope of these guidelines. Violations of basic human rights, including The guidelines articulate the needs of the Tibetan involuntary displacement, confinement and people for a future in which they can maintain their culture and spiritual traditions; fulfil basic human needs These guidelines apply equally to development with access to services that facilitate a healthy and projects in Tibetan communities in India, contented human life; and actively participate in the wider where they can be, and are, put into practice. world. These guidelines are intended to ensure that They are already a basis for practical action investing agencies and corporations do not further harm the interests of Tibetans and can empower them. These guidelines apply to the whole of Tibet, which can be taken geographically as the entire plateau area, or The current resumption of direct contact between the administratively as all townships, counties, prefectures and representatives of His Holiness the Dalai Lama and the regions designated by the PRC as belonging to the Tibetan People’s Republic of China (PRC) is encouraging, and it nationality. is hoped that this will lead to negotiations in order to resolve the question of Tibet in the best interests of the II. RATIONALE Tibetans and Chinese. In the meantime, the Central Tibetan Administration believes that it is vitally important Based on all available facts, including the official for development agencies, NGOs and corporations that Chinese statistics, UNDP, Asian Development Bank and intend to become involved in Tibet to understand how World Bank reports, findings of non-governmental their activities may bring benefit or harm to Tibetans in organisations working inside Tibet, Chinese economists today’s complex situation. The purpose of these guidelines and other researchers, it is evident that there is an acute is to ensure informed decision-making. need for a shift in the basic approach towards the development of Tibet. Beijing’s approach has led to chronic Development in Tibet is welcome and much-needed; dependence on subsidies, referred to as “blood transfusion and Tibet should not be off-limits or beyond the reach of economy” by some Chinese economists. Its focus on the global community of development and environment urbanisation and infrastructure, plus skills transfer organisations. However, development is only productive through settling the Tibetan Plateau with skilled if it benefits Tibetans themselves. Projects will be opposed immigrant personnel, has not really helped to improve by Tibetans if, in their opinion, such undertakings would the life of the majority of Tibetans but has increased their harm Tibetans, their land or their best interests. We firmly marginalisation. Nor has there been a transfer of skills to oppose any development projects or activities that promote Tibetans; Tibet still continues to rely on outside aid – or result in: both capital and labour.

238 Tibet: A Human Development and Environment Report In the words of a development professional who has and towns. This unique pattern of extensive land use worked in the Tibetan region for the past two decades: should become the basis for all development work, strengthening the existing knowledge base of social capital Tibet’s rapid employment and income growth has been that has been accumulated by Tibetans over many primarily in the modern urban sector, and has been driven centuries of sustainable land use. by a dynamic, even cut throat private sector in which Han and Hui Muslim populations have been dominant. It is time for a new approach that is based directly on This urban-oriented growth has contributed to rapidly human needs. The human needs approach is direct, increasing income disparity between urban and rural areas, observable, locally-based and not reliant on mammoth and between Han and Tibetan populations (Arthur investment, grandiose visions or ideological convictions. Holcombe, Testimony to the US Congressional-Executive Furthermore, this approach is sensitive to actual Commission on China, 10 June 2002). circumstances and has its roots in reality. It is driven by We propose the replacement of the single development community needs and expectations, offering maximum framework of the past 50 years, which has relied on the participation at all stages of development project work. industrialisation of Tibet to create general economic Development agencies have the opportunity to play a growth. positive and proactive role in facilitating the Tibetans’ Half a century of imposed industrialisation and move towards a decent human life. By fostering local urbanisation has not been an effective solution to all the Tibetan initiatives and enterprises, international agencies human needs in Tibet. The assumption that can help Tibetan communities to become more self-reliant industrialisation generates economic growth and benefits and better able to finance their own growth, as well as everyone, including the poor and excluded, has proven build their own schools and health clinics. In this way, factually wrong. Even where this policy has worked in the implementation of these guidelines would empower mainland China, it has failed in Tibet. Senior Chinese Tibetan people locally, and contribute on a local level to economists now frankly acknowledge this. Present realities the overall goal of achieving genuine autonomy. in Tibet – inequality, marginalisation, deprivation, exclusion and low human development – cannot be III. FUTURE TIBET – A VISION blamed on the Tibetans themselves, as if they are As neighbours, the Tibetan and Chinese peoples have inherently ignorant and backward. interacted, traded and influenced each other for centuries. More than five decades of attempted industrialisation Relations were sometimes good, sometimes conflictual. has made materialism an end in itself. His Holiness the Good relations between the two peoples are necessary and Dalai Lama has pointed out the limitations of this can be mutually beneficial. In reality, for the major part approach: of our long history we have been mutually supportive. In It has been my firm belief that in order to solve human the future also, if they achieve genuine self-rule or problems in all their dimensions we must be able to autonomy, the Tibetans will nurture cordial relations with combine and harmonise external material progress with the Chinese so that the two peoples can co-exist in a spirit inner mental development. Material progress is certainly of mutual support and fraternity. This is the vision of His highly necessary and is a good thing, as it is of benefit to Holiness the XIVth Dalai Lama’s Middle Way policy – a mankind. I see nothing wrong with material progress very humane concept that transcends political provided man takes precedence over progress. Man must considerations. be placed above materialism, and we must realise the true In the Five Point Peace Plan, His Holiness has proposed value of human beings. Materialism should serve man Tibet as a Zone of Ahimsa (a Hindi term meaning peace and not man serve material progress (14th Dalai Lama, Spirit of Tibet: Vision for Human Liberation, p123). and non-violence), where the entire Tibetan Plateau would be demilitarised and transformed into the world’s largest The Tibetan Plateau is a huge land mass, equivalent in natural park or biosphere. His Holiness has stressed the area to Western . A single, top-down strategy adoption of a policy of sustainable development whereby allocated by central planners can never substitute the natural resources would be directed towards the active intimate knowledge that Tibetans have of their land and promotion of peace and environmental protection. how to render it habitable in sustainable and productive Organisations dedicated to the furtherance of peace and ways. Tibetans traditionally made use of the entire plateau, the protection of all forms of life would find a hospitable even the most arid regions, not just clinging to river valleys home in Tibet.

Guidelines 239 The following two quotes by His Holiness would sum Plateau and coexistence with all nature. His Holiness the up the broad vision for a Future Tibet: Dalai Lama’s statement on universal responsibility is a fundamental principle that underlies the guidelines. Today, more than ever before, life must be characterised by a sense of universal responsibility, not only nation to There are two types of happiness and suffering, mental nation and human to human, but also human to other and physical, and of the two, I believe that mental suffering forms of life. and happiness are the more acute. Hence, I stress the ...The success or failure of humanity in the future training of the mind to endure suffering and attain a depends primarily upon the will and determination of more lasting state of happiness. However, I also have a the present generation. If we ourselves do not utilise our more concrete idea of happiness: a combination of inner faculties of will and human intelligence, no one else can peace, economic development, and, above all, world peace. guarantee our future and that of the next generation... To achieve such goals I feel it is necessary to develop a sense of universal responsibility, a deep concern for all, Hence, we believe in the vision of Tibet as: irrespective of creed, colour, sex or nationality (14th Dalai A zone of peace, based on the principles of non violence, Lama, Spirit of Tibet: Universal Heritage, p259). compassion and protection of the natural environment, A. Non-violence deriving its inspiration from the Buddhist principles of compassion, justice and equality, where Tibetans, By ‘an act of violence’, we mean offending any living especially those living in Tibet, bear the main responsibility being, including oneself, directly or indirectly, due to in shaping Tibet’s future. Future Tibet will strive for hatred, greed or ignorance. No form of violence is justified balance and harmony-both a balance between human for any purpose whether in defence of nation, institutions, and human, and between human and the environment- belief or self. Non-violence is the essential means of realising the fact that everything is interconnected. This understanding truth. It is not a passive state of vision incorporates an attitude of sharing, harmony and harmlessness, cowardice or absence of violence but rather co-operation between the people, instead of competition an active restraint of violence and an expression of love, (HH Dalai Lama). wisdom and compassion, of doing good even to the enemy In regard to development in Future Tibet, we would or evil doer, where inculcation of compassion is key to avoid the two extremes of capitalism and socialism. Since non-violent actions. both systems are equally unsuitable for the well-being of To Tibetans, non-violence is the basic tenet to be human society in general, and for the betterment of practised in all its forms in order to promote peace and Tibetan society in particular, Tibet will formulate a unique harmony within and without. Tibetan culture has an economic system to suit its own needs. Although there is especially positive role to play in determining the future no appropriate existing model of an economic system development of Tibet. Age-old local knowledge and skills which could be adopted by Tibet in the future, the nearest existing model is the “Gross National Happiness” concept provide a formidable foundation for rural development. already in practice in Bhutan. B. Environmental safeguards Impermanence and the innate worthlessness of wealth It is a moral requirement and a practical necessity for – the fact that wealth and material progress are for the us to re-learn how to live sustainably as a part of nature, people and not vice-versa – coupled with “needs” being rather than acting as consumers and destroyers of nature. distinguished from “wants”, will form the central point Materialism does not have self-limits, and natural resources of the future economy of Tibet. Hence, Tibet’s future are finite. The tolerance margins or limits of nature must economic system will be based on the values that are therefore be respected and conserved at all costs, with at outlined in the following section, which presents the least the same vigilance that we would use to guard our underlying principles of the guidelines. own personal resources. In that sense, this principle is based on frugality rather than efficiency, as it not only IV. UNDERLYING PRINCIPLES induces efficiency but also highlights the limits of the These Guidelines for Development Inside Tibet are efficiency policy. In the past 50 years, growth-oriented based on the following principles and values, which are development activities have exposed the environment to grounded in a worldview that has been developed in Tibet unnatural degradation which has impacted all forms of over the thousands of years of human use of the Tibetan life on the plateau. This principle also insists on

240 Tibet: A Human Development and Environment Report harmonious co-existence with nature, in which we hu- people, empowerment of the grassroots level populace mans play a healthy and supportive role in restoring im- through genuine participation is essential. Participatory balances. development would naturally safeguard the needs of the local people. Any forms of activity that are environmentally unsafe or have the potential to harm the biosphere are not to Given the present circumstances, we do understand be encouraged under any programmes. Rather, projects that it is difficult to undertake needs assessments and should help to restore the degraded environment, so impact studies with the open and honest involvement that it gets as close to its original pristine condition as of the local Tibetans. So, when designing projects, it is possible. In doing so, we can ensure that the future will crucial that the development agencies find skilful and be as healthy as possible in terms of access to Tibet’s nat- innovative ways to assess the needs and involve the local ural capital and the benefits we can accrue from it. populace, and at the same time avoid the clear danger of putting people at risk of admonishment by the local C. Sustainability authorities. The institutionalisation of procedures and The principle of sustainability is a vehicle for asserting democratic governance at the grassroots level are both our deep concern over the encroaching consumerist be- essential steps toward genuine self-governance. haviour of our lives, which we will not be able to sustain V. CROSSCUTTING PRINCIPLES in the future. On the contrary, we are aware that we must contribute towards the conservation of finite resources All development projects in Tibet should incorporate so that future generations may also have equal access to the following crosscutting guidelines: these valuable assets. For this to be realised, it is impera- a. Involve Tibetan stakeholders from the identifica- tive that the concurrent developmental activities are sus- tion of a project to formulation through the im- tainable. Therefore, the principle of sustainability takes plementation cycle, by applying participatory tools both long-term intergenerational justice and short-term and techniques such as participatory assessment activity levels into consideration. (PRA) to ensure accountability and . The current consumerist trend increases our depend- b. Prioritize small-scale developments that suit the ence on external factors over which we have very little region and populace rather than capital-inten- control. In practice, we would like to see development sive developments. Larger operations must adopt that draws largely on Tibetan resources and knowledge measures to ensure sustainability and prevent be- to fulfil the basic needs of the people to live a contented ing a drain on the limited resources of the Tibetan life. Only development of this nature can be sustainable plateau. and long-lasting. Hence, at the macro level, the princi- ple of sustainability calls for frugality in the use of the c. Foster self-reliance, and build local project man- nation’s natural resources. This frugality must sustain agement teams centred on community based or- the nondeclining utility of the biophysical ecosystem for ganisations (CBOs), through local capacity build- generations to come, as we may need to rely on the re- ing. newable part of the resources in the future. d. Conduct feasibility studies, risk management, and The principal criterion for measuring the sustainability environmental impact assessments to indentify of any project is its ability to benefit the impoverished ways in which in Tibetans stakeholders will benefit and marginalised sections of society (poverty factor). In from the presence of your establishment doing so, it should also take into account the benefits and participation of the majority in its design (scale factor). e. Rely on traditional local knowledge and wisdom, In order to have real benefit from and ownership of the including resource management and survival projects, it is important that they are simple and man- techniques. ageable at the grassroots level. The project design should f. Respect and promote the Tibetans’ culture, tra- therefore be based on local and traditional knowledge ditions, knowledge and wisdom about their own (appropriate technology factor). landscape and risk management. D. Participatory and needs-based development g. Be subject to ongoing on-site monitoring by a The usurpation and co-option of public powers by third-party, independent agency to ensure that the groups or individuals inevitably becomes the self-devel- intended stakeholders benefit, and that benefits opment of vested interests, rather than addressing the and opportunities are not usurped by non-Tibetan true interests of the people. To ensure that development stakeholders. projects are sensitive and accountable to the needs of the

Guidelines 241 h. Use Tibetan as the working language of the segment of the population, rather than relying project. on general growth in the hope of also lifting i. Neither provide incentives nor in any way the incomes and opportunities of the poor. facilitate direct or indirect migration and 4. Social capital, traditional knowledge, settlement of non-Tibetans in Tibetan regions. customary practices of sustainable organic j. Neither provide incentives nor help facilitate agriculture, and sustainable and productive the transfer of land and natural resources to rangeland management should all be studied, non-Tibetans. identified, acknowledged and incorporated into development project designs. These are These guidelines are, by their nature, a checklist to examples of traditional Tibetan solutions to enable development agencies to test the suitability of their utilising the plateau productively that can serve plans for working in Tibetan communities on Tibetan as the basis for development work. territory. But checklists also compartmentalise the issues 5. Projects based on the exploitation of Tibetan into neat categories; the reality may involve an resources for the benefit of distant, heavy interdependence of many factors. The Tibetan worldview industry cannot be realistically presented as and modern synthesis of appropriate development practices encourages a respectful, thoughtful approach to poverty alleviation for Tibetans, or development that embraces many factors, rather than a environmental remediation, even if such narrow, technical compliance with shallow and literal projects generate local employment and invest considerations. in repairing damage caused by the project in minor ways. VI. PRIORITIES B. Stimulating rural economy A. Poverty alleviation and off-farm employment 1. Poverty alleviation is a top priority in Tibet. 1. Tibetan carpets, handicrafts, traditional Any project addressing this must look at the medicines and other Tibetan products – apart multi-dimensional nature of poverty – from having considerable demand worldwide including health, education status, and forms – have great potential for redressing current of exclusion by gender and ethnicity – as well inequalities, because they are largely rural- as monetary indicators. Vulnerable groups based. To realise this potential, the traditional include those stricken by poverty due to products need to be enhanced by transferring gender, age, geographic isolation, exclusion and modern skills in design, packaging, protection disability. They might need specific of intellectual , marketing and interventions, particularly in the form of direct financing to the Tibetans. This requires transfers based on a policy of guaranteed considerable investment in training. minimum income support. 2. A real opportunity for redressing the urban- 2. On the whole, poverty alleviation projects rural divide is to promote the processing of should shift away from charity and emergency raw, rural by the producers relief, and move towards the entitlement to themselves, thereby adding value and income support for the destitute and increasing their profits. This may involve absolutely poor. In order that guaranteed training farmers and nomads in technologies income support does not lead to chronic that are compatible with their way of life, and dependence, it should be limited to the in the establishment and operation of co- destitute. Development agencies can operatives, micro-finance pooling, and implement pilot projects to demonstrate the planning and operating enterprises. feasibility of this approach. 3. In the long-term, it may be productive to 3. Development projects should benefit the identify the comparative advantages that Tibet poorest, most deprived and excluded citizens has in producing goods that can find distant who,in Tibet, are overwhelmingly rural. and highly profitable markets. Comparative Projects should directly identify and reach this advantage has potential in the longer term to

242 Tibet: A Human Development and Environment Report create national and international markets for schools; reduced marketing costs; lower costs what Tibet does best, especially in the non- in obtaining agricultural inputs; easier violent production of wool and dairy products. transport of heavy materials; and facilitated Yoghurt, cheese and wool are in high demand installation of valuable infrastructure, such as among urban consumers in China’s major grid electricity and telephone lines. cities. It may be that products made in Tibet 6. Decisions on infrastructure projects should can find a market in the cities, but if Tibetans include active inputs from the local Tibetans are to benefit, great care will be needed to train themselves. The poor tend to have least say in producers in quality control, certification, any decisions about the type or location of supply chain logistics, marketing and business infrastructure. However, they are usually the planning. best placed to know what project would be of greatest immediate benefit. Through C. Rural infrastructure involvement in decision-making, and a sense 1. Infrastructure development must incorporate of local ownership, they will be keener to appropriate technologies based on local needs. contribute labour and local materials to the project, and more likely to maintain it in the 2. Priority areas of infrastructure development in future. rural Tibet include local market access roads, clean domestic water supply, irrigation, D. Agriculture and natural resources electricity and communication. 1. Agricultural projects should consider not only 3. Infrastructure development should promote the intended outcomes, such as intensification food security, including land improvement of production and higher yields, but also long- projects to enhance food production (such as term soil quality, erosion control, downstream terracing, shelterbelt tree planting, irrigation discharge of pollutants released by applying canals and grain storage facilities) and access chemical fertilisers, and opportunities for to markets. integrated pest management based on time- 4. Rural infrastructure projects need to be small tested Tibetan organic farming methods. in scale and low in cost, using paid local labour 2. Grassland projects should not focus narrowly and simple technologies that facilitate easy on a single development aspect, such as repair and maintenance; for example, wells and increasing production, invasive pest control, rain storage tanks, small reservoirs or cisterns, or introduction of exotic grasses. Projects on terracing and drainage works. Reaching the the rangelands should adopt a more holistic rural population through small-scale projects approach in line with the New Resource is the priority, and such projects, based on Management Policy embraced by most diverting water from mountain streams or development agencies, in which nomadic pumping it from underground sources, can be mobility, under current circumstances, has the linked to individual households at a low cost best long-term guarantee of biodiversity per household. The development projects conservation, sustainability and productivity. should also be sensitive to the seasonal nature 3. We do not encourage the sedentarisation of of farmwork in order to determine when labour nomads, since it results in further rangeland contributions should be asked of rural people. degradation, overstocking, inflexibility and 5. Lower grade feeder roads to villages can quickly poverty among the former nomads. create significant income improvements for International development agencies have an farmers. This overcomes the present reliance opportunity to transfer the lessons that have of producers on middlemen who dictate the been learned worldwide from the many failed price for products. Village access roads are sedentarisation projects of earlier years, and to generally low-cost, narrow gravel roads that are explain the danger of damaging the viability connected to main roads. They are inexpensive of nomadic production through sidelining land to install and often have multiple benefits: and water sources for irrigation, farming and increased access to markets, health centres and industrial uses.

Guidelines 243 4. Projects should adopt technologies that projects should take special measures to ensure strengthen mobility, such as portable solar that the displaced Tibetans are not denied their power. These are preferable to technologies that basic right to a decent and sustainable require settling year-round in one place, such livelihood. These projects should ensure that as being connected to an electricity power grid. Tibetan farmers and herders who are displaced 5. Setting aside large areas as nature reserves can from their land get adequate and timely benefit Tibetans if there training is offered training, compensation and support, and among local communities in skills such as effective ownership of renewed grasslands and becoming park rangers, tour guides, forest. Only then can they recover their biodiversity protectors and enforcers of anti- forfeited income, and become willing and regulations. The establishment of active partners in the restoration of the protected areas not only conserves biodiversity degraded Tibetan lands. and guarantees downstream water purity, it can E. Micro-financing also contribute directly to development, employment and human capital formation in Micro-finance has been conspicuously absent from the protected area. UNESCO is encouraged Tibet, despite its many successes internationally. Those to investigate suitable areas to be declared as who have helped the Tibetans to access micro-finance, World Heritage Sites or Biosphere Reserves. such as the Tibet Poverty Alleviation Fund, use faults in existing Chinese policies as their starting point: 6. New hybrid seeds of Tibetan crops and breeds for herds can be introduced through effective [These policies]... have made it more difficult for agricultural extensions in which farmers and traditional Tibetan urban enterprises to compete with pastoralists are treated as the equal partners of better funded, more experienced and lower cost Han scientists and officials. The higher yields from managed enterprises in urban areas. There is growing new seeds and breeds should not require higher evidence of Han enterprises, which now constitute about inputs of capital, fuel, pesticides or chemical 70 per cent of all enterprises in Lhasa Municipality, fertilisers. squeezing out Tibetan enterprises even in traditional Tibetan product areas such as Tibetan clothing, furniture, 7. Beijing’s reforestation, mountain closure, and painting, restaurants and dry goods and food retailing grain-to-green programmes, which aim to (Arthur Holcombe, Testimony to US Congressional- restore marginal farmland to grassland and Executive Commission on China, 10 June 2002). forest, must try to benefit local Tibetan communities – this can be achieved through Experience around the world shows that micro-finance employment and involvement in the care of succeeds in directly providing poor households with seedlings, sowing of appropriate grasses and affordable credit, thereby encouraging their self- repair of degraded rangeland. Social forestry organisation. Micro-finance has become a widely favoured and local ownership of projects are better method of poverty reduction, both with governments and models than exclusion, exclosure and subsidies among donor organisations. that are directed only to state enterprises, 1. Micro-finance projects should encourage the which are staffed by immigrants who were once direct participation of the poor, both in responsible for felling the same forests. The allowing recipients of loans to choose their own successful rehabilitation of degraded grassland investments and in encouraging them to form and reforestation will fulfil the PRC’s national their own village-level organisations. goal of safeguarding the water supply, as well as the global challenge of greenhouse gases by 2. An integrated approach is needed that acting as a sink for those emissions. This will combines access to credit with the provision require considerable training and skills transfer. of additional services and training, including marketing advice and technical support for 8. Even though we oppose any projects that production activities. displace or move Tibetan farmers and nomads, in extreme cases, where viability of life is not 3. The micro-finance system should be a tool for possible and Tibetans voluntarily accept the poor to gain control over assets and become moving out of ecologically sensitive zones, the economically self-sufficient. Micro-finance

244 Tibet: A Human Development and Environment Report lenders need not subsidise interest rates. The 3. Culturally appropriate education is a high willingness of lenders to spend as well as lend priority. This requires considerable investment is better directed at subsidising the in teacher training, curriculum reform, administrative costs. The very poorest should textbook writing, bilingual education be designated credit-worthy and eligible for programmes, repair of decrepit physical loans. In the present Catch 22 situation, they infrastructure, and adequate salaries for the do not own their land under Chinese law and continued employment of teachers. Since the consequently the Chinese banks will not lend responsibility to finance local schools has been them money, because they technically lack downshifted to local communities, collateral as a guarantee for repayment of loans. development projects that effectively reduce 4. In delivering micro-finance services, the illiteracy and improve retention rates can have involvement of organisations of poor people, a high level of local community involvement. such as farmers’ associations, rural Tibetan children not only need a curriculum or local self-help groups, either independently and medium of instruction that is culturally or in cooperation with formal financial appropriate to their actual needs and institutions, are the key to enhancing outreach, circumstances, but also to prepare themselves effectiveness and sustainability of micro-finance to successfully access the modern world. operations. This requires the active 4. On the rangelands, this means taking encouragement of traditional community- education to the children, rather than based organisations, which in turn will marshalling the children into centralised strengthen their voice and capacities. boarding schools. It might seem that this is ambitious, yet the example of Mongolia proves F. Education that it can be done. Mongolia and Tibet are According to PRC statistics, the average adult Tibetan alike, not only in their religion and culture, has had less than three years of schooling. The PRC’s but also in being vast, semi-arid lands that are spending on education in Tibet is very low – only 310 well suited to extensive nomadic pastoralism. yuan (US $37) per capita per year, including fees and The Mongolian education system delivers high contributions by parents – while per capita spending on levels of literacy to its widely scattered nomads. education in the municipality of Beijing is six times In a survey for the World Bank, which greater, at 1,810 yuan (US $219) (National Bureau of compiled lessons to be learned from nomadic Statistics, China Statistical Yearbook 2002, Table 20-35). education around the world, Saverio Kratli concluded that global experience insists on the 1. The development focus in education should importance of not separating support for ensure greater access, and the equalisation and education from support for pastoral livelihood distribution of resources across regions in order and economy. Development agencies who to compensate for present inequalities. To specialise in education or pastoral production address specific local circumstances and needs, should respect this linkage. including nomadism, more flexible forms of education should be explored. 5. In Tibet, development agencies involved in education must find innovative ways to tackle 2. The primary goal should be the practical the challenges of training and retaining elimination of rural illiteracy for the younger competent teachers to teach in mostly rural generation, with the achievement of this target areas. Relocation incentives and the possibility serving as the principal measure of for career advancement, based on performance effectiveness. An exceptional percentage of and long-term commitment, could be ways of Tibet’s population today is very young. Their attracting quality teachers to rural schools. education needs cannot be met by poor counties and communities alone, as is currently 6. Vocational training is a major necessity among the case. Responsibility for financing education adults and younger Tibetans if they are to has been downshifted to those least able to pay. access wider markets, opportunities, jobs and The need for external assistance is real and economic niches. The PRC’s Constitution urgent. (article 122) claims that: “The state helps the

Guidelines 245 national autonomous areas train large numbers attaining literacy in world languages. Curricula of cadres at various levels and specialised should also be expanded to include not only personnel and skilled workers of various the responsibilities of citizens, but also their professions and trades, from among the rights, now that the rule of law is strengthening minority nationality or nationalities in those across China. areas”. In practice, the PRC needs help in 11. Very few Tibetans are currently deemed eligible implementing this Constitutional clause. for international study programmes, on the 7. Adult vocational training should include not grounds that their Chinese or English is only production but also the distribution and inadequate. This greatly restricts their marketing of new products and services. This opportunities to learn from worldwide will ensure a maximum benefit to those who experience and discover best practices in a wide have missed out on an adequate education in range of disciplines. International education recent decades. A generation of Tibetans has programmes can help greatly by providing not reached adulthood without attaining literacy. only scholarships, but also a bridging-year or Vocational education is the best way forward foundation-year programme to bring the to help them adapt to a market economy. At Tibetans’ language skills up to tertiary standard. present, it is largely restricted to the laid-off 12. Tibetan language publishing, arts productions, workers of downsizing state enterprises. This cultural events, film and television need is too narrow a focus. subsidising in order to restore Tibetan idioms 8. Community-based and financed local schools to public life. At present, Tibetan writers and (minban in Chinese), currently under- artists struggle for lack of finance, distribution resourced and receiving little state support, can and support-to reach audiences keen to benefit greatly from international partnerships. encounter new Tibetan artistic output. This may make it possible to achieve the PRC’s International cultural development goal that all children shall receive nine years of organisations can do much to conserve the schooling. Schooling, wherever possible, threatened and deteriorating Tibetan should be available in a way that does not break architectural heritage. up families, and which respects the seasonal 13. Employment opportunities for Tibetans in cycle and need for all family members to modern secondary and tertiary sectors will contribute labour at peak times. Adopting increase with training programmes based on worldwide best practice models of successful identified needs. The employment of Tibetans, bilingual education will help to reduce the especially in cities, is at present limited to dropout rates, and enable a significant salaried government office work and unskilled proportion of Tibetans to enter senior middle work, such as labouring on construction sites. school and receive post-secondary training. The problem is not that Tibetans cannot be 9. The number of school places available for educated, but that, on graduation, there is no Tibetan children who complete year nine is career track available. Tibetans who have settled extremely limited. The shortage of senior elsewhere in the world have shown themselves middle schools is a major bottleneck thwarting capable of quickly learning modern skills, the advancement of Tibetans. International therefore capacity building programmes in partners can do much to raise the availability Tibet have excellent prospects of success. and appropriateness of upper secondary and 14. Scholarships and grants to enable Tibetan tertiary education for Tibetans, including the students to pursue technical and professional acquisition of functional literacy in a global studies, both in mainland China and abroad, language other than Mandarin Chinese. would help to increase the general pool of 10. Curriculum design should assist Beijing in talent and skills in the Tibetan region. implementing its policy that minority G. Skills and capacity development nationality students should receive education, at least in the primary years, in their mother 1. Development should maximise the transfer of tongue, in this case Tibetan, while also the required training, knowledge, skills and

246 Tibet: A Human Development and Environment Report technologies to Tibetan communities so that available ingredients, rather than relying on they can own, operate and maintain projects transnational pharmaceutical corporations to successfully, and adapt them to their own whom all users must pay royalties. A plateau- purposes. The transfer of non-Tibetan experts wide expansion of traditional Tibetan medical to live in Tibet and take charge of development college education could enable the delivery of projects should not be necessary, except for a decentralised healthcare system to remote short periods in exceptional circumstances. areas. The current health system is urban- biased. The widespread provision of emchis- 2. Tibetan communities can become effective traditional doctors would be an effective way partners of international organisations if the of ensuring that the scattered populace finally traditional community-based organisations gets access to healthcare. (CBOs) of Tibet are recognised and encouraged to articulate what the Tibetans need. There are 2. Prevention of disease has been much neglected now many NGOs in China, especially in the in Tibet, in favour of expensive “modern” cures. environment field. Tibetans need both Investment in health must focus on essential opportunity and encouragement to establish generic drugs and low-cost interventions. their own NGOs. An interim step is to help Examples include hepatitis B immunisation, the existing CBOs to attain official recognition. oral rehydration, immunisation of expectant This includes traditional herd management mothers, and the promotion of iodised salt, CBOs, such as the rukor “tent-circle” and the vitamin A and iron supplements. China’s clan-based tshowa. Community enterprises did, prevention system – known as epidemic and can in future, have positive roles in post- prevention stations – needs fresh finance and harvest crop buffer stock protection, seed bank revitalisation. genetic diversity maintenance, social welfare, 3. Malnutrition is currently common in Tibet, disaster relief and community banking. as is the stunting of child growth, according 3. Economically and ecologically, the Tibetan to international experts. Nutrition education, Plateau is a unit. The whole plateau could primary healthcare, and maternal and child benefit from projects which use the Tibetans’ health services are high priorities. The skills and comparative advantage. government should be encouraged to change the hospital subsidy to a scheme whereby the H. Health healthcare costs of the poor are directly subsidised. At present, the quickest way for a Tibetan to become destitute in Tibet is to fall ill. There is a desperate need 4. A supply of safe drinking water brings large- for affordable collective health insurance schemes that scale, immediate benefits that are directly include subsidies for the poorest of the poor, who at related to people’s health and productivity. A present are quite unable to meet the high user-pays lack of potable water is associated with charges of the current system. Leaving the financing of intestinal and many other illnesses, as well as health to the lowest levels of government, and to local with certain deformities or disabilities in areas communities and individual families, is sure to perpetuate where available water sources have high natural poverty. Health should be the responsibility of higher mineral toxicity. levels of government, as it was in China until 25 years 5. There is a crucial need for outside help in ago. A good start would be a state guarantee of free health researching and combating the diseases that for all who fall below the poverty line. Development are endemic or specific to certain locales of Tibet agencies have the opportunity to demonstrate, through – including Kashin-Beck Disease (otherwise pilot projects in specific areas, the feasibility of medical known as big bone disease), plague and insurance for the most impoverished communities. tuberculosis. 1. Traditional Tibetan medicine (sowa rigpa) is 6. An HIV/AIDS awareness and prevention widely trusted, especially by rural Tibetans. It programme needs to be initiated. Sexually has proved effective, with thousands of years transmitted diseases like HIV have become a of experience in the delivery of health services. increasing threat in Tibet since the arrival of It is cost-effective, making use of locally- the thriving sex industries in the towns and

Guidelines 247 cities – an impact of urbanisation and the Available statistics show that a remarkably high migration of a large, single-male population proportion of the Tibetan population is very young. from China. Despite the strong emphasis in these guidelines on 7. Delivery of health services should be restoring the viability of rural life, not all young adults decentralised as much as possible. This is a will be able to find sustainable livelihoods in rural areas. basic right, as well as a question of access and This is especially true of areas of serious rangeland equity. Decentralisation need not be expensive, degradation and sedentarisation, and where communities if sowa rigpa traditional Tibetan healing is have been restricted to fixed quotas of grazing land that promoted as an integral part of the total does not grow as the families grow. Therefore: healthcare system. 1. Vocational training in service sector industries 8. Sterilisation, birth control and contraception can help Tibetans overcome discrimination. programmes must pay special attention to Start-up capital and training in business informed consent and ensure that anyone who planning and management can help Tibetans undergoes such treatment does so voluntarily enter market niches, which are increasingly and in full knowledge of the consequences. monopolised by better-connected immigrants. Coercion, fines and social pressure should not A little positive discrimination could do much be permitted to force women into an to prevent unemployed Tibetan youths, unable irreversible loss of reproductive capacity. to make a living in the countryside, from drifting into social vices in towns and cities. 9. There is need for better supervision mechanisms for village and township 2. Reform of the restrictive household registration biomedicine health clinics in order to eliminate system (known in Chinese as hukou) could help the prescription of unnecessary and expensive to grant rural Tibetans legal status in towns, drugs. Better training and adequate and a chance to dispel discrimination. Such remuneration for health and social workers is status is readily available to non-Tibetan critical to achieving this. immigrants from distant provinces, which gives them immediate advantages over the I. Urban Tibet indigenous Tibetan population. Urban poverty is now growing rapidly in major Tibetan J. Tourism towns, due to the urbanisation of farmlands in and around former towns, the migration of rural poor to the urban We firmly oppose the current mass-packaged tourism areas and their consequent social exclusion – especially in industry in Tibet, which is controlled by a small number the labour market, where there is a lack of education and of state-owned enterprises. Tourism in Tibet today is skills. Further discrimination occurs because the rural largely based on the economic exploitation of Tibetan dwellers are not permitted to transfer their household culture – this largely excludes Tibetans, who are best able registration to urban areas, which makes their status semi- to explain and interpret their own culture, especially as legal, and thus vulnerable to exploitation. tour guides. Until now, urban slums have not developed in Tibet Tourism could be beneficial to Tibetan communities to the scale that is common in developing countries, but if the Tibetans are given a say in the running of the tourism such slums could soon occur if there is no concerted effort industry. Throughout these guidelines, there is an to make rural life more rewarding. emphasis on the appropriateness of positive discrimination towards the most deprived, neglected and excluded A primary cause of urban poverty is that employment ethnicities in Tibet. Such positive discrimination is opportunities for Tibetans are available only to a limited especially appropriate in tourism, because the destination number of salaried government employees, or to casual is Tibet itself and the product is Tibetan culture, which unskilled labourers. Tibetans face constant discrimination, only the Tibetan people are uniquely qualified to represent. as the non-Tibetans are systematically favoured by the Chinese administration. As Tibet becomes a market However, for those who want to get involved in eco- economy, such discrimination is sometimes excused, under tourism, adventure tours and pilgrimage tours in Tibet, current Chinese policies, as the natural workings of the we expect investors to encourage reform of the present market. This is not true – Tibetans are enterprising people. state-owned and controlled industry. Instead, new projects

248 Tibet: A Human Development and Environment Report must demonstrate much higher levels of client satisfaction possibility, it is practical to question what protections with smaller scale, locally-controlled operations that could improve the impact of such projects. enable visitors to fulfil their desire for genuine encounters with Tibetan people, land and culture. 1. Investors are well-placed to ensure that the International Labour Organisation guidelines To realise this potential, the tourism industry should are implemented, and that the Tibetans who be structured to create tour circuits that are designed to are employed in joint ventures receive adequate promote eco-tourism, adventure tourism and pilgrimage training in modern skills. Partners can establish tourism in a sustainable manner by respecting the local standards that include compensation, resource culture, tradition and landscape. Tourism in Tibet can rental and royalties for local communities employ Tibetans not merely as cooks, room attendants, whose land or resources are taken over for drivers and waiters, as at present. The potential for local project construction. Where local communities involvement is great if Tibetan culture, landscapes and are displaced by development and forced to sacred sites are recognised as being the core of what attracts resettle, international partners have a special the visitors in the first place. Tibetans are uniquely able responsibility to ensure that adequate land, of to interpret and present Tibet, not as a superficial, exotic sufficient quality, is provided to ensure that spectacle, but as a rich, cultural encounter that meets the the resettlers are not made destitute. desire that visitors have for a unique and authentic 2. International investors have a special experience. responsibility to introduce standards of community participation, environmental K. Investment in commercial projects and impact assessment and gender impact current infrastructure assessment. They must also ensure that an These guidelines express Tibetan values by opposing adequate cultural diversity of employment unsustainable large-scale infrastructure and industrial opportunities is generated by major projects. projects. This section of the guidelines should not be taken This can set new standards for centrally as providing exceptions to this approach. In a region which planned state projects. Such partnerships successfully maintained sustainability by low population provide an opportunity to introduce minimum densities and extensive land use for centuries, all current standards of gender and ethnicity employment large-scale projects threaten this sustainability by in such ventures. concentrating capital, technology and population in a small area, while other areas remain deprived. This L. Introducing worldwide best practices to the inevitably results in widening inequality. PRC We oppose large-scale projects that are concentrated Donors, lenders and investors can all contribute to in small areas since they are not appropriate for Tibet. policy formulation. The PRC wants to learn from the best Large hydro dams, railways, highways, cities, mines, oil practice standards used around the world. The and gas pipelines, and heavy manufacturing industries international community brings to Tibet not only capital, are not what Tibet needs, under the current circumstances. but also much expertise that has been accumulated from Such projects transfer outputs of Tibetan resources to practical experiences of development around the world. distant consumers. Tibet gains little revenue, while the Aspects of state policy that could benefit from the local Tibetans, even those forcibly displaced by collective wisdom and experience of international partners development, are not compensated, paid royalties or include: trained in the modern skills suited to such projects. Defining a coherent population policy for the Instead, immigrant flood in. It is hard to see how whole of the Tibetan Plateau and such projects, which usually originate in the Five-Year implementing Article 43 of the Law of the Plans of Beijing’s central officials, can benefit Tibetans by People’s Republic of China on Regional being financed internationally. Such projects only worsen Autonomy, which gives autonomous areas the existing inequalities and rob the land of its natural right to control the transient population resources. Promoting the environmental economic The following guidelines apply to a situation in which inclusion of free public commodities – such as the central authorities persist in devising major projects, the clean and abundant water and air of Tibet some of them involving international partners. Given this – to downstream and lowland users

Guidelines 249 Promoting linkages between the upland poor comparative advantage – especially if linkages and the downstream concentrations of wealthy were created to other regions where there is a urban users, in order to raise awareness of the demand for what Tibet is best able to produce. dependence of the rich on the natural resources supplied to them by rural Tibet VII. POSTSCRIPT Improving agricultural extension services so Ideally, all development in Tibet should ensure that: that farmers and pastoralists can become equal NOT a single person remains hungry on the partners with scientists and laboratory soil of Tibet technicians in a joint community-owned effort to increase productivity NOT a single person lacks the basic human needs of medicine, clothing and shelter Encouraging relevant provincial and regional Peoples’ Congresses to promote training and NOT a single school-age child is denied the employment opportunities for Tibetans, and opportunity of attending school. to restrict the entry of floating unemployed We do not support any development that comes at immigrants to Tibet – as enforced in the Hong the cost of: Kong Special Autonomous Region – unless the immigrants have specific skills that match an Loss of inner consciousness or soul identified need and are willing to transfer those skills to the local communities Destruction of the environment Encouraging central planners to build on what Consumption and use of resources that will already exists, using the pre-existing base of a deprive future generations of Tibetans. subsistence economy that could benefit from

250 Tibet: A Human Development and Environment Report