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Working in the developing world can be a nightmare, given the relative preponderance of human rights violations and political repression. For the staff of the Harvard Institute for International Development (HIID), the ethical aspects of their overseas projects constitute, in the words of executive director Michael Roemer, "an almost daily concern."
HIID, established in 1974 as Harvard's center of service, research and teaching related to the Third World, is currently undertaking nearly a dozen projects abroad. The Institute provides technical assistance and training in a wide variety of areas such as urban planning, monetary policy, public enterprise and health care.
Typically, HIID takes on a project, funded by the government of a developing country, at the request of that government Otherwise, the Institute bids its services against those of other development consultants, in which case organizations like the World Bank or the Agency for International Development (AID) support the endeavor.
According to director Dwight H. Perkins, staff members first consider whether the project itself will contribute to the welfare of the host nation's people. Then they look at the "moral" landscape of the country.
"Obviously, if we turned down countries that are not democracies in the Westen sense, we would eliminate about 90 percent of the developing world," says Perkins. "You have to take a realistic viewpoint."
Perkins is quick to assert that HIID would never consider a project in a country with a record of "extreme human rights violations." He cites the Central African Republic under Emperor Jean-Bedel Bokassa as an example of such an extreme case. Crowned in a garrish ceremony attended by many world leaders in the mid-70s, Bokassa was forced to abdicate his throne because of widespread accusations that he had personally murdered, and later eaten, dozens of schoolchildren.
In fact, Perkins says most of HIID's efforts would be tutile in a climate of repression. It the people the Institute works with are disenchanted, be reasons, little can be accomplished.
But both Perkins and Roemer stress that working in the Third World is a subtle exercise. "Anything you do in less-developed countries to promote the weltere of the people might be done at the same time a government is repressing its people in other spheres says Roemer.
Roemer cites the hypothetical example of a country that wants to redistribute its wealth Such a policy, he says requires a firm hand--and one that might be considered out and out repressive because the rich would oppose it.
More specifically. Roemer cites Korea and Hong Kong as two countries that have accomplished considerable economic growth but violate certain human rights.
HIID has faced this type of dilemma in the past and will inevitably encounter it again. In the early 1970s for example, the Institute" as asked by the Korean Development Institute (KDI) to work on a project that amounted to giving policy advice to the government Korea has had considerable success in promoting both absolute and relative growth, Roemer says. This in turn has led to increased investment and lower unemployment. But there is no political pluralism to speak of in Korea: most opposition leaders are in jail.
"We turned them down because the government was thought to be particularly repressive," says former HIID director Lester E. Gordon Instead, "we worked on a history of Korean development with KDI. That way we never gave direct advice to the government."
Several other examples of projects HIID either refused to undertake or cancelled because of ethical considerations exist.
In 1965, the Development Advisory Service (DAS), which HIID built on and incorporated when it was established in 1974, withdrew from Argentina following a military coup. The following year, similar events forced DAS out of Greece.
During the early '70s, the Institute was involved with urban planning in Iran The HIID staff considered the project acceptable because it did not involve "larger questions of national policy says Gordon Nevertheless.
Currently HIID is working in Indonesia a country that has been accused of human right excesses in recent years. The problem in Indonesia centers around the island province of East Timor a former Portuguese colony granted independence in 1976. Since that time the Indonesian government has tried to integrate East Timor but has met with Strong resistance.
In 1979, the Island suffered a famine because thousands of its inhabitants disrupted food production when they fled their homes during fighting A year later, the Indonesian government banned food and medical assistance from abroad to the East Timorans.
According to Amnesty International and press reports, as many as 300,000 East Timorans were killed between 1976 and 1979 as a result of fighting, disease and starvation.
HIID's project in Indonesia deals primarily with fiscal reform. The Institute involved in developing a computerized system for as and budget administration and training Indonesians take over that system once it is operational in a few years.
Perkins asserts that the problem in East Timor has no direct bearing on HIID's project or vice versa. If anything he adds. "We are doing quite a bit of good there."
And Gordon believes Indonesia is a perfect ample of a pluralistic government where "really positive developments can go along with the bad." It would be very difficult, says Gordon, "to show in any way that HIID contributes to the repression in East Timor"
The debate, then, is one in which people of good will differ about the means At HIID, the prevailing theory seems to be that if a regime is doing some good for a large segment of the population that otherwise would not be helped, it makes sense for the Institute to undertake a project.
One former State Department official who praises HIID's efforts in the Third World calls the Institute's philosophy "the only practical way to help promote change for the better."
The officials adds. "Under President Carter many of the government development plans were frozen because of an over-preoccupation with human rights. Now with Reagan there is a move away from both human rights considerations and development plans in general. You need a middle ground which it seems to me HIID represents."
While DAS was criticized by some for having an ideological bias. HIID receives almost unanimous praise for the reported trust it has earned in the developing world.
According to the same official, the Institute is widely regarded by developing countries as an impartial organization seeking only to improve the lot of the host country. "Unlike the World Bank or AID, HIID is seen as an honest broker," the official says.
"Above all," states Perkins, "We work for the country and not to impose outside views Our aim is to train people, not perpetuate ourselves or our thinking."
Pragmatism, then, seems to underlie HIID's projects. At one time or another, there are human eights violations in most countries, particularly in the Third World HIID says Perkins, must work within the system of its host country to be effective. It that system becomes inconsistent with the Institute's vales, the project is terminated.
But HIID allows for a fairly wide margin of error. It progress is being made to help a substantial number of people, then the Institute's undertakings are viable and acceptable. Nonetheless, the debate over ethics will be present as long as HIID continues to function. In the developing world, such dilemmas are unfortunately a way of life.
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