ABSTRACT
After toiling away in the nether regions of an international bureaucracy for 20 years, most of us would probably echo Herman Daly’s advice in his farewell speech to the World Bank: for goodness sake ‘loosen up’. The organisation would be much more effective as a result, and its employees would be happier, though maybe not so happy as the fieldworker in Zambia who thought his work was ‘better than sex’ – a reference to the high that comes from helping people escape from any form of oppression. This feeling is the opposite of the paternalism that infects so much in international development. It springs, not from a sense of responsibility for the achievements of others, but from participating in a process which liberates everyone involved. This is real co-operation, but in a world of unequal power and resources it demands continuous self-development on the part of those who want to help. There is no other way of gaining the inner security we need to let go of predetermined outcomes, nor the selfknowledge to identify and deal with the interests and agendas that mark out all human relationships.
