Las direcciones recientes a) En la doctrina occidental

The first phase of the ESMV project officially ended on November 29, 2018, and was considered successful. To briefly summarise the final evaluation of the ESMV project, all objectives were said to have been accomplished. In the final evaluation report, it was stated that the level of trust, belongingness and number of community meetings showed a significant increase, which all determined the success rate of achieving enhanced social capital. As for the household income level, according to KOICA, it was stated that the population in the model villages living below USD1.25 per day has reduced from 20.1 per cent in 2016 to 10.9 per cent by the end of the project (KOICA 2018a, 6–7). This increase was mostly derived from the various agricultural starter inputs, such as day-old chicks, piglets, simple animal disease diagnosis tools and drug supplies, coffee hullers and maize mill to name a few. Applying the knowledge gained from NFLC into action enabled the village members to come work together and to maximise productivity as outlined by the EMSV project.

The third objective to improve living conditions and infrastructure was also considered to have reached its target goal through Bulungi bwansi. Villagers gathered to improve their community by working on roads, wells and even trenches for water tunnels during the rainy season. The lectures on health and hygiene also improved the overall sanitation in the villages and thus many villagers seemed to have access to cleaner toilets and kitchens. For the final objective on governance, leadership was taken quite seriously since the outstanding members were invited at NFLC or at some district events to share their success stories and on rare occasions, taken abroad

99 for training.29 Over 90 per cent of the target population was said to have new insights and different perceptions as well as mind-set change (Ibid., 40). Therefore, the report concluded that,

“The ESMV project was highly relevant, tapping into real needs of communities and contributing to achievement of national, sectoral and international development objectives. The project used less resources given the magnitude of achievements realised. Impacts range from reduced poverty and improved living conditions. The project promoted human rights, and incorporated mechanisms to sustain attained benefits for instance collection of user-fees, and instituting caretakers” (Ibid., 7).

When interviewing one of the project manager, Mr Bae during the fieldwork, he also agreed to the positive outcome achieved. Although he mentioned that there was some limit in the complete accomplishments of the village action plans by the corresponding villages, the fact that the beneficiaries have now, to some extent, adopted the three principles of SMU as a daily practice, in itself was considered to be a success. To achieve this objective, he stated that his team frequently reminded the village members about the end date of the project and thus strongly emphasised the importance of the leaders on all levels. During the session, he also mentioned that the role of KOICA was to simply provide the appropriate materials and incentive for the villages to voluntarily aim and work towards development. In this process, the role of NFLC was to help localise the foreign ideas, persuade the local villagers that the intervention will be beneficial to them and finally guide them so that they can identify their own problems and solutions. As for the local villagers, their role was to apply the newly acquired knowledge as their new way of life and try engaging more village members to also adopt the same principles.30 Hence, looking at these

29 _{“KOICA Rural Development Project Workshop between Rwanda and Uganda” was conducted in}

September 2018, for a period of four days in Rwanda. 21 village leaders with some sub-county and district officials also attended the event and shared information regarding their village action plans and cooperation (KOICA 2018b).

100 expectations and the outcomes, it can generally be concluded that the ESMV project was rather successful.

5.4. Conclusion

The SMU projects in the two countries were very similar in the way they both tried to achieve economic development through attitudinal change. In this process, the role of the Korean representatives was to simply introduce the new concept, provide the external resources and incentives that would support the Ugandan government in implementing its national development plans. Thus the NFLC centre which was led by the local instructors, provided lectures and training similar to that of Korea in the 70s, and seemed to focus more on the mind-set change, nurturing leadership skills and patriotism. Based on these observations it was seen that the training centres in both countries aimed to “induce changes in the attitudes and values of Saemaul leaders by infusing the Saemaul spirit, rather than imparting of technical information regarding agriculture” (K.-D. Kim and Lee 1976, 5). For the village members that participated in this training, they were expected to internalise the SMU principles and carry them out as a daily routine. They were encouraged to become self-confident and take initiative to think of new plans for development, diligently carry them out as a team and also reach out to those members who were reluctant to change. Therefore, observing what the initial expectations were of the various actors involved, the ESMV project in Uganda seemed to be an appropriate solution to achieve national development and induce a strong sense of belongingness in the target villages.

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Chapter Six:

The Social Engineers

The dynamics of the world have changed and many rural populations are seen to be actively “proposing to carve out sustainable livelihoods on their own terms” rather than simply abiding by the dictated social policies (Hebinck, Ouden, and Verschoor 2001, 13). Such trends are also witnessed in the model villages of the ESMV project, whereby active village participation and also the practice of the three SMU principles in everyday lives were required to obtain the necessary raw materials and support for economic development. In addition, these changes are now highly appreciated and desired by almost all participants who wished for higher income levels as mentioned in the previous chapter. The leaders in these villages hence showed how they became the social engineers by “actively transforming so-called ‘traditional’ societies through the injection of capital, technology, and forms of bureaucratic organisation” (Long 2001, 52).

As mentioned in the previous chapter, the villages that participated in this first phase of the project were model villages chosen by the sub-county leaders. According to the interview with the assistant chief administrative officer of Buwama sub-county, he stated that the criteria to become a model village were village cooperativeness and economic performance that was visible through their yearly agricultural productivity and interviews with the village chairpersons. Also attitude towards change for both new actors and new ideas was another criteria that was evaluated during the interviews with the sub-county leaders.31 _{With this background, it meant that the villages to}

31

Michael Lutalo (Kkumbya individual) interview, 2020. Interview with the Assistant Chief

Administrative Officer aka Town council for Buwama Sub County by author. Kampala (September 17, 2019).

102 some extent already had some knowledge and capabilities to work towards development but simply lacked the resources to enhance their economic productivity. By being given the leadership position and label as a model village in the intervention program with demanded resources and infrastructures, it may have triggered a new sense of commitment, resulting into attitude change (Kelman 1979, 188).

This chapter, therefore, focuses on the sub-questions of the research and discusses the role of the local leaders in achieving the ESMV project and on how the transformation of local ideas and practices occurs. I discuss the development of social realities of the village actors and the various interfaces, in which the members of the three villages interpret their community before and after the intervention program. The chapter explores how KOICA and its intervention program was first perceived and then how this first impression was later transformed via their own interpretations. It will analyse how the village members became the social engineers in this rural development project and study the concept of mind-set change. In this section, referring to Kelman’ theory mentioned in chapter one, the processes on why and how they showed their acceptance of the external social influence based on compliance, identification and internalisation will be discussed, using their interviews and also notes from participant observations. This chapter aims to provide the discursive material for the final chapter to understand what implication the different processes would have on the villagers’ conception of a collective identity.