Some Lessons for Development Workers

SOME LESSONS FOR DEVELOPMENT WORKERS IN RELATION TO PERSONAL TRANSFORMATION AS CHANGE AGENTS  

(Excerpts from the speech, Cooperatives and the Youth, given by Nestor Maniebo Pestelos on 14 April 2016 at the National Cooperative Youth Congress)

Today, as I turn 74, the best gift I can give to myself is to feel that by sharing these lessons to you I can also be part of your journey towards defining your role in making Cooperatives sturdy and sustainable building blocks of a more stable world order.

I have shared these lessons with other young people involved in their respective advocacies. whether they are in the Cooperatives movement, Disaster Risk Reduction and Management, Gender Equality, Sustainable Livelihood, Human Rights, and others. We all believe that as change agents we ourselves are targets for change. I have found these useful in defining my path in each journey I have taken in this life and, particularly, in my development work:

First, learn to reflect each day on your experiences and see what can be done better in the way you have carried out the day’s activities and improve similar activities in the future.

Philosophers call this introspection, while religious people call it meditation.

It’s actually the act of going deeper into ourselves despite the possible noise around us to rediscover our inner self and find the humility to accept mistakes and, more importantly, the resolve to do better next time.

It’s also a moment to appreciate the things we have done right, to be grateful to gestures of thoughtfulness done to us by family members and others.

Introspection or meditation is in a way like a self-cleansing process so that we can start fresh with each new day given to us.

Second, learn early in life to plan the details of each activity that you want to do. Always pay attention to details. Never leave anything to chance. Aside from planning for each activity, plan in the long term so that you and your family are in control of what will happen to you.

I have learned that a person with a plan and a strategy will succeed in life. Otherwise, other people will plan for you and you will not be able to achieve what you want to do.

It pays to know the simple steps in strategic or long-term planning by asking ourselves these key questions:

• Where am I now?
• Where do I want to go?
• How do I get there?
• How do I know I have arrived? 

  

Third, implement your plan, taking into account the need to be flexible, if there are too many problems that are met in carrying out plans. Be resolute in putting your plan into action.

Calmly analyze each problem and tackle those easiest to solve first to gain confidence and to proceed solving the other problems in a systematic manner.

As we have learned from our teachers – Do not put off for tomorrow what we can do today. Act, act, act. Otherwise your dreams will remain plans, good on paper but not of value to ourselves, our families, and our work places, and the communities where we live.

  

Fourth, uphold the values imparted to you in school, at home and the places of worship in whatever faith you believe in as long as these values are in accord with enduring human values to preserve life and ensure prosperity for all.

Find fulfillment not only in the pursuit of personal goals but also in causes that benefit society as a whole, such as those related to poverty reduction, protection and preservation of the environment, gender equality and social justice.

Here is the key lesson I have learned from working in twenty five projects over the last 40 years in a total of 17 countries, with local governments, NGOs, civil society organizations, religious groups, the United Nations and its agencies, and all sorts of advocacies and movements:

All the people of the world, whether they are Christians or non-Christians, pagans or otherwise, believe in a better life. Those who believe in extremism to pursue their aims are in the minority in any country, race or religion. Hence, unity in common goals is possible as shown by all nations signing a global development agenda such as the Millennium Development Goals 2000 to 2015 which seeks to cut by half the number of people who are considered poor.

Now all the nations of the world have signed  a new Global Development Agenda for the next 15 years, composed of 17 Sustainable Development Goals or SDGs. Hence whether we are in Cooperatives or not, we are bound by the same Agreement to hopefully create a better world.

Fifth, read, read, read. And think, think, think. But it’s worth remembering what the Irish poet William Butler Yeat says: “Education is not the filling of a pail. but the lighting of a fire.”

Knowledge for the sake of knowledge is not enough. We must use it to light a fire within us, to discover our passion for without it we cannot aspire to transform ourselves, our families, our neighborhood and our society as a whole.

Knowledge is however not enough. We need it to change things for the better.  In College, I used to keep in my wallet a quotation from a thinker who says: “Philosophers have interpreted the world in various ways; the point, however, is to change it.” This is to remind me that inert knowledge is useless.

Sixth, follow your heart, as the great digital age guru, Steve Jobs, put it a commencement address at Stanford University several years before he died. This is also the final lesson that I am going to tell you.

Let me repeat it here so you may find it in your heart to reflect on it when you reach home: 

Your time is limited, so don't waste it living someone else's life. Don't be trapped by dogma — which is living with the results of other people's thinking. Don't let the noise of others' opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.

That is assuming you have a heart and that you know where it is leading you and that, more importantly, that it beats in accord with the overall goal to achieve prosperity and peace for all peoples of the world.

Let us all transform ourselves in this journey to help create a better world – and if I must say so, through our Cooperatives. NMP/12 April 2016/4.51 p.m.

REFERENCES:

2. Consultations with: Antonieta Ignacia Ebias Zabian, former head, Research Department, Ilaw International Center; Dr. Nepomucena Buot, Vice President, Bohol Local Development Foundation, Inc. and Chair, Tagbilaran Federation of Women’s Coops; Niza Cagulada, Cooperative Development Specialist II, CDA; Jancel Barajan, Manager, CEV Credit Coop; Virgilia Perficio, chair of the Bohol Heritage Conservation Marketing Cooperation; Leon Perficio, Liaison Officer, Bohol Heritage Conservation Marketing Cooperative; Jancel Barajan, Manager, CEV Credit Cooperative.
3. NATCCO Website: http://www.natcco.coop.
4. CDA Website: www.cda.gov.ph
5. 2012 International Year of Cooperatives – ILO Website
6. “The Role of Cooperatives in Achieving the Sustainable Development Goals - the economic dimension” - A Contribution to the UN DESA Expert Group Meeting and Workshop on The Role of Cooperatives in Sustainable Development for All: Contributions, Challenges and Strategies  8 – 10 December 2014 Nairobi,  Kenya  by Jürgen Schwettmann, PARDEV, ILO
7. Commencement Address; By Dr. Nestor Maniebo Pestelos, Founder and President, Bohol Local Development Foundation, Inc.  (BLDF); 19^th Commencement Exercises, BATUAN COLLEGES, Batuan, Bohol