During Jamaica’s pre-Emancipation period, the economic output by villages far exceeded the country’s GDP. This was the intriguing message from Dr. Michael Witter, a senior lecturer at the University of West Indies, who gave the keynote address at the Council of Voluntary Social Services’ Research day on Nov. 7, 2013. Dr. Witter explained that prior to 1962, when Jamaica declared independence, people living in small communities were self-sufficient and managed to create a tremendous amount of economic activity within their own boundaries.

It is with this data in mind that Dr. Witter mourns the loss of community development as the national government’s economic strategy, which instead relies on harmful “mega-projects” such as the technology/logistics hub proposed for the Goat Islands.

In addition to Dr. Witter’s lament for a loss of focus on the strength inherent in communities, he made an interesting pitch towards data collection as a means of securing buy-in for projects and funding from presumably international NGO investors. Dr. Witter’s urging is in line with the current reliance on scientific data to justify spending on any projects aimed at improvement.

Dr. Witter also called on communities to rely on technology to tap into the diaspora, as well as young professionals who want to volunteer but don’t have a lot of time. And perhaps most intriguing, Dr. Witter called for a return to something like bartering and reciprocity.

I give you now a condensed version of Dr. Witter’s speech, edited for clarity. Please give it a read, it is worth it.

All communities have survived because they have worked together. After Emancipation, people succeeded on their own, without the IMF or the World Bank. Creativity and entrepreneurship of villages have been overlooked given that they succeeded without any international assistance.

They created their own infrastructure, education, etc. This is critical in context of IMF agreement. The 13th IMF agreement is concentrating on mega-projects. For example, look at the bauxite project, which destroyed water resources and uprooted entire generation of people.

Tourism took plantation and coastal land that no one wanted, and used natural resources. Now there is insecure labour where people don’t even have contracts. Now Goat Islands, another mega-project, which will be harmful to environment and cheap labour. Environmental destruction and cheap labour is “endemic.”

How can we use community development to survive in this environment?

Climate change and poverty, crime, education and health are major challenges. Many of these communities live in fragile conditions and will bear the brunt of climate change. The government deal (IMF agreements) explains in large part why we are where we are today.

The difference now is the availability of information technology, which is very important to mobilize people. Data is important to be able to communicate what we are doing and raise support, move towards informed decision-making, and to replace instinct, feelings and prejudice.

Key decision makers are not doing anything different, instead operating on instinct and punches. We need to move towards informed decision-making. The challenges now are much moreso than post-Emancipation, because of more complex world. Data collection now is too expensive to do traditional survey work. We need a series over time, and hopefully research methods will be institutionalized.

Poverty: community development must address self-employment and income-generation. In the context of austerity at national level and mega projects, communities must look at self-employment.

Climate change: this is the most important issue- we know the sea level is rising, which means our grandchildren will live in a world where Cayman Islands will not exist, coastal areas inundated, where many poor people go to survive.

A similar situation will happen in Jamaica. We have to adapt by moving back from the coast. This also has implications for the water supply, which is among the highest quality in the world. As a result, Jamaica will become more attractive to people looking for water, so this creates a problem of water management.

Crime: we must address prevention equally with solution. Young people have attitudes of selfishness, tribalism, etc, that society exhibited 30, 40 years ago.

Education for employment and community development: We need to raise consciousness of young people.

Health: community and individual. Communities must deal with health, including mental.

Communities need information, demographic information, which communities are at high risk, on climates. There is no reason our school children can’t monitor these things.

Research tools- cell phones, we can take pictures, do interviews, record interviews of poor people in their community. Then have records which can make a case for projects. People need ways of bringing information together. Co-operation is also very important, especially in communities, which should have idea of what is their own skill bank.

Volunteerism: this sustains vibrant communities. We must look at new forms such as digital volunteerism. Many people in North America want something to do and technology allows them to help. Many young people get PHDs and leave Jamaica, but they are lonely. Tools allow them to contribute, for example, they can go to community meetings using Skype.

They can write reports about meetings and email it to the community.

We must pay also attention to the value of people’s time. Social bonding time, like dominoes, chatting over drinks are important, but communities must recognize that highly skilled people don’t have time.

These principles go all the way back. You do something for me and I do something back for you. We must find ways of reciprocating that don’t involve payment of money. We must tap into the success of various community organization in mobilizing communities, especially through young people.