This is the seventh in a series of posts discussing themes raised in Steve Corbett and Brian Fikkert’s book When Helping Hurts. In Chapter 4 the authors discuss the poisoning effect of paternalism. “Paternalism” is defined by the authors as doing for people things that they can do for themselves. This is a serious issue for many different types of short-term missions, because such missions are often structured around erecting a building or conducting some similar activity which could have been done by the locals if they had sufficient resources.
Several different types of paternalism are discussed. Resource paternalism occurs when wealthy outsiders try to use money to solve non-financial problems, or bring in free goods which undermine local businesses. Spiritual paternalism occurs when outsiders wrongly assume that they are more spiritually advanced. Knowledge paternalism involves outsiders incorrectly assuming that they have the best ideas about how to do things. Labour paternalism occurs when outsiders do work that the locals could do for themselves. Managerial paternalism occurs when outsiders rush in to “take charge”.
So how can we avoid falling into the trap of paternalism? It is something which is very difficult to avoid, but something which we need constantly to be aware of. As the authors say, “The goal is not to produce houses or other material goods, but to pursue a process of walking with the materially poor so that they are better stewards of their lives and communities, including their own material needs.”