Villages First

Villages First was the policy initiative developed by Professor Malcolm Coulton of the University of Bristol for the charity, Save the Village. The charity put the Villages First policy at the heart of its work in the Brong-Ahafo region of Ghana in Africa.

One of the consequences of development (and this is a pattern which has occurred throughout history) is rural flight. Young people in particular will leave the countryside, partly because mechanization means fewer people are needed to work the land, but partly because the city is seen to offer greater opportunities and greater access to education and healthcare.

The results of rural flight in developing nations are mixed. Of course, the migrants provide a workforce for the city, but they also put enormous strains on the resources and infrastructure of the city. Furthermore, many migrants not only fail to find work, but are also reduced to living in appalling conditions in squatter slums.

It’s also worth noting for western governments that this migratory flow from the countryside to the city provides the foundation of the subsequent migratory pressure that sends Africans into Europe and Mexicans into North America. Trying to stem the flow at the border or even in the large cities is an intervention too late.

Save the Village aimed to counter this process and simultaneously improve the lives of the rural poor. The logic was simple – to improve the quality of life for those living in rural villages to such an extent that they would be less inclined to move to the city.

Coulton wasn’t so naïve as to think that he could completely stem the flow from the country to the city, but he believed that by concentrating development efforts in the countryside it would be possible to avoid many of the negative impacts that come with industrialization.

Save the Village started its work in the Brong-Ahafo region with a cluster of villages which were gradually given clean water and improved power supplies, an impressively equipped health centre and school for the area, and a postal bus service linking the cluster to its central facilities. Efforts were also made to improve farming and business opportunities in the area.

The early feedback was encouraging, though the scheme didn’t run long enough to quantify whether such development would successfully stem the tide of migrants to the regional capital of Sunyani, let alone to Kumasi in the neighbouring Ashanti region or Accra, the capital.

Eventually, Coulton also had plans for much more extensive infrastructure and communications work but a fraud case involving an unrelated charity with a similar name badly impacted on Save the Village’s fundraising and it was forced to wind up its operations after two years.

No one has since explored the complete Villages First philosophy in a development context, but with some irony, the policy is being given increasing credence in both environmental and business circles in the west. And Start with a Village, one of the buzz phrases of Coulton’s original paper, has effectively become an offshoot of the original idea.

(coming next, the second part of this post - start with a village)