Getting to the root of the problem

Reading all of the statistics in the last post, it is easy to get discouraged. Where do we start? How can we identify the root causes of the poverty we detected?

BCDF board members and staff decided to use a useful tool called the problem tree to help us differentiate the effects of poverty from its causes. We asked ourselves what are the root causes of poverty, what is the core problem BCDF needs to address and what are the symptoms of the problem.

After analyzing the root causes of problems in its different dimensions such as education, economy, community organization, infrastructure and the environment, we came to the conclusion that the core problem is weak community economies. The consequences of weak communities include lack of tools, skills, and educational knowledge to incorporate favorably into the workforce, insufficient household income, unemployment and underemployment, deficient basic infrastructure and environmental degradation.

So if we know what the main problem is, what should BCDF establish as its objective? Our objective should be to strengthen and energize community economies in order to contribute to breaking the cycle of poverty in marginalized community. There are various strategies we can pursue such as providing technical training for youth, promote direct access to markets, catalyzing community based development plan, and promoting favorable conditions for agriculture. Since the root causes are complex and multidimensional, there are many ways to attack them.



Based on this problem analysis, what should be BCDF´s strategic lines of work be given its mission and operational capacity? In lively discussion in our strategic planning meeting, we defined our three strategic lines:
1. Investment in human capacity,
2. Advancing community economies
3. Strengthening community infrastructure

These are the three components necessary to accomplish integral community development, breaking the vicious cycle of poverty and empowering community members to become self-reliant. We believe that through education, income generating opportunities and community spaces we can catalyze sustainable community improvement.