Thank you, Professor Lanfranco for your message on 11/4/04. I find your position very clear and helpful. I have some questions for you:
> Are NGO project subsidies assessed in terms of their ability to align > wider benefits with costs? Do you know of any proven ways to do this or even just ways you like? Is it always necessary to quantify these benefits to compare them with costs? Is it important to quantify social costs (or savings), such as envirnomental ones, when measuring in this way? > The sustainability of good projects requires "profitability" as a > performance indicator and performance tool. If the "profit motive" is > not the driving force for decision makers, something else must operate > as the driving force for cost and marketing decisions. If there are > externalities these must be explicitly addressed in strategic planning > and in how projects are costed, funded, and how their goods and services > are priced. How would you describe these 'externalities' you mention? They seem very important to me and in my experience with strategic planning they are expressed at least in the SWOT or similar analysis phase, even in the newer planning formats like dialog or visioning, but I am not sure how to quantify them or change them in some way so that they are/can be expressed in costs, funds, and prices. > Lastly, all of these require a level of management, administration and > accountability that is seldom found in development projects. I think this is a crucial point. It is certainly true about Jhai Foundation. I am not sure quantification is the key to measuring these other inputs and outputs. What is the key? For now I wonder if a whole marriage between profit-making and benefit-producing is necessary in the extreme conditions that many of us work. Perhaps the measures can be parallel rather than integrated, partial rather than holistic, paradoxical rather than sublime. What may matter most is how we report these things so that a discussion takes place where we agree to terms. Are we there yet? Are we near? At the same time there needs always to be room for 'the gift'. 'The gift' is usually understood in terms of flows rather than snapshots. Sometimes I wonder if what we need to do is examine more closely what a gift really is in cultures where people think more in terms of family and community than they do in under-developed places like the United States. Maybe there are clues there for all of us. I really like what you have written. I just am a bit ignorant and would like more help. Thanks. Yours, in Peace, Lee Thorn ------------------------------------ Jhai Foundation Lee Thorn Chair [EMAIL PROTECTED] www.jhai.org 350 Townsend St., Ste. 309 San Francisco, CA 94107 USA tel: 1 415 344 0360 fax: 1 415 344 0360 mobile: 1 415 420 2870 ------------------------------------ ------------ This DOT-COM Discussion is funded by USAID's dot-ORG Cooperative Agreement with AED, in partnership with World Resources Institute's Digital Dividend Project, and hosted by GKD. http://www.dot-com-alliance.org and http://www.digitaldividend.org provide more information. To post a message, send it to: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To subscribe or unsubscribe, send a message to: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>. In the 1st line of the message type: subscribe gkd OR type: unsubscribe gkd Archives of previous GKD messages can be found at: <http://www.dot-com-alliance.org/archive.html>