Walk...toward the unknown region

Pace ASEAN, I've always found the idea that there is some essential similarity between the Khmer and the Acehnese, or between the Karen and the Moro, somewhat questionable. It's like the concept of 'Asian values', which is often adduced but rarely defined. And if there is really little in common between all of the countries of Southeast Asia, how much less among the Asia-Pacific?

I therefore tend to question the value of regional groupings and responses. Almost every month we get requests to identify candidates to attend regional trainings, seminars, and workshops, for some reason almost always held in Bangkok. Since the medium of instruction is always English, the prime qualification is a degree of fluency in that language, a skill which is quite rare in Indonesia, and (I imagine) in several other countries in the region. In contrast to some others, at least Indonesia uses a Roman script.

In addition, the instructors or presenters usually come from outside the region, often with little understanding of the situation in the various countries, and speaking in a way that may be difficult for even those relatively accomplished in English to understand.

This has been brought to mind recently by a UNAIDS-organized "Joint capacity building workshop on TB/HIV and advocacy for networks of people who use drugs and their support organization", for injecting drug users from the region. This two-day workshop was recently held in Bangkok, and one of my colleagues has just returned from it. There appeared to be a huge gap between the level of knowledge of TB among participants from different countries. Most of the first day was apparently spent in reviewing the basics of TB. Although this was clearly needed by participants from some countries, for those from Indonesia this was 'old hat, since all had already attended training on this at home. In addition, I wonder how much similarity there is between advocacy in Indonesia and (say) Vietnam?

In the early days of Spiritia, we organised trainings and meetings at a national level. But as the number of those affected increased, we identified that this was not a cost effective approach. Arranging a national training for 20 people costs around $12,000, but with that amount we can arrange around six local trainings covering a total of more than 100 people. No doubt there are some networking benefits from a national meeting, but I think these are often over-stated.

Surely it is time for a similar approach to be applied to these regional meetings. For the same amount of money, it would probably be possible to arrange a series of similar meetings in each country in the region. And rather than "importing' speakers, these could use local trainers, people who understand local conditions and speak the local language. In this way we could choose participants based upon there real qualifications, not primarily on their English skills.

Babé