Ask the Global Community: Expanding the Peace Corps Debate

Wait a few months, and you are bound to come across a debate on the purpose or continued relevance of the Peace Corps. I first saw this back in 2008 when then-Peace-Corps-critic-extraordinaire, Robert Strauss, came to our Peace Corps Madagascar training. (Google him to see some of his thoughts). Factor in the 50th anniversary of the Peace Corps this year, and critics / proponents / improvers / status-quo-ers and others are out in full force. Shortly after beginning my graduate studies at SIPA, I saw an article by another former volunteer that absolutely bashed the organization. To give you an idea of the content, it was titled "Why Peace Corps is an Affront to the Poor." (Give it a read if you like...) Now I have my issues with the Peace Corps, as any former volunteer probably does, but I found the title alone pretty offensive. To say the Peace Corps is ineffective as a development agency is one thing (which I would counter by saying it is NOT a development agency, but rather development is one of three goals of the organization that are all weighted equally), but to call the work done by the numerous dedicated volunteers I have known an "affront to the poor" was too much. I had to respond, which I did here in an article entitled "Peace Corps an Affront to the Poor? Who are we to say?" The main point was that to fully understand the holistic effect of the Peace Corps, we need to talk to the people who have been affected by Peace Corps volunteers. Too often the debate is only amongst Americans (and usually only former Peace Corps volunteers... and congressional budget hawks perhaps). Talk to the people in developing countries who have worked with or met volunteers, and listen to their stance on the organization. My evidence is only anecdotal, but everyone I have spoken to who has known volunteers has believed strongly that Peace Corps has a useful and strong purpose in their country. Of course there are some "bad" volunteers who leave a poor impression of the Peace Corps, but I found in Madagascar that almost all Malagasy had good experiences with the Peace Corps volunteers they knew. In fact, this was true even of those volunteers who thought of themselves as unproductive or ineffective (including this author...)

So, it can be difficult to quantify the effect of the Peace Corps, but when discussing its purpose and effectiveness, it is important to include the international community. And this does not just mean talking with those who have direct experiences with Peace Corps volunteers, but also asking people in other countries how they would respond to Peace Corps in their country. It is at least a discussion worth having, and I do not hear it raised often enough.

A few other Peace Corps tidbits:
-Here is an independent survey of former Peace Corps volunteers and their thoughts on the organization. It includes many misgivings and ways to improve the organization, and continues on the discussion of what the purpose of the Peace Corps is. The pdf is linked in the article. On a very random side note, my cousin Don Gura actually designed the report!
-Here is a nice write-up from my eloquent friend Katie Browne about her view of why the Peace Corps is important.
-My school's Returned Peace Corps Volunteer group, SIPARPCVs, held a panel discussion on the future of the Peace Corps. I don't think there is an article up on it but the talk was interesting, and showed the wide-variety of positive feedback yet also constructive criticism from former volunteers. All of the 40 plus RPCVs were proud to have served (and all said that the minimum of two years of service was sacred and not to be changed!)
-If you are new to this site, and wondering about my experiences in the Peace Corps (and are too lazy to explore the convoluted backlog of this site), here is a little write-up in a local magazine from the summer.

I realize many of these links are old, but that is mostly because I have been way behind on the blog front lately. Hopefully I can post a few more times this week, in spite of my final exams!

Two final, unrelated links:
-I have been getting involved with New Media / Information Technology at school, and specifically Crisis Mapping, so I was very excited to learn about the Malagasy iHub project.
-Here is a really nice post for World AIDS day from my classmate Hongxiang. I am slowly adding my classmates' blogs to the Blog Roll so keep checking back there for some quality reading!