You know experimental program evaluation has become a craze when even the Imams want it.
Today we sat down with an inter-faith network of Liberian religious leaders to talk about their peace building plans. They are a truly inspiring organization, building local capacity to resolve conflicts, and training mediators to resolve disputes in the community. The countryside is, to some extent, a powder keg, and they are building local early warning systems and rapid response capability to potentially serious conflicts.
Moreover, to reduce tensions in conflict-prone places, these religious leaders–principally Muslims and Christians–do not just aspire to a new social contract, they sit down with ethnic and religious leaders in each village and coax them to actually write one, specifying norms and sanctions.
And they want to know if it’s working.
I hum and haw about comparison groups, going through my impact evaluation 101 schpiel. I have serious concerns that one would or could develop a control group, let alone randomize, for such a program. So I dance delicately around the subject.
“Wait a minute,” interrupts the Imam, “Are you talking about a randomized control trial?”
I gape.
“Oh I see!” says one Reverend Minister, “We need a control group! This is a good idea.”
It turns out his holiness was once an agronomist. “This is just like our control plots for fertilizer. But how are we going to control for spillover effects?”
An older Methodist leader sitting in the corner glowers. “Please, a moment,” he says. “I see a real problem here.”
Here it comes. Here is the doubt and questioning I expected. We’re talking about a peace building exercise, not fertilizer on a farm plot. Even I have my reservations. This man, of an older generation, clearly has other priorities.
“How,” he asks “are we going to select a proper sample?”
10 Responses
I really hopw that we see some improvement in this area of the world. Haven’t heard much to do with Liberia recently.
Probably this was not the intent, but this article might be seen as somewhat patronising by Africans and Muslims, it seems to express surprise that an Imam can be an agronomist or that Africans can be well versed in scientific method.
That was a lovely story, and very funny too!
That was the stupidest comment I ever read, and I can’t belive I wasted my time responding to it.
This was the stupidest story I have ever read, and I can’t believe I wasted my time reading it.
Great post. More proof that in the actual world scientific method and religious thought can co-exist nicely.
(Not that they always do.)
That’s a great story! I sincerely hope you post more about what becomes of it — how the leadership eventually does go about determining how well their policies are working.
For some time now,I have been reading “The Tale of Genji”, which was written a thousand years ago. And I cannot stop wondering how close I feel to those people described in the book. Their ways seem to be so sophisticated and modern. Now reading about these religious folks from God forgotten place, who work on social contracts and argue about the random samples I feel again this commonness of human nature, this hope that after all we have a chance to understand each other and figure out some way of living peacefully together. This is still a fragile example (and so is my hope), but across time and across cultures there seem to be the points to tie the strings of communication to.
Andrzej
Since I come from a country in which the government is ignorant of or hostile to the principles of science (namely, the USA), I am particularly encouraged to see not only knowledge of the scientific method but also enthusiasm to apply it, in Liberia. That’s excellent!
This is the happiest thing regarding anything African that I’ve read in quite a while. While these leaders’ understanding of the mechanics of experimentation is definitely a great sign, what cheers me even more is that you arrived at a time when the creation of social contracts are at least partially already underway. I would imagine that this is a bit of a relief to you.
I plan to read this blog as readily as you are able to update it Chris, and for what it’s worth, this random internet stranger predicts that others will soon be doing the same.