Here in Rwanda, Magatte Wade’s strange recent Huffington Post blog was received with quite a bit of surprise. Wade’s assertions over what she calls “ignorant” and “arrogant” rules for village tourism is wholly off-base. For starters, the community itself began the official tour program–in partnership with a private sector partner–nearly two years ago as a way to manage the significant number of requests to visit the village. As word of Mayange’s development successes spread, the number of students, professors, NGOs, and other development practitioners interested in visiting grew as well. In true entrepreneurial spirit–precisely the opposite of Ms. Wade’s description–the people living in Mayange saw a way to take ownership over the interest in their work. Thus, far from accurately attacking Professor Sachs or the Millennium Villages Project , Wade has actually (and unintentionally, no doubt) gone after the very Africans that she purports to support! The Millennium Villages Project was not and is not involved in their management nor content. Rather, the community formed a cooperative with nearly 200 members to ensure that tours would be informative and interesting

Read the original here Donald Ndahiro: Sustainable Results: Addressing Misconceptions About The Millennium Villages Project