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A rural church I visited in Kenya has had outstanding success involving both men and women in development projects. Part of the reason, their leader explained, is that they demand male responsibility. If a young man is loitering at the shopping center, wasting time, the church elders approach his father and say, "The Bible says that a man should discipline his children. Why is your son loitering?" Not only do the sons come home to work, the fathers gain a sense of significance.

Daniel Rickett, research director for Geneva Global, which advises wealthy donors how to invest in ministry in the developing world, notes that many development projects involve small-scale, home-based interventions, which are naturally closer to women's realms. "To some extent, what development agencies offer is designed for women, and it is working," Rickett says. "To serve the family, women are the key. But to serve communities, men are the key." Rickett says that different starting points are more likely to engage men—for instance, land rights, or larger-scale business enterprises. "If we are actually going to do community development, men have to be part of that. The work has to be designed for men in terms of what's important to them."

Though secular agencies usually avoid pronouncing on the moral importance of families, Christians will have no doubt. Fostering families, encouraging unity and mutual respect, is a good thing in itself, and it holds the additional promise of economic progress. I admire development initiatives that target women. It is only fair and right that girls go to school; that girls eat as well as boys; that women be free from abuse; that female children not be aborted. Anything done to boost women in poor communities is good. But those who aim to help a community become healthy—not merely survive from year to year—will want more. As a purely practical matter, development that involves mainly one sex can transform life only so far.

Tim Stafford is a senior writer for Christianity Today, and author of Never Mind the Joneses: Building Core Christian Values in a Way That Fits Your Family (InterVarsity, 2004).

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August 2005, Vol. 49, No. 8