Determining the problem is hundred times harder, than searching for its solution. Thinking in this direction and about the great diversity of different and unique opinions each person posses, then the solution appears to be clear – it is in us. The part where it gets complicated is how to structure our ideas and wishes into prospective plan and respectively actions.

The United Nations Millennium Goals we are all writing about need a clear implementation strategy.  As we all can see, on one hand giving the total freedom for the developing countries won’t solve their problems. It does not either accommodate the right environment in which they can develop their own ideas and beliefs. These methods of interference are imposing mostly the westernized way of indoctrination, namely pointing out what is good or bad, without even giving the opportunity of a vice-versa feedback. And this is wrong.

As can be seen, these methods are not working that successfully. This all means that we need to start from the beginning in order to re-monitor the present situation and determine the precise demand of concrete help needed. People who live in the problematic regions are directly affected and may know more solutions to a problem than perhaps experts do. Through my perspective, developing countries need more or less target coaching, communication lessons, simulation games, educative lessons and projects from the developed ones - UN Millennium Goal – Education.

Hereunder I would like to give a reference to a recent project that took place in The Hague University, within the European Studies program. It is a great example of the above mentioned simulation game, having its educational and interactive purposes.

The simulation game was called “Sim City”. In a nutshell, the idea is that in each major city people are confronted with a variety of problems such as HIV, poverty, homelessness, insufficient education, inadequate housing, insufficient public transportation, insufficient civil society participation, drug addiction, discrimination, pollution and many others. Bearing this in mind, we the students needed to search for a solution, pretending that we are different shareholders in this problematic city. We were therefore divided into groups – Mayor’s office, building owners, Health department, independent owners etc. Our aim was to search for solutions in the context of  “drug addiction problem” and create a plan of action report - stating them. Each committee/group had the chance to prepare a unique strategy, further encouraged to align with other stakeholders in order to create the best solution of solving this problem. The emphasize was putted on the following actions: negotiation, communication, discussion, exchange of opinions, compromise and argumentation.

In my opinion simulation games and similar methods of problem acknowledgment need to be strongly encouraged and exercised in the developing regions. This could be the most constructive aid offered to these countries before giving more.

Education always corrects errors!