Listening to Australian agronomist Tony Rinaudo speaking on Future Crunch’s new podcast, Hope is a Verb, reminded me of some things I learned while working on a community development project in Serbia two decades ago.

Tony told a story about a visit to Niger with a visiting Canadian delegation. When they sat down under a tree to chat and villagers gathered, Tony asked what intervention had made the most impact. And a villager said, none of them. 

What had made the difference, he said, was that before, all they saw of the chief was the tail lights of his jeep churning up the dust as he drove away. Now, after the farmers had claimed the trees for themselves,  the chief now came to them for counsel. Before, no one had known who they were and how they lived.