I am writing on behalf of Dana and Brandi Bates' work for sustainable development in Romania. I am currently the Bernard Schwartz Professor of International Political Economy at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS). Much of my scholarly work over the past decade has centered around the concept of social capital, and I have recently been encouraged by some strategies for developing the critically needed social capital in Romania. First, a word about social capital.

Social capital is the informal norms that promote cooperation between two or more individuals, and is the source of virtues like honesty, reciprocity, and trustworthy behavior. It is the presence of these values that creates a safe space for trust, cooperation, and self-organization to solve collective action problems. Societies that trust perform better on all levels, both politically and economically. Social capital (the shared values of honesty and reciprocity) is important as it is a precondition for civil society, which is so important in post-communist cultures.

The experience of many former communist societies is that communism created many habits - excessive dependence upon the State, leading to an absence of entrepreneurial energy; an inability to compromise; and a disinclination to cooperate voluntarily in groups like companies or political parties - that have greatly slowed the consolidation of either democracy or the market economy. And probably nowhere were the brutal effects of communism suffered more heavily than in Romania under Ceausescu's hand. Social atomization, interpersonal mistrust (an unwillingness and inability to cooperate), and the almost complete destruction of civil society are the moral and social legacy of Communism.

Most development approaches have focused on the areas of financial capital and technical assistance. Yet the need for social capital development, especially in post-communist societies, is equally important. Indeed the proper usage of technical and financial assistance is largely determined by the prior presence of social capital- the ethical norms of honesty and reciprocity.

Though much has been done to study the presence or lack of social capital, little is being done to redevelop it on a grassroots or practical level. However, Dana and Brandi Bates have developed strategic approaches to redeveloping social capital in Romania. They are doing this by pioneering two experiential educational disciplines - Adventure Education and Service Learning - which are proven methodologies for building interpersonal trust and helping people internalize the values that facilitate cooperation for mutual benefit. These disciplines are being made sustainable through partnerships with relevant institutions in Romania and America (for example, the Universities of Timisoara and Cluj, and the local school systems). They have taken thousands of youth through their state-of-the-art adventure program, Viata, and have launched an exciting adventure and service learning club called IMPACT that is approved by the public schools and is in process of being made available national via the Internet. Part of their strategy also involves the development and translation of a moral/character development curriculum that will be available to schools nationally on-line.

Their strategy for social capital development is also culturally relevant as it takes into account the framework of the dominant Orthodox Church, and sees this as a potential resource for developing social capital. Indeed, a future goal for social capital development is workshops on the importance of social capital, and how the various traditions can better contribute to its development.

Aid makes sense only if it is conducive to development, not if it merely supports a basically insupportable situation. I am writing to encourage these grassroots strategies for social capital development. Indeed, in terms of a return on an aid investment, the risk of not developing social capital in Romania will be infinitely greater than the cost.