No full-text available
To read the full-text of this research,
you can request a copy directly from the author.
Ideas for Development
Abstract
Our world seems entangled in systems increasingly dominated by power, greed, ignorance, self-deception and denial, with spiralling inequity and injustice. Against a backdrop of climate change, failing ecosystems, poverty, crushing debt and corporate exploitation, the future of our world looks dire and the solutions almost too monumental to consider. Yet all is not lost. Robert Chambers, one of the 'glass is half full' optimists of international development, suggests that the problems can be solved and everyone has the power at a personal level to take action, develop solutions and remake our world as it can and should be. Chambers peels apart and analyses aspects of development that have been neglected or misunderstood. In each chapter, he presents an earlier writing which he then reviews and reflects upon in a contemporary light before harvesting a wealth of powerful conclusions and practical implications for the future. The book draws on experiences from Africa, Asia and elsewhere, covering topics and concepts as wide and varied as irreversibility, continuity and commitment; administrative capacity as a scarce resource; procedures and principles; participation in the past, present and future; scaling up; behaviour and attitudes; responsible wellbeing; and concepts for development in the 21st century.
... 6 Unfortunately, this is not what usually happens in Brazilian rural development practice. Communicative and cognitive dissonance exists between farmers and agricultural scientists concerning soil quality and sustainable agriculture and this is also a global problem rooted in sharp epistemological differences in worldview and perceived authority of Science over rural people's knowledge (Chambers, 2005). Farmer practice and knowledge are often disqualified by conventional agricultural scientists because the former lack knowledge of the subjacent ecosystem functions and processes which determine what is observed in landscapes. ...
... Farmers are the ones who work specific landscapes first hand and understand the intricate diversity of local environments and ignoring this experience has been a fatal flaw in development strategies for decades. Agriculture is highly dependent on natural processes and local environments are not blank slates on which a general technology can be transcribed without local feedback from farmers who use it (Chambers, 1983(Chambers, , 2005Scoones, Thompson, 1994). literature on traditional farming presents examples showing that, for social reasons, loss of soil fertility and erosion can occur over time. ...
... Previous strategies were replaced by bottom-up farmer-first approaches that highlighted local innovation rooted in an active role for local farmers or even farmer-led rural extension (Chambers, 1983(Chambers, , 1994Chambers, Pacey & Thrupp, 1989;Richards, 1985;Scarborough et al., 1997). When this proved to be too specific and particular, a middle-scale, beyond-farmer-first approach was proposed involving participatory strategies, in which the contribution of both local and scientific knowledge is necessary and dialogue between farmers and agricultural scientists is fundamental (Chambers, 2005;Scoones, Thompson, 1994). However, real existing dialogue is still elusive due to fundamental differences in farmer and scientific worldviews, which is explored here. ...
This article focuses on how farmers identify and evaluate the quality of soils cultivated and how their indicators compare to those used by agricultural scientists. The aim is to bridge the gap between specific farmer knowledge and universal scientific knowledge by adopting an ecosystem framework applied to agriculture through the concept of agro-ecosystems. This approach was applied to farming in mountainous areas of the Brazilian Atlantic Forest, a global environmental hotspot that has been degraded over time. In order to reverse this trend, local actors have to build agro-ecological systems that maintain environmental quality, agronomic sustainability and socio-economic viability. For this to happen, local and scientific knowledge must be bridged and mutually adapted in order to be successful. This study therefore concentrates on processes of inter-communication between farmers and agricultural scientists concerning the role of soil quality in farming and conservation.
... For egalitarians, the very notion of development is pervaded by inegalitarian influences. Thus, they subscribe to the post-development paradigm and believe that "good change," the basic idea behind development (Chambers, 2005), must be community led and epitomized by localized efforts, such as Sumak Kawsay, Ubuntu, and Ecological Swaraj (Garcés-Velástegui, 2023). As for regional integration, egalitarians value it as an opportunity for collective action (Garcés-Velástegui, 2019), provided that it follows the format preferred by them: an assembly of all parties where each has only one vote and decisions are made by consensus. ...
Populism is a contested term, receiving multiple qualifications in the historical record. From classic to radical populism, the scholarship on Latin America's experience is no exception. While such efforts to grasp the phenomenon underscore its inherent plurality, they fail to recognize its limited diversity, leading to questions about their analytical validity. To address this situation, we analyze a sample of speeches of six presidents in 21 st century Latin America related, to different extents, to regional integration. This topic is particularly relevant given the growing attention to specific issues in the literature, where foreign policy stands out, and the contested nature of regionalism itself. We employ socio-cultural viability theory's typology, which depicts four ideal typical ways of perceiving, ordering, and justifying social arrangements: individualism, hierarchy and egalitarianism (which are active), and fatalism (which is passive). The results show that the three active worldviews account for all varieties of populism. By so doing, this framework brings a degree of order to the debate and points to promising avenues for further research.
... With popularization of the human rights and empowerment frameworks, initiatives have evolved from merely engaging beneficiaries in development projects to involving communities in decision-making and enabling the opportunity to understand how governments and institutions fulfil their obligations towards the right to health' (Hunt & Backman, 2008). This can be traced to literature from development aid that emphasises on understanding and transforming power relationships among actors to translate concepts of trust, inclusion accountability and partnerships into practice (Chambers, 2013;Cornwall & Gaventa, 2001;Gaventa, 2002). Gaventa (2002) draws on Cornwall and Gaventa (2001) to echo the importance of situating participation and institutional accountability in a conception of rights that 'strengthens the status of citizens from that of beneficiaries of development to its rightful and legitimate claimants' (Gaventa, 2002, p. 1). ...
India’s experience with the National Rural Health Mission (NRHM) is notable on account of nationally formalising – at scale – community action in service delivery, monitoring, and planning of health services. A study was undertaken to document and create a historical record of NRHM’s ‘communitization’ processes. The oral history method of the Witness Seminar was adopted and two virtual seminars with five and nine participants, respectively, were conducted, and supplemented with 4 in depth interviews. Analysis of transcripts was done using ATLAS.ti 22 with the broad themes of emergence, evolution, and evaluation and impact of ‘communitization’ under NRHM. This paper engages with the theme of ‘emergence’ and adopts the Multiple Streams Framework (MSF) conceptualised by John Kingdon for analysis. Key findings include the pioneering role of boundary spanning decision makers and the Jan Swasthya Abhiyan (JSA) in advocacy and design of ‘communitization’ structures, and the legacy of rights based social mobilizations and state-civil society partnerships in health during the 1990s influencing the ethos underlying ‘communitization’. Democracy, leadership from the civil society in policy design and implementation, and state-civil society partnerships are linked to the positive results witnessed as part of ‘communitization’ in NRHM.
... It may be so because of policy deficiency, political or ideological conflict, poor administrative, institutional and communication dilemmas as well as the weak planning literacy of ordinary people. On behalf of participatory planning and development, Chambers (2013) concluded that the proposed responsible wellbeing concept in the development agenda focuses on participatory methods for ordinary people including marginalized communities. ...
The aim of this paper was to examine the preferences of people in needs identification at the ward level annual plan, and to enable the participants in the ward level planning process. The focus area of the study was Kirtipur Municipality ward no 8. The research followed a qualitative method characterized by workshops and mock session methods considering the constructivist standpoint. The words form of data was converted into tabulated form and interpreted accordingly. More than 100 stakeholders participated in the three days long workshops and mock sessions continuously for primary data. As per the policy provision, community people have no access in ordering except needs/programs identification is considered as big policy deficiency. This study found that all the decisive roles have been done by the government officials and hired consultants. The findings of this research suggest that community people’s voices and, more intensively, their ideas must be incorporated while setting the priority orders by training and awareness. The findings suggest that political representatives and government officials must enhance their personal and institutional capacity in relation to understanding the overall planning process. To address the existing policy deficiency, people's participation in every stage of planning is the best way of sustainability in planning and becomes the good benchmarks for theoretical and applied contribution.
... For ICT and HCI for development researchers, where understanding the local context has been seen as a fundamental step in designing technology [7,28,56], we argue that a disadvantaged people's local context needs to be interpreted with respect to the community's position in their situations. Such contextual data can only be captured through communities' own views and is crucial for decision-makers to gather and reflect on in order to design effective context-specific programs and interventions [22,38]. Existing reporting systems can provide some of this data, but communitygenerated voice and visual presentations can provide data in a form that provides for a unique understanding of these interconnected outer and inner factors from the perspectives of community participants. ...
... The LIFE Project partners realized that a crucial aspect in assisting local communities is to make sure that the agencies working with them listen to the people's needs. There have to be active channels of communication that facilitate the easy flow of information from the bottom up and, conversely, from the top down (Cernea 1991;Chambers 2005;Holland and Blackburn 1998). These communication channels can be formal, such as official meetings held between government officials, NGOs, and local people. ...
... Development as emphasized in Human Development Report (1997) and World Development Report (1997) is to make the world better place especially for the poor with appropriate policies and actions [15,13]. It is not only about examining the development agenda, but examining our own behavior "how we think, how we change and what we do and not do" (1997: 1744). ...
... Implementing such methodologies requires a review of power relations that modify the habitus (Bourdieu, 2008), both in the intervention practices and in the institutions' processes that develop them (Chambers, 2013). In the ongoing observation of SS.SS., it is appreciated that although there is no lack of will, there is also no solid awareness of the changes that each actor must make possible for this. ...
This article, the result of a research and development project funded by the Spanish administration, analyzes the impact of the dynamics of social inclusion carried out by the Municipal Social Services Centers in the region of Andalusia (Spain). The research follows a qualitative methodology, centered on the analysis of normative, operative, and discursive dimensions. This research shows how the social intervention carried out in these centres is conditioned by two very different realities. On the one hand, there is a set of regulations that, from a theoretical point of view, is committed to social integration. On the other hand, a daily context with a high level of interferences and assistance demands that hinder a real labour activation and social integration. This situation generates great organisational pressure and conditions professional praxis. Several factors play a role in this situation: The ideas held by the people involved in the professional intervention, knowledge management, networking, and the relationship between client and professional. The study concludes that to reinforce the inclusive capacity of social services increasing the resources and number of professionals is not enough, focusing on the models of management and intervention in a collaborative fashion is also necessary.
... From a normative point of view, the role of professional intervention in legislation and programming focuses on what we have called the integrating/activating dimension, as was reflected in Figure 1, and was also made explicit in the latest legislation regulating SS.SS [2]. The professional is a professional because of their ability to promote personal and contextual changes [22]. ...
This article, which is result of a research and development (R&D) project financed by the Spanish administration, studies the difficulties in managing social inclusion programs in Social Service (SS) Centers located in areas with high rates of exclusion in Andalusia (Spain). The research follows a qualitative methodology, based on observation, semi-open interviews (SOI), and focus groups (FG) aimed at the different actors in four Social Service Centers. Three dimensions are addressed: normative, functional, and perceived. The main results are four groups of incident factors: the mismatch between the expectations of non-professional actors (politicians, etc.) and those of technicians; the knowledge management of implemented dynamics; the position of the SS in local action networks; and the professional–client relationship. We concluded that, although these programs should be managed in an inclusive context, they are conditioned by scenarios with little possibility of social activation and a high level of interference and additional demands. Aspects that generate a great deal of organizational pressure divert professional practices to social assistance work.
... Since livelihood risks are not constrained to a single crop, future work should examine climate risks across the whole livelihood portfolio of rural households, including off-farm activities. Climate hazards may damage people's ability to maintain or secure material assets and resources, as well as their ability to live a 'good life' in other ways, including nonmaterial goals (Chambers 2013). However, it is also possible that climate change could create new opportunities for regions that become more favorable for coffee farming or new crops, such as cocoa (de Sousa et al 2019). ...
Brazil is the world’s leading coffee exporter, contributing billions of dollars to the global food economy. Yet, a majority of Brazilian coffee farms are operated by ‘smallholders’, producers with relatively small properties and primarily reliant on family labor. While previous work indicates that climate change will decrease the area suitable for coffee production in Brazil, no study has assessed the impacts of climate change on coffee yields or the relative exposure and vulnerability of coffee producing regions to changes in climate hazards (climate-associated losses in yield). To address these knowledge gaps, we assess the sensitivity of coffee yields to temperature and precipitation variation from 1974 to 2017 to map coffee climate hazards. Next, we identify which coffee producing regions in Brazil have the highest exposure to climate hazards due to high dependence of coffee production as a proportion of agricultural area. Finally, we generate a Vulnerability Index to identify which regions are theoretically least able to adapt to climate hazards. Our study finds that since 1974, temperatures in Brazilian coffee growing municipalities have been increasing by ~0.25 ◦C per decade and annual precipitation has been decreasing during the blooming and ripening periods. This historical climate change has already resulted in reductions in coffee yield by more than 20% in the Southeast of Brazil. Minas Gerais, the largest coffee producing state in Brazil, has among the highest climate hazard and overall climate risk, exacerbated by ongoing coffee expansion. Additionally, many municipalities with the lowest adaptive capacity, including the country’s mountainous regions, also have high climate exposure and hazards. Negative climate hazard and exposure impacts for coffee producing regions could be potentially offset by targeting climate adaptation support to these high-risk regions, including research, extension, and credit subsidies for improved coffee varieties, irrigation, and agroforestry and diversifying agricultural production.
... The implementation of the federal and state development policies and programs in Sarawak is not totally effective in addressing development inequality between urban and rural areas [8,30]. The top-down policymaking approach adopted by the government was also criticized by Ngidang [33], Chamber [12], and Sen [40], because it has excluded the needs and aspirations of the local Sarawakian in the development policy agenda. Similar to most of the rural areas in Sarawak, Ba'kelalan also experienced slow and uneven development progress compared with the urban areas [11,37,26] that has led to the problem of development inequality and lack of development in some of the important socioeconomic sectors. ...
This study examines the causal relationship between development and human security at the border. In Malaysia, among the main goals in implementing development policies include ensuring prosperity as well as human security of its citizens. However, the effectiveness of these policies, particularly in the context of border communities living in the interior, is largely unknown. Accordingly, research has conducted interviews and observations at the border area of Ba’kelalan, Sarawak, Malaysia, to assess (1) the impact of Malaysian development policies on the socioeconomic status and international cross-border dimension and (2) the extent to which developmental issues have posed a threat to the human security at the border. Research found that although Malaysian development policies have succeeded to bring various development programs in Ba’kelalan, it has inadequately addressed some developmental issues in this area. The reality of development inequality, lack of development in the agricultural sector, and the ambiguous status of lands are found to have threatened human security of the Lun Bawang in Ba’kelalan. If the goal is promoting people-centered security and responding to the core objective of human security to prioritize risk prevention and early intervention of the human security threat, understanding the reality experienced by the people on the ground and considering views from the bottom in the national policy decision and formulation in the future are crucial.
... participatory processes may reflect the views of the more powerful sections of citizens(Chambers 2005;Cabannes 2019). Participation in multi-actor local government networks is even more difficult because a large part of the decision-making process takes place through informal interactions(de Bruijn and Heuvelhof, 2008;Popering-Verkerk and Buuren 2016). ...
This paper is about the role of local democracy and governance to achieve the sustainable development goals (SDGs). Increased reliance on locally generated revenue, difficulties in managing networks of actors with diverse goals and objectives, imperfect flow of information, and trust deficit in stakeholders pose major challenges to achieving SDGs locally. By doing a systematic review of the recent literature on decentralisation with examples from different local governments, the paper outlines ways in which these challenges could be addressed. The paper also highlights the need for enhancing local leadership capabilities and demarcation of responsibilities among local politicians and bureaucrats, a point missed in the SDG agenda.
... 12 See Stirling (2010). 13 For example, see Chambers (2005). 14 See, for example, Graham et al. (2014), Lavery (2018), and Nature (2018). ...
... Various studies evaluating the implementation of programs of poverty reduction and empowerment of the community have already reported both the success and the failures of these programs. According to Muktasam (2011), cited from Chambers (2013), Harrison (2015, Burkey (2013), Esman and Uphoff (1984), Maqin (2011) based on the experience of these experts in the process 9 Trikonomika Vol. 15, No. 1, June 2016 ...
This study aims to generate key strategies of sector development community empowerment to reduction poverty in Banjar. The analysis uses SWOT presented in three parts: SAP (Strategic Advantages Profile), ETOP (Environmental Threats and Opportunity Profile), and SWOT Matrix. The analysis showed the government’s attention to the program that was launched (district development program and the urban poverty program) where is by provision of Counterpart Funds from APBD has been increasing steadily every year. The mechanism has been implemented according to some regulations. The urban empowerment program should further focus and involve on the interests and needs of urban communities. The obstacles faced on the research to determine the program are, the execution (based onmain interest), the lack of human resources who understand and the plan ownership in preparing programs of community development and the lack of human resources with reliability in manufacturing reporting on the program implementation.
... Deliberations between citizens, the bioeconomy actors and national decision-makers and administration could engage citizens in combating climate change and in co-developing the objectives of the actions related to the bioeconomy. Although interactive multi-actor governance can been criticized as lacking arguments supported by empirical evidence, facilitation of citizen interactions and participation in decision-making in governance debates is commonly found to be desirable (Pateman, 1970;Chambers, 1974Chambers, , 2005Barber, 1984;Nalbandian, 1999;Fung and Wright, 2001;Evans, 2004;Smith, 2005;Callahan, 2007). The traditional governance models that stress the importance of bureaucracy and hierarchy are considered to be incompatible with genuine democratic participation (Moynihan, 2003). ...
As climate change becomes an increasing concern in European countries, the bioeconomy could challenge previous conceptualizations about how states, citizens and corporations interact in everyday practices of natural resources governance. The conceptual understanding of responsive governance of the forest-based bioeconomy is an example of this challenge and is the topic of discussion in this paper. In Finland, there are efforts to support the transition towards the bio-based economy and to reform forest governance in an attempt to respond to local circumstances while mitigating global climate change. The recent articles have address the bioeconomy concept from political discourse point of view, the citizens participation has not yet been address sufficient in the current bioeconomy discourses. In order to fill this gap, this paper provides an empirical case from Finland and connects it to the theoretical contribution of responsive bioeconomy. The paper connects the capability approach and the forest based bioeconomy in the context of Finland. And argues that citizens could have capabilities and ability to participate in decisions about matters that directly affect their well-being. However, in the case of the forest based bioeconomy, the inclusion of citizens requires an interactive collaborative approach to empower various institutions and people to meet and debate on the development of their own living environment and environmental capability (i.e those bioeconomy opportunities to achieve outcomes people value). Citizens may not be able to find solutions and create the new innovations which the bioeconomy strategy require, yet it is the citizens who will live under the changed access to opportunities and entitlements including environmental services. For this reason, responsive governance and its adaptive and interactive administration need to ensure that many change actors are taken into account as a matter of basic justice in various processes of the bioeconomy transition. Therefore key aspects of change, such as citizens’ values, interests, knowhow and environmental entitlements need to be taken into account.
This article investigates participatory development in South Africa and focuses on a Stellenbosch municipality as a case study. It identifies gaps related to women’s participation in grassroots development projects within the framework of the Integrated Development Plan (IDP) in South Africa. The objective of this study is to investigate the level of women’s participation in development projects and identify factors that undermine women’s participation at the grassroots level and the participatory approaches used to enhance women inclusion. These approaches aim to capacitate and empower them to achieving sustainable development and gender justice. The study employs a qualitative case study design and fieldwork-driven approach to analyse the ways in which South African municipalities use participatory methods to engage communities in development projects. The data were collected using semi-structured in-depth interviews, focus group discussions, observations and fieldnotes from fieldwork. The research draws on the theory of participatory development to frame the analysis of women’s participation in grassroots development processes through the IDP. The study offers valuable insights into the connection between participatory development and gender inequalities in South African communities. It provides recommendations for policymakers, NGOs and development practitioners to adopt more inclusive and gender-sensitive strategies in sustainable development efforts.
The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) highlight the alleviation of multi-dimensional poverty in the global development agenda. Yet, for nearly two decades, the link between tourism and poverty alleviation has mainly been framed around the pro-poor tourism (PPT) approach, which aims to increase ‘net' tourism benefits to the economically poor population. While the narrow focus on income-based poverty in PPT has received much criticism, alternative frameworks for research and practice that are capable of lifting the tourism-poverty link beyond the orthodox economic-centred approach have not received sufficient attention. In response, this chapter presents a conceptual framework amalgamates poverty alleviation and development-tourism genera, and the three key underpinning theoretical concepts of global citizenship, sustainable livelihoods, and social entrepreneurship. This framework facilitates a more comprehensive understanding of the development-tourism-poverty alleviation nexus, and offers new pathways to enhance tourism's contribution to Goal 1 of the SDGs.
Colombia, like other countries in the region, is undergoing a moment of self-definition. At its heart lies the issue of development. The increasing plurality of competing development models and political economies, however, complicates the discursive landscape and defies conventional approaches. To make sense of this complexity, grid group cultural theory and its typology of four irreducible, mutually exclusive and jointly exhaustive ideal-typical worldviews is proposed. Four distinct development models are identified in Colombia's recent experience, illustrated by: neoliberalism, developmentalism, post-development alternatives such as Buen Vivir and Vivir Sabroso, and a chimera.
Change agents have a set of characteristics, competencies, and networks (represented by the nested circles in Fig. 3.1) and are situated within a broader intervention context (square dot box). R4D projects work with agents to develop new knowledge, networks and capacity, enabling pathways and opportunities for change, navigating barriers, aiming to create an anticipated change in the agents and the system of interest (dashed circles).
Recent demonstrations and protest in both the global South and global North regarding the desirable ends as well as means polities are to pursue, suggest a deep challenge of development models. Ideas about development matter because they prompt action seeking to bring about both by addressing social ills or problems. However, since development lacks an agreed-upon definition and, in fact, it is being increasingly contested, it has become a problem itself, a wicked one, calling for clumsy solutions. Against this backdrop, this article employs grid group cultural theory to elucidate that plurality and point towards a way to harness it. Such application produces four irreducible ideal-typical worldviews and notions of development: market-led individual prosperity, state-led system-wide welfare, alternatives of community-led equal welfare with ecological conservation, and a mirage. Clumsy development models secure legitimacy and effectiveness by engaging all worldviews and, since each one also has a preferred way to harness that diversity, these messy institutions are also fleshed out.
Rapidly changing global environmental contexts require thinking differently about climate adaptation projects to achieve faster positive systemic change. Adaptation theory and practice have begun to focus on change agents, people who can help catalyse this change, but it is poorly understood why some people are better able to influence positive systemic change or how climate adaptation projects cultivate and assist them in doing so. This paper synthesises insights on good practice for intervention design and implementation from a wide range of intervention literature domains, including health, education and international development. It identifies a distilled set of individual and collective change agent characteristics and competencies, grouped into five interconnecting themes: values, learning approaches, efficacy, roles and entrepreneurial tendencies. Nine core competencies are identified as important for enabling change, clustered into three themes: being good with people, learning or mastery skills, and adaptation competencies. The review also collates insights about how best to cultivate an agent’s capacity for catalysing change, with a particular focus on the potential for enabling climate adaptation through research for development. Initial insights suggest that capacity building needs to be more than developing new technical knowledge and skills; it should also focus on developing the necessary competencies for enabling change in intervention teams and potential change agents. These insights provide the basis for testing what combinations of change agent characteristics and competencies are most effective in different contexts, improving project and program design to cultivate change agents, and achieving systemic change.
This chapter retraces three main bibliographic contributions of the recently deceased Italian scholar Giancarlo Paba, whose critical and radical thinking was very influential in Italian discourse over the past three decades. These contributions are “Luoghi comuni” (Common Places, 1998), “Movimenti urbani” (Urban Movements, 2003), “Corpi urbani” (Urban Bodies, 2010). This chapter proposes a selection of key themes and concepts of Giancarlo Paba's critical approach that the author addresses and recursively develops in the three books (and in some other related contribution). They include the themes of “action”, “interaction” and “materiality”. In particular, this chapter portrays Paba's critical thinking in planning and design through the key concept of “usable past” associated with that of “roots” of planning (as a discipline), which inspire contemporary actions and, like tree roots, encourage and generate new articulations of thought. In general, this chapter highlights two radical attitudes at the basis of Paba’s human and scientific contributions: (1) his tireless drive toward radicalizing problems and solutions, to take another step forward each time, toward unpredictable and fascinating horizons; and (2) the ethical urgency of an ongoing verification of ideas by developing social participation.KeywordsUsable pastInteractionRootsCritical urban theoryCritical planningRadical planningRegional planning
This chapter provides a selective literature review of Sociocultural Anthropology exclusively related to the theme of agency and its development to uncover hidden connections between culture and agency as well as its development. The author first discusses how culture is defined and can be related to agency and its development. Second, the author explores how academic Anthropology has defined and discussed agency development, although it would not necessarily be explicitly expressed in its texts. Subsequently, she further discusses how Development Anthropology has defined and discussed “agency” and its development in their texts. Finally, the author suggests an alternative form of anthropology that can make working theories on agency development drawn from ‘insiders’ realities and tacit knowledge.
Food sovereignty is a useful concept for researchers, officials and activists eager to understand on-the-ground realities in the context of seed governance. For the Indigenous, peasant and small farmers immersed in those realities, however, it can seem abstract, prescriptive and politicised. In this analysis of the broader debate, Yoshiaki Nishikawa suggests that the Japanese sociologist Kazuko Tsurumi’s endogenous development theory offers a perspective applicable to myriad seed-sovereignty approaches. That perspective puts farmers’ work experience and cultural values first, recognises and supports a genuinely inclusive seed commons and infuses an understanding of rural realities and spontaneous practices into the study and practice of agroecology. Tsurumi emphasised that transformation is never complete: traditional customs and approaches coexist with modern introductions. Thus, the heterogeneous nature of those who manage seeds, and of the resources themselves, needs to be grasped by scientists and policymakers in this arena. As Nishikawa concludes, it is local decisions, not external ideologies, that must come first in guiding analyses on building better seed management systems.
Hebridean rye ( Secale cereale ), a high-yield landrace grown by crofters in Scotland’s Highlands and Islands, has traditionally been used as livestock feed. This multi-author study presents and analyses findings into the crop’s potential as the raw material for locally produced flour, bread and beer, offering new opportunities in sustainable seed saving, small-scale agriculture, food production and eco-enterprise. The authors—part of the project’s multidisciplinary team of researchers, artisanal food producers and crofters—explicate aspects of the pioneering project, from conditions on Uist’s coastal machair where the rye originates, to testing seasonal varieties in mainland Lochaber and assessing nutritional qualities and consumer acceptance of novel products. They conclude that Hebridean rye, with its potential for crofters in remote locales and local businesses, could help in preserving agrobiodiversity, traditional knolwedge and practices, crofting culture and economic resilience in the north and north-west of Scotland.
Seed diversity is crucial to the sustainability of food and agricultural systems. Yet as Michel Pimbert’s survey of the global ‘state of seeds’ reveals, both wild and domesticated varieties are disappearing under an onslaught of human-driven pressures. Planetary crises—the sixth great extinction and climate change—constitute one. Industrialized agriculture is another: just three crops (maize, rice and wheat) currently supply over 60% of the calories humanity obtains from food. The impacts of this impoverishment on small and Indigenous farmers, ecosystems, food security and human health are manifold, and understanding them demands that we unravel a range of intermeshed social and political factors. Disparities in wealth, gender and ethnicity, for instance, determine the way seeds are cultivated, conserved, collected and exchanged. And the primary domains of seed governance—state, corporate and farm—wield different, often unequal powers. By confronting these complexities, Pimbert asserts, we can map ways of managing seeds equitably, to support human and planetary wellbeing.
How important are informal seed-saving systems in conserving agrobiodiversity? Mitsuyuki Tomiyoshi probes that question in the East Asian context in this survey and analysis examining the prevalence of community seed banks and other non-profits in Japan, South Korea and Taiwan. In Japan, traditional varieties are generally cultivated on the basis of heritage and culture, and an array of non-profits are involved in seed provision, domestic production, collection and networking. In South Korea, where interest in heirloom seeds has been growing since the early 2000s, comparable organizations include a research firm, cooperative and civil society network. Relevant non-profits in Taiwan, meanwhile, are at the formative stage. Informal systems are key to maintaining agrobiodiversity, Tomiyoshi concludes, but to operate sustainably they must better integrate their functions and set strategies for collaboration with public institutions.
In the 1970s, the Japanese sociologist Kazuko Tsurumi developed endogenous development theory—the idea of ‘development from within’, which frames human wellbeing, ecological viability and community agency as central to sustainable modernisation. In this study of Tsurumi’s ideas vis-à-vis seed governance, Yoshiaki Nishikawa first traces the broader debate over seed systems, from polarised stances such as traditional vs modern to more nuanced mixed approaches. Nishikawa shows how Tsurumi’s thinking on values, communication, local autonomy and tradition can illuminate understanding of humanity’s relationship with seeds across cultures and regions. Many farmers, for instance, consider crop diversity and seed production as naturally integral to their stewardship of local ecologies, rather than politicised acts of sovereignty. Wise governance is based on an understanding of seeds as a biocultural legacy, and ensures that autonomy and respect are interwoven in the concept and practice of seed sovereignty.
Seed commons—the collective management of seeds and associated knowledge—is a major aim of food sovereignty, that crucial alternative to the dead end of industrialized agriculture. To reclaim the commons, explains Michel Pimbert in this wide-ranging policy analysis, we need to enable community control over growing, trading and consuming food. That will demand mutually supportive transformations in agriculture, economies, rights and political systems towards agroecology, an economics of solidarity, collective notions of property and direct democracy. Drawing on sources such as the Nyéléni Declaration on food sovereignty and the UN Declaration on the Rights of Peasants and Other People Working in Rural Areas, Pimbert outlines a radical approach to seed governance outside the capitalist and patriarchal paradigm. The proposals, while scarcely featuring in global and national fora on seed governance, offer a fresh framework for needed change at a time of social exclusion, poverty and deepening environmental crises.
Crop diversity in Japan is on the ebb, eroded by factors such as the rise of industrialised agriculture, a shrinking and ageing population of farmers, and a dearth of knowledge transmission between generations. However, thousands of Japanese farmers follow a practice vital to fostering agrobiodiversity: seed saving. Using a qualitative case study approach, Ayako Kawai tracked diverse seed governance and sharing systems across four groups of producers: traditional, organic and ‘lifestyle’ farmers and local community members. She found differences in the ways seeds are valued—cultural, economic, rights-based, familial or personal—that influence approaches to saving and sharing seeds. Organic and traditional farmers and community growers, for instance, tightly regulate seed distribution, while part-time producers are far keener to actively share seeds. That could, notes Kawai, create a dilemma if broader access to genetic resources becomes a general priority. Yet she concludes that a plurality of practices, like crop diversity itself, builds in resilience by spreading risk and offering a range of responses to future uncertainties.
The Himalayan kingdom of Bhutan is both wedded to tradition and influenced by the global push to modernize. In this study of the country’s path to food security, Mai Kobayashi describes its evolving national ‘middle way’ towards sustainable agriculture. She traces seed-sector dynamics over the past 70 years, as exogenous influences from India and Japan mingled with endogenous practices. First following a Green Revolution-style high-input agricultural model reflecting India’s, Bhutan joined the Colombo Plan in 1962, paving the way to autonomous economic development. Meanwhile, two Japanese specialists—agriculturalist Keiji Nishioka and seed-processing technologist Katsuhiko Nishikawa—respectively introduced open pollinated varieties and imported hybrids. The latter sited seed access within commodity relations for the first time. But Bhutan’s own National Seed Center has supported a pluralistic approach serving the seed demands of both family and market-oriented farmers, while organic agriculture became a national mandate in 2007. Bhutan, Kobayashi concludes, has shown that its evolving, idiosyncratic ‘middle way’ towards food security is likely to endure.
In this field survey of seed system dynamics in Myanmar, the authors note that the country’s dominant system of traditional agriculture faces pressure from the introduction of ‘improved’ varieties and shifts in policy. However, farmers—from small and subsistence growers to large-scale rice producers—continue to raise indigenous species. One is chinbaung, the collective term for several varieties in the genus Hibiscus . The authors traced differences in chinbaung cultivation and use among places, and examined production systems in three villages in central arid zone, each sited in a geographically distinct locale. They found that a local festival popular with seed sellers has become a prime conduit for disseminating diverse genetic resources. Poe Yon, a guild of agricultural brokerage firms with hubs in cities across the country, meanwhile involves firms and farmers in a unique relationship that ensures broader distribution. Ultimately, the autonomy of farmers has enabled agrobiodiversity to thrive in Myanmar—a success, the authors note, that agricultural policymakers should heed.
In the Indigenous worldview, seeds are both biological entities and embodiments of immateriality: knowledge, culture and the sacred. Indigenous seed systems thus codify the human connection to nature. Yet such ‘informal’ systems, whether developed by Indigenous peoples or small-scale farmers, barely surface in policy debates. Krystyna Swiderska and Alejandro Argumedo seek to redress the balance in this detailed study of the principles, values and practices of Indigenous seed systems and governance. While ranging over a number of case studies from Kyrgyzstan to Kenya, their prime focus is the Andean Potato Park in Cusco, Peru—a world centre of origin and domestication of crops such as the potato, quinoa and amaranth. Swiderska and Argumedo describe the Park’s collective and customary governance structure, and the ways of learning, exchange systems, seed banks and more developed by its Quechua farmers. To safeguard the vital Indigenous contribution to seed security and diversity, they conclude, a biocultural rights-based approach to seed governance is required and needs further support from policy reform, among other measures.
The systems ontology is characterised, corresponding to recent systemic findings about the nature of reality. Three key features, an idea of the interconnectedness of all things, the idea of enactive cognition , and an idea of the teleonomic principle, are suggested as central to a systems perspective. The irrationality inhering in the modern outlook and its rigid and limited view of basic ontological elements such as space and time is described. The debates and understanding of cognition are reviewed and the enactive idea of cognition is elaborated by incorporating a model called the anticipatory present moment . The inherent paradoxes in reality as constructed from purely rational frames are described. The chapter concludes by stating plausible political , epistemic, and pragmatic goals for systems thinking that follow on this systems ontology.
People’s participation is widely acknowledged as a necessary component of effective, efficient, and inclusive disaster-risk reduction. However, there is little reflection on how commitments for participation in disaster literature and policy translate into meaningful participation in practice. Participation often takes the form of standardized, top-down approaches that have little interaction with decision-making processes. Such approaches often perpetuate existing power relations privileging some and marginalizing others, and resulting in misunderstandings, disillusionment, and creation or exacerbation of distrust among stakeholders. Many of these shortcomings can be attributed to a failure to adequately acknowledge, analyze, and accommodate power and power relations within the theory and practice of participation. Using examples drawn from both hazards literature and literature on participation in development at large, this paper identifies the need to (re)center in-depth and critical considerations of power and power relations within participatory practice and debate, and to develop frameworks for understanding and analyzing power and power relations in place-specific participation. Doing so will contribute to restoring the political potential of participation and provide insights for fostering the potential of people’s participation in disaster-risk reduction.
In this chapter, Shailaja Fennell considers the capability, livelihoods, and chronic poverty approaches to development—all of which recognise the importance of participation processes and empowerment outcomes for escaping poverty. But as Fennell points out, there is no common methodological base for incorporating participation and evaluating empowerment in order to measure poverty reduction. Recent innovations in multidimensional poverty measurement, however, provide insight. In particular, an evaluation of new methodologies for researching poverty shows that participation does not automatically improve well-being. To illustrate, Fennell draws on data from a mixed methods approach that investigated the educational outcomes of the poor to show how an explicit incorporation of the perceptions of the poor provides a way forward in linking empowerment to capabilities. The possibility of using community-based research that works with the actions and perceptions of the poor in contexts that are sharply divided by power hierarchies is crucial for improving our understanding of the relation between participation and empowerment.
In this chapter, Ferrero and Zepeda consider what the capability approach can bring to planning and managing development projects. They seek to provide fresh guidelines for the design of new participatory research methods and tools that can contribute to a broader approach to development based on capabilities. They begin by identifying some of the requirements for better methods and tools implied by the capability approach before critically reflecting on the limitations of predominant methods and approaches for the preparation, management and evaluation of development initiatives. They also show how alternative methodologies (the ‘process approach’ to planning, and participatory learning and action) can help put the capability approach into practice. Ferrero and Zepeda attempt to achieve this through building on ‘learning process approaches’ which are geared to the promotion of valuable capabilities and are informed by a decade of fieldwork experience in Central America and Morocco that draws on a range of participatory techniques. In doing so, the chapter advocates a ‘process freedom approach’ and identifies and develops a set of open-ended principles for guiding development interventions from a capability perspective that embrace multidimensionality, non-linearity, uncertainty, experiential learning and power relations (amongst other things).
There has been growing literature in disaster studies, which has argued that natural
disasters exacerbate people’s current socio-economic vulnerabilities. However, a
question remains: what are the specific stories that can be told about people’s different
perceptions of disasters and the dynamics of their creative actions to face the uncertain
consequences of the disasters? This study applied the multi-sited ethnographic method to understand people’s perceptions and everyday experiences regarding disaster-induced
displacement and livelihood strategies. For this study, the sites include a temporary river
island (char), an embankment populated with islanders in Gaibandha district, and a
shantytown and two rickshaw garages in Dhaka. An important aspect of this study has
been to examine how disaster-induced vulnerabilities are linked with social structures.
For example, land disputes, land grabbing, and corruption in regard to these issues are
lived through the practices of multiple actors, such as peasants, landlords, and
functionaries in the land administration.
People exercise their agency in making their living in multiple ways including
growing crops, raising cattle, participating in development projects, and moving to
different places in search of a “better” life. They practise their agency without losing sight
of the consequences of the extreme events and the social constraints in which they have
been living over the generations. They make some practical choices in order to survive.
For the poorer households, the choices they make are narrow, and to a certain extent the
choices are humiliating, whereas the richer households calculate the hazard risks and stay on the islands in order to raise cattle and cultivate corn. Living with precariousness, both poor and rich still hope to see new land. This study argues that portraying the islanders simply as “vulnerable” disregards the differences among them and disregards their everyday adaptive capacities in the context of the hazards they face. Although this study shows that disasters create precarious livelihoods and habitation for the islanders, it does not mean that the catastrophes are solely responsible for their vulnerability, which was already created by the socio-economic structure. Nevertheless, the inhabitants of the island villages are not just suffering subjects, vulnerable victims and passive aid receivers. They practise their agency, albeit limited, to utilise their limited resources (land, livestock, and social capital) in order to survive in such a fragile but fertile environment.
The nexus between political-economy, development and discourses, bottom-up people’s needs and power of institutions such as the World Bank and IMF all comes into play here in the geopolitical analyses. Based on historical experiences and Utopian ideals, concepts regarding development are codified in the UN Sustainable Development Goals. The quest of assuring human needs entails elimination of hunger and poverty, and guaranteeing good health services and well-being, along with quality education and gender equality, clean water and sanitation, affordable clean energy, decent work and economic growth, with industry, innovation and infrastructure, and reducing inequalities, as well as creation of sustainable cities and communities. Along with this is the issue of responsible consumption and production, with action taken on climate change, policies and use of water and land environments. Central to this is peace, justice and strong institutions, with durable partnerships to implement sustainability. Basically, it can be argued that any action that does not alleviate poverty in some way cannot be called development but defining poverty has to be addressed in specific contexts. Conflicts remain the biggest threat to development and hence a human rights approach is imperative. Key development ideas must be linked to wider conceptual frameworks of globalisation and glocalization, and democratisation processes. Economic institutions such as the IMF and World Bank, WTO and economic governance all form part of the development interconnection.
The UN Women Independent Evaluation Office has been promoting the integration of gender equality in evaluations since its inception. However, guidance and practice on how to implement gender-responsive approaches based on local cultural priorities or context has proven challenging. With the advent of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) there is a recognized need for more concrete guidance and tools and the development and testing of different methods and approaches to address this challenge. UN Women Independent Evaluation Office along with Australian and American researchers have responded to this challenge by developing a Guidance for Evaluators for the SDG Era. Introducing the Inclusive Systemic Evaluation for Gender equality, Environments, and Marginalized voices (ISE4GEMs): A New Approach for the SDG Era.
Shortened to the #ISE4GEMs, the Guide is an original piece of work that brings together trans-disciplinary evaluation methods through a systemic evaluation approach. The Guide is written in two parts. Important concepts from systems thinking including boundary analysis, emergence, and the difference between systemic and systematic thinking, are introduced in Part A. Also introduced, is the importance of the intersectional relationships between each of the GEMs dimensions: Gender Equality, Environments, and Marginalized voices. The Guide encourages evaluation strategies that can co-account for coupled environmental and social changes. Gender accounts for the more traditional category of ‘man’ and ‘woman’ but opens the meanings to account for transgender and multiple identities. ‘Environments’ captures both human-made and natural socioecological landscapes and systems. The ‘Marginalized voices’ encourages practitioners to look for and include stakeholders (human and non-human) that might not normally be heard (e.g. culture, languages, elders, youth, LGBTQI, ethnic and religious groups, gender, disabled, indigenous, migrant, refugee) who may be pushed to the margins of society and assigned lesser importance, discriminated against or excluded.
Part B provides practical steps to walk through the planning, conduct and analysis phases of an evaluation. The process is participatory and contributes to capacity development, learning and empowerment of participants and stakeholders alike to produce outcomes with a lasting impact.
How should media and communication studies approach the study of indigenous knowledge communication systems (IKCS)? In recent years, there has been a call to dewesternise and decolonise media and communication studies. Many of these debates have focused on rethinking the curriculum and the analytical frameworks and theories therein. This paper seeks to contribute to that debate by arguing for the need to pay attention to IKCS, which continue to shape socio-economic relations in much of the global south. Since the 1960s, there has been an increasing implication of the West and the East in providing development assistance to the global south, which is coincidentally experiencing a rapid exponential growth of the telecommunications and ICT sectors. In these places, however, the spoken word and its orality remain powerful articles and conventions for the generation, exchange and consumption of social meanings and their reference phaneroscopes. The discussion proposes a theoretical framework for studying IKCS. It rejects the location of such systems outside of modernity and contends that indigenous knowledge communications are co-existing with modernity. This critical analysis contributes to the meta-debate on de-centring the enlightenment in media and communications in two ways. First, it discusses an intellectual constitution that has oftentimes been footnoted by dominant media and communication teaching and scholarship. Second, this discussion is framed to undermine the modernistic approaches to media and communication that disregard the ways of speaking and communicating that lie at the periphery of modernity.
The sustainability science literature views the participation of local stakeholders as a necessary element for both conducting transdisciplinary research and implementing sustainable development projects. However, there is very little critical reflection on how power dynamics between researchers and local stakeholders affect the success of participatory processes. This article draws on the critical tradition of political science and sociology to examine how power dynamics are inherent to, and should always be a concern during, participatory processes. This also applies for sustainability science research and the implementation of sustainable development projects, especially in developing contexts such as those of Africa. While local participation enhances the voices of local stakeholders, power dynamics between them and the researchers driving these processes can dampen local voices or elide critical pieces of information. Using evidence from participatory workshops in Djibouti and Kenya, we demonstrate that these power dynamics can unintentionally exclude critical knowledge and perspectives from the formal proceedings of participatory workshops, despite an express focus on stakeholder inclusion and participatory methods. Using Steven Lukes’ tripartite conception of power, we elicit how the workshop structure and the actions of researchers as the designers and facilitators of the workshop may have prevented the emergence of this critical information. The central argument is that reflecting on power will help researchers and practitioners identify the power dynamics inherent in the participatory processes so they can work to overcome them. Such self-reflection can strengthen sustainability science and practice in African and other contexts.
The need for sustained academic advising and support for students and lecturers in universities in South Africa is on the rise. The initiative draws from the sad reality that the South African higher education system is characterised with low success, retention and throughtput rates. It is within this context that this concept paper interrogates what strategic advisory roles academic/educational/curriculum practitioners/specialists could execute towards ameliorating the situation. This paper draws from academic development literature, institutional selfevaluation, Higher Education Quality Committee audit reports and reflections from experience gathered from lecturing and academic advising. It emerged that academic development advisors need be properly qualified, experienced for them to strategically be visible, design and offer as well as popularise discourse on curriculum design and review, teaching, learning and assessment services among others. Educational practitioners need to execute different agential roles meant to ensure that requisite enabling teaching and learning policies are in place and well popularized. This calls for the nurturing of an institutional culture that foregrounds discourses on academic support, academic excellence and mindset change for the enhancement of the university teaching and learning agenda.
This chapter begins by providing a brief overview of the African rural development planning landscape. A definition of rural development follows as does a justification for the choice of themes presented. The approach adopted to prepare this book is spelt out in detail and a brief outline summary of the findings of each chapter is given.
This paper emphasizes the importance of conducting participatory research on violence and describes the range of participatory urban appraisal tools that can be used to do so. This includes tools that can document the perceptions of poorer groups regarding the kinds of violence (economic, social or political), the extent, causes (and the links with poverty and exclusion) and consequences of violence, as well as the strategies for coping with or reducing, it. The use of these tools is illustrated with examples drawn from the findings of research on violence in 18 low-income communities in different cities in Colombia and Guatemala. The paper also outlines a conceptual framework on violence, poverty/exclusion, inequality and social capital that can help in the research design and in analyzing the findings.
Risk and vulnerability have been rediscovered as key features of rural livelihoods and poverty, and are currently a focus of policy attention. The poor themselves try to manage uncertainty using a variety of ex-ante and ex-post risk management strategies, and through community support systems, but these are both fragile and economically damaging. State interventions working through food, labour or credit markets have proved expensive and unsustainable in the past, though encouraging and innovative institutional partnerships are emerging. This article argues that the way forward lies in new approaches to social protection which underpin production as well as consumption: new thinking recognises the food security and livelihood-protecting functions of public interventions (such as fertiliser and seed subsidies) which were previously dismissed as ‘market-distorting’.
Foreword by Joachim Voss, Director General, International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT) * Preface * Acknowledgements * Introduction: Uniting Science and Participation in the Process of Innovation - Research for Development * Navigating Complexity, Diversity and Dynamism: Reflections on Research for Natural Resource Management * Whose Research, Whose Agenda? * Scaling Up and Out * Transforming Institutions to Achieve Innovation in Research and Development * Principles for Good Practice in Participatory Research: Reflecting on Lessons from the Field * Participatory Research, Natural resource Management and Rural Transformation: More Lessons from the Field * Participation in Context: What's Past, What's Present, and What's Next * Annexe1: Summaries of Case Studies * Index
Setting aside the problems of recognising consciousness in a machine, this article considers what would be needed for a machine to have human-like consciousness. Human-like consciousness is an illusion; that is, it exists but is not what it appears to be. The illusion that we are a conscious self having a stream of experiences is constructed when memes compete for replication by human hosts. Some memes survive by being promoted as personal beliefs, desires, opinions and possessions, leading to the formation of a memeplex (or selfplex). Any machine capable of imitation would acquire this type of illusion and think it was conscious. Robots that imitated humans would acquire an illusion of self and consciousness just as we do. Robots that imitated each other would develop their own separate languages, cultures and illusions of self. Distributed selfplexes in large networks of machines are also possible. Unanswered questions include what remains of consciousness without memes, and whether artificial meme machines can ever transcend the illusion of self consciousness.
Summary As aid agencies embrace the concept of strengthening local organisation as an end rather than a means for achieving project objectives, there is need for wider understanding of best practice and lessons learnt in organisational development at the grassroots level. Four case studies are examined here from the international non-governmental organisation world (Haiti, Peru, Mali and Nepal). Key implications for practice and policy are drawn from these examples. In marginalised rural areas, local organisation seems to take hold more firmly, with a process approach that permits people to define their own priorities and organise themselves around appropriate solutions and structures. Integrated, synergetic programmes that include economic initiatives such as credit and savings yield stronger local organisations than single-sector or technology-driven programmes, and are more likely to include women and the poor. Sensitivity to context, flexibility and adaptability are among other important variables. The implications of these lessons for policies and partnerships within the international aid community are far reaching. If donor agencies are serious about strengthening local organisations and enhancing problem-solving capacities on a long-term, sustainable basis, and wish to make the growth of civil society as important as meeting sectoral goals, there is a need for fundamental changes in the way aid funding and partnerships are understood, negotiated, structured, timed and assessed.
Scientific investigation has long been dominated by positivism, which holds that an independent reality driven by immutable laws exists. Consequently, it should be possible to define sustainability in absolute terms. Advances in alternative paradigms, suggest: that any attempt precisely to define sustainability is flawed; that problems are always open to interpretation; that the resolution of one problem inevitably leads to the production of another "problem-situation', as problems are endemic; that the key feature now becomes the capacity of actors continually to learn about these changing conditions; and that systems of learning and inquiry are needed to seek the multiple perspectives of the various stakeholders and encourage wider involvement and action. -from Author
The success of Integrated Pest Management (IPM) with rice in Asia has not been replicated with staple smallholder food crops in sub-Saharan Africa. This is variously blamed on inadequate extension, underinvestment in agricultural research, and unfavorable government policies. This article argues that it reflects the slow progress of Africa’s Green Revolution, which has reduced economic incentives for chemical forms of crop protection and thus the potential cost-savings from the adoption of IPM strategies. In this context, IPM must re-think its approach. IPM is more likely to be adopted by resource-poor African farmers if it focuses on host plant resistance and biological control, high-value commodities, and helps meet farmers’ wider objectives of increasing household food security and earning cash income. The argument is illustrated from secondary literature and recent project experience in southern Malawi.
Originating from a seminar at the Institute of Economic Growth in Delhi which sought to find new types of resource access and use for the Indian poor, this book focuses on lift irrigation and tree planting. The authors stress secure rights and access, and argue that these, with competitive markets, can be used to free rural people from poverty. There is a bibliography (c350 refs) and glossary. All papers are abstracted separately in International Development Abstracts. -M.Amos
The logical framework approach has spread enormously, including increasingly to stages of review and evaluation. Yet it has had little systematic evaluation itself. Survey of available materials indicates several recurrent failings, some less easily countered than others. In particular: focus on achievement of intended effects by intended routes makes logframes a very limiting tool in evaluation; an assumption of consensual project objectives often becomes problematic in public and inter-organizational projects; and automatic choice of an audit form of accountability as the priority in evaluations can be at the expense of evaluation as learning. Copyright © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
The construction of a small dam at the outlet of Lake Buhi in the Bicol province of the Philippines created a number of problems that threatened the livelihood and well being of the local inhabitants. To try and resolve these problems a workshop was held in the area using the technique of Agroecosystem Analysis. Participants comprised representatives of the donor and government agencies, officials of the municipality of Buhi and local farmers and fishermen. The technique proved to be an efficient and economic way of achieving a consensus of priorities for further action. -Authors
Examines sustainable development and ways to achieve it in developing countries. Based on papers presented for the "Only One Earth Conference on Sustainable Development' (International Institute for Environment and Development, London, 23-30 April, 1987). Central question addressed is: what actions are needed to achieve sustainable development in practice? Provides specific and practical guidance to aid agencies and all those interested in ensuring aid supports countries' long-term development. -C.J.Barrow
How can the poor, so removed from the powerful, influence national policy? For many years, poverty assessments have used income and consumption indicators, education levels, and health status to determine levels of poverty. Such data are derived from household surveys. Recently, poverty assessments have also begun using a new tool called a participatory poverty assessment (PPA) to sharpen the diagnosis of poverty. PPAs use participatory research methods to understand poverty from the perspective of the poor. The method elicits both quantitative and qualitative data on broader indicators of poverty such as vulnerability, physical and social isolation, powerlessness, insecurity, and self-respect. As a result, a poverty assessment that uses the PPA research method gives the poor, marginalized, and excluded a voice in policymaking. PPAs are responding to the challenge of inclusion by directly presenting the views of the poor to policymakers, in country and in the World Bank. Although participatory approaches have been used by social scientists in project work for some time, their use for policy analysis is new. This new way to influence policy has been developed by the Bank in partnership with governments, nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), academic insitutions, and other donors. After five years and 43 PPAs, many lessons are emerging that broaden our understanding of both poverty and the policy process.
Investigates the nature and function of theatre-for-development, drawing on the author's own experience with the Marotholi Travelling Theatre in Lesotho. After an introduction, relevant perspectives on both communication and theatre are reviewed, including an historical account of theatre-for-development in Africa. The following chapter provides a case study of the communication environment and development problems in Lesotho, followed by an outline of traditional and popular media in the country. Chapters 5 and 6 examine how theatre functions as communication and how meaning is negotiated between performer and spectator, setting the framework for an analysis of the work of the Marotholi Travelling Theatre. The author argues for a more carefully thought-out methodology combining intervention and participation: to mobilise, provide a genuine two-way communication, and revitalise people's own forms of cultural expression. The appendix contains the texts of five plays, dealing with rural sanitation, agriculture, trade unions, alcoholism and cooperatives. -M.Amos
The farmers in one corner of Zimbabwe have proved that it is in the process that counts. Ian Scoones describes how extensionists and farmers have come to work as a team, and how they are trying to ensure that other rural communities will have the same advantages. So, how might an 'island of success' such as the Chivi project be scaled up? There is much talk in NGO circles about the desirability of 'scaling up', through either the replication or expansion of such islands. What lessons can be learned from the experience in Zimbabwe about strategies for scaling up, widening impact, and institutionalizing success within larger organizations, including government and farmer unions? Overall, the major lesson is that no blueprint can be provided. This is perhaps the most obvious and the most overlooked lesson.
Independently gathered statistics show that violence has escalated steadily since Jamaican independence in 1962. Because of the importance of violence as a contributory factor to urban poverty, this study of urban poverty and violence was undertaken during the preparation phase of the Jamaican Social Investment Fund (JSIF) to contribute to project design. The JSIF was an outgrowth of Jamaica's recently approved National Poverty Eradication Program, which emphasized community-based interventions undertaken in partnership with NGOs, the private sector, and communities themselves, with the primary goal of contributing to poverty reduction and helping create an environment for sustainable national development. To incorporate the rarely heard voices of the urban poor in the JSIF project design, the study used a Participatory Urban Appraisal methodology with fieldwork in five communities that are broadly representative of Jamaica's poor urban areas. The specific objective was to elicit and identify perceptions of four different aspects of violence: its causes; the interrelationship of violence and poverty; the impact of violence on employment, the economic and social infrastructure, and local social institutions; and the perceived means by which government, communities, households, and individuals could work to reduce violence.
Many readers will be familiar with the work of Robert Chambers, including his six 'biases' of the development professional--namely spatial, project, person, seasonal, diplomatic, and professional--and with his suggestions for overcoming them. Many will also be familiar with the challenge of putting his advice into practice, notably on short-term assignments. The question asked here is whether the consultant can do anything constructive about those who are 'last' on the development ladder; and in so doing render the invisible just a bit more visible. This article provides four illustrations taken from the author's experiences in Mozambique, Malawi, Bangladesh, and Zimbabwe. All involve attempts to partially apply Chambers' ideas. All are modest in ambition, scale, and scope. The main purpose of describing these cases is to stimulate discussion of the possibilities of incorporating the ideas of participatory and inclusive development processes within the unpromising confines of the two- or three-week assignment.
Community participation is accepted widely as being necessary for sustainable development of watersheds. This study, based on a survey of 36 project villages in five states suggests that there is no shared understanding of the meaning of participation or the means of effectively operationalising it. The paper finds that organising communities to give them collective voice, giving them opportunities to make critical decisions on what the projects will do and making them share a portion of the costs are essential aspects of implementation processes to enhance community participation. A realistic strategy must also seek to change the capabilities and incentives of government bureaucracies themselves by creating situations in which it is in their best interest to work with communities.
Change is driven not only by good ideas, but also by disagreement and frustration. This article takes the reader through a selective organisational history of the British NGO ActionAid from 1998 to 2001, looking at events and changes that had a bearing on the introduction and initial impact of the agency'snew accountability system. Systematic change appears very unsystematic. Effective transformation took a long time to arrive, and was preceded by a number of failed experiments. It seems that the frustrations of this time were necessary to develop the creativity needed for significant change. The efforts started to bear fruit once the organisation began to realise alignment of mission, structures, procedures, and relationships.
The work of a small and unusual activist group in the north Indian state of Rajasthan has raised a series of practical and theoretical issues concerning the best means for combating specific instances of corruption, and for promoting accountability more generally. The Mazdoor Kisan Shakti Sangathan (MKSS)-literally-:Workers' and Farmers' Power Organisation-has waged a campaign to secure the right of ordinary people to gain access to information held by government officials. In the process of experimenting with methods of compiling, sharing and verifying expenditure data at very local levels-thus far, in the absence of a statutory entitlement to such informationthe MKSS has developed a radical interpretation of the notion that citizens have a right both to know how they are governed and to participate actively in the process of auditing their representatives. This article examines the process by which this campaign emerged and the means by which it pursues its goals. It then analyses the implications of the MKSS experience, and the larger movement it has spawned, for contemporary debates in three areas: human rights, participatory development and, of course, anti-corruption.
Human Rights Quarterly 17.3 (1995) 488-508
Concepts and ideas of natural and human rights can be seen as playing a highly ambivalent socio-historical role in terms of challenging or sustaining particular forms of power. In an earlier paper, I examined liberal and Marxist approaches to human rights. This paper will extend that analysis by critically examining what may be termed a social democratic approach to human rights and the extent to which it challenges or sustains economic and state power. This analysis is of particular importance, as advocates of such an approach would claim to transcend the limits of liberal and Marxist traditions in recognizing that both markets and states can threaten human rights. Indeed, in terms of the dominant western debate on human rights, some recent social democratic theorists have set an apparently radical agenda for reappraising human rights on a world scale.
This thesis adopts a social constructionist perspective, in that it begins with the proposition that ideas and practices concerning human rights are created by people in particular historical, social, and economic circumstances. Such an approach stands in stark contrast to the long established tradition in western political thought that seeks to ground the concept of natural or human rights in timeless and abstract universals such as natural law. A second assumption central to this paper is that -- because power and power relations are a key aspect of, and embedded in, social relations -- ideas and practices with respect to human rights can only be understood once their relation to particular forms and dimensions of power is fully grasped. The understanding of power employed here broadly follows that of Lukes, in that power is seen to be exercised both consciously, by individual and collective social actors, and structurally through the patterning of social systems.
To talk of a social democratic approach to human rights presupposes a link to those political traditions of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Such traditions accept that gross inequalities generated by a capitalist market economy should be curbed, and could be curbed through the intervention of a liberal democratic state. Such an approach is most clearly associated with the reformist socialist current of the nineteenth century that led to the formation of the European social democratic parties. It can also be seen as a product of a "developmental" or "radicalized" strand of liberal thought that -- in the twentieth century -- has been linked to the work of Keynes and Beveridge in Britain and the New Deal in the United States. Whether either claim to ancestry is accurate is not the concern of this paper, although the question does bear on a later consideration of the extent to which a social democratic approach to human rights challenges or sustains particular forms of power relations. Here the term "social democratic" encompasses both reformist socialist and radicalized liberal currents of thought. The term "liberal" denotes the classical liberal tradition and what is often referred to nowadays as neoliberalism.
Finally, this paper does not attempt to assess the social democratic intellectual tradition as such. Rather, it examines a particular construction of the concept of human rights. To focus the discussion I draw on recent work by Jack Donnelly, Henry Shue and the late John Vincent. The importance of their work has been widely acknowledged, perhaps because all three have sought to straddle the boundary between theoretical analysis and practical prescription. While Donnelly has explicitly accepted the term "social-democratic" to describe his approach, neither Shue nor Vincent expressly do so. Nevertheless, there are key commonalities that unite their work and justify the use of the term when describing all three. This paper also identifies an important divergence which leads to quite different proposals as to how human rights should be guaranteed. Because a key distinguishing feature of the social democratic approach within the wider western debate on human rights is that it seeks to validate some form of economic and social rights, much of the discussion herein relates to this distinction and to the issue of economic power.
What follows is split into four main sections: The first section locates the social democratic approach in the context of the general debates on human rights...
This paper draws on the organizational learning literature to argue that participatory development must be characterized by reciprocal relations between development agent and participant. Nonaka's (1994) model of organizational knowledge creation is presented, applied to a case study in the development literature, and implications for development theory and practice are discussed. RÉSUMÉ Cet article s'inspire de travaux sur l'apprentissage organisationnel pour démontrer que le developpement participatif moyenne des liens réciproques entre le participant et l'agent. Nous présentons ici le modèle de la création des connaissances organisationnelles de Nonaka (1994), à travers une étude de cas tirée des écrits sur le développement, et en discutons ses implications dans la théorie et la pratique du développement.
This article reviews the efforts aimed at reforming the civil service of Malawi at the same time as the country has been undergoing political transition and economic liberalization since 1991. Some of the measures in the civil service reform programme interfaced with either the political transition process (for example, the Public Service Act) or with economic policy reform (for example, privatization). In a few other cases, it was a mixture, a political economy perspective (for example, curbing corruption). The article draws attention to the achievements and problems of implementation, including the coordination of donor support, and highlights the lessons learned and the prospects for the remaining years of the decade and beyond. © 1997 by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.Public Admin. Dev. Vol. 17: 209–222 (1997).No. of Figures: 2. No. of Tables: 2. No. of Refs: 9.
Agricultural development is fundamentally a social process in which people construct solutions to their problems, often by modifying both new technologies and their own production systems to take advantage of new opportunities offered by the technologies. Hence, agricultural change is an immensely complex process, with a high degree of non-linearity. However, current ‘best practice’ economic evaluation methods commonly used in the CGIAR system ignore complexity. In this paper we develop a two-stage monitoring, evaluation and impact assessment approach called impact pathway evaluation. This approach is based on program-theory evaluation from the field of evaluation, and the experience of the German development organization GTZ (Deutsche Gesellschaft für Technische Zusammenarbeit GmbH). In the first stage of this approach, a research project develops an impact pathway for itself, which is an explicit theory or model of how the project sees itself achieving impact. The project then uses the impact pathway to guide project management in complex environments. The impact pathway may evolve, based on learning over time. The second stage is an ex post impact assessment sometime after the project has finished, in which the project's wider benefits are independently assessed. The evaluator seeks to establish plausible links between the project outputs and developmental changes, such as poverty alleviation. We illustrate the usefulness of impact pathway evaluation through examples from Nigeria and Indonesia.
A case study of one of Africa's best known land reforms, Botswana's Tribal Grazing Land Policy, and the career of one of its key architects, James Leach, is used to make three generalizable arguments: (a) Evaluating rural development policies that evolve under high uncertainty and take seriously the “process approach” must focus more than is done currently on issues of public service and management. (b) The effectiveness of public servants hinges less on their personal motivations than on their fit with the political environment: An expatriate advisor who fails in one setting can be successful in another, depending on the confidence of political leaders in that advisor. (c) Advisors highly influential in writing a policy may have little influence on its implementation. Indeed, what looks to outsiders like expatriates making policy looks often to the advisors inside to be much more contingent and unpredictable.
The author examines a group of dichotomies in the thinking of a large group of development economists about development. These dichotomies range from the meaning of ‘developed’ and ‘developing’ countries, to different approaches and methods of economists and ‘policy-makers’, to policy issues, such as concentration on heavy capital goods versus ‘small is beautiful’ approaches. He finds that in many of those arguments a synthesis of the two views can resolve the apparent contradictions. But even more important for him is the question to what extent each side in the dichotomy can provide useful insights for developing ‘Imaginative but carefully worked out visions of alternative social possibilities’, which he regards as one of the main tasks of the economist, whether working in a developing or developed economy.
This editorial reviews problems arising from the popular “Washington consensus” economic package as economies become more globalized, and the reasons why they occur. Suggestions for improving the performance of the institutions behind the policies — the World Bank and International Monetary Fund — are provided
This note suggests that the most important feature distinguishing foreign aid in the 1970s from earlier programmes was the proliferation of donors and projects. This donor and project build-up, which continues into the 1980s, is having a negative impact on the major government institutions of developing nations. Instead of working to establish comprehensive and consistent national development objectives and policies, government officials are forced to focus on pleasing donors by approving projects that mirror the current development ‘enthusiasm’ of each donor. Further, efforts to implement the large number of discrete, donor-financed projects, each with its own specific objectives and reporting requirements, use up far more time and effort than is appropriate. Project consolidation is needed, but this is unlikely to occur on a significant scale because of the competitive nature of donor interactions. Second-best solutions include a greater emphasis on institution-building and new projects expressly intended to facilitate implementation of existing project portfolios.
Designed as a tool to help NGOs "scale up' their work and increase their impact, the editors recognise that so far NGOs have had a limited and generally localised effect on the lives of the poor. The book brings together short contributions from those experienced in voluntary and NGO work, showing the range of options and strategies open to the sector, and illustrating then with case studies. After the introductory section, the essays are presented in four main sections which each represent a particular approach to scaling up: working with government, increasing impact through organisational growth, linking the grassroots with lobbying and advocacy, and advocacy in the North. The final chapter concludes with an assessment of the various ways to enhance developmental impact while retaining their traditional strengths. -M.Amos
Traces the roots of alternative interpretations of development to fundamental differences in perceptions of the development process. Approaches to participation are illustrated through sketches of concrete initiative, ranging from pressure group activity such as Bhoomi Sena, to health improvement in Ecuador, and including official attempts at the promotion of participation in Nepal and Ethiopia, While recognizing that there is no universal model of participation, some building blocks for a more complete analysis are offered.-Authors
This paper presents a reflection on the introduction of methods and tools of "participative foresight" for scientific and technology policy as well as environmental policy fields. Future studies have recently made a comeback under the label of foresight. Future technology studies no longer claim to forecast the future, but are presented as a strategic tool for improving interaction between key actors and for anticipatory policy making. They can be defined as a "process by which one comes to a fuller understanding of the forces shaping the long term future which should be taken into account in policy formulation, planning and decision-making" [Foresight in Federal Government Policymaking, Futures Res. Quart. (1985) 29]. We discuss applications of this approach for perspectives on environmental policy and sustainable development. Foresight opens up the possibility of negotiating a new and more fruitful relationship or 'social contract' between science and technology, on the one hand, and society on the other. The focus has moved from merely scientific and industrial insights to social demand, thus emphasizing the importance of both the production and "supply" of innovation, and the "demand" as signaled in the views of citizens.
This article considers how changing trends in patterns and modalities of aid are affecting the roles of civil society organisations. It draws on research carried out in Uganda in 2001 to argue that donors are adopting an oversimplified conception of the roles of CSOs. In particular, by separating 'service delivery' from 'advocacy' roles, donors fail to appreciate a situation in which organisations play several roles simultaneously, and the vital synergy that can be created between roles. Furthermore, there is a danger that the changes in funding modalities will force a new dependence on government which will restrict CSOs' ability to carry out the very role that donors are trying to enhance - that of 'holding government to account'. Copyright Overseas Development Institute, 2003.