Development and Social Action
Civil society organisations (CSOs) are playing an increasingly prominent role in promoting policy change in favour of poor people, whether through advocacy or through direct action and popular mobilisation. In the global realignment following the end of the Cold War, the challenge is that of moving from mere protest and opposition to constructive forms of engagement, both with the State and with the private sector. Contributors to this book draw on experiences of social action from as far afield as Belgium and Brazil, in areas such as new social movements, governance and the state of law, North-South NGO relations, and development theatre for social and political change.
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CONTENTS
Preface
Deborah Eade
Introduction: Globalisation, social action, and human rights
Miloon Kothari
Inclusive, just, plural, dynamic: building a ‘civil’ society in the Third World
Smitu Kothari
Civil society and substantive democracy: governance and the state of law in Belgium
Koenraad van Brabant
EURODAD’s campaign on multilateral debt: the 1996 HIPC debt initiative and beyond
Sasja Bökkerink and Ted van Hees
A new age of social movements: a fifth generation of non-governmental development organisations in the making?
Ignacio de Senillosa
NGOs and advocacy: how well are the poor represented?
Warren Nyamugasira
Disaster without memory: Oxfam's drought programme in Zambia
K. Pushpanath
Development theatre and the process of re-empowerment: the Gibeon story
Alex Mavrocordatos
Transparency for accountability: civil society monitoring of Multilateral Development Bank anti-poverty projects
Jonathan Fox
Strengthening unions: the case of irrigated agriculture in the Brazilian North East
Didier Bloch
The People's Communication Charter
Cees J. Hamelink
Annotated bibliography
© Oxfam GB1999.
ISBN 0 85598 415 5
All rights reserved.
Available from Stylus Publishing
‘This volume … is well put together and a useful synthesis of the very broad content of a critical theme of contemporary development practice. In this respect it allows the student and the practitioner to quickly get to grips with the broad field in one handy volume.’
– Peter Oakley, Community Development Journal
‘The excellent introduction sets out a discussion framework for the rest of the book, grounding social action firmly in social justice and sustainable development. The Reader includes articles which deal with some of the essential issues such as the advocacy relationship between NGOs and the poor at the grassroots as well as concrete examples of NGOs working in new ways both in the North and the South including advocacy, emergency, and support for unionised farmers. The articles are all excellent in themselves, but it is their collection in the Reader that serves as a valuable tool to bring the essentials to the discussion.’
- Martha Thompson, UUSC and Brandeis University
‘This Development in Practice Reader describes practical examples of people-centred development action. The eleven chapters, including an introduction by Miloon Kothari, range from Belgium to Brazil and from theatre for empowerment, to trade unions, civil society. and the People’s Communication Charter. There are also the usual indispensable additions, including an annotated bibliography of over 50 relevant books and journals, as well as address lists and websites of major social action organisations and publishers.’
– Helen Hintjens, Centre for Development Studies, University of Wales Swansea
