Aid

This Note reports on research into differences in the contractual agreements made by workers and employers, offering insights into the working of markets (particularly for labour and credit) and, using case studies, showing the constraints on the free movement of rural workers because of indebtedness to employers. The researchers use socio-economic analysis frameworks and the author argues their use of local conceptualisations and their concentration on workers rather than employers makes their work more useful than conventional economic analysis.

The World Bank and International Monetary Fund (IMF) believe that the increase in poverty as a result of Structural Adjustment Programmes (SAPs) is a short-term consequence and that the benefits of SAPs filter down, in the longer term, to the least privileged members of society. Emergency Social Funds (ESFs) are designed to protect vulnerable people from the worst of this impact. ESFs try to ensure income through infrastructural and income-generating schemes, as well as feeding and nutrition programmes.

The World Bank's reliance on market forces when trying to achieve economic growth produces problems when implementing the Bank's strategies. The author puts forward his view that poverty should not merely be defined in terms of income, and that the struggle against poverty should respect the culture and views of the poor themselves, building into programmes the flexibility to respond to their views and enhance their political influence.

An aid programme's potential contribution to social development is increased if those designing and administering it are informed about the social context in which aid is provided. A key factor in the British government's aid programme is the Overseas Development Association's (ODA's) understanding of social development. The author gives her views on ODA policy and basic questions that should be asked when undertaking a social-impact analysis of a proposed aid activity, including questions around issues of participation.

Reporting on a large gathering of international and Cuban NGOs and other agencies, this article explores the issues faced by Cuban society in undergoing rapid economic change; and examines why the New World Order has not led to any significant involvement with Cuba, either by the inter-governmental agencies, or by independent NGOs.

This workshop was hosted by the Open University (OU), inviting development practitioners, academics and OU associates to share ideas about the design of a new OU Diploma/Master's Programme in Development Management. The author reports on the participants' views about issues the course should cover, including discussion of the nature and scope of development management in general, how North-South relations are best considered, and the importance of promoting institutional development.

The accountability, performance, programming and legitimacy of NGOs in the so-called New Political Agenda of economic privatisation and `democratisation' was the subject of a conference in June 1994, jointly organised by Save the Children Fund (SCF) and the Institute of Development Policy and Management, University of Manchester.

Peter Coleridge discusses issues raised by Brian O'Toole and Geraldine Maison-Halls ([12]Development in Practice 4(1)) outlining the use of community-based rehabilitation (CBR) in providing services to disabled people in low-income countries. The author outlines his own experiences researching the use of CBR, consisting of interviews with disabled people living in various circumstances and ranging from leaders of disability movements to mothers of children with mental impairments, in Zimbabwe, Zanzibar, India, Lebanon and the Occupied Palestinian Territories.

This article is based on research commissioned by Save the Children Fund (SCF) into five family-tracing programmes in five African countries. The author describes the stages involved in tracing the families of children, and highlights the efforts that must be made at each stage to ensure the interests of each child are paramount, and are being considered on an individual, case-by-case basis. This article also appears in Development in States of War.

In 1979, the Government of Norway pledged financial support to launch an Integrated Rural Development Programme in Hambantota, Sri Lanka, which aimed to increase income, employment and production as well as improvement of social conditions and living standards of the people in the area, with special emphasis on the poorest groups. The process involved data collection, establishment of target groups, definition of the problem, project identification, project formulation and project implementation. Staff attempted to involve local people in all these stages.