Arab States

This paper takes stock of current thinking about the nature and distinctiveness of faith-based organisations (FBOs) in development. Since the 1990s, public policy-linked scholarship from the USA has sought to define and categorise FBOs. More recently, many donors have increasingly chosen to work with and fund such organisations, giving rise to discussions about how FBOs working in development should be defined and classified, and how their contribution to development should be assessed.

Following the American-led invasion of Iraq, thousands of Iraqis fled to Jordan and the international donor community initiated humanitarian assistance. Through a unique partnership, three organisations conducted participatory research with Iraqi children and their families in Amman. The goal was to understand children's lived experiences – their challenges and coping strategies – with a specific focus on child protection. A better understanding of local context had an immediate, positive impact on organisations and their effectiveness, but long-term change proved elusive.

This paper considers the employment of spatialised practice within child protection efforts as pursued by humanitarian agencies. Starting from a brief overview of the genealogy of enclosure and separation within both humanitarianism and in relation to childhood, examination is then made of spatialisation in the setting of the occupied Palestinian territory. It is argued that in a situation of occupation, the spatialised approach entails numerous problems that are both practical and political in nature.

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The present study aimed to aid government sector managers in Iran in their understanding of sustainable development mechanisms. Research was undertaken with 338 managers selected randomly from seven government ministries. The findings revealed that the rules and devices of public participation, voluntary environmental certification systems, scientific cooperation, and education were all priorities for moving towards sustainable development.

Development in Practice prides itself in being one of the most international of development journals, based on both authorship and readership. To reinforce our commitment to this international participation we are pleased to announce that our editorial team will now be strengthened by a group of regionally based contributing editors, who will provide a perspective on the key development issues, authors, and publications from those regions.

The world is standing at a major point in its history as I write, with European politicians still deliberating as to how a deepening of the international economic crisis will be averted or at least mitigated. The longer term implications for developing and emerging economies cannot yet be known. At one level we may see a major change in the emphasis of development aid, as well as priorities within developing countries as the demand-led consumer boom falters, but new opportunities arise in those countries still maintaining their economic growth.

As we come to an end of 2011, will the year mark a historical turning point for international development as we know it, or will this corner not be reached for a couple of years yet? The Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) international summit was held at the end of 2010, yet in reviewing this summit it is not clear that much has really changed. Many donors are still keen to support the MDGs through to target point of 2015, but most are following plans already laid out in their existing budgets.

At whatever level we are working, or researching, it is probably a truism that development is a slow business. Recently a UN official said to me that there is no appetite for longer term solutions to the socio-political structural issues which maintain poverty; and that people have been coming to the same conclusion for at least 30 years. Similarly we are often poor at researching longer term trends, not least because the current trend is for short-term ‘results’ from development aid, and evidence to back it up.

Egypt has an extensive system of food subsidies which provides bread and other basic staples to the population at low prices. This article examines the functioning of the food-subsidy system during two recent periods of rapid food-price inflation to evaluate its effectiveness as a social safety net. Three aspects are considered: the difference in rural and urban policies, the price differentials between subsidised and free-market goods, and the extent of coverage of the system.

Palestinian youth face developmental, cultural, and political barriers that impede them from fully engaging in civic life. Non-traditional, youth-centred pedagogies of engagement, like community-based service-learning, have shown their potential to motivate marginalised populations and provide space and roles for them to form individual identities while developing civic skills. Using data collected through focus-group interviews, this article considers the impact on West Bank youth who participated in an NGO's community-based service-learning leadership programme.