Sub-Saharan Africa

Using technology to deliver social protection: exploring opportunities and risks

Providing cash transfers to vulnerable groups reduces vulnerability and chronic poverty; but delivering cash to remote, rural locations can be expensive and insecure. Alternative delivery systems using technology are thus being piloted. This article uses examples from southern Africa to highlight the opportunities and risks involved in using technology to deliver social protection, with particular focus on two schemes in Malawi.

Author: 
Devereux, Stephen
Author: 
Vincent, Katharine
Page: 
367

Gold mining and corporate social responsibility in the Wassa West district, Ghana

Despite a boom in gold mining in Ghana's Wassa West district (WWD), unemployment and poverty have deepened, partly due to loss of farmland to surface mining but more so because of the limited opportunities for wage employment in the district's 'revived' gold-mining industry. However, the large-scale mining companies are implementing some alternative livelihood programmes (ALPs) as part of their corporate social-responsibility (CSR) agenda.

Author: 
Yankson, Paul W. K.
Page: 
354

The learning organisation as a model for rural development

This article presents evidence from Uganda's National Agricultural Advisory Service to argue that the concept of 'the learning organisation' is a valuable complement to participatory development which may facilitate a shift towards more democratic development institutions in which target beneficiaries have a stronger voice in planning and managing development. The concept of 'the learning organisation' as developed within the literature of management studies cannot, however, be readily translated into anything as specific as a clear set of practical guidelines.

Author: 
Parkinson, Sarah
Page: 
329

'Communities of practice': prospects for theory and action in participatory development

'The myth of community' permeates both the understanding and the practice of participatory development. Yet the idea that communities exist as coherent units of people who inhabit bounded geographic spaces and are ready to be mobilised for development restricts the very agency that participation promises. This article offers an alternative model of community: one that is more compatible with the ideal of people-centred, participatory development.

Author: 
Anyidoho, Nana Akua
Page: 
318

Inter-disciplinarity, development studies, and development practice

The article primarily seeks to show the interconnectedness of diverse academic disciplines and their crucial role in development practice. It sheds light on the meanings of developmentrelated concepts and seeks to delineate between the four inter-related concepts of multi-, inter-, trans-, and cross-disciplinarity. It argues that while inter-disciplinarity is desirable for a broad-based discipline such as Development Studies, the appropriateness of the concept when juxtaposed with trans-disciplinarity seems somewhat inadequate.

Author: 
Kolawole, Oluwatoyin Dare
Page: 
227

The place of stories in development: creating spaces for participation through narrative analysis

The stories that we hear as we conduct development research or implement development projects are often relegated to the margins of development studies. This article argues that these stories require our attention, for they are windows on to indigenous narratives of development and our placement in those narratives.

Author: 
Carr, Edward R.
Page: 
219

Citizen-driven reform of local-level basic services: Community-Based Performance Monitoring

Amid growing interest in forms of participatory and decentralised governance, increasing efforts are being made to increase the accountability, responsiveness, and relevance of the state through active citizenship. Drawing on the theoretical basis for social accountability, this article explores bottom–up views of active citizenship which highlight the importance of the intrinsic as well as the instrumental value of participatory social accountability and thus of active citizenship.

Author: 
Walker, David W.
Page: 
70

Diary of a participatory advocacy film project: transforming communication initiatives into living campaigns

In August 2007, the Government of Tanzania committed to doubling the number of training places for skilled midwives following a five-year campaign by the White Ribbon Alliance for Safe Motherhood in Tanzania (WRATZ), which culminated in the first television screening of a participatory film, ‘Play Your Part’. With contributions from a range of health professionals, communities, a pop singer, and the Minister of Health, the message was that everyone at every level has a part to play in saving mothers’ lives.

Author: 
Flower, Emilie
Author: 
McConville, Brigid
Page: 
933

Probiotics in Tanzania: a multi-partner development project

This article critically examines an HIV/AIDS development and research project in Mwanza, Tanzania. A group of women produce a type of probiotic yoghurt that has evidence of lowering the incidence of HIV infection. The yoghurt is consumed by the women, their family members, and local citizens living with HIV/AIDS; surplus is sold within the community. While the project’s multi-partner, multidisciplinary composition allows for varied expertise and insights, it also requires open and collaborative dialogue.

Author: 
Smeltzer, Sandra
Author: 
Flesher, Grace A
Author: 
Andoniou, Ellena
Page: 
873

The State They're In: An Agenda for International Action on Poverty in Africa

Author: 
Lockwood, Matthew
Publisher: 
London: ITDG Publishing, 2005, ISBN:1853396176, 192 pp
Reviewed by or other comment: 

Reviewed by Alina Rocha Menocal, Centre for Aid and Public Expenditure, ODI, London

In English only
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