In English only
Volume 3
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La plupart des ONG de développement du Royaume-Uni se lancent dans des travaux de plaidoyer au niveau international pour tenter de réduire les contraintes imposées sur le développement au niveau de la base populaire par le système économique mondial et les actions des agences officielles d’aide. Jusqu’ici, leurs résultats ont été décevants et cet article examine quelques-unes des raisons sous-jacentes à l’échec des ONG à donner toute leur mesure dans ce domaine. Ce sont quatre faiblesses stratégiques qui sont identifiées : l’absence globale d’une stratégie claire, l’échec à établir des alliances solides, l’échec à développer d’autres voies que les orthodoxies en vigueur et le dilemme des relations avec les bailleurs de fonds. L’auteur analyse chacune de ces faiblesses sur la base d’exemples pratiques et tire les conclusions appropriées. This article is freely available as a chapter in Development and Advocacy.
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Two debates dominated the WCHR: whether human rights are universal or can be culture-specific, and whether respect for human rights is a factor in economic development. The author concentrates particularly on Oxfam's contribution to the Conference, organising two workshops about economic and social rights. The Conference was a qualified success, the final document taking forward some crucial issues, most notably recognising the importance of gender in human rights abuses.
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The author discusses issues about the role of NGOs and their relations with the state and the community. The term NGO does not help us to distinguish between grassroots groups, intermediary organisations, and international organisations and the author feels such distinctions would be useful. Claims are currently being made about the potential of NGOs to bring about social change, and focus is often placed on NGOs as if they all have a common role and common characteristics. The author advocates development `from below', and argues that the real development challenge is more about building sustainable processes than about influencing international policy. This article also appears in the Development in Practice Reader Development and Patronage.
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Empowerment of poor people is the declared aim of many NGOs and official development agencies. However, the failure to recognise the culture of poor people, and to use their own forms of organisation as a point of departure, means that many such programmes are in fact counter-productive. NGOs which wish to support people's empowerment need to demonstrate their faith in poor people by respecting and supporting their own decisions.
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A visit to a number of small enterprise and income generation projects supported under the ODA's Joint Funding Scheme in Zimbabwe and Kenya has raised a series of key points which have wider implications for practitioners and donors. The paper discusses each point and makes nine `recommendations' for NGOs and donors who support them. While the general benefits of NGOs - such as their relatively low cost, ability to reach the poor and innovativeness - is affirmed, the challenge facing NGOs is to progress further from this base. In particular, the paper argues that NGOs need to develop more business-like operations, focusing on the most practicable forms of enterprise structure but without losing their priority of seeking to benefit the poor and other disadvantaged groups. Technology-orientated projects need to ensure that they concentrate on the application of technology in a market context rather than its development per se. NGOs with donors need also to strive for a realistic definition of sustainability, to work towards a more credible project planning process and to be aware of the dangers of very visible and expensive investment in project transport undermining NGOs' efficiency.
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There was a split between North and South over environmental issues at the 1992 Earth Summit. A similar rift may re-emerge as British ODA opens management of its training programmes to competition in 1993. Emerging environmental training institutions in Asia have the advantages of similar environments, relevance and lower costs. As these increasingly realise that ODA funding for third country training is not tied to British Universities, they will compete with UK training institutions. The existing one way student traffic to UK institutions can benefit from competition. Modern information communication systems now allow training networks to interlink among institutions in both the North and the South. The UNCED commitment to increased training on environmental issues provides an opportunity for a major new environmental training project managed by an independent academic - development institute or NGO.
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The author gives a personal view describing the inequalities inherent in current global socio-economic and political arrangements. He identifies training, employment and allocation of development funds as issues fostering inequality between North and South, and discusses prospects for the future of their relationship. This article also appears in the Development in Practice Reader Development and Patronage.
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The MOC (Movement for Community Organisation) is an advisory centre for community organisations in the Feira de Santana region of north-east Brazil. Oxfam (UK and Ireland) has provided funds towards their work since 1972, and in 1990/91 commissioned a Brazilian institution to conduct an evaluation. This Note describes how it felt to be evaluated, and suggests lessons to be learned for all those involved in an evaluation process, which the MOC felt should involve greater mutual understanding between evaluators and those they evaluate, especially when agreeing assessment methodologies and objectives. This article also appears in the Development in Practice Reader Development and Patronage.
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The Institute of Rural Management at Anand (IRMA) in Gujarat, India, convened a workshop in April 1993 involving social scientists, environmentalists and gender experts, from India and the UK. Discussions centred on the application of gender analysis to the relationship between women, men, and the environment, and its implications for development and environment practice. Participants felt that NGOs working on gender-aware development must first analyse their own internal structures.
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The Annual General Assembly of Women in Development Europe (WIDE) took place in Madrid in March 1993. WIDE has members from 13 countries, mainly EC member states. The conference focused on `Women, Human Rights and Development' and the author briefly describes how the main speakers were concerned with the lack of international protection for the human rights of women, from the rise of fundamentalism in Magreb and wars in Eastern Europe through prostitution and trafficking in Asia.
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The first British conference to bring together practitioners and academics from both education and development fields was held in May 1993 at the University of Central Lancashire, England. Organised by Thorn Development Services, with support from Christian Aid, the conference explored what development education is, what its assumptions are, and what happens in other countries. Participants established that the primary need in the field was for greater communication and information-sharing between the various people practising and thinking about development education.
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In English only
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As the development agenda becomes more and more led by the preoccupations of Southern non-government organisations (NGOs) it becomes increasingly crucial that good communications flows are encouraged and maintained between development practitioners. Project staff have frequently been the underclass of the development world, often isolated, left to execute decisions made by others, poorly serviced in terms of training and information and none more so than the women amongst them. Yet they are the very people on whom the implementation of good development practice rests. The Arid Lands Information Network (ALIN) was established in 1988 specifically to address some of the needs of this group. Using a number of methods, it has sought to encourage and facilitate the sharing of information and ideas between development workers at village/project level and to build confidence and provide a platform for their concerns and views. The ultimate aim is not to increase membership of the ALIN `club', but rather to foster the desire to communicate and share experience, and to take control of the process of networking.
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This paper makes the case that emergency relief programs to pastoral areas of Africa do little to relieve the fundamental effect of famine, which is destitution. It argues that traditional mechanisms of coping with drought are often disrupted by food aid programs especially Food-For-Work. Three case studies from Sudan and Kenya are used to support the argument. The paper concludes by making policy recommendations for emergency programs to be more effective in meeting the primary need of pastoralists following severe drought, which is to rebuild herds and therefore their livelihoods.
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Although Zambia's deteriorating macroeconomic situation has created a difficult environment for business, it also creates opportunities for the emergence of small- and micro-enterprises. Recent government policy reforms affecting these firms are discussed along with existing programs for credit, training, technical assistance, and common-site facilities/business incubators. The current programs are limited in scope relative to the potential demand and qualitative improvements are needed. Time-phased options for assisting small- and micro-enterprises are discussed.
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In September 1992, women's health advocates representing women's networks in Asia, Africa, Latin America, the Caribbean, the U.S. and Western Europe met to discuss how women's voices might best be heard during preparations for the 1994 Conference on Population and Development and in the conference itself. The group suggested that a strong positive statement from women around the world would make a unique contribution to reshaping the population agenda to better ensure reproductive health and rights. The group drafted a `Women's Declaration on Population Policies,' which was reviewed, modified and finalised by over 100 women's organisations across the globe. The Declaration calls for a fundamental revision in the design, structure and implementation of population policies, to foster the empowerment and well-being of all women. It lists minimum program requirements and ten ethical principles which should underpin population policies so that they are responsive to women's needs and rights.
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This paper looks at a project funded by the Intermediate Technology Development Group aimed at allowing more households in Western Kenya to have access to improved wood-burning stoves, while at the same time benefiting the women who produce them. The basic concept behind the project is to develop a commercial market for the stove. The paper looks at the difficulties facing the organizations involved in this venture, as the provision of stoves moves from a subsidized to a commercialized approach. Abstract supplied by kind permission of CABI.
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Release of the Poor Through Education (ROPE) is a small development organization operating in a rural area of Tamil Nadu, Southern India. ROPE has chosen to focus and concentrate its efforts on upgrading the education, health and quality of life of the 5000 people resident in six small villages, as well as a nearby refugee village. This paper considers the rationale for the project, noting the central aim of using indigenous knowledge and skills to develop a self-reliant socioeconomic system. Abstract supplied by kind permission of CABI.
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The author reports on a workshop on `Construction sans Bois' (woodless construction) jointly run by Development Workshop and IUCN (The World Conservation Union) and held in Agadez, northern Niger, in December 1991. After giving a brief history of these `Nubian' vault-and-dome architectural techniques, the author charts the growth in the use of woodless construction in the Sahel over the last 15 years. Unstabilised earth-brick buildings are relatively cheap and simple to construct, the skills, once learned, are easily replicated, and with increased local training there is this sustainable form of housing can continue to spread in usage in the region and elsewhere.
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In September 1992 a workshop was held in Oxford, bringing together activists, researchers and academics with the joint aims of sharing diverse perspectives on South Asia's population policies as well as revising a research proposal on all aspects of women's reproductive health. The most tangible outcome of the workshop was a proposal for a project addressing the question of how women are taking decisions about reproduction, and providing a forum designed to facilitate exchanges between activists, NGOs and academics.
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The author reports on a conference held in London, England in November 1992 as part of Global Partnership '92 which considered the alarming increase in forced migration. Participants argued that immigration controls do not tackle the causes of migration, and international law is inadequate, failing to satisfactorily distinguish between immigration and asylum issues. The particular concerns of economic migrants and guest workers are discussed. The majority of discussion was from the Western European perspective.
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In English only
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Studies on resistance often overlook its gendered nature. This article looks at everyday resistance put up by village women against the Forest Department in Western India, within a historical context. It then examines recent attempts at organised resistance in the region. Analysing how both everyday resistance and marginalisation are connected to the gender-determined roles of women, the article argues that more conscious and deliberate efforts will have to be made if women are to organise for change. This article is freely available as a chapter in Development and Culture.
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The Nicaraguan National Union of Farmers and Ranchers (UNAG) in 1992, alongside local and international delegates, put together a document that was later called the Managua Declaration. The author highlights the general content of the declaration and the initial process proposed to gain international Cupertino for the agrarian model of development put forward in the document. The document endeavours to foster worldwide networks of farmers working to develop practical alternatives to neo-liberalism, from the perspective of both established farmers and the landless rural population.
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In September 1990 we became involved with the Centre for the Defence of the Child (CDM) in Brazil, with a view to participating in a survey into the lives of streetchildren that was being conducted by the group. The CDM is a branch of its parent organisation The Young Streetvendors' Association and takes on individual cases of streetchildren providing crisis management with social, psychological and legal support. It was decided to start a project of regularly taking a team of staff out of the building, onto the streets and into the areas where the streetchildren, were with the aim of providing a programme of support and self-esteem building, principally for the streetgirls. This project proved a success with the streetchildren and remains so following our departure from Brazil.
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As part of the global drive to achieve Universal Child Immunisation by l990 (UCI9O), Somalia launched a national immunisation programme for women and children. While access to it improved, actual demand for immunisation remained low. This paper reports the findings of a study to identify the factors influencing acceptance of immunisation in two Somali communities. A retrospective, qualitative approach was adopted to assess individual and community experience both with immunisation and with the immunisation programme. Data were derived from focus group discussions, informal interviews and observation. The research findings provided programme managers and health workers with information for redesigning both the overall approach of the immunisation programme; and the content and style of health messages.
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The article identifies some of the problems in information technology in developing countries, and is based on field research into the use of computers in health programmes in East Africa and Nepal. The visits were part of an ODA-funded project to design guidelines on the selection, use and maintenance of computers in a developing country. The article focuses on the current state of the technology, problems of selecting hardware and software, the training and retention of staff and access to information and support services. It suggests reasons for the current situation and offers some practical solutions.
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This paper examines the importance of culture and participation in development efforts. In this regard, it looks at the problems which have arisen as the result of those receiving aid, being regarded as objects rather than subjects with their own culture and behavioural patterns. The paper looks at why research into culture is important, and examines the relevance of participatory development. Abstract supplied by kind permission of CABI. This article is freely available as a chapter in Development and Culture.
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This paper introduces the PAEM, a programme working with Christian women in the rural parishes of Santa Barbara, Colon, Comayagua, Intibuca, and Lempira, all departments of Honduras. PAEM has a number of overall aims, which include to bringing together the women of each area as well as other less privileged women from nearby regions. The paper looks at PAEM's methodological contribution; women, communication and culture; challenges and perspectives; and the oral tradition and gender. This article also appears in the Development in Practice Reader Development and Social Diversity. Abstract supplied by kind permission of CABI.
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The ultimate objective of any AIDS/HIV intervention project is to reduce the spread of AIDS by promoting safer sexual behaviour. It is misleading to evaluate individual projects in terms of their success in achieving this because behavioural changes are influenced by a range of external factors. When measuring success, then, indicators should be carefully chosen to assess real changes in attitude; for example, measuring the likelihood that sex-workers make use of condoms, rather than simply monitoring the number of contraceptives distributed. This article also appears in the Development in Practice Reader Development for Health.
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The main purpose of extension work is to assist and encourage learning, and current thinking on the way adults learn suggests that the social context in which the learning takes place and the attitudes of the target group are as integral to their learning capacity as effective communication. The importance of learners' capacity for engagement with the subject matter, and the ability to draw out this capacity, should be more prominent when training extension workers.
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A conference of health-rights activists was held in Nicaragua in 1991, the theme of which was `Health Care in Societies in Transition'. The participants, in response to concerns that health care is being eroded by the widening gap between rich and poor, decided to launch the IPHC `to contribute to the fight for health and social justice'. The Council is an informal network of groups and movements committed to this goal.
