L'inadéquation entre les objectifs des politiques et ceux des bénéficiaires est apparente dans le développement rural. Cela relève en partie du fait que les populations rurales manquent de poids quand il s'agit d'influencer les décisions qui déterminent leurs moyens d'existence. Pour que le développement rural puisse profiter à ces populations, les stratégies générales de développement devraient s'accompagner de décisions politiques provenant des réflexions de la base. Dans le meilleur des cas, les agents du gouvernement et les politiciens devraient s'engager à poursuivre le programme de la population; en fait toute intervention du gouvernement devrait être une réponse politique émanant de la demande populaire.
Volume 5
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La position et la contribution des ONG dans le secteur de la Santé a évolué ces dernières années. Leur profil et la part du secteur qu'elles occupent ont pris de l'envergure; leurs activités ne sont souvent plus les mêmes. Les ONG sont considérées par beaucoup comme le principal acteur pour faire avancer le secteur, tenant compte de leur réputation d'être, entre autres, plus efficaces et plus responsables que beaucoup des gouvernements de pays en voie de développement. Cet article fait le tour de cette évolution et analyse en particulier un aspect qu'on a relativement ignoré - à savoir les rapports entre le gouvernement et le secteur non-gouvernemental dans le domaine de la santé. Il conclut en évoquant les mesures pratiques à prendre pour améliorer ces rapports.
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In English only
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Il existe dans le développement une tension reconnue entre les besoins des agents du terrain en matière d'informations pointues sur des questions clés et les routines académiques de recherche sur la politique du développement. La réduction de ce décalage implique, entre autres, l'élaboration de nouvelles méthodes d'organisation et de pratique de la recherche. Cet article, écrit par un chercheur, traite en particulier de la façon de combiner des méthodes d'enquête rapides et interactives sur le terrain, avec des éléments tirés des modes de recherche plus conventionnels, de façon à réduire l'écart `Macro-Micro' - c'est-à-dire à donner un éclairage aux tendances des stratégies nationales par l'exploration des réponses à l'échelon du ménage et de la communauté. Il décrit deux exemples de recherche en équipe en Tanzanie et en Zambie faites à l'instigation de l'agence officielle de Suède SIDA.
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Rapid population growth and its effect on the environment is one of the main concerns of development practitioners. Computer modelling tools have been used to explore the effects of proposed interventions, allowing agencies to quickly see where methods might be incompatible or have adverse or unexpected effects. The GIS is one such system, and is open to abuse if used to legitimise existing policy. The author sets out a two-process Policy and Decision Support System, which he feels is more context specific and less open to abuse since it involves the end-users in the development of the exploratory models. Using Operational Research techniques in combination with Complex Systems Modelling, he argues, should ensure that the design and implementation of programmes can be carefully explored and mutually agreed.
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The author considers the coping strategies used by the newly poor households of the now-independent nation-state Kyrgyzstan. Like other former members of the Soviet Union, Kyrgyzstan has fared badly economically since the disintegration of both the Union and complex economic links with it. In 1994, Save the Children Fund (SCF) carried out research into these coping strategies, the findings of which are briefly presented here. Full details can be obtained from SCF in a report entitled `Coping with the Transition: Household Coping Strategies in Kyrgyzstan' (SCF, December 1994).
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This conference, held in Lanzarote in April 1995, attracted delegates from NGOs, academic institutions, governments and the private sector, although representatives from the largest airlines, holiday companies and hotel groups were conspicuous by their absence. NGO-workers were concerned with shifting governments et al away from so-called nature tourism and towards the promotion of ecotourism. The final day of the conference was used to draft the Charter for Sustainable Tourism, for presentation to the UN.
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The author responds to Mike Powell's article in Development in Practice 5(3), and argues that it is not only those interfering in cultures as 'outsiders' who face difficulties and accusations of cultural subjectivity, but also those challenging norms as a member of that culture. Those presenting views which go against traditional social structures, such as the author's views about the treatment of women in South Asia, should not allow accusations of cultural relativism to dissuade them - rather, development practitioners should 'use culture to open up intractable areas of gender relations'. This article is freely available as a chapter in Development and Culture.
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The author argues that small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), rather than NGOs, are the most cost-effective and efficient ways of developing and distributing new technology to end users (the poor).
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Dans les programmes de Santé Primaire quelles sont les possibilités pour les communautés villageoises de participer aux processus de conception, de construction et de maintien de leur propre équipement de santé? Ce document relate trois projets de santé primaire en Sierra Leone et en Ouganda, dans lesquels des ONG, les gouvernements et les communautés-hôtes travaillent ensemble à la construction de bâtiments de soins; les trois organisations Save the Children Fund, Action Aid et Oxfam soutiennent chacune un des projets. L'article s'appuie sur ces trois exemples pour souligner les points qui demandent d'être surveillés et évalués dans les programmes de santé ayant pour but la participation de la communauté dans la réalisation et la maintenance des bâtiments de santé villageois.
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In 1992, UNICEF and the Organisation of African States (OAU) jointly proposed that 1994-2003 should be the Decade of the African Child. The author identifies nine challenges for Africa, and the rest of the world, if African children are to have an improved quality of life. These include promoting true empowerment, including health and nutrition policies in development policies, recognising that poverty may preclude people from adopting best practice e.g. in health, combating the erosion of mothers' ability to provide adequate child care, continuing to finance primary and adult literacy education, decentralising and democratising primary health care (PHC) and providing early warnings against predictable climactic disasters.
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In 1978 at Alma Ata, the date was set for achieving `Health for All by the Year 2000'. Achieving this seems more remote than it did then, due in part to Structural Adjustment Programmes (SAPs), the author argues. In Nicaragua, as elsewhere, structural adjustment provoked the redirection of resources away from public sector spending, including health care spending, and towards exports. The author advocates reasserting and implementing the Alma Ata recommendations in order to counteract this continuing erosion of health care. This article also appears in the Development in Practice Reader [13]Development for Health.
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NGOs have recently become a favoured mechanism for official development assistance: in 1994, half of all projects approved by the World Bank made provision for NGO involvement for implementing them; 75 per cent of these NGOs were Southern. Such flattery means that NGOs are in danger of seeing themselves as essential to development. Here, the author reflects on the rise of what he calls the `EN-GE-OH'. While some donor agency and NGO staff might find this Viewpoint somewhat caustic, most will recognise more than a grain of truth. The article is reprinted from the journal Chasqui, translated and adapted by the Editor. This article is freely available as a chapter in Development NGOs and Civil Society.
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A survey in the Rakai District in 1989 put the number of orphans at 25,000; by 1991 a population census counted 44,000, a growth the author attributes to the AIDS pandemic. The Child Social Care Project (CSCP) in Rakai works with widows and orphans to address their property rights, seeking to reduce the vulnerability of women and children under both customary and statutory law. The author discusses the work of the Project, and advocates continued processes of education and sensitisation to change attitudes, accompanied by legal reform. This article also appears in the Development in Practice Reader [13]Development for Health.
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NGOs are receiving and distributing increasing funding for projects attempting to help traumatised victims of political violence. The author argues that many of these projects are ill conceived, failing to recognise that one aim of modern warfare is the dissolution of the social fabric and that survivors will be trying to manage their distress in damaged social environments. Also, the Western conception of mental trauma does not provide an adequate model for understanding the complex and evolving experiences of those in war-affected areas. Social development should be foremost in NGOs' efforts, as opposed to the conception of the traumatised simply as patients who need to be treated. This article also appears in the Development in Practice Reader [13]Development in States of War.
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In English only
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Cet article traite de certains thèmes concernant la religion, la culture et le développement, en partie pour définir le contexte de la suite de cette édition. Il considère l'héritage religieux et/ou culturel de plusieurs agences ou individus du Nord, et son influence sur leurs programmes de développement. En partant du principe que ce sont les valeurs culturelles locales qui définissent le sens du développement, il aborde quelques questions culturelles - politiques et morales, pratiques et thématiques - posées par l'interaction Nord-Sud. Quels que soient ses motifs, l'histoire de l'intervention, conclut-il, reste une triste affaire. Il convient maintenant de jouer plutôt un rôle de solidarité, pendant que les peuples du Sud feront du développement leur propre histoire.
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From 1989, an attempt to improve agriculture by directly addressing ignorance and fatalism has been developed in Benin by an Italian NGO, Mani Tese, based on attempts to provide traditional peasant farmers with better qualifications and greater motivation. The approach consists of funding a network of school-farms, or Centres of Rural Promotion (CRPs) dedicated to teaching modern agricultural techniques in an appropriate and local context. The main aim of the strategy is to create a new kind of peasant farmer: one who has a good technological/cultural background, and is able to exploit all the locally available resources in a sustainable way. The paper discusses the importance of employing local personnel, and some of the problems that still need to be met (such as developing effective post-training assistance). It is concluded that this form of development aid allows the NGO to entrust the ultimate beneficiaries with as much responsibility as possible, and therefore allow the project to become autonomous. Abstract supplied by kind permission of CABI.
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The paper notes that in India, even when a village or household level survey is carried out for water-resource development, the usual standards of data collection are applied, and women's central importance in water use is thus not reflected. However, women are likely to be more visible in local planning exercises; and the active and effective roles of women in water management are impossible without such planning. The paper is an outcome of the Foundation for Public Interest's experience in community-based water-resource development and management projects, particularly within the areas of Mahesana, Banaskantha, and Sabarkantha in Gujarat and, to a lesser extent, some involvement in Rajasthan and Tamil Nadu. It emphasizes the need for increased recognition of women's capacity for water management, the shift in policies resulting from FPI's involvement in this area, problems with neglecting local initiatives and resource limitations, and the importance of building local capacity to ensure good operation and maintenance, and the generation of local investment. Abstract supplied by kind permission of CABI.
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In 1992 and 1993 fieldwork was done in the Eastern Region of Ghana to examine why hybrid cocoa, introduced by cocoa institutions, was adopted by some farmers and not others. This report discusses the problems encountered when collecting data, including the low-level of farmers' education, and the lack of official records and sampling possibilities.
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The author presents a personal view of an international conference on the use of financial services in the reduction of poverty, held at Reading University in the UK, with participants from NGOs, academic institutions, and Micro Finance Institutions (MFIs), as well as donors. The conference, according to the author, paid insufficient attention to the nature of poverty, measuring it in economic terms only, and failed to make clear potential difficulties with subsidised credit schemes, as well as putting forward a simplistic conception of financial technology transfer.
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La plupart des changements socio-économiques en cours en Afrique et dans une grande partie des pays du Sud viennent de l'extérieur. Les agences extérieures, qui sont souvent alliées à l'État, ignorent les populations laborieuses et les excluent des processus de décision. Leurs approches économiques méconnaissent la culture des peuples et leur vision du monde. Ce qui ne permet pas aux travailleurs d'utiliser le potentiel créatif de leurs forces pour adapter de nouvelles techniques et connaissances à leur propre réalité. Cet article met en évidence l'importance du contexte historique et le rôle central de la culture dans les processus socio-économiques. L'auteur rejette toute approche qui n'est pas familière à la culture des populations actives.
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La maladie mentale est une cause importante d'incapacité dans les pays de l'Afrique sous-Saharienne, et elle est rarement prise en compte dans les activités de développement de santé. Cet article met en évidence le rapport étroit entre les maladies mentales, la religion et la culture, à partir des expériences des auteurs au Zimbabwe. Ils mettent l'accent sur l'importance d'une connaissance empathique des croyances religieuses et des contextes sociaux des états de détresse psycho-sociale, plutôt que d'importer tout simplement les idées et les concepts acquis dans les sociétés d'Europe et d'Amérique du Nord.
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Jusqu'au début des années 80 la plupart des décideurs, malgré leurs belles paroles sur l'importance du rôle du `capital humain', étaient obsédés par le développement physique et le taux de croissance du Produit National Brut. L'Égypte, comme les autres pays du Tiers Monde, a fait de même. Il y a dix ans, pourtant, devant l'accroissement des dettes extérieures et la désintégration sociale, les rapports de l'investissement dans ces programmes d'infrastructure se révélaient maigres ou même négatifs. La culture, la communauté et l'autorité organique ont été redécouvertes comme les maillons manquants dans le processus de développement. Ces formes de vie associationniste sont parfois groupées avec d'autres sous la rubrique de `société civile'. On commence à définir le développement comme un processus dans lequel le potentiel humain est optimisé au niveau individuel et collectif. Cet article met en évidence l'interaction de ces variables en faisant appel à quelques exemples de projets de développement communautaires.
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Cet article raconte l’expérience de l’auteur comme conseiller auprès du Ministère de l’Éducation de la République Populaire Démocratique du Laos. Il fait la critique du rôle de l’expert étranger, des contextes dans lesquels cette expertise est proposée, voire imposée, et des barrières qui existent à la vraie communication. Il regarde aussi d’une façon positive les bénéfices qui en découlent une fois que ces questions ont été réglées.
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Ces deux études de cas montrent l'échec qui attend tout intervenant de l'extérieur qui tente de changer la réalité sociale d'une société, sans se donner la peine de comprendre l'existant, ni même ce que cette société demande et est disposée à accepter.
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The paper discusses the Restaurant Programme started for women in 1991 by the Bangladesh Rural Advancement Committee (BRAC). A restaurant may be opened under individual ownership with a maximum loan of Taka 6500, after which a current account for the individual is opened with BRAC. This money is withdrawn in installments according to the entrepreneur's needs and repayment is collected in daily or weekly installments, with an interest rate of 20%. Like most rural restaurants, these enterprises sell tea, snacks, and meals. By January 1993, there were 273 'Shuruchi Restaurants' (restaurants for good food) all over the country. The paper reports on an exploratory study undertaken by BRAC's Research and Evaluation Division, involving five restaurants selected from Manikganj, Jamalpur, and Sherpur districts. The main focus was to examine how far women's entrepreneurial capacity has developed, and to assess whether women have control over their business. Rapid rural appraisal and participatory rural appraisal techniques were used for data collection. Abstract supplied by kind permission of CABI. This article is freely available as a chapter in Development with Women.
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The Nilgiris Adivasi Welfare Association (NAWA) was founded in 1958, in Tamil Nadu, India, to work for the integrated welfare of the six Nilgiri tribes, all displaced and dispersed by the invasion of their forest homelands by incoming non-tribal peoples. The paper describes the original founding of the Paniya Rehabilitation Farm colony for 25 families who were bought out of bonded labour by the founder. After initial hope that the project would succeed in becoming self-reliant, the paper discusses the areas of the project which lost momentum, the lack of outside funding, the increased involvement of NAWA in supporting the Paniyas, and their seeming long-term dependency on NAWA. Abstract supplied by kind permission of CABI.
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Oxfam in Ethiopia has long been concerned that community-based development programmes should reflect local felt needs and priorities. Particularly where there has been a long history of engagement in a given area, a diagnostic survey has proved to be a valuable and flexible self-monitoring tool to re-assess development objectives with community groups. A diagnostic survey uses rapid rural appraisal techniques in a series of dialogues and interactions. The intention of the survey described in the paper was to determine whether the development programmes of Dubbo Catholic Mission (mother and child health services and water supply) were appropriate development activities for communities which had not previously been involved. The paper notes the constraints on agricultural production, as identified by groups of men and women, problems associated with health, and mother and child health care. Problems were ranked and collated from two peasant associations. The priority needs were: clean water, a health clinic, and fertilizers. In response to this, the Dubbo Catholic Mission was able to implement projects to address some of these problems. 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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In English only
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`Empowerment' - l'investiture de pouvoir pour l'autodétermination - est un terme anglais souvent employé mais rarement défini dans le domaine du développement. Cet article explore la signification du terme dans le contexte de sa racine - le pouvoir. Les différentes interprétations de ce qui constitue le pouvoir amènent à une variété de représentations du mot `empowerment' et à tout un éventail de conséquences pour la politique et la pratique du développement. Cette terminologie rend possible l'analyse du pouvoir, de l'inégalité et de l'oppression; mais le concept exige une définition et une utilisation précises et délibérées pour apporter véritablement un éclairage à la pratique du développement.
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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.
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Tandis que les asymétries dans les relations entre les sexes sont depuis longtemps reconnues dans les politiques traditionnelles du développement, lorsqu'il s'agit de tirer les leçons des analyses faites sur le sujet, les programmes contre la pauvreté manquent généralement de cohérence. Cet article fait le point sur les expériences des ONG qui ont réussi à intégrer cette prise de conscience dans l'élaboration d'interventions contre la pauvreté. Il montre qu'il est impératif d'augmenter les compétences organisationnelles des femmes pauvres, pour permettre l'intégration de leurs besoins et de leurs points de vue dans les procédures de planification. L'article conclut en disant que, sans un investissement du pouvoir, qui leur permettrait de dépasser `le piège des projets' et de participer aux décisions politiques et à l'allocation de ressources, les femmes resteront une catégorie marginalisée dans le développement.
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Le phénomène du vieillissement de la population est déjà bien établi dans les pays du Nord, mais c'est un thème qui prend de plus en plus d'importance dans les pays du Sud. Cette transition démographique se déroule pourtant sans l'aisance croissante qui a accompagné l'industrialisation du Nord. Cet article scrute plusieurs aspects du problème dans le Sud, entre autres la situation socio-économique des personnes âgées, leur santé et leur rôle dans la famille et dans la communauté. Il se demande si le changement de statut des personnes âgées relève des forces de la modernisation ou plutôt des inégalités structurelles qui existent dans toutes les sociétés (les différences économiques et de statut social), mais qui sont particulièrement importantes dans les pays plus pauvres du Sud.
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La capacité technologique est à la base du développement économique, mais l'étude d'entretiens recueillis auprès du personnel des ONG britanniques travaillant à l'étranger donne à penser que c'est un facteur rarement pris en compte dans l'analyse des besoins en matière de développement. Au lieu de cela, ce sont les valeurs essentielles de ces ONG qui déterminent leur attitude par rapport à la technologie; il s'ensuit un impact contradictoire sur la promotion des compétences technologiques. Cette impression est confirmée par une enquête auprès de 11 petites entreprises du Zimbabwe qui reçoivent une aide non-gouvernementale. Parmi ces entreprises, certaines font preuve d'une forte potentialité, mais d'autres vivent le cercle vicieux de maigres compétences et de manque d'esprit d'entreprise dans un environnement économique très hostile. C'est aux ONG de développer des critères technologiques appropriés, afin d'exercer un impact positif sur les projets de développement qu'elles soutiennent.
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The author presents his views on the essential ingredients of development, comparing the development ideal with its reality. Development is about change for the better, which must be appropriate (culturally, economically, technologically etc.) if change is to take root, and gain the participation of beneficiaries. Equity and justice are at the heart of any change for the better, as is sustainability. True development cannot be measured in solely economic terms, but must also include changes in the quality of lives, which are less tangible. Development as a process is not just a `Third World' issue but a universal concern, encompassing responses to over-development as well as under-development. This article also appears in the Development in Practice Reader [13]Development and Social Diversity.
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The Peasant Road, or La Via Campesina (LVC) as it is officially named, is being improved. It started at the initiative of a number of farmers' organizations during the 1992 Second Congress of the Nicaraguan Farmers' Union, UNAG. In the face of structural adjustment programmes and increasingly laissez-faire economic policies, bound to ruin many small farmers, they called for a programme of cooperation between farmers' organizations. The general objective of LVC's programme is the search for alternatives to current neo-liberal policies. It is more than a protest movement against farmer-hostile policies. Proposals for a truly democratic rural development are necessary, based on research carried out in cooperation with scientific research institutes and public authorities. Contrary to past experience, the research agenda should be determined by the farmers and their organizations, and not by scientists and policy makers. Farmers are tired of being research objects: they want to do the research by themselves, because they know what they are talking about when they draw up their own development proposals. Abstract supplied by kind permission of CABI.
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The phenomenon of Mozambican refugees in Malawi dates back to the time of Portuguese colonial rule. However, it is the spectacular magnitude of today's influx which has attracted national and international attention. By the close of 1992, Malawi was hosting over one million Mozambican refugees in 12 of the 24 districts. The paper grew out of an ethnographic study, with the overall objective of examining the motives for and the impact of the provision of humanitarian assistance on the refugees and host-country populations. The central argument of the paper is that by applying traditional ideas about men's and women's roles to the recruitment of trainees for income-generating activities, women's development potential remains largely untapped. Alternative approaches to working with women have to be actively sought, to ensure that the process of development is fruitful as well as gender-fair. This article also appears in the Development in Practice Reader [13]Development and Social Diversity. Abstract supplied by kind permission of CABI.
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The paper presents a brief account of a development programme in southern Mexico. DESMI AC, a Mexican NGO based in the southern state of Chiapas, provides and encourages economic and educational assistance to groups of marginalised indigenous Indians, in order to help them improve their quality of life. In the early days, DESMI's efforts were focused on health and training in cooperatives. As ideas on social development themselves changed, so DESMI gave increasing emphasis to education and production, stressing the need for collectively organized productive activities to be underpinned by a shared understanding of and commitment to the broader objective of social transformation, as well as being backed up with administrative skills. Abstract supplied by kind permission of CABI.
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The author discusses Alan Gibson's article of the same name (Development in Practice 3(3)). Nyamugasira expands on Gibson's discussion (limited, according to the author) of the problems faced by practitioners forced to balance the adoption of more business-like operations with continuing to benefit the greatest possible number of people.
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In English only
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Cet article explore les perspectives pour les ONG étrangères et autochtones de la Chine d'après Mao. La complexité structurelle du secteur ONG qui se développe en Chine est illustrée par une typologie des nouvelles organisations sociales qui se sont épanouies pendant les dix dernières années. L'auteur évoque les facteurs qui favorisent l'expansion de ce secteur intermédiaire d'activités peu ou non gouvernementales, mais il fait aussi état des facteurs qui empêchent dans l'immédiat, l'émergence d'un secteur d'ONG animé. Les ONG étrangères qui iront chercher des contacts à la prochaine Conférence Internationale des Nations Unies sur les Femmes devront être disposées à travailler avec le Parti/État et les organisations sociales semi-officielles.
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The author charts the progress of the United Nations (UN) in moving towards a more holistic view of human rights, specifically drawing examples from their resolutions about the phenomenon of forced eviction. He argues that campaigners, organisations and trade unions should use the strong UN resolutions on this issue to protect the right to housing, since most governments are not likely to publicise or necessarily comply with UN pronouncements. This article also appears in the Development in Practice Reader [13]Development in States of War.
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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. The author discusses participants' attitudes towards the best targets for NGO resources and effort, the problem of NGOs' increasing concern to be accountable to donors at the expense of their accountability to beneficiaries, the pressure (often State pressure) on NGOs to become service-providers, and the difficulties of relying on official donors. The lack of reference to gender-based inequalities in the formal sessions was an area of concern.
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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.
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Rendant compte d'un important rassemblement d'ONG cubaines et internationales et d'autres agences, cet article explore les questions auxquelles doit faire face la société cubaine dans le cours de sa rapide mutation économique; et il examine les raisons pour lesquelles le Nouvel Ordre Mondial n'a pas amené les agences inter-gouvernementales ni les ONG indépendantes à s'engager de façon significative à Cuba. Il décrit le rôle que jouent les organismes soutenus par l'État pour maintenir les importants acquis de développement des trente dernières années; et il affirme que les ONG qui veulent promouvoir la `démocratisation' doivent éviter de tomber dans des `a priori' simplistes et inappropriés sur la distinction entre l'État et la `société civile'.
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L'article résume les points identifiés dans une étude menée pour le compte de la Fondation néerlandaise HIVOS et la Division `Développement' du Ministère des Affaires Étrangères néerlandais, étude qui comportait une enquête de terrain auprès de 45 ONG environnementales dans sept pays africains. Cette étude fournit une base de données institutionnelle qui alimente les stratégies de coopération des agences à l'origine de la recherche et sert de base à l'analyse de questions plus générales sur le rôle et le comportement de divers types d'ONG.
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Avec l'apaisement des guerres en Amérique Centrale, la région subit des changements profonds et de grande envergure au sein de son économie et dans le rôle de l'État, notamment dans la croissance de l'industrie maquila (matériel d'assemblage industriel), et dans la réduction de son secteur public. Pourtant, la pauvreté a augmenté, en lien, semble-t-il, avec la montée de la violence et de la délinquance, et avec un déclin de la sécurité alimentaire. L'enjeu pour les forces sociales de la région, autant que pour les ONG telles que Oxfam, tient dans l'élaboration d'une alternative durable dans le temps et qui ne manquera pas également de répondre aux besoins immédiats.
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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.
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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.
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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 author criticises the use of ESFs as temporary safety nets, and discusses the role of NGOs in the ESF system.
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The use of the `development limited liability company' (LLC) is expanding. There are important differences between the broad social goals of development and the narrow economic ones of the LLC: they are concerned with people and profit respectively. The author discusses the problems likely to arise when NGOs attempt to use LLCs directly, as part of their administrative or funding arrangements.
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`Social integration' is one of the three main agenda items for the World Summit for Social Development (to be held in Copenhagen, March 1995), as identified by the General Assembly of the United Nations. This term is ambiguous and can be understood in a variety of ways, not all of which are equally useful. The author describes trends of social integration, encompassing issues around globalisation and insecurity, marginalisation and identity, and democracy, representation, and accountability.
