Volume 10

Good governance is currently seen as a means to development with decentralisation acting as one of its main tools.This paper illustrates how development institutions use decentralisation as a technical tool, neglecting its essentially political aspects.

This paper reports on an attempt in Zimbabwe to use methods and techniques commonly associated with rural contexts, Rapid Rural Assessment (RRA) and Participatory Rural Appraisal (PRA), to undertake an assessment of the needs and perceptions of private sector enterprises in two urban settings. These participatory methods were well received and also facilitated dialogue among different, and sometimes mutually hostile, stakeholders.

While gender has become a central factor in development, age and older people are seldom considered, and many organisations assume a top-down, non-participatory model of care - even when these organisations are otherwise engaged in sustainable and partipatory development. This paper looks at how older people have been involved in sustainable community-based care efforts in Southeast Asia, and argues that the key factor for project success is the building of 'social capacity' - the ability of a social group or community to function and care for its older members - which depends on the strategic approach to participation taken by the project.

The 1998 floods, which inundated much of Bangladesh, had a major effect on the lives and work of urban slum children. Lack of work opportunities, and beliefs about appropriate roles for young children, meant that the floods did not lead to great increases in workforce entry and in some cases led to a reduction the opportunities available. Children's domestic work was also affected. Children's paid and domestic work had an important impact on how well households survived during and after the floods. The findings highlight the simultaneously beneficial and harmful nature of much child labour, and are therefore relevant to the dilemmas that face policy makers in this area. The research reported on in this article also has implications for those involved in disaster relief policy making.

The paper presents the major differences between the approaches to project planning known as Logical Framework Approach (LFA) and Participatory Rural Appraisal (PRA) and discusses whether these can be used in a complementary fashion. It is suggested that LFA be used to provide the overall structure of the planning process while PRA may be used in discussions and to place decision making at the grassroots. This article is freely available as a chapter in Development Methods and Approaches: Critical Reflections

Needs assessments of adults and children in households affected by HIV/AIDS in many parts of sub-Saharan Africa indicate that food provision is a critical support area which has been neglected in mitigation interventions. This paper looks at practical options for targeting food aid within a development framework, using Zambia as a case country.

The forces associated with economic globalisation and the apparent supremacy of market forces have unleashed a range of political and social processes that have served, and were indeed designed, to enrich and empower the few at the expense of the majority. These include phenomena such as the rise in armed conflict, threats to food security, the loss of livelihoods and traditional ways of life of millions of people worldwide, the commodification of social provision, assaults on national sovereignty, and the privatisation of citizenship. However, the author argues, the most significant impact of globalisation is the `localisation' of social and political struggle, and the emergence of new forms of international solidarity. Many NGOs have too readily succumbed to the view that globalisation in its present form is inevitable and irreversible, and have accommodated to it by trading their essential values for technical professionalism, often imported from the private sector. However, if NGOs are to assume their place as part of a transformational movement for social justice, they must re-discover and foster the values of citizen participation and develop a genuine respect for diversity. This article is freely available as a chapter in Debating Development: NGOs and the Future.

This article examines why the World Bank adopted neo-liberal economic policies. It argues that neo-liberal discourse favoured the interests of key Northern actors, and, more surprisingly, that it also allowed many Southern state actors to maintain or extend their political power. This is because World Bank discourse offers little or no political analysis of the state, instead focusing on `technical' issues of economic adjustment. While there may now be a certain shift in World Bank discourse towards somewhat greater acceptance of a role for the state, there is still a widespread absence of a political analysis, which means that dominant power relations will still not be fundamentally acknowledged or challenged. This article is freely available as a chapter in Debating Development: NGOs and the Future.

Interest in partnerships between international NGOs and the corporate sector is growing as both sectors see their roles changing in response to increasing consumer awareness about social, environmental, and human rights issues. This article presents the case of the partnership between the sports goods industry, The Save the Children Fund (SCF), and various international and local organisations in the district of Sialkot in Pakistan. The author uses this case in order to discuss the important elements of a cross-sectoral partnership, the considerations for the various parties that enter into such partnerships, and the implications of these partnerships with the corporate sector for the future of NGOs and their vision of development. This article is freely available as a chapter in Debating Development: NGOs and the Future.

In this overview essay, the co-editors examine the new challenges and opportunities facing development NGOs in relation to their relevance, their mission, relations between Northern and Southern NGOs and with other agents of power, including business, and their effectiveness. There is a balance to be drawn between keeping up with emerging issues and agendas, and retaining the values that underpin their integrity and unique nature. NGOs saw phenomenal growth in the neo-liberal policy environment that flourished in the late twentieth century, but this very prominence means that more questions are being asked about their accountability, and about their mandates. Will the twenty-first century see NGOs still living complacently in the past, or will they genuinely rise to the challenges ahead? This editorial overview is freely available as the opening chapter in Debating Development: NGOs and the Future.

This paper questions whether development agencies and their staff, at whatever level (community-based organisations, national or international NGOs) are sufficiently clear about their own values and roles, and seeks to analyse tensions and dilemmas that arise when roles are confused. Clarity about the roles of the people and agencies involved is essential for the development of a valid global citizens' movement that can inter-connect local and global problems and actors, and work towards sustainable solutions. This article is freely available as a chapter in Debating Development: NGOs and the Future.

While the forces of globalisation have intensified economic polarisation, diverse social movements worldwide are struggling to defend the public interest and to promote a more rights-based and sustainable form of organising human society. In allying themselves with the causes of the dispossessed at the local level, and raising international awareness of such issues, NGOs have a part to play in building a more equitable global order. However, NGOs urgently need to find better ways to link these struggles with their analysis, their action, and their ethical values. This article is freely available as the opening chapter in Debating Development: NGOs and the Future.

NGO campaigns have become increasingly high profile in recent years. Three contemporary examples are critically examined (Brent Spar, landmines, and international debt), both in terms of the various ingredients behind their success, and in relation to their real significance and long-term impact. The author looks at the trade-offs, challenges, and opportunities for NGO-sponsored campaigns within a changing political order and in the light of the potential offered by New Media. This article is freely available as a chapter in Development and Advocacy and in Debating Development: NGOs and the Future.

NGO advocacy is sometimes portrayed in a heroic light, but efforts to influence World Bank-supported economic policies confront considerable ambiguity. Influence is difficult to demonstrate, but advocacy should be more rigorously assessed in the interest of transparency and effectiveness. Two (partial) solutions to this ambiguity are to focus on the process of NGO campaigns themselves; and to monitor impact on component parts of a model of institutional change at the Bank. This article assesses a recent advocacy campaign by testing it against five criticisms of NGO campaigning, then proposes that NGO advocates develop a practical model of policy change and monitor and evaluate their efforts with reference to the model's component parts. This article is freely available as a chapter in Development and Advocacy and in Debating Development: NGOs and the Future.

Despite a growing emphasis by aid agencies on local participation and consultation, the recipients of aid commonly have mixed, if not hostile, responses to relief assistance. Agencies need to acknowledge the inequalities that are inherent in an aid relationship, and be more judicious in determining their proper role. Finally, the author calls for aid providers and recipients to accept our innate human equality and our circumstantial inequality in order to establish relationships of mutual respect and contemporaneous enjoyment of each other. This article is freely available as a chapter in Development, Women and War: Feminist Perspectives and in Debating Development: NGOs and the Future.

Is it preferable for aid agencies to listen to their prophetic calling and risk their hard-earned credibility by engaging in advocacy that is intended to avert disasters, or should NGOs instead be wary of calling wolf too often? Written from the perspective of an advocacy practitioner, this article looks at the conflicting pressures on NGOs both to scale-up and to limit advocacy during disasters. It is important to evaluate NGOs' motives and also the impact of their preventive advocacy efforts: whenever advocacy is an issue, questions of accountability, veracity, and legitimacy are never far from the surface. The paper ends with a plea to NGOs to take seriously their credibility as a resource which should be risked, where necessary, as part of the overall humanitarian ethic of saving lives. The dangers of appearing self-serving and misleading are genuine, but ultimately the potential to change dire events is too important to be surrendered lightly. This article is freely available as a chapter in Debating Development: NGOs and the Future.

As the century has just changed for the Western calendar it may be appropriate to bear in mind that for a vast part of the world the centuries are different and rolling at a different time and under different conditions. So, although we live and trade in a global village we are yet divided by time, space, and ideologies. The hope is that the twentieth century will enable us to have a closer look at each other and that the global network, the websites, and the electronic mailing systems will work as a bridge rather than a new means of widening the gaps. This article is a plea for a better understanding of the different priorities and views that Islamist women have of themselves, of their place in history, and what it is that they need to fight for. It is also a call for the universality of sisterhood and a wish that the solidarity that was forged in latter part of the twentieth century will not be fragmented into smithereens in the new millennium. This article is freely available as a chapter in Debating Development: NGOs and the Future and in Development and Culture.

This article summarises the results of a joint action-research project undertaken by a number of international and local NGOs, which involved case studies in four countries in Africa, three in South Asia , one in Latin America, and one in the UK. The paper seeks to situate the discussion of impact assessment in the context of a growing critique of international NGOs. Overall, it is suggested that simple models of cause and effect which link project inputs to outputs and impact, although important, are usually inadequate for assessing the impact of what NGOs do. Instead, the author recommends the need to develop models that embrace the wider context of influences and change processes that surrounds projects and programmes, and the broad-ranging impacts that result. A major conclusion to emerge from the case studies is that the ability to select a judicious mix, and sequence, of tools and methods is vital. The paper concludes by looking at the broader policy implications of the studies notably in relation to: dealing with the problems of attribution and aggregation; exploring the issue of poverty reach and gender relations; warning aganist simplistic use of impact assessment to allocate resources; and in suggesting how impact assessment can be part of a 'virtous circle' of change that can help promote greater accountability and learning among international NGOs. This article is freely available as a chapter in Debating Development: NGOs and the Future.

This paper argues that the distinctive values common to many NGOs gives them a particular advantage over other types of organisations. This perspective should be seen in the context of donors' increasing willingness to fund non-traditional development actors, including the military, parastatals, quangos, private service contractors, and consultancy firms. To distinguish themselves from other recipients of aid funding, NGOs need to identify, articulate, and nurture their core values and identity. The paper identifies some of the key indicators that best reflect values and organisational capacities that distinguish NGOs from other agencies. The concern is that if NGOs lose their core values they lose their role. This article is freely available as the opening chapter in Debating Development: NGOs and the Future.

This paper describes the Participatory Change Process (PCP), a model that promotes the formation and action of sustainable grassroots organisations in poor and marginalised communities, using participatory learning and action methods to provide people with the capacities, self-confidence, and organisational structures needed to plan and implement development projects and influence policy formation. This article is freely available as a chapter in Development Methods and Approaches: Critical Reflections

The author reports on the triennial conference of the European Association of Development Research and Training Institutes (EADI), held in Paris in 1999. He found a disturbing lack of historical analysis and awareness, and a surprising dearth of discussion of the value of knowledge, or information sharing, in the North-South relationship of the future.

This Conference Report presents the recommendations taken from a Summary Report of the South Asian Agenda Regional Meeting for South Asia, held in New Delhi, India in 1999. The event was convened by the Disaster Mitigation Institute (DMI) and supported by the Department for International Development (DfID) of the British government. Measures to reduce the disaster vulnerability of poor communities, to improve the standard of, and review public expenditure on, relief, for example, are discussed.

This article looks at the lessons learned in reviewing two long-running international campaigns, one to promote breastfeeding in Ghana, and the other against the use of child labour in the carpet industry in India. In particular, it focuses on understanding the nature of campaigns and what makes them effective. It asserts that campaigns are not linear or mechanistic, but need to be understood as passing through various stages and requiring different kinds of action at different levels and at different times. The variety of work and skills thus required make it vital that the various organisations involved collaborate with each other. In particular, grassroots mobilisation has a role in bringing about sustained policy change that is often forgotten. This article is freely available as a chapter in Development and Advocacy.

Agricultural co-operatives have been promoted in India's economic development programme as a means of encouraging large-scale agricultural production while enhancing community Cupertino and equity. Focusing on sugar co-operatives in Gujarat state of western India, the author shows that these co-operatives have been successful in promoting large-scale agricultural production and in improving the economic and social standing of their members. This success, however, has been built upon the exploitation and pauperisation of local landless communities and migrant labourers. As a result, there has been an increased differentiation of the peasantry in south Gujarat.

The paper considers the effectiveness of different strategies used in urban areas by development agencies to reduce poverty, including the relative merits of income generation and housing and neighbourhood improvement. Drawing on the findings of recent case studies, it suggests that the advantages of housing and neighbourhood improvements may have been under-estimated, and that too little attention has been given to integrating housing and neighbourhood improvement with income-generation.

The author examines the contemporary liwac or barter system in Addis Ababa, a thriving part of the informal economy which involves the exchange of household goods for second-hand clothes and shoes. He concludes that this form of transaction positively co-exists with and is not superseded by the monetised economy.

Based on primary research, this paper describes the negative human, occupational, and environmental impacts of the Kiraz Dere dam project in Turkey, concluding that financial compensation for people who are displaced by such projects is unlikely in itself to lead to the resettlement recommended by agencies such as the World Bank.

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The author discusses the importance of rural family poultry (RFP) in Africa as an income generating and/or subsistence asset for families, particularly highlighting the gender dimension of RFP, since women are often the main owners of, and carers for, chickens. RFP development programmes must take account of other demands on women's time, but should aim to keep profits in the hands of women, increase production (for nutritional and financial gains), facilitate setting up co-operatives and, through these, the provision of training and supplies (making use of economies of scale).

The author summarises the results of research into the health of older adults in Malawi, India, and Tanzania, which found high levels of malnutrition and anaemia among them, as well as, and linked to, poor functional ability. The data suggests the need for development agencies to specifically consider older adults - who form an increasing proportion of the population - in their programme work, since the problems highlighted arise from poverty-related factors.

As part of a human rights education campaign, the Bangladesh Rural Advancement Committee (BRAC) fixed 700,000 posters throughout Bangladesh. This met with opposition from religious organisations. This paper investigates the nature and cause of the backlash and sets out strategies for how development organisations can achieve their objectives in the face of opposition. The opposition was found to be in response to interpretations of the posters based on the Holy Koran and Islamic practices, and a perceived intrusion into the professional territory of religious organisations, which affected the socio-economic interests of these organisations' representatives. It was therefore concluded that development organisations should pre-empt such opposition by spelling out their objectives to potential critics, and formulating programmes that do not provide scope for opponents to undermine their development activities. This article is freely available as a chapter in Development and Advocacy.

In 1997, 30 women and men of different ages and from a range of cultural, religious, social, and geographical backgrounds, participated in an Encounter to seek a deeper understanding of the implications of 'femininity' and 'masculinity' in their lives and their societies. Each had responded in writing to questions like: how did I become aware of 'womanhood' and 'manhood' ? how are these differences expressed in my society? how far do I see social changes that are taking place as a result of 50 years of women' s movements? The process provided a challenge to move beyond the feminine/masculine divide towards fundamental issues of human dignity. This article draws on the written and oral contributions of the participants.

The author describes the movement of the Tobas indians from their nomadic, rural lifestyle in northern Argentina (due mainly to industrial deforestation) to Rosario, a city of around 1 million inhabitants. He highlights the difficulties the Tobas face in Rosario; their economic destitution, and the lack of education in their own language. He advocates economic support for co-operatives and training in traditional crafts, and changing the education system - or failing that, supporting non-formal workshops - to reflect the Tobas' own cultural values.

Women's groups in Papua New Guinea, often under the influence of colonial and church governance in the past, still have an ambiguous function which serves to isolate women and `women's issues' rather than spread gender sensitivity. The author concludes that the existence of these forums for women actually encourages the continued marginalisation of women from governing and decision-making structures, since women's groups `tend to operate from separate and unequal spheres of influence'.