Volume 11

  • In English only
  • Ethical trade is expanding rapidly in the UK. Following the foundation of the Ethical Trading Initiative many companies are adopting codes of conduct to cover employment conditions in their supply chains, based on a process of multi-stakeholder participation. Addressing gender issues in their implementation remains an important challenge for policy makers. This paper considers how gender sensitivity in the monitoring and verification of codes can be enhanced within a multi-stakeholder framework based on evidence from a case study of export horticulture in South Africa. It makes policy recommendations to address the needs of more marginalised workers, many of whom are women. Investments in process-oriented and farmer-participatory research have led to the emergence of sustainable agroforestry solutions to the problems of land degradation, poverty, and food insecurity in rural areas. Thousands of farmers in diverse ecoregions have taken up innovations that demonstrate the potential of agroforestry. This paper highlights the importance of institutional change through illustrating the approach taken by the International Centre for Research in Agroforestry to scale up adoption and impact of innovations. Eight focal areas of intervention constitute the key elements of a development strategy aimed at providing 80 million poor people in rural areas with better livelihood options by 2010.

  • Never before has the Bolivian state made such a serious effort to promote peasant participation in local development. In 1994, it promulgated the Law of Popular Participation which institutionalised a Participatory Municipal Planning methodology. While fully recognising its progressive nature, it is not too hard to discover authoritarian flaws within this methodology. The authors argue that the concept of participation should be viewed as `negotiation' in order to increase the scope of peasant participation in the planning process. This in turn implies some major methodological changes, but would result in Municipal Development Plans with the flexibility to account for the specific situations of the Bolivian peasantry.
  • This paper discusses the relationship between corruption and economic development. It questions the view that under certain conditions, corruption may enhance efficiency and argues that though corruption may benefit powerful individuals, it will indubitably lead to greater inefficiency and a waste of resources at a macroeconomic level. Following a brief introduction, the author suggests that a possible cause of corruption is the weak productive base, the essential condition for the appearance of shortage which, in turn, spurs corruption. Some possible impacts of corruption are then examined. While no specific policy measure is suggested, a more accountable political system would certainly be a move in the right direction.
  • There is a widely recognised need for innovative institutional arrangements to provide financial services to poor people, and numerous efforts have been made to that end. These have ranged from modifying the services provided by existing banks to the promotion of people-centred systems. Programmes addressing the latter have tended to emphasise a broad development approach, with financial services as one of several interrelated activities. This article discusses the main features of organisation and operation in people-centred systems, explores the meaning of social mobilisation in this context, indicates a range of benefits that such systems may generate, and illustrates their features, activities, and benefits through one case study.
  • The RAAKS (Rapid Appraisal of Agricultural Knowledge Systems) methodology, in combination with PRA tools, was successfully used in the CARE-Macina integrated rural development programme in Mali. The methodology enabled the agency team to produce relevant information concerning community-based organisations at village level, and thus highlighted some of the strengths and weaknesses of its efforts to reinforce their organisational capacity. This led to several major changes in the agency's strategies. The details of the methodology used by the Macina team, some results of the exercise, and changes in programme strategies concerning the strengthening of community-based organisations, are discussed.
  • In the absence of a cohesive and controlling government in Afghanistan, NGOs have taken over much of the work in the economic and social arena, becoming, by proxy, the makers of policy and directors of practice. However the unpredictable yet growing power of the Taliban leads NGOs to put off confronting the policies of the government in favour of maintaining their own influence and implementing projects. The time has come for NGOs to abandon this proxy role, and seek to engage constructively with the dynamics of the emerging government. This paper describes seven small ways for microfinance to acquire the virtues of informal finance, which are commonly perceived as slashed transaction costs, supply of not just loans but also savings and implicit insurance, sensitivity to the constraints faced by women, substitution of confidence in character for physical collateral, socially enforced and/or self-enforced contracts, and sequences of repeated transactions.
  • This paper describes seven small ways for microfinance to acquire the virtues of informal finance, which are commonly perceived as slashed transaction costs, supply of not just loans but also savings and implicit insurance, sensitivity to the constraints faced by women, substitution of confidence in character for physical collateral, socially enforced and/or self-enforced contracts, and sequences of repeated transactions.
  • Economies based on solidarity and mutual support, and which are geared to human development and social justice, represent the basis of an alternative to the neo-liberal model that is driving the current globalisation process, and which tends to destroy local initiative and expression. The author draws on long experience in southern Mexico to describe this alternative economic vision.
  • In English only
  • Investments in process-oriented and farmer-participatory research have led to the emergence of sustainable agroforestry solutions to the problems of land degradation, poverty, and food insecurity in rural areas. Thousands of farmers in diverse ecoregions have taken up innovations that demonstrate the potential of agroforestry. This paper highlights the importance of institutional change through illustrating the approach taken by the International Centre for Research in Agroforestry to scale up adoption and impact of innovations. Eight focal areas of intervention constitute the key elements of a development strategy aimed at providing 80 million poor people in rural areas with better livelihood options by 2010.
  • Community-based organisations are increasingly considered a sustainable way to scale up the benefits of agricultural research and development from a few farmers in isolated pilot project areas to spread more widely across geographical and socio-economic gradients, and to do so quickly. This paper describes and highlights lessons learned from several research and development organisations in western Kenya using different community-based approaches to scale up agroforestry and other biological options to improve soil fertility among resource-poor smallholders. The main benefits of such approaches are that the link between farmers, government extension, and other service providers is strengthened; information flow and awareness of the options available is rapid among farmers; and farmers' participation and innovation is enhanced. For effective service delivery, however, some higher level of association is necessary that goes beyond individual farmers or groups such as youth, women, or church-based organisations. Nevertheless, experience from a pilot project involving the International Centre for Research in Agroforestry and some key national research and development institutions shows that village, sublocation or location committees are often inactive without strong follow-up, which is best provided by such local institutions as government extension staff close to farmers or NGOs. Most of these institutions, however, have limited resources and information. To mitigate these problems and to better share experiences among individual organisations and projects in the region, a strategic consortium of the key institutions was formed. There are high hopes concerning the consortium, although it is too early to determine its effectiveness. This article is freely available as a chapter in Development and Agroforestry: Scaling Up the Impacts of Research
  • The case studies demonstrate the breadth and richness in approaches to and lessons learned from scaling up. A key lesson is that scaling up is far more complex than simply transferring information and planting material; it entails building community-level institutional capacity for promoting and sustaining the innovation process. An overarching problem is that there is a paucity of research on the scaling up process. Careful assessments of the relative costs and benefits and advantages and disadvantages of different strategies are often possible and can greatly strengthen the effectiveness of scaling up. This article is freely available as a chapter in Development and Agroforestry: Scaling Up the Impacts of Research
  • Participatory research that combines the knowledge of farmers and researchers promotes the development of a variety of agroforestry options that may meet the various needs of different farmers, and thus exploits one of the greatest strengths of agroforestry--its plasticity. The design and evaluation of agroforestry systems with eight farmer research groups in south-east Mexico was conducted through surveys of individual production aims and limitations, and through group identification, testing, and analysis of production alternatives. Farmer trials were used as a basis for agroforestry development projects implemented by community and government organisations, thus disseminating technologies that had been tested and adapted by local farmers. This article is freely available as a chapter in Development and Agroforestry: Scaling Up the Impacts of Research
  • Valuable tree genetic resources are declining around many farming communities in the Peruvian Amazon, limiting farmers' options for economic development. The International Centre for Research in Agroforestry is working with farming communities to increase productivity and long-term sustainability of their forests, and to empower them to conserve tree genetic resources. This paper describes some principles of participatory tree domestication, and how researchers are working with farmers to select improved planting materials, reduce the risk of poor tree adaptation, produce and deliver high-quality planting material, and scale up participatory tree domestication. This article is freely available as a chapter in Development and Agroforestry: Scaling Up the Impacts of Research
  • Southern Africa experiences severe degradation of the natural resource base caused by population growth and poverty. Agroforestry technologies are now available that have a large potential to improve the livelihoods of many households. The outcomes of technology development and how the development evolved into a more client-driven process are described. Regional development trends are assessed and six agroforestry options are described that offer better livelihood options to smallholder farming families. Problems and successes experienced in facilitating the wider use of agroforestry are discussed. Lessons learned on partnerships, the time frame of impact, using farmers as change agents, and addressing the special needs of women are highlighted. Emphasis is put on using agroforestry as a learning tool in building local capacity for innovation development. This article is freely available as a chapter in Development and Agroforestry: Scaling Up the Impacts of Research
  • This paper describes developments in forestry extension in two districts of Kenya conducted under the auspices of the Nakuru and Nyandarua Forestry Extension Project 1990-1995 and the subsequent influence of those developments on extension policy pertaining to agroforestry in Kenya. It provides examples of innovative aspects within a conventional service- delivery programme and describes in some detail the successes, weaknesses, and opportunities of the pilot activities using a participatory extension methodology. These activities, together with others piloted in the country, have contributed to conceptualising the bottom-up planning approaches that underpin the National Agricultural Extension and Livestock Programme, a government programme that, in conjunction with the ongoing government restructuring, has replaced the previously dominant national approach of Training and Visit. The current programme relies on interdisciplinary and participatory planning in focal areas. This article is freely available as a chapter in Development and Agroforestry: Scaling Up the Impacts of Research

  • Scaling up agroforestry adoption requires technical innovations that are adapted to the environment, demand-driven, require low capital and labour inputs, and provide tangible benefits in a short time. The basic inputs, usually information and germplasm, need to be available. To reach out to millions of rural poor who require the products and services of agroforestry innovations, the scaling-up process has to be cost and time efficient. Often, the common project mode of scaling up is too slow and expensive, and natural resource management issues need addressing on a large scale. Experiences from south-western Uganda suggest that local governments and organisations can be encouraged to initiate cost-effective, large-scale adoption. The recently introduced decentralisation process in Uganda makes it feasible for farmer organisations to do this. Research and development organisations concentrate on their comparative advantages, which lie developing innovations and monitoring. This article is freely available as a chapter in Development and Agroforestry: Scaling Up the Impacts of Research
  • This paper describes the structure and impacts of a development project in Nagaland, India. The project was a large-scale experiment in participatory development that emphasised local technology based on farmer-led testing of agroforestry, where farmers themselves select agroforestry technologies, implement the field tests and assume responsibility for disseminating the results locally. This assessment suggests that agroforestry has spread rapidly and been primarily adopted on land that otherwise would have been used by traditional farmers for swidden agriculture. Thus, Nagaland appears to be on a path to intensifying its land use, based on agroforestry, which is likely to brake deforestation rates. The high rate of scaling up was due to an effective property rights system, access to a large and growing timber market, a continual process of internal monitoring and evaluation, provision of low-cost seeds and seedlings, and a participatory project strategy with interventions based on flexibility and community empowerment. This article is freely available as a chapter in Development and Agroforestry: Scaling Up the Impacts of Research
  • Fodder shrubs provide great potential for increasing the income of smallholder dairy farmers. Following successful on-station and on-farm trials and considerable farmer-to-farmer dissemination in Embu District, Kenya, a project was initiated to introduce fodder shrubs to farmers across seven districts. Over a two-year period, a dissemination facilitator working through field-based partners assisted 150 farmer groups comprising 2600 farmers to establish 250 nurseries. Farmers planted an average of about 400 shrubs each. The experience has confirmed that successful scaling up requires much more than transferring seed and knowledge about a new practice; it involves building partnerships with a range of stakeholders, ensuring the appropriateness of the practice and farmers' interest in it, assisting local communities to be effective in mobilising local and external resources, and ensuring the effective participation of farmer groups and other stakeholders in testing, disseminating, monitoring, and evaluating the practice. This article is freely available as a chapter in Development and Agroforestry: Scaling Up the Impacts of Research
  • Sustainable land use is critical for the development of the Philippines uplands, where about 18 million people live. This paper relates our experiences using a participatory approach to develop agroforestry practices and institutions for conservation farming that ensure food security, alleviate poverty and protect the environment in Claveria, Northern Mindanao, Philippines. We found that natural vegetative strips provide a simple solution to the technical constraints of soil conservation on slopes. These are buffer strips, laid out on the contour, in which natural vegetation is allowed to regrow into a thick, protective cover. The strips also provide a foundation for developing more complex agroforestry systems including fodder, fruit and timber trees. The tremendous surge in adoption of these systems has been enhanced by the Landcare approach. Landcare is a movement of farmer-led organizations that share knowledge about sustainable and profitable agriculture on the sloping lands while conserving the natural resources. The Landcare movement is spreading rapidly to many municipalities in Mindanao and Visayan islands. This article is freely available as a chapter in Development and Agroforestry: Scaling Up the Impacts of Research
  • In English only
  • In English only
  • As a result of the internal and external reforms introduced in the last two decades in Argentina, as in most Latin American countries, urban-based manufacturing activities have experienced a dramatic process of restructuring, which has prompted new social and environmental conflicts. In a context where macro-economic strategies are resulting in long-term restructuring of production patterns and local conflicts, it is important to assess the sustainability of current urban development trends. Focusing on a case study of the city of Mar del Plata, this paper looks at how the fishing industry has been restructured from a nationally confined to an internationally open system. The paper examines how and why governance frameworks regulating the appropriation and transformation of nature have changed during the restructuring process, and have consequently reshaped the ability of the local state, firms, and citizen-workers to protect the natural resource base on which the local economy depends This article also appears in the Development in Practice Reader [13]Development and Cities
  • Full-text sample article FREE from Taylor & Francis. Sub-standard and insecure housing conditions are recognised as a crucial aspect of urban poverty. In most large cities in the developing world, the formal market serves only a minority of the population. It is estimated that between 30 and 70 per cent live in `irregular' settlements, and that up to 85 per cent of the new housing stock is produced in an extra-legal manner, with severe social and environmental consequences. John Turner's ground-breaking work and the first Habitat conference in 1976 marked a paradigm shift towards an enabling and participatory approach to housing provision. However, little progress has been made in translating the new paradigm into practical and sustainable policies. Relocation schemes, social housing, slum upgrading, and sites and services are beset by two related problems: first, they are far too small-scale to serve the growing demand, and second, products are far too expensive to be affordable for low-income groups. The paper states that the informal sector's strategy of incremental development and improvement of housing and infrastructure can be incorporated into public policies, and introduces cases from the Philippines and Pakistan as best practices in this direction. This article also appears in the Development in Practice Reader [13]Development and Cities
  • A major proportion of urban housing in developing countries, and also in some European countries, is developed outside officially sanctioned processes. This is less a reflection of a global desire to break the law than of the existence of inappropriate planning regulations, standards, and administrative procedures. Many countries have inherited or imported their regulatory frameworks from outside, and these were designed to meet very different conditions to those currently facing countries in the South. By attempting to impose such approaches on populations which are invariably too poor to be able to conform to them, the danger is that respect for the law and official institutions in general will be undermined. For urban development to be socially, economically, and institutionally sustainable, it is therefore vital to assess the extent to which changes in the regulatory frameworks are required in order to lower the bottom rung of the legal housing ladder so that the urban poor can start climbing it. This paper serves as a `position paper' for an international research project to evaluate the social and economic costs of such frameworks for new urban development. This article also appears in the Development in Practice Reader [13]Development and Cities
  • Large areas of Zimbabwean cites still reflect colonial planning traditions designed to promote racial segregation, which no longer adequately meet the demands of urban areas which are doubling in size every 10 to 15 years. This paper looks at the political, economic, and social influences on urban space production and use in Harare, and the extent to which the planning and regulatory system accommodates competing demands on public space in a fast-growing city. It argues that urban space is a crucial resource for poor households that cannot be ignored in the context of sustainable development, and that the failure of official policy and regulations to recognise its importance inhibits the ability of the urban poor to help themselves. Policy initiatives to redress this balance are explored. This article also appears in the Development in Practice Reader [13]Development and Cities
  • Centralised housing provision has co-existed in Cuba with the widespread reliance on self-help approaches to meeting housing needs, though there has been no mechanism to articulate the two with each other. The author discusses ways in which to bring together the technical and financial resources of the state sector with the creativity and vision of people living in Cuba's towns and cities in order to generate approaches that are socially and ecologically sustainable. This article also appears in the Development in Practice Reader [13]Development and Cities
  • The Casa Propia programme of the Buenos Aires City Government is an innovative case of public-private financing of social housing. It aims to encourage investors to build housing on private land for sale to low-income buyers receiving `soft' credits from the state. The Casa Propia experience suggests that in the South, where states tends to lack consolidated `social contingency networks', the design of housing programmes that are theoretically sustainable for low-income groups tends to give priority to financial variables over social and environmental concerns. This creates contradictions within such programmes that result in negative social and environmental impacts. This article also appears in the Development in Practice Reader [13]Development and Cities
  • The North-South disparity in access to new information communication technologies is well known, but there is a need now to get beyond simply measuring and documenting that gap, and develop more sensitive indicators on how such technologies might be, and are being, used by popular organisations (such as residents' associations) in order to give more effective voice to the interests of people living in poverty. This article also appears in the Development in Practice Reader [13]Development and Cities
  • The MOLAND methodology adopts earth observation techniques combined with geo-processing tools and statistical data to monitor environmental and morphological changes in urban areas. The methodology is an aid to understanding urban development processes as well as a tool for planning. The MOLAND methodology provides detailed territorial information at a regional scale, enabling development agencies accurately to derive specific environmental indicators, and to improve existing urban sustainability indicators. This article describes the kinds of information that can be produced with the MOLAND methodology, efforts to develop comparable data series over time in different locations, and applications of these data to planning tasks involving population growth, mobility and security, strategic and environmental impact assessment on a large scale, and urban sprawl. Recent experiences in applying the methodology to Eastern European and Third World cities are discussed. This article also appears in the Development in Practice Reader [13]Development and Cities
  • Despite improvements in access to urban land and services since the 1980s, in both Brazil and Mexico, the consolidation of peripheral urban settlements has accentuated social segregation. Such trends highlight the continuing existence of poverty on a global scale. How have urban planners and urban managers chosen to frame the challenges facing low-income communities? How far does the language used by the technical experts allow them to engage in a dialogue with the people living in these marginalised communities, who place little faith in the outcomes of negotiations with the state? This article also appears in the Development in Practice Reader [13]Development and Cities
  • 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 also appears in the Development in Practice Reader [13]Development and Cities
  • With reference to Dar es Salaam, this paper examines experience to date with the concept of urban environmental planning and management (EPM), an approach promoted by the UN agencies concerned with human settlements (UNCHS) and environment (UNEP) to enhance the capacity of local governments to manage rapid urban growth and development in partnership with key stakeholders. The paper highlights the opportunities EPM provides to revitalise urban management, particularly in capacity-starved contexts such as those seen in Tanzania. Militating against sustained partnership between local governments and key stakeholders are constraints including weak political will, overemphasis on short-term physical outputs, reluctance to share power, and the protracted nature of the EPM process. Changing entrenched attitudes and habits of the political and administrative élites (e.g. conservatism or inflexibility, mystification of urban planning and management, and the monopolisation of power) is imperative if EPM is to be institutionalised within Tanzania. Other issues include how to sustain consensus among diverse stakeholders, the balancing of long-term strategies with immediate or short-term expectations in poverty-stricken environments, in addition to problems of dialogue with substantive participation by civil society in immature multi-party democracies. This article also appears in the Development in Practice Reader [13]Development and Cities
  • Democratisation, structural adjustment, state reform (including decentralisation), and liberalisation of the economy (including privatisation) have brought about dramatic changes in the nations, societies, and cities of Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC). As central governments devolve greater responsibilities to them, local governments are obliged to perform new roles and strengthen their managerial capacity to cope with increasing urban problems and popular demands. In response to the state's inability to address local problems, there has been a flourishing of civil society organisations (CSOs) engaging in self-help initiatives, building social networks and mutual support groups in order to meet their basic needs. To deepen democracy and promote popular participation in resolving urban issues calls for clear guiding principles and methodologies. These should be based on the wealth of experience that Latin American cities have acquired over the years. This article also appears in the Development in Practice Reader [13]Development and Cities
  • Using Lima as an example, the author analyses the meaning of sustainable development and how grassroots community-based organisations can contribute to its achievement in megacities. Demands are today made of cities and countries of the South to develop in a sustainable way, although Northern nations did not themselves do so. `Sustainability' on a global scale is thus attainable only at the cost of the urban poor in the South. The paper argues that the recent shift towards placing the problems and concerns of Third World megacities back on national and international agendas is founded on environmental preoccupations, rather than being an attempt to address poverty and the lack of basic services. The fragmentation of issues and people in urban environments is seen as a threat to genuine development, while community-based organisations may suggest some ways towards achieving a form of development that integrates social and political concerns and is, therefore, sustainable. The paper asserts that `public spaces' are a way of achieving a decentralised approach to development and democracy in the megacity, provided these are informed by an understanding of the individual and the community, and by a vision of development and politics. This article also appears in the Development in Practice Reader [13]Development and Cities
  • High rates of urbanisation in the South have led to unsustainable development in its cities and towns. The form of development that is taking place is `parasitic', in that it excludes the poor and follows the development paradigm of the North rather than one more appropriate to the situations faced in the South. Sustainable development is seen as a measure to counterpoise economic growth with environmental concerns, but it remains doubtful whether this can be realised since the impact on countries of the South of their participation in the global market has proved disastrous. This paper highlights the need to be aware of a country's `carrying' and `caring' capacity, and argues that work towards sustainable development needs to go from the poor upwards. The Philippines epitomises these concerns, especially regarding the high rate of urbanisation in Metro Manila, where environmental problems and lack of services have led to a deterioration in the quality of life. This is seen by the author to be the responsibility of five overlapping power groups - the state, business, the church, the media, and international aid agencies. The latter tend to follow the Northern development paradigm, which places the South in a vulnerable position and forces Southern governments to act against their country's best interests. A new development paradigm is desperately needed that will avoid the mistakes of the past and improve future prospects for the poor and the environment. This article also appears in the Development in Practice Reader [13]Development and Cities
  • The mainstream debate on urban development looks either at urban development or sustainable cities, and tends to miss out on people-centred approaches to development. The former addresses the issues of economic growth, whereas the latter that of environmental problems, to the exclusion of development concerns of the poor. The new perspective of Sustainable Cities in the South is an `inclusive approach', which puts the vision of the poor and marginalised sectors at the centre and includes all the dimensions of development in a holistic and synergetic manner. The paper presents such a vision of sustainable cities in India and describes activities aimed at reaching this vision. This article also appears in the Development in Practice Reader [13]Development and Cities
  • At 300 million, the urban population of India is still less than one third of its total population. It is projected that by 2045 nearly 800 million Indians will be living in its cities - more than the total population of the whole of present-day Europe. Already, the infrastructures of all the six mega- and 40 million-plus cities of India are under very severe stress. The ground water is depleting rapidly, pollution is reaching crisis levels, the transportation system is in disarray, and sewerage and sanitation are in shambles, all of which is affecting public health and hygiene. This explosive state of affairs has not been adequately appreciated at the national and international level. This paper analyses the programmes and policies adopted so far to correct the situation, identifies their shortcomings, and looks into the new initiatives that have been undertaken to make the cities self-sustainable units of governance and reliable service-providers. This article also appears in the Development in Practice Reader [13]Development and Cities
  • Past international cooperation in support of urban projects and programmes, while focusing almost entirely on actions through government agencies, has been based upon major misunderstandings of the limited possibilities of government intervention and with a weak link to academic attempts to conceptualise the processes of urbanisation. The main international urban cooperation programmes, such as in transport, sanitation, and water supply, have been fragmented and often politically, socially, and technologically unsustainable, even in the short term. New initiatives have emerged that do recognise the need to work with actors and stakeholders other than government and these are producing very different practical results. As yet, these remain small-scale and little work has been done to develop the implications of `scaling-up' these approaches or of creating a coherent framework within which to pursue effective sustainable urban development initiatives. This article also appears in the Development in Practice Reader [13]Development and Cities
  • In English only
  • Until very recently private capital flows to developing countries have been growing rapidly. In the wake of the 1997 East Asian financial crisis, foreign direct investment has been identified as a vital ingredient to restore and invigorate the economies in the Asian region and beyond. In an attempt to attract overseas capital and to stimulate economic development, countries such as the Philippines have stepped up the adoption of policies that allow for greater access by foreign investors. Increasingly, it appears that foreign capital, provided through transnational corporations, is set to replace official aid and to promote economic development first and foremost, with 'trickle-down' social benefits to follow. This study examines the role of one transnational corporation called the Alliance, in the promised development of Bohol in the Philippines, as a by-product of a water treatment and supply proposal linking the island provinces of Bohol and Cebu. The findings suggest that economic objectives tend to take priority over social development. The Alliance seemed to expound its economic and technical ability, with less effort given to involving and consulting with affected communities. This resulted in residents being disenfranchised from the development process, and gave rise to a feeling of mistrust and resentment.
  • In a largely unregulated NGO sector, Living Earth Foundation (LEF) is piloting an externally accredited learning course in Environment and Community Development as part of an overall NGO capacity building strategy. The programme has a needs-led approach with the design and delivery of the course being managed in close consultation with the learners themselves. The advantages of such an approach are beginning to become apparent to individual learners and is informing the way in which LEF promotes community-based learning.
  • Communication among stakeholders within international aid projects has long been recognised as problematic. The authors interviewed five different stakeholders on a Chinese-Australian project to explore whether (a) stakeholders have exclusive worldviews; (b) farmers and donor agencies see farming as a system; and (c) stakeholders can be arranged on a learning spiral, incorporating techno-centric, socio-centric and balanced socio-biological system views. In this sample, the stakeholders had distinct views, with only the donor agency espousing a balanced systemic view. For example, farmers trialling zero tillage were interested in yield advantages but not in the profitability or the possible environmental benefits which motivated other stakeholders. Different perceptions were arranged on a learning spiral which was used as a framework for reflection on the desirability of supplementary steps in the research and development process, particularly involving collective governance, which may create a more inclusive outcome for all stakeholders
  • Since the fall of the Soviet Union, the Government of Georgia has been struggling to provide healthcare services to a population experiencing a deterioration in health status, while at the same time restructuring and reforming the delivery, priorities, resource allocation, and overall focus of this healthcare system. International humanitarian and development organisations in Georgia can exploit this historic opportunity by serving as facilitators and mentors in stimulating a process of positive social change within this reform dynamic. But this process will require strategies and tactics that are broadly inclusive of internal actors and stakeholders, and that can be put into practice by using a range of participatory approaches.
  • Fifteen Egyptian firms producing goods and services were classified into two sets by method of finance, i.e., profit-sharing for the seven Islamic versus debt-at-interest for the eight non-Islamic firms. Interviewed in 1993 and 1994, the two groups were found to be similar in customer relations and market behaviour and in paternalism toward employees. However, the non-Islamic firms had a significantly higher average profit rate, while the Islamic firms paid a significantly higher average wage, suggesting that cultural institutions shape economic behaviour even in a well-established market economy.
  • The concept of 'community' became a popular buzzword towards the end of the twentieth century. However, its meaning is increasingly vague because of its rhetorical use in politics, as well as in development, gender, and environmental circles. Based on the experience of a Mohlakeng Township Site and Service Scheme that was undertaken between 1990 and 1994, the paper examines some of the implications of the flexible use of the term 'community' in South Africa.
  • Full-text sample article FREE from Taylor & Francis. Can prospects for improving livelihood security and building sustainable environments in Africa be increased if women have greater influence in decisions about how to manage resources? Anecdotal evidence suggests that this question should be answered in the affirmative, yet few development agencies perform systematic evaluations with gender-disaggregated data despite nearly two decades of development literature describing the pitfalls of failing to do so. This paper explores this question through analysis of cases from Kenya, Nigeria, Malawi, The Gambia, and Rwanda gleaned from a literature search of more than 50 natural resource management projects across Africa. It highlights enabling conditions which facilitate effective involvement of both men and women in natural resource management, and develops indicators to clarify progress in terms of impact, process, and sustainability. This article is freely available as a chapter in Development Methods and Approaches: Critical Reflections
  • This article argues that if children were the focus of more deliberate attention on the part of donors, it could result in more effective use of the resources available for poverty reduction. Instead, development assistance neglects some of children's most pressing needs, and fails to take advantage of the long-term benefits to be gained by ensuring their physical and psychosocial welfare. The article focuses especially on the living environments of children in poverty, an area which receives little attention, but which is integral to poverty reduction.
  • The development of civil society depends on a partnership between government, the corporate sector, and representatives of civil society. NGOs are players in development of civil society, but they are weak in relation to the other partners, because they are not independent and are rarely representative. NGOs need to develop the skills to market their causes in order to reduce dependency, increase accountability, and root themselves within the societies in which they operate.
  • Civil society and grassroots campaigns are increasingly affecting foreign policy. Some of these campaigns are driven by solidarity groups in the North, who are in solidarity with a struggle in the South. This paper looks at the role of the martyr as a motivating factor to participation in solidarity groups. It looks at the pitfalls of relying on a martyr image, including the fall-out from a controversy between two books: I, Rigoberta Menchú and Rigoberta Menchú and the Story of All Poor Guatemalans. This article is freely available as a chapter in Development and Advocacy.
  • Nearly half of the world's population lives in areas which are malarious or in which there is a distinct risk of malaria transmission. Advances against malaria continue to made despite limited resources. Whatever biomedical advances are made against malaria they will become meaningful only when they can be applied in the field on a large scale. The complex of human factors, partially exemplified in this paper, will be crucial in such application being successful. It would be unfortunate if more becomes known of the biomedical aspects of malaria without a fuller complementary understanding of the human contexts in which the disease occurs and in which biomedical advances have to be applied.
  • Many farmers in less developed countries (LDCs) lack comprehensive information detailing the acute and chronic health impacts of pesticide use. Even at low levels, the use of pesticides can have significant chronic health implications. The results of research conducted among sugarcane farmers in Fifi demonstrate significantly higher occurrences of illness and disease among farmers using pesticides compared with a control group. Government agencies, NGOs, and donor groups must provide farmers with information describing the short- and long-term health risks in using pesticides. Improved information will allow farmers to make rational decisions regarding the types of pesticides to use or whether to use pesticides at all. Otherwise, LDCs can expect levels of chronic illness to increase alongside increasing agricultural output.