Volume 11

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.

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.

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.

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.

In English only

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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 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

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

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

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

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

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

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.

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

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.

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

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.

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.