Review Essay

Since their rise to prominence in the post-World War II period, NGOs have grown exponentially in size and stature. This growth has occurred most notably under the New Policy Agenda, with Western donor states emphasising the role of NGOs in democratisation and service provision. Donors have gained the power to set the development agenda and NGOs have slowly become Trojan horses for global neo-liberalism. The present review surveys the principal ways in which NGOs have become a part of the promotion of Western hegemony in the developing world and presents some ideas for change.

It has been two years since the World Bank launched its World Development Report (WDR) 2008. The Report made a number of observations, based on research papers and reports contributed by various economists and scholars. This review essay assesses the prospects and problems associated with Indian agriculture in the light of the Report.

This article reports on a study to explore the factors and motivations that contribute to community volunteers’ participation in a nursery feeding project in Malawi. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with community volunteers in 15 of the 32 sites in the programme. The findings pointed to a mix of intrinsic motivations, namely a deep concern for orphans and vulnerable children, a moral obligation to help, and a declared love of the work undertaken, and also to external factors such as spirituality, links of reciprocity, and the building of social capital.

Development brings about changes in people’s lives and their ways of understanding and dealing with their world. It is possible to distinguish between two types of development intervention: (a) improvements in the external situation, chiefly through the provision of public goods; and (b) strengthening people’s inner capacities, an endeavour which depends on cognitive processes.

While there is often a heavy emphasis on disaster response, disaster preparedness and mitigation are, rightfully, receiving more attention. In examining the state of preparedness in Indonesia, this article is divided into three sections. First, it reviews the hazards present in the country, such as conflict, earthquakes, and tsunamis. Second, it considers some of the current efforts underway by the government and international community. Finally, the article contends that the disaster- preparedness process is not yet complete.

Compared with the divisive views of the past, integrative thinking has recently come to characterise the methodological debate on poverty. 'Qualitative vs quantitative' has given way to 'qual–quant'; 'cross-disciplinarity' has replaced 'economics vs anthropology'. This article attempts to review this change. It begins with a historical overview of the pure economic approach to poverty and its critique. The critique, both from within economics and from the participatory and anthropological disciplines, is examined, and recent trends are considered.

This review essay focuses on the most crucial points in the evolution of Celso Furtado’s contribution to economic and political thought in relation to development, in the hope that a wider readership will appreciate the importance of his ideas to Latin America’s ‘development’ during the 1960s and 1970s, and perhaps even see value in reviving them. It opens with a description of the background to the rise of development economics, highlighting aspects of the discipline that this remarkable Brazilian economist confronted and transformed.

This article is concerned with some initial reflections on the distinctive features of Development Studies (DS). The aim is to trigger more debate rather than attempt ‘closure’. Discussion of the nature of DS is timely because of the expansion of taught courses at various levels over the last decade or so; because of sustained critiques of DS in recent years; and because DS has entered a period of ‘soul-searching’ - illustrated by several journal special issues and events - to identify its defining characteristics.

This review essay surveys the theoretical insights emerging from within the Global Justice and Solidarity Movement, also known as the Anti-Globalisation Movement, or the Movement of the Movements, and also reviews the literature focused on this phenomenon from those closely involved as well as from other observers.

Reviewed by Luz María de la Mora, Trade Representative of the Mexican Ministry of Economy at the EU, Brussels