Showing papers by "Sakiko Fukuda-Parr published in 2011"

International norm dynamics and the "end of poverty": Understanding the millennium development goals

Abstract: THE PURPOSE OF DEVELOPMENT AS A GLOBAL OBJECTIVE REQUIRING INTERNATIONAL cooperation can and has been defined in many ways. Such definitions depend on how political leaders envision important normative goals for the world; how economists, philosophers, and political scientists theorize the process of development; and how these ideas are utilized and adopted by key stakeholders. A significant evolution in recent years has been the emergence of a broad consensus on ending poverty as the overarching objective of development. This consensus is institutionalized in the UN Millennium Declaration adopted in 2000 and in the widespread use of the global targets that have become known as the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). In previous decades, international development objectives were not so clearly defined nor did they focus on poverty and poor people. Although concern with widespread poverty has been a major factor for keeping development on the international agenda since the 1950s, strategies have been dominated by economic objectives ranging from building infrastructure, human capital and an industrial base in the 1960s and 1970s, to economic liberalization in the 1980s and 1990s, to institutional and governance reforms since the 1990s. (1) Civil society advocates and academics have consistently criticized these national and international strategies for their neglect of poverty and the human dimension. (2) This new consensus has important implications for the international political economy of development. As Charles Gore argues, the consensus was achieved at the expense of replacing the prioritization of building national capacities for development. (3) While the MDGs are usually seen as desirable, Ashwani Saith points out that "the MDG phenomenon carries the potential for distorting meaningful intellectual and research agendas, and could function as the catalyst and vehicle for a fundamental realignment of the political economy of development at the global level." (4) How did this normative shift take place? Was it driven by ethical considerations? What was the role of key individuals and institutional stakeholders? What were the strategic instruments deployed? The aim of this article is to explain how the MDGs emerged and became established and to analyze the trajectory of the antipoverty norm itself. We draw on documentary material and interviews conducted with over 100 individuals who were involved in the framing and implementation phases of the Millennium Declaration and MDGs. We use the model of international norm dynamics set out by Martha Finnemore and Kathryn Sikkink. (5) But we propose elements to extend and refine that model in this context. We argue that the MDGs brought specificity and concreteness to the idea of ending global poverty, and explain the dynamics of that process by extending the conceptual apparatus of Finnemore and Sikkink. We introduce two new concepts: the "supernorm," a cluster of interrelated norms grouped into a unified and coherent framework, and the "message entrepreneur," as distinct from the "norm entrepreneur." (6) The Supernorm of Ending Global Poverty In this article, we treat the MDGs as a vehicle to communicate and promote the objective of ending global poverty. Legislatively the MDGs originated in goals set in the Millennium Declaration, a political declaration signed by 189 countries, including 145 heads of state or government, that commits to ending poverty as a key goal for the twenty-first century along with peace, human rights, and democracy. The development chapter of the Millennium Declaration is entirely focused on poverty rather than other dimensions of development. It starts with the statement: "We will spare no effort to free our fellow men, women and children from the abject and dehumanizing conditions of extreme poverty, to which more than a billion of them are currently subjected." (7) While the Millennium Declaration included clearly defined objectives and specific quantitative goals, these were further clarified into a form that could be monitored more effectively in the Road Map presented by the UN Secretary-General a year later. …

Introduction: The Capability Approach and Human Rights

Abstract: Our overall motivation in exploring the relationship between the capability approach and human rights is to enhance our understanding of both as theoretical paradigms, and as public policy framewor...

Theory and Policy in International Development: Human Development and Capability Approach and the Millennium Development Goals

Abstract: Theory has influenced policy in international development but the interaction has been a two-way process. While theories legitimated new policy, appraisal of policy and experience have given rise to theoretical insights. But of the many competing ideas and theories, which ones influence policy? This article analyzes the influence of Sen's capability and human development approach on the recent evolution of policy agendas in international development, notably the consensus on MDGs and on poverty as the priority concern. It argues that the capability approach played an important role in the contestations over structural adjustment and Washington Consensus policies that led to the new consensus over the MDGs, and help legitimate them, the neoliberal policy approaches of the Washington Consensus remain intact. This illustrates an important distinction between normative and causative ideas. The new consensus has adopted the normative ideas of the capability approach but not the causative ideas. These normative ideas were used to provide a new narrative for international development, not a new policy framework.

Introduction: human rights and the capabilities approach: an interdisciplinary dialogue

Abstract: Among several contesting views about the purpose of development and how progress should be evaluated, human rights and capabilities (or human development) stand out as two approaches that are concerned first and foremost with the well-being of individuals, their freedom, dignity and empowerment. These two approaches contrast sharply with the dominant development frameworks that emphasize economic growth as the essential objective. Though human rights and capabilities share these common commitment to human priorities, they are distinct concepts and fields that have developed separately. The aim of this volume is to explore the relationship between them in order to enhance the understanding of both as theoretical paradigms, as public policy frameworks and as approaches to development. The book includes contributions from some of the leading scholars in the two fields of capabilities approach and human rights. It covers the essential aspects of this relationship: addressing the complementarities between human rights and capabilities as theoretical concepts; how the concept of capabilities can contribute to resolving some key theoretical issues in human rights; how the social science analysis and methods of the capabilities approach can clarify human rights concepts and strengthen human rights advocacy; and how human rights norms can strengthen public policy and mobilize collective action to demand greater accountability in placing human priorities first in public policy. Human Rights and the Capabilities Approach raises many questions for further inter-disciplinary conversation and further research.

GLOBAL INSIGHTS International Norm Dynamics and the "End of Poverty": Understanding the Millennium Development Goals

Abstract: THE PURPOSE OF DEVELOPMENT AS A GLOBAL OBJECTIVE REQUIRING INTERNATIONAL cooperationcanandhasbeendefinedinmanyways.Suchdefinitionsdepend on how political leaders envision important normative goals for the world; how economists, philosophers, and political scientists theorize the process of development;andhowtheseideasareutilizedandadoptedbykeystakehold ers.Asignificantevolutioninrecentyearshasbeentheemergenceofabroad consensus on ending poverty as the overarching objective of development. ThisconsensusisinstitutionalizedintheUNMillenniumDeclarationadopted in 2000 and in the widespread use of the global targets that have become knownastheMillenniumDevelopmentGoals(MDGs).

Human rights and the capabilities approach: an interdisciplinary dialogue

Abstract: Among several contesting views about the purpose of development and how progress should be evaluated, human rights and capabilities (or human development) stand out as two approaches that are concerned first and foremost with the well-being of individuals, their freedom, dignity and empowerment. These two approaches contrast sharply with the dominant development frameworks that emphasize economic growth as the essential objective. Though human rights and capabilities share these common commitment to human priorities, they are distinct concepts and fields that have developed separately. The aim of this volume is to explore the relationship between them in order to enhance the understanding of both as theoretical paradigms, as public policy frameworks and as approaches to development. The book includes contributions from some of the leading scholars in the two fields of capabilities approach and human rights. It covers the essential aspects of this relationship: addressing the complementarities between human rights and capabilities as theoretical concepts; how the concept of capabilities can contribute to resolving some key theoretical issues in human rights; how the social science analysis and methods of the capabilities approach can clarify human rights concepts and strengthen human rights advocacy; and how human rights norms can strengthen public policy and mobilize collective action to demand greater accountability in placing human priorities first in public policy. Human Rights and the Capabilities Approach raises many questions for further inter-disciplinary conversation and further research.