Showing papers in "Development and Change in 2005"

Exploring the Frontier of Livelihoods Research

Abstract: This article discusses the value of livelihoods studies and examines the obstacles which have prevented it from making a greater contribution to understanding the lives of poor people over the past decade. After examining the roots of the livelihoods approach, two major challenges are explored: the conceptualization of the problem of access, and how to achieve a better understanding of the mutual link between livelihood opportunities and decision-making. The article concludes that access to livelihood opportunities is governed by social relations, institutions and organizations, and that power is an important (and sometimes overlooked) explanatory variable. In discussing the issue of access to livelihood opportunities, the authors note the occurrence of both strategic and unintentional behaviour and the importance of structural factors; they discuss concepts of styles and pathways, which try to cater for structural components and regularities; and they propose livelihood trajectories as an appropriate methodology for examining these issues. In this way, the article also sets the agenda for future livelihoods research.

Relocating participation within a radical politics of development

Abstract: In response to (and in sympathy with) many of the critical points that have been lodged against participatory approaches to development and governance within international development, this article seeks to relocate participation within a radical politics of development. We argue that participation needs to be theoretically and strategically informed by a notion of ‘citizenship’, and be located within the ‘critical modernist’ approach to development. Using empirical evidence drawn from a wide range of contemporary approaches to participation, the paper shows that participatory approaches are most likely to succeed where (i) they are pursued as part of a wider radical political project; (ii) where they are aimed specifically at securing citizenship rights and participation for marginal and subordinate groups; and (iii) when they seek to engage with development as an underlying process of social change rather than in the form of discrete technocratic interventions. However, we do not use these findings to argue against using participatory methods where these conditions are not met. Finally, the paper considers the implications of this relocation for participation in both theoretical and strategic terms.

Transforming the Developmental Welfare State in East Asia

Abstract: This article attempts to explain changes and continuity in the developmental welfare states in Korea and Taiwan within the East Asian context. It first elaborates two strands of welfare developmentalism (selective vs. inclusive), and establishes that the welfare state in both countries fell into the selective category of developmental welfare states before the Asian economic crisis of 1997. The key principles of the selective strand of welfare developmentalism are productivism, selective social investment and authoritarianism; inclusive welfare development is based on productivism, universal social investment and democratic governance. The article then argues that the policy reform toward an inclusive welfare state in Korea and Taiwan was triggered by the need for structural reform in the economy. The need for economic reform, together with democratization, created institutional space in policy-making for advocacy coalitions, which made successful advances towards greater social rights. Finally, the article argues that the experiences of Korea and Taiwan counter the neo-liberal assertion that the role of social policy in economic development is minor, and emphasizes that the idea of an inclusive developmental welfare state should be explored in the wider context of economic and social development.

The Impact of Microfinance on Decision‐Making Agency: Evidence from South India

Abstract: Evaluations of the effects of microfinance programmes on women's empowerment generate mixed results. While some are supportive of microfinance's ability to induce a process of economic, social and political empowerment, others are more sceptical and even point to a deterioration of women's overall well-being. Against this background, development scholars and practitioners have sought to distil some of the ingredients that might increase the likelihood of empowerment or at least reduce adverse effects. This article formally tests the impact of some of the suggested changes in programme features on one particular dimension of empowerment: decision-making agency. Using household survey data from South India, the author explores the importance of the borrower's gender and the lending technology for intra-household decision-making processes. It is shown that direct bank–borrower credit delivery does not challenge the existing decision-making patterns, regardless of whether men or women receive the credit. These findings change when credit is combined with financial and social group intermediation. Women's group membership seriously shifts overall decision-making patterns from norm-guided behaviour and male decision-making to more joint and female decision-making. Longer-term group membership and more intensive training and group meetings strengthen these patterns.

Structural adjustment and subsistence industry: Artisanal gold mining in Ghana

Abstract: Since the implementation of Ghana's national Structural Adjustment Programme (SAP), policies associated with the programme have been criticized for perpetuating poverty within the country's subsistence economy. This article brings new evidence to bear on the contention that the SAP has both fuelled the uncontrolled growth of informal, poverty-driven artisanal gold mining and further marginalized its impoverished participants. Throughout the adjustment period, it has been a central goal of the government to promote the expansion of large-scale gold mining through foreign investment. Confronted with the challenge of resuscitating a deteriorating gold mining industry, the government introduced a number of tax breaks and policies in an effort to create an attractive investment climate for foreign multinational mining companies. The rapid rise in exploration and excavation activities that has since taken place has displaced thousands of previously-undisturbed subsistence artisanal gold miners. This, along with a laissez faire land concession allocation procedure, has exacerbated conflicts between mining parties. Despite legalizing small-scale mining in 1989, the Ghanaian government continues to implement procedurally complex and bureaucratically unwieldy regulations and policies for artisanal operators which have the effect of favouring the interests of established large-scale miners.

Rethinking the Emerging Post‐Washington Consensus

Abstract: The objective of this article is to provide a critical assessment of the emerging Post-Washington Consensus (PWC), as the new influential vision in the development debate. The authors begin by tracing the main record of the Washington Consensus, the set of neoliberal economic policies propagated largely by key Bretton Woods institutions like the World Bank and the IMF, that penetrated into the economic policy agendas of many developing countries from the late 1970s onwards. They then outline the main tenets of the PWC, emerging from the shortcomings of that record and the reaction it created in the political realm. The authors accept that the PWC, in so far as it influences the actual practice of key Bretton Woods institutions, provides an improvement over the Washington Consensus. Yet, at the same time, they draw attention to the failure of the PWC, as reflected in current policy practice, to provide a sufficiently broad framework for dealing with key and pressing development issues such as income distribution, poverty and self-sustained growth.

Soybeans, Development and Conservation on the Amazon Frontier

Abstract: Bolivia's rate of deforestation throughout the 1990s was among the most rapid anywhere in the Amazon Basin. This drastic clearing stood in sharp contrast to the relatively slow rates of landscape change that had prevailed in previous decades. This article reviews the models used for explaining deforestation, and argues that the new context of globalization, structural adjustment, regional integration and rapid technological change contributed to accelerated forest cutting during the 1990s. The author suggests that many environmental policy approaches developed during the 1970s and 1980s no longer address the current clearing situation effectively, and that today's frontiers differ profoundly from previous ones. The widely held idea that intensive production per se reduces forest destruction may not be valid on tropical agro-industrial frontiers, such as the soybean zones of Bolivia and Brazil.

Institutions, Markets and Economic Co‐ordination: Linking Development Policy to Theory and Praxis

Abstract: This article explores policy applications of ‘new institutional economics’ theory in relation to markets and economic development. It argues for application of an analytical framework which instead of looking at institutions primarily in terms of their contributions to making competitive markets work better, sees such markets as one form of institution fulfilling exchange and co-ordination functions in an economy. A key element in this is recognition of the importance of processes of change in non-standard market arrangements in economic development, and there are strong theoretical, practical and historical grounds for more consistent policy in this area.

Will Services be the New Engine of Indian Economic Growth

Abstract: This article revisits the role of manufacturing and services in economic development in the light of a number of new phenomena: a faster growth of services than of manufacturing in many developing countries; the emergence of ‘de-industrialization’ in several developing countries, at low levels of per capita income; jobless growth in the formal sector, even in fast-growing countries such as India; and a large expansion of the informal sector in developing countries. Although this article examines these phenomena in the specific context of the Indian economy, the analysis has much wider application and implications, both for economic policy and for theories of growth and structural change.

Best Practice Options for the Legal Recognition of Customary Tenure

Abstract: Is there a ‘best practice’ model for the legal recognition of customary tenure? If not, is it possible to identify the circumstances in which a particular model would be most appropriate? This article considers these questions in the light of economic theories of property rights, particularly as illustrated by the World Bank's 2003 land policy report. While these theories have their flaws, the underlying concept of tenure security allows a typological framework for developing legal responses to customary tenure. In particular, this article suggests that the nature and degree of State legal intervention in a customary land system should be determined by reference to the nature and causes of any tenure insecurity. This hypothesis is discussed by reference to a wide variety of legal examples from Africa, Papua New Guinea and the South Pacific. The objective is not to suggest that law determines resource governance outcomes in pluralist normative environments, but to improve the quality of legal interventions in order to assist customary groups to negotiate better forms of tenure security and access to resources.

Land Policy and Farming Practices in Laos

Abstract: The government of Laos has identified the eradication of poverty as a priority. Given the primarily agricultural character of the country, it has selected land reform as a core policy to reach this goal. The policy has two major aims: to increase land tenure security in order to encourage farmer involvement in intensive farming, and to eliminate slash-and-burn agriculture to protect the environment in a country still rich in forest resources. State intervention takes the form of land allocation, a process which combines the protection of some areas of village land with the formal recognition of private ownership in authorized farming areas. In a country with different types of geography, the effects of the policy are variable, but the research presented in this article demonstrates that the land laws have shortcomings which allow for differing interpretations depending on the local social relationships. Since local specificities are not taken into account, the reform is proving counterproductive for both forest protection and agricultural modernization, as well as having a negative social impact by marginalizing the poorest farmers.

Land Tenure Insecurity and Inequality in Nicaragua

Abstract: This article uses empirical data from a case study in rural Nicaragua to demonstrate the need for a conceptualization of tenure security as seen from the perspective of the landholder. A large group of farmers in the case study area perceive their tenure situation as being insecure despite the fact that they possess a legal title to their land. The article argues that more attention must be paid to aspects such as inequalities of wealth and power, lack of enforcement and lack of impartiality on the part of the formal institutions when addressing tenure security in an institutionally unstable setting, such as that found in Nicaragua. The article contributes to the ongoing discussion by arguing that future research on how to increase rural land tenure security should explore the concept of tenure security as experienced by farmers.

Donor-Driven Justice and its Discontents: The Case of Rwanda

Abstract: Never before was a process of doing justice driven so strongly from the outside as in post-genocide Rwanda. Not only did the 1994 genocide lead to the founding of the International Tribunal, but it also induced intensive donor involvement in domestic attempts to ‘break the cycle of hatred’— from the work done by the national courts and the Unity Commission to the gacaca. In this sense, Rwanda became the forerunner of a much wider trend, towards a judicialization of international relations, for instance through an emphasis on international criminal law. However, the past decade of donor involvement in Rwanda in general, and the case of the gacaca in particular, show us how this specific — technocratic, de-contextualized — emphasis on justice might seem innocuous at first glance, but carries dangers within it, particularly if it takes place in an increasingly autocratic and oppressive political environment like that of contemporary Rwanda.

Improving Child Nutrition? The Integrated Child Development Services in India

Abstract: Levels of child malnutrition in India have fallen only slowly during the 1990s despite significant economic growth and considerable expenditure on the Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS) programme of which the major component is supplementary feeding for malnourished children. To begin to unravel this puzzle this article assesses the programme’s placement and its outcomes using NFHS data from 1992 and 1998. The authors find that programme placement is clearly regressive across states. The states with the greatest need for the programme — the poor Northern states which account for nearly half of India’s population and which suffer from high levels of child malnutrition — have the lowest programme coverage and the lowest budgetary allocations from the central government. Programme placement within states is more progressive: poorer and larger villages have a higher probability of having an ICDS centre as do those with other development programmes or community associations. In terms of outcomes the authors find little evidence of programme impact on child nutrition status in villages with ICDS centres. (authors)

Women's Employment in Urban Bangladesh: A Challenge to Gender Identity?

Abstract: Drawing on survey and ethnographic data, this article presents empirical evidence regarding the impact of work participation on poor women's lives in urban Bangladesh. Working for pay is common among poor, married women in Dhaka and working women commonly make an important contribution to household income. There is evidence that working women are more likely to manage money, shop for household provisions and move about outside the home than non-working women. Working women also appear better able to accumulate personal assets and take steps to secure their own well-being. Despite such signs of challenge to ‘traditional’ gender identity, social and economic structures continue to be heavily weighted against women, limiting the impact of employment on other dimensions of their lives. In the acutely insecure urban setting, women (and men) are found to pursue multiple strategies aimed at both securing ‘centrality’ within their families, as well as protecting personal interests should familial entitlements prove unreliable.

Industrialization and Economic Growth in Mexico after NAFTA: The Road Travelled: Industrialization and Economic Growth in Mexico after NAFTA

Abstract: This article examines Mexico's industrial policy and economic performance, focusing on an analysis of the structural changes in its manufacturing sector associated with NAFTA The aim of the article is to improve our understanding of why the post-NAFTA evolution of the Mexican economy has been characterized by lights and shadows, with low inflation, low budget deficits and a surge in non-oil exports on the one hand, and on the other hand a slower than expected expansion of economic activity and employment The article also presents some policy implications on the need for a new development agenda if Mexico is to finally succeed in its quest for high and sustained economic growth

Prices and Politics in Andean Water Reforms

Abstract: Water rights are best understood as politically contested and culturally embedded relationships among different social actors. In the Andean region, existing rights of irrigators’ collectives often embody historical struggles over resources, rules, authorities and identities. This article argues, first, that the neo-liberal language that is increasingly used in water policies is ill-suited for recognizing and dealing with these social, cultural and political dimensions of water distribution. Local water rules and rights, their dynamics, and the way they are linked to power relations, local identities and contextualized constructions of legitimacy, remain invisible in neo-liberal policy discourse. Second, this same discourse actively destroys these local rights systems and presents itself as the only viable cure to the problems it generates. The ways in which local irrigators’ collectives attempt to protect their water security raise questions about the fundaments and effects of neo-liberal water reforms, but these questions are neglected or poorly understood. This article proposes a more situated, layered and contextualized approach to Andean water questions, not just to improve representational accuracy but also to increase political visibility and legitimacy of peasant and indigenous water claims. What is needed is not just a new ‘typology’ or ‘taxonomy’ of water rights, but an alternative ‘water rights ontology’ that understands locally existing norms and water control practices, and the power relations that inform and surround them, as deeply constitutive of water rights.

Establishing development orthodoxy: negotiating masculinities in the water sector.

Abstract: Despite important work in development studies on the ‘male bias in the development process’ it is generally recognized that gender and development analyses have been slow to engage with masculinities. Focusing attention on the nexus between identity and globalizing development discourses this article explores the relationship between masculinities and development through an analysis of the gendering of water paradigms. By analysing the example of the recent Cochabamba water wars in Bolivia and placing them in historical context the author explores how gendered representations and language are used to downplay and upgrade particular understandings of modernity as they relate to water management and examines the mechanisms through which specific gendered identities become associated with the most successful versions of ‘modern’ development. (authors)

Why Illness Causes More Serious Economic Damage than Crop Failure in Rural Cambodia

Abstract: In rural Cambodia illness has caused more serious economic damage to rural households than crop failure. This article explores the reasons for this using data on the strategies adopted by households in two Cambodian villages to cope with these different types of shock. The data show that Cambodian households can cope with crop failure by earning additional income. However to cope with illness which entails lump-sum treatment costs they have to borrow money or sell their assets because households cannot acquire the necessary funds in a short period just by earning additional income. Combined with the harsh conditions of credit markets (high interest rates strict debt collection and credit rationing) and weak risk-sharing among households this results in illness causing a large number of land sales in the surveyed villages. (authors)

Women in the Urban Informal Sector: Perpetuation of Meagre Earnings

Abstract: The argument of exploitation of women workers in the labour market notwithstanding this article examines whether women in India are unable to participate fully in the labour market because they are required to combine their household activities with income yielding jobs. They are constrained to work in the neighbourhood of their residence (the location of the residence having been decided upon by male family members) and can access jobs only through informal contacts (which usually means they end up in jobs similar to those of the contact persons) both of which reduce their bargaining power considerably. The tendency for specialized activities to be concentrated in different geographic locations of a city further restricts the possibility of women workers being engaged in diverse jobs and thus aggravates the situation of an excess supply of labour in a particular activity. Constrained choice limited contacts of women and physical segmentation of the labour market perpetuate forces that entrap women workers in a low-income situation with worse outcomes than those of their male counterparts. Consequently with greater intensity of work they still continue to receive low wages while residual participation in the labour market restricts the possibilities of skill formation and upward mobility. All of these factors offer a substantive basis for policy recommendations. (authors)

Witchcraft, Social Cohesion and Participation in a South African Village

Abstract: The past thirty years have seen development agencies non-governmental organizations and their funders embrace ‘participatory’ development strategies. These strategies require the poor to take part in decision-making about and the implementation of development projects and programmes. Underlying enthusiasm for participation is the recognition that centralized top-down systems and methods have not delivered development and the assumption that the poor are eager and able to ‘participate’. Using ethnographic research on witch beliefs and their impact on social relations in a South African village this article argues that such assumptions are not always justified. It shows that witch beliefs and related conflicts have long-term negative consequences for intra-community relations and examines what this implies for development policy and practice. (authors)

Beijing plus 10 : an ambivalent record on gender justice

Abstract: The 1995 Fourth World Conference on Women (the 'Beijing Conference') was a landmark in policy terms, setting a global policy framework to advance gender equality. Ten years after Beijing, in March 2005, the UN's Commission on the Status of Women presided over an intergovernmental meeting in New York to review the progress achieved on the commitments made in the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action. This 'Plus 10' event was decidedly low key. Its aim was not agenda setting but agenda confirming; not policy formulation but policy affirmation. Whether it proves to be part of an ongoing worldwide movement in support of gender equality, or whether it marks the decline of that process, is a question that many in international women's movements are asking. This article, drawing on research undertaken for the UNRISD report, Gender Equality: Striving for Justice in an Unequal World, reflects on the ambivalent record of progress achieved by women over the last decades and considers how the policy environment has changed over the period since the high point of global women's movements. It examines how the changing international policy and political climate over this period has given rise to new issues and challenges for those active in global women's movements. © Institute of Social Studies 2005.

Global Environmental Governance and the Challenge of Shadow States: The Impact of Illicit Sapphire Mining in Madagascar

Abstract: The environment has become a key site of global governance because of its transboundary nature: forests, wildlife and oceans have all become central foci for networks of global governance which link international organizations, international financial institutions, states and non-governmental organizations. This article examines how contemporary forms of global governance can be challenged and even subverted. It uses the concept of shadow states introduced by William Reno to explore how invisible global networks flow through developing states, to show how they constitute important political and economic interest groups, and to assess what kinds of environmental impact they have. It explores how powerful these networks are, and whether they are able to challenge or subvert attempts to manage, control or govern the environment. The author provides an analysis of the ways in which the clandestine networks of shadow states impact on conservation initiatives in the developing world, focusing on the features of global environmental governance and the problems posed by illicit gem mining and trafficking in Madagascar.

Mapping common futures: Customary communities, NGOs and the state in Indonesia's reform era

Abstract: The post-Suharto ‘Reform Era’ has witnessed explosive revitalization movements among Indonesia's indigenous minorities or ‘customary’(adat) communities attempting to redress the disempowerment they suffered under the former regime. This study considers the current resurgence of customary claims to land and resources in Bali, where the state-sponsored investment boom of the 1990s had severe social and environmental impacts. It focuses on recent experiments with participatory community mapping, aimed at reframing the relationship between state and local institutions in planning and decision-making processes. Closely tied to the mapping and planning strategy have been efforts to strengthen local institutions and to confront the problems of land alienation and community control of resources. The diversity of responses to this new intervention reflects both the vitality and limitations of local adat communities, as well as the contributions and constraints of non-governmental organizations that increasingly mediate their relationships to state and global arenas. This ethnographic study explores participants’ experiences of the community mapping programme and suggests its potential for developing ‘critical localism’ through long-term, process-oriented engagements between communities, governments, NGOs, and academic researchers.

Economic and Social Thinking at the UN in Historical Perspective

Abstract: This article begins to examine the history of economic and social ideas launched or nurtured by the United Nations (UN). In 1999, the United Nations Intellectual History Project was initiated, to analyse the UN as an intellectual actor, and to shed light on the role of the UN system in creating knowledge and in influencing international policy-making: this article is based on the first five books and the oral histories from that Project. The starting point is that ideas may be the most important legacy of the UN for human rights, economic and social development, as well as for peace and security. For the authors, this ‘intellectual history’ provides a way to explore the origins of particular ideas; trace their course within institutions, scholarship, and discourse; and in some cases evaluate the impact of ideas on policy and action.

Explaining Sub‐Saharan Africa's Manufacturing Performance

Abstract: This article surveys Africa's industrial, and especially manufacturing performance over the last four decades and reviews explanations for that performance which relate to issues of structure and class; structural adjustment policies; exports, technology, finance, and transactions costs. The article considers the extent to which manufacturing success is related to increasing exports and concludes with some consideration of future policy in the wake of the recently published report by the Commission for Africa. A strong role for the state is considered to be essential for successful growth in the future, both as substitute for a non-existent domestic capitalist class, and as planner and director of manufacturing industrialization.

Towards an Alternative Perspective on Trade and Industrial Policies: An Alternative Perspective on Trade and Industrial Policies

Abstract: Trade policy is at a crossroads, as is trade diplomacy, in the form of trade negotiations under the auspicious of the World Trade Organization (WTO). Widespread ‘traditional’ import substitution industrialization (ISI) strategies, which prevailed from the 1950s to the 1970s, failed. Across-the-board trade liberalization, recommended by the international financial institutions (IFIs) and neoliberal scholars in the 1980s and 1990s to promote outward-oriented industrialization and development, fared no better. What is next? Drawing on the experiences of developing countries in trade liberalization and economic reform in recent years, as well as the history of those countries which underwent early industrialization, this article aims to develop an alternative approach to trade and industrial policy by taking a bottom-up approach. The author presents a national policy framework (that is, a view of what is needed at the national level to catch up in the process of industrialization) and, on that basis, argues for changes in international trade rules.

Poverty, School and Work: Children during the Economic Crisis in Indonesia

Abstract: The problem of child labour in Indonesia although generally less prevalent than in other developing countries at a similar stage of development is significant. As in other countries this study finds a strong link between the child labour phenomenon and poverty with the profile of child labour largely mirroring the profile of poverty. Furthermore poverty is found to be an important determinant of whether children work. However working does not always completely eliminate a childs opportunity to obtain formal education: children from poor households can still go to school by undertaking part-time work to pay for their education implying that banning these children from working may force them to drop out of school instead. Since the phenomenon of child labour is strongly associated with and determined by poverty the most effective policy for eliminating child labour is through poverty alleviation. Other policies that can foster the rate of reduction in child labour are those which make it easier for children from poor families to access education and increase the opportunity cost of working by improving the quality of education. Such policies will increase the rate of return to education. (authors)

Privatization in Bangladesh: The Emergence of ‘Family Capitalism’

Abstract: The programme of state enterprise privatization pursued by the government of Bangladesh since 1975 largely under the influence and financial conditions of the aid agencies has been subject to widespread debate. In 1991 at the suggestion of the World Bank the government of Bangladesh formed the Privatization Board to ensure better outcomes of privatization. This article investigates whether firms privatized under the auspices of the Privatization Board up to 1996 were adding to the nations economic growth or--as critics claimed -- to individual families pockets. More specifically it examines whether enterprises privatized in 1991-6 reversed previous losses and introduced better management controls leading to increased investment productivity and overall organizational effectiveness and efficiency. The major findings are not supportive of privatization policy indicating that the performance of privatized enterprises has not improved significantly. Without denying the economic problems of Bangladeshs public enterprises past and present this article questions the performance of privatized companies in terms of their declining profitability and productivity; employment conditions and trade union and individual rights; altered distributions of value added in absolute and relative terms; and serious lack of financial transparency and accountability. (authors)

Strategic Factors in Economic Development: East Asian Industrialization 1950-2003: East Asian Industrialization 1950-2003

Abstract: East Asia's newly industrializing economies are the paragon of successful industrialization. This article investigates what lies behind this success by identifying seven ‘stylized facts’, which concern the contributions to industrialization and growth of structural change and technological change; and the role played by investment, savings and exports. Based on these stylized facts, the authors offer a new formulation of East Asian growth in terms of a cumulative-causation growth model. They discuss the impact on industrial diversification and upgrading of industrial and trade policies (including import substitution), and labour-market policies in the context of East Asia's authoritarian political regimes. Important specific factors are highlighted and the particular kinds of policies and institutions used in East Asia to finance accumulation are reviewed, before briefly considering the transferability of the East Asian growth regime.