The World Bank Participation Sourcebook

World Bank, 1996, The World Bank Participation Sourcebook, published by World Bank
This is a very useful resource that reflects on the issue of participatory development using numerous practical examples of development programs implemented worldwide with support from the World Bank. Because of its structure, the guide not only introduces a number of important factors influencing [...]

Indian Travellers Tale 2: From ‘rags’ to respect

In the streets of any large city in India you will see small groups of women (and sometimes children) around garbage skips, going through them and collecting scraps of paper, tin, plastic, and cloth. These are the ‘rag pickers’, and in India’s pervasive caste system they sit fairly close to the bottom rung. They are a sub-group of Dalits (once known as sudra or untouchables) and are generally marginalised in society, kept to the most menial and unpleasant tasks.

But a remarkable thing has happened with the ragpickers of the city of Pune in Western India: the ragpickers are now a central part of the city’s new waste management system, and had a critical hand in its design. But let us go back to the beginning. Twenty years ago, a couple of people from the SNDT Women’s University in Pune started an ILO-supported project to provide adult literacy to the city’s ragpickers. Very early on, the ragpickers made it clear to them that it was not literacy they wanted but respect and the opportunity to have a safe work environment free from harassment from the police and city government officials. Thus Kagad Kach Patra Kashtakari Panchayat (KKPKP) was formed: the Pune Ragpickers’ Union.

The World Bank and Climate Change: Sustainability or Exploitation?

Commentary on article from Upside Down World
This article discusses suspicions of the market-based Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) for reduced emissions to combat climate change and how developing countries communities are affected.
Development workers for the last decade have been worried about how World Bank and UNEP sponsored mechanisms to sequestering carbon in developing countries forests [...]

A Program Planners’ Guide to Consultative Research for Improving Young Child Feeding

K. Dickin and M. Griffiths, 1997. Designing by Dialogue. A Program Planners’ Guide to Consultative Research for Improving Young Child Feeding, Support Analysis and Research in Africa project.
According to what the authors write in the introduction, this manual aims ‘to give you tools to design, carry out, and analyse the results of formative, consultative research [...]