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 [...]

Guidelines on participation in rural development

Van Heck, B., 2003, Participatory development: guidelines on beneficiary participation in agricultural and rural development, FAO.
This manual provides suggestions on how to incorporate beneficiary participation in agricultural and rural development projects, while stimulating reflection on what participation is in development practice, on how it can mean different things, on its benefits and its constraints.
After a [...]

The boy who harnessed the wind

Great TED.com talk by William Kamkwamba from Malawi on building a windmill for his family when he was 14. Wired article here and William’s blog here.

Why do some projects work?

“Projects” are not very fashionable in development circles these days – least of all simple projects that do simple, practical things like fixing and building. It seems that for many people practical projects are more important, or perhaps just more real, than abstract ideas like governance, policy, gender equity, participation and empowerment. Post by Graeme MacRae, an New Zealand anthropologist who does research in Bali, Java and South India.

Lifesaver water filter

Check out this TED talk by engineer Michael Pritchard, who invented a portable water filter that filters down to 15 nanometers. While the initial cost looks high (over $100), running costs are only .5c per day. The comments and discussion that follow the video are interesting.

Climate change and development

The issue of climate change and development is starting to come together quite sharply. Two recent reports by Oxfam and CARE bring out the problem in its starkest reality. The reports look at the effects of climate change on human migration, and the difficulty of equitably achieving a sufficient cut in greenhouse gas emissions.

UN Agency for Women – Bargaining with Patriarchy

The idea of a multi-tasking UN women’s agency that is long in teeth (being able to push for women’s rights and gender equality effectively) and well-sourced to deliver programs has been much discussed under the rubric of UN reform. The UN Reform itself came into being after years of the UN system being charged by critics as overly bureaucratic and inefficient. Listed along with sustainable development and human rights, gender was identified as one of those cross-cutting issues which must be an integral part of the UN system.

Let them keep their millions: should ‘development’ be refused in Madagascar?

Rio Tinto has invested 1.2 billion USD to implement a mineral sands project in southeastern Madagascar, in what is both a global biodiversity hotspot and one of Madagascar’s poorest and more isolated regions.

Africa up for grabs?

There has been a lot of interest in African land deals in the past few weeks. Amy Glass raised the case of Madagascar on this blog, and Gwynne Dyer in a syndicated article calls it a ‘neo-colonialist land grab’ noting the ‘new’ colonists now include a new set of powers including China India, South Korea and the Arab Gulf States. The scale of foreign companies entering the Africa land market is huge, and while all of these deals may not go through, the implications of the some that do go ahead have enormous implications for peasant agriculture on the continent.

Traveller’s Tale: Indian NGO development revisited

I remember many years back in the early 1980s, I came across an older journal article by a pair of brothers with the arresting name of Paddock. They wrote in the mid-1960s, saying that India was beyond redemption, and that the world should undertake triage and only provide emergency assistance. Similar things are often said about Africa in today’s discourse, including Dambisa Moyo’s argument (discussed on this blog) to cut aid all together. It is nearly ten years since I was last in Bangalore (in Karnataka state) in India. Now the question is: what is the relevance of aid agencies and NGOs in the context of a booming economy, at least in southern India, and Karnataka in particular? Ten years ago, the concrete and glass IT offices were on the edge of Bangalore, standing rather incongruously in farmland and paddy fields, and people commuted out from the city to them. Now these IT offices are all surrounded by luxury apartments and gated highrise suburbs for the IT elite.

Now where does this leave the ‘real’ India – the rural communities which still make up most of the population and most of the poverty? They have not been left out all together: the construction work on roads and the like is evident everywhere. The question is does this reach the most marginalised?