Language choice and national development: A typology for Africa

The choice of an official language of politics and administration for African states is a good focal point from which to view other aspects of politics. A typology of language choice, based on whether the polity is linguistically homogeneous or heterogeneous; and on whether an indigenous or a non‐indigenous language is official, discriminates among four different language structures. Vignettes of language policy in Tanzania, Kenya, Senegal and Ethiopia elucidate each language structure.

Data is presented to show that different political tasks are associated with different language choices, and that the differential ramifications of language situation, for limiting group demands, inducing social mobilization and managing international dependency are, depending on language situation, important.     

Institutional development in practice: A case-study from the Tibetan refugee community

There is growing interest in organisational and institutional development, or capacity-building, but little understanding of what these involve in practice. This article provides a case-study of a successful long-term programme of institutional development, which built the capacities of the Tibetan refugee community in development planning. The primary focus is on key features for adaptation by development practitioners. The authors also clarify some of the confusions in the debate on organisational and institutional development.     

A logistics support framework: a systems-based approach to logistics planning for development projects

Logistics support plays a critical role in the delivery of quality health care services, particularly in developing countries. This study utilised systems methodology and Integrated Logistics Support (ILS) analysis to develop a support framework for a Vision Centre in rural Vietnam. The methodology employs elements of both “soft” (in particular Checkland's Soft Systems Methodology approach) and “hard” systems practices to develop an accessible and robust logistics planning tool.     

A new age of social movements: A fifth generation of non-governmental development organizations in the making?

This paper addresses two themes. Firstly, it presents the historical evolution of Northern Non-governmental Development Organizations, proposing an enlarged and transformed definition based on Korten's Generations. Secondly, it makes several recommendations for how to develop a hypothetical Fifth Generation of NGO-Northern and Southern alike whose activities might contribute to a very broad, diverse, and unpredictable social movement for structural change on both the political and social levels.     

Drawing development: Analysing local understandings of development in three Andean communities

This article shows how local understandings of development can be researched empirically by reference to experiences presented from three drawing workshops performed with children in the Ayacucho region in the Peruvian Andes. The children were asked to draw pictures from their community, as they would like it to become in the future. Their drawings are analysed by using an adapted form of Grounded Theory, and further interpreted as expressions of local development discourses. Although the three villages are located within the same area and share a violent history of war and instability, the research shows how each community has its own interpretation of development.     

The uneven and combined development of class forces: migration as combined development

One of the more interesting and potentially powerful developments within Marxist approaches to the field of international relations has been the recent revival of Trotsky’s concept of uneven and combined development (UCD). However, it appears that there have been very few attempts within this literature to specify in concrete terms what is meant by mechanisms of ‘combination’. Failing this, UCD runs the risk of falling into triviality. To this end, this article suggests that migration has historically functioned as a crucial element of combined development, contributing to the uneven incorporation of non-capitalist societies into the remit of a developing world capitalist market. As illustration, I take settler-colonial development and the Great Atlantic Migrations as my focal point, drawing out a comparative study of Argentine and Canadian wheat production in the late nineteenth century. In positing these migrations as mechanisms of combined development I suggest that such were the means by which both European capitalism developed extensively and intensively and New World societies were subjected to the ‘pressures of backwardness’, compelled to transform their own social relations of production.     

Anthropology consultancy in the UK and community development in the Third World: A difficult dialogue

The article investigates the impact of anthropology consultancy activities in the UK university sector and the role of the UK Department for International Development (DfID) as a major provider of consultancy work. DfID and other donors see anthropology consultancy as useful primarily in the delivery of technical assistance to Third World projects with a community or social development dimension. The article points to tensions both between UK-based consultancy and 'grassroots' development in the Third World, and between applied anthropology and the relative autonomy of anthropology as an academic discipline. The author suggests that a necessary precondition for understanding the contribution of anthropology to policy is the need to overcome the unwillingness by practitioners to question politically the power relationships within which the social sciences, anthropology, and commissioned activities themselves are located. The primary purpose of the paper is to open up a debate on the relationship between power, knowledge, empowerment, and consultancy work.     

Democratising development: NGOs and the state

Many NGOs are moving beyond conventional project work, with its emphasis on 'doing', and are attempting to enhance their impact through 'influencing'. There are four interconnected approaches: Project Replication, Grassroots Mobilisation, Influencing Policy Reform, and International Advocacy. Each calls for a more strategic relationship between NGOs and governments. For NGOs to move to an effective 'influencing' mode, new skills and a new relationship between Northern and Southern NGOs are required. The Technological Age, with its emphasis on physical projects, must give way to an Information Age, whose 'software' comprises access to official information, decision makers, and networks; and access to skills in communication, lobbying, and research. Northern NGOs must recognise that these requirements are becoming more important to their Southern counterparts than funds. If they do not, they will find their relationships becoming out of date, and their former counterparts will seek more appropriate allies — for example, among pressure groups in the North.     

Gender and development: a SAFE recipe

It is argued that an alternative strategy to women's involvement in development is the development of a whole "new dish, prepared, baked, and distributed equally" rather than acquisition of a "bigger piece of the pie." The issues of gender and development (GAD) involve women gaining power and control of the decision making processes. Past development has been too much of a "fixed menu" approach. Feminist development involves the satisfaction of the strategic needs of women, an agenda-setting direction, flexibility, and empowerment (SAFE). Strategic gender needs were conceptualized first by Maxine Malyneaux. Within women's defined roles, there are needs for access to adequate and clean water supplies, nutrition, health care, and income. Women in development (WID) approaches are strong in serving practical needs. The SAFE approach combines both the strategic and practical needs of women. Some argue that a focus on strategic and/or practical needs should be conceptualized in terms of changing women's position within a structurally unequal set of social relations. Some emphasize autonomy. The basic concepts of strategic needs is viewed as including the change in women's status and movement toward autonomy. Aid agencies and development groups have been mainstreaming WID and GAD over the past decade by integrating women and women's needs into administration, decision making, and the project cycle. Gender issues could be built into existing development paradigms or could change the existing development agenda with a gender perspective. It is argued that an agenda-setting approach is needed in order to assure that the strategic needs of women are incorporated. Flexibility and adaptation of approaches means that WID and GAD can be adjusted to all cultures. It is cited by Buvinic and Moser that welfare, equity, anti-poverty, efficiency, and empowerment are five ethical policy approaches. The policy approach of SAFE is that of empowerment or the knowledge and exercise of influence, power, and leadership in some or all social relations.