The learning organisation as a model for rural development

This article presents evidence from Uganda's National Agricultural Advisory Service to argue that the concept of ‘the learning organisation’ is a valuable complement to participatory development which may facilitate a shift towards more democratic development institutions in which target beneficiaries have a stronger voice in planning and managing development. The concept of ‘the learning organisation’ as developed within the literature of management studies cannot, however, be readily translated into anything as specific as a clear set of practical guidelines. Rather it acts as a seed that grows to take on characteristics specific to the rural development context.     

Critical evaluation of planning frameworks for rural water and sanitation development projects

Poor initial planning processes have been implicated in the high failure rate of rural water and sanitation development projects. This article critically examines 17 existing planning frameworks for rural water supply and sanitation projects with respect to key attributes of good planning practice, in order to discover the extent to which these address the elements of planning that relate to sustainability. It identifies sustainability-related factors from the sector that have been recognised as such and incorporated into current frameworks, as well as factors that are not yet well covered, and makes recommendations to practitioners wishing to employ such frameworks.     

Empowerment for development: Taking participatory appraisal further in rural South Africa

This paper examines the potential for Participatory Rural Appraisal techniques to contribute to community development and empowerment in a deprived rural community in the Eastern Cape Province in South Africa. A series of participatory workshops was undertaken in which various new techniques were used to identify people-environment relationships and, in particular, the community perception of the value and problems relating to the river and riparian zone. The workshops led to the community taking positive action to address the problems identified. The study indicates the value and role of participatory research among disempowered communities in rural Africa.     

The development role of community banks in rural Nigeria

This paper examined the development role of community banks in rural Nigeria by using the deposit mobilization capability and funding capacity in key sectors of the rural economy as yardsticks. By using a cluster sampling technique, it looks at the achievements of the community banking scheme initiative in terms of economic development. The scheme, established in 1991, has sustained itself and promoted rural development in the country. It is noted that communities have, for the first time, realized that they can advance their own economic fortunes. However, the scheme's performance as supporter of the agricultural sector has not been as well as expected, despite the fact that agriculture dominates Nigeria's rural economy. In view of this, non-banking activities are a welcome development since some of their approaches are proven to be knowledge enhancing and empowering for the rural population. Overall, community banks should attempt to strengthen non-banking approaches by collaborating more with self-help groups or nongovernmental organizations to be more empowering, results-oriented, and sustainable. Moreover, regulatory authorities should ensure that guidelines relate to credit application in terms of volume and sector allocation.     

A rural economic development plan to help the USA win its war on cocaine

Since the 1980s, the USA has fought cocaine in the Andes with carrots and sticks: interdiction and crop eradication wield the sticks, while Alternative Development (AD), which offers economic assistance to farmers who voluntarily abandon illicit cultivation, provides the carrots. Yet cocaine continues to permeate US streets, and rural Andean communities remain isolated from the legitimate economy. Many critics blame US belligerence for compounding the Andean drug war. The underlying problem with the existing strategy, however, might not be the aggressiveness of its military sticks, but the flimsiness of its development carrots. The inability of AD to persuade farmers to abandon coca cultivation may be causing US policy makers to over-apply military solutions – often inflaming rural communities and exacerbating regional instability in so doing. Few legal crops can match the earning power of coca. The article therefore suggests that the US carrot could be made more attractive by adopting a Venture Development model which helps rural farmers to process their legal produce into high-quality finished goods that command premium prices. Such a strategy could conceivably choke the cocaine engine by applying market-based forces to address market-based realities.     

Inclusive planning and allocation for rural services

The authors draw on experience from Uganda's commitment to decentralisation. This commitment is transforming the way services are planned and financed; new associations between local governments, NGOs, and private sector agencies are being created. Much attention has focused on the adoption of various techniques-such as participatory rural appraisal-through which direct and intensive forms of participation can be encouraged in decentralised planning. This trend is critically examined and potential unintended consequences are highlighted. A broader concept of accountability is outlined to illustrate a more inclusive approach to planning and allocation for more equity and sustainability in rural services.     

New technology for rural women: Paradoxes of sustainability

This article discusses the difficulties of reaching relatively poor populations with labour-saving technologies. Taking the case of milling and dehulling technologies in Senegal and The Gambia, it presents a simple analytic model that helps to explain why the vast majority of these labour-saving machines are under-utilised in rural areas. Though donors continue to support such projects widely, in few cases do they provide significant benefits to the broad population in the short term, and nor are they sustainable in the longer term. The key constraint is the lack of effective demand, owing to rural women's limited income-generating opportunities. In the time saved by using a machine to dehull or mill their coarse grains, they are unable to earn enough money even to pay the fees to use the machine, much less to earna surplus.     

Empowering rural women's groups for strengthening economic linkages: some Indian experiments

Through organizing informal self-help groups (SHGs), rural women in India are provided credit and extension support for various production-oriented income-generating activities. These activities usually include garment-making, embroidery, food processing, bee-keeping, basketry, gem cutting, weaving, and knitting. SHGs are self-governed, with decisions about production and marketing taken collectively, although the group leader is responsible for identifying potential marketing centers and consumers. These groups represent a new culture in rural development, breaking with traditional bureaucracy and top-down management. Informal groups empower rural women to manage rural industries and make decisions collectively for their common economic interests. Experience with SHGs in Orissa, lessons from nongovernmental organization intervention, and a model for empowering poor people in a small town in Kerala are discussed.     

Political scenario and cooperation for development

L'autonomia della banca centrale : verso una nuova costituzione in Italia e in Europa / a cura di Dario Velo. ‐ Bari, Cacucci Editore, c1995. ‐ 133 p.

Identità, partiti ed elezioni nell'Unione Europea / Fulvio Attinà, Francesca Longo, Stefania Panebianco. ‐ Bari Cacucci Editore, c1995. ‐ 128 p. ‐ (Annali ‘90 / Università degli studi di Catania. Dipartimento di studi politici; 1)

La politica estera dell'Unione Europea tra interdipendenza e Nazionalismo / Francesca Longo. ‐ Bari : Cacucci Editore, c1995. ‐ 173 p.

Breve storia del Consiglio dei Comuni e delle Regioni d'Europa, nel quadro di due secoli di lotta federalista / AICCRE. ‐ Roma : Salemi Pro. Edit., 1995. ‐ 203 p.

La cooperazione allo sviluppo / Pierangelo Isernia. ‐ Bologna : il Mulino, c1995. ‐ 420 p. ‐ (Organizzazione e funzionamento della pubblica amministrazione ; 71). ‐ ISBN 88–15–05175–9

Europa unita e didattica integrata : storiografie e bibliografie a confronto = A united Europe and integrated didactics : historiographies and bibliographies compared = Europe unie et didactique intégrée : historiograpbies et bibliographies comparées / edited by Ariane Landuyt. ‐ Siena : Protagon Editori Toscani, 1995. ‐ 284 p.

Geoeconomia : il dominio dello spazio economico / a cura di Paolo Savona e Carlo Jean. ‐ Milano : Franco Angeli, c1995. ‐ 192 p. ‐ ISBN 88–204–9512–0

Letteratura pro e contro Maastricht in vari paesi europei, con particolare riferi‐mento a Francia e Germania / Andrea Chiti‐Batelli. ‐ Roma : Dimensione europea, 1995. ‐L, 270 p. ‐ (Quaderni, ISSN 1121–3760 ; 3)

La nuova geoeconomia mondiale : alla ricerca di una risposta italiana / a cura della Fondazione Giovanni Agnelli. ‐ Torino : Fondazione Giovanni Agnelli, c1995. ‐ VI, 97 p.

Le organizzazioni economiche regionali africane : commenti, documenti, bibliografía, 1 : le organizzazioni dell'Africa australe (SACU e SADC) / a cura di Piero Pennetta e Angela di Stasi. ‐ Napoli : Edizioni Scientifiche Italiane, c1995. ‐ 328 p. ‐ (Pubblicazioni dell'Università degli studi di Salerno. Sezione studi giuridici ; 18). ‐ ISBN 88–8114–121–3

Rapporto Cina : il successo del “socialismo di mercato” e il futuro di Hong Kong / Maria Weber; collaborazione di Sergio A. Sarica; contributi di Francesca Ag‐nello, Marco Fiorese e Giorgio Starace. ‐ Torino : Fondazione Giovanni Agnelli, C1995. ‐ X, 135 p. ‐ ISBN 88–7860–113–6

Rapporto Vietnam : quali forze emergenti? / Giovanni Capannelli. ‐ Torino : Fondazione Giovanni Agnelli, c1995. ‐ VIII, 83 p. ‐ ISBN 88–7860–114–4

Rapporto India : le riforme economiche e il difficile rapporto fra centro e periferia / Luigi Marcuccio; collaborazione di Maria Weber e Daniele Finocchiaro. ‐ Torino : Fondazione Giovanni Agnelli, c1995. ‐XII, 124 p. ‐ ISBN 88–7860–115–2

Rapporto Corea del Sud : un modello di industrializzazione tardiva / Roberta Rabellotti. ‐ Torino : Fondazione Giovanni Agnelli, c1995. ‐ X, 71 p. ‐ ISBN 88–7860–116–0

Regionalism and the global economy : the case of Latin America and the Caribbean / edited by Jan Joost Teunissen. ‐ The Hague : FONDAD, c1995. ‐ 163 p. ‐ ISBN 90–74208–06–1

Syria and Israel : from war to peacemaking / Moshe Ma'oz. ‐ Oxford : Clarendon Press, 1995. ‐ xii, 280 p. ‐ ISBN 0–19–828018–1     

The Multidimensional Poverty Assessment Tool: a new framework for measuring rural poverty

The Multidimensional Poverty Assessment Tool (MPAT) measures fundamental dimensions of rural poverty in order to support poverty-alleviation efforts in the less developed world. This article's primary purpose is to introduce MPAT and describe its theoretical rationale. It begins with an overview of the importance of creating enabling environments for rural poverty alleviation before describing MPAT's purpose and structure. The article goes on to address some of the advantages and shortcomings of surveys and indicators as means of measuring poverty, and concludes with a few caveats on using MPAT, and a focus on its added value to practitioners and academics.     

Engaging elite support for the poorest? BRAC's Targeted Ultra Poor programme for rural women in Bangladesh

This article draws preliminary lessons from the experience of engaging village elites in support of a BRAC programme for ultra-poor women in rural Bangladesh. It describes the origins, aims, and operation of this programme, which provides comprehensive livelihood support and productive assets to the extreme poor. Based on field research in the rural north-west, the article examines the conditions under which elites can support interventions for the ultra-poor, and the risks and benefits of such engagement. It describes the impact of committees mandated to support ultra-poor programme participants, and attempts to understand the somewhat paradoxical success of this intervention. Conclusions and lessons from the experience involve revisiting assumptions that dominate scholarship and programmes relating to the politics of poverty in rural Bangladesh.     

New directions for pastoral development in Africa

The last few years have seen a major rethinking of some of the hallowed assumptions of range ecology and range-management practice. The usefulness of terms such as ‘vegetation succession?s, ‘carrying capacity?s, and ‘desertification?s is being reassessed, particularly for the dry rangelands which are dominated by highly variable rainfall and episodic, chance events such as drought. This article examines the management and policy implications of this thinking for pastoral development in dryland areas. It briefly examines the consequences of environmental variability for pastoral development planning, range and fodder management, drought responses, livestock marketing, resource tenure, institutional development, and pastoral administration. By offering new directions for development workers, researchers, and policy planners, the article illustrates, in practical terms, a future for pastoral development in dryland Africa that recognises both the importance of pastoral livelihoods and the significance of environmental variability.     

Development perspectives: Views from rural Lebanon

This paper explores development issues from the perspective of two villages in rural Lebanon. Educated male villagers see themselves as initiators of development and use the same language as NGO officials. Client-patron relationships and wasta (the act of accessing material favours, such as development projects, from the powerful) are means for these men to achieve their political ends. Women and the less powerful men, who are not part of the wasta network, tend to be disregarded in decision making, but nonetheless have strong views about the needs of the villages. The Islamic view emphasises the moral life.