Demand Responsive Services: Towards an Analytical Framework for Administrative Practice in Indigenous Settlements

Demand responsiveness is an established principle in the efficient operation of markets. The principle has been applied to government services in international development overseas, and mainstream government service delivery in Australia, but only recently to Indigenous settlements. Shifting the balance in services from supply to demand is seen to have the potential to improve access, outcomes, and sustainability of services. In Indigenous settlements, an important relationship between demand and supply of services does exist, but a deeper analysis is necessary beyond the economic model to account for the complex sociopolitical geographies involved. Further research is required to develop a framework to explain the interactions that occur in practice, to determine the conditions which permit productive relationships to develop between consumers and service providers. The article presents an analytical framework through which to proceed, structured around five proposed research questions.     

Donor-induced depoliticisation of development implementation: the case of Ghana’s Compact I

Based on empirical evidence from a donor-funded project in Ghana, this article demonstrates that when development implementation is depoliticised, targets will likely be achieved within budget and on time. Funded and supervised by the Millennium Challenge Corporation of the United States, Ghana Compact I has been recommended as a model for future development implementation. This article is an attempt to explain this success, compared to select social programmes. It argues that Compact I was implemented successfully because it was insulated from political interference, and suggests that donor-induced depoliticisation offers a route to successful development implementation in recipient countries.     

Assessing the credibility of how climate adaptation aid projects are categorised

This article presents the findings of a re-evaluation of all 5,200 aid projects that OECD donors reported for 2012 as “climate change adaptation”-related, based on the “Rio marker” classification system. The findings confirm those from the academic and grey literature that the absence of independent quality control makes the adaptation Rio marker data almost entirely unreliable. This lack of credibility impedes meaningful assessments of progress toward the mainstreaming of adaptation in development cooperation activities. It also erodes trust in international climate negotiations, given that these data are frequently used in the financial reporting of developed countries to the UNFCCC.     

Promoting country ownership and inclusive growth? An assessment of Feed the Future

This article investigates the level of country ownership and inclusivity in Feed the Future (FtF) projects in Ethiopia, Ghana, Haiti, Senegal, and Tanzania. It finds that though interventions largely align with country-defined priorities and plans, other aspects of country ownership – consultation and provision of aid through local systems – are weaker than expected. Regarding inclusion, FtF is to some extent exclusive, perhaps as an unintended consequence of alignment with national development plans that do not reasonably promote equity. Focus is mostly on productive areas and ‘market-ready’ smallholders. The article suggests policy actions needed to better achieve expected results.     

From humanitarian action to development aid in northern Uganda and the formation of a humanitarian-development nexus

The instituted order of humanitarianism is both changing and challenged. This article addresses the transition between humanitarian action and development aid in northern Uganda, which was driven by the government’s ambition to reassert its humanitarian sovereignty by discursively recasting the situation from one of crisis to one of recovery and development, regardless of the persistent humanitarian needs. In response, humanitarian actors either withdrew or moved into development aid. This bourgeoning humanitarian–development nexus questions the nature and future of humanitarianism and whether there is a hierarchy – or contradiction – between the humanitarian mandate and pragmatic approaches to save lives and protect civilians.     

Faith and palliative care: a partnership of care in low- and middle-income countries

ABSTRACT

The provision of holistic palliative care has been identified by WHO as a human right, important for all people, at all ages, with all life-limiting illnesses. When faced with death and dying, issues of meaning and relationships with others, the world, and with the sacred are intensified even more in communities where faith and spiritual beliefs have a significant place. Being able to understand the significance of dying and interpreting the experience and period of living with life-limiting illness, presents an important challenge for palliative care. This article sets out the contribution that faith communities have made in understanding the significance of spiritual issues in health and in delivering palliative care in lower to middle-income contexts where palliative care has been prioritised.     

Beyond toilets and targets: sanitation mission in India

In an attempt to address Sustainable Development Goal 6, the Government of India’s initiative, Swachh Bharat Mission (SBM), aims to make India open-defecation free by 2018. This viewpoint analyses the consequences of SBM from the perspective of women and water in the context of toilets. With the construction of toilets for 2.4 million people, the vulnerability of women is expected to worsen as available water is scarce. The viewpoint concludes that construction of toilets as a target is difficult to achieve and sustain without green technology design that overcomes the constraints of water and women.     

The welfare impacts of market channel choice by smallholder farmers in Tanzania

This article analyses the impact of market channel choice on household welfare by maize and pigeon pea smallholder farmers in Tanzania, using a multinomial endogenous treatment approach. The study utilises farm household-level data collected from a randomly selected sample of 700 smallholder farmers. The results show that participation with traders in nearby markets and wholesalers in nearby towns have a positive effect on consumption expenditure per capita relative to brokers at the farmgate, for both maize and pigeon pea-farming households. The study suggests that interventions that aimed at inclusion of smallholder farmers in more profitable markets could improve household welfare and reduce poverty among rural households.     

Indigenous peoples vs peasant unions: land conflicts and rural movements in plurinational Bolivia

Agrarian reforms do not constitute linear processes: rather, they are based on the interconnection between the crystallization of land governance in formal tenure rules and the way societies organize around a set of identities and power mechanisms. This paper focuses on how the misinterpretation of this two-way relationship, in setting up a new normative framework, can generate unintended consequences in terms of conflict. The recent wave of land conflicts in Bolivia shows how changes in the allocation of strategic resources inspired by the so-called ‘politics of recognition’ triggered processes of political ethnicization and organizational fragmentation, eventually contributing to fuelling new tensions between indigenous groups and peasant unions.     

Intolerant Policies and Discourses in Northern Italian Cities

In 2008, several local authorities in Italy implemented policies that aimed at limiting the socioeconomic and civil rights of migrants, especially in those regions administered by the North League party. This article analyzes these local policies and the discourses to support or oppose them. It shows that three main intolerant arguments are used by their supporters, which refer to security, welfare provisions, and national identity. In contrast with these dominant discourses, civil society actors construct a counterdiscourse based on respect for human rights.