(incl. Poverty; Economic Development)
(See also: Industrial Development; Sustainability; Unemployment; Urban Development;)
*NOTE: Some titles in these lists are not formally Open Access, but all are free (no fee for e-access)
African Cities and the Development Conundrum
Publisher: Brill
Year of publication: 2018
FREE DOWNLOAD: https://brill.com/view/title/39476
This 10th thematic volume of International Development Policy presents a collection of articles exploring some of the complex development challenges associated with Africa’s recent but extremely rapid pace of urbanisation that challenges still predominant but misleading images of Africa as a rural continent. Analysing urban settings through the diverse experiences and perspectives of inhabitants and stakeholders in cities across the continent, the authors consider the evolution of international development policy responses amidst the unique historical, social, economic and political contexts of Africa’s urban development.
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African Initiated Christianity and the Decolonisation of Development
: Sustainable Development in Pentecostal and Independent Churches
Publisher: Routledge
Year of publication: 2020
This book investigates the substantial and growing contribution which African Independent and Pentecostal Churches are making to sustainable development in all its manifold forms. Moreover, this volume seeks to elucidate how these churches reshape the very notion of sustainable development and contribute to the decolonisation of development.
Fostering both overarching and comparative perspectives, the book includes chapters on West Africa (Nigeria, Ghana, and Burkina Faso) and Southern Africa (Zimbabwe and South Africa). It aims to open up a subfield focused on African Initiated Christianity within the religion and development discourse, substantially broadening the scope of the existing literature. Written predominantly by scholars from the African continent, the chapters in this volume illuminate potentials and perspectives of African Initiated Christianity, combining theoretical contributions, essays by renowned church leaders, and case studies focusing on particular churches or regional contexts.
While the contributions in this book focus on the African continent, the notion of development underlying the concept of the volume is deliberately wide and multidimensional, covering economic, social, ecological, political, and cultural dimensions. Therefore, the book will be useful for the community of scholars interested in religion and development as well as researchers within African studies, anthropology, development studies, political science, religious studies, sociology of religion, and theology. It will also be a key resource for development policymakers and practitioners.
Contents page:
Ch. 1- Introduction: African Initiated Christianity and sustainable development
By Philipp Öhlmann, Wilhelm Gräb, Marie-Luise Frost
Part I - Overarching perspectives
Ch. 2 - Spirit and empowerment: The African Initiated Church movement and development
By J. Kwabena Asamoah-Gyadu
Ch. 3 - The challenge of environment and climate justice:
Imperatives of an eco-theological reformation of Christianity in African contexts
By Dietrich Werner
Ch. 4 - African Initiated Churches and development from below
Subjecting a thesis to closer scrutiny
By Ignatius Swart
Ch. 5 - Distinguished church leader essay
Theology in African Initiated Churches – reflections from an East African perspective
By John Njeru Gichimu
Part II - Nigerian perspectives
Ch. 6 - Distinguished church leader essay
Roles of women in African Independent and Pentecostal Churches in Nigeria
By Atinuke Abdulsalami
Ch. 7 - ‘A starving man cannot shout halleluyah’
African Pentecostal Churches and the challenge of promoting sustainable development
By Olufunke Adeboye
Ch. 8 - Approaches to transformation and development
The case of the Redeemed Christian Church of God, Nigeria
By Babatunde A. Adedibu
Ch. 9 - The role of Pentecostalism in sustainable development in Nigeria
By Mobolaji Oyebisi Ajibade
Ch. 10 - Aladura Churches as agents of social transformation in South-West Nigeria
By Akinwumi Akindolie
Ch. 11 - Distinguished church leader essay
Aladura theology – the case of the Church of the Lord (Prayer Fellowship) Worldwide
By Rufus Okikiola Ositelu
Part III - Ghanaian perspectives
Ch. 12 - Distinguished church leader essay
The Church of Pentecost and its role in Ghanaian society
By Opoku Onyinah
Ch. 13 - An evaluation of Pentecostal Churches as agents of sustainable development in Africa
The case of the Church of Pentecost
By Emmanuel Kwesi Anim
Ch. 14 - Pentecostalism and sustainable development
The case of Perez Chapel International
By Sylvia Owusu-Ansah, Philip Adjei-Acquah
Ch. 15 - Distinguished church leader essay
Healing a strained relationship between African Independent Churches and western Mission-founded Churches in Ghana (1967–2017) – the role of Good News Theological Seminary, Accra, Ghana
By Thomas A. Oduro
Part IV - Perspectives from Burkina Faso
Ch. 16 - Distinguished church leader essay
Partnerships for female education in Burkina Faso – perspectives from Evangelical Churches and FBOs
By Philippe Ouedraogo
Ch. 17 - Centre International d’Evangélisation/Mission Intérieure Africaine’s contribution to sustainable development in Burkina Faso through transformational development
By Ini Dorcas Dah
Part V - Zimbabwean perspectives
Ch. 18 - Investing in the future generation
New Pentecostal Charismatic Churches in Harare, Zimbabwe
By Simbarashe Gukurume
Ch. 19 - Pentecostal Charismatic Christianity and the management of precarity in postcolonial Zimbabwe
By Josiah Taru
Part VI - South African perspectives
Ch. 20 - Distinguished church leader essay
Cross-cultural development in South Africa – a perspective from below
By Danie C. van Zyl
Ch. 21 - Contested development(s)? The possible contribution of the African Independent Churches in decolonising development
A South African perspective
By Nadine Bowers-Du Toit
Reviews:
“This book is one of the profoundest, scholarly attempts towards unpacking and decolonizing sustainable development through the prism of African Christianities. While some bemoan African Initiated Christianity, as antithetical to development, the contributors to this volume provide a more nuanced, critical and interdisciplinary perspective by exploring lived, everyday expressions and experiences of AICs and Pentecostals in Africa. This book prioritizes a bottom-up definition of development, from the viewpoint of religious adepts and practitioners, and its focus on overarching and regional perspectives add rich flavor, contributing to theoretical grid-making on religion and development from below. It is a "must-read" to scholars, policy makers, and practitioners who care to grasp the complex interplay of religion and sustainable development in Africa.” --Afe Adogame, Maxwell M. Upson Professor of Religion and Society, Princeton Theological Seminary, United States of America
“This edited collection is an accessible and essential reading for anyone interested in unpacking issues of sustainable development in African contexts. Authors from a variety of backgrounds provide fascinating and multifaceted reflections on the way African Initiated churches’ everyday work shapes and influences applied and spiritual development.” --Barbara Bompani, Reader in Africa and International Development, Centre of African Studies, The University of Edinburgh, United Kingdom
“This book is a welcome addition to the growing literature on religion and development. Its exclusive focus on African initiated churches, in and outside Africa, renders it a novel collection of essays that sheds light on the unique role that these churches play in advancing development. It further demonstrates that development in Africa is no longer a colonial enterprise.” --Gerrie ter Haar, Em. Professor Religion and Development, International Institute of Social Studies, Erasmus University Rotterdam, The Netherlands
“This timely volume challenges two long-cherished stereotypes on African Initiated Christianity: it firstly deconstructs notions of socio-political irrelevance by sketching its developmental agency; secondly it challenges modernist assumptions on social change by profiling the transformative potential of primarily spirit-empowered churches with reference to multi-directional perspectives of sustainable development in Africa.” --Andreas Heuser, Professor for Extra-European Christianity, University of Basel, Switzerland
“The impact of religion, for example in world-view formation and ethical behaviour, cannot be ignored in theories and practises regarding sustainable development. This holds especially true for a religious continent such as Africa. In this book, the important domain of religion and development is explored by a variety of world-renowned scholars, making it timely and important contribution to this nascent academic field.” --Cas Wepener, Professor of Practical Theology, University of Pretoria, South Africa
“It is a remarkable collection and a resource that will be of use to generations.” --Gerald O. West, Professor Emeritus, Fellow of the University of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa
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African Economic Development
: evidence, theory and policy
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Year of publication: 2020
Unevenness and inequalities form a central fact of African economic experiences. This book challenges conventional wisdoms about economic performance and possible policies for economic development in African countries, using the striking variation in economic performance as a starting point.
African Economic Development: Evidence, Theory, and Policy highlights not only difference between countries, but also variation within countries. It focuses on issues relating to gender, class, and ethnic identity, such as neo-natal mortality, school dropout, and horticultural and agribusiness exports. Variations in these areas point to opportunities for changing perfomance, reducing reducing inequalities, learning from other policy experiences, and escaping the ties of structure and the legacies of a colonial past.
The book rejects teleological illusions and Eurocentric prejudice, criticizing a range of orthodox and heterodox economists for their cavalier attitude to evidence. Instead, it shows that seeing the contradictions of capitalism for what they are - fundamental and enduring - may help policy officials protect themselves against the misleading idea that development can be expected to be a smooth, linear process, or that it would be if certain impediments were removed.
Drawing on decades of research and policy experience, this book combines careful use of available evidence from a range of African countries with economic insights to make the policy case for specific types of public sector investment.
Review:
Arguing against both ‘African pessimism’ and the naïve optimism of ‘Africa rising’, this innovative book makes the case for ‘possibilism’. This is not just another economics textbook on Africa: it is deeply interdisciplinary and draws not only on history, politics, anthropology, and soil science, but strikingly too on the world of art and literature. The authors offer an unmistakeably progressive political economy, unafraid to challenge weak arguments of radical ‘left’ economists as much as the worn-out narratives of the mainstream.
---Vishnu Padayachee, Distinguished Professor and Derek Schrier and Cecily Cameron Chair in Development Economics, School of Economics and Finance, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg; also life-Fellow of the Society of Scholars, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore and Washington DC.
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Africa's Lions
: Growth Traps and Opportunities for Six African Economies
Publisher: Brookings Institution Press [via Knowledge Unlatched]
Year of publication: 2016
Africa's Lions examines the economic growth experiences of six fast-growing and/or economically dominant African countries. Expert African researchers offer unique perspectives into the challenges and issues in Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Mozambique, Nigeria, and South Africa. Despite a growing body of research on African economies, very little research has focused on the relationship between economic growth and employment outcomes at the detailed country level.
This book is a successful collaboration of the Brookings Institution, the Development Policy Research Unit of the University of Cape Town, and the United Nations University World Institute for Development Economics Research (UNU- WIDER) to help fill this gap and to stimulate further analytical work in this important area. The authors have harnessed country-level household, firm, and national accounts data, together with existing analytical country research.
The growth of the global working-age population to 2030 will be driven primarily by Africa, so the relationship between population and job growth is best understood within the context of each country’s projected demographic challenge and the associated implications for employment growth. Furthermore, a better understanding of the structure of each country’s workforce and the implications for human capital development, the vulnerably employed, and the working poor are critical to informing the future development policy agenda. In this sense, outputs from the project that led to this volume can help to inform and guide development policy across these African economies.
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Alternative Development Strategies for the Post-2015 Era
(The United Nations Series on Development)
Publisher: Bloomsbury Academic
Year of publication: 2014
The global economic crisis of 2008-2009 exposed systemic failings at the core of economic policy making worldwide. The crisis came on top of several other crises, including skyrocketing and highly volatile world food and energy prices and climate change. This book argues that new policy approaches are needed to address such devastating global development challenges and to avoid the potentially catastrophic consequences to livelihoods worldwide that would result from present approaches.
The contributors to the book are independent development experts, brought together by the UN to identify a development strategy capable of promoting a broad-based economic recovery and at the same time guaranteeing social equity and environmental sustainability both within countries and internationally. This new development approach seeks to promote the reforms needed to improve global governance, providing a more equitable distribution of global public goods. The contributors offer a critical evaluation of past development experiences and report on their creative search for new and well-thought out answers for the future. They suggest that economic progress, fairer societies and environmental sustainability can be compatible objectives, but only when pursued simultaneously by all.
Contents page:
Front matter
1. Globalization at a Crossroads
Rob Vos
2. Should Global Goal Setting Continue, and how, in the Post-2015 Era?
Sakiko Fukuda-Parr
3. Do we Need New Development Models? the Impact of Neo-Liberal Policies
Frances Stewart
4. Learning from the Past
Giovanni Andrea Cornia and Milica Uvalic
5. Towards Climate-Compatible and Resilient Development
J.B. (Hans) Opschoor
6. Aiming for Food and Nutrition Security in a Changed Global Context
Joachim Von Braun
7. Demographic Dynamics and the International Development Strategy Beyond 2015
Ana Luiza Cortez
8. Common Elements for Inclusive and Sustainable Development Strategies Beyond 2015
Giovanni Andrea Cornia and Rob Vos
9. Building a Stable and Equitable Global Monetary System
Bilge Erten and José Antonio Alonso
10. From Aid to Global Development Policy
José Antonio Alonso
11. International Migration in the Development Agenda
José Antonio Alonso
12. The Enabling International Environment
Norman Girvan and Ana Luiza Cortez
Back matter
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Can We Know Better?
: Reflections for Development
(author: Robert Chambers)
Publisher: Practical Action Publishing
Year of publication: 2017
This book is intended for all who are committed to human wellbeing and who want to make our world fairer, safer and more fulfilling for everyone, especially those who are ‘last’. It argues that to do better we need to know better. It provides evidence that what we believe we know in international development is often distorted or unbalanced by errors, myths, biases and blind spots. Undue weight has been attached to standardised methodologies such as randomized control trials, systematic reviews, and competitive bidding: these are shown to have huge transaction costs which are rarely if ever recognized in their enormity. Robert Chambers contrasts a Newtonian paradigm in which the world is seen and understood as controllable with a paradigm of complexity which recognizes that the real world of social processes and power relations is messy and unpredictable. To confront the challenges of complex and emergent realities requires a revolutionary new professionalism. This is underpinned by a new combination of canons of rigour expressed through eclectic methodological pluralism and participatory approaches which reverse and transform power relations. Promising developments include rapid innovations in participatory ICTs, participatory statistics, and the Reality Check Approach with its up-to-date and rigorously grounded insights. Fundamental to the new professionalism, in every country and context, are reflexivity, facilitation, groundtruthing, and personal mindsets, behaviour, attitudes, empathy and love.
Robert Chambers surveys the past world of international development, and his own past views, with an honest and critical eye, and then launches into the world of complexity with a buoyant enthusiasm. He draws on almost six decades of experience in varied roles in Africa, South Asia and elsewhere as practitioner, trainer, manager, teacher, evaluator and field researcher, also working in UNHCR and the Ford Foundation. He is a Research Associate and Emeritus Professor at the Institute of Development Studies, University of Sussex, his base for many years.
Can We Know Better? is essential reading for researchers and students of development, for policy makers and evaluators, and for all those working towards the better world of the Sustainable Development Goals.
Contents page:
Preface
Acknowledgements
1. Error and myth
2. Biases and blind spots
3. Lenses and lock-ins
4. Rigour for complexity
5. Power, participation, and knowledge: knowing better together
6. Knowing for a better future
Glossary of Meanings
Abbreviations
Index
Reviews:
“T.S. Eliot famously asked, “Where is the wisdom we have lost in knowledge? Where is the knowledge we have lost in information?” The answer: it is here, in this book, in the accumulated knowledge of Robert Chambers’ six decades of experience and thinking about development, and in the great wisdom he brings to bear on the fantasies and foibles of practitioners, academics and funders. All of them should take time to read this important book and to think hard about what it means when they go back to their work.” --Ian Smillie, author of The Alms Bazaar, Mastering the Machine and Diamonds, President of the Canadian Association for the Study of International Development, 2015-17
“This book is a salvo against development smugness, much needed at a time when the Sustainable Development Goals are beginning to gain traction. Taking head-on the central question of how we know, and how that shapes what we do through development policy, Chambers employs his clear eye and gently acerbic tongue to show why development professionals need to be more humble, more self-reflexive, and more passionate about our mission.” --Gita Sen, Distinguished Professor & Director, Ramalingaswami Centre on Equity & Social Determinants of Health, Public Health Foundation of India.
“Always prescient and always wise, Robert Chambers has given development scholars and practitioners yet another gift with this provocative call for “a revolution in development knowing, thinking, and practice.” But what a commentary on development in practice that the supposed beneficiaries of development continue to be marginalized and dispossessed. Weep for them and their needless suffering – but read Chambers’s new book and get into action!” --Dr. Robin Broad (Professor after 1st), International Development Program, American University.
“Robert Chambers is a global public good, a true development guru that all should follow. In his latest work, he explores our claims to be able to distinguish between what is true and false - what do we 'know' and why do we so often get it wrong? Drawing on almost 60 years of relentlessly questioning orthodoxies and standing up for those excluded from power and decisions, Robert Chambers asks us to fundamentally question the nature of such 'knowledge', its biases and blind spots. Then with his customary energy and optimism, he shows how we can 'know better' and thus 'do better'. An indispensable book.” --Dr. Duncan Green, Strategic Adviser, Oxfam and author of How Change Happens.
“Robert Chambers once again demonstrates that assessing both the intractable and the emerging development challenges of today is fundamentally about values — from the personal to the socio-economic and political — and the courage to affirm them. ” --Ricardo Wilson-Grau, Independent international evaluator with Ricardo Wilson-Grau Consultoria, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
“In Can we know better? Robert Chambers provides a stark exposition of the errors of power, and their depressing frequency in development practice. Exposing the tendency of all of us to seek comfort in the myths and misperceptions of our professions with wit, compelling stories and evidence, he lays out the challenge to shift development thinking to a truly universal framing. At the heart is a personal challenge to recognise when we are misled by interests, biases and tricks of memory into ignoring or misrepresenting the realities of change. He shows how, without a commitment to reflecting on ourselves, we run the real risk of getting both the big and small things completely wrong.” --Andrew Norton, Director of the International Institute for Environment and Development.
“Robert Chambers’ Can We Know Better? is a powerful and timely call for those working in development to stand back and reflect critically on how we know and how we might know better. In this book, Chambers exhaustively categorises manifestations of personal, political and methodological error, bias and privileging. Drawing from a wealth of case study material he illustrates the dramatic and even catastrophic developmental impact of error. He challenges us to know better by recognising and resisting – through critical reflection tied to ‘inclusive rigour’ and a ‘revolutionary professionalism’ – all forms of bias and ignorance. For all those development professionals and practitioners – we who are ‘not last’ but who claim to act for those who are last – this is a profoundly important book.” --Jeremy Holland, Associate, Social Development, Oxford Policy Management.
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Challenging Global Development
: Towards Decoloniality and Justice
Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan
Year of publication: 2024
This open access book presents contributions to decolonize development studies. It seeks to promote and sustain new forms of solidarity and conviviality that work towards achieving social justice. Recognising global poverty and inequalities as historic injustices, the book addresses how these can be challenged through teaching, research, and engagement in policy and practice, and the sorts of political barriers these might encounter. From a variety of perspectives and contexts, these chapters examine how decoloniality and solidarity can be developed, offering in-depth historical, theoretical, epistemological, and empirical analyses.
Contents page:
Front Matter
Rethinking Development and Decolonising Development Studies
Kees Biekart, Laura Camfield, Uma Kothari, Henning Melber
Essentialist Approaches to Global Issues: The Ontological Limitations of Development Studies
Juan Telleria
Beyond the Sustainable Development Goals: Post-development Alternatives
Aram Ziai
In Search of Alternatives to Development: Learning from Grounded Initiatives
Ashish Kothari
Why Is Development Elusive? Structural Adjustments of Africa in the Longue Durée
Sabelo Ndlovu-Gatsheni
Cultivating Post-development: Pluriversal Transitions and Radical Spaces of Engagement
José Castro-Sotomayor, Paola Minoia
Beyond Deconstruction and Towards Decoloniality: Pedagogy and Curriculum Design in SWANA and South Asia Studies in US Higher Education
Helena Zeweri, Tessa Farmer
Data Collection Versus Knowledge Theft: Relational Accountability and the Research Ethics of Indigenous Knowledges
Lauren Tynan
Assuming Power in New Forms: Learning to Feel ‘With the Other’ in Decolonial Research
M. Teresa Armijos, Luis David Acosta, Eliza S. Calder, William Gaviria, Daniela Giraldo, Jaime Pineda et al.
Reflections and Epilogues
Front Matter
Development and Post-development in a Time of Crisis
Alfredo Saad-Filho
South-South Cooperation and Decoloniality
Emma Mawdsley
Decolonising Development Management: Epistemological Shifts and Practical Actions
Caitlin Scott
What Is ‘Development’ and Can We ‘Decolonise’ It? Some Ontological and Epistemological Reflections
Lata Narayanaswamy
EADI Roundtable: Recasting Development Studies in Times of Multiple Crises
About the Editors:
Henning Melber is Extraordinary Professor at the Department of Political Sciences, University of Pretoria, and at the Centre for Gender and Africa Studies, University of the Free State in Bloemfontein, South Africa.
Uma Kothari is Professor of Migration and Postcolonial Studies at the Global Development Institute, University of Manchester, UK.
Laura Camfield is Professor of Development Research and Evaluation and Head of the School of International Development at the University of East Anglia (UEA), UK.
Kees Biekart is Associate Professor of Political Sociology at the International Institute of Social Studies (ISS) of Erasmus University, the Netherlands.
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A Common Good Approach to Development
: Collective Dynamics of Development Processes
Publisher: Open Book Publishers
Year of publication: 2022
This edited collection proposes a common good approach to development theory and practice. Rather than focusing on the outcomes or conditions of development, the contributors concentrate on the quality of development processes, suggesting that a common good dynamic is key in order to trigger development.
Resulting from more than three years of research by an international group of over fifty scholars, the volume advocates for a modern understanding of the common good—rather than a theological or metaphysical good—in societies by emphasising the social practice of ‘commoning’ at its core. It suggests that the dynamic equilibrium of common goods in a society should be at the centre of development efforts. For this purpose, it develops a matrix of common good dynamics, accounting for how institutions, social norms and common practices interconnect by identifying five key drivers not only of development, but human development (agency, governance, justice, stability, humanity). Based on this matrix, the contributors suggest a possible metric for measuring the quality of these dynamics. The last section of the book highlights the possibilities enabled by this approach through a series of case studies.
The concept of the common good has recently enjoyed a revival and inspired practitioners keen to look beyond the shortcomings of political and economic liberalism. This book builds on those efforts to think beyond the agenda of twentieth-century development policies, and will be of interest to those working in the fields of development, economics, sociology, philosophy and political science.
Contents page:
Introduction [general]
Introduction to Part I
1. The Theoretical Framework: Common Goods and Systems of Common Goods
2. From Theory to Practice: A Matrix of Common Good Dynamics
3. Design and Reflection on the Metric of Common Dynamics
Introduction to Part II
4. Collective Agency Freedom as the Engine of a Common Good Dynamic: A Conceptual Proposal for Measurement
5. The Systemic Outcome of Common Good Dynamics: Humanity
6. Governance, Commoning and the Unequal Terms of Recognition
7. Organising Common Good Dynamics: Justice
8. Development and Stability
Introduction to Part III
9. Do We Need a Common Good Approach to Development?
10. Bangsamoro: A Case Study in Governing for the Common Good
11. Assessing the Nexus of the Common Good: The Case of the Municipality of Atlixco, Mexico
12. Assessing the Transformative Impact of Love-Based Microsocial Communities: From Existential Peripheries into the Nexus of the Common Good
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Consolidating Developmental Local Government
: Lessons from the South African Experience
Publisher: UCT Press
Year of publication: 2013
FREE DOWNLOAD: https://openuctpress.uct.ac.za/uctpress/catalog/book/11
Consolidating Developmental Local Government documents the dynamics of local government transformation and captures the key themes of the debates about policy options, lessons and key strategic decisions. These debates are aimed at ensuring that municipalities play a key role in creating more democratic, non-racial, equitable and sustainable communities, towns and cities.
Compiled and written by people who participated in one way or another in the experience of democratic consolidation, this text will be an indispensable resource for government officials, students, researchers, specialists, community leaders, businesses and the general reader. Critical questions are raised throughout the book about the kinds of challenges that all those involved with the future of local governance will face in the years ahead.
Contents page:
Foreword
Preface
Contributors
1. Consolidating developmental local government
I. DEVELOPMENTAL LOCAL GOVERNMENT IN COMPARATIVE CONTEXT
2. Continuities and discontinuities in South African local government
3. Developmental local government : squaring the circle between policy intent and impact
4. Local governance and the politics of sustainability
5. From spheres to tiers : conceptions of local government in South Africa in the period 1994-2006
6. Rural local governance
7. Local democracy and development in comparative perspective
II. STRATEGIC PRIORITIES OF DEVELOPMENTAL LOCAL GOVERNMENT
8. The emergence and endurance of an evolving human settlements imaginary
9. Reframing urban passenger transport as a strategic priority for developmental local government
10. Social development : an imperative for local government
11. The implications of HIV/AIDS for local governance and sustainable municipal service delivery
12. Institutional arrangements for local economic development implementation in South Africa
13. Key themes and trends in municipal finance in South Africa
III. TOOLS AND REGULATORY INSTRUMENTS OF DEVELOPMENTAL LOCAL GOVERNMENT
14. The origins and outcomes of South Africa's integrated development plans
15. Intergovernmental delivery in municipal areas : reflections on current practice
16. Tools and trade-offs in environmental decision-making
17. Local government planning legal frameworks and regulatory tools : vital signs?
18. Urban land use regulation in the context of developmental local government
19. Municipal entities : a panacea for service delivery constraints?
20. The distribution of power : local government and electricity distribution industry reforms
IV. INSTITUTIONAL MODELS OF DEVELOPMENTAL LOCAL GOVERNMENT
21. Political systems and capacity issues
22. Participatory mechanisms and community politics : building consensus and conflict
23. Beyond cooption and protest : reflections on the FEDUP Alternative
24. A case study of community participation in governance and service delivery in the City of Johannesburg
25. Democratisation with inclusion : revisiting the role of ward committees
26. Rolling back the spatial barriers to socio-economic development : Experiences from the demarcation of district and local municipalities
Index.
Reviews:
"We are confident that policymakers, researchers and practitioners alike will find Consolidating Developmental Local Government a useful, thoughtful contribution to making local government and other spheres of government work better together to overcome poverty and inequality."
- Solomon Lechesa Tsenoli, MP, Chairperson of the Portfolio Committee on Provincial and Local Government
"Consolidating Developmental Local Government should be required reading for scholars and practitioners everywhere who care about inclusive and poverty-oriented development and are alert to the complexities and rewards of achieving democratic local government in cosmopolitan societies and complex institutional arenas."
- Professor Jo Beall, Development Studies Institute, London School of Economics
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The Democratic Development State
: North-South Perspectives
Publisher: ibidem-Verlag / ibidem Press
Year of publication: 2018
The concept of a democratic developmental state is part of the current development discourse advocated by international aid agencies, deliberated on by academics, and embraced by policymakers in many emerging economies in the global South. What is noticeable in this discourse is how little attention has been paid to a discussion of the essence of a democratic developmental state, and much of what passes for theory is little more than policy-speak and political rhetoric.
This volume fills a gap in the literature on the democratic developmental state. Analyzing the different approaches to the implementation of democratic developmental states in various countries, it evaluates the extent to which these are merely replicating the central tenets of the East Asian model of the developmental state or if they are succeeding in their attempts to establish a new and more inclusive conceptualization of the state. In particular, the authors scrutinize to what degree the attempts to build a democratic developmental state may be distorted by the imperatives of neoliberalism.
The volume broadens the understanding of the Nordic model of a democratic developmental state and shows how it represents an additional, and perhaps contending understanding of the developmental state derived from the East Asian experience.
Contents page:
Toward a Conceptualization of the Democratic Development State in Principle and Practice - Chris Tapscott, Tor Halvorsen and Teresita Cruz-Del Rosario
Building the Democratic Developmental State: Lessons from East Asia - Teresita Cruz Del-Rosario
The Carrot and Stick of Ethiopian “Democratic Developmentalism": Ideological, Legal, and Policy Frameworks - Eyob Balcha Gebremariam
The Establishment of a Democratic Developmental Local State in South Africa: Between Rhetoric and Reality - Sharon Penderis & Chris Tapscott
The “Developmental" and “Welfare" State in South Africa - Jeremy Seekings
The Rise and Fall of Democratic Neo-developmentalism in Brazil - Einar Braathen
New Social Democracy in the South? Reflections from India, Indonesia, and Scandinavia in Comparative Perspective - Olle Törnquist
On the Sociocultural Foundations of Democratic Capitalism: Experiences from the Norwegian Case - Ole Johnny Olsen
Democratic Development State or Competition State? Toward the New Constitution of Neoliberal Hegemony - Tor Halvorsen
Democracy, Development, and the Disciplining of Capital - Tor Halvorsen and Chris Tapscott
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The Developer's Dilemma
: Structural Transformation, Inequality Dynamics, and Inclusive Growth
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Year of publication: 2022
Developing countries seek economic development which is broad-based or inclusive in the sense that it raises the income of all, especially the poor. Yet this is at odds with Simon Kuznets' hypothesis that economic development tends to put upward pressure on income inequality, at least initially and in the absence of countervailing policies. The Developer's Dilemma explores this 'Kuznetsian tension' between structural transformation and income inequality.
The book asks: what are the varieties of structural transformation that have been experienced in developing countries? What inequality dynamics are associated with each variety of structural transformation? And what policies have been utilized to manage trade-offs between structural transformation, income inequality, and inclusive growth? Across nine country cases written by academics across the Global South, this book answers these questions using a comparative case study approach with a common analytical framework and a set of common datasets. The intended intellectual contribution of the book is to provide a comparative analysis of the relationship between structural transformation, income inequality, and inclusive growth; to do so empirically at a regional and national level, and to draw conclusions about the varieties of structural transformation, their inequality dynamics, and the policies that have been employed to mediate the developer's dilemma.
Contents page:
1: The developer's dilemma,
2: The developer's dilemma: A survey of structural transformation and inequality dynamics,
Part I. East Asia
3: Structural transformation and inclusive growth: Kuznets' 'developer's dilemma' in Indonesia,
4: Getting rich and unequal? Structural transformation, inequality, and inclusive growth in China,
5: Benign growth: Structural transformation and inclusive growth in Thailand,
Part II. South Asia
6: Inclusive structural transformation in India: Past episodes and future trajectories,
7: The challenges of structural transformation, inequality dynamics, and inclusive growth in Bangladesh,
Part III. Sub-Saharan Africa
8: Adverse political settlements: An impediment to structural transformation and inclusive growth in Ghana,
9: Economic growth, rising inequality, and de-industrialization: South Africa's Kuznetsian tension,
Part IV. Latin America
10: Inclusive growth without structural transformation? The case of Brazil,
11: Structural transformations and the lack of inclusive growth: The case of Chile,
Part V. Looking Ahead
12: Leapfrogging into the unknown: The future of structural change in the developing world,
13: The developer's dilemma: Conclusions,
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Development and Access to Information 2024
(a.k.a. DA2I Report 2024)
Publisher: International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions (IFLA)
Year of publication: 2024
(SEE ALSO: https://da2i.ifla.org/ )
Building on the two previous editions, the 2024 DA2I report looks back on progress in delivering on universal, meaningful access to information for development over the first half of the delivery period for the United Nations’ 2030 Agenda, through data and expert insights.
The DA2I initiative is based on the conviction that access to information is an essential precondition for development. Without it, decision-making is poorer, democracy is weaker, and progress is slower towards the Sustainable Development Goals. Universal, meaningful access can only happen when there is universal connectivity, equity in societies, and the rights and skills to produce and use information.
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Development and Sustainability
: The Challenge of Social Change
Publisher: Zed Books
Year of publication: 2016
While the need for effective action toward a greener and socially inclusive economy has long been evident, health promotion in the context of sustainable development has faltered. Arguing that human health is the key factor to sustainable development, Development and Sustainability promotes a fresh, transdisciplinary approach to the eradication of extreme poverty. This ground-breaking book calls for new forms of cooperation which cross the traditional boundaries between social activism and science, and which are capable of harnessing the complex knowledge that such radical change requires. The contributions bridge the gap between those working for health and those working for sustainability science and the green economy, through developing the methodological and scientific means to deal with some of the most critical issues faced by humanity in the twenty-first century.
Contents page:
Ch. 1: Development and sustainability science: transdisciplinary knowledge for positive social change - Alberto D. Cimadamore, Fungisai P. Gwanzura Ottemöller, Gro Therese Lie and Maurice B. Mittelmark
Ch. 2: Seeking wisdom: a transdisciplinary perspective on Australian Indigenous practices and planetary management - Mark G. Edwards
Ch. 3: Policies for poverty reduction in a Transformative Green Economy - Enrique Delamonica
Ch. 4: Health promotion and sustainable Development in Kazakhstan - Altyn Aringazina
Ch. 5: Children's literacy in health and sustainability - Neil Chadborn and Jane Springett
Ch. 6: Participatory research as a tool for change in ecosystem approaches to health and social equity - Jane Springett
Ch. 7: Connecting development and sustainability: empowering people to effective international cooperation - Cristine Koehler Zanella
Ch. 8: Sustainability and transdisciplinary knowledge: experience gained and challenges ahead - Gro Therese Lie, Alberto D. Cimadamore, Maurice B. Mittelmark, and Fungisai P. Gwanzura Ottemöller
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Development with Dignity
: Self-determination, Localization, and the End to Poverty
Publisher: Routledge
Year of publication: 2022
At a time when the global development industry is under more pressure than ever before, this book argues that an end to poverty can only be achieved by prioritizing human dignity.
Unable to adequately account for the roles of culture, context, and local institutions, today’s outsider-led development interventions continue to leave a trail of unintended consequences, ranging from wasteful to even harmful. This book shows that increased prosperity can only be achieved when people are valued as self-governing agents. Social orders that recognize autonomy and human dignity unleash enormous productive energy. This in turn leads to the mobilization of knowledge-sharing that is critical to innovation and localized problem-solving. Offering a wide range of interdisciplinary perspectives and specific examples from the field showing these ideas in action, this book provides NGOs, multilateral institutions, and donor countries with practical guidelines for implementing ""dignity-first"" development.
Compelling and engaging, with a wide range of recommendations for reforming development practice and supporting liberal democracy, this book will be an essential read for students and practitioners of international development.
Contents page:
Foreword by Deirdre N. McCloskey
Introduction: Why Dignity Matters
Ch. 1: Dignity
Ch. 2: Dignity and Innovation
Ch. 3: Dignity and Enterprise
Ch. 4: Dignity and Democracy
Ch. 5: Indignity of Autocracy
Ch. 6: Indignity of Development Aid
Ch. 7: Dignity and Institutions
Ch. 8: Dignity and Knowledge
Ch.9: Dignity and Innovation Diffusion
Ch. 10: Development with Dignity
Reviews:
"Development with Dignity is an outstanding contribution to the public discourse addressing the intimate relationships between universal rights, human dignity, and economic prosperity. Adam Smith's liberal plan of liberty, equality, and justice is restated and grounded in the latest research in the social sciences and humanities, and readers will learn of the power of entrepreneurship to improve lives as individuals as they are empowered to pursue productive specialization and realize social cooperation through mutually beneficial exchange. As a result, these individuals experience greater freedom and prosperity. Palmer and Warner have produced a must-read book dealing with the most fundamental and important question in the social sciences."
-- Peter Boettke, George Mason University, USA
"The liberalism of Warner and Palmer could be called ‘adultism.’ The other policies—of a statist right or a statist left or for that matter a statist middle—all treat adults as bad children or sad children. Poor things, poor things, they’re waiting to be fed. On the contrary, adults are to be accorded the dignity of ‘the equal presumption of liberty and citizen-based democratic political principles’ . . . You need this lucid and eloquent book. Read it, right away. No time to waste . . . ."
-- Deirdre N. McCloskey, Distinguished Professor Emerita of Economics and of History, and Professor Emerita of English and of Communication, adjunct in classics and philosophy, at the University of Illinois at Chicago, USA
"Read this book and you will be introduced to new perspectives on the power of local knowledge – rooted in human experience – to fuel sustainable development and to generate the socio-economic wealth of nations."
-- Vernon L. Smith, Nobel Laureate in Economic Sciences
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The Evolution of China’s Anti-Poverty Strategies
: Cases of 20 Chinese Changing Lives
Publisher: Springer Singapore
Year of publication: 2023
This open access book presents the findings of the author’s 3 decades of studying China’s evolving anti-poverty strategies. It argues that much of the billions that nations spend yearly on economic aid is used inefficiently or to treat the symptoms but not the root causes of poverty. China, however, has evolved an effective sustainable alternative by providing the means for self-reliance to not only relieve economic poverty but also poverty of spirit. As a result, the success of China’s historic war on poverty has been due not only to top-down visionary leadership but also to the bottom-up initiatives of an empowered populace unswervingly united in ending poverty.
From 1993 to 2019, the author drove over 200,000 km around China and interviewed hundreds of people from all walks of life as he explored the evolution of China’s anti-poverty strategies from simplistic aid and redistribution, which often engendered dependency and poverty of spirit. Over time, the philosophy shifted to empowerment by fostering self-reliance—or as Chinese put it, “blood production rather than blood transfusion.” The primary method of empowerment was to provide modern infrastructure, “Roads first, then riches,” so rural dwellers in remote Inner Mongolia or the Himalayan heights of Tibet had the same access to markets, jobs and internet for e-commerce as their urban counterparts. People who seized the opportunities and prospered first then used their newfound wealth and experience to help others.
The stories in this book include a Tibetan entrepreneur whose family was impoverished in spite of 300 years of service to the Panchen Lama, or the farm girl with 4 years of education who now has several international schools, a biotechnology company and poverty alleviation projects across China, or the photographer who walked 40,000 km through deserts to chronicle the threat of desertification. Their tales underscore how diverse people across China helped make possible China’s success in alleviating absolute poverty and why Chinese are now confident in achieving a “moderately prosperous society.”
Contents page:
Mogan Mountain’s Tang Hairong
Liu Yunguang: An Entrepreneur with a Passion for Youth
Jing Xuhua—A Loving Mother Triumphs at Home and in Business
Ye Nan Brings a Bright Future to West China
Yang Ying—From House Maid to Millionaire Philanthropist
Gerile—Making Snacks to Put Her Daughter Through College
Zhang Fang—Documenting Inner Mongolia’s Environmental Fight
Zhao Xuan, A Retired Teacher from Xi’an
Bu Wenjun: Inheriting Wei-Family’s Brick-Carving Craftsmanship
Zhang Jianlong—From Migrant Worker to Cattle King
Xin Baotong—Helping the Helpless to Dream Again
Wang Zenghao—Young Volunteer Working in Tibet
Dawa Wangdui: A Tibetan Serf-Turned Entrepreneur
Xia Jiangping—Greening the Roof of the World!
Wu Qiong (吴琼)—Educated to Serve Tibet
How Self-made Man Xu Lidao Found He Needed Society
Zhu Qingfu—Passionate About Photography
Grandma Chen Qiaodi’s 3 Generations of Change
Lin Ruiqi, Huawei’s Senior Vice President
Lucy: The Youthful Heart of Huawei
Reviews:
“It is highly recommended reading for social issues students interested in alternative anti-poverty strategies that have proven successful in the real world. … For those interested in the social issues of various nations and China in particular, The Evolution of China's Anti-Poverty Strategies provides a blueprint of entrepreneurial efforts that demonstrates how prosperity may be encouraged at all levels of society.”
(California Bookwatch, Vol. 18 (4), April, 2023)
About the author:
Dr. William Brown, at Xiamen University since 1988, is OneMBA Academic Director and Professor of Leadership and Strategy. Fujian’s first foreign PR, he has driven over 200,000 km around China exploring its development, co-written and hosted over 400 TV episodes, and consulted with cities on urban and rural development. Honors have included China’s “Friendship Award,” “Honorary Citizen of Fujian” from then-governor Xi Jinping, “Top Ten Educator 1954-2014,” and “CCTV’s Moving China 2019” award. He published Chasing the Chinese Dream [another Open Access book] with Springer in 2021.
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Exploring the Link between Poverty and Human Rights in Africa
Publisher: Pretoria University Law Press (PULP)
Year of publication: 2020
This book addresses poverty, one of the important issues confronting Africa, from a multi-disciplinary approach. With contributions from eminent scholars from diverse backgrounds, the book explores poverty from a human rights perspective. Its central message is that poverty is not necessarily a failure on the part of an individual, but rather caused by the actions or inactions of governments, which are often exacerbated by structural inequalities in many African societies. This in turn requires a more pragmatic approach grounded in respect for human rights.
Exploring the link between poverty and human rights in Africa will be useful to researchers, policymakers, students, activists and others interested in addressing poverty.
Abbreviated table of Contents:
PREFACE viii
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS x
CONTRIBUTORS xi
1. General introduction to poverty and human rights in Africa
2. Integrating a human rights approach to food security in national plans and budgets: The South African National Development Plan
3. Is South Africa winning the war on poverty and inequality? What do the available statistics tell us?
4. Who really ‘state-captured’ South Africa? Revealing silences in poverty, inequality and structurally-corrupt capitalism
5. Poverty, women and the human right to water for growing food
6. The link between environmental pollution and poverty in Africa
7. Alleviating poverty through retirement reforms
8. Disability, poverty and human rights in Africa: Opportunities for poverty reduction from the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities
9.The co-existence of gender inequality and poverty
10. The potential of the African human rights system in addressing poverty
11. Realising access to justice for the poor: Lessons from working with rural communities
12. The role of the South African Human Rights Commission in ensuring state accountability to address poverty
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Faith-Based Organizations in Development Discourses and Practice
Publisher: Routledge
Year of publication: 2019
FREE DOWNLOAD: https://doi.org/10.4324/9780429351211
Exploring faith-based organizations (FBOs) in current developmental discourses and practice, this book presents a selection of empirical in-depth case-studies of Christian FBOs and assesses the vital role credited to FBOs in current discourses on development.
Examining the engagement of FBOs with contemporary politics of development, the contributions stress the agency of FBOs in diverse contexts of development policy, both local and global. It is emphasised that FBOs constitute boundary agents and developmental entrepreneurs: they move between different discursive fields such as national and international development discourses, theological discourses, and their specific religious constituencies. By combining influxes from these different contexts, FBOs generate unique perspectives on development: they express alternative views on development and stress particular approaches anchored in their theological social ethics.
This book should be of interest to those researching FBOs and their interaction with international organizations, and to scholars working in the broader areas of religion and politics and politics and development.
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Fighting Poverty
: Labour markets and inequality in South Africa
Publisher: UCT Press
Year of publication: 2001
Unquestionably, poverty and inequality are among the major challenges that face South Africa today. In this well-researched, comprehensive volume, the authors:
• use new techniques to measure and analyse household inequality and poverty in South Africa;
• analyse the nature and functioning of vulnerability in the labour market;
• explore the links between labour market participation and household poverty and inequality;
• investigate current social and labour market policies; and
• examine the implications of current anti-poverty policies and strategies.
An exciting aspect of this ground-breaking work is the proposals for the development of new and effective strategies to fight poverty in South Africa.
Contents page:
Foreword
The Contributors
Acknowledgements
Introduction
The origins of poverty and inequality in the South African labour market
A segmented labour market
Fiscal incidence and differential social spending
Anti-poverty policy investigations, past and present
Notes
1. Understanding Contemporary Household Inequality in South Africa
The importance of race in national inequality
Sources of income and national inequality
A closer look at inequality, poverty and the labour market
Conclusion
Notes
2. Measuring Poverty in South Africa
Identifying the poor
Deriving a poverty line
Adjusting for household size and structure
Limitations of the approach
A profile of poverty in South Africa
Conclusion
Notes
3. Correlates of Vulnerability in the South African Labour Market
An overview of labour market poverty
An application of a class of poverty measures to the labour market
Conclusion
Notes
4. Modelling Vulnerability and Low Earnings in the South African Labour Market
Previous earnings function models in South Africa
The model set-up
Model results
Conclusion
Notes
5. Household Incomes, Poverty and Inequality in a Multivariate Framework
Econometric issues
Estimation, results and discussion: the important determinants of household income, poverty and inequality
Conclusion
Notes
6. Public Expenditure and Poverty Alleviation - Simulations for South Africa
The theoretical approach
Simulations for South Africa
Conclusion
7. Social Policy to Address Poverty
Education
Social security
Conclusion
Notes
8. Contemporary Labour Market Policy and Poverty in South Africa
Labour market reforms and institutions in post-apartheid South Africa
Labour market policy and poverty: a review of tools for analysis
Labour reforms and household poverty in South Africa: an assessment
Labour reforms and the `working poor'
Policy recommendations: the labour market as a tool for poverty alleviation
Notes
Appendix
Bibliography
Index
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Four Decades of Poverty Reduction in China
: Drivers, Insights for the World, and the Way Ahead
Publishers: Routledge; World Bank
Year of publication: 2022
Regardless of the poverty line used, the speed and scale of China’s poverty reduction are historically unprecedented. Over the past 40 years, the number of people in China with incomes below US$1.90 per day—the international poverty line as defined by the World Bank to track global extreme poverty—has fallen by close to 800 million, accounting for almost three-quarters of the global reduction in extreme poverty. In 2021, China declared that it had eradicated extreme poverty according to its national poverty threshold, and that it had built a “moderately prosperous society in all respects.” However, a significant number of people remain vulnerable, with incomes below a threshold more typically used to define poverty in upper-middle-income countries. China has set a new goal of approaching common prosperity by 2035, which can help keep the policy focus on the vulnerable population.
Four Decades of Poverty Reduction in China: Drivers, Insights for the World, and the Way Ahead explores the key drivers of China’s poverty alleviation achievements and considers the lessons of China’s experience for other developing countries. The report also makes suggestions for China’s future policies.
China’s approach to poverty reduction was based on two pillars. The first aimed for broad-based economic transformation to open new economic opportunities and raise average incomes. The second was the recognition that targeted support was needed to alleviate persistent poverty; this support was initially provided to disadvantaged areas and later to individual households. The success of China’s economic development and the associated reduction of poverty also benefited from effective governance, which helped coordinate multiple government agencies and induce cooperation from nongovernment stakeholders.
To illustrate the role of broad-based economic transformation for poverty alleviation, separate sections of the report analyze growing agricultural productivity, incremental industrialization, managed urbanization and rural-to-urban migration, and the role of infrastructure.
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Growth and Poverty in Sub-Saharan Africa
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Year of publication: 2016
FREE DOWNLOAD: https://doi.org/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198744795.001.0001
While the economic growth renaissance in sub-Saharan Africa is widely recognized, much less is known about progress in living conditions. This book comprehensively evaluates trends in living conditions in sixteen major sub-Saharan African countries, corresponding to nearly 75 per cent of the total population. Authors, all with extensive knowledge of the country in question, were charged with conducting a careful assessment of the full range of available evidence to provide a succinct storyline and systematic explanation for trends in living conditions. A striking diversity of experience emerges. While monetary indicators improved in many countries, others are yet to succeed in channeling the benefits of economic growth into the pockets of the poor. Some countries experienced little economic growth, and saw little material progress for the poor. At the same time, the large majority of countries have made impressive progress in key non-monetary indicators of well-being.
Overall, the African growth renaissance earns two cheers, but not three. While gains in macroeconomic and political stability are real, they are also fragile. Growth on a per capita basis is much better than in the 1980s and 1990s, yet not rapid compared with other developing regions. Importantly from a pan-African perspective, key economies—particularly Kenya, Nigeria, and South Africa—are not among the better performers. Looking forward, realistic expectations are required. The development process is, almost always, a long hard slog. Nevertheless, real and durable factors appear to be at play on the subcontinent with positive implications for growth and poverty reduction in future.
Contents page:
Foreword
Acknowledgements
List of Figures
List of Tables
List of Boxes
List of Abbreviations
Notes on Contributors
Ch.1 Growth and Poverty in Sub-Saharan Africa
Ch.2 Synthesis: Two Cheers for the African Growth Renaissance (but not Three)
Part 1 Rapid Growth and Rapid Poverty Reduction
Ch.3 Poverty in Ethiopia, 2000–11: Welfare Improvements in a Changing Economic Landscape
Ch.4 Ghana: Poverty Reduction over Thirty Years
Ch.5 Did Rapid Smallholder-Led Agricultural Growth Fail to Reduce Rural Poverty? Making Sense of Malawi’s Poverty Puzzle
Ch.6 Growth, Poverty Reduction, and Inequality in Rwanda
Ch.7 Poverty and its Dynamics in Uganda: Explorations Using a New Set of Poverty Lines
Part 2 Rapid Growth but Limited Poverty Reduction
Ch.8 Burkina Faso: Shipping around the Malthusian Trap
Ch.9 Mozambique: Off-track or Temporarily Sidelined?
Ch.10 Spatial and Temporal Multidimensional Poverty in Nigeria
Ch.11 Growth and Poverty Reduction in Tanzania
Ch.12 Assessing Progress in Welfare Improvements in Zambia: A Multidimensional Approach
Part 3 Uninspiring/Negative Growth and Poverty Reduction
Ch.13 Slow Progress in Growth and Poverty Reduction in Cameroon
Ch.14 The Fall of the Elephant: Two Decades of Poverty Increase in Côte d’Ivoire, 1988–2008
Ch.15 Incomes, Inequality, and Poverty in Kenya: A Long-Term Perspective
Ch.16 Utility-Consistent Poverty in Madagascar, 2001–10: Snapshots in the Presence of Multiple Economy-Wide Shocks
Ch.17 Poverty, Inequality, and Prices in Post-Apartheid South Africa
Part 4 Low-Information Countries
Ch.18 Growth and Poverty in the Democratic Republic of Congo: 2001 through 2013
Index
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Inequalities in Sub-Saharan Africa
: Multidimensional Perspectives and Future Challenges
Publisher: World Bank
Year of publication: 2025
The growing disparity between the rich and poor remains a critical challenge, affecting countries across all continents, irrespective of their per capita gross domestic product. This widening gap not only impedes efforts to eradicate extreme poverty but also hinders progress toward social justice and resilience-building. Rising inequalities pose substantial barriers to sustainable development, and it is within this context that this book, 'Inequalities in Sub-Saharan Africa: Multidimensional Perspectives and Future Challenges', contributes to ongoing debates, offering a comprehensive analysis of the current challenges and future perspectives of inequality on the African continent. Despite the intensification of calls for wealth taxation and inequality reduction, progress has been slow. A key challenge lies in creating a viable political path for implementing progressive taxation policies. Resistance from those benefiting from the current system often stalls efforts, making progress difficult. Moreover, reducing inequality requires mechanisms that address inequality at its roots. Policies targeting education, competition, financial market regulation, and industrial development all hold the potential to create equitable economic opportunities, ensuring access to credit, job creation, and more-balanced economic growth.
Despite facing unique, profound challenges, Africa is often overlooked in these global discussions. This book seeks to place the continent’s issues of income inequality, unequal access to education and health care, climate vulnerability, and inclusive growth at the center of the conversation. The book further advocates for innovative policies, including competition reforms and bargaining frameworks that shift the balance between capital and labor. Given that inequality in Africa is deeply rooted in historical, economic, and institutional factors, a stronger focus on pre-distribution policies is necessary. These systemic changes can help reshape the conditions under which inequality emerges and persists.
In addition to policy reforms, it is vital to strengthen the research and academic infrastructure that underpins the understanding of inequality. Equity concerns must be addressed within the scientific field, and African research capabilities must be bolstered. This volume, written in collaboration with the African Center of Excellence for Inequality Research, calls for a greater focus on empowering African researchers as part of a broader development strategy. By doing so, it aligns with the World Bank’s and the Agence Française de Développement’s commitment to supporting research as a critical tool for sustainable development.
Contents page:
Foreword: Lost in Inequality? xvii
Acknowledgments xxi
About the Editors and Contributors xxiii
Executive Summary xxxi
Abbreviations xxxvii
PART 1 STATE OF PLAY
1 Overview of Inequalities in Africa 3
Anda David, Rocco Zizzamia, Murray Leibbrandt, Rawane Yasser, and Vimal Ranchhod
Introduction 3
Inequality in Africa: Levels and Trends 4
Particularities of Inequality Analysis in Africa 12
Conclusion 14
Note 15
References 15
2 Measurement of Inequality 17
Muna Shifa, Richmond Atta-Ankomah, and Samuel Kipruto
Introduction 17
Overview of Data Availability in SSA 18
Main Challenges for Inequality Measurement in SSA 20
Multidimensional Inequality 27
Conclusion 28
Notes 29
References 29
PART 2 ANALYZING AND TACKLING MULTIDIMENSIONAL INEQUALITIES
3 Inequalities in Education and Health 37
Monica Lambon-Quayefio, Vimal Ranchhod, Nkechi Owoo, Moses Muriithi, Linda Zanfini, Reuben Mutegi, and Germano Mwabu
Introduction 37
Educational Inequalities 38
Inequality and Inequity in the Use of Health Care Services 43
Interlinkages among Education, Health, and Labor Market Outcomes 48
Conclusion 51
Notes 52
References 52
4 Labor Market Inequalities 57
Vimal Ranchhod, Anda David, Damiano Kulundu Manda, Cecilia Poggi, Claire Zanuso, and Rawane Yasser
Introduction 57
Employment Outcomes and Earnings Inequality 58
Informality 61
Marginalized Groups: Women, Youth, and Ethnic and Racial Groups 64
Conclusion 70
Notes 71
References 71
5 Gender Inequalities 75
Abena D. Oduro, Serge Rabier, Jacqueline Mosomi, and Rawane Yasser
Introduction 75
Gender Inequalities in Education 75
Gender Inequalities in Health 77
Labor Market Inequalities 80
Gender Inequalities in Unpaid Care Work 84
Gender Inequalities in Control of and Access to Productive Resources 88
Roles of Legal Systems and Social Norms 91
Conclusion 93
Notes 93
References 94
6 Spatial Inequality—Multidimensional Inequalities across Space 103
Nkechi Owoo, Muna Shifa, Vimal Ranchhod, and Mary Zhang
Introduction 103
Spatial Inequalities across Settings in SSA 106
Heterogeneities in Spatial Inequalities 115
Conclusions and Policy Implications 122
Note 124
References 124
7 Migration and Inequality 129
Anda David, Murray Leibbrandt, Muna Shifa, and Rawane Yasser
Introduction 129
Migration Patterns in SSA 130
The Migration–Inequality Nexus 131
Beyond Economic Inequalities 142
Conclusion 146
References 147
8 Social Mobility and the Persistence of Inequality 153
Murray Leibbrandt, Rawane Yasser, Robert Osei, and Mike Savage
Introduction 153
Intergenerational Mobility 155
Intragenerational Mobility 160
Importance of Targeting Social Mobility in Policies That Tackle Inequalities 168
Notes 170
References 171
9 Policies to Tackle Inequality in Africa 177
Fabio Andrés Díaz Pabón, Annalena Oppel, Murray Leibbrandt, Mike Savage, and Anda David
Introduction 177
Inside-the-Box Policies 180
Outside-the-Box Policies 185
Art of the Possible for Policies to Overcome Inequality 190
References 193
PART 3 PUSHING THE KNOWLEDGE FRONTIER AND POLICY ACTIONS
10 Climate Change, Poverty Reduction, and Inequality between and within Countries 201
Anda David, Murray Leibbrandt, Hélène Djoufelkit, and Rawane Yasser
Introduction 201
Inequalities between Countries 202
Inequalities within Countries 207
Tackling Climate Inequalities: The Way Forward 213
Notes 218
References 219
11 Sustainability and Patterns of Economic Growth 225
Rawane Yasser, Murray Leibbrandt, Anda David, Fabio Andrés Díaz Pabón, and Hélène Djoufelkit
Introduction 225
Growth, Poverty, and Inequality 226
Why Growth Has Not Been Inclusive 232
Beyond Growth: Rethinking Models of Economic Growth 239
Conclusion 246
Annex 11A Initial Inequality, Poverty, and Growth in Income in Africa 247
Notes 248
References 248
Figures
Maps
Tables
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Inside poverty and development in Africa
: critical reflections on pro-poor policies
Publisher: Brill
Year of publication: 2008
When discussing development issues in Africa, it is not sufficient to simply stress the ubiquity of failure, malnutrition, disease, predatory states and war, one also has to recognize that important aspects in the lives of millions of ordinary people have been transformed over the last five decades. The contributions in this book are rooted in extensive empirical research, some at a local, regional and/or national level in different African countries (Chad, Ethiopia, Kenya, Lesotho, South Africa and Uganda), while others take a pan-African view. All, however, offer insight from different analytical perspectives into the heterogeneity of poverty and development processes in Sub-Saharan African and confront the ideas, concepts and assumptions that lie behind pro-poor policies. The volume also encourages policy makers to choose realistic policy prescriptions in an attempt to move people out of poverty.
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The Last Mile
: Turning Public Policy Upside Down
Publisher: Routledge India
Year of publication: 2023
The Last Mile explores the gaps and dichotomy between drafted policies and their implementation, and the last mile challenges which often make public services inaccessible to the poorest and most vulnerable sections of society. It provides an in-depth overview of the dynamics between communities, research and consultation and the implementation of policies for development.
Rich in empirical data and case studies from different government programmes and reports, this book examines the implementation of government service programmes for poverty reduction, women’s empowerment, and income generation for the poor, among others, from a people’s perspective. It highlights the need for policies and institutions to align their methods to community needs. Offering guidelines for redesigning as well as solutions to counter challenges related to lack of trust and effective communication, human resource management, capacity development, redressal mechanisms, and facilitating the last mile connection, the author delineates effective ways for integrating new technologies in policy implementation. The book also addresses legacy issues in institutions and re-orienting policy for better governance, transparency, and building trust.
Part of the Innovations, Practice and the Future of Public Policy in India series, this book, by a senior practitioner, will be an essential resource for students and researchers of development studies, sociology, public policy and governance, economics, and South Asian studies.
Contents page:
Introduction
Ch. 1 - A Poverty-Free India: Building Systems for Outcomes
Ch. 2 - The Historical Legacy
Ch. 3 - The Diversity of Geographies
Ch. 4 - High Growth, Ease of Doing Business, and Well-Being
Ch. 5 - Improving Ease of Living of the Poor
Ch. 6 - Why Incomes Matter
Ch. 7 - Women's Well-Being and Livelihoods
Ch. 8 - Women, Work, and Well-Being
Ch. 9 - Vulnerable Social Groups, Inclusive Policies and Programmes
Ch. 10 - Policy and Programme Formulation in Basic Education
Ch. 11 - Revisiting Skills for Full Employment
Ch. 12 - Higher Education: Meeting the Challenge
Ch. 13 - Policy and Programme Formulation in Health
Ch. 14 - Making Quality Health for All a Reality
Ch. 15 - Poshan, People, and Panchayats
Ch. 16 - Improving Governance of Programmes
Ch. 17 - Community Connect, GPDPs, and Rankings
Ch. 18 - Human Resource Reforms
Ch. 19 - Poverty-Free Gram Panchayats
Ch. 20 - Improving Well-Being of Urban Poor
Ch. 21 - Why We Need the PM's Human Development Council
Ch. 22 - Global Warming: Local Churning
Ch. 23 - A Poverty-Free India: Concluding Remarks
Ch. 24 - An India for All
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Making Market Systems Work for the Poor
: Experience inspired by Alan Gibson
Publisher: Practical Action Publishing
Year of publication: 2021
‘The M4P approach recognizes that the lives of the poor are inextricably linked to the functioning of the systems around them. Too often, poorly functioning market systems -- uncompetitive and unresponsive to producer, worker and consumer needs -- have a disproportionately negative impact upon the poor, who lack the resources to overcome such dysfunctions. The M4P approach fosters understanding of the functions and players within market systems and how these can be strengthened in order to better serve the needs of the poor. The approach intervenes at critical constraints in the market system, building capacity within to enable key players to work more effectively for the benefit of the poor.’ (Gibson, FSD Kenya Ten-Year Review 2016).
Alan Gibson made a significant contribution to international development through his work at the Springfield Centre in the north-east of England, and was instrumental in developing the Making Markets Work for the Poor (M4P) approach to private sector development and poverty alleviation. Alan died while hiking a mountain in northern Scotland in February 2018 and is deeply missed. This book describes the M4P approach and shares practical experience from applying it. Contributors also share their reflections on the efficacy of the approach and why challenges exist. All the contributors were inspired in some way by Alan Gibson’s teachings and this book is a way to honour his legacy.
This collection is essential reading for international development practitioners, funders, consultants, academics, and policymakers.
Contents page:
PART I – M4P: What is it and how does it work?
1. Introduction
2. Applying M4P in the Informal Sector: the case of Savings Groups
3. Market System Diagrams: or, how I learned to stop worrying and love the doughnut
4. Measuring What Matters: Monitoring and Results Measurement
5. Getting to Scale
6. The Art of Market Facilitation: Lessons from FSD Kenya
PART II – Expanding the Application of M4P
7. Making Markets Work for the Poo-er: Water for People’s pathway to market systems development
8. Can M4P Work Everywhere?: M4P in thin markets
9. Gender Inclusion in M4P Programming
PART III – Reflections on Making Markets Work for the Poor
10. Market Systems Thinking in Inclusive Finance: influencing the influencers
11. Just Good Development: why did it take us so long to get there?
12. Shame on You! A Soteriology of making markets work for the poor
PART IV: Alan Gibson on Aid, Why development fails and other matters
13. Introduction
a. Why does development Fail? Here’s why…
b. Why DFID’s proposed new Start Up! programme is bunkum and should be ditched
c. If we want better development, cut the UK aid budget
d. Market facilitation is the way ahead, but it needs to do more
e. This African aid initiative starts with a village… but what happens next?
f. Binary Choices, Obaman bubbles, Trumpian times … oh, and the future of UK aid
g. Soapbox: Zip Goes a Million
h. Addressing the strategic black hole in the heart of DFID’s PSD work
i. 10 Years of the Scottish Government’s International Development Programme
PART V: Tributes
Reviews:
‘Alan’s work was transformational. [He encouraged thinking about] dynamic relationships between many actors and many processes in an ever-changing system of people, policies and institutions. He made an enormous contribution.'
-- Kim Wilson, Tufts University
‘The collection of essays captures Alan’s passion and drive and also illustrates his lasting and dynamic legacy across multiple fields within international development. Essential reading for anyone interested in market systems approaches’.
-- Adrian Stone, Investment Climate Team, Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office
‘For those of us in the market systems development trenches, reading this book is almost as good as having a drink with Alan to debate the best ways to facilitate the evolution of markets that actually work for those living in poverty. From FSD Kenya’s perspective, we have learned so much from Alan’s prescient insights, many of which are highlighted throughout the chapters in this riveting book.’
-- Tamara Cook, CEO, FSD Kenya
'This book is much more than a testament to the influence which Alan Gibson had on many people's thinking and lives. It is also a testament to the enduring relevance of market system development thinking. By providing a compendium of updates from those at the far flung frontiers of this field, the book should encourage current practitioners and inspire future ones.'
-- David Porteous, Chair, BFAGlobal and Digital Frontiers
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Managing for Sustainable Development Impact
: An integrated approach to planning, monitoring and evaluation
Publisher: Practical Action Publishing (Copyright © Wageningen University & Research)
Year of publication: 2017
FREE DOWNLOAD: https://practicalactionpublishing.com/book/1322/managing-for-sustainable-development-impact
The development landscape has changed significantly over the last few decades, becoming increasingly complex. Many of the issues we face today such as climate change, poverty and conflict, call for a new way of doing business. This guide shows leaders and development practitioners how to navigate this complexity and manage their initiatives/organizations successfully towards sustainable development impact. The Managing for Sustainable Development Impact (M4SDI) approach presented in this guide is an integrated, resultsoriented management approach, which can be used across a range of sectors and domains in a variety of contexts, and aims to contribute towards the Sustainable Development Goals. It addresses some of the most pressing concerns, such as engaging primary stakeholders, designing effective strategies and related M&E, focussing on capacity development, and responding to change in a complex context. Key features of M4SDI include its people-centred approach and how it seeks to integrate planning, monitoring and evaluation processes.
This guide builds on the earlier work of Irene Guijt and Jim Woodhill in the 2002 IFAD publication Managing for Impact in Rural Development: A Guide for Project M&E, and incorporates the insights and feedback of CDI colleagues, partners and over 800 practitioners who have been trained in using the approach in English, French and Spanish. We all have a role to play in contributing to a more sustainable world and we hope this guide will inspire and spur you on to do your part.
(Copyright © 2017 Wageningen Centre for Development Innovation, Wageningen University & Research)
Table of Contents:
1 . What M4SDI is about
Introducing m4sdi
Changing context of international development
Summary
2 . Dealing with change in complex systems
Understanding complexity
A systems approach to dealing with complexity
Making theories of change explicit
Summary
3 . Key orientations
People orientation
Learning orientation
Context orientation
Summary
4 . Capacities and conditions
Why are capacities and conditions important?
Determining capacities and conditions using the 5Cs framework
Competencies
Summary
5 . Communication
Introduction
Role of communication in M4SDI
Understanding communication
Overcoming obstacles to communication
Developing a communication strategy
Summary
6 . Strategic guidance
What strategic guidance involves
Main building blocks in strategic guidance
Situation analysis
Theory of Change
Logical framework matrix (logframe)
Summary
7. Effective operations
What do we mean by effective operations?
Key areas of focus for effective operations
Role of leadership in managing effective operations
Summary
8 . Monitoring and evaluation for impact
The role of M&E in decision-making and facilitating change
M&E, strategic guidance, effective operations and key orientations
Key competencies supporting M&E
Goal of M&E, its use and influence
A framework for monitoring and evaluation
Summary
9 . m4sdi stories of change
The power of M&E to bring about transformational change: the SRSP story, Pakistan
My personal journey in institutionalizing m4sdi in NARO, Uganda
Dealing with complex systems and power through engagement and learning: BENEFIT Partnership, Ethiopia
Annexes
List of selected methods and approaches
Making a difference with evaluations
Recommended data analysis
Glossary
References
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Natural Resource-Based Development in Africa
: Panacea or Pandora’s Box?
Publisher: University of Toronto Press
Year of publication: 2022
FREE DOWNLOAD: https://doi.org/10.3138/9781487547684
This book examines how state actors and other stakeholders participate in natural resource governance initiatives and seek to promote natural resource-based development in Africa.
Table of Contents:
Acknowledgments
Foreword
SECTION I INTRODUCTION
1 An Evolving Agenda on Natural Resource–Based Development in Africa
SECTION II GOVERNANCE FRAMINGS AT LOCAL, NATIONAL, AND GLOBAL LEVELS
2 Corporate Framing of Sustainability in the Mineral Sector: “New Governance” Insights from South Africa
3 The Resource Curse and Limits of Petro-Development in Ghana’s “Oil City”: How Oil Production Has Impacted Sekondi-Takoradi
4 Stakeholder Salience and Resource Enclavity in Sub-Saharan Africa: The Case of Ghana’s Oil
5 Gender, Land Grabbing, and Glocal Land Governance in Ghana and Uganda
6 Governing Artisanal Commodity Extraction in Cameroon: A Comparative Analysis of the Gold and Palm Oil Sectors
SECTION III CRITICAL APPROACHES TO INCLUSIVE DEVELOPMENT: THE POLITICS OF RESOURCE NATIONALISM, LOCAL PROCUREMENT, AND COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT
7 Copper Economics and Local Entrepreneurs in Zambia: Accumulation by Dispossession and the Possibility of Dependent Development
8 “The Curse of Being Born with a Copper Spoon in Our Mouths”: An Examination of the Changing Forms of Zambian Resource Nationalism
9 Promoting Mining Local Procurement through Systems Change: A Canadian NGO’s Eforts to Improve the Development Impacts of the Global Mining Industry
10 The Promises and Pitfalls of Pursuing Inclusive, Sustainable Development through Resource Corridors in Africa
11 “Community Development” in Oil and Gas Projects: The Case of the West African Gas Pipeline Project
SECTION IV LAND AND HUMAN SECURITY: CENTRAL AFRICA IN FOCUS
12 Land, High-Value Natural Resources, and Conflict in the Central African Republic
13 Copper Stakes: Exclusion, Corporate Strategies, and Property Rights in the Democratic Republic of Congo
14 China and the Democratic Republic of Congo: What the Sicomines Agreement Tells Us about Beijing’s Foreign Policy in Africa
SECTION V CONCLUDING REMARKS AND REFLECTIONS
15 Reflections on Natural Resource–Based Development in Africa in the 2020s
Contributors
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Perspectives on the History of Global Development
(Volume 1 in the series Yearbook for the History of Global Development)
Publisher: De Gruyter Oldenbourg
Year of publication: 2022
What is development, what has it been in the past, and what can historians learn from studying the history of development? How has the field of the history of development evolved over time, and where should it be going in the future? This is the first volume of the newly established Yearbook for the History of Global Development – a serial publication we hope will became a key outlet in this field of research.
Understanding the history of development is vital to the analysis of contemporary development theory. Historical analysis offers insight into contemporary developmental challenges that can assist in finding sustainable solutions. Ultimately, it is difficult to conceive of any study addressing questions of development that does so without reference to past events, ideas, or policies. We believe that a dedicated yearbook on these topics can help to bring the different approaches and findings together in fruitful ways. The Yearbook aims at providing a forum that emphasizes the interconnected nature of past and present development challenges and development approaches. The purpose of the Yearbook is to offer a space for the presentation of research on the history of concepts, theories, practices, and experiences concerning development policies in the past that continue to shape present-day attitudes and beliefs. As editors, we hope to attract a large number of readers from across the globe and from different backgrounds. By making all volumes available in open-access format, we try to overcome structural inequalities that continue to characterize international academic debate.
The first volume of the Yearbook consists of three parts: one on “Development and History”; one on “Measuring Development”; and a “Forum on Alternative Development Indices.” The rationale is to bring together pieces that reflect the current state of the art in the field, broadly understood, and to highlight some of the themes on which fresh research is currently being carried out.
Contents page:
Introduction
I DEVELOPMENT AND HISTORY (ED. CORINNA R. UNGER AND NICHOLAS FERNS)
Globalizing Development: A View from Late Imperial China
Where Did the Idea of International Development Come From? Looking Beyond the Industrialized Core
Entangled Histories of “Development,” “development,” and “Christian development”
Development, Modernization, and the Remaking of an Imperial World Order
Which Speeches Matter? Reflections on the Invention of Development
II MEASURING DEVELOPMENT (ED. CORINNA R. UNGER AND JACK LOVERIDGE)
The Historiography of Measuring Development
Numbers in Space: Measuring Living Standards and Regional Inequality in the Soviet Union
Profitability Through Quantification: The World Bank and Rural Development in the 1970s
Was the Large Dam a “Modern Temple”? Taking Stock of India’s Development Tryst with the Bhakra-Nangal
III FORUM: ALTERNATIVE DEVELOPMENT INDICES (ED. IRIS BOROWY AND CORINNA R. UNGER)
A Note on the Historical Origins of ISEW-GPI
The Origins of the National Welfare Index (NWI)
GNH-Led Development in Bhutan
The Happy Planet Index
Commentary: The New Epicureans
List of contributors
=====================================================================================================
Perspectives on the Right to Development
Publisher: Pretoria University Law Press (PULP)
Year of publication: 2018
The last couple of decades has not only witnessed an increased convergence between human rights and development but also a significant shift towards rights-based approaches to development, including especially responsiveness to the fact that development in itself is a human right guaranteed to be enjoyed by all peoples. This edited volume of peer-reviewed papers constitutes the first product resulting from the annual international conference series on the right to development, organised by the Centre for Human Rights, University of Pretoria, and the Thabo Mbeki African Leadership Institute at the University of South Africa. It explores the complex nature of the right to development from a diversified perspective, including from a conceptual, thematic, country and regional points of view.
Conceived with the purpose to overshadow dominant economic growth approaches to development, the perspectives on the right to development articulated in this publication seek to locate the developmentalist discourse within the framework of accountability and people-centred development programming, necessitating appropriate policy formulation to ensure the constant improvement in human well-being.
The book is written with the aim to reach out to researchers, academics, practitioners and policy makers who desire an in-depth understanding of the right to development as it applies universally.
Abbreviated table of Contents:
Acknowledgments
Preface
Contributors
1. Introduction: The right to development in broad perspective
Carol C Ngang, Serges Djoyou Kamga & Vusi Gumede
PART I: CONCEPTUAL PERSPECTIVES
2. ‘Marianne’ – the symbol of freedom: A critical analysis in the light of the right to development
Clotaire Nengou Saah
3. The right to development under the African Charter: Is there an extraterritorial reach?
Romola Adeola
4. Access to justice as a mechanism for the enforcement of the right to development in Africa
Ebenezer Durojaye, Oluwafunmilola Adeniyi & Carol C Ngang
PART II: THEMATIC PERSPECTIVES
5. The impact of corruption on the right to development in Africa
Anzanilifuno Munyai & Avitus A Agbor
6. The right to development: An African feminist view
Rhoda Asikia Ige & Carol C Ngang
7. The right to sustainable development for women in Africa: A corollary of the right to peace
Paidamwoyo Mukumbiri
8. Reflections on the right to development for indigenous peoples in Cameroon
Esther E Njieassam & MLM Mbao
9. Land and the right to development in Africa
Robert K Home
PART III: COUNTRY PERSPECTIVES
10. ‘O Cameroon, though cradle of our fathers, … : Land of promise’ and the right to development
Carol C Ngang & Serges Djoyou Kamga
=====================================================================================================================
The Political Economy of Poverty and Social Transformations of the Global South
Publisher: ibidem-Verlag / ibidem Press
Year of publication: 2017
This book addresses poverty, one of the important issues confronting Africa, from a multi-disciplinary approach. With contributions from eminent scholars from diverse backgrounds, the book explores poverty from a human rights perspective.
Its central message is that poverty is not necessarily a failure on the part of an individual, but rather caused by the actions or inactions of governments, which are often exacerbated by structural inequalities in many African societies. This in turn requires a more pragmatic approach grounded in respect for human rights.
Contents page:
INTRODUCTION - Mariano Féliz and Aaron Louis Rosenberg
Ch. 1 - THE MAKING AND REMAKING OF HUMAN RIGHTS: Contemporary Limits and Potential Contributions of Human Rights to the Eradication of Poverty, from the Perspective of the Global South - Camillo Perez-Bustillo
Ch. 2 - "I'M GONNA GET MY SHARE OF WHAT'S MINE": Narratives of Poverty and Crime in Postcolonial Jamaica and Kenya - Aaron Louis Rosenberg
Ch. 3 - CONDITIONAL CASH TRANSFERS: A New Paradigm for Combating Poverty in Latin America? - Pablo E. Pérez and Brenda Brown
Ch. 4 - NEODEVELOPMENTALISM IN ARGENTINA: Its Contradictions, Barriers, and Limits to Poverty Reduction and Social Change - Mariano Féliz
Ch. 5 - ALTERNATIVE PATHS OF SOCIAL TRANSFORMATION IN SUB-SAHARAN AFRICA: A Case for Poverty Alleviation Programs by the Poor - Jude Ssempebwa and Jaqueline Nakaiza
Ch. 6 - SCOPE AND USEFULNESS OF "RIGHT TO INFORMATION" AS ANTI-POVERTY TOOL: The Bangladesh Experience - Kazi Nurmohammad Hossainul Haque
Ch. - PERI-URBAN DWELLING AND SOCIAL TRANSFORMATION IN AFRICA - Innocent Chirisa
Ch. 8 - ANALYSIS OF WOMEN'S ORGANIZATIONS AS DRIVERS OF GENDERED SOCIAL TRANSFORMATION: Experiences from Zimbabwe - Manse Chiweshe
Ch. 9 - CIVIL SOCIETY MOVEMENTS AND RIGHTS DISCOURSE IN POST-APARTHEID SOCIOECONOMIC TRANSFORMATION - Christopher G. Thomas
CONCLUSION - Mariano Féliz and Aaron Louis Rosenberg
=====================================================================================================================
Promoting sustainable Local Economic Development initiatives
: Case studies
Publisher: AOSIS
Year of publication: 2022
This book endeavours to outline case studies that promote sustainable Local Economic Development (LED) initiatives.
It is generally believed that local governments are the foot soldiers of LED. However, this seems to be a myth, as local governments in South Africa and elsewhere have not yet fulfilled this mandate and have been struggling for several years to implement LED initiatives. The distinctive merit of this book lies in the way it combines the South African context with the wider international development context in ways that there is a flow of information and ideas both ways.
The book is an essential part of this sequence of ideas development and action at a critical time for strategic action directed at a sustainable future. It showcases case studies and responses to the impacts of globalisation as a bridge between urban/rural and institutional action and reveals avenues for local government leadership in communities, research, student engagement and wider interactions.
Contents page:
Ch. 1: Overcoming gender inequality through skills development within the arts and culture sector of South Africa
Ch. 2: Empowering women-owned businesses trading at the Tshakhuma Fresh Produce Market in Limpopo
Ch. 3: Empowerment of automotive artisans and the unemployed: A case of the Winterveld Enterprise Hub
Ch. 4: Leveraging Indigenous Knowledge for local economic development: The case of home-brewed alcohol in the Sekhukhune District Municipality
Ch. 5: A lifelong learning approach drives economic development in Gwydir Shire
Ch. 6: Local economic development and food and energy sustainability: City of Tshwane
Ch. 7: Local economic development and infrastructure: Zero wastewater, save ocean life, save the environment and save the people
Ch. 8: Local economic development and an enabling environment: A business perspective
Ch. 9: Diversification or concentration of economic sectors for development: An assessment of the regional economy of Gauteng province, South Africa
Ch. 10: The ‘resettlers’ of the Three Gorges Dam project: The risk of social articulation impoverishment in regional and local economic development
=====================================================================================================
Questioning the Entrepreneurial State
: Status-quo, Pitfalls, and the Need for Credible Innovation Policy
Publisher: Springer Cham
Year of publication: 2022
The 2008 financial crisis and the COVID-19 pandemic have made the authorities to increasingly turn inward and use ethnocentrism, protectionism, and top-down approaches to guide policy on trade, competition, and industrial development. The continuing aftereffects of such policies range from the rise and seeming success of authoritarian states, rise of populist and protectionist trends, and evolving academic agendas inspiring the reemergence of top-down industrial policies across the world.
This open access edited volume contains contributions from over 30 scholars with expertise in economics, innovation, management, and economic history. The chapters offer unique theoretical and empirical contributions discussing topics such as how industrial policies affect risk, incentives, and information for investments. They also address the policy perspectives on new technologies such as AI and its implications for market entry, the role for independent entrepreneurship in increasingly regulated markets, and whether governments should focus on market interventions or institutional capacity-building.
Questioning the Entrepreneurial State initiates a much sought-after debate on the notion of an Entrepreneurial State. It discusses the dangers of top-down approaches to industrial policy, examines lessons from such approaches for future policy design, and calls attention to the progress of open and contestable markets in a sound economy and society.
Contents page:
Front Matter
Introductory Chapter
Front Matter
Introduction
The Entrepreneurial State: Theoretical Perspectives
Front Matter
The Entrepreneurial State and the Platform Economy
An Effectual Analysis of Markets and States
The Entrepreneurial State: An Ownership Competence Perspective
Innovation Without Entrepreneurship: The Pipe Dream of Mission-Oriented Innovation Policy
The Entrepreneurial State, Entrepreneurial Universities, and Startups
Front Matter
Building Local Innovation Support Systems: Theory and Practice
Reducing Higher Education Bureaucracy and Reclaiming the Entrepreneurial University
Cultural Ideals in the Entrepreneurship Industry
Evaluating Evaluations of Innovation Policy: Exploring Reliability, Methods, and Conflicts of Interest
Do Targeted R&D Grants toward SMEs Increase Employment and Demand for High Human Capital Workers?
The Entrepreneurial State and Sustainability Transitions
Front Matter
Third-Generation Innovation Policy: System Transformation or Reinforcing Business as Usual?
Less from More: China Built Wind Power, but Gained Little Electricity
The Failures of the Entrepreneurial State: Subsidies to Renewable Energies in Europe
Directionality in Innovation Policy and the Ongoing Failure of Green Deals: Evidence from Biogas, Bio-ethanol, and Fossil-Free Steel
From the Entrepreneurial State Towards Evidence-Based Innovation Policy
Front Matter
Policy Instruments for High-Growth Enterprises
Public-Steering and Private-Performing Sectors: Success and Failures in the Swedish Finance, Telecoms, and City Planning Sectors
The Digital Platform Economy and the Entrepreneurial State: A European Dilemma
Collaborative Innovation Blocs and Mission-Oriented Innovation Policy: An Ecosystem Perspective
Reviews:
“Creative destruction, innovation and entrepreneurship are at the core of economic growth. The government has a clear role, to provide the basic fabric of a dynamic society, but industrial policy and state-owned companies are the boulevard of broken dreams and unrealized visions. This important message is convincingly stated in Questioning the Entrepreneurial State.” --Anders Borg, former Minister of Finance, Sweden
“Misreading the dynamism of American entrepreneurship, European intellectuals and policy makers have embraced a dangerous fantasy: catching up requires constructing an entrepreneurial state. This book provides a vital antidote: The entrepreneur comes first: The state may support. It cannot lead.” --Amar Bhidé, Thomas Schmidheiny Professor of International Business, Tufts University
“This important new book subjects the emergence of the entrepreneurial state, which reflects a shift in the locus of entrepreneurship from the individual to the public sector, to the scrutiny of rigorous analysis. The resulting concerns, flaws and biases inherent in the entrepreneurial state exposed are both alarming and sobering. The skill and scholarly craftsmanship brought to bear in this crucial analysis is evident throughout the book, along with the even, but ultimately consequential thinking of the authors. A must read for researchers and thought leaders in business and policy." --David Audtretsch, Distinguished Professor, Ameritech Chair of Economic Development, Indiana University
“The book is written for both academics and policymakers, and it is written clearly without an assumption that readers possess a strong foundation of economic training. … Questioning the Entrepreneurial State is an excellent edited volume comprising thought provoking concerns about the viability of an entrepreneurial state. … After reading this edited volume, readers will learn not just the entrepreneurial state and criticisms, but will learn about a variety of topics on institutions, ecosystems, sustainability, and politics related to entrepreneurship and innovation.” --Christopher John Boudreaux (Journal of Evolutionary Economics, Vol. 32, 2022)
======================================================================================================================
Re-Inventing Africa's Development
: Linking Africa to the Korean Development Model
Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan Cham
Year of publication: 2019
This open access book analyses the development problems of sub-Sahara Africa (SSA) from the eyes of a Korean diplomat with knowledge of the economic growth Korea has experienced in recent decades. The author argues that Africa's development challenges are not due to a lack of resources but a lack of management, presenting an alternative to the traditional view that Africa's problems are caused by a lack of leadership. In exploring an approach based on mind-set and nation-building, rather than unity – which tends to promote individual or party interests rather than the broader country or national interests – the author suggests new solutions for SSA's economic growth, inspired by Korea's successful economic growth model much of which is focused on industrialisation.
This book will be of interest to researchers, policymakers, NGOs and governmental bodies in economics, development and politics studying Africa's economic development, and Korea's economic growth model.
Contents page:
Front Matter
The Paradox of Sub-Saharan Africa
Disillusionment and Dilemma
Assessing the Role of Foreign Aid, Donors and Recipients
Rethinking the Root Causes of Africa’s Under-Development
Review of Conventional Explanations
Uncovering the Main Root Cause: The Mindset Factor
Africa’s Forgotten Mission of Nation-Building: What are Missing
Finding the Missing Links
Reasons for Optimism and the Tasks at Hand
Understanding Korean Development Model
Korea’s Path of Development in Retrospect
The Essence of the Korean Model of Development
Application of the Korean Model for Africa
Applicability of the Korean Development Model for Africa
Policy Recommendations for Africa
Engineering Rural Development for Africa
Africa on the New Path to Development
Re-setting the Priorities
Enacting Bold but Harmonious Change
Back Matter
Reviews:
“Written by a Korean diplomat and Africanist, this book offers a unique perspective on the development problems of the sub-Sahara Africa (SSA), and it also suggests effective solutions for SSA to take off economically, basically through the two-step approach of building-block and building-bridge.” --Keun Lee, Professor of Economics at Seoul National University, South Korea
“The potency of this book lies in the unique qualification of the author with vast experiences richly encompassing both the Korean and African aspects and policy expertise guided by strong academic credentials. His work embodies keen insights, and is a welcome addition to the African development discourse; I highly recommend it to all those interested in meeting the African development challenges head-on.” --Augustin K. Fosu, Professor of Economics (ISSER) at University of Ghana, Ghana
“On the strength of a life-long front-row experience of the continent and a deep command of the literature, facts and debates, Jong-Dae Park offers an intriguing cultural argument about African development. Inspired by the experience of South Korea, it is provocative (despite its gentle tone) and likely to prove controversial. Yet, it is also hopeful and well worth reading, both for African and non-African students, scholar and practitioners of development.” --Pierre Englebert, Professor of Political Science at Pomona College, USA
“A perspective from an Asian with profound experience in Africa and who is keenly aware of Korea's achievements is a welcome addition for tackling Africa's development challenges and opportunities. Jong-Dae Park weaves together so immaculately his personal observations, careful reading of available literature, and insights into the Korean experience; the book forces the reader to navigate peculiar idiosyncrasy and generalities in Africa and South Korea’s development so as to draw some crucial lessons.” --Siphamandla Zondi, Professor of Political Science at University of Pretoria, South Africa
“Jong-Dae Park is uniquely qualified to comment on the contrast between Africa and South Korea due to his background. Park's critique is not an armchair academic exercise; he is passionate about development because, as a Korean, he has witnessed first-hand the transformation of his country, while in Africa he sees the vast potential not yet realized.” --Dr. Ian Clarke, Chairman of Clarke Group, Uganda
============================================================================================
Revolutionizing Development
: Reflections on the Work of Robert Chambers
Publisher: Routledge
Year of publication: 2022
This book tells the story of development studies in practice over the last fifty years through the work of one remarkable individual, Robert Chambers. His work has taken him from being a colonial officer in Kenya through training and managing large rural development projects to a fundamental critique of top-down development and the championing of participatory approaches. The contributors eloquently demonstrate how he has been at the centre of major shifts in development thinking and practice over this period, popularising terms that are now at the centre of the development lexicon such as vulnerability, multi-dimensional poverty, sustainable livelihoods and 'farmer first'.
Robert Chambers played a major role in the massive growth in participatory approaches to development, and particularly the application of participatory methods in development research and appraisal. This has led to fundamental challenges to development practice, ranging from approaches to monitoring and evaluation to institutional learning and professional training. There is probably no-one who has had more influence on approaches to development in the past decades. Revolutionizing Development offers a unique overview of these contributions in thirty-two concise chapters from authors who have been intimately involved as collaborators, critics and colleagues of Robert Chambers.
Contents page:
Ch. 1 - Putting the Last First: Reflections on the Work of Robert Chambers
Part 1 - Conceptualizing Development
Ch. 2 - Challenging Development Priorities
Ch. 3 - Beginners in Africa: Managing Rural Development
Ch. 4 - The Path from Managerialism to Participation: The Kenyan Special Rural Development Programme
Ch. 5 - Foxes and Hedgehogs – and Lions: Whose Reality Prevails?
Ch. 6 - Administration and Development
Ch. 7 - Participation in International Aid
Ch. 8 - Power and Participation
Ch. 9 - Reframing Development
Part 2 - Rural Development, Poverty and Livelihoods
Ch. 10 - Exploring Sustainable Livelihoods
Ch. 11 - Putting the Vulnerable First
Ch. 12 - Seasonality: Uncovering the Obvious and Implementing the Complex
Ch. 13 - Refugee Studies
Ch. 14 - Farmer First: Reversals for Agricultural Research
Ch. 15 - Agricultural Development: Parsimonious Paradigms
Ch. 16 - In Search of a Water Revolution: Canal Irrigation Management
Ch. 17 - The Last Frontier: The Groundwater Revolution in South Asia
Ch. 18 - Trees as Assets: Legacies and Lessons
Ch. 19 - Finding a Sustainable Sanitation Solution: Scaling Up Community-Led Total Sanitation
Ch. 20 - Technology and Markets
Part 3 - Methodological Innovations
Ch. 21 - Village Studies
Ch. 22 - Whose Knowledge Counts? Tales of an Eclectic Participatory Pluralist
Ch. 23 - Learning to Unlearn: Creating a Virtuous Learning Cycle
Ch. 24 - The Use of Participatory Methods to Study Natural Resources1
Ch. 25 - Participatory Numbers
Part 4 - Practising Development: New Professionalism
Ch. 26 - The Personal and the Political
Ch. 27 - Poverty Professionals and Poverty
Ch. 28 - Changing Attitudes and Behaviour
Ch. 29 - Networking: Building a Global Movement for PRA and other Participatory Methods
Ch. 30 - Institutional Learning and Change
Ch. 31 - Participation, Learning and Accountability: The Role of the Activist Academic
Ch. 32 - Development Professionalism
Ch. 33 - Appreciation and Reflections (By Robert Chambers)
Reviews:
“A powerful influence on development doing and thinking, Robert Chambers provokes us to focus on what doesn't fit our neat categories, reversing our normal assumptions. He has transformed attitudes and behaviours through impelling us to reflect on how we work and what we do. This wonderful collection of perspectives on Robert's life and work reminds us how much a single person can do by being confident, pragmatic and willing to take risks.” --Dr Camilla Toulmin, Director, International Institute for Environment and Development, London
“Robert Chambers has been an ardent advocate of a livelihood approach to development, a testimony to his holistic vision of sustainable human security and happiness. This book captures the essence of his many original contributions during the last fifty years. Through the 'farmer first ' approach he has shown the pathway for linking ecology, economics, equity and employment in a mutually reinforcing manner leading to food for all and forever.” --Professor M S Swaminathan, Chairman, M S Swaminathan Research Foundation, Member of Indian Parliament (Rajya Sabha); and Chair, High Level Panel of Experts of the Committee on World Food Security of the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation
======================================================================================================================
The RISE Framework
Publisher: World Bank
Year of publication: 2022
The world has witnessed unparalleled economic progress in the last three decades. But success is not preordained, and several headwinds threaten this hard fought progress. Inequality is leaving many people and subgroups behind and excluding them from enjoying the benefits of this great economic expansion. More recently, the world has awakened to the reality of a new type of risk. The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) struck at a time when the world was healthier and wealthier than ever before.
There is little disagreement over the need to enable a recovery that is fairer, safer, and more sustainable. This report describes how these ambitious objectives can be achieved by providing evidence based tools and information to guide countries to spend better and improve policies. It is in this context that this document presents policy guidance to identify and diagnose key development challenges and develop solutions to help countries build better. The diagnostic is based on an assessment of a country's performance across four key three pillars of development:
Resilience,
Inclusion,
Sustainability, and
Efficiency.
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The Role of Livestock in Developing Communities
: Enhancing Multifunctionality
Publisher: UJ Press
Year of publication: 2010
The book provides critical information and knowledge on the importance of livestock in the global effort to alleviate poverty and promote human health. It describes and evaluates case studies, examines theoretical frameworks, and discusses key global policy development issues, challenges and constraints related to smallholder livestock-production systems around the globe. The book is written for academic professionals, industry experts, government officials and other scholars interested in the facts and issues concerning the contribution of livestock to the social and economic progress of developing countries.
Contents page:
1. Multifunctionality of Livestock in Developing Communities
Frans Swanepoel, Siboniso Moyo
2. Livestock Development Projects that Make a Difference: What Works, What Doesn’t and Why
Aldo Stroebel, Patti Kristjanson, Alice N. Pell
3. Promoting Gender Equality and Empowering Women through Livestock
Brigid Aileen Letty, Ann Waters-Bayer
4. The Way Forward for Livestock and the Environment
Pierre Gerber, Delia Grace, Mario Herrero, Philippe Lecomte, AM Notenbaert, Shirley Tarawali, Philip Thornton, Jeannette van de Steeg, Akke van der Zijpp
5. The Role of Foods of Animal Origin in Human Nutrition and Health
Lindela Rowland Ndlovu
6. Interactions between Gender, Environment, Livelihoods, Food, Nutrition and Health
Frans Swanepoel, Aldo Stroebel, Edward A. Nesamvuni
7. Livestock against Risk and Vulnerability: Multifunctionality of Livestock Keeping in Burundi
Luc D’Haese, Marijke D’Haese, Stijn Speelman, Ellen Vandamme
8. Sustainable Livestock Intensification
Sammy Carsan, Akke van der Zijpp, Pieter Wilke
9. Value Chains and Innovation
Heather Burrow, Berhanu Gebremedhin, John McDermott, Karl M. Rich
10. Implications and Innovative Strategies for Enhancing the Future Contribution of Livestock
Frans Swanepoel, Aldo Stroebel, Canagasaby Devendra, Johan van Rooyen
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Routledge Handbook of Development Ethics
Publisher: Routledge
Year of publication: 2018
The Routledge Handbook of Development Ethics provides readers with insight into the central questions of development ethics, the main approaches to answering them, and areas for future research. Over the past seventy years, it has been argued and increasingly accepted that worthwhile development cannot be reduced to economic growth. Rather, a number of other goals must be realised:
Enhancement of people's well-being
Equitable sharing in benefits of development
Empowerment to participate freely in development
Environmental sustainability
Promotion of human rights
Promotion of cultural freedom, consistent with human rights
Responsible conduct, including integrity over corruption.
Agreement that these are essential goals has also been accompanied by disagreements about how to conceptualize or apply them in different cases or contexts. Using these seven goals as an organizing principle, this handbook presents different approaches to achieving each one, drawing on academic literature, policy documents and practitioner experience.
This international and multi-disciplinary handbook will be of great interest to development policy makers and program workers, students and scholars in development studies, public policy, international studies, applied ethics and other related disciplines.
Contents page:
Introduction
What is development ethics?
Part I - Contexts
Ch. 2- Global ethics: Development ethics as global ethics
Ch. 3- Integral human development: Development of every person and of the whole person
Ch. 4- Post-development: No development is good development
Ch. 5- Epistemology: Epistemic injustice and distortion in development theory and practice
Part II- Well-being
Ch. 6- Well-being: Happiness, desires, goods, and needs
Ch. 7- The capability approach: Ethics and socio-economic development
Ch. 8- Happiness: Using subjective well-being metrics to gauge development
Ch. 9- Adaptive preferences: Accounting for deflated expectations
Part III - Social and global justice
Ch. 10- Social and global justice: Models of development and theories of justice
Ch. 11- Gender: Feminist insights on inequality in development
Ch. 12- Indigenous peoples: Self-determination, decolonization, and indigenous philosophies
Ch. 13- Horizontal inequalities: Individual capabilities and inequalities between groups
Ch. 14- Children: Intergenerational transmission of poverty and inequality
Ch. 15- Health: Social gradients and unjust health outcomes
Part IV- Empowerment and agency
Ch. 16- Empowerment: Participatory development and the problem of cooptation
Ch. 17- Agency: Expanding choice through democratic processes
Ch. 18- Education: Worthwhile education for ethical human development
Ch. 19- Displacement: Land acquisition and disempowerment
Part V - Environmental sustainability
Ch. 20- Sustainability and climate change: Human development and human responsibilities
Ch. 21- Food production: Food security and agricultural development
Ch. 22- Buen vivir and the rights of nature: Alternative visions of development
Part VI - Human rights
Ch. 23- Human rights: Shaping development ethics, pragmatics, law, policy and politics
Ch. 24- The right to development: Ethical development as a human right
Ch. 25- Security: Building security through peace and reconciliation
Part VII - Cultural freedom
Ch. 26- Cultural freedom: Worthwhile development for a diverse world
Ch. 27- LGBTI people: “Being LGBTI” in international development
Ch. 28- Religion: Religious contributions to development issues
Part VIII - Responsibility
Ch. 29- International responsibilities: From utility and humanitarianism to global justice
Ch. 30- Development practitioners: Absent in the deliberative discourse on development ethics
Ch. 31- Corruption: Concepts, costs, causes and challenges
Part IX - Regional perspectives
Ch. 32- Latin America: Inequality provoking critical thought
Ch. 33- South Asia: Environmental concerns and human rights violations
Ch. 34- East Asia: Challenges to political rights
Ch. 35- Middle East and North Africa: The Arab Spring as a political expression of ethical issues
Ch. 36- French-speaking sub-Saharan Africa: From buying and selling loyalty to demanding democracy
Ch. 37- Sub-Saharan Africa: Development ethics and post-colonial debate
Ch. 38- Europe: European development ethics – past and present
Ch. 39- USA and Canada: High-income maldevelopment
Reviews:
“Jay Drydyk and Lori Keleher have done a stellar job in bringing leading scholars in development ethics together for this Handbook of Development Ethics. The chapters in this handbook make it clear that development is not just about economic growth, but in the first place about wellbeing, justice, empowerment, the environment, human rights, cultural freedoms, and taking responsibilities. This handbook will become an essential resource for any student or teacher of development ethics. And it should be interesting for anyone who wants to think systematically about what matters when moving towards a better world for all.” --Ingrid Robeyns, Chair in Ethics of Institutions, Department of Philosophy and Religious Studies, Utrecht University, Netherlands
“The three quarters of a century after the second world war has seen dramatic improvements, on average, in life expectancy, educational achievements, and income in parts of the world where these were lowest. The "on average" qualification is of course important―some have benefited much more than others, and significant numbers have been immiserized. What are the basic ethical principles according to which one would assess the gains for some against the losses for others in health, education and income? Are these the only dimensions along which changes are to be measured and assessed? And in any case, can such consequentialist perspectives capture the essence of ethical dilemmas in development? These questions do not make for easy answers, and there is lively debate among scholars on development ethics, animated by ground level political expressions, sometimes violent, of huge discontent among those "being developed". This excellent volume brings together leading analysts to chart the terrain and lay the foundations for further systematic debate and exploration. It will become a go to reference for those working on normative assessment of the development process.” --Ravi Kanbur, T.H. Lee Professor of World Affairs, International Professor of Applied Economics and Management, and Professor of Economics at Cornell University, USA
“This book is an extraordinary conversation among diverse ethical values that in the process revises each one of them. Like in a symphony, where the color and sound of an instrument is perceived differently when joined by others, the seven values organizing this handbook interact as living creatures. The orchestra is in place; and it is worth listening to it like a unified piece. It is much more than a handbook.” --Javier M. Iguiniz-Echeverria, Professor Emeritus, Pontifical Catholic University of Peru, Executive Secretary of the National Accord of Peru, President of the Institute for Human Development in Latin America
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The Self-Deception Trap
: Exploring the Economic Dimensions of Charity Dependency within Africa-Europe Relations
(author: Carlos Lopes)
Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan
Year of publication: 2024
This open access book examines the economic relationship between Africa and Europe. It highlights the stigmatized narratives about Africa and analyses how they influence a range of key actors and processes. This is illustrated by the actions of European actors who reinforce negative narratives through replacing real economic transformation and development with charity, while African leaders compete to maximize aid donations and help further these narratives.
This book acknowledges the complex history of the relations between Africa and Europe and details the ways in which Africa has become a peripheral player in the world economy. It will be relevant to researchers and policymakers interested in development and African economics.
Contents page:
Front Matter
Introduction: A Masterclass in Dealing with Passive Aggressive Behaviour
Empires of the Mind
The Disappointing Discussion About Aid Effectiveness
Comparative Advantage Is an Old-Fashioned Trick
Lost Decades or Blessing?
The Good Samaritans Lose Their Way
Migration Takes Centre Stage
The Free Trade Fantasy
Conclusions: A New Era of African Agency
Back Matter
About the Author:
Carlos Lopes is a Professor at the Mandela School of Public Governance, University of Cape Town and Affiliate Professor at Sciences Po, Paris. He has occupied important leadership positions across the United Nations, the African Union, and academic institutions.
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Sharing Knowledge for Community Development and Transformation
: A handbook
(author: Kingo J. Mchombu)
Publisher: Oxfam Canada
Year of publication: 2004 [2nd edition]
The handbook comes from hours of discussion and exchange during workshops and symposia on information, knowledge and community development in the Horn of Africa. Kingo Mchombu led these discussions. He introduced the Community Information Resource Centre (CIRC) as the tool that serves the purpose of development. Men and women responded to the training sessions and asked the Horn of Africa Capacity Building Programme (HOACBP) to provide a handbook that the partners could use in their local situations.
The second edition of the Handbook is the result of an evaluation of the first edition by HOACBP partners who had used it in their communities. Some minor editorial changes have been made to the original text. At their request, a few new sections and two chapters have been added. They expand the work to include the current state of development in Africa, the importance of HIV/AIDS information resource centres (chapter 6) and an assessment of the developments in Ethiopia (chapter 7). These additions bring the text up-to-date and increase its value as a community development tool.
From the Introduction:
"Sharing Knowledge is about freedom. It is concerned, more specifically, with the five freedoms identified by economist Amartya Sen in Development as Freedom, as key for human and social development: [1] political freedoms; [2] social opportunities such as education; [3] transparency guarantees as a right of every citizen; [4] protective security against risks, such as ill health; and [5] economic facilities leading to greater autonomy. This handbook is for women and men making use of information and knowledge for the realization of their freedoms and those of their communities."
Summary of Contents page:
Foreword . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . iii
CH. 1: Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
CH. 2: Information and Human Development . . . . . . . . . 13
CH. 3: The Content of Information and Knowledge in Community Information Resource Centres. . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
CH. 4: Information Sharing and Processing in the Community . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47
CH. 5: Keeping the Community Information Resource Centre Alive . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67
CH. 6: Why Do We Need HIV/AIDS Resource Centres? . . . . 89
CH. 7: Case Studies and Lessons Learned: Experiences from the Grassroots on Setting up Community Information Resource Centres (CIRCs) . . . . . . . . . 105
Glossary of Terms in the Handbook . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 135
List of References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 149
APPENDIX 1: Library Unit Operations in the CIRC . . . . . . . . . 153
Selection of Materials: Guidelines . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 154
Ordering of Materials . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 155
Processing of Materials . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 155
Classification . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 156
Cataloguing. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 158
Handling Audio-visual Materials . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 159
Reference Collection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 160
Lending Service . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 160
Membership Registration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 160
Book Card . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 162
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Social Sustainability in Development
: Meeting the Challenges of the 21st Century
(Series: New Frontiers of Social Policy)
Publisher: World Bank
Year of publication: 2023
All development is about people: the transformative process to equip, link, and enable groups of people to drive change and create something new to benefit society. Development can promote societies where all people can thrive, but the change process can be complex, challenging, and socially contentious.
Continued progress toward sustainable development is not guaranteed. The current overlapping crises of COVID-19, climate change, rising levels of conflict, and a global economic slowdown are inflaming long-standing challenges—exacerbating inequality and deep-rooted systemic inequities. Addressing these challenges will require social sustainability in addition to economic and environmental sustainability.
Social Sustainability in Development: Meeting the Challenges of the 21st Century seeks to advance the concept of social sustainability and sharpen its analytical foundations. The book emphasizes social sustainability’s four key components: social cohesion, inclusion, resilience, and process legitimacy. It posits that:
Social sustainability increases when more people feel part of the development process and believe that they and their descendants will benefit from it.
Communities and societies that are more socially sustainable are more willing and able to work together to overcome challenges, deliver public goods, and allocate scarce resources in ways perceived to be legitimate and fair so that all people may thrive over time.
By identifying interventions that work to promote the components of social sustainability and highlighting the evidence of their links to key development outcomes, this book provides a foundation for using social sustainability to help address the many challenges of our time.
Contents page (summary):
Part 1: From Aspiration to Action
Introduction
Context
Notes
References
Part 2: What Is Social Sustainability?
Overview and Literature Review
Definitions and Conceptual Framework
Strengthening the Empirical Foundations of Social Sustainability
Annex 2A Empirical Annex
Annex 2B Social Sustainability and Developmental Outcome Correlations, Controlling for Income
Notes
References
Part 3: Closing the Implementation Gap
Introduction
Challenges in Operationalizing Social Sustainability
What Has Worked to Promote Cohesion, Inclusion, and Resilience?
Leveraging Process Legitimacy: How Things Are Done Matters
Notes
References
Part 4: Conclusion
A Perfect Storm
References
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Sustainable Livelihoods and Rural Development
(author: Ian Scoones)
Publisher: Practical Action Publishing
Year of publication: 2015
The message of Sustainable Livelihoods and Rural Development is clear: livelihoods approaches are an essential lens on questions of rural development, but these need to be situated in a better understanding of political economy. The book looks at the role of social institutions and the politics of policy, as well as issues of identity, gender and generation. The relationships between sustainability and livelihoods are examined, and the book situates livelihoods analysis within a wider political economy of environmental and agrarian change. Four dimensions of a new politics of livelihoods are suggested: a politics of interests, individuals, knowledge and ecology. Together, these suggest new ways of conceptualizing rural and agrarian issues, with profound implications for both thinking and action.
Contents page:
Prelims:
Inter-Church Organization for Development | Cooperation Statement | Acknowledgements |
Series Editors’ Foreword | Author’s Preface
1 Livelihoods Perspectives: A Brief History
Livelihoods Thinking
Sustainable Rural Livelihoods
Keywords
Core Questions
2 Livelihoods, Poverty and Wellbeing
Livelihood Outcomes: Conceptual Foundations
Measuring Livelihood Outcomes
Evaluating Inequality
Multidimensional Metrics and Indices
Whose Indicators Count? Participatory and Ethnographic Approaches
Poverty Dynamics and Livelihood Change
Rights, Empowerment and Inequality
Conclusion
3 Livelihoods Frameworks and Beyond
Livelihood Contexts and Strategies
Livelihood Assets, Resources and Capitals
Livelihood Change
Politics and Power
What’s in a Framework?
Conclusion
4 Access and Control: Institutions, Organizations and Policy Processes
Institutions and Organizations
Understanding Access and Exclusion
Institutions, Practice and Agency
Difference, Recognition and Voice
Policy Processes
Unpacking the Black Box
5 Livelihoods, the Environment and Sustainability
People and the Environment: A Dynamic Relationship
Resource Scarcity: Beyond Malthus
Non-Equilibrium Ecologies
Sustainability as Adaptive Practice
Livelihoods and Lifestyles
A Political Ecology of Sustainability
Sustainability Reframed: Politics and Negotiation
6 Livelihoods and Political Economy
Unity of the Diverse
Class, Livelihoods and Agrarian Dynamics
States, Markets and Citizens
Conclusion
7 Asking the Right Questions: An Extended Livelihoods Approach
Political Economy and Rural Livelihood Analysis: Six Cases
Emerging Themes
Conclusion
8 Methods for Livelihoods Analysis
Mixed Methods: Beyond Disciplinary Silos
Operational Approaches to Livelihoods Assessment
Towards a Political Economy Analysis of Livelihoods
Challenging Biases
Conclusion
9 Bringing Politics Back In: New Challenges for Livelihoods Perspectives
Politics of Interests
Politics of Individuals
Politics of Knowledge
Politics of Ecology
A New Politics of Livelihoods
Back Matter:
References | Index
Reviews:
“This is an extraordinarily important book. It should become a classic. It is a must for every development professional. It is a masterly analysis and overview of the evolution and dimensions of the sustainable livelihoods approach, and opens up new territory of political economy, political ecology and a new politics of livelihoods. Concise yet comprehensive, combining and drawing on the perspectives of many disciplines, accessible to all readers, professionally impeccable, and on top of all this, original in its analysis and extension into new fields, this book is a wonderful contribution to development thinking and action. May it be very widely read, and may it be very influential.” --Robert Chambers, Institute of Development Studies, University of Sussex
“In this uniquely comprehensive, lucid and valuable review of notions of sustainable livelihoods and their applications, Ian Scoones makes a potent argument for reinstating an expansive perspective on livelihoods, informed by the political economy of agrarian change, at the centre of current concerns with overcoming rural inequality and poverty.” --Henry Bernstein, School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London
“Ian Scoones has produced a book that is in perfect balance: immensely useful, it is also challenging; theoretically perceptive, it is wonderfully readable; historically informed, it also looks forward, proposing agendas for scholars and professionals alike. Students and practitioners will find it invaluable because it places livelihood thinking in context, explores its applications, explains its limits and — perhaps most important of all — persuades the reader that being political and being practical are absolutely not mutually exclusive options in development, whether writing about it or working within it.” --Anthony Bebbington, Graduate School of Geography, Clark University and idpm, University of Manchester
“This book offers a sanguine assessment of the strengths and weaknesses of a sustainable livelihoods approach. The proposed extension of the approach builds on a political economy tradition in agrarian and development studies. Nurturing sustainable livelihoods for the poor is not just about recognizing their exceptional skill at making a living, which includes diversifying livelihoods, jumping scales and nesting home places within productive networks, but also mitigating their vulnerability to land grabs, drought and floods, natural disasters, corporate greed and venal politics.” --Simon Batterbury, University of Melbourne
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The Sustainable Livelihoods Handbook
: An asset based approach to poverty
Publishers: Church Action on Poverty; Oxfam GB
Year of publication: 2009
This handbook is intended to introduce community development workers and local activists to the Sustainable Livelihoods Approach (SLA), an exciting and innovative means of researching the opportunities for change within our households and communities.
The Handbook is also potentially relevant for academics and policy makers who are interested in finding out more about how the approach can be used more generally within research and policy development on poverty.
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Understanding Local Economic Development
(authors: Emil Malizia, Edward J. Feser, Henry Renski, Joshua Drucker)
Publisher: Routledge
Year of publication: 2020 [2nd edition]
This open access book offers insights into the process and the practice of Local Economic Development. Bridging the gap between theory and practice, it demonstrates the relevance of theory to inform local strategic planning in the context of widespread disparities in regional economic performance. The book summarizes the core theories of economic development, applies each of these to professional practice, and provides detailed commentary on them.
This updated second edition includes more recent contributions - regional innovation, agglomeration and dynamic theories – and presents the major ideas that inform economic development strategic planning, particularly in the United States and Canada. The text offers theoretical insights that help explain why some regions thrive while others languish and why metropolitan economies often rise and fall over time. Without theory, economic developers can only do what is politically feasible. This text, however, provides them with a logical tool for thinking about development and establishing an independent basis from which to build the local consensus needed for evidence-based action undertaken in the public interest.
Offering valuable perspectives on both the process and the practice of local and regional economic development, this book will be useful for both current and future economic developers to think more profoundly and confidently about their local economy.
Contents page:
Part I : Fundamentals
Ch. 1 | The practice of economic development
Ch. 2 | Definitions and concepts of development
Part II: Theories of economic growth and development
Ch. 3 | Economic base theory and related extensions
Ch. 4 | Trade theory
Ch. 5 | Regional growth theory
Ch. 6 | Theories of spatial concentration and diffusion
Ch. 7 | Entrepreneurship theories
Ch. 8 | Regional innovation theories
Ch. 9 | Theories of agglomeration
Ch. 10 | From economic development theories to strategies
About the Authors:
Emil Malizia is Research Professor of City and Regional Planning at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill. His expertise includes regional economic development, real estate, and entrepreneurship. He is author or coauthor of five books and over 200 scholarly articles or other publications.
Edward Feser is Professor of Public Policy and Provost/Executive Vice President of Oregon State University. His research and writing focus on state and local development policy, regional innovation, industry clustering, spatial economic analysis, planning methods, and strategic planning.
Henry Renski is Professor of Regional Planning at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. He teaches courses in regional development theory and policy, quantitative methods, and spatial analysis. His primary research interests are entrepreneurship and understanding the impact of technological change on regional economies.
Joshua Drucker is Associate Professor of Urban Planning and Policy at the University of Illinois at Chicago. He researches and teaches economic development planning, regional economic analysis, planning methods, technology and innovation policy, and policy analysis.
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What works for Africa's poorest
: Programmes and policies for the extreme poor
Publisher: Practical Action Publishing
Year of publication: 2017
Although great strides have been made, Africa still lags behind other parts of the world in the reduction of poverty. We now know that the poorest people rarely benefit from poverty reduction programmes, and this is especially true in some countries of sub-Saharan Africa [SSA]. Microfinance programmes, for example, that can help many poor people improve their lives do not generally reach the poorest people – casual labourers in remote rural areas, ethnic and indigenous minorities, older people, widows, migrants, bonded labourers and others.
As a result, NGOs and donors have started to mount programmes explicitly targeting the extreme poor, the poorest and the ultra-poor. This book follows on from What works for the Poorest: Poverty Reduction Programmes for the World's Extreme Poor and examines such initiatives in Africa. Through a set of carefully selected papers it questions why the poorest often do not benefit from poverty reduction and growth policies, analyses innovative ultra-poor programmes from around the continent, and explores the lessons that emerge from this new and important body of knowledge.
What Works for Africa's Poorest: Programmes and Policies for the Extreme Poor contains a unique cross-section of country-specific case studies from across SSA, combined with cross-country analyses of important programmes, written by practitioners, academics and advisers. It is essential reading for researchers and students studying poverty in international development and for policy makers and programme managers involved in poverty reduction programmes.
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Women’s economic empowerment
: insights from Africa and South Asia
Publishers: Routledge; IDRC
Year of publication: 2021
This book examines women’s economic empowerment in a range of developing country contexts, investigating the societal structures and norms which keep women from achieving economic equality. Despite global progress in closing gender gaps in education and health, women’s economic empowerment has lagged behind, with little evidence that economic growth promotes gender equality. IDRC’s Growth and Economic Opportunities for Women (GrOW) programme was set up to provide policy lessons, insights, and concrete solutions that could lead to advances in gender equality, particularly on the role of institutions and macroeconomic growth, barriers to labour market access for women, and the impact of women’s care responsibilities. This book showcases rigorous and multidisciplinary research emerging from this ground-breaking program, covering topics such as school-to-work transition, child marriage, unpaid domestic work and childcare, labour market segregation, and the power of social and cultural norms that prevent women from fully participating in better paid sectors of the economy. With a range of rich case studies from Burkina Faso, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ethiopia, Ghana, India, Kenya, Nepal, Rwanda, Sri Lanka, Tanzania, and Uganda, this book is perfect for students, researchers, practitioners, and policymakers working on women’s economic empowerment and gender equality in the Global South.
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