here you will be expected to post 150-200 words in answer to each of the tutorial questions provided based on the readings provided. See below:
Question (1)
From the readings and your experience do you think NGOs are really part of
civil society and does it matter? (150-200 words)
Required Readings
Fisher, W.F. 1997. Doing Good? The Politics and Antipolitics of NGO
Practices Annual review of Anthropology, 26:439-464.
Abstract: This paper looks at current literature on NGOs particularly their
growing numbers, changing functions, and intensifying networks. NGOs have
arguably had significant impacts upon globalization, international and national
politics, and local lives. Studies of NGO changes can help in understandings
the flow of ideas, knowledge, funding, and people; the changing relationships
among citizenry, associations, and the state. Attention is also given to the
political implications of NGO discourse, their complex micro-politics, and the
importance of situating NGO work within competing and overlapping practice
and discourse.
Mitlin, D. Hickey, S. Bebbingotn, A. 2007. ‹Å“Reclaming Development? NGOs
and the Challenge of Alternatives, World Development, 35 (10):1699-1720.
Abstract: In 1987, World Development published a supplement entitled
“Development Alternatives: the Challenge of NGOs. Although this challenge
now seems far more complicated, this paper suggests one way of giving
meaning (and possibility) back to the juxtaposition of “development
alternative¢ and NGOs. NGOs might benefit from rethinking the notion of
development alternatives in terms of the politics and political economy of
social change, of adopting a Gramscian reading of civil society and their role
therein, and from reflecting that their role in realizing genuine alternatives has
usually been in conjunction with political programs of social movements
and/or developmentalist states. Such a rethinking will help define the contours
of a theory for NGO action.
Question (2)
From the readings and your experience what is the major driver of aid and
why is bilateral aid rising at the current time? ( 150-200 words)
Required Readings
Alesina , A, Dollar D. 2000,“Who Gives Foreign Aid to Whom and Why
Journal of Economic Growth, 5: 33“63.
Abstract
This paper studies the pattern of allocation of foreign aid from various donors
to receiving countries. There is considerable evidence that the direction of
foreign aid is dictated as much by political and strategic considerations, as by
the economic needs and policy performance of the recipients. Colonial pasts
and political alliances are major determinants of foreign aid. At the margin,
however, countries that democratize receive more aid. While foreign aid flows
respond to political variables, foreign direct investments are more sensitive to
economic incentives, particularly €œgood policies and protection of property
rights in the receiving countries. There are also significant differences in the
behaviour among donors.
Petras, J. and Veltmeyer, H. 2002. ge of Reverse Aid: neo-liberalism as a
catalyst for regression Development and Change, 33(2):281-293
Abstract
From the outset the study of international economic development has been
closely tied to questions about the need for, and the potential contributions of,
what has become known as overseas development assistance (ODA). This
paper examines the donor motivations and the politics of aid. The question is
less about development as such, but more about advancing a broader policy
agenda, in this case neo-liberalism.
Question (3)
From the readings on conditionality: what two conditions do you think should
be required of recipient countries before the World Bank should agree to a
loan? ( 150-200) words
Required Readings
Pender, J. 2001. From Structural Adjustment for Comprehensive
Development Framework: conditionality transformed , Third World Quarterly,
22(3):397-411.
Abstract:
This article reviews the dramatic shift over the course of the 1990s in the
World Bank approach to development policy and conditionality, suggesting
that the shift can be explained primarily as a response to the negative
experience of the failure of the Bank own policy prescription. It argues that
the World Bank response has been to revise its view of what constitutes
development. From a conception of development based on the primacy of
economic growth, the World Bank has moved to embrace a conception, which
elevates the poorest as the focus of development. The World Bank
approach to conditional has been modified accordingly, leveraging a
specific emphasis on poverty reduction over society-wide development goals.
We conclude that, while claims are made of country ownership, like the old
conditionalthe new conditional also severely constrains the potential for
genuine ownership of policy.
Ajit Singh (2002) Aid, Conditional and Development, Development and
Change, 33 (2), 295–305.
Abstract
This paper looks at aid from the perspective of the developing country and
their take on the international economic environment which is largely set by
donors. If aid is to be a catalyst then donors and recipients have to compare
proximate goals [which is difficult], and what happens when some groups
within a country do not share them either. The paper concludes with the
suggestion that aid and conditionality should be looked at from the
perspective of the recipient country in these processes.
Killick, T. 1998. ‘Principals, Agents And The Failings Of Conditionality’,
Journal of International Development, 9(4):483-495.
Abstract
This article examines the effectiveness of policy conditionality by international
and other aid donors. This is based on evidence from a sample of 21
developing countries, mainly relating to experiences with World Bank
structural adjustment programmes. The evidence provides strong support that
conditionality-applying donors, such as the Bretton Woods Institutions, are
often unable to put in place a system of rewards and punishments sufficient to
overcome the frequent perceived conflicts of interest between themselves and
recipient governments. In the event of serious donor-recipient disagreements,
domestic politics usually dominates. The use of donor financial leverage is not
a substitute for weak domestic institutions or political will. The main
contribution by the World Bank and other Bretton Woods Institutions to policy
reform in developing countries has been through influence on the
contemporary intellectual climate, and persuasion of governments through
regular contacts.
Question (4)
From the readings on the UNDP: what value added does agencies like UNDP
have in aid delivery? [generally conservative governments prefer bilateral
arrangements and social democratic government prefer multitaleral
arrangements (150-200) words
Required Readings
Engberg-Pedersen, P. and Jorgensen, C.. 1997. “UNDP and Global
Environmental Problems: The Need for Capacity Development at Country
Levelâ€ÂÂ, in Green Globe Yearbook of International Co-operation on
Environment and Development 1997, 37-43.
The aim of this chapter is to examine an important aspect of UNDP’s role in
the move towards sustainable development in developing countries.
Sustainable development means improving the quality of human life
while living within the carrying capacity of supporting ecosystems. It combines
economic, social, and environmental elements and is therefore not far from
covering the entire UNDP mission. Our focus is on the following question:
What role can and should UNDP play in the international response to global
environmental problems?
Nicholls, L. 1999. ‘Birds of a feather? UNDP and ActionAid implementation of
Sustainable Human’ Development Development in Practice, 9 (4):396-409
By the 1990s, innovative ideas such as Sustainable Human Development
(SHD) and People-Centred Development (PCD) had begun to shift the
development discourse beyond economistic perspectives and the ideological
(market versus state) debates of earlier days. This article describes how,
despite their promise and the genuine efforts of international development
agencies such as UNDP and ActionAid to put SHD/PCD ideas into practice,
the conceptual deficiencies of the SHD/PCD paradigm, and internal
organisational interests within UNDP and ActionAID, have gradually displaced
the agenda’s core components.
Mee, L.D. 2005. ‘The Role of UNEP and UNDP in Multilateral
Environmental Agreements’, International Environmental Agreements:
Politics, Law and Economics, 5(3):227-263.
Abstract This study examines the role of the UN’s programmes for
environment and development (UNEP and UNDP) in the genesis and
implementation of multilateral environmental agreements (MEAs). UNDP is
a development organisation strongly rooted in its country office network.
Its role is becoming increasingly normative however, particularly since
2002 when UNDP opted to root most of its activities on the Millennium
Development Goals. UNEP, as an environmental organisation has been
successful at catalysing MEAs at the global and regional level; but without
a significant increase in its budget over 30 years, its capacity has been
spread very thinly. Many of the institutional arrangements for MEAs have
effectively become independent of UNEP resulting in a very loosely and
sometimes poorly coordinated network. Two case studies are used to
illustrate the current institutional arrangements: UNEP’s Regional Seas
Conventions and Protocols, and the Convention for Biological Diversity.
These illustrate the fragmentation of current institutions, the need for
strengthened technical and scientific support, the importance of
addressing problems at their root causes and the need to increase the
devolution of global governance to the regional level. It is argued that
current institutional arrangements have not kept pace with the
requirements of evolving policy.
Question (5)
Choose one alternative aid delivery mechanism to the Development Project
and discuss its advantages and disadvantages (150-200)
Required Readings
Biggs, S. and Smith, S. 2003. paradox of learning in the project cycle
management and the role of organisational culture World Development,
31(10): 1743-1757.
Abstract
Advocacy in favour of project cycle management (PCM) for development work
continues to increase, with new tools and techniques constantly introduced.
There is, however, a growing literature documenting the “failures ¢ of PCM in
practice. There seems to be a paradox in the stance of the literature. While at
the centre of its approach is the idea of a “learning cycle, the normative PCM
manuals appear remarkably robust against such learning. This paper argues
that not enough attention is given to the influence of organizational culture on
PCM and proposes that frameworks from cultural theory can help in
addressing this shortcoming.
Killick, T. 2003 “Macro-level evaluations and the choice of aid modalities
Paper prepared for OED conference on Evaluating Development
Effectiveness; July 2003.
Abstract
In recent years, the pendulum of professional opinion about effective aid
modalities has swung away from an original concentration on project-based
assistance in favour of more programmatic forms, most notably budget
support and the associated modality of debt relief. Although some donors
remain wedded to the project mode, there is little doubt about the direction of
