Aid, NGOs and the Realities of Women's Lives

Author: Tina Wallace
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781853397790
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 0

Book Description
Aid organizations have their origins in a desire to help the world's poorest and most marginalized people - but are they reaching these people? Factors are coming together that put pressure on NGOs working in development: the economic crisis, the growing conditionality of aid, and increased competition for funding between NGOs. This creates 'a perfect storm' driven by a new language of aid, policies and procedures leaving poor women behind. This book explores how international NGOs are navigating these rapid changes that challenge their role and legitimacy, values, and overall purpose. The writers see a crisis for NGOs as they are pulled further from those they claim to work with; they also explore alternative ways of conceptualizing development, and of bringing about improvements for the most marginalized and increasingly 'unheard' women. This book is essential reading for development practitioners and those working on women's rights, as well as NGO staff , researchers, and students of development studies.

New Mediums, Better Messages?

Author: David Lewis
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0192602411
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 289

Book Description
This is an open access title available under the terms of a CC BY 3.0 IGO International licence. It is free to read at Oxford Scholarship Online and offered as a free PDF download from OUP and selected open access locations. The notion of development influences and is influenced by all aspects of human life. Social science is but one representational option among many for conveying the myriad ways in which development is conceived, encountered, experienced, justified, courted, and/or resisted by different groups at particular times and places. As international development has become more quantitative and economics-centred, there is an enduring sense that what is measured (and thus 'valued' and prioritized) may have become too narrow, that the powers of prediction claimed by some areas of economics and management may have overreached, and that the human dimension is in danger of being lost. Reflecting this concern, New Mediums, Better Messages? contributes to new conversations between science, social science, and the humanities around the roles of different kinds of knowledge, stories, and data play in relation to global development. It brings together a team of multidisciplinary contributors to explore popular representions of development, including music, blogs, and fiction.

NoNonsense International Development

Author: Maggie Black
Publisher: New Internationalist
ISBN: 178026240X
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 161

Book Description
"Development" is often misunderstood and can embrace everything from large infrastructure projects to small-scale environmental initiatives. The idea can often mask confusion, contradiction, deceit and corruption. This book is essential reading for anyone wanting to know what development actually is. It covers all the key themes and critically suggests ways to bring the poor and marginalised into the process. Maggie Black has written numerous books including titles for OUP, UNICEF and OXFAM. She has worked as a consultant for a number of NGOs (UNICEF, Anti-Slavery International and WaterAid amonst others) and has written for the Guardian, Economist, and BBC World Service.

The Routledge Handbook of Gender and Development

Author: Anne Coles
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 113409471X
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 619

Book Description
The Routledge Handbook of Gender and Development provides a comprehensive statement and reference point for gender and development policy making and practice in an international and multi-disciplinary context. Specifically, it provides critical reviews and appraisals of the current state of gender and development and considers future trends. It includes theoretical and practical approaches as well as empirical studies. The international reach and scope of the Handbook and the contributors’ experiences allow engagement with and reflection upon these bridging and linking themes, as well as the examining the politics and policy of how we think about and practice gender and development. Organized into eight inter-related sections, the Handbook contains over 50 contributions from leading scholars, looking at conceptual and theoretical approaches, environmental resources, poverty and families, women and health related services, migration and mobility, the effect of civil and international conflict, and international economies and development. This Handbook provides a wealth of interdisciplinary information and will appeal to students and practitioners in Geography, Development Studies, Gender Studies and related disciplines.

The NGO Challenge for International Relations Theory

Author: William E. DeMars
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 131754207X
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 358

Book Description
It has become commonplace to observe the growing pervasiveness and impact of Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs). And yet the three central approaches in International Relations (IR) theory, Liberalism, Realism and Constructivism, overlook or ignore the importance of NGOs, both theoretically and politically. Offering a timely reappraisal of NGOs, and a parallel reappraisal of theory in IR—the academic discipline entrusted with revealing and explaining world politics, this book uses practice theory, global governance, and new institutionalism to theorize NGO accountability and analyze the history of NGOs. This study uses evidence from empirical data from Europe, Africa, Latin America, the Middle East and Asia and from studies that range across the issue-areas of peacebuilding, ethnic reconciliation, and labor rights to show IR theory has often prejudged and misread the agency of NGOs. Drawing together a group of leading international relations theorists, this book explores the frontiers of new research on the role of such forces in world politics and is required reading for students, NGO activists, and policy-makers.

Handbook on Development and Social Change

Author: G. Honor Fagan
Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing
ISBN: 1786431556
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 489

Book Description
This Handbook provides an accessible critical review of the complex issues surrounding development and social change today. With chapters from recognized experts, examining economic, political and social aspects, and covering key topics and developing regions, it goes beyond current theory and sets out the debates which will shape an approach better suited to the modern world.

Working with Conflict 2

Author: Simon Fisher
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN: 1913441407
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 240

Book Description
Working with Conflict 2 reflects the accumulated wisdom of over 3000 peacebuilding practitioners from 70 countries over the 20 years since the first Working with Conflict book was published. Its focus is on understanding and transforming conflict, building practical strategies for constructive change, analysing power, addressing violence, healing wounds and building movements for change. It is relevant to all who are trying to bring about change in intractable situations, from grassroots to policy level, including those working in the fields of peacebuilding, humanitarian assistance, development, climate change, human rights, gender equality, trauma healing and democracy. Working with Conflict 2 is an accessible practical resource, for both individuals and organisations working and researching how to work in conflict-prone and unstable parts of the world. Easy to use, including helpful visual materials, it provides a range of practical tools – processes, ideas, techniques – for tackling conflict, as well as providing links to other key conflict-related and peacebuilding resources, including organisations, publications and websites.

Everyday Peace

Author: Roger Mac Ginty
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0197563414
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 273

Book Description
An exploration of how so-called ordinary people can disrupt violent conflict and forge peace. In this pathbreaking book, Roger Mac Ginty explores everyday peace-or how individuals and small groups can eke out spaces of tolerance and conciliation in conflict-ridden societies. Drawing on original material from the Everyday Peace Indicators project, he blends theory and concept-building together with contemporary and comparative examples. Unusual for the disciplines of peace and conflict studies as well as international relations, Everyday Peace also utilizes personal diaries and memoirs from World Wars One and Two. The book unpacks the core components of everyday peace and argues that it is constructed from a mix of sociality, reciprocity, and solidarity. This exploration of bottom-up and community-level approaches to peace challenges the usual concentration on top-down approaches to peace advanced by governments and international organizations. Indeed, the book goes to the lowest level of social organization - individuals, families and small groups of friends and colleagues - and looks at everyday interaction in workplaces, the stairwells of apartment buildings, and the queue for public transport. Mac Ginty sees peace and conflict as being embodied, lived, and experienced - and constructs a multi-layered definition of peace. Importantly, he applies his evidentiary base of micro-acts that constitute everyday peace to societies that have emerged out of conflict and have not experienced recidivism on a large scale. Unlike most who focus on top-down processes, he demonstrates that what matters is the interaction between top-down and bottom-up peace and how, in an ideal scenario, they can have a symbiotic relationship. By focusing on how the small-scale can have big and lasting effects, Everyday Peace will reshape our understanding of how peace comes about.

Advancing Gender Equality in Bangladesh

Author: Rieky Stuart
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1351762982
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 205

Book Description
In 1994, BRAC, the world's largest NGO, made headlines by putting women's rights centre stage in Bangladesh, one of the poorest countries in the world. The Gender Quality Action Learning (GQAL) Programme was one of the very first large-scale efforts to mainstream gender equality and aimed to weave objectives of gender equality throughout its own microfinance, education and health services. Advancing Gender Equality in Bangladesh describes the history, implementation, and outcome of this major 20-year initiative and discusses the lessons learnt throughout the fight to achieve gender equality outcomes in an effort to provide a tangible framework for future organizations interested in promoting gender equality and social inclusion. At a time when many gender equality programmes are still relatively young, this book offers a unique opportunity to track 20 years of intervention within a theoretical and cultural context and provides a platform for ongoing discussion about the roles of empowerment and gender transformation as agents for social change. This book provides an in-depth analysis of how strategies for change have operated in practice and will be of considerable interest to students, researchers and practitioners of international development, gender studies and social justice theory as well as those interested in a new practical methodology of the gender role framework.

Water and Development

Author: Ronaldo Munck
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN: 1783604948
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 273

Book Description
Water has always been a crucial catalyst for human development. In Africa, competition among different sectors for this scarce resource remains a critical challenge to water managers and decision-makers. Water and Development examines a range of issues, from governance to solar distillation, from gender to water pumps, using a range of research methods, from participant observation to GIS and SPSS data analysis. Throughout, however, there is the unifying thread of developing a participatory and sustainable approach to water which recognises it as an essential public necessity. The result is essential reading both for students of development and the environment and for NGOs and policy-makers seeking a robust and transformational approach to water and development.