The Politics of Indigenous Participation Through “Free Prior Informed Consent”: Reflections from the Bolivian Case

This article explores the challenges of ethnic-based participation and its potential for creating inclusive and effective forms of decision-making for marginalized social groups. Empirically, it examines a recent attempt to establish more participative forms of resource and development governance for indigenous communities in Bolivia through Free Prior and Informed Consent/Consultation (FPIC). Rooted in international human rights law, FPIC aims at achieving more effective bottom-up participation by establishing an obligation to consult – or obtain the consent of – indigenous peoples before large development projects and legal reforms that would affect them can proceed. Interest in FPIC initiatives has been growing for reasons that range from efforts to build more equitable management of natural resources to attempts to introduce more effective local-scale practices of participation and active citizenship. We argue that the idea of prior consultation and FPIC itself are not neutral instruments; they will not automatically lead to better or more democratic governance and a more equal society. The way in which FPIC is currently being implemented and framed in Bolivia is in tension with broader ideas of representation and legitimacy, inclusiveness, and management of public and common goods because there is no real clarity as to who is entitled to participation, why they do, and whether they are doing so as a corrective to exclusion, a promotion of citizenship, or as a mechanism for redistribution. As we show here, FPIC implementation can have unintended consequences and consultation can sometimes embed existing social, cultural, and economic tensions. The paper offers some broader reflections on participatory governance and collective rights especially in relation to the tensions between inclusive participation and exclusive rights or – put differently – the challenges for building cultures of participation and inclusion in complex and ethnic diverse democracies

España, la Unión Europea y América Latina: gobierno e identidad en la creación del 'nuevo' interregionalismo

Las formas contemporáneas de relaciones interregionalistas europeas con países en vías de desarrollo tienen su origen en la década de los setenta. La aparición de lo que se denominó “nuevo interregionalismo” en la década de los noventa en respuesta a la transformación del orden mundial contribuyó, a su vez, a una transformación del interregionalismo. Hanggi (2000) sostiene que, lejos de haber sido sustituidos por el “nuevo interregionalismo”, los acuerdos interregionales multicapa deben considerarse corolarios de éste. Con todo, el “nuevo interregionalismo” se ha explorado relativamente poco hasta el momento. Para la Unión Europea (UE), el “nuevo interregionalismo” ofrece la oportunidad de reforzar los lazos políticos y económicos más allá de Europa, a fin de contrarrestar la hegemonía estadounidense y fomentar un modo de gobierno típicamente europeo para el mundo en vías de desarrollo. Las distintas subregiones de América Latina (América Central, los países andinos y el Cono Sur) y algunos de los países de mayor tamaño de este subcontinente, como México, han constituido tradicionalmente un terreno propicio para el interregionalismo europeo, tal y como muestran una serie de importantes iniciativas políticas, diplomáticas, de desarrollo y construcción de la paz. Los documentos Marco abrieron una fase de difíciles negociaciones entre la UE, el MERCOSUR y Chile, y el progreso fue lento. Alcanzar un acuerdo iba a resultar siempre difícil en vista del proteccionismo agrario tan arraigado en la UE. Otro obstáculo era la crisis interna del MERCOSUR provocada por el precipitado colapso económico de Argentina en 2001. Aun así, en el MERCOSUR se generaron expectativas considerables (y de hecho también fuera de él, en el seno de la sociedad civil europea y los grupos de desarrollo) en torno a la Cumbre de Madrid que reuniría a los jefes de gobierno de Europa y Latinoamérica y que estaba programada para finales de la presidencia española de la UE en junio de 2002. Se esperaba que la segunda reunión de este tipo ofreciera la oportunidad de hacer avanzar el acuerdo de forma significativa o incluso de cerrarlo. En vista de los obstáculos evidentes a dicho acuerdo, semejante optimismo requiere una explicación. Mi opinión es que un examen de la naturaleza de las reivindicaciones identitarias, tanto en el Cono Sur como en Europa, puede proporcionarnos al menos parte de dicha explicación. Por ello, en la segunda parte de este documento, discuto la función que la identidad desempeña en las relaciones UE-Cono Sur

The Return of the State in Argentina

Argentina’s economic collapse in December 2001 is seen as perhaps the most emblematic evidence of the failure of neoliberalism in the developing world to provide sustainable and equitable economic growth. A new policy frame has gradually emerged since the crisis which relies on a more active state in the promotion of growth. This article examines the prospects for state-led growth in Argentina in the context of open markets. It explores the policies implemented since 2002 and asks to what extent they constitute a possible route to stable post-crisis governance.

Latin American governments have largely ignored the risks facing domestic workers during COVID-19

Millions of Latin American women and girls work outside the home in caring jobs, but despite the best efforts of unions and activists, the extra risks they face due to the COVID crisis have been largely ignored, write Tallulah Lines (University of York) and Jean Grugel (University of York)

Argentina’s legalisation of abortion is only the beginning of the battle for reproductive rights in Latin America

Legalisation of abortion in Argentina is a huge breakthrough in the struggle for the human rights of women in Latin America. But much work is still to be done if women are to achieve equal citizenship in all aspects of social, economic, cultural, political, and family life instead of being defined by reproduction and motherhood, write Pia Riggirozzi (University of Southampton) and Jean Grugel (University of York)

The SDGs in middle-income countries : Setting or serving domestic development agendas? Evidence from Ecuador

The expansion of middle-income countries in the global South is now widely acknowledged as significant for international development research and practice. But, as yet, scholars have not fully considered how middle-income countries are responding to the new global goals on international development (the Sustainable Development Goals – SDGs) outlined in Agenda 2030. Equally, insufficient attention has been paid to how – if at all – the SDGs shape domestic development policies and practices in middle income countries. We ask these questions in Ecuador, a country that recently moved from being a lower middle-income and donor dependent country to a more autonomous higher middle-income country with the capacity to promote its own national domestic development approach, Buen Vivir (in English: living well). Deploying a qualitative case study methodology and drawing primarily on in-depth semi-structured interviews conducted with policy makers working in Ecuador's national government and in the capital Quito, we show that policy makers’ engagement with the SDGs is selective, with an emphasis on those goals and targets which are considered of domestic importance. Both the national government and Quito's local government are currently focussing mainly on SDGs 10.2 (breaking inequalities) and 11 (inclusive cities). We demonstrate that, in practice, how policy makers understand implementation of these “priority” goals is not consistent; it depends on political preferences, where policy makers are located in the architecture of decentralised governance and the context-specific challenges they face. Evidence from Ecuador suggests that the SDGs cannot be understood as a single coherent template for development that states will simply adopt. Rather they should be analysed in the context of a rapidly changing architecture of global power, shaped by the context-specific nature of national development challenges and national political structures, including decentralisation

Deviant and Over-Compliance: The Domestic Politics of Child Labor in Bolivia and Argentina

This article explores the reception of human rights norms on child labor in Bolivia and Argentina, countries where governments and civil societies express support for human rights. However, national responses after ratification of International Labor Organization’s conventions diverge significantly. In Bolivia, domestic interpretations of human rights have prevailed over attachment to ILO conventions (“deviant compliance”), while in Argentina national policies exceed ILO recommendations (“over-compliance”). We use the evidence presented here to call for a more nuanced understanding of what compliance with human rights principles is understood to mean and to stress the importance of domestic interpretations of international norms

Sub-Saharan countries are taking on more debt, and women will bear the brunt of repaying it

Sub-Saharan African countries are borrowing money to get through the pandemic. But servicing those debts means austerity later – and the ensuing cuts to healthcare will hurt women most, write Matthew Barlow, Jean Grugel and Jessica Omukuti (University of York)

La legalización del aborto en Argentina es sólo el comienzo de la batalla por los derechos reproductivos en América Latina

La legalización del aborto en Argentina es un gran logro en la lucha por los derechos humanos de las mujeres, pero aún queda mucho por hacer para que las mujeres logren paridad en todos los aspectos de la vida social, económica, cultural, política y familiar, en lugar de ser definidas por la reproducción y la maternidad, escriben Pia Riggirozzi (University of Southampton) y Jean Grugel (University of York)

The political economy of financing children's rights through extractive industries in the Philippines

The surging investments in the extractive industries (EI) that began in the 1980s, as well as the commodity boom between 2002 and 2011, have increased the significance of the sector in national economic development. This paper takes the Philippines as a case study and provides a detailed analysis of two key aspects of mining governance: first, the political challenges in realizing a more positive role for EI in social development, particularly in promoting children´s rights and children´s welfare, and second, the political economy dynamics that might underpin the creation of a welfare regime able to sustain social investments for children. The findings of this paper suggest that in the Philippine context, where the expansion of the EI sector is contested in the public domain, the link between mining governance and the promotion and protection of children´s rights is not necessarily straightforward. Yet equally, the resurgence of high prices and the continuing interest of foreign investment in EI means that there is now a political opportunity for relevant stakeholders to make a compelling argument for the need to ring-fence mineral rents for social investments in children and young people. To do so would require a strong pro-welfare policy coalition committed to channelling mineral wealth towards social investment and willing to craft a political consensus through negotiations between local and national elites, donor agencies, civil society organizations and affected local communities. Importantly, the state must also wrestle with multinational capital, large Filipino-owned companies and small-scale miners in the process of negotiating reforms. Ultimately, the state must seize this opportunity to take a more active role in laying the foundations of a mining governance framework, bargain with key stakeholders to reach agreement on EI-funded welfare and set out rights-based approaches to development. This paper builds on a selective qualitative data collection from a variety of printed sources, including donor agency reports, government documents, NGO reports, newspaper archives, and interviews available online. It further builds on a short fieldwork period in Manila, in late August 2013, where key sources from civil society, academia, the extractive industry, the donor community and stakeholders were interviewed