Higher education institutions and the global agenda of poverty reduction

For a long time, Higher Education Institutions have been seen as breeding grounds for individual intellectual capacity, less sensitive to the plight of millions living on less than two dollars a day. Recently, there has been a shift in thinking on the role of Higher Education Institutions as instruments for poverty reduction. However, the debate has so far been confined to a scrutiny predominantly centred on issues of curriculum development in, say, Development Studies, International Development, Community Development and, to a lesser extent, Social Work. If any, the philosophical viewpoints posited in the arguments have also been massaged with issues of social justice. While these areas of inquiry have found their way into the mainstream debate, there is less conversation on how teachers of institutions of higher learning make a difference towards social change and poverty reduction. There is less reflection on whether we are part of a global polity of 'experts' and less sensitivity to how our pedagogical approaches affect prospective and/or practising development practitioners, let alone how our intellectualism fails to engage with the real world. This chapter aims to tackle one of the silent issues in development discourse - the role of Higher Education Institutions in poverty reduction. The chapter focuses on analysing the current trends and issues in these institutions and argues that unless we 'learn to unlearn' and crack out of the cocoon of 'expert', teachers in institutions of higher learning can propagate 'pedagogies of mass destruction' which, ultimately, lead to mass production of development practitioners who are less sensitive to issues that matter, including making poverty history. Crucially, the chapter posits that teachers in Higher Education Institutions can directly contribute to poverty reduction through the manner they engage in their research, besides teaching. However, this can only happen if communities are the major focus of research and pedagogical thinking

Non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and participatory development in basic education in Malawi

This article critically examines the extent to which one emerging NGO facilitates the participation of its beneficiaries and other stakeholders in the decision-making processes at the identification, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of basic education programmes in Malawi. The author argues that despite the comparative advantage of this NGO[1], the participation of their stakeholders, including local community members, is tokenistic as decisions are largely top-down. The author recommends that NGOs learn to relinquish their grip on power and develop confidence in their beneficiaries as well as other stakeholders

The politics of community capacity-building: contestations, contradictions, tensions and ambivalences in the discourse in indigenous communities in Australia

The recent hype and ascendancy in the discourse of community capacity building has generated a lot of heated debate among development and policy experts on ots applicability in various contexts. In particular, questions have been raised on the presuppositions inherent on the discourse and, more so, the tension that exists between theory and practice

People-centred development

No abstract available

Urbanisation, urban poverty reduction and non-governmental development organisations' (NGDOs) intervention mechanisms in Malawi

Not availabl

Balancing the act in foreign development assistance: A radical approach

Over the past decade the debate on aid effectiveness following the Paris Declaration has taken a new dimension with many commentators seeking answers, not about where development aid goes, but how effective it is in reducing poverty. In Africa, the debate has been polarising with one camp calling for increased aid, while the other extreme view calls for an end to aid to African governments, arguing that aid has created dependency, hence a colonising machinery. Despite these polarising views, there is less reflection on how the two views can be balanced in order to "enhance aid dependency". This paper aims to contribute to this on-going debate by arguing that there exists a possibility in which developing countries can 'graduate' from aid dependency. First, this requires an understanding of the politics of aid. Second, it needs a radical approach that emanates from the local contexts (country-led) by progressively introducing measures that weans countries from aid dependency. This may include measures such as a "zero deficit" approach. Third, there is also a need to de-centre the management of foreign development assistance (FDA) by allowing local government structures the ultimate authority to oversee the planning, design, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of development initiatives. To achieve this, the paper argues that developing countries need to engage in mass radical development education; that is, education that unpacks the subtleties of the colonizing and patronising nature of FDA, the legacies of colonisation and the neo-colonial agenda of donor countries and agencies and, finally, deconstructing various development discourses by exposing the "hidden" agendas behind such development discourses. Keywords: Foreign development assistance; colonisation; aid dependency; education; Afric

Aid partnership in the Bougainville conflict: the case of a local women's NGO and its donors

This article documents lessons learned from a study of aid partnerships in post-conflict development and peace building in Bougainville. It examines how donor agencies, in this case the Australian Agency for International Development (AusAID) through the International Women's Development Agency (IWDA), contributed to the successes and failures of the Leitana Nehan Women's Development Agency (LNWDA). Although the donors contributed to the organisational development and capacity of the LNWDA, the balance of power remains unequal. Furthermore, the deployment of an intermediary body in the partnership exerts considerable pressure on the LNWDA, because it has to deal with multiple demands for accountability, which affect the impact of its own work on the ground. It is argued that in order to enhance the impact of their assistance, donor agencies need to develop a framework in which partnerships are sustained through mutual and less demanding accountabilitie

The beast from the east: unsettling Chinese development agenda in Africa

Over the past decade China has emerged as an important global actor in the field of international development. Specifically, China's expansion into Africa has not only resulted in intensified social, political, economic and cultural links with Africa, but it has also seen China as a major source of bilateral aid. The current Chinese aid architecture emphasizes non-interference in domestic politics and non-conditional lending. This article argues that while China's emergence as a major actor in development assistance in Africa provides a number of opportunities and benefits, there is very little scrutiny of the effectiveness of Chinese aid. Chinese aid to Africa defies the Western donor aid architecture by eschewing conditionalities around governance and human rights. To date, the academic literature tends to focus on China-Africa relations from an international relations perspective, with limited critical analysis of the impact of Chinese 'tied aid' system, 'project- based' development approach, and the 'power dynamics' in the aid, trade and investment processes. There is also a dearth in examining the complexity of development processes from an African perspective. This article posits that while the concept of development has been the subject of intense and sustained theoretical, philosophical, empirical and methodological debate in the post-war era, the neoclassical 'modernist' frameworks have, in many ways, neglected the fundamental ingredients of African social, political, cultural and institutional diversity

Non-governmental development organizations and the poverty reduction agenda: The moral crusaders

The Non-Governmental Development Organisations (NGDOs) have, over the past two decades, entered centre stage in their active participation in the social, political and economic issues affecting both the developing and developed world. This book offers a highly stimulating and concise summary of the NGDO sector by examining their history and metamorphosis; their influence on the social, political and economic landscapes of the 'Northern' and 'Southern' governments and societies. The author analyses competing theoretical and conceptual debates not only regarding their contribution to the global social political dynamism but also on the sector's changing external influence as they try and mitigate poverty in marginalized communities. This book presents NGDOs as multidimensional actors propelled by the desire to make a lasting change but constrained by market-oriented approaches to development and other factors both internal and external to their environment. While a lot of attention has been given to understanding international NGDOs like World Vision International, Oxfam, Care International and Plan International, this book offers a critical analysis of grassroots organizations - those NGDOs founded and established by locals and operate at the deepest end of the development context