Introduction to development studies

INTRODUCTION TO DEVELOPMENT STUDIES:

Conceptual Understanding of Development

Historical understandings of development mainly linked to measurable changes in the physical quality of life through implementation of plans and programmes that can introduce factors that would move a society along on the path of development.  Specifically development is seen as being about economic growth engineered by experts

Robert chamber lain (1997) whose reality counts putting the first last, intermediate technology publications, London pp.  9-12

                                                   Responsible

                                                   Well-being

Capabilities                                                                                  livelihood security

              

              Equity                                                     sustainability

According to Chambers (1997), the overreaching end of development is responsible well being by and for all, with capabilities, and livelihood as means. Equity and sustainability are principles which qualify livelihood to become livelihood security, and well being to become responsible well-being. In other words wellbeing is not at the cost of equity and sustainability but is enhanced when it contributes to them. Responsible well-being recognizes obligations to others, both those alive and future generations and to their quality of life. The objective of development is well-being can be described as the experience of good quality of life. Well-being in this case means mental, spiritual as material well being, living standards, access to basic services, security and freedom from fear, health, good relations with others, friendship, love peace of mind, choice, creativity, fulfillment and fun.

Livelihood security is basic well-being. Livelihood is the adequate stocks and flows of food and cash to meet basic needs and support well-being. Security is about rights and reliable access to resources, food and income and basic services. It includes tangible and intangible assets to offset risks, ease shocks and meet contingencies. Sustainable livelihoods maintain or enhance resource productivity on along term basis and equitable livelihoods maintain or enhance the livelihood and wellbeing of others.

Capabilities are means to livelihood and well being. Capabilities refer to what one is capable of doing and being. They are means to livelihood and fulfillment; and their enlargement through learning practice, training and education are means to better living and to well being. 

Equity qualifies all initiatives in development. The poor, weak, vulnerable and exploited come first. Equity includes human rights, intergenerational and gender equity and the reversals of the last first and the first last, to be considered in all contexts. The reversal are not absolute, but a means of leveling.

Sustainability: To be good, conditions and change must be sustainable. Sustainability means that long-term perspectives should apply to all policies and actions, with sustainable well-being and sustainable livelihoods as objectives for present and future.

Ways to achieve responsible well-being might include:

1.      Combining and balancing the state, the market to benefit, serve and empower the poor

2.      Seeking livelihood-intensity in social and economic change.

3.      Securing human rights for all, including peace, the equitable rule of law, and secure rights of property and access for the poor.

4.      Ensuring means of livelihood for all for all, comprising of access to livelihood resources and or employment together with safety nets.

5.      Providing basic services for all  including health, education, water, housing  and

6.      Facilitating participation, with approaches which are bottom up with processes of learning rather than top-down with blue prints.

UNDP Human Development Report, 2000

Closely linked to Chambers’s conceptual understanding of development is that of UN 2000 in which Development is understood as being about human development. Human Development is about expanding people’s choices, by expanding human functionings and capabilities. Functionings mean the valuable things that the person can do or be. Capability refers to the different combinations of functionings. Capabilities reflect the freedom to achieve functionings. Freedom is usually associated with human rights, thus linking human rights and development.  Thus we can be able to say that development is about human rights such as right to a decent standard of living, right to education, right to develop and realize one’s potential, right to work, right to freedom of speech and to participate in decision making and form association. Here human development is linked to democracy (sometimes called good governance) because it is in democratic societies that such rights can be realized. It becomes the role of the state, the other actors and the individual to ensure the realization of human rights thus development.

Comments

Essentially the definitions of development by Robert Chambers and UNDP do not only focus on quantitative improvement but also qualitative improvement in the quality of life. Development is not only about the satisfaction of basic needs but also the right to live a meaningful life. It is about ensuring human wellbeing and actions for developments should aim at enabling people to become better than what they are. Thus the context in which the people leave and the people themselves are important factors in this conceptual understanding of development. It is the people to determine what is best for them. 

Issues such as accountability, capabilities, civil society, democracy, deprivation, diversity, empowerment, entitlement, environment, gender, globalization, governance, human rights, livelihood, market, ownership, participation, partnership, pluralism, process, stakeholder sustainability, transparency, vulnerability and well-being are commonly used.

 The problem though is that these definitions reduce development to being about inadequate political participation, insufficient economic growth and restrictive social structures.

Kaplan A. (2000) Understanding Development as a Living Process in Wallace T & Lewis D. (Eds.) New Roles and Relevance, NGOs, and the Challenges of Change, Kumarian Press, Connecticut, USA.

Kaplan like UNDP and Chambers sees Development as a Process. For Kaplan, Development is an innate (natural, inherent, inborn, intrinsic) process found in all living things. It entails three phases that are not necessarily superior to one another.

1.      Dependence

2.      Independence

3.      Interdependence

Dependence is characterized by great learning and skills acquisition in which other players play a major role in providing the environment and resources required for growth.

Independence entails a fundamental change in relationships and a period of testing and personalizing capabilities and competencies using them to act and affect the environment in ways that help establish the actor as unique and self reliant.

Interdependence is where the actor realizes that the full realization of one’s own potential is achieved only through effective collaboration with others.

The experience of each phase provides learning and capabilities that are vital to the ability to engage in the next phase. These phases are continually recurring and overlapping in the course of the life of the individual, organization or community.

Development does have a pace of its own, although interventions can affect its pace- either hinder or facilitate it. Development is non-linear, unpredictable and even archaic in nature. It involves a constant interplay between order and chaos, between form and flow.

Development interventions are about the development of people and development cannot be opposed. They are driven form within that the one off pre-designed packages(expert products or packages of resources) applied at particular times are off the point. Development interventions are about processes that are created and applied in response to particular situations to help people gain an understanding of themselves so that in time they are better able to control their own future and arrive at effective solutions to problems including political and economic marginalization.

 Comments

The presumption of this definition is that it is assumed that the world is changeable and that people, the engineers have the ability to affect the necessary changes. Development is closely linked to the ability to control transformation of the social structure and it assumes that it is possible to move from a situation of restriction or dependency to one of self-sufficiency.

Nabacwa M. (2006) Interests and Relationships in NGO gender advocacy: A case of Uganda, PhD thesis University of Wales, Swansea, UK.

The whole conceptualization of development being about people is a very recent phenomenon, historically conceived after the Second World War; development was used to explain the contradictory and uneven process of spreading capitalism. In order to foster the process of spreading capitalism, the development project was initiated. It was mainly a political-economic project – whose major aim was to facilitate the “underdeveloped or third world countries to catch up with developed countries. In this case the underdeveloped or third world countries were seen as uncivilized and backward that needed to be civilized and modernized.. Development was seen in an evolutionary perspective and the state of underdevelopment defined in observable economic, political, social and cultural differences between the rich (developed or first, civilized and modern) and poor (underdeveloped or third, uncivilized, backward) countries.

In 1949, Truman observed that:

“More than half the people of the World live in conditions approaching misery. Their food is inadequate. They are victims of disease. Their economic life is primitive and stagnant. Their poverty is a handicap and a threat both to them and more prosperous areas”.

Essentially development was linked to the protection of western political and economic interests that were under threat because colonialism was coming to an end.  It was believed that development would provide a new form of relationships that would ensure the security of these interests. Rather than colonizer, the north took on the role of guardian or superficial parent of the poor, underdeveloped and bad south. Special institutions and expertise were needed to nurture and maintain the new relations of “development”.

In 1961 USAID (United States Agency for International Development) was formed charged with the responsibility of administering foreign assistance. In 1964 Britain formed the Ministry for Overseas Development charged with the responsibility of furthering the industrial interests of Britain through the aid/trade principle.

The changes in northern interests coupled with pressures from the third world to redefine development have characterized its changing meaning. Essentially the conceptual understanding of development has changed with the changes in northern interests and the pressures form the south has led to the need to redefine these interests and the resultant relations.

DEVELOPMENT STUDIES

Development studies is used to cover all forms of writing and talking about development as well as forms of action (such as training and even project work), which grow out of these processes. Development studies is problem oriented, concerned with the global disparities in material resources, the social consequences of this situation, and political strategies to change it. Development studies is interdisciplinary, that is, it depends on other disciplines such as economics sociology, political science, sociology, anthropology, history e.t.c.

Development field is explicitly normative (value laden). It is about analyzing and changing the world. Those who participate in it want to change the world not only analyse it. Development studies is controversial. Its history is contested. It takes for granted that there is a recognizable problem called development, an appropriate institutional infrastructure for interdisciplinary work, and a climate of intellectual pluralism. Development studies as a particular academic tradition may disappear someday.  It may also regain its earlier vitality.  Its future is open while its history is contested. There seem to be at least three different interpretations of its life story to date.

1.      It is a new social science discipline, still in the process of formation, focusing on the unique problems and preconditions for development in different parts of the world. It contains a set of theoretical cores: modernization structuralism, dependency and another alternative development, representing a progressively increasing degree of knowledge about the specific nature of under development in the so-called third world. The major engagement of development studies has been about how development in the poor countries best should be achieved ranging from a focus on power, ecology, culture etc with the current major preoccupation being allowing the market forces to determine its destiny on the basis of the natural forces of demand and supply rather than the state.

2.      In its early stages, Development studies majored on transformation and change that characterized classical social science for instance political economy, but today, it is based on broader global and culturally more complex empirical experience. Development is seen as a holistic issue, and development theory could pave the way for an integrated social science, there by making itself dispensable.  It is a forerunner of a more valid critical historical social science. Critical means that theorizing is not necessarily problem solving but is also about understanding historical structural change and its future implications both for research and action. Development studies is rooted in a political economy, tradition dealing with the wealth of nations, or as today often rephrased: the poverty of nations. Development studies originated in the attempts to understand the problem of under development from the point of view of development

3. There is no fixed and final definition of development; what exists are only suggestions of what development should imply in particular contexts.  Development is contextually defined and should be an open-ended concept, to be constantly redefined as our understanding of the process of development deepens, and as new problems to be solved by development emerge. Development involves structural transformation, which implies cultural, political, social and economic change.

To this regard, development studies can be conceived of as and a problem oriented, applied and interdisciplinary field, analyzing social change in a world context, but with due consideration of the different societies in terms of history, ecology, culture etc.

Approaches to development Studies.

There are two approaches to development Studies

1.      Conventional Approaches

2.      Participatory Approaches

Conventional approaches to development studies

People are treated as objects to be studied rather than as subjects of their own. Research and education come to be dominated by content rather than form or method. They focus on information. The transmitter and receiver of information are distanced from each other by a basic inequality in the amount of technical knowledge they each posses. E.g. lectures or questionnaire based researches.

The conventional approaches lead to the concentration of information in the hands of a few – those who possess the technical skills necessary to understand the language and methods used.  Until recently it was more about transfer of knowledge from the developed to the underdeveloped countries. Now it is more about transfer of this knowledge from the elite who mimic their counterparts in Europe and the north to the less educated. This process prevents people from thinking for themselves (Attitude of expert prevents people from thinking).

Adoption of problem solving approaches is lacking. Nicholas Maxwell – says

Leaving is learning how to live, how to see, to experience, to participate, in and to create what is of value in existence. (N.Maxwell, From knowledge to wisdom, p 66). Sithembiso Nyoni has pointed out that, no country in the world has ever developed itself through projects.

Devaluation of Indigenous knowledge: Another consequence of the predominant technical view of development is the devaluation of indigenous knowledge (which grows out) of the direct experience of poor people) is such of problems that face us. The result is that general solutions manufactured from outside are offered to specific problems that are highly localized. Problems are specific, in their complicity to particular times and places. Relationships themselves are complex and change over time between people (example of groups) and their environment with in geographically restricted areas. These relationships are, dynamic, seasonal and often unpredictable and hence cannot be subjected to general models.

Refusal of emotion in understanding the problems of development: Subjectivity is seized upon immediately as unscientific, yet it is impossible to understand real life problems fully unless we grasp the multitude of cons traits real, living people. People act on issues about which they have strong feelings.

Negligence of important dimensions to development: Conventional approaches had been blind to important issues such as gender. The control of research and development was mainly the north and the south were objects to be developed. There was limited cooperation between academicians and development thus weakening the link between research and practice.

Changes are taking place as we can now see. Development studies used to be dominated by north the few elites who were trained in these universities of the north. This is clearly illustrated by the fact that most development literature is dominated by northern scholars ( see reading list). Some of this literature is non-affordable due to the high cost.

However, northern domination over education and training is now being challenged this course partly a manifestation of that. However at times we also unfortunately mimic our western counterparts in being ineffective as catalysts for development. Emphasis is laid on acquisition of technical skills but inapplicable in changing the status quo.

Development however defined is a slow and uneven process. Indeed are some areas it seems to be going backwards rather than forwards. That is rather than Progressing – it is moving backwards. Development in itself is a major industry as shown by the number of development experts all over the world. Development seems to be about a series of technical transfers mediated by experts that, given a sufficient number of situations, or projects in which these transfers can be made, development will occur. Development results from a long process of experiment and innovation through which people build up the skills; knowledge and self confidence try to shape their environment in ways which foster progress toward goals such as economic growth, equity in income distribution and political freedom.  At root then, development is about processes of enrichment, empowerment and participation that technocratic, project oriented view of the world simply cannot accommodate.

Participatory approaches.

To development are needed. However, the unequal power relationships between the north and south especially in terms of resources continue to be a major hindrance to this. Unless the south also produces its own knowledge ‘knowledge is power’ the cycle that keeps poor people excluded will continue.

Conventional approaches to development studies suggest that understanding the world must precede the ability successfully to change it. We cannot change the world unless we understand it.

The conventional approaches to development seem to suggest that development can be studied. On the other hand there are those that argue that development cannot be studied but rather we can participate in the processes that underlie development, and observe, record, analyze what we see in other words we cannot be relevant to problems in the abstract.

But in reality this has hardly taken place and unless this happens we will neither understand nor change the world successfully.

Suspicion with western research: There are internal suspicions too. Self –questioning in development studies.

Key issues-features to date

1. It is a new social science discipline, still in a process of formation, focusing on the unique problems and preconditions for development in different parts of the world. It contains a set of theoretical cores: modernization, structuralism, dependency and another development, representing a progressively increasing degree of knowledge about the specific nature of the problem of development in the so-called third world.
2.  It was a non-starter – confusing how the issue of development in poor countries best should be promoted by for instance, over emphasizing the situational peculiarity of under developed countries. Further more, it over complicated the issue by adding one dimension after another, power, ecology, and culture e.t.c.
3. I t is a revival of a general interest in transformation and change which have characterized classical social science, for instance political economy but today it is based on a broader, global, and culturally more complex empirical experience. Development is seen as a holistic issue and development theory could pave way for an integrated historical social science, thereby making itself dispensable.
4. Development studies can be seen as a forerunner of a more comprehensive integrated, and universally valid critical social science. Critical means that in the theorizing is not only about problem solving in the short run but also about understanding the historical structural change and its future implications both for research and action. Development studies is rooted in a political economy tradition, dealing with the “wealth of nations”, or as today often rephrased. The poverty of nations.

5.      Development studies, can be conceived of as a problem –oriented, applied and interdisciplinary field, analyzing social change in a world context, but with consideration to the specificity of different societies in terms of history, ecology culture e.t.c.

Development studies should be able to promote process that lead to positive changes. Thus bottom up processes become critical. Participation is important sustainability of the development process that is people to responsible for their own development is important. The human factor becomes necessary.

It’s also clear that the process of development is political. The taking on of power and the resulting decision making on the utilization of scarce resources are political acts and that politics at all levels can not be separated from development. This means that the leaning or studying of development studies need to be adaptive. It has to change depending on the changing context.

Development structures such as NGOs who need to be flexible to be supportive and to enable decision making instead of being decision makers

Human development is the process of enlarging peoples choice, by expanding human functioning’s and capabilities. Human development thus also reflects human outcomes in these functioning’s and capabilities.

At all levels of development the three essential capabilities are for people to lead a long and healthy life, to be knowledgeable and to have access to the resources needed for a decent living. But the realm of human development extends further: other areas of choice highly valued include participation, security, sustainability, guaranteed human rights-all need for being creative and productive and for enjoying self-respect, empowerment and a sense of belonging to a community. In the ultimate analysis, human development is development of the people, for the people and by people.

 

The functioning’s of a person refer to the valuable things that the person can do or be (such as being well nourished, living long and taking part in the community). The capability of a person stands for the different combinations of functioning’s the person can achieve. Capabilities thus reflect the freedom to achieve functioning’s in that sense human development is freedom.

POVERTY

Meaning of poverty

Poverty is a relative concept. World Development Report 1991 sees poverty in the most general terms as the inability to attain a minimal standard of living. It is defined based on economic terms – income and expenditure. Another way of looking at poverty through monetary terms is use of the poverty line in which anyone falling below that line is classified as poor and anyone falling above is classified as non-poor. 

–        Absolute poverty: This is a situation where income are so low that even a minimum standard of nutrition shelter and personal necessities cannot be maintained his or her next meal is nearly un available =20% people in the world live in absolute poverty 85% of there are in rural areas and mainly in the third world.

–        Relative poverty refers to people whose basic needs are met, but who in terms of their social environment still experience some disadvantage. The people are surviving but may be materially disadvantaged compared to others in society.

Use of monetary means provide us with easy means of understanding poverty and to make comparisons across time and between geographical areas and social groups. Income is by and large accepted as and credible measure and hence easily acceptable to policy makers. However, monetary understanding of poverty only gives abroad view of the phenomenon of poverty and only captures one aspect - money. This only describes poverty and tells us little about poverty as dynamic process as people move in and out of poverty and they do not explain underlying causal factors; why people are unemployed in the first place.

 Another way of looking at poverty is from the human point of view or basic needs point of view - Human poverty. Here poverty is defined by impoverishment in multiple dimensions of deprivations including along and health life, in knowledge, in a decent standard of living, and in participation. Income poverty is defined by depreciation in a single dimension income because it is believed either that this is the only impoverishment that matters or that any deprivation can be reduced to a common depositor. This concept of human poverty seeks lack of adequate income as an important factor in human deprivation, but not the only one. Nor according to this concept can all impoverishment be reduced to income. If income is not the sum total of human lives lack of income cannot be the sum total of human deprivation. Here non-monetary indicators including human development indexes(HDI) that focus on human deprivation such as access to social services (number of people that are accessing safe drinking water); education attainment, freedom scores, life expectancy at birth, and the poor people’s own assessment of  poverty become critical aspects of our understanding of poverty. In addition to this a gender related development index (GDI) that disaggregates the human development index  from a male and female perspective and  the gender empowerment measure (GEM) that focuses on the male and female political participation have been used to explain the poverty differences between men and women 

It is important to note that the understanding of poverty from a human poverty perspective is that like income poverty, they hardly explain the dynamic processes of people moving in and out of poverty and they do not explain the underlying causes of poverty. A further problem is that such indicators are not necessarily constructed from the people who are experiencing poverty’s perspective. These indicators are universally and arbitrary selected then decisions are made of who is and who is not poor. In other words the poor become passive victims of poverty.

Swanepoel and De-Beer provide us with several ways of describing poverty that include:

1.      Case poverty: Visible poverty of individual or individual families in comparison to another individual or individual families in terms of their general well being.

2.      Community poverty: This is where all member of a community are all poor mainly in rural areas and squatter communities.

·         Global poverty can best be explained by the utilization of the available natural resources. Over consumers: 20% a fair the population mainly leaving in the north or industrialized countries of the world. Mainly dependent on the processed foods and have communication. Their life style contributes to the ecologreal damage an along scale.

·         The marginal: leave nearly below substance level poor communication with lade of proper infrastructure including roads, water supply, and shelter.

·         The sustainers: quite healthy and use the scarce resource carefully they use the environmentally in a friendly manner. 

It is important to note that while it is argued that the over-consumers leave in the north, the south is also starting to use the environment in degrading ways for example the use of polythene bags and construction in the swamps in swamps in Uganda are degrading the environment which is affecting agriculture our major source of income. 

The difference in the conceptual understanding of poverty helps us to appreciate the fact that poverty is not a uniform concept. The Uganda Participatory Poverty Assessment 1997 - 1999 process says that people view poverty as being about lack of means to satisfy basic material and social needs, as well as a feeling of powerlessness. The process also highlighted that poverty is not a uniform condition. It is complex, multi-dimensional, cyclic and seasonal.

Complexity of poverty: Factors influencing poverty are interlinked and often interdependent.  Local people see lack of education as a cause of poverty, while failure to educate one’s children is a consequence.

Multidimensional nature of poverty: The major dimensions include location (rural – urban; districts) gender and age. 

Cycle of poverty: Factors influencing poverty impact on other factors, producing vicious cycles of poverty. For example poor health leads to decreased household income due to health expenditure, and to reduced productivity due to inability to work. This in turn leads to reduced food availability, poor nutrition, further poor health, low income and productivity and worsening poverty.

Seasonality of poverty: Local people experience periods of relative abundance and scarcity, particularly in terms of food and income, during the year. These times of hardship often coincide with tax collection, payment of school fees and high medical costs due to increased seasonal incidence of disease. This often results in sale of produce for household consumption, or at worst, sale of assets, furthering impoverishing households.

Non-uniformity of poverty:  As outlines above, the dimensions and perceptions of poverty vary with location, the group of people, and the level of services and infrastructure, as well as other factors.

RURAL AND URBAN POVERTY

 Most of the poor people men and women and their children live in rural areas. However there are sections of poor communities within urban areas mainly in slums. Uganda is one of the poorest countries in the world. There have been remarked improvement by we are still poor especially in rural areas.  By 2002:

–        47% of the households had all their members taking at least once a day.

–        47% of the households had a blanket for each child.

–        43% of households had each member with a pair of shoes

–        78% of the households had each member with at least two sets of clothing. At least 20% of Ugandans are locked in chronic (constant – unceasing) poverty. By 2003, national income figures were at 38%. We are faced with a declining trend in agricultural output, volatile inflation and high population growth rate of 3.3%. There is increasing inequality among and within regions as well as between rural and urban populations. The northern Uganda is still the poorest in the country.  This is mainly attributed to the prolonged drought, cattle rustling and the Lords Resistance Army that prevented people from tending their gardens.

Source: Uganda Poverty Status Report 2005

RURAL POVERTY

85% of the absolutely poor in the world leave in rural areas. The deprivation trap of Robert chambers also called the poverty cycle explains the poverty situation of the rural people. They are trapped meanly that it is quite difficult to overcome of this poverty situation.

 

    

Physical weakness: Usually poor families are large with many children some of them have aged and disabled people. Such families need a lot of food and due to having little income they cannot meet their basic needs. Poor feeding leads to malnutrition and undernourishment. Malnutrition causes low birth weight that affects school performance, and leads to low labour output. It also affects the overall productivity of the family either through low wages, illness or even physical inability to cultivate large areas of land. Lack of time or energy to attend meetings reinforces isolation. It also contributes to powerlessness through lack of energy for political participation. It leads to vulnerability by limiting the poor person’s ability to overcome a crisis either through hard work or critical engagement.

ISOLATION: The household is isolated either because of lack of social infrastructure that affects medical care and employment opportunities. Road infrastructure is nearly unavailable. Such isolation leads illiteracy and high mortality and maternity rates. It is important to note that at times such services are available but the poor person lacks the financial resources to access them. Isolation leads to migration of the able bodied leading to powerlessness.  Isolation increases vulnerability. The vulnerable are likely to suffer manipulation by middlemen and women. They are likely to have crop failures; they have fewer services because of little contact with policy makers thus increasing their powerlessness.

VULNERABILITY: Lack of resources leads the poor people to be vulnerable to manipulation either by the rich or those who hold power. The vulnerable are likely to sell their productive assets such as land at less than the actual value. We have seen cause of displacement of poor people from their homes. They become dependent on others for their survival.

POWERLESSNESS: Usually poor people are voiceless. It is difficult for them to influence policies in their favors some times they lack knowledge of who should address their problems. They are assumed to have a low status that even what they say is not respected by those in power. Sometimes they are a source of labor to those in power and challenging them may lead to loss of jobs. It hence becomes a question of silence for survival. It is nearly impossible for the powerless people to attract government attention, lack legal redress, and they are subject to bribe to be helped. They have limited negotiating powers. They usually earn from other households. Limited labour to the family may mean limited harvest.

POVERTY: Due to all above factors the household is poor. Poverty then leads to the other situation, in other words the chain is reinforced and hence the poverty trap. Poverty contributes to physical weakness through.

1.      Lack of food.  

2.      Contributes to isolation because of the inability to pay the cost of schooling to buy a radio and so on.

3.      Contributes to vulnerability through lack of an sets to pay large expenses or to meet contingencies.

4.      Contributes to powerlessness because low status goes with lack of wealth.

5.      Keep the poor without a voice. 

URBAN POVERTY

An urban area can be defined spatial economic and demographic terms urbanization is a process in which people (demographic aspect) service social aspect and opportunities (economic aspect) are concentrated in a limited geographical are spatial aspect)

Rural deprivation leads to urban migration in search of greener pastures. Most of the government policies of developing countries have been urban biased with most the physical and social infrastructure being concentrated in are few areas.

However rural-urban migration leads to a high urban population. This leads to slums, high unemployment available government and private is not enough to absorb the available labour. The problem seems to be worsening.

CHARACTERISTICS OF THE URBAN POOR

A case of Uganda

High numbers of Female headed: most urban poor families are female headed widowed, divorced or never married at all. The HIV/AIDS problem has increased this characteristic.

Composition: The household is highly populated and may have people of several different backgrounds living together. In Uganda it may be a single room or two roomed house.

Material living conditions: The household is over crowded. This limits room for privacy. This is especially problematic for teenage children. It may be an explanation for early teenage pregnancies, prostitution, early sexual engagement. It may also lead to inability to discipline the child leading to vogues, theft, dropping out of school among other problems.

 Social services: Social services including health care, education, water etc are either inadequate or expensive. Some areas lack toilet facilities, use infected water due to lack clean water. Use of energy: charcoal is the major energy and for working. They also use candles- paraffin is quite expensive.

Income: Unemployment is quite high. Some depend on casual labor. Some work in the informal sector which receives little attention from government and if it does, usually for taxation purposes but not neccessarily improving these people’s working conditions. The recent development of big super markets is adversely affecting these small businesses that are hardly protected against destruction

KEY ISSUES TO NOTE

Government policies are key determinant of the rate poverty in a country. As already urban biased policies rather than sawing seem to be rein facing beth the urban and rural preachy. Rural- urban migration leaves the rural areas deprived of able bodies persons and yet when they get to urban areas, the search for greener, pastures does not necessarily lead to greener pastures as already discussed.

     A critical understanding of the complex nature of poverty is needed- how can we understand poverty is a big question. Uganda is under taken are number of participatory poverty studies- under the leadership of the ministry of finance- in collaboration in the number of NGOs including OXFAM, ACTIONAID, etc.       

DEVELOPMENT THEORIES

After the end of the 2^nd war, there was a concern raised mainly by president Truman of the US realization that it was important to contribute to the development of countries that were regarded as backward and underdevelopment. It was felt that this would contribute to international peace and security. Since then several schools of thought have been used to comprehend the problems of the underdeveloped countries. We will explore some of the schools of thought including.

1.      Modernization theories

2.      Radical theories

3.      Alternative approaches to development

4.      Contemporary approaches to development

MODERNIZATION

This is a macro development body of knowledge that in its early stages mainly based on economic growth as a justification for interventions in developing economies of the ‘underdeveloped’ countries by foreign donors in collaboration with local elites. It emerged as a body of thought mainly to defend the strategic interests of the US to counteract the potential influence of USSR in the underdeveloped or third world countries. The end of the Second World War marked the beginning of the cold war in which the Soviet Union was clearly against the Capitalist countries with the US as the major power in this block. It was thought that the third world countries would be attracted to communism ideals if they did not receive assistance from the capitalist countries. It was within this context that intervention of development experts mainly economists worked closely with the political elite of the south embarked on the modernization project. It is important to note that the developing countries felt that modernization held out the promise of a guided transition to the state of developed

industrial society. Institutions such as the world bank and government owned institutions such as the United States Agency for International Development and Department for International Development were formed in the early sixties to further the interests of the US and Britain respectively. Several other western countries have since then followed suit. Thus the growth of modernization as a development theory could be attributed to:

·         The rapid liquidation of the colonial power structure

·         The craving for development on the underdeveloped countries

·         The international tensions, culminating in the cold war, which made the fate for the underdeveloped countries a matter of foreign policy.

The key features of modernization are:

1.      Development is a spontaneous, linear irreversible process inherent in every single society. Most modernization theories tend to assume that all societies’ progress in a linear fashion form a traditional state to modernity, with models of development based on historical processes that had taken place in the industrialized world. Historically modernization is the process of change towards those types of social, economic and political systems that have developed in Western Europe and have then spread to other European countries and in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries to the South America, Asia and African continents.

2.      Development implies structural differentiation and functional specialization-state, civil society and the market.

3.      The process of development can be divided into distinct stages showing the level of development achieved by each society.

4.      Development can be stimulated by external competition or military threat and by internal measures that support modern sectors and modernize traditional sectors.

Modernization theories took different forms but one way of classifying them is by distinguishing between sociological, political, economic and psychological approaches.

1. Economic approach:

The economic approach mainly emphasized growth through use of scientific methods. The best known of the economic contributions within the traditional modernization theory is Rostow’s stages of economic growth: a non-communist manifesto (1960). Rostow’s emphasized five stages through which all developing countries had to pass:

·         The traditional society: At this stage, it is difficult to expand production. Societies at this level are characterized by simple technologies; have an agrarian form of production and are hierarchical allowing for only a small degree of social mobility. They mainly depend on extended family and clan relationships as key characterizing social elements.

·         The preconditions for take off: This is only possible through intervention of more advanced societies. Mainly relate to application of modern science in agricultural and industrial production as it was done in Western Europe. Increased agricultural production and more effective infrastructure facilitate take off.

·         Take-off: It is characterized by the rise and expansion of new industries yielding profit that are re-invested in new plants and ventures. By creating demand for factory workers and goods and services to cater for them, these new industries helped stimulate the growth of further industries.

·         The road (drive) to maturity: Take off leads to a long period of sustained growth (about 60 years) during which modern technology is extended and integrated throughout the expanding economy. 10-20% of the income is reinvested to ensure that output exceed the population growth. After about 60 years the now mature economy is able to broaden its base to include more sophisticated technology and work processes and shift well beyond the original industries that propelled its take off stage.

·         The age of mass consumption: Manufacturing of consumer goods and provision of services dominates the advanced sectors of the economy. This stage is only attainable when real per income has risen to a level at which the consumption requirements of the most of the population extend well beyond the basic needs of food, clothing and shelter.

International relations speed up the process of development but have little do to with underdevelopment. Capital formation was important. The problem of underdevelopment as we know it today had no place in this paradigm. There was only an original stage of modernization. These forces were seen as inherit in all societies and in so far as there was need for a theory of underdevelopment, its function would be analyzed barriers to modernization and resistance to change.

2.  Sociological approach:

Modernization was a universal process characteristic of human societies rather than a concrete historical process-taking place in specific societies during specific periods. The sociological approach stresses a range of social and economic institutional variables in the process of change. There are two ways in which this approach has understood modernization. Max Weber influenced the first approach. It states that there are cultural and psychological pre-requisites to modernization including rationalization of life. Emile Durkeim and Herbert Spencer influenced the second conceptual understanding of the sociological approach to modernization. According to these scholars, development (social evolution) shows itself as a process of social differentiation as a result of which societies become structurally more complex. Industrialization through standardization would lead to uniformity and would thus facilitate the process of re-integration. This is because it would result into similarity in social systems and structures leading to reductions in the differences between societies and cultures.

Talcott Parson combined Weber and Durkeim’s view to articulate the structural functionalist approach to modern society that became popular in the 1950s and 1960s in the American and British social sciences, in this model; it is possible to distinguish between traditional and modern societies by using a number of variables that include:

Traditional	Modern
Particularism - variations and specific to a particular community, or group of people	Universalism - standardization
Collective orientation	Self-orientation
Emotionality	Emotional neutrality
Attribution-Ascription	Achievement
Generality	Specificity

According to Parson, the western society is modern, progressive, advanced while the other societies are relatively underdeveloped and could be placed at stages along the path. The western characteristics were the factors that contributed to their success. The poor countries are poor because they have not yet got those characteristics and if they are to develop, they need to acquire these characteristics. Kinship is important to traditional societies; because it is through this that the economic, political and legal needs are met. A person attains recognition through ascription based on the family or cultural beliefs rather than through achievement. People in traditional societies are emotional, superstitious etc. on the other hand, people in western societies, the modern societies are progressive, they strive for achievement, are not superstitious. One attains status through hard work, achievement but not because of belonging to a particular clan or family. Of course there are special cases like the monarchies. They are not bound by their traditions and are ready to challenge the unnecessary traditions that stand in the way of continued cultural progress. Kinship lays a limited role in all areas of life including the family. This makes social and geographic mobility possible.

The members of the modern societies are forward looking and innovative instead of being fatalistic and taking what comes their way as being inevitable. They have a strong entrepreneurial spirit and rational approach to life. Essentially this approach drew a clear dichotomy between the developed and underdeveloped, backward and modern, progressive and non-progressive societies.

Parson’s approach was influential in the elaboration of a systems theory in which modernization begins or is effected by changes in technology and/or values (Parsons Pattern variable are influential here). As a result of these changes, institutions multiply and the simple structures of traditional society become progressively more complex and values resemble those of wealth industrial society like those of the USA. In this perspective society went through development or modernization as particularism, ascription and diffuseness were replaced by universalism, achievement, and specificity.

In practice, modernization thus was very much the same as westernization that is the underdevelopment country should imitate those institutions that were characteristic of the rich western countries. The approach does not explain the process from traditional to modern society.

3.      The political modernization and development approach

To some this approach served as a development ideology simply rationalizing cultural colonialism. By large the political modernization criteria are not clear-cut but there are some commonalities. These include:

(a)    Structural differentiation- The increased differentiation of new political functions.

(b)   Subsystem autonomy: Growing differentiation of the political functions.

(c)    Cultural secularization – the progressive rationalization and secularization of authority.

(d)   Increased participation in the political process.

The content of political development or political modernization was implicitly identified with institutional differences between western democracies and various traditional political systems. Pluralism is an important pre-requisite to development according to this approach. Military coups and political conflicts affected the hope of this approach. Modernization became a guided process rather than as a natural history. Currently the approach emphasizes choice and decision-making by the people as an important element of political modernization. It focuses on individual actors’ maximization their interests and analysis is based on universalistic assumptions that ultimately tend to concede with western values.

 (4) The psychological approach

It emphasizes the ‘need for achievement’ a self conscious desire to do well as crucial factor. By spreading among actual and potential entrepreneurs in a particular society, this will contribute significantly to economic development. The need for achievement is not hereditary and can be inculcated and reinforced in a country on the path of modernity through structured education. Foster-Calter called it psychologism – it locates the reasons for underdevelopment firmly in the cultures (or even the psyches) of  Third world people who are thus said to be passive, conservative, fatalistic, or superstitious when what they need is to be creative, innovative, entrepreneurial – get up – go types thus psychological pattern variables schema. Education system was tailored to work on changing the third world people’s psychologically.

Development models based on the modernization theory

1.      The linear stage theory

2.      Structural change model

3.      the liberal model

4.      the Keynesian model

5.      Horad - Domer model

1. The linear stage theory – This is what we have described under the economic approach the development-Rostow’s stages of economic growth.
2. The structural change model: The structural change model: These models emerged around the same time as the linear stage theory. According to this model, as societies change from being less developed, their agricultural industries also change. Arthur Lewis is one of the scholars who developed this model and he observed that an economy is composed of two sectors, the industry and agricultural sector. The agricultural sector is said to be traditional, has surplus labour and zero marginal labour productivity. On the other hand, the industrial sector is said to be modern and productive. In order for development to take place, there is a need to transfer the surplus labour from rural agricultural sector to the urban industrial sector. The other structural model is that proposed by Cheney and it is called the patterns of development. This model suggests that development is a result of structural changes in several different sectors that is agriculture, industry, and increase in human capital and change in consumer demands, growth of cities and urban centers and a decline in family size.
3. Liberal model: Countries in a generalized way follow the English development experience in the era of industrial revolution, the key components include:

a)      Reliance on market forces.

b)      Gradual industrialization, starting with light industries, a sufficient level of private investment derived from high profits and a low level of wages.

c)      Stress on technological advancement necessitated by capital accumulation and expanding markets.

Imitation deferred because England was considered to be superior, ‘workshop of the world’. The less developed countries considered them as development this as an ideology and false one. The industrializing countries were instead protectionist and relied on state power preparing for take off.

4. The Keynesian model: On the whole the Keynesian interventions line of thinking was more popular that the neo-classical model. According to this model development necessitated plans written by economists and strong active governments to implement them. Development was an art of social engineering. It was attractive to the ruling elite of the former colonial governments. Keynesian strategy ensured the economists the position as the high priests of growth. It was consistent with the existing power structures. It has been argued that these power structures implied an urban bias in planning and development. They also had an anti-market bias. It emphasized central planning and the role of the state. It was mainly the western educated elite often recruited from traditional groups with a marked market bias against the commercial way of life. The modernizers tended to be lawyers and politicians. Keynesian was of immediate importance at the birth of development theory. This was because of a number of reasons:

·         The coincidence in time (the late 1940s) between Keynesian theory as a predominant school in economics and the growing interest for backward areas, by which the name the underdeveloped world was known in those days.

·         The character of the modern elite and its close relations to the state made strategies, which emphasized the role of the state more attractive then purely liberal alternatives. The western model was thus not in anyway forced upon developing countries; it was fully consistent with the power structures of those countries.

Keynesianism emphasized short term problems of economic stabilization. It laid limited emphasis on long term economic growth and argued that countries that had reached a certain level of income level should stop being too concerned about economic growth. The state plays the key role of ensuring stability and the continuous growth of capitalist systems. In other words, development was state fostered. Keynesianism lost tempo in the 1970s because of world economic crisis of the 1970s and neo-liberalism emerged.

Key issues in Keynesian

Foreign aid would overcome the traits. It was the key to economic development structure factors internal or external were not considered.

Balanced growth:

Underdeveloped economy was characterized by a ‘vicious circle of poverty’.     Massive balanced investment was needed for growth to be sustained.

Unbalanced growth:

A strategy of unbalanced growth poles of growth was proposed by Hirtchman

Industrialization:

1960s industrialized financed by foreign capital (industrializing by invitation as Lewis critics termed it).

1960s- Recognition of the non-economic factors became clear (more recognized) by development economics referred to as ‘non-economic factors’ by development economists. The 1960s saw the interdisciplinary broadening of development theory change in attitudes was seen as important in the social as well as political.

Emphasis on economic growth:

The simple formant was: just find out the incremental capital- output ratio and the desired rate of growth. Then you can (after due consideration of the rate of population growth) arrive at the appropriate level of investment. Growth was thus seen mainly as a function of investment and very few doubted that a process of economic growth through a series of “stages’ ultimately would benefit the whole nation. 1960’s were given.

THE THEORATICAL  IMPLICATIONS OF MODERNISATION FOR UNDERSTANDING DEVELOPMENT

1)      Lack of development is seen as a precondition to development i.e. those countries that are not developed will gradually move towards development. This assumes that lack of development is the function of the internal history of the country. It’s the fault of the poor countries that they are not developed. Their social and economic systems are responsible for the obstacles to modernization. They don’t encourage people to work hard and they have little interest in commercial production nor do they aspire to owing rationally planned long-term enterprises. Instead they are happy to work to satisfy their immediate needs.

2)      It presents development as a relatively straightforward process as society efficiently adapts to periods of strain such as increasing population. It also does not take into consideration the possibility of fundamental conflicts between social groups.

3)      Developing countries only attain development by following the path of developing countries.

4)      Western economics’ are expected to continue to grow and develop until they attain the prosperous period of high mass consumption. There is no possibility of collapse or declaim envisage of such societies.

The modernization theory arguments were developed by social scientists who were co-opted to work with development agencies in the US and the U.N. Their explanations for development were used as a basis for policies and strategies adopted by these agencies such policies include the provision of aid for industrial take off and modernization/commercialization of agriculture training people in developing nations to adopt value and motivations likely to promote free enterprise education programs and only assisting democratic countries.

Irrespective of the various models of modernization theory, there was methodological unity. Modernisation was seen as a comprehensive process that would lead to transformation of the various aspects of the society in question. To some modernization theorists such as Rostow, the causes of ‘third world poverty’ were mainly linked to internal causes. Pre-capitalist and pre-industrial institutions institutional structures were the hindrances to development.

By and large the west was and is still seen as the modern and the south as the traditional. Even within countries, some sectors, institutions, practices, values and ways of life.

Development was seen in an evolutionary perspective and the state of underdevelopment defined in terms of observable economic political, social and cultural differences between rich and poor nations. Development implied the bridging of these gaps by means of an imitative process in which the less developed countries gradually assumed the qualities of the industrialized nations – termed as progressive.  In practice thus, modernization thus was very much the same as Westernization that is the underdeveloped country should imitate those institutions that were characteristic of the rich western countries.

Development has been analyzed from an economic perspective. The diagnosis of the problems of the third world can be seen to have implied economic development. Development has been mainly argued from economic perspectives with mainly the facilitation or non facilitation of the state. Focus was on economic behavior and not the reasons behind that behavior.

Criticisms of the Modernization theory

Since the 1960s, there has been growing criticisms of the modernization theory and its policy applications. Some of these include:

1)      The assumption that third world countries could easily replicate the development experience of the US and other western countries.

2)      The theory does not take the global situation into account. It sees internal conditions in a country as being the main obstacles to change and the developed countries as being supportive of industrial development of other countries.

3)      The principle terms of the theory that is traditional and modern are vague and this makes modernization useless as a basis for classifying distinct societies. The terms modern and tradition do not indicate the variations that exist within societies and between societies.

4)      The theory ignores the impact of colonialism and imperialism has had on many developing countries. This omission fails to acknowledge that economic growth and development are influenced by power relations and power control resources. Those with power over resources determine the direction of development.

5)      The modernization theory and other liberal theory attempted to explain how development takes place and give some explanations as why the developing nations are poor.  The stress poor infrastructure, lack of industrial base, conservative attitudes and lack of market orientations. However not everyone agrees with this explanation and many writers and social scientists from the developed world reject the idea of modernization as the best course of action. Capitalism itself is seen as responsible for the underdevelopment of the development. Some of the radical approaches include structuralist, dependency and underdevelopment theory.

What do you think would be the applicable modernization approach, model/models to Uganda. Give reasons.

RADICAL APPROACHES TO DEVELOPMENT

Some of the radical approaches include:

·Structuralist

·Dependency

·Under development theory

· 

STRUCTURALIST

After the 2^nd world war the United Nations established the economic commission for Latin America and was need by Raul Prebish. The Economic Commission for Latin America economist rejected the explanations of development suggested by then that believed in free trade and international specialization as effective development strategies. They proposed reasons as to why these could not work.

They argued that most 3^rd world countries were colonial economies that exported primary products and other unprocessed goods to industrialized countries. The industrialized countries on the other hand exported finished manufactured products to developing nations. The problem is that over time the value of primary products declines while that of manufactured products increases.

Consequently the 3^rd world countries need to export large amounts of their products in order to pay for the same amount of the products from industrialized countries. The free trade strategy therefore only works to lock the poor countries into a distorted global economy that worked against their interest in the long-term.

The structuralist therefore argued that the only way poor countries could develop was to implement a strategy of import substitution where by they could process their own raw materials promote industrial development and replace imports from the west. This could be done by protecting the local industries from foreign competition through high tariffs on imports and provisional concessions to the newly established industries this strategy was popular in 1960s among the newly independent government. This was a period of trade protection import substitution and nationalization, however the import strategy had short comings although it resulted in more industrialization, in the 3^rd world countries and a reduction of imports of manufactured goods it led to an increase in imports of capital and raw materials more over the new industries were owned by foreigners which meant new directions, contemporary approach, sustainable doubt that they demanded the economy. The quality of manufactured goods in these local industries was also poor and they did not generate a substantial effect in employment opportunities. The 3^rd world did not succeed in breaking the link with industrialized west this caused the development theorist to offer other explanations.

DEPENDECY THEORY

Dependency theorists drew their ideas from Carl Marx’s theory and the ideas were dominant in development cycles in 1970s they included Andre Gunder Frank and others from Latin America. They extended the ideas of the structuralists approach by arguing that there is one world economic system where all parts of the world are connected through trade, the flow of ideas system of control and ownership and movement of people and capital. They urgued that 3^rd world is a loser in such a system because it is based on capitalism which promotes social inequalities between the owners of production (capitalists) and those who rely on wage labour for living (workers). According to these scholars, the world is divided into two one-part being the center powerful industrialized west and other s being the periphery.

Dependency theory argues that the power relations between the center and periphery are unequal. The centre dominates the periphery through its control over industrial production and trade and political and military power and its technological superiority. It also uses aid and cultural forms as a tool for domination. The industrialized world attained this dominance during the colonial period and they have since then maintained and strengthened this control.

1.      Distorted increase in distribution that worsens the economic growth of poor countries.

2.      The center or western countries exert strong influence only consumption pattern of the elite.

3.      Industries adopt technology that has been developed in and for the west that is usually capital intensive.

4.      There’s a strong foreign economic presence in form of multi-national cooperation, foreign aid foreign loans and trade. Industrialization instead of reducing it does not rather increase it.

5.      There is strong foreign influence on the cultural education, legal and political spheres.

The Under Development Theory

This theory is an extension of the dependency theory and its often used interchangeably with the dependency theory. It was expanded by the writers of the dependency theory and suggests that the world capitalist economy on top of being responsible for dependency of the developing economies also led to their expectations. They believe that rather than leading to development, capitalists lead to continued poverty.  They believe that poverty is an outcome of the exploitation of some people and regions by and with the benefit of richer regions supported by capitalism and not a result of internal conditions such as lack of resources, poor infrastructure etc.

They do not see underdevelopment as being a stage of development that can lead on to development but that underdevelopment is caused by development. Development of one part of the world is only made possible by underdevelopment of the other. In other words western development leads to underdevelopment in developing countries. Underdevelopment is not seen as a condition or state of being something that exist bit as a process and something caused by some else.

Frank and other theorists believe that the first world was the initial cause of underdevelopment. Colonialists set up structures for exploitation for example own mines and plantations which extracted wealth for the benefit of rich countries. It also established colonial government which oversaw the exploitation of cheap labour. Under development however out lived colonialism and rich countries benefited from post colonial economies through the operation of the multi-national cooperations. MNCs pay lower wages in the third world compared to wages in more developed countries. There is also an alliance between foreign interests and the ruling elites in developing countries.

In spite of the sustained development effort influenced by both the modernization and dependency theorists, global poverty and inequality continued unabated. This led to doubt as to whether the application of grand theories was a solution. There were calls for restructuring of the development process. As a result of two strategies, the programme for a new international economic order and the basic need approaches were developed. The radical theories challenged the traditional line of seeing development as rapid economic growth.  The goal of developing countries was challenged.

ALTERNATIVE APPROACHES: THE 1980S AND AFTER.

There are number of alternative approaches to development:

1.      Environment and sustainable development

2.      Gender and development

3.      Populism

1.      Environmentalism and sustainable development

This approach was as a result of the environmental consciousness of 1970s. it gained momentum in the 1980s. Specifically the world commission on environment and development report 1987 popularized the nation of “sustainable development.”

Sustainable development according to this report is development, which should be sustainable over a long time, thus meeting the needs of the present with out compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.

The concept of sustainable development embodies the concern for both social justice and ecological health and offers hope for hope for those who are concerned with the increasing poverty and inequalities in the world.

The need for sustainable development will be dealt with, in details soon. It is however important to highlight a few issues here:

1.      The concept of sustainable development embodies a concern for both social justice and ecological health.

2.      Diminishing natural resources have become an important cause of violent human conflicts between and within states.

3.      The problem of environmental refugees-people displaced due to natural disasters is on the increase especially in Africa and Asia. Thus there is an undeniable connection between scarcity and conflict often leading to large-scale migration.

This type of migration can and in certain cases will be mixed with political and religious issues, as is the case at the boarder of Ethiopia, Kenya and Sudan. The same problem can be found in competition for natural resources such as forests. The competition between a large area of the arable land and fuel wood, or between commercial forestry and social forestry in India, Brazil and else where becomes acute when resources are scarce.

The environmental degradation forms a crucial part of the poverty complex. The 1992 earth summit or the UN Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED) HELD IN Rio in the 1992 was a landmark expression of the recognition of the important relationship between poverty and the environment. Key issues of concern for the conference included pollution, global warming, sea level rise, soil erosion, desertification, population growth and poverty. UNCED made the principal of sustainability, a political issue. Indeed it forms one of the latest additions to development theory. The summit made a call for action in both the north and south with concrete actions to translate the general concept of transition towards sustainable development in to a reality. The environmental demands in the north are now described as a new form of imperialism in the south. Nature has become part of the bargaining game between the north and south.

2.      Gender and development.

There is recognition of the differential social relations between men and women and their implications to development. There has been an increased emphasis by international and bilateral donors of the importance of gender matters in development. Gender is about the social constructions of male and female that is the socially understood and accepted female and male identities. These identities change from community to community depending on the context. It also even changes within the same community over time. Values held by a particular community such as religion, norms, (culture) generally reinforce and maintain or assist in reducing the differences. The maintenance of gender differences depends on the social rewards and punishment for compliance or non-compliance. However education, exposure and economic levels affect people’s belief, values and norms hence gender differences area also not static.

The recognition of gender matters in development was shaped in part by the emergence of feminist and progressive social theory at the time. The major concern was that women were being over looked or marginalized in four crucial areas namely:

1.      Political rights

2.      Legal rights.

3.      Access to education and training.

4.      Their working lives.

In 1970s, Esther Boserup provided a critical analysis of the negligence of women in development yet they were productive agents. She called for the recognition of their productive role. Dissatisfaction with growth-dominated definitions of development led to a reformulation of development goals to take greater accounts of poverty, distribution and the meeting of basic needs leading also to the recognition of women issues.

It is against this background that 1975 was proclaimed as the international women’s year (1976-1985) was declared as the DECADE for development of women. This saw an emphasis on women in development policies in development theory and practice. There were two major theoretical positions.

A)    Women in development

The Women in development mainly focused on women as agents of development. The focus on was mainly on their role in development. The focus on women in development was not because women were totally ignored by the development process. It was because they entered the development process on very specific terms.

While men entered the development process as household heads and productive agents, women were viewed primarily as household wives, mothers and at risk producers. Consequently, mainstream development efforts were targeted at the male population, while women were relegated to the marginal welfare sector through the welfare approach. The identification of women as productive agents called for the need for equality of women in the development process. It is against this background the UN conference in 1975 emphasized the following:

1.      Achievement of equality between sexes

2. Reassessment of the family and social roles assigned to the different sexes.

The call was to integrate women more productively in the development process. In spite of this recognition, there were limited actions. It was more of rhetoric than action. Male development workers were not ready for the change in the status quo. There was hardly any focus on women’s position.

It is within this context that the focus on women was linked to the then emerging poverty alleviation and basic needs approaches to development. Income generating projects mainly implemented around the household were common. However there was hardly any analysis of the viability of such projects and their implication to the position of the woman.

The efficiency approach - the idea that women were productive agents whose potential has been underutilized under welfare approaches gained momentum especially under the neo-liberal ideological of the World Bank (privatization, and trade liberalization). Women were given increasing recognition as key agents in the development process, as new micro entrepreneurs, as the nimble fingers behind the export success of global market factories and the food farmers who would solve the food crises in Sub-Saharan Africa. Women had been fully accepted as the agents to economic recovery.

 The problem with all the women in development processes is that they recognized the contribution of women but not their status and hence there were no efforts to address status quo, the social differences between men and women. It is against this background that the gender and development approach became necessary.

B)    Gender and development

Focus on the gender relations with major emphasis on the need for social transformation of these relations became critical. Equity and equality are key principals of gender equality. The 1995 –Beijing conference on gender, equity, development and peace saw the integration of gender into development, creation of national mechanisms for gender mainstreaming.

3. Populism

Populism emphasizes that people are agents of their own development. Proponents of this approach such as (Gran 1983) argue that:

1.      There is a massive concentration of power within government bureaucracy and large private sector firms and organizations.

2.      Bureaucracies tend to narrow economic technical criteria and procedures as basis for their decisions and operations. Bureaucratic decision making is not based on widely researched information.

3.      Working through the state and market excludes the vast majority of poor people from political and economic life.

Populists are

·         skeptical of the merits of large-scale industrialization.

·         skeptical of liberalization.

·         skeptical of government control.

·         skeptical of modernization

·         feel that the large-scale industries make decisions based on narrow scope.

They advocate for community oriented development approaches in industry and agriculture.

NEW DIRECTIONS IN DEVELOPMENT THEORY AND PRACTICE

While 1970s and 1980s might have exhibited a clear division between mainstream development and alternative approach the picture has changed. The boundaries are blurred this is because mainstream development thinking has theoretically incorporated various aspects of alternative development gender, sustainability and participation though the practice may be different.

The UN ILO have been major vehicles of human and social development that puts the human person and the social context at its center. On the other hand UN, WB, and IMF lay major emphasis on economic development. Economic Development lays limited emphasis on the human person (development without a human face) as shown by the shortcomings of the SAPs especially in the 1990s.

However, the poverty Reduction Strategy Papers and the Millennium Development Gears are indicators that the World Bank is slowly bending to the demand of development with a human face. Critics still claim that PRSPs are a dressing of SAPs in poverty clothes. Export led economies are still promoted, market failures are still a matter of major concern Civil society organizations have also been recruited as agents subcontracted to provide safety nets. In other words they are playing a complimentary role in the drive towards modernization.

THE NEW INTERNATIONAL ECONOMIC ORDER (NIEO)

The proponents of NIEO mainly from the third world laid emphasis on the need for the world economic system to be restructured if 3^rd world countries were to attain development.

Developing countries argued that there were difficulties within the existing world economic order which they said was biased against them because of the following the differences

1.      The mainly exported primary products whose markets were controlled by developed countries. The prices of these products are generally too low and fluctuate too much hence making it difficult for the economies of these nations to develop steadily and rapidly. Their prices were declining over time compared to manufactured goods.

2.      The developing countries that wanted to manufacture goods for export found it difficult to access foreign markets that were closed to them by protectionism in developed countries. They saw this as a way of shutting the out of fast growth only possible through industrialization.

3.      Terms on which they were given financial aid to enable them to develop were too stiff. They complained that it was difficult to get any loans from private source and those that were available were too short term to be used for long terms investment projects. At the same time the loans given by international banks i.e. World Bank although long term were not cheap enough.

4.      Since poor countries were extremely poor and the world economy had been unjust to them these countries felt that a matter of justice, the rich countries should provide aid for their future development.

The NIEO advocated for several reforms and these included:

·        Trade reform

·        Advocating for formation of trade blocks boast bargaining power.

·        Monetary reforms

·        The transfer of resources from poor to rich

·        Debt relief

The NIEO consisted of two strategic factors:

Seeking measures for the reduction and eventual elimination on the dependency of developing nations on companies from developed nations in production and trade. This would presumably enable poor countries to have full control over their natural resources. It would encourage developing nations to develop their external efforts for accelerating their economic development efforts. It was also hoped that it would lead to the introduction of appropriate changes in global institutions that would provide some measure of global management of resources for long term interests of humanity. In 1974 United Nations general assembly passed a motion supporting the NIEO. However this strategy of establishing the NIEO was not successful. The proposal was strongly opposed by the major western countries especially the U.S.A. Developed countries continually frustrated the efforts of trade integration of  3^rd world economies. However, a few got economic progress from integrated trade initiatives but could not integrate with the whole world system.  A few success stories were achieved in the newly industrialized countries of the South Korea, Hong cong and Singapore. In addition to the opposition by the developed countries, the 3^rd world failed (producers of raw material) to replicate the success of the oil and petroleum exporting countries that is known as OPEC.  The OPEC were disorganized  in the 1980s

THE BASIC NEEDS APPRAOCH

It emerged in 1970s and consisted of a movement from theory to more practical approaches. These were aimed directly at poverty reduction and it was expected that this could be achieved by the provision of social services that is education, health and welfare services to the poor. It was assumed that inequality could be reduced world wide poverty would decrease and make development attainable. The international agencies especially the World Bank and other development partners accepted the ideas of the Basic Needs Approach. Based on this approach the poor were categorized as a group.

There was adoption of new poverty measurement scales that could over time lead to reduction in inequality and lead to human development. The basic needs approach went beyond the importance of the state in effecting poverty reduction by lighting the importance of grass root efforts. They also favoured the idea of technical assistance through innervations by experts of the North.

WEAKENESS OF BNA

They put less emphasis on the importance of the state in development planning. This made it ambiguous.

The approach never went beyond redistribution and how this would contribute to development. Therefore the policies became associated with policies of receiving and delivering aid.

CONTEMPORARY DEVELOPMENT ALTERNATIVES GLOBALISATION

Currently, there is an assumption of a Capitalist global system. This is due to the collapse of the Soviet Union and shift away from state socialism by various Eastern Europe and third world countries. This has complicated development theory, policy and practice at both the national and international levels. There is continuous globalization of financial, economic and cultural forces.

What is globalization?

It is both a concept and a process with various ideological interpretations.

As a social theory, globalization assumes the emergency of global culture a range of developments especially the information and communication systems forming a global village and promoting.

a)      Globalized patterns of consumerism

b)      A similar pattern of life style, global sport, decline in the sovereign state, growth of regional, international and economic as well as political and economic agencies, extension of the nation of human right. The world has become a single place.

Globalization embraces the nation of multiculturalism and the demand for cultural pluralism. It is important to distinguish between globalization of technology and globalization of power. The later is mainly about the globalization of the neoliberal ideology mainly under the auspices of the World Bank and the World Economic Forum.

They view globalization as a process that is inherently good for the poor and thirsty debtor countries that seek to avoid lagging behind. To Globalize is to catch up with the following as its key features:

1.      The increasing importance of the financial structure and global creation of credit leading to the dominance of finance over production.

2.      The growing importance of the ‘knowledge structure’, knowledge as a significant factor of production.

3.      The transnationalism of technology and the increasing rapidity with which technologies become redundant increase the emphasis on ‘knowledge industries’.

4.      The rise of global oligopolies in the form of TNCs: corporations must ‘go global’, acting simultaneously in a number of different contexts.

5.      The globalization of production, knowledge and finance leading to a decline in the regulative power of nation states. Global financial markets are seen to prevent states from regulating their own currencies (which are also often defined by global development institutions such as the IMF or the World Bank). Media agencies and crime syndicates can also challenge the authority of the state, disseminating information across borders in ways that elude state regulation and control.

6.      The new ‘freedom’ of capital from national regulative control and democratic accountability which is said to have led to increasing poverty. Environment destruction and social fragmentation. In the drive for liberalization, restrictions are removed on the movement of the capital across national boundaries that supposedly help the poor and promote growth.

7.      States are no longer the primary units of decision making but rather find themselves located within the ‘world market’, a somehow mystical and surely reified entity that dictates the rules. State sovereignty is seen to be driven by new processes of flexible accumulation or by transnational corporations.

Some urge that globalization (through colonialism) has been going on for a long time and it is not something new. What is probably new is that information,; communication and manufacturing technology have led to production, commerce, and finance to be planned at a global level. Transnational corporations are seen to transverse national boundaries and bounders in a way that eclipses national state institutions and their capacity to ‘broker’ development within national territory. However not all TNCs are located in the west, some come from developing countries as well.

The benefits of globalization to the so -called developing countries are subject to debate Bonvin 1997, Globalization and linkages: challenges for development policy,

Development, 40(2) 39-40 while acknowledging the complex nature of development sees it as an opportunity for people’s of developing societies. It is providing them with new political and economic opportunities. He suggests five conditions that would ensure greater equity in the globalizing process.

·         Both OECD and developing states must implement mutually reinforcing macroeconomics and structural policies.

·         There should be significant investment in capital.

·         The role of infrastructure in developing countries should be emphasized.

·         Policy makers in developing countries should emphasis the dissemination and application of technological knowledge.

·         There should be a fostering of ‘good governance’ and participation of the societies concerned in defining their future.

On another hand Marcus Power (2003) Rethinking Development Geographies; Routlegde London, UK observes that:

1.      Africa’s share of world trade has decreased from 5% to just 2% in the past fifty years.

2.      Globalization is linked to the making of European empires in region such as Africa.

3.      Globalization because of its reliance on one major ideology, that is capitalism and hence undermines or even damages, violates and subordinates non-capitalist organizing such as cooperatives and communal organizing that are common ways of leaving and even survival in south.

4.      Foreign trade and investment are presented as inherently and unquestionably positive forces at the forefront of the global campaign to eradicate poverty. However it is true in reality?

5.      The new relationships that are being nurtured through globalizations are reproducing colonial type of relationships between the north and the south.

6.      Contrary to popular image of globalization leading to homogenization of people’s and cultures there has been more differentiation in terms of inequalities and the growing income gaps between the haves and’ have nots’. 

7.      Homogenization of non-western societies has led to denial of specificities and hence leading to assumption that globalization has been uniform across spaces. This has to a certain extent marginalized Africa that does not future prominently in the theorization of globalization. It is hence not clear what place it occupies in the globalizing world economy other than acting as an invited guest.

The neo-classical paradigm-Neoliberalism

It can be studied in its more typical form in the theory of international trade where it was postulated that free trade would spread the benefits of development across the world through the kind of specialization and division of labour enforced by competition. In the neo-classical world under development does not exist except as a lack of entrepreneur spirit.

The existing approaches were found wanting the belief in a market mechanism became unlimited and the trust in government intervention grew thin. The fundamentalists as they were called argued that efforts at comprehend more planning had failed and that the liberalization of foreign trade regimes had shown to have positive effects on both growth and welfare – this was termed as the counter-revolution in development theory and policy. The poor countries were poor because of resource mismanagement.

The magnificent vision of the 1980’s was of the world developing its resources and capacities in response only to the ups and downs of relative prices and the self-imposed state of limited government. The aim of the counter revolutionists was to restore confidence in the market mechanism and the free trade policy.

Key issue of in the neo-liberal wave were:

(a)                The benefits of markets and the danger that government action will negate these benefits in other wards regulation through the market were the route to growth.

(b)                Market competition is crucial and acknowledgement as the motive power behind economic growth and progress and by implication development. Innovation and expansion are the likely ways to secure continued profits. Growth would involve large economies of scale, innovation and the investment of additional capital in production, which in turn will contribute to improve labour productivity. Successful capitalists would be able to benefit from a self-reinforcing cycle. Competitive forces would penalize any departure from rationality among producers or consumers by driving them out of the market altogether.

(c)                Emphasis on individualism-individuals act in a rational manner to maximize their material interests or ‘utility’ it does not matter who these individuals are owners of property and or capital. Consumers and even politicians and bureaucrats. In other wards the system would produce hard working individuals whose benefits of hard work will percolate through to others via the workings of the invisible hand of the economy. However, there is another side to this the survival of the fittest-the departure from rationality would drive them out.

(d)               The relative unimportance of physical capital compared with human development policies.

(e)                The distorting effect of government economic policies that did not foster neo-liberalism.

Domestic reforms in the direction of liberalization were seen as the golden road (little 1982)

Anne O Kruega a World Bank economist stated that the change according to the bank in terms of development could be summed up as “an increased recognition of the importance of markets and incentives and the limits of government and central planning.”

Neo- liberalism or market liberalism became the dominant view of development especially in the industrialized west and in the IMF and World Bank as seen in he above statement. The neo-liberal approach to development was manifested through the structural adjustment programmes of the IMF and World Bank.

With the structural adjustment loans provided by the World Bank and IMF and major bilateral donors in certain case constitute a set of “free market” policies obliging borrowers to cut back the state and public spending to raise interest rates, and pubic spending to raise interest rates, and open up their economies to foreign business and trade as well as to boost foreign exchange earnings by promoting exports.

This has made many third world countries experimental grounds or laboratories for the neoclassical theory mainly through:

·         Privatization

·         Trade liberalization

·         Domestic market liberalization

·         Currency devaluation

·         Abolition of marketing boards

·         Retrenchment and deregulation

·         Fiscal deregulation policies

Key observations:

By large the policies based on neo-liberalism while dominant have been experienced and perceived to be problematic

1.      Benefits have not trickled to the masses.

2.      There is a growing gap between the haves and have-nots.

3.      Currency devaluation have not led to significant investment by northern countries nor stemmed the flight of capital from third world countries.

4.      Also trade liberalized and increase emphasis on exports led – growth has not seen a shift to more value – added manufacturing, but rather a continued reliance on the export commodities and semi processed goods that fetch low prices in real terms on international markets – flowers, cassava, fish, and banana.

5.      Environmental degradation and exploitation of the natural resources is on the increase we can see the battles – lake Victoria and the Dam. Bujagali – the golf courts, Bwaise and the concentration of the poor people in the swamps which has led to cholera flooding etc.

6.      Corruption rather than being on the decrease is on the increase.

7.      Removal of food subsidies.

8.      The double game that has seen farmers in western countries being protected through farmer subsidies while those in the southern countries do not have theses subsidies but rather there is emphasis on market forces to determine their fate. Fees at University level are just a recent in tradition in to UK Universities.

9.      The women have borne the thrust of these policies in comparison to their male counter parts-they have become in effect the “the shock absorbers of adjustment”  (Somers 1996:76). UWONET and Snyder’s book).

The IMF and WB among other institutions have acknowledged the shortcomings of SAPs but this does not mean a radical shift from theses policies, rather they have been reworked there is still continued emphasis on:

·         Debt repayments

·         Opening national economies

·         Unfettered play forces at market forces at international levels.

INCLUSIVE LIBERALISM

1. Inclusive liberalism-or good governance

• Acknowledges the worst aspects of frank neolibralism.
• Engages both the market and community interests.
• Stingy charity.
• Responsibilization
• Education
• Surveillance and policy
• Keeping questions of existing property distributions off the political agenda.
• Keep a close surveillance on the poor.
• Waiting for growth to decline what well being it will

2. Holding together of broadly neo-liberal economic settings with an enormously inventive range of rationales and technologies of social inclusion.

3. Holds the notion that market and social goals are ultimately compatible, can mutually support and build each other and should therefore be consensually supported and together integrated into the fabric of economic and social governance.

4. Stability and security are linked to the governance of the vulnerable, the excluded, the poor, the marginal, the child through.

5. Inclusion of the vulnerable through disaggregated but joined up moral domains of mutual obligation by offering them the prospect of development, participation and social inclusion along side everyone else.

Key issues of inclusive neo-liberalism

• In monologic, hype-real conceptions of globalising processer.
• In formidable global juridical, moral and rational frameworks for national governance, financial and security management.
• In variously disaggregated and joined up local and moral domains (e.g. community).
• Elaborate approaches to social investment and protection.

Inclusive rationales evoke and seek to govern through a series of depoliticised technologies, juridical frameworks, domains and subject roles of consensual participation partnership social investment and social and economic integration of the market, families, communities, and institution from global to highly local settings.

·         Inclusive liberalism appeals to the ideological notions of voluntarism, values and consensus and thus to third and community sector activities and organisations working in and around these domains who typically welcome the opportunities for partnership they offer.

·         In evoking plural, rather than conflictual rationales and technologies and technologies of social inclusion, inclusive liberalism is deeply ideological, powerfully conservative and morally totalizing.

·         Inclusive liberalism actively responds to concerns over global economic instability, political fall out and popular protest over development failure and/or rising inequalities, the global traffic of people and commodities and the disruptions and costs of integration.

·         The quest for political security and legitimacy powerfully motivates engagement in dialogue, partnership and participation with international, national and local third sector agencies and across social sectors.

·         Pressures and desires to secure legitimating partnership and collaborative relations are moving social governance and related areas beyond the more purely market orientations such as competition because of  their sharp promotion of contestability and accountability this compromises the relationship with the more contested neo-liberalism (which has certainly not disappeared ). It is fraught and complex.

The logistics of collaboration, partnership and so on.

The role of government is limited around policy and programmatic actions. In reality such actions are problematic in terms of delivering improved out comes to the poor and in terms of marginalised sectors of society and in creating the conditions for long-term prosperity and stability. The cost of compliance to international liberal market and governance norms and active participation is clearly raising the price of inclusion.   

SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT

The aims of the unit are:

To explore the extent to which sustainable development provides the new way of looking at reality.

To identify the key component of sustainable development.

To link sustainable of the development to development practice in Uganda.

Degradation of the natural environment is becoming a development but also an impediment to development. Development promotes urbanization and industrialization but this at a cost, loss of some natural species, it also leads to global warming and ozone loss may cause skin cancer. Population growth affects the environment. It is within this context that sustainable development becomes inevitable.

Sustainable development

The term sustainable development was first used by the international union for the conservation of the environment in 1980, it was popularized by the world commission on environment and development in 1987 that defined it as “development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs (WCDE, 1987,p.43).

This definition simply means that development is a bout meeting human needs but in ways that do not deprive the future generation of the ability to meet their own needs. Since then the concept of sustainable development has been refined to include:

1.       Caring for the natural environment and reducing the current to environmental degradation. This emphasizes the economic value of biodiversity and the special relationship between human and the environment.

2.      Sustaining culture signifying a divergence from the modernization and dependency theories that regarded culture as a stumbling block to westernization. It is assumed that there is an interdependent relationship between cultural and the environment and that cultural preservation will directly contribute to environment protection and sustainable development. This assumption is based on the understanding that culture and environment evolve together.

Over consumers who have a direct negative effect on the environment are mainly located in northern countries. However there is little cooperation among the industrialized countries especially the US to limit pollution. Southern countries have also failed to reduce the use of natural resources because this has a number of implications to the economic survival of the people who depend on natural resources such as timber exporters. Achieving sustainable development is a complex issue because it has both political and economic implication in both the north and the south.

a.      Dominant views on sustainable development

There are a number of views on sustainable development  

The techno centric management view: it is related with the modernization perspective that related economic growth and westernization with development. Maximum utilization of resources including the environment irrespective of the effects was emphasized. Thus environmental pollution was ignored. It is on this basic that the technocratic management views are protagonists who do not subscribe to ethical views of environmental protection but rather to renew ability and substitutability because a strict conservation is not practical.

The populist view: The populist view emphasizes the following:

It rejects northern affluence as a goal for development

pay attention to social, environmental and cultural problems as against exclusive attention to economic problems

Participation of the people at the grassroots in solving their problems is important.

It promotes maximum economic self-sufficiency and minimum dependency on external inputs.

Appropriateness with reference to global resources and justice consideration is one of its key concepts.

The deep ecologic view: It promotes ethical valves that lay emphasis on behavioural patterns that respect the rights of other species like those of human beings e. g animal rights.

The eco-evolutionary view: this view undermines the role of the west in the protection of the environment because of its reliance on predetermined ways. Flexibility is important in the management of the environment to cope with uncertainty because of lack of some information on the effect of human bei9ngs on ecosystems. It calls for the recognition of other non-western knowledge systems and recognition of a number of approaches because there is no one best way of environmental protection.

Promoting sustainable development at the grassroots level

Promoting sustainable development calls for

1.      Appreciation of the local context: sustainable development at grassroots level can be promoted through recognition and promotion of local knowledge

2.      Participation of the local people is critical so as to promote and use local knowledge of the social and ecological system.

3.      Devolution of power: Access to local institutions 9informal and formal) is critical to ensure respect and promote of the people’s priorities. This is also important in capacity development because the people can support one another in enhancing their knowledge. Partnership with formal institutions outside the community institutions may be important especially to facilitate communication and linkage with other institutions for learning purposes.

4.      Flexibility and openness: while local people have the authority over their environment, flexibility and openness are critical if learning is to be enhanced. Thus outsiders should promote learning processes and attitudes that do not make them to be seen as the experts because this inhibits local knowledge. Listening and managing the power relationships between them and the grassroots people is important. Development should be an empowering process.

Conclusion

Environmental protection is critical to our survival as a human race. The way in which we go about achieving sustainable development is important. Harnessing all the available knowledge based on the context rather than reliance on one knowledge system is the route to development rather than using a universalized concept of the world and its peoples and their future.  

The Dynamics of Development

Learning is important element in development. This is because development is dynamic. Development is also complex and it hence needs a holistic approach to address its multifaceted nature.

Why the need for a holistic integrated approach to development?

Poverty is more complex than theoretical explanations embedded in terms such as modernisation, industrialisation or the breaking of the dependency syndrome between third and first worlds. The goal of development is to address people’s poverty. The complexity of poverty requires that development approaches try to address this complexity by viewing human beings in a wholesome manner. You cannot address human needs separately. Total life transformation, liberation of human beings should be done taking into account their context including the environment. Development needs to be holistic. Unfortunately development has been based on, projects that are one – dimensional (addressing on aspect or few aspects of human needs).

Government, an important development agent has various ministries that are hardly coordinated. They thus end up addressing different parts of the human persons e.g. child health and education in un coordinated minor each ministry, department addressing matters with each government development agent addressing the matter allocated to that department. NGOs also address development from a sectoral point of view. NGOs on child defilement, NGO on the advancement of women and even choosing only on issue concerning women such as women and the media, women and the law e.t.c.

According to the holistic approach, development cannot be chopped up but has to include the whole person in his/her environment. This means that the holistic approach is by large unpractised by many organisations. It is about viewing poverty as something that people experience and feel its complexity means that sectoral one- dimensional projects are incapable of addressing poverty in holistic manner. This calls for: a total systems approach.

TOTAL SYSTEMS APPROACH

Total systems approach is where institutions come together in one effort – an integrated effort to address the various aspects or dimensions of poverty together. This approach recognises the dynamics of development. It promotes learning various projects that can be integrated into programme in which learning is promoted through sharing of experiences. Working together is also important in this approach. The role of the local community is an import ant aspect of this approach. The local people need to be the owners of development effort with other organisation including government playing a supporting role. This means that the participation of individuals and group in making decisions, which affect their lives socially, economically and politically, needs to be promoted. They should not participate on some one else’s behest (command) but their participation is a natural out flow and manifestation of ownership and empowerment.

Development becomes the concern of the community thus the sectoral institutions are no longer a problem became the effort belongs to the community and they are just supporters/facilitators. The community cannot be divided into sectors and sectorally focused institutions only play a supportive role in their various sectors. In order for this to happen, a process must evolve in the community plays a meaningful and decision making role. By process it means an evolutionary method that encourages collaboration, coordination, cooperation and learning.

Networking among the various actors is important. This should facilitate local interest groups to work together in a non-hierarchical manner. The network should be interest-based problem solving and aiming at collaborative resource mobilisation. The network should encourage development of an interrelated and integrated programme. Lippit and Van Til (1981) suggest six steps that can assist us in building collaboration among the various actors.

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Lippit and Van Til (1981) can we achieve collaborative community? Journal of voluntary action research 10 (3/4).

However, we observe that NGOs and government than the local communities play the major role in development. The context of such institutions is stable in comparison to that of the community. This is because of having institutional policies, procedures, principles, norms, and values that do not easily change. The community unlike these institutions is vibrant with its own unique variables that change over time. The key community variables are:

1.      Politics

2.      Demography

3.      The environment

4.      Urban rural migration

Politics: this is one of the most important dynamic variable. Politics in this case refers to political power, decision-making and controlling resources. The important questions are:

·         Who decides on development action?

·         Who makes the funding decisions?

·         Who controls the resources?

These are key political questions that can cause conflict and tension. It is important to note that community development is influenced by national, regional and even international politics. The actions of the big institutions such as the IMF and World Bank and those of the richest countries such as the US have implications to the life of a rural woman, man and even children in any village in Uganda.

Some states are called “soft states”. Soft States are those that do not have the capacity of creating a conducive environment for development. This may be due to lack of institutional structures at local levels. At times the structures may be available but incapable of facilitating development due to lack of resources, corruption etc.

Conflict is another important political issue that may hinder development and the participation of local people in development initiatives. Northern Uganda is the poorest region in Uganda due to conflict that has gone on this part of the country for the last 18years. People live in protected camps; such an environment is not conducive for people to take control of their development process. It is Important to note that politics takes place even at the minutest social structure, the household.

Politics at household level affects the ability of the people to take control of their development process. Issues of who decides resource allocation and utilisation; and overall national development. This is where as we earlier discussed; gender issues are critical to development at the house level. The extent to which the political leadership (at all levels) makes informed, creative and skilful decision to which it is committed affects the rate of development. Political leadership is hence a key determinant of development.

Demography: Demography is about births, deaths, and migration. It is about population size, population growth, age structure as well as population movement. Negative demographic trends have a negative effect on the environment. High population growth rates, a young age structure, a high old age population (retired age) structure and high migrations have a direct negative influence on poverty. Very low birth rates and very high birth rates are not good. Some European countries due to very low birth rates have created incentives for their population to produce more children. On the other hand countries such as Uganda where we have very high fertility rates, family size reduction campaigns are ongoing. On the one hand, young age structure may out number the education facilities (it was the case during the early stages of UPE, government had to construct several classrooms to accommodate the high influx of children in schools. The number of teachers: pupil ration is high – 1:100 in most schools).

On the other hand, an old age structure that needs care may stretch the available pension services (this may even be worse in countries like Uganda where these services are not even available to most of the people in this age structure). This means that population policies are important aspects of economic development. This also justifies a holistic approach to development. Poverty and population growth feed into each other and development and demography are in a continuous mutual influence.

Environment

There is interrelationship between human beings and the environment. There are various types of the environment.

·         Cultural environment with strands of traditionalism and western influences.

·         Economic environment characterised by a layered structure of well to the poor and very poor.

·         Psychological environment-mainly a result of the poverty situation.

·         Social environment with various primary and secondary/and institution that are even changing households, clans kingships etc.

·         Social environment: it is a result of the poverty situation but also influenced by the poverty situation – housing road infrastructure etc. Are influenced by the levels of poverty but also influenced poverty.

It is however important to note that physical infrastructural development doesn’t necessarily lead to improvement in the standard of living or well-being or quality of life of an individual.

This is because there are several factors that contribute to improved well being.

A holistic approach to development tresses on the individual and his/her environment.

The local context has a lot of implications through not solely to improved quality of life- the contextual dependency of development. The context changes that is why it is impossible to lay guidelines. It is hence important to take the context into consideration all the time.

The local situation is also influenced by other factors outside the community that need to be taken into consideration. It is also difficult to replicate development efforts.

Rural urban dynamics

Political commitment towards development using a holistic human oriented development is to be achieved.

Secondly governments need to have a development policy. A policy sets broad goals and indicates pathways to reach such goals. It also sets in motion a process to bring structures into place for the continued support of local development efforts. The policy provides guideline for resources allocation.

In most developing countries, development planning has been centralised with a marked urban bias. This has contributed to rural – urban imbalances whose effects have unfortunately been under estimated by policy makers. Complex dynamics between urban and rural areas have been beneficial to the urban areas and detrimental to the urban areas. However, even the later cannot be over emphasised as high rural-urban migration results into population increases in urban areas. This increases pressure on the limited resources and employment opportunities in the urban areas.

Modernisation theory was mainly based on urban biased policies and this situation still exists in most developing countries. Urban biased planning is unlikely to benefit the rural areas in the long run. It instead:

1. Creates dependency between the two a dependency that is similar to that between the developing and developing countries.
2. Secondly, it fosters a national economy that is urban biased mainly dependent on import/export pricing policy that favour urban areas.
3. Services and infrastructures are concentrated in the urban areas.
4. it leads to the migration of the able bodied people from the rural areas to the urban areas leaving the less bodied who cannot actively engage in agriculture leading to food shortages and rural poverty.
5. Rural areas are under valued in comparison to urban areas.
6. The negative connotation to rural areas makes people to desire to stay in urban areas and hence increased migration. This results into high demand for the limited services.
7. With increased rural urban migration, countries increase their investment in urban areas leaving limited resources for rural development.

Thus fostering a balanced rural urban development policy is critical to overcoming poverty in developing countries. This requires a holistic approach.

An approach that recognises the contextual peculiarities of each of these areas. An approach that leads to overall national development through processes that so not disadvantage some populations for the benefit of others.

Conclusion

Development is a complex dynamic process because it is about human beings whose context changes. The changing context means that people do not remain the same. Development needs to evolve to take into consideration the changing people and the changing environment. Development should be holist; it should take into consideration the wholeness of the human being. It is about their destiny. Development agencies including government should be facilitators of development.

HEALTH AND DEVELOPMENT

Health and economic growth must be mutually reinforcing to ensure sustainable development. Promoting a healthy and productive life are 4 critical aspects of development investing in the health of the poor is an economically and politically acceptable strategy for reducing poverty and alleviating its consequences. Poverty leads to the vulnerability of the poor making them more susceptible to diseases. They cannot afford access to clean water and basic sanitation. They cannot feed well and hence are exposed to malnutrition, which affects their general health.

Malnutrition is a key problem in many African countries. In Uganda nearly 39% of our children are under weight for their age. Under weight is caused by a number of factors including inability to afford enough food and a balanced diet. Sometimes it is not because of inability to afford but lack of knowledge of what foods are needed by our bodies if malnutrition is caused by poverty, it also possible that the person who is malnourished cannot afford treatment to fight the diseases that are caused by malnutrition and unhygienic food preparation.

Water and sanitation are critical to good health. Lack of these gives rise to even higher levels of susceptibility to infections. Poor disposal of feaces will lead to ill health especially cholera. Poor hygiene affects household health. A realistic figure of access to clean water in rural areas in Uganda is 49.7%. Lack of water and sanitation is a key cause of ill health developing countries. Diseases such as cholera, diarrhea and intestinal warm infection are still common.

75% of Uganda’s diseases are preventable as they are primarily caused by poor personal and domestic hygiene and inadequate sanitation practices. Being preventable, it means investment in primary health care is critical if health problems are to be addressed in poor countries. Poor education systems and a low literacy levels in several African countries has affected our ability to prevent diseases. By 2004, Uganda’s latrine coverage stood at 57% with increases in cholera out breaks related to poor sanitation especially in the urban slums. 68% of approved health facilities had trained health workers. 25% of deliveries took place in health facilities. The 1999/00 Household survey indicated 50% of the people who did not seek health care when sick did not do so due to inability to meet the cost. Indeed the abolition of user fees resulted in an increase in the number of people (especially among the poor) attending health units.

PRIMARY HEALTH CARE

When we want to discuss the meaning principles and objectives of primary health care, it is important that we first scrutinize the definition of primary health care. Primary health care is essential health care based on practical, scientifically sound and socially acceptable methods and technology made universally accessible to individuals and families in the community through their full participation and at a cost that the community and the country can afford. It forms an integral part of the country’s health system of which it is the nucleus and of the overall social and economic development of the country. It is the first level of contact of individuals, the family and community with the natural health system bringing health care as close as possible to where people live and work and constitutes the first element of a continuing health care process (World Health Organization 1978:3-4,34)

This is a lengthy and complex definition, but we will break it down into shorter pieces and discus each of them.

Primary health care is essential health care based on practical, scientifically sound and socially acceptable methods and technology, made universally accessible to individuals and families in the community through their full participation and at a cost that the community and the country can afford.

This part of the definition contains five aspects:

1.      Firstly, it says that primary health care plays an important role in the improvement of the health situation.

2.      Secondly, it is feasible because it is not too highly pitched.

3.      Thirdly, the methods are scientific, which means it is not second rate health care, and it is accepted by the people for whom it is meant.

4.      Fourthly, the technology is accessible. This means that the resources such as machines and methods are available to the ordinary people in the community. They only have to take part in the promotion of health.

5.      Fifthly, it is affordable, which means that it is relatively cheap.

It forms an integral part of the country’s health system of which it is the nucleus and of the overall social and economic development of the country. It also says that primary health care is as important to the health system as hospitals and doctors, and it has the added advantages that it is preventive health care. Because health influences all the other sectors, it has an important role to play in socio-economic development.

·         It is the first level of contact of individuals, the family and community, with the natural   health system bringing health care as close as possible to where people live and work, and constitutes the first element of a continuing health care process.

 This part of the definition reflects that primary health care is close to the people and that health services are accessible. If people have access to information on how to prevent diseases, it is the first step towards improving the health situation. Now that we know what the definition entails, we are going to look at the principles and objectives of primary health care.

Principles and objectives of primary health care

What is the difference between principles and objectives? Principles could be regarded as the “bricks” of which the approach consists. This means that they are the fundamental parts of the approach. If we look at what they entail, this could be regarded as abstract and general (see section 12.3.1.1). We could say that this is the input of the approach. Objectives, on the other hand, mean the outcome of what one wants to achieve in applying the approach. The objectives are concrete, real issues that should be addressed and which should be realized (see section 12.3.1.2). This could be seen as the output of the approach

Principles of primary health care

The principles of primary health care are the building materials for what is inherent in the approach and what it is all about in terms of promoting health care, as well as other sectors of development. Now that we know the    function of the principles, we are going to discuss what they are and what role they play within primary health care as an approach.

·         Universal coverage of the population, with care provided to need.

·         Services should be promotive, preventive, curative and rehabilitative.

·         Services should be effective, culturally acceptable and manageable.

·         Communities should be involved in the development of services to promote self-reliance and reduce dependency.

·         Approaches to health should relate to other sectors of development (World Health Organization 1978:16-17).

Added to this World Health Organization list, more recent authors (Laaser, Senault and Viefhues 1985:386, Engelkes 1989:4 and Phillips 1990:152) add the following:

·         Equitable distribution

·         Focus on prevention

·         Appropriate technology

·         Community involvement

·         Multisectoral Approach

What do these two sets of principles mean?

The principle of universal coverage is incorporated because the definition of primary health care states that health should be definition of primary health care states that health should be accessible. This means that no one should be excluded, no matter how poor and how remote he or she may be. This also forms the basis of planning services for specific populations.

As we have seen earlier, health problems could be attributed to problems of lifestyle. Therefore health care should not only be curative, but it should promote the populations understanding of health and healthier lifestyles and as such reach towards the root of the problem that results in ill health.

“Services that are not effective make a mockery of universal coverage” (World Health Organisation1966b: 16). Effectiveness is linked to careful planning of services that will address specific local problems. It must be kept in mind that effectiveness should incorporate cultural acceptability because they are mutually dependent. The community should perceive the system as affordable.

The community should not be passive receivers of health services “designed” externally by external role-players. Communities should be actively involved in the whole process of defining health problems and needs, and finding solutions – and also the implementation and evaluation of programmes. This role of the community would contribute most in terms of the wider role that health could play in development in general. This enables people to give fundamental inputs in planning for and bringing about the improvement of their own situation that is crucial in the empowerment process (see section 12.3.3). It improves human dignity (see 12.2.3) too, because their human worth is realized and their knowledge about their own situation and resources is used in order to improve their situation.

As discussed earlier, it is clear that the causes of ill health are not limited to issues  linked directly to health only. Therefore the solutions to these problems could not be based solely on health interventions. Changes in the areas of education, income supplementation, clean water and sanitation, housing, a sustainable ecology, better marketing of products, improved infrastructure and the acknowledgement of the role women play could impact substantially on health (WORLD health Organization 1988b: 17). This intersectoral approach will be more effective since communities will be involved in a holistic approach which will give them better opportunities to improve their living conditions.

·                                                           

Objectives of primary health care

The objectives of the primary health care approach are aimed at informing us about what should be achieved when applying the approach. There are eight objectives, of which the first six are preventative and the last two curative (World Health Organization 1978:53 and World Health Organization 1979:12).

1.      Promotion of proper nutrition.

2.      Adequate supply of safe water.

3.      Basic sanitation

4.      Mother and child care, including family planning.

5.      Immunization against the major infectious diseases

6.      Education concerning prevailing health problems and the methods of preventing and controlling them.

7.      Appropriate treatment for common diseases and injuries

8.      Provision of essential drugs.

Objective 1: Promotion of proper nutrition

Malnutrition leads to a number of serious diseases that result in death. Theses diseases could easily be prevented if people have information about proper nutrition. If they eat a balanced diet consisting of vitamins, proteins, minerals, starch and fats in the correct proportions, their bodies are stronger and viruses and germs do not succeed in attacking the body as effectively. Therefore people are not liable to get diseases so easily.

Objective 2: Adequate supply of safe water

Some diseases are caused by lack of clean drinking water. An example of this is bilharzias, which causes the deaths of a large number of people in many African countries, including South Africa. People get bilharzias from drinking contaminated water and in most cases they do not know that they are drinking water, which is not suitable for human consumption. Therefore, if they are informed about this, they will think twice before drinking contaminated water. In addition, the provision of safe drinking water should be a priority so that everyone has safe water to use, which will limit the spread of these diseases.

Objective 3: Basic sanitation

Certain diseases are spread through lack of hygiene. Millions of people throughout the developing world do not have sanitation services, and as a result human waste lands up in rivers and other water sources. This causes diseases. To combat the spread of diseases related to this, sanitation should be a priority, which will result in a healthier population.

Objective 4: Mother and child care

Mother care for children and therefore it is important that they are informed about the three objectives discussed above so that they can pass this information on to their children as well. Since children are the adults of tomorrow, this will be an investment in a stronger and more effective labour force of the future. This is also related to family planning since parents with fewer children will be better equipped to care for those children more effectively. The more children, the harder it is to supply them with the necessities, let alone education. If people are informed about the advantages of having fewer children, it could give them food for thought to enable them to provide better for their children.

Objective 5: Immunization against the major infectious diseases

Many life-threatening diseases can be limited and in time totally eradicated through immunization. Smallpox is an example of one of these diseases, which was totally eradicated. Others that still exist, but which can be combated through immunization, are polio and tuberculosis. Knowledge about and availability of immunization would ensure a healthier population.

Objective 6: Education concerning prevailing health problems and the methods of preventing and controlling them.

All the objectives discussed above are aimed at educating people about health problems and methods to prevent them. This will be done by primary health care workers who will be working at community level in inform people about these issues.

Objective 7: Appropriate treatment for common diseases and injuries

Objective8: Provision of essential drugs

Minor diseases could be treated quite easily through the supply of an appropriate drug before the illness becomes so serious that expensive drugs are necessary and complicated medical care is the only solution. An example of this is diarrhea.

We have discussed what primary health care is, what the principles are and what should be achieved, but where does primary health care feature in national policy?

Primary health care and empowerment

Primary health care empowers people by providing information, technical support and decision-making possibilities (World Health Organisation 1988b: 137). This means that people will control their own situation and they will share in opportunities and responsibilities for action towards improving their own health. People participate in identifying their needs and resources because they know their own situation much better than an outsider. Community involvement in problem selection and programme planning ensures that these projects could be regarded as more relevant and therefore they will receive better commitment (Phillips and Verhasselt 1994: 184). People will utilize their own knowledge; skills and resources by participating in health projects and the delivery of primary health care people are empowered. This is done through the strengthening of district health systems as we have seen above where national policies and resources are geared to involve people at local level. Needs and resources are identified at community level through ongoing participation of members of the community. Decisions are taken there and plans are made and executed at the community level. This is emphasized by the Department of Health (1996: 24), which states that it is a fundamental principle of primary health care that there is maximal community participation in the planning, provision, control and monitoring of health services.

 In practice, it is important to ensure that decision-making is about making informed choices. This means that people should not be told what decisions to make although, on the other hand, the health system cannot always merely do what people want (Chabot, Harnmeijer and Streefland 1995: 57). A balance should be struck between the different role players in the process of primary health care and, in order for that to happen; there should be effective communication from communities through to national level.

AIDS AND DEVELOPMENT

 In order to determine the link between AIDS and development, we should start with the link between health and development. Healthy individuals can work harder and be more productive, they perform better at school and university, and they earn more than those who are unhealthy. Valuable resources are spent on health care when people are unhealthy, which could be used for development instead. Human dignity is also enhanced when people are healthy. On these grounds alone one can say that AIDS will have a profound impact on development, because when people contract HIV and AIDS, they become economically inactive in time and an economic and social liability in the final stages of the illness. The influence of AIDS on the economy, human dignity and health education will be discussed in more detail, but before we do so, we will take a brief look at the epidemiology of AIDS (what it is and how it is transferred).

The acronym AIDS is used to refer to Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome. AIDS is caused by the latent, slow growing Human Immuno- deficiency Virus (HIV). HIV is the virus, which enters the body. The lymphocytes “identify” the foreigner and produce antibodies to fight the virus. All body fluids contain T4-cells or Helper cells. They do the communication work in the identification of viruses. When an individual is infected by HIV, the T4-cells inform the immune system and HIV-antibodies are manufactured. These antibodies are the ones picked up in an HIV/AIDS test. If they are detected, the person concerned is classified as seropositive or HIV-positive. Slowly HIV “attacks” the T4-cells and the T 4-cells die. When all of them have died, there are none left to inform the immune system of the presence of HIV or any other virus or germ. Even a common cold could be fatal at this stage, which is known as full-blown AIDS.

HIV is transferred through body fluids. The two most common “hosts” for HIV are blood and sexual fluids (i.e. semen and vaginal fluids).

The influence of AIDS on the economy

Why does AIDS as a disease hold more serious implications for the economy that other diseases such as malaria and tuberculosis, which are prevalent in developing countries? Firstly, because there is no cure for AIDS, and secondly, AIDS primarily affects adults in their most economically productive years. In the third place, AIDS is not a disease linked only to poverty. It affects the elite and well educated as well, which robs the already weak economies of developing countries of an important source of income. Finally, AIDS has become the major cause of adult mortality, leaving many of the economically dependent uncared for. The economically dependent are mainly children and elderly people.  In discussing the impact of AIDS on the economy, it is important to distinguish between the direct cost of AIDS and its indirect cost. The direct cost is linked to the treatment for an infected person. The direct cost of treating people infected with AIDS is highly speculative. Suffice it to say that it is high and a liability on an already burdened economy (Cross and Whiteside 1993: 178-179). The indirect costs are just as high and important, and will be discussed in more detail.

1. Households

AIDS morbidity and mortality impact on the ability of households by reducing their time and labour, the stock of education and health of the household  (Essex, Mboup, Kanki and Kalengayi 199: 563). More time and money will be spent on caring for persons suffering from AIDS. This leaves less time to earn money, resulting in fewer resources to care for the household, with the added burden of money to be spent on medical care for the infected person. To pay for this care, people may be forced to sell their land or livestock, withdraw from their savings or borrow from others, which will burden the already weak household (see Unit 1). When the infected person eventually dies, funeral costs area added to this burden.

2. Markets

AIDS will have an impact on a single sector or market, the holding prices, and supply and demand in other sectors. For example, if a firm produces articles for export and the work force becomes HIV-infected, the firms’ labour supply is reduced. This raises costs and lowers the firm’s profit margin (Essex et al. 1994: 566-567). This will be reflected in the economy, because such a firm will contribute less towards the economy as a whole.

3. Human capital

The basic idea behind the theory of human capital is that the economic capabilities of people are a produced means of production, so that the embodiment of skills through education and training is as much a form of investment as the purchase of a machine (Cross and Whiteside 1993: 191).  The idea behind human capital underlines what we have discussed above. The investment made in people through education and health, will lead to certain benefits when those people enter the labour force, but this is linked to the reduction of uncertainty surrounding the duration of human life. Because AIDS impacts directly on this uncertainty, it directly impacts on human capital and the activities of people in the labour force.

4.  Health sector

Health care is affected by AIDS in respect of both the supply and demand (Essex et al. 1994: 567). Why will they both be influenced? An increasing number of people becoming HIV- positive will place a heavier burden on health services because treatment is needed for the opportunistic illnesses occurring on account of the HIV – infection. This means that the demand for health services will be higher and the supply will be influenced because health services will have to support and care for more people. The result is a higher demand on already burdened health services in developing countries. The exact cost is difficult to determine because so many variables play a part in this process.

5. Agriculture

Agriculture plays a vital role in many developing countries, and specifically African countries.   As is the case in the health sector, in the agricultural sector AIDS will also affect both supply and demand. Not only will the supply of agricultural products decrease because of lower productivity levels on account of AIDS, but the demand for agricultural products will be lower, because those who die from AIDS consumed agricultural products, too.  Studies on the household labour force in Rwanda, and thus on farming systems, note the following effects on the available labour force; intensified competition between on-farm and domestic work, and reduction in available child labour (Cross and Whiteside 1993: 274 and Essex et al. 1994: 571). A shift from more to less labour-intensive crops may occur in order to ease the burden on labour.

6. Education

AIDS will affect education because the number of children enrolling in schools will decline (Essex et al. 1994: 571). This is a result of the loss of labour in the household, which leads to lower productivity and fewer resources to pay for school fees.  When AIDS sufferers die, it means that the investment in education and training is “wasted” (Cross and Whiteside 1993: 195). In developing countries where resources are scare, and educational opportunities rare, this has an extremely negative effect on education.

7. Social welfare

The disadvantage survivors of AIDS victims, including children, widows, widowers elderly parents of AIDS sufferers, will largely depend on social welfare for support (Essex et al. 1994: 572). As AIDS spreads, many children may lose both parents and become orphans in need of care and financial support. It is estimated that between 1,5 and 2,9 million women of reproductive age in East and Central Africa will die of AIDS in the1990s, leaving between 3,1 and 5,5 million AIDS orphans, which means that between 6 and 11 per cent of children under the age of 15 years will be orphaned (Cross and Whiteside 1993: 299-300).

POVERTY, FOOD SECURITY AND FAMINE

INTRODUCTION

We live on a world of contrasts where, in an era of luxury consumer items and electronics, a large percentage of the worlds population do not have an adequate supply of food per day. Millions of people die of malnutrition, hunger and related diseases. Eight hundred million people in the world are undernourished (Alexandratos 1996: 8; IFAD 1995: no page number). Fifteen thousand people die each day because of hunger related diseases. One out of every six people in Africa experiences serious malnutrition (Berck and Bigman 1993:1; Emmett 1990:6). Sub Saharan Africa has the highest incidence of malnutrition in the world (Emmett 1990:6). According to the food and Agricultural Organization (FAO), one out of every seven people is in danger to die of hunger (Geier 1995:1). Hunger and malnutrition are in sharp contrast with the amount of surplus food in the north. The world is a paradox. Almost one of people live in absolute poverty and deprivation and have, therefore, limited means to produce or buy the necessary food. They are trapped in the poverty means to produce or buy the necessary food. They are trapped in the poverty cycle and neither modern science nor food systems can eliminate hunger, not even in the richest countries of the world (Alamgir and Arora 1991: 2-3; King 1989: 10). Malnutrition and hunger coexist with economic growth and increased global food supplies. The incidence of hunger and famine in a world with surplus food supplies is known as the world food problem.

HUNGER AND POVERTY

Woube (1987: 14) identifies two types of hunger: epidemic and endemic hunger.

Epidemic hunger (famine/open hunger) is collective and the result of a sudden lack of food that leads to high mortality rates. Endemic hunger (hidden hunger) is the consequence of a lack of food over the long term that leads to mal- and under nutrition. There is a general consensus that hunger is primarily caused by poverty that is consequence of the interaction between political, social and economic factors (Kent 1984:5; Woube 1987). To understand hunger, in a world with surplus food it is necessary to study the existence of poverty. Some authors are of the opinion that poverty, and thus hunger, are an original natural situation. Poverty exists where development (in terms of economic growth) has not taken place yet. In contrast, others are of the opinion that poverty and hunger cannot over resource, generate and regenerate poverty and hunger (Kent 1984:17). The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) distinguishes between income poverty and human poverty. Income poverty refers to a person as being poor when his or her income is lower than the poverty line. The World Bank uses an income poverty line $ 1 per day per person in sub-Saharan Africa (UNDP) 1997:33). Recent figures show that 266 million of the 590 million people in sub-Saharan Africa live under the income poverty line.

   Human poverty refers to more than just income and focuses on poverty as the denial of choices and opportunities for living a tolerable life (UNDP 1997:2). Human poverty is measured in terms of material welfare but also in terms of opportunities and choices to live a long, healthy and creative life and to sustain a living standard with freedom of choice, self-respect and self esteem (UNDP 1997:5). Indicators such as basic education, life expectancy, basic health services and access to sources are used. The UNDP (1997: 13-14) explains the idea of human development as follows:

    The process of widening people’s choices and the level of well being they achieve are at the core of the notion of development. Such choices are neither finite nor static. But regardless of the level of development, the three essential choices for people are to lead a long and healthy life, to acquire knowledge and to have access to the resources needed for a decent standard of living. Human development does not end here. Other choices, highly valued by many people, range from political, economic and social freedom to opportunities for being creative and productive and enjoying self respect and guaranteed human rights. Income clearly is only one option that people would like to have, though an important one. But it is the sum total of their lives. Income is also a means, with human development the end.

Any development initiative that aims at the eradication of poverty and famine must have human development as objective. Human poverty is high in sub Saharan Africa where 42 per cent of the people are affected (UNDP 1997:47). Since 1980, per capita food production has declined with three per cent in sub Saharan Africa (UNDP1997: 29).

The capacity of a household to ensure adequate food to all its members is an important issue in the alleviation of poverty and malnutrition (Kazwayo 1994: 19). According to King (in Lemma and Malaska 1989: xvi), poverty and famine is inextricably part of climatic, natural, ecological, economic, social, political, agricultural and technological processes. Therefore a systematic perspective within a holistic development approach should be followed to determine why Africa is trapped in a food crisis within a world with surplus food.

Explain the difference in focus between income poverty and human poverty.

FOOD SECURITY

Definition of food security

Food security is interpreted in many ways but the World Banks definition of food security namely “access of all people at all times to enough food to have an active healthy life” is very well known and is widely accepted (Bernstein 1994:3; Colofon 1997:9). Both the World Bank and the entitlement approach (see section 14.4.2.1) focus essentially on the potential access of households to food (Bernstein 1994:3). The World Bank regards the household as the smallest homogeneous consumer unit that is relevant to economic policies, although its definition refers to the individual persons access to food. This definition focuses exclusively on food consumption and does not demonstrate or emphasize the relation between food insecurity, poverty, vulnerability and malnutrition. Maxwell (1999 1b: 2) provides a broader definition of food security and explains that a country and its people can be regarded as being food secure if the existing food system functions well enough to remove the fear of food on securities. According to Maxwell (1991b: 2) food security is achieved when the poor and vulnerable groups, especially women and children, have definite access to secure food.

This definition emphasizes that availability of food, and the capacity to obtain it as the essential elements of food security (Alamgir and Arora 1991:3-4; Colofon 1997:9; Kennedy and Haddad 1992:2; Kuzwayo 1994:20 and 21; Zipperer 1987:57). People can achieve food security through either own production or income received from labour to buy enough food. Barraclough (1991:1) describes food security as “sustained and assured access by all social groups and individuals to food adequate in quantity and quality to meet nutritional needs”. The different process and relationships through which people obtain food are called a food system. A well functioning food system ensures and protects the food security of each individual in such a way that everybody has enough to eat live a healthy, active life (Kutzner 1991:8).

Since the early 1970s, the focus has shifted from a global, national perspective to one that focuses on entitlement to adequate food on the household or individual level. A deficit on household level means that the household can neither produce nor buy the necessary food because of a lack of food in the market or a lack of buying power (Alamgir and Arora 1991:9;Geier 1995:69-70). In contrast with food security, food insecurity is the lack access to adequate food supplies and can be chronic or temporary in nature (Colofon 1997:9). Reutlinger (1987:205) explains chronic food insecurity as a sustained inadequate diet caused by lack of resources to produce or acquire food, while transitory food insecurity is the result of a temporary decline in the access of a household to adequate food.

Transitory food insecurity is the consequence of the instability in food production and prices, or in the household income. The worst form of transitory food insecurity is famine (Geier 1995:18; Maxwell 1991b: 24; Reutlinger 1987:205).

Chronic malnutrition, which is caused by consistent poverty, is a long-term problem of which the solutions and dimensions are much more comprehensive and wide-ranging than food insecurity which is a short term variable (Valdez 1981:3). Against the background of food surpluses on world markets, food insecurity is regarded as an indication of individual and national poverty, and not an indication of global shortage of food supplies. This viewpoint represents a change in the school of thought of the 1970s, which attributed increasing commodity prices, global food shortages and hunger to limited natural resources and increasing population growth (Barraclough 1991:5).

Food insecurity is not necessarily the consequence of inadequate food production as was believed. It is however the consequence of the lack of buying power of households or nations. The root of the problem of food insecurity stretches from inappropriate macro-economic policies to the economic and political structures of local communities that impede the capacity of households to acquire adequate food supplies. Thus, food security has two sides: the first is the food-supply situation (availability) and the second is the structure of food distribution (accessibility). In the distinction between a country and a household or individual can go hungry even if food is available in the country. To have food security both the country and the individual must have the capacity to obtain food through production, purchases or trade (Armar-Klemesu et al. 1995:27; Hussein 1991: 85; Staatz et al. 1990:13-12).

   

In summary, food security refers to the capacity to obtain adequate food. It differs from food self- sufficiency that implies that a country or household produces enough for own use. A high degree of self-sufficiency in food is not necessarily a prerequisite for food security (Tuinenburg 1987:499). South Africa is a good example of a country that achieved self-sufficiency in food with its agricultural policies promoting food production for own use during the apartheid era. However, this did not ensure that all the South African people had food security. A large part of the population still experiences serious food insecurity (Van Zyl 1994:159;Van Zyl and Kirsten 1992).

Levels of food security

A household that experiences food security is defined as a household, that has enough food to ensure a minimum intake to all its members (Alamgir and Arora 1991:6; Donaldson 1986:121; Kuzwayo 1994:20). The availability of food on the household level depends on many variables such as nett food production; land, labour, capital, knowledge and technology; social production relationships; food prices and supplies in the market; cash income derived from labour; profit received from the selling of products; nett food reserves; credit and transfers from governments and other internal and external donors (Alamgir and Arora 1991:6). Negative changes in any of these aspects affect the food security of the household. If changes are temporary and the survival strategy of the household fails, a situation can cause chronic food insecurity (Alamgir and Arora 1991:6).

On the sub national level (town, district and province) the concept of food security refers to the assurance that food is available to individual households to provide in their minimum needs during a certain given period. Alamgir and Arora (19991:7) describe it as follows:

Food security at the sub national level means the assured availability of food for individual household to draw on to meet their minimum consumption requirements during a given period. In other words, sub-national food security implies that inadequate food supplies are available to all households.

Most studies of food security focus on the household level. However, it is necessary to extend it to the national level (Hussain 1991:85). A nation has achieved food security when it can assure both physical and economic access to food to all citizens over the short and medium term (Falcon et al. 1987:20; Kuzwayo 1994:20). National food security is the sum total of household and sub national food security and can be defined as “assured national availability of food to meet current minimum per capita requirements during a specific reference period (a year normally) and, also, to meet any unexpected shortfall over a limited period (say three months)”. (Alamgir and Arora 1991: 7).

Kutzner (1991:157) regards national food security in terms of adequate food production and /or imports. This implies that a country has the infrastructure to process and store food supplies, and to distribute food effectively to all communities and groupings of people in the country. Some authors identify national food security as a condition in which a country is independent of all forms/types of food imports. They regard national food security as the equivalent of self-sufficiency in food. To define national food security as a condition of self-sufficiency in food is according to others, very simplistic and shows a disregard for economic criteria of competition and efficiency. They are of the opinion that a country that cannot compete in the food market will be better off if it applies its resources to a more competitive sector and imports food necessary to feed its population. The income in foreign exchange “would not only compensate but would exceed the foreign exchange savings of the displaced food crops” (Hussain 1991:86).

To complete the picture the concept of food security has to be extended to include the global level. Global food security refers to the assurance of enough food supplies and/or access there to for all on both national and sub national level (Alamgir and Arora 1991:8). An imbalance on any of these levels leads to the paradox of the coexistence of food insecurities and food surpluses (Alamgir and Arora 1991:8-9). To ensure food security to all people at all times, policy makers and governments in both developed and developing countries should know which groups of people are exposed to hunger and the reason for this (Kutzner 1991:157).

THEORIES AND EXPLANATIONS OF FAMINE

It is clear from the literature (Devereux 1993:8; Geier 1995:8) that there is not a single accepted explanation or theory of famine. The causes of famine are just as complex as the society in which it occurs. Dictionary definitions of famine derive from the western perception of famine as crises of mass starvation, which has three elements:

1.      Food shortage,

2.      Severe hunger

3.       Excess mortality

These definitions contain the implicit theory that food shortages are the cause for severe hunger and starvation. This theory, however, has been proven wrong by the occurrence of famines where no food shortages were experienced (for example the Bangladesh famine in 1974) and where excess mortality was caused by disease, not starvation. The point is that a shortage of food is neither a necessary nor a sufficient condition for famine to occur, although it might be one causal factor in the chain of events leading up to a famine. The main determinant is the vulnerability of people that determines and/or disrupts their access to adequate food supplies Devereux (1993:182) explains it as follows:

Droughts, floods, wars, grain hoarding – these and other disruptions to food supplies “trigger” subsistence crises by threatening a population’s access to food. They are immediate causes of food crises, which the western media and public see as the main causes of famine. But these precipitating factors or “trigger” lead to famine only where particular groups of people are vulnerable to famine. Vulnerability is more complex, and usually implies processes rather than events. Underlying processes “set people up” for natural disasters or economic crises. They cause vulnerability, which is the real problem in the eradication of famine.

The main theories of famine can be divided into two groups: supply-side theories and demand-side theories. The former concentrate on those factors that precipitate a famine (supply shortages) and the latter explain the processes of improvement and vulnerability (e.g. exchange entitlement collapse) (Geier 1995:10). A third group of less defined hypotheses can be distinguished and are discussed in this unit as “political economic explanations”.

Explanations of famine based on food supply shortages have been labeled by sen (1981) “Food Availability Decline (FAD) theories” (Devereux 1993:182). Two of the most popular supply-side theories namely drought causes famine (climate) and population growth causes famine (demography) are frequently applied to contemporary African famines. In the discussion that follows we will briefly look at the different explanations and theories.

Supply-side theories (FAD theories)

Climate

This theory emphasizes the role of climatic factors in the occurrence of famine. Famine is regarded as the explicit consequence of crop failure due to serious climatological changes like droughts or floods (Devereux 1993:35). According to this theory, a drought or flood can cause food shortages as it reduces food production, which is only one of several problems (Devereux 1993:182). This theory, however, is subject to serious criticism because of its limitations. The first is that drought; flood or crop blight disrupts food production, not the distribution of food. In other words, this theory assumes a totally closed economy, with no access to other sources of food outside the affected area. It does not make provision for the fact that food can be brought in from elsewhere (trade or aid).

Secondly, this theory implies that all people are equally affected. However, the rich are rarely affected. In other words, it cannot explain why some people have better access to food than others.

Thirdly, the presumption that a serious drought necessarily leads directly to famine is too simplistic. People living in drought-prone areas have a range of insurance mechanisms and coping strategies to apply which help them to survive. Finally, this theory fails to distinguish between a situation where people are vulnerable to drought and situation where they are not. Drought does not always lead to famine (e.g. in the United States and South Africa) (Devereux 1993:183). The main point of criticism is that vulnerability to drought does not necessarily cause famine. People cause famine, and droughts or floods are not theories of famine but only a description of one single cause of a whole range of possible causes of famine. Famine is not a natural phenomenon in the sense that it is always preceded by drought although a relative change in the climate can increase the possibility of famine. The key factor is vulnerability. A change in climate emphasizes existing inequalities and exposes vulnerable people.

Demography

The second FAD or supply-side theory, known as the Malthusian theory (so called because Malthus first followed this trend of thought), explains famine in terms of population increase will eventually outstrip any potential food production (Woube 1987:28; Tarrant 1990:467). However, this nineteenth-century theory did not foresee either the agricultural revolution resulting in higher food production or the transport revolution that improved food distribution (Tarrant 1990:467). History has proved that a continuous increase in food and in spite of the high population growth rate the world still produces food surpluses.

Demand-side theories

The famine of the 1970s caused a growing dissatisfaction with the explanations of famine in terms of supply. The fact that people are hungry despite the availability of food has led to the recognition that poverty is just as important a cause of famine as is lack of food supplies. This led to the demand-side theories of famine which focus on the functioning of markets and is labeled the entitlement approach as defined by sen (in Devereux 1993:182), and market failure that can be explained in terms of

1.      Speculation and hoarding

2.      Fragmentation of markets

In the discussion that follows we will briefly look at the different demand-side theories.

Entitlement approach

According to Sen (1987:198) starvation means that some people do not have enough food. This does not necessarily mean that there is not adequate food in the country. Sen demonstrates that famine can and does occur with plenty of food in a region or country, because people have differential access to this food, and its distribution can shift unfavourably even if aggregate food availability is adequate and constant or rising. Individual or household vulnerability to starvation depends on their entitlement to food (Chambers 1997:18; Devereux 1993:66). Entitlement depends on the political, economic and social circumstances of society as well as the position of the individual in this society (Geier 1995:14-15). Sen (1987:199) identifies four categories of entitlements in a private ownership market economy, namely:

·         Trade-based entitlement (exchange entitlement). One is entitled to own what one obtains by trading something one owns with a willing party (or with a willing set of parties).

·         Production – based entitlement (direct entitlement). One is entitled to own what one produces by using one’s own resources, or resources hired from willing parties meeting the agreed conditions of trade.

·         Own – labour entitlement. One is entitled to one’s own labour power, and thus to the trade-based and production-based entitlements related to one’s labour power.

·         Inheritance and transfer entitlement. One is entitled to own what is willingly given to one by another who legitimately owns it, possibly to take effect after the latter’s death (if so specified by the owner).

Sen (1981) demonstrates that an adequate supply of food per capita is not enough to eliminate food insecurity or famine. The specific cause of hunger is the poverty of people and not lack of food. Famine occurs when entitlements collapse which reduce people to starvation. The strength of this approach is that it identifies which groups of people will be affected by various threats to availability of or access to food. This is an important contrast to FAD approaches, which focus on the aggregate people: food ratio. The solution to hunger should have as point of departure the entitlements of people to food security. The most important characteristic of Sen’s approach is that it detracts the focus away from conventional analysis of food crises in terms of supply and the attention focuses on an analysis of the failure in demand. A second strong point of Sen’s approach is its focus of individuals or groups of people to food. Sen (1982:452) explains it as follows:

Rather than concentrating on the crude variable of food output per head (just one influence among many affecting the entitlement of different groups to food) the focus of analysis has to be on the ownership patterns of different classes and occupation groups, and on the exchange possibilities – through production and trade – that these groups face. The forces leading to famines affect different occupation groups differently, and famine analysis has to be sensitive to these differences rather than submerging all this in an allegedly homogeneous story of aggregate food supply per head affecting everyone’s food consumption.

A better understanding of the development of individual, household or group entitlements is essential to understand the vulnerability to famine (Devereux 1993:82).

Market failure

In this theory markets ar blamed for famine. It relates directly to the relationship between famine victims and local markets. In the analysis of the contibution of markets to famine a clear distinction should be made between pull failure and response failure (Devereux 1`993:`185). Pull failure is caused by poverty and refers to the lack of demand. It can therefore be explained in terms of a lack of demand. It can therefore be explained in terms of a lack or collapse of exchange entitlements to foods. Response failure refers to the failure of markets to meet the demand for food (Devereux 1993:185 and `186). One of the most difficult and complex realities of the world food problem is that the market system does not distribute food according to need (Kutzner `1991:18). To eliminate the hunger problem it is essential to increase the capacity, efficiency and elasticity of the food distribution network in order to ensure a balance between demand and supply.

Political economic explanations

In addition to the supply – and demand-side theories of famine, we also find a couple of less-defined hypotheses, which can be categorized as political economy explanations of famine. These can be divided into five categories: natural resources management, development process, government policy, war and international relations.

Natural resource management

The occurrence of famine in Africa is closely related to the vulnerability of the natural environment. The difference between this aspect and the theory of climate is that the latter focuses on events (especially droughts) that take place while this aspect focuses on long term processes (such as soil erosion) that are related to the management and degradation of natural resources (Devereux `1993:`103). There are three broad categories of arguments that relate the degradation of natural resources and environmental problems to famine (Devereux `1993:`187). The first group believes that natural processes (such as changing climate conditions, desertification and soil erosion) cause famine that result in the natural degradation of soil, and eventually they undermine agricultural production, and food shortages follow (Devereux 1993:103 and 187).

A second group draws a direct link between the environmental crisis and the carrying capacity. In this case, famine victims are blamed for overpopulation and overgrazing which cause soil erosion (Devereux 1993:187). The third group regards famine as the result of overexploitation of natural resources within a context of colonialism and capitalism. Blaikie (1985:124) explains the crux of the argument as follows:

Soil degradation and erosion can be explained in terms of surplus extraction through the social relations of production and in the sphere of exchange. The essential connection is that, under certain circumstances, surpluses are extracted  from cultivators who then in turn are forced to extract “surpluses” (in this case energy) from the environment (stored up fertility of the soil, forest resources, long evolved and productive pastures, and so on), and this in time and under certain physical circumstances leads to degradation and /or erosion.

Development process

In the 1950s and 1960s the international debate on food security focused primarily on the transfer of food through trade and aid to supplement food shortages in developing countries. Development was equated with industrial growth, economic and capitalist development, and modernization and domestic agriculture were neglected (Geier 1995:9). On the one hand some authors are of the opinion that capitalist development is the best way to eliminate hunger. On the other hand there are those who argue that Africa experiences famines due to the implementation of inappropriate development strategies, such as the pursuit of economic growth through industrialization and the neglect of agriculture (Devereux 1993:187).

Government policy

Governments directly contribute to famine, by inappropriate or deliberately harmful policies towards vulnerable groups, and indirectly, by failing to intervene to prevent famines (Devereux 1993:129). Governments’ contribution to famine can be divided into four categories.

Firstly, inappropriate policies where governments fail to address famine vulnerability; marginalisation and impoverishment of certain groupings; urban bias (neglect of food production and the enhancement of cash cropping and agriculture to support industry); and agricultural regulation (government intervention in domestic food markets, establishment of inefficient or corrupt marketing institutions and channels; low producer prices and prohibiting free trade of food) (Devereux 1993:129-137).

Secondly, governments contribute indirectly to famine in their failure to intervene to prevent it. Institutional failure to respond can be caused by lack of information (e.g. no famine early warning system); lack of resources (no foreign exchange to import food; no tracks to distribute food); logistical constraints (poor roads; inaccessible villages); and callous disregard (governments are often embarrassed over their failure to prevent famine or their political hostility towards famine victims) (Devereux 1993:188).

Thirdly, malign intent where governments willfully create famine conditions to use it as a mechanism for suppression (Devereux 1993:130).

Finally, famine as a by product of government actions and decisions (civil war creates famine conditions through the disruption of food production and trade) (Devereux 1993:130)

War

War is probably the single most important factor, which explains the persistence of famine in Africa. The combination of conflict, military rule, militarisation and political refugees create famine vulnerability throughout sub-Saharan Africa (Devereux 1993:189). Military conflict involves the direct disruption of food production systems and is a direct cause of famine. Starvation is often used as either a weapon of war, or follows when the food production systems collapse and people are left with limited food supplies and no alternative food sources (Devereux 1993:189).

International relations

The inequality in economic and political relations between countries increases vulnerability to famine and contributes towards the creation of famine conditions. Three aspects are of importance: the role of international food markets, famine as a result of international negligence and the politics of food aid (Devereux 1993:164). In cases where countries cannot achieve self-sufficiency in food production they are forced to depend on the international food market. Unfortunately most sub Saharan African countries are in no position to influence food prices, which are usually controlled by large international grain companies (Devereux 1993:166 and 189). The uneven distribution of power and wealth, unfavourable trade relations and negative terms of trade put sub Saharan countries in an invidious position regarding the control over food prices and supplies. In the case of food aid, politics play a very powerful role and often serve as an instrument of power to enhance the achievement of policy objectives of the donor country (Devereux 1993:174). Explicit preconditions are often enforced on the recipient country, which are not always conducive to future food production and supplies.

Conclusion

This unit aimed to explain the relationship between poverty and hunger and to introduce you to the different theories and explanations of famine. In summary, food security refers to the capacity to obtain adequate food and it differs from food self sufficiency which implies that a country or household produces enough for own use. A high degree of self-sufficiency in food is not necessarily a prerequisite for food security. Food self-sufficiency is not an indicator of food security and the demand of food is just as important as the supply (availability) of food. It is clear that poverty eradication is the key factor in the achievement of household food security. Although there are many different theories and explanations of famine, poverty is still the main factor determining the food security status of households and individuals. Poverty determines whether people have the entitlements to demand an adequate supply of food. Against the background of food surpluses on world markets, food insecurity is regarded as an indication of individual and national poverty and not an indication of a global shortage of food supplies. The problems of food insecurity, hunger and famine cannot be solved unless the problem of poverty is eliminated. The theories and explanations of famine help us to understand the occurrence of famine and try to focus us on the real causes of hunger and food insecurity. It is essential that governments approach the problem of food insecurity as a serious development problem and focus on the needs, problems, circumstances, survival strategies and entitlement relations of the poor and hungry.  

       

The influence of AIDS on human dignity

AIDS influences human dignity, because infection with this disease goes hand in hand with stigmatization and discrimination. The symptoms of this disease are frightening, knowledge about it is limited and the mode of transmission is associated with socially unacceptable behaviour. The result is a negative social response (Essex et al. 1994: 552).  This renders AIDS a perfect paradigm for stigma, because it is associated with unsanctioned behaviour such as sex workers, multiple sex partners and gays, although AIDS is mainly a heterosexually transmitted diseases in Africa. Mis conceptions about its spread add to the stigma.

 The integrity of people with AIDS is impaired. This occurs in schools, to workplace, the church and other social structures. In some cases infected people lose contact with their family, who should form an important support structure. Persons with AIDS may lose their jobs, which impacts directly on human dignity because a person loses the ability to care for him/herself. Friends tend to distance themselves from an infected person and he/she becomes isolated from the normal activities of society. This impacts on his/her human dignity because such a person may feel worthless to society.  Added to this discrimination, not many developing and developed countries have anti discrimination, laws, although the United Nations tries to safeguard affected peoples human dignity (Essex et al. 1994: 553).

  Fundamental rights to movement, work, education, health, privacy, and AIDS affects freedom of association. International human rights norms provide the ethical parameters of how people with AIDS should be treated, but this does not mean that human dignity is not affected and that discrimination and stigmatization do not exist.

 Education about AIDS is one of the tools that should be used in order to attempt to combat the negative effect on human dignity.

 AIDS and health education

In term of AIDS one can safely say that prevention is the only cure. Although the drug AZT delays the progress of AIDS, it does not cure it. The only long-term solution known to date is education about AIDS.  In 1985 the World Health Organization decided on an AIDS strategy (Sabatier 1987: 49). It has three aims:

1.      To prevent HIV infection;

2.      To reduce the personal and social impact of HIV infection and to care for the infected; and

3.      To co-ordinate national and international efforts.

The global strategy rests on the following principles (World Health Organization 1988a: 8-9):

·         Public health must be protected;

·         Human rights must be respected and discrimination against infected persons prevented;

·         Enough knowledge exists now to prevent the spread of HIV, even without a vaccine;

·         Education is the key to AIDS prevention, because HIV transmission can be prevented through informed and responsible behaviour.

·         AIDS control requires a sustained social and political commitment;

·         All countries need a comprehensive national AIDS programme, integrated into national health systems and linked within a global network; and

·         Systematic monitoring and evaluation will ensure that the global strategy can adapt and grow stronger in time.

·         From these principles, it is clear that education has a vital role to play in the prevention of AIDS.

Conclusion

The purpose of this unit was to look at health and development.  In the first place the state of health as a manifestation of poverty was discussed. We have shown how malnutrition, sanitation and lack of human dignity impact on poverty and the health situation. The second section discussed the principles and objectives of primary health care, national policy and primary health care, and primary health care and empowerment. AIDS as a headache for development was discussed. We have shown how AIDS impacts on the economy and human dignity. In the last instance we have discussed the role of health education in preventing and limiting the spread of AIDS.

STATE AND DEVELOPMENT.

1.      To provide an overview of the changing roles of the state in development

2.      To analyze the changes the challenges of the state in facilitating development.

3.      To analyze the role of the state in empowering the people.

Development is about infrastructure as well as human development.

Roles of  the state in development

Successful development needs long-term commitment of government. The government needs to provide a conducive environment for development through:

National policy support

Having a national policy commitment to economic social, technical and physical development is important for successful development. Uganda has made the poverty eradication Action plan (PEAP) as the national development policy framework.

Administrative support:

The government needs to put in place a structure from national to grass roots level to facilitate the policy implementation process. In Uganda we do have the poverty implementation of PEAP. We also know at all levels.

However national development does not take place in these unite only hence their collaboration with all the other government unit is important.

National planning and programming:

The complexity of development means that government needs to put in place a planning process that is also flexible enough to provide opportunities for puts from the grass roots.

Ministry of finance local government ministry and planning process all need to work together chary.

The state as a policy maker:

Policymaking is the role of the state. This involves:

1.      Policy initiation. Planning the items on the agenda.

2.      Policy process design: the planning and designing of a particular process.

3.      Policy analysis: analyzing agreeing on the key policy out comes.

4.      Policy design: a formal phase of taking formal decisions on the policy process.

5.      Policy dialogue: the engagement of government in discussions with other stakeholders.

6.      Policy implementation: The government must ensure that the policy is practical.

7.      Policy monitoring and evaluation: the policy needs continuous monitoring, evaluation and review and point to new directions for the future.

Development policy must be practical. It should also be contextual taking into account the specific and unique development problems of the rural and urban areas while recognizing the dynamic processes occurring in the country. The policy making process should reflect the needs and sentiments of the people for whom it is intended. Involving the people in the policy making process is very important.

Uganda initiated a number of process to involve the people in the policy making process.

However, in so many third World countries issue of class, race and ethnic stratification combined with regional loyalties, curb the autonomy of rulers and limit their room for maneuver.  Most regimes revolve around the person of the ruler- reducing the number of participants in the policy- making process and there it is hardly any communication between the ruler and ruled. The policy choices are not well informed most soft states are unable to facilitate the participation of the people in the policy making process. This is because most of those states - being an imposition of colonialism are still caught up in legitimacy questions. They hence resort to coercive means to implement decisions and maintain authority.

Policy- making is not linear. It is a dynamic process that should involve the political leaders and the people.

The state as policy implementer:

Material, financial, managerial, bureaucratic and technical resources are critical for the implementation of the policy. However, there is a gap between policy formulation and policy implementation that renders most efforts at development useless. Most governments in Africa are weak and ineffective over burdened, understaffed and under experienced. Government organs lack the capacity in many instances to cope effectively with the range and intensively of demand confronting them.

Historically most African leadership has been self-serving and egocentric. Leaders have hardly acted in the interests of the general public. They serve the interest of a small political, economic and administrative elite. Most government implemented centralized urban biased policies. Rural areas were neglected. This is traced in the colonial legacy and influence of western thought and theories. Most government administrative structures were established at a time when it was believed that third world development had to follow in the footsteps of the west to reach the development stage of the modern western economies. While economic development may not have been achieved, the bureaucracies remained.

Taking the lead in implementing development has been a major assignment of such bureaucracies but because they are modeled based on a different context; they have not been responsive to the demands of the people. Reforming these bureaucracies has been quite difficult.

The state as a benefactor of development

It is by large seen as the role of the state to meet the demands of the citizens such as infrastructure, health, and e.t.c. However, most African states lack the capacity to meet the needs of the citizens due to a poor tax base. Some governments resort to making unrealistic policy statements of intent which are utopian and impossible to implement.

The incapacity of the state to meet the development demands of its people leads to dependency on the international economic order for survival. This makes them to become vulnerable to coercion by the international leading players of the world economics.

The critical balance of payments situation of many third world states threatens the well being of the international economic order with the result that structural adjustment arrangements and other conditions are attached to any development loan to these countries.

The state as a development supporter

Ideally the state should support the people to develop themselves. This means that development should be localized to take into account the particular contexts and needs of the people in that location. The local people take responsibility for development, they make decisions and they plan. The government supports their initiative by an enabling policy, and providing expertise, infrastructure and financial resources. This means that local institutions capacity to facilitate the participation of the people in the development process needs to be in place. This means availability of human capital, financial and technical resources. NGOs and CBOs are also important institutions that can compliment state institutional capacity by facilitating the people to manage their own development. The supporting role of the state lies in develo0ping a climate conducive to institutional building and helping to establish fledgling organizations, building and nurturing them and recognizing them as participatory forums and bodies through.

·         Supplementing local resource and resource redistribution from the rich to the poorer regions

·         Coordination of the various efforts towards a national goal.

·         Supervisory role auditing of financial of financial records e.t.c.

·         Provision of capacity and institutional development of local organizations through provision of information, training and technical capacity depending on need.

The government should use participatory instruments of empowerment and not as mechanisms of political control. To this end the government should respect the autonomy of these structures, and not impose either political functionaries or traditional leaders on them. (Monaheng T, rural development and community participation in Lesotho: unpublished D. Littet Phil thesis, university of South Africa Pretoria).

Conclusion:

The key role of government in development is enabling and supporting the people to develop themselves. The position and capacity of most third world countries has not enabled them to play this role. This is because most of the African states are soft states subject to the international economic order demands. This facilitating participatory development is an up hill task for such a state.

DEVELOPMENT  PLANNING AND PROJECTS.

OBJECTIVE The aim of this unit are: ·         To provide an explanation of development planning; ·         To identify and briefly explain the elements of planning; ·         To give a brief outline of the typical planning hierarchy; ·         To identify advantages of and obstacles to planning; ·         To explain the development planning process; ·         To provide an overview of development project management; ·         To identify and briefly discuss the project management cycle; ·         To emphasize the importance of planning in development projects.

1.1 INTRODUCTION

 Planning is a broad term used to refer to a wide range of activities that may be performed at various spatial and operational levels. The actual process of planning is an identifiable activity that can be distinguished from other related activities.

  In development planning, there are approaches and sets of tools that have and are demonstrating their effectiveness in creating sustainable development. Past failures and future challenges call for a break through in the both thinking and doing.

 This unit will open up a discussion on the meaning of development planning and will also examine how planning fits into the project management cycle. The last part of the unit will focus on an overview of the basic elements of development projects and project management.

1.2   THE MEANING OF DEVELOPMENT PLANNING

In its most simplistic form, development means change. Change in the microenvironment of any public institution result in uncertainty. Public managers should be proactive in acting on change by minimizing threat and by optimizing opportunities. Planning is a basic management function each manager is involved with and can deal with various development issues. The value of this management function becomes clear from the work by Miller, Roomer and Staude (1985:79) who indicate functions.

Plans are usually drawn up to provide public managers with guidelines of what to do and how to do it. The time frame of these plans can be short term – (1 to 12 months), medium term (1 to 5 years) or longer term (longer than 5 Years). It is, how ever, important not to view the time frame as a final rule because situations can be changed by certain circumstances at short notice.

This kind of continually planning means that the time frames of plans are often disregarded.

 It is important to emphasize that planning is a continuous process. There are no specific times during the management process where planning must be done. The basis of planning is exactly that it takes place continually in order to deal with the continuous changes in circumstances.

The aim with every plan is to reach a goal or to achieve objectives. Planning is therefore aimed at determining the future actions of an institution and / or individual, and to identify guidelines that are necessary to achieve it. It must also be kept in mind that planning deals with choosing between alternatives.

ELEMENTS OF PLANNING.

There are innumerable definitions of planning. Most authors try to offer a new definition and many national policy documents or statements by individual political leaders introduce their own definitions to suit the particular image of planning to which they wish to convey. Nevertheless, despite the surfeit of existing definitions some sorts of working definitions is necessary. For the purpose of these discussion planning is defined as continuous process, which involves decisions or choices about alternative ways of using available resources with the aim of achieving a particular goal at some time in the future. This definition attempt to incorporates the main points included inmost other definitions & thus to convey the most important elements to concept of planning. Those elements include the following:

 To plan means to choose.

 Planning involves making decisions about which of a number of courses of action to adopt, in other words, making choices. President Nyerere’s main concern in a speech to the Tanzanian people was that they should not be disappointed if the plan did not appear to meet all their needs or expectations. He emphasized that it was not possible to provide every thing for every body all at once& that the plan presented the result of choosing which things should be given priority.  Planning, he said, planning means choosing between many desirable activities because not every thing can be done at once. However, planning also involves making choices between alternative courses of action, in other words, about alternative ways of achieving the same objectives. This means, of course, that planning can only be done if the information is available on what choices there are & what the consequence will be for every choice.

Planning as a means of allocating resources.

 Another important element of planning is that it is concerned with the allocation of resources. Resources are used are here to refer to anything that is considered by those making decisions to be optimal use in achieving a particular objective. This definition this includes not only natural resources (water, land, minerals and so on), but also human resources, capital resources (such as roads, buildings, and equipment) and finance. This means that in participatory planning people allocate resources to themselves.

Planning involves decisions about how to make the best use of the available resources. Consequently, the quality and quantity and quantity of these resources have a very important effect on the process of choosing between different courses of action. On the one hand, the fact that there are almost always limits to the quality of resources available, is the main reason why planning involves deciding which of a number of desirable courses of action should be given priority

         

On the other hand, where choices have to be made between alternative courses of action, the availability of recourses plays an important role in likely to be most acceptable. Poor people should therefore realize from the outset that planning does not mean to work through a shopping list. The squeeze in which they find themselves is real and can be addresser a bit at a time.

Planning as a means of achieving goals

 It is not enough to say that planning involves making decisions about the use of resources because the best use of any particular set of resources will depend very much on what one is trying to achieve .It is important to look at the relationship between planning and the achievement of goals. That is why planning is usually confined within projects with clear and distinct goals.

Planning for the future

 There is one other important element of planning which is incorporated in most definitions that is the time element.           The goal which planning is designed to achieve obviously lies in the future and planning is thus inevitably concerned with the future.

 The concern with the future manifests itself in two main ways. One manifestation is that an important part of planning involves forecasting, or making predicting the about what is likely to happen in the future and more specifically, predicting the out come of

An alternative course of action in order to determines which one to adopt. The other manifestation of planning’s concern with the future is its role in scheduling future activities. Planning involves not only deciding what should be done to achieve a particular goal, but also deciding the sequence in which the various activities should be performed in order to proceed in a logical and orderly manner, step by step , towards the achievement of the goal.

PLANNING HIERARCHY

 Planning takes place on all levels within an organization but the final responsibility lies with top management. Top management is responsible for drawing up a strategic plan with in the broad policy framework. This strategic plan should of course also include development issues-within and outside the organization.

Middle management concentrates on the tactical or operational plan that will be implemented to reach the goals. In other words this level of management deals with the actual implementation plans for development. These operational plans in include procedures, standards, programmer and budgets. These operational plans in turn provide junior management with guideline for drawing up the detailed implementation plans which they are responsible for.

Outside the formal organization, though, the hierarchy is not so well established. Here “top management” is situated in central government that should play a facilitating and supportive role more than a planning role. The actual planning takes place at a much lower level among the community so that the hierarchy is very much turned on its head.

ADVANTAGES OF PLANNING

The following advantage, adapted from Smit & Cronje (1992:91-92) can be identified:

·         Planning improved co-operation between departments and individuals in an organization.

·         Planning gives direction to an organization or an effort by assisting in the formulation of development objectives.

·         Planning require from managers to have a vision of the future which they should share with all those participating in the planning.

·         The increasing complexity of public institutions and the interdependence of the various functional management fields emphasize the need for planning, all the more because the community plays an ever more important role.

·         Continuous change in the environment is promoted.

 These advantages mean that continuous development planning is essential. However, there are certain obstacles to planning that can also be identified.

OBSTACLES TO PLANNING

Because planning is a complex and continuous process, problems or obstacles can be expected. Typical obstacles include:

·         Circumstances that influence the original drafting and implementation of the plan.

·         Human factors;

·         Ineffective organizational system; and.

·         Managements attitude towards planning (Technikon SA,1996b:41)

Public managers must have accurate, relevant and reliable information about the planned activity to overcome these obstacles. Planning should also start well in advance to ensure that the relevant development objective is eventually achieved. It should further fall within the broad policy framework of the organization and the community. Further requirements for planning is that it must take place systematically are full participants.

THE PLANNING PROCESS

  The process of planning normally differs from organization to organization and even from individual to individual. However, there are some basic steps in the typical planning process that can be used to achieve set goals and objectives in an orderly fashion. The steps in the planning process are integrated and cyclical in nature, which again emphasizes the fact that it is a continuous process. The following steps are identifiable:

1.      Be aware of the opportunity. 

 This actually forms part of preparing for the actual planning and it involves weighing up the various possible opportunities. A good starting point in this regard can be a typical SWOT analysis. This means that the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats of the organization or community must be identified.

2.   Set a goal or number of goals

It is important to have a vision of where the organization or community wants to go and how they will get there. However, it is just as important that these goals and objectives must be realistic, quantifiable and reachable.

  3.  Define the current situation.

Aspects that should be looked at during this step in the planning process are:

·         Identify resources and obstacles to planning.

·         Determine alternative action plans

·         Evaluate alternative plans.

·         Choose the best action plan. All variables that were identified must be taken into account to determine the best alternative.

·         Formulate the chosen plan (s).

·         Calculate plans by drawing up a budget.

PLANNING TOOLS

There are numerous planning techniques and tools that can be used in the development planning process. However, for the purposes of this discussion, only some of these will be highlighted.  The Gantt chart, development by Henry Gantt, is a graphical method that is used in planning and control. Horizontal bars indicate what activities will take place and at what time.

Network scheduling is used to plan more complex activities and tasks. Two forms of network techniques can be identified the Program Evaluation and Review Technical (PERT) and the Critical Path Method (CPM). These two methods are very much the same, with the main difference that CPM is usually used in activates where the completion times are known.

 Strategic planning forms part of strategic management. To a certain, extent, the steps in the strategic planning process differ from the more general steps in the planning process. However, it is important to keep in mind that strategic planning is still only a resource for planning. Where planning is very much a learning process and where the community members are not very sophisticated, it is suggested that the planning cycle method be followed. This is a short-term method that affords the participants constant evaluation through which they learn.

DEVELOPMENT PLANNING PROJECT MANAGEMENT

Development planning is very important but without the actual implementation of the various development plans nothing significant will happen with regard to development itself. In recent years there has been an increasing awareness of the need to address the poverty of communities. Requests are continually addressed to the public and private sectors to assist in this task. As a result of these requests, various often these projects have been initiated all over the country. However often these projects have not progressed much beyond the needs determination stage, or the planning stage.

By applying a management technique such as project management these mistakes of the past can be avoided to some extent. Project management allows thorough planning to take place in the development of a particular community or organization, which leads to the successful implementation of projects. Project management must, however, be adaptive in order to really ensure a measure of success.

PROJECT MANAGEMENT DEFINED.

Project management entails planning, organization, coordinating controlling and directing activities of a project. It is characterized by the application or implementation of actions and implies that management techniques are adapted to exercise more effective control over existing resource. Project management can also be regarded as a planning and control mechanism for using resources to achieve specific objectives. A project can be defined as an unrepeated activity and it has the following characteristics:

·         It is objective-oriented.

·         It has certain restrictions, e.g. limited resources.

·         The result is quantifiable.

·         It brings about change.

Project management is a set of principles, methods, tools, and techniques for the effective management of objective-oriented work in the context of a specific and unique environment.

Project management has certain advantages, some of which are:

·         Control over the whole project, which leads to productivity

·         Shorter completion time.

·         Cost control.

·         Quality of product.

·         Transparency (the whole institution or community- depending on who the client is- is part of project management).

A project is carried out within predetermined guidelines or parameters. Typical parameters of a project include. 

·         A statement of the end product/result (the goal or objective).

·         A fixed time for achieving the goal or objective.

·         A budget.

·         Standards/criteria such as quality, quantity, flexibility, resources, community participation and policy.

One must/ remember that the situation is fluid and uncertain and that the participants are in a learning process. Therefore, these aspects can never be inflexible and changes to original plans are not a sign of weakness. Uncertainty is a fact and project management must bear that in mind.

PROJECT DEVELOPMENT CYCLE

A project moves through three main phases. Each phase consists of specific actions, as illustrated below:

 PREPARATION PHASE.

·         Determination of the need for a project.

·         Problem analysis.

·         Choice of suitable project (priorities needs).

·         Project formulation and planning.

·         Project design.

·         Allocation of funds.

IMPLEMENTATION PHASE.

·         Organizational arrangements.

·         Administration and management (financial control, decision-making, co-ordination).

·         Execution of monitoring and feedback.

·         Record-keeping.

EVALUATION

1.      Evaluation of project against set standards and original plan.

2.      Measurement of achievement of objectives.

3.      Lessons learnt for future projects.

During the preparation phase, the need for a project is determined and arrangements are made to implement the project. The implementation phase entails carrying out project activities. Project implementers use the evaluation phase to assess their outputs and results. Evaluation assesses the project (what was achieved), the process (how the product was achieved) and the degree of positive change (quality).

         As mentioned above, certain steps or activities are carried out in each phase of project management. These steps will now be discussed in more detail.

PRACTICAL STEPS IN PROJECT MANAGEMENT.

 Practical steps must be taken to launch a project and achieve the goals and objectives that were set. The steps below should assist in achieving the end purpose with the given resources and within the given time frame.  It is very important that all stakeholders and role-players are involved and participate in the project management process. This will ensure total commitment to its objectives.

Step 1: Identify the need

 Several methods can be used to identify needs. These can be divided broadly into formal and informal methods. Formal methods include questionnaires, scientific surveys and opinion polls. Informal methods include debates, discussions and mere observation. Prioritization of the identified needs is particularly important.

 Information must be based on facts and not merely on personal opinion. It should be established whether the project will be accepted and supported by the institution that will be affected by it.

Step 2: choose the project team and appoint the project manager.

Form the outset it should be realized that the project team represent the institution or community and, as such, must place the client’s interests above personal interests. The project team is trusted to launch a project on behalf of the people it represents and to liaise with these people regularly.

      

The member of the project team must be knowledgeable in certain fields, since the project entails many aspects. For instance, a financial expert is needed to manager the budget and another person is needed who is familiar with personnel matters. The choice of people involved depends on the nature of the project.

It is vital not to include people merely because of their occupation or field of knowledge. Motivation must play a major role. It does not help to appoint an expert who is not motivated to see the project through to the end. Other aspects to be considered in choosing project team members include the following:

·         Drive to execute the project.

·         Initiative to make alternative plans.

·         Involvement.

·         Non-political attitude.

The latter is a very important aspect. If person with political motives becomes involved, he/she might ensure that only members of his/her political party benefit from the project. Motivation for involvement in the project should be community development to the benefit of the whole community and not political gain.

     

After all has been said and done, it remains a fact that the project team is chosen by the ordinary people with their own criteria and motives; their own likes and dislikes. The nature of the project will determine its size. In other words, the larger and more extensive the project, the large the project team. But, it is important to note that every team member can act as a facilitator for a sub-project team. The principle of simplicity comes to bear in this regard.

   Once a project team has been chosen, the next essential task is to appoint a project and his/her then has the authority of form his/her own project team. In practice and particularly in the context of a community, however, this appointment should be made more democratically. The project team appoints a project manager as the chairperson of the team.

   To ensure that the community or institution is served effectively and that the product will be produced within the limited budget and time, strong managers are needed as leaders. These managers should have;

·         Organizational and leadership experience;

·         Contact with the necessary resources;

·         The ability to co-ordinate the pool of diverse resources;

·         Communication and procedural skills;

·         The ability to delegate and monitor work; and.

·         The willingness and ability to adapt according to circumstances.

The first task of the project team is to define the project.

Step 3: Define the project

The project needs to be defined so that all member of the team know exactly what they are letting themselves in for and so that they can clarify all uncertainties about the project. One mechanism of defining the project is a meeting involving the project team and role-players.

The project manager directs the discussion until there is consensuses. Only those people with a direct interest in the project should be invited to the meeting. The time should be limited so that the main aspects can be focused on. The objectives of the meeting should clear.

The definition of the project is particularly important if funds have to be raised. Developers want to know exactly what the project is all about, and a clearly written document is needed for this. All related matters must be in writing so that nothing important is left out of the planning phase. The advantage of a written document is that the project manager cannot be blamed later if something has not been done. Everyone must participation in formulation the document. It is important that factual information be gathered.

  Note that a detailed document can be submitted only after the planning phase, because the time schedules, all activates and responsible people have not yet been finalized. Some of the aspects that should be included in this document are the:

·         Destination of the project (where);

·         Beneficiaries;

·         Objectives and milestones (what);

·         Scope of the project;

·         Factual information and community approval;

·         Planned completion date (when);

·         Available and required resources (within);

·         Estimated cost (material, transport, etc.); and

·         Responsible people (who).

Step 4: plan the project

      No project is too large if it has been define properly and divided into logical, progressive steps. The members of the project team must become familiar with all the matters relating to the project.

A schedule for the whole project is essential. Start with two dates- a starting between these two dates. These logical activities must be linked with a responsible person or people with realistic target dates. Some activities may overlap, but one group should not have to wait for another group to complete its functions before it can being its own.

     One technique to use in planning development projects is a work breakdown structure (WBS) in which activities are assigned to responsible people. Figure 1.1 is an example of such a WBS.

Figure 1.1: A work breakdown structure.

	WBS: Tasks
	Foundation	Walls	Door	Windows	Roof	Paint
Jack	X				X
Mary		X		X
Bill		X				X
Claire			X			X

The workload must be realistic and equal. People should be given tasks that they can do and they must know exactly what is expected of them.

     It must be remembered, though, that a plan is not a blueprint and that it cannot be done once and then stand for the duration of the project. See in this regard again the characteristics of the planning cycle method.

    The following practical steps can be taken to schedule (plan) a project:

·         Identify the activities: divided the project into logical activities. Each activity to be completed before being carried out. It is advisable to assign activities to responsible people at this stage.

·         Plan starting and completion dates: plan the starting dates of each activity. Not that some activities can start immediately because they do not depend on the completion of preceding activities. Activities may therefore overlap. The starting dates of other activities may depend on the completion dates of preceding activities.

·         Estimate the duration of each activity: calculate how many days per week are needed to complete an activity. Duration may also be calculated in hours for a more accurate picture.

·         Modify the schedule as necessary: once the various interest groups have been consulted, the provisional schedule may need to be modified.

·         Prepare the schedule: the Gantt chart can now be drawn. As the project progresses, its actual state should be indicated on the chart. The process needs to be monitored constantly to take corrective steps if there are any deviations from the planned chart.

·         Distribute the schedule to all team members and the community: once the schedule has been completed and the Gantt also be distributed among the community or to heads of department of the institution to ensure transparency.

A scheduling chart is a good idea, since it provides a graph of the various project phases so that everyone knows how the project is progressing.

      Scheduling is sometimes considered to be synonymous with planning but in this context it is merely a tool for representing planning actions visually. Planning provides an overall time frame, whereas scheduling assigns date to specific activities in more detail.

Example of a Gantt chart. 

DATE

M

T

W

T

F

S

S

M

T

W

T

F

S

ACTIVITY

Foundation

Walls

Door

Windows

Roof

Paint

A variety of techniques can be used in each step of planning. The advantages of applying planning techniques to project management include the following:

·         They help to formulate achievable objectives for the project terms of time, cost and resources.

·         They ensure that cost, time and resource limitations are calculated and included in the contract document.

·         They monitor the progress of the project and evaluate the deviations in terms of planned and actual progress.

·         They identify responsibilities for each work breakdown structure or activity.

·         They provide a means of communication for conveying information to project team members.

·         They reduce project risks and uncertainty by identifying critical activities. The most common techniques include the following:

1.      Gantt chart.

2.      Network diagrams.

3.      Programmer Evaluation and Review technique (PRRT) and critical path method (CPM).

4.      Management by objectives.

5.      Numerical models such as return on investment ROI).

6.      Net present value (NPV).

7.      Cost break-even analyses.

Each of these techniques was development to plan and manage specific aspects. The programmer Evaluation and Review Technique (PERT) can be used to schedule uncertain projects (see the earlier discussion in this unit). Step one of PERT is to make three estimates. These are:

M = The most likely duration.

O = The most optimistic duration (5% deviation)

P = The most pessimistic duration 5% deviation)

The second step is to use the following formula to calculate E (estimated duration)

E = O+P+(4*M)

             6

Every delay has negative effect on the rest of the project. Delays have to be made up in the last phase to keep the project on schedule. In practice this means that project team members have to work more quickly, which lead to unnecessary stress. The main task of project managers is to ensure that time schedules are adhered to, and if unavoidable circumstances lead to delays, corrective steps must be taken to recover the time lost.

Once the schedule is complete, the funds and resources needed must be allocated to the whole project. For this a budget needs to be prepared. A budget is a plan for the future allocation and utilization of the various resources for the different activities of the enterprise in a given period. It is an essential and useful tool that the project team can use to convert project plans into monetary or resource terms. It enables the project team to determine and control expected income and expenditure in advance teams activities.

The budget has the following purposes:

·         It helps the project manager to co-ordinate the various phases of the project.

·         It helps to define the standards needed in all control systems.

·         It provides clear guidelines on the project team’s resources and how they will be used.

·         It serves as a means of evaluating activities.

·         Although various budgeting methods can be used, e.g. operational financial and zero-based budgeting, they are not necessarily applicable to project team is as follows:

·         Determine the initial schedule.

·         Establish the various activities.

·         Attach costs to each activity (consider all variables such as stationery, telephone call and transport).

·         Add all the cost to obtain a grand total.

Documentation is especially important when team members are inexperienced. It is also necessary when the project is extremely complex and contains a great deal of technical detail and when the task is to be carried out in a specific, effective way. When team members live in different areas and are involved in different activities, documentation may help to provide uniformity.

   After planning the development project, the next important step is to implement the plan.

Step 5: Implement the project    

Implementation is the process in which all planned actions are  executed plans of action are put into operation, the responsible people carry out tasks and give feedback to the project team, resources are allocated and control is exercised. Because circumstance change rapidly, implementation should follow the planning phase as soon as possible. If circumstance have changed to such an extent that the plans are no longer viable, new plans have to be made. The whole project must then be planned right from the start and new time schedules given to each activity.

 A problem that may arise during implementation is lack of enthusiasm. The previous steps have not required any significant sacrifices and all project team members have still been fully committed to carrying out the project. However, now that each one has to physically do something, all sorts of excuses are given. The longer the period between planning and implementation, the greater the chance of waning enthusiasm. recommends the following to maintain enthusiasm:

1. Make sure that the goal of the project can be achieved within a fairly short time and that the demands made on those carrying out the project are not too high
2. Create interim objectives towards achieving the goal, so that the project team experience a sense of success before the project is completed.
3. Involve every person in the project team.
4. The project manager must be enthusiastic and convey this to project members.
5. Be positive, even if problems occur.
6. Try to predict obstacles before so that they can be avoided and the group can prepare for them.
7. Give recognition for good work and compliment people if they perform well.
8. Turn a setback into a positive learning experience.
9. The commitment, motivation and enthusiasm of the project manager should always be evident to everyone.

The role of project managers is critical in the implementation phase. They must co-ordinate all activities, take the lead, motivate project team members, monitor the process continually and take corrective steps if there are any deviations from the original plan. Enthusiasm and motivation of project team members and the community must be maintained. The benefit everyone will gain from the project and the final product must be emphasized.

   The final step in project management is evaluation. Note, however that even though it is the final step, evaluation, and in particular monitoring, must take place from the first step to ensure that the project is on track.

Step 6: evaluate the project

The results must be quantifiable (measurable). This does not mean the assessment of only the tangible, physical results, such as financial statements, but also the invisible results such as the degree of change in attitudes and perceptions. The cost-effectiveness of the project, organizational capacity and operational systems must also be assessed. In public institutions it is important to determine whether the project has been completed within the guidelines of existing policy and regulations. The process should be monitored continually, corrective steps taken done on an ongoing basis to identify deviations and make recommendations for improvement.

    The programmer Evaluation and Review Technique (PERT) is probably the most well known technique used to evaluated projects. It involves a network of the whole programmer that is developed during the planning phase. An analysis of these network schedules is important because it determines resources such as people, money and material. Because PERT can be illustrated visually in a graph, it has the advantage that it is always visible, which makes constant evaluation possible.

  Three main obstacles may occur in the evaluation process: standards, the application of standards and appropriate action. The project team needs to formulate standards or criteria for each phase. Some of the criteria that should be considered include meeting the scheduled completion date and achieving the objective within the budget. Other standard include quality, co-operation and accuracy.

The third obstacle, i.e. deciding on appropriate action, requires insight from project managers. If project managers realize, for instance, that the planned schedules are not being adhered to, this is a problem in itself, but may have an underlying cause, such as lack on schedule, but may have an underlying cause, such as lack of co-operation between team members. It is fairly easy to get back on schedule, but it is complex process to overcome lack of co-operation and possible conflict between team members.

 Another important technique is participatory self-evaluation, developed by Uphoff for the United Nations (Uphoff 1989).

CONCLUSION

The move to development planning was a reaction to the economic crisis promoted by global restructuring and the inability of old-style regional planning to address the resultant problems. The trend is apparent as cities throughout the word assume responsibility for attracting investment, supporting indigenous enterprises, and sustaining community efforts. In order to achieve the desired level of development in developing countries, future oriented and attainable goals should be set, taking into account the circumstances within which planning takes place. And new approaches to development planning should be sought.

One management’s technique that can be used with great success in development is project management. These techniques enable managers to not only plan properly for a specific development goals or objective, but also to manager and implement those plans effectively and efficiently.

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