scholarly journals Sustainability: the dream of international development projects

Author(s):  
M. Dulcey Morán ◽  
M. Ferguson
Author(s):  
Ayokunle Olumuyiwa Omobowale

Most of the discourse on development aid in Africa has been limited to assistance from Western countries and those provided by competing capitalist and socialist blocs during the Cold war era. Japan, a nation with great economic and military capabilities; its development assistance for Africa is encapsulated in the Tokyo International Conference on African Development (TICAD) initiative. The TICAD started in 1993 and Japan has so far held 5 TICAD meetings between 1993 and 2013 during which Africa’s development challenges and Japan’s development assistance to the continent were discussed. The emphasis on “ownership”, “self-help” and “partnership” are major peculiar characteristics of Japan’s development aid that puts the design, implementation and control of development projects under the control of recipient countries. This is a major departure from the usual practice in international development assistance where recipient countries are bound by clauses that somewhat puts the control of development aid in the hands of the granting countries. Such binding clauses have often been described as inimical to the successful administration of the aids and development in recipient countries. Though Japan’s development aid to Africa started only in 1993, by the 2000s, Japan was the topmost donor to Africa. This paper examines the context of Japan’s development aid to Africa by analyzing secondary data sourced from literature and secondary statistics.


2015 ◽  
Vol 56 (1) ◽  
pp. 99-118 ◽  
Author(s):  
KARA MOSKOWITZ

AbstractThis article examines squatter resistance to a World Bank-funded forest and paper factory project. The article illustrates how diverse actors came together at the sites of rural development projects in early postcolonial Kenya. It focuses on the relationship between the rural squatters who resisted the project and the political elites who intervened, particularly President Kenyatta. Together, these two groups not only negotiated the reformulation of a major international development program, but they also worked out broader questions about political authority and political culture. In negotiating development, rural actors and political elites decided how resources would be distributed and they entered into new patronage-based relationships, processes integral to the making of the postcolonial political order.


2016 ◽  
Vol 3 ◽  
pp. 5035 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kai Matturi ◽  
Chris Pain

Over the last number of decades there has been a tendency within the international development sector to privilege the management of projects in a siloed manner. This translates to projects managed in a narrow way according to pre-defined parameters of say the education or health sectors. As a project manager you are held accountable for delivering education or health outputs. A shift in donor funding to focus on development projects that are considered easy to administer partly explains this siloed approach to project management within the development sector. However, there is a gradual kick back against the siloed project management approach. Instead we are seeing a return to an integrated managerial approach.An integrated managerial approach involves bringing together various technical specialists to work on common objectives in a coordinated and collaborative manner. A growing number of development actors such as Concern Worldwide are embracing this ‘new approach’. For Concern Worldwide integrated projects are interventions which address multiple needs through coordination across a variety of sectors and with the participation of all relevant stakeholders to achieve common goals. Integrated projects are about sector projects working together with the same target group in the same area in a coordinated manner. This paper reflects on Concern’s experience and evidence to date with integration drawing on the agency’s work in Zambia. The Realigning Agriculture to Improve Nutrition project in Zambia highlights the practical challenges and lessons of managing an integrated project.   


Author(s):  
Tooran Alizadeh ◽  
Reza Farid ◽  
Laura Willems

This chapter explores social media's potential to enhance public involvement to pursue sustainable practices on an international scale across planning and development projects. Using a case-study approach, the international institutions of the World Bank, UN-Habitat, Unilever, and World Business Council for Sustainable Development are investigated. The relationship between public versus the institutions' intake on sustainability is examined. Findings identify strong public push for increased sustainability in international development and show evidence of the ways in which international institutions respond to the public. Contributing to the social media research field, it offers an alternative application to the planning profession via e-planning. This could contribute to an extended form of public engagement through social media that goes beyond the limiting geographical borders of each local community, and assesses planning and development projects for their broader sustainability implications on an international platform.


2018 ◽  
Vol 11 (3) ◽  
pp. 73-82
Author(s):  
Martin J. Haigh

While the ideas and objectives of Western, often religious, agricultural and development organisations in international development are well documented, those of Hindu NGOs operating, internationally, outside India are not. This paper explores the approaches of some of the key players. These include Gandhian Sarvodaya (especially in Sri Lanka), the Ananda Marg's Progressive Utilisation Theory (PROUT) (especially in Venezuela), ISKCON — the International Society for Krishna Consciousness (especially its model farms in Europe), the Ramakrishna Order and, briefly, the “ Bhumi Project”, the Hindu contribution to the UNDP/ARC's multi-faith sustainability initiative “ Many Heavens, One Earth”. Each initiative emphasises different aspects of the Hindu worldview. Gandhian Sarvodaya emphasises self-reliance, non-harming ( ahimsa), and personal ethics ( dharma), while P.R. Sarkar's Ananda Marg, emphasises cooperative enterprise and the institution of a new more spiritually-socialist social order. ISKCON emphasises devotional service ( bhakti yoga) within a model for a self-sufficient, self-sustainable, post-hydrocarbon future, while Swami Vivekananda's Sri Ramakrishna Order emphasises service and holistic development. Finally, the Bhumi Project, a product of the emerging self-awareness of the global Hindu diaspora, aims to unite the work of a range of Hindu organisations. These movements share a development agenda that emphasises self-sustainability, a low ecological footprint, social justice (variously defined), and the development of spiritual rather than economic capital.


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