Resources

Contributing the special 50th edition of PLA notes, the author argues that continuum thinking may not be useful for promoting development under conditions of violent conflict or civil war. Continuum thinking is defined as viewing relief, rehabilitation and development as distinct sequential processes in a time-frame model that is, a linear process moving from one stage to the next. The author criticises this approach for 4 main reasons: social conflicts and civil warfare are often circular processes, meaning that periods of relative calmness are often interrupted by violence; it is virtually impossible to distinguish between a pure emergency situation and a development situation; rehabilitation and reconstruction approaches tend to focus on re-establishing a status quo that in fact held the seeds of the conflict; efforts need to find an approach that prevents a reappearance of such destructive patterns and find a new way forward; and emergencies (and aid distribution) do not take place within a social and political vacuum. The article then looks at examples of participatory development in Sri Lanka, during times of war, as an example. The case study looks at how the Integrated Food Security Programme Trincomalee (IFSP) lobbied for a development-oriented participatory approach in Sri Lanka. In conclusion, the author argues that the experiences of IFSP show that participatory development requires a process of continuous negation with local implementing partners, and that only if aid agencies use this kind of process can their work contribute to the social and economic recovery of a war-ridden society.

The recent 'rise of rights' has sparked much critical reflection, one of the key concerns being 'What is different this time'?. Can this emerging focus on rights within development help bring about favourable changes for poor and marginalised people?

This issue of the IDS Bulletin addresses diverse perspectives and questions across a spectrum of current thinking, policy and practice. Why the rights-based approach and why now? Whose rights count? 'Rights' work has evolved from an historical focus on human rights violations and concern for legal protection, but its future depends on direct engagement with civil society causes.

Development needs rights as much as rights need development. Illustrated here are struggles for rights within specific contexts (tenants associations in Kenya; children's organisations in India): the perspective of marginalised groups alters how formal rights are given meaning. Using rights in practice is challenging and filled with contradictions and tensions. The struggle for rights is happening and it is not simply an agenda of the powerful.

What emerges from this IDS Bulletin is a vibrant picture of often diverse meanings and strategies pursued throughout the world. If the current enthusiasm for rights in development can open thinking spaces and result in appropriate action, rather than serving as a one-size-fits-all export, then rights bases approaches are to be welcomed. Moving beyond old debates and recognising that rights must be claimed and realised by real people, the development community can discover what rights will ultimately mean in context and practice.

Table of contents

• Introduction: Developing Rights: Discourse to Context and Practice (pdf), Jethro Pettit and Joanna Wheeler
• 'Why Rights, Why Now? Reflections on the Rise of Rights in International Development Discourse', Andrea Cornwall and Celestine Nyamu-Musembi
• 'Rights-based Approaches and Bilateral Aid Agencies: More Than a Metaphor?', Laure-Hélène Piron
• 'Rights-based Development: Linking Rights and Participation - Challenges in Thinking and Action', Valerie Miller, Lisa VeneKlasen and Cindy Clark
• 'An Actor-oriented Approach to Rights in Development', Celestine Nyamu-Musembi
• 'Rights-based Approaches: Recovering Past Innovations', Valerie Miller, Lisa VeneKlasen and Cindy Clark
• 'Rights and Power: The Challenge for International Development Agencies', Alexandra Hughes, Joanna Wheeler and Rosalnd Eyben
• 'Can a Rights-based Approach Help in Achieving the Millennium Development Goals?', Salil Shetty
• 'Living Rights: Reflections from Women's Movements About Gender and Rights in Practice', Cindy Clark, Molly Reilly and Joanna Wheeler
• 'Small Hands, Big Voices? Children's Participation in Policy Change in India', Emma Williams
• 'Operationalising the Rights Agenda: Participatory Rights Assessment in Peru and Malawi', James Blackburn, Mary Ann Brocklesby, Sheena Crawford and Jeremy Holland
• 'Defining Rights from the Roots: Insights from Council Tenants' Struggles in Mombasa, Kenya', Samuel Musyoki and Celestine Nyamu-Musembi
• 'Rights and Citizenship in Brazil: The Challenges for Civil Society, Almir Pereira Júnior, Jorge Romano and Marta Antunes
• 'Beyond Approaches and Models: Reflections on Rights and Social Movements in Kenya, Haiti and the Philippines', Mwambi Mwasaru
• 'Transforming Rights into Social Practices? The Landless Movement and Land Reform in Brazil', Zander Navarro

Written by a chief social development advisor with DfID (the UK Department for International Development), this article describes when, why and how an understanding of the social dimension became main-streamed into the policy and practice of the British aid programme. Exploring the growth within the context of the changing political aid environment of the final quarter of the last century, the history of social development within the British aid programmes is described from its origins in the mid-1970s up to 1997. It asks how it was that a new specialist group of social analysts was established as part of the agencyÆs bureaucratic machinery and compares this with the World BankÆs experience. The article concludes by briefly considering the challenges facing social development expertise following 1997.

This Policy Briefing from IDS looks at rights-based approaches to development, something increasingly being used by international development agencies. It asks if their policy and practice support peopleÆs own efforts to turn their rights into reality. It first looks at the concept of rights based approaches and what international agencies mean by this, then goes to examine how rights are evolving, issues around power, politics and claims and finally some implications of rights-based approaches.

This paper is part of the broader series of publications about ælessons for change that look at learning and change in development organisations. Overall the series poses arguments for the importance of reflection on relationships and power in the aid context, document practical experiences of facilitating innovative learning, and stress the need for cultural and procedural change to foster a climate of inquiry and responsiveness. This paper in particular describes the authors' experience of testing and implementing alternative approaches to monitoring and evaluation, and to evaluate institutional relationships. It summarises DFID-Brazil's experience of discussing and defining concepts and principles for working in partnerships. It also reflects on the learning and change that has been stimulated by these discussions in DFID-Brazil, and proposes some lessons for DFID and donor agencies in general about relationships.

This article provides a general overview of the Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper (PRSP) approach, listing the main international institutions that were involved in the initiation of the approach in 1999 and the main principles underpinning the approach. The article analyses the PRSP experience by looking at some of the main principles to assess the formulation, monitoring and implementation of the PRS processes and contents on the part of civil society. The analysis is based on a review of secondary sources and existing literature. The article concludes by suggesting that PRSPs can be credited for marginal improvements in poverty orientation and opening up policy debate. However PRSPs can also be criticised for not being based on processes that promote country ownership and accountability. The article mentions the links between power dynamics and policy choices, and in turn explores the link with conditionality used by International Financial Institutions. To improve PRSPs, the author argues that PRSPs need to be anchored in national budgetary and parliamentary processes for greater accountability.

The article explores the processes involved with the interim poverty reduction strategy paper (i-PRSP) in place in Somaliaùa substitute for a PRSP in a place that is æstatelessÆ. The author argues that the practices of some international agencies form a major barrier to Somali Civil Society Organisations participating in poverty reduction strategy processes. The article begins with background information about Somalia, the civil war, and the resulting anarchy and chaos that has become the status quo. The author then looks critically at the two most recent poverty reduction strategies in Somalia specifically from the perspective of the Somali Aid Coordination Body (SACB). The article suggests that in contrast to the founding principles, the process have become exclusive and that significant challenges face the participation of civil society organisations in Somalia:ôWhen you are a Somali and have long witnessed the international aid community bringing medicines to cure chillblains, and electrically-heated blankets, along with slimming soups and diet drinks to your starving communityùit is not hard to see the lack of international partnersÆ will to provide spaces for peopleÆs participation in an æinternationally ownedÆ PRS in Somalia.ö