Archive

Abstract

The Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP) of 1986 had been the most far reaching postwar institutional change in rural Philippines. To evaluate the dynamic impact of CARP in the banana sector, we have compared the development of smallholders in both the domestic market and export chains. For exports the reform introduced contract agriculture between cooperatives of small Cavendish banana growers and export firms. Small farmers of banana cultivars like Lakatan supply the crop individually to open domestic market channels. Incomes and living conditions of reform beneficiaries improved significantly compared to former plantation workers wages, but remained below the official family living wage rate. Per Kg. of bananas the income of non-reformed domestic market growers has been of the same magnitudes as for the export chain. However, the percentage of the latter has been much lower in terms of the final consumers' prices. The farmers of the domestic market have also more upgrading opportunities to organize cooperatives and reduce production and transaction costs. The export contract growers have already cooperatives and for upgrading will need the consent of powerful downstream agents in the chain. The reason for the limited impact of CARP is the power concentration by five multinationals and four influential Filipino families, which dominate the profitable wholesale supply and export stages of the banana chain.

Download 2009.03 Wim Pelupessy, Joy De Los Reyes | Agrarian Reform in the Philippine Banana Chain

Abstract

During the last two decades the concept of Payments for Ecosystem Services (PES) has gained ever-increasing attention among a wide public of scholars as well as conservation and development practitioners. The main premises of this innovative conservation approach are appealing: private landowners, which in normal circumstances -i.e. in absence of any direct incentives- are poorly or not motivated to protect nature on their land, will do so if they receive direct payments from environmental service (ES) buyers, which at least cover part of the landowners’ opportunity costs of developing the land. In this paper, however, we warn for an overenthusiastic
adoption of the PES approach. Based on an extensive literature review and a field study of the Nicaraguan component of the ‘Regional Integrated Silvopastoral Approaches to Ecosystem Management Project’ (RISEMP), one of the main GEF-World Bank funded pioneering pilot projects of PES in Latin America, we argue that the concept still has to deal with several theoretical and practical lacunae. We argue that the concept of PES rests on loose foundations, mainly because of (i) a simplistic view on ES as discrete, quantifiable and marketable entities; (ii) an abstraction of the required landscape approach to conservation and the corresponding collective action precondition; (iii) a simplistic and arbitrary one-sided approach to the externality problem with important implications on the desirability of different policy instruments; (iv) a simplistic perception of socio-institutional reality and negligence of institutional effects on human behaviour and environmental morale; (v) the problematic character of transaction costs and a misleading justification of the approach based on the efficiency criterion; and (vi) a potential continuation of regressive financing of global commons with important fairness and sustainability implications. As such, we argue that the concept of PES could distract the attention for environmental problems away from the more complex underlying causes, which generally require broader locally embedded political action for their solution and not merely market creation. We think more debate about the desirability and conceptual clarity of the PES conservation tool is necessary.

Download 2009.02 Gert Van Hecken, Johan Bastiaensen | The Potential and Limitations of Markets and Payments for Ecosystem Services in Agricultural Landscape Restoration

Abstract

Aid policy and practice have been thoroughly shaken up over the past few years. One of the crucial reform areas relates to monitoring and evaluation (M&E). In short, aid recipients are asked to elaborate sound, results-oriented frameworks while donors are expected to harmonise and align their own policies and frameworks. Evidence has revealed that implementation on the ground is slow. This discussion paper examines the extent to which joint sector reviews (JSRs) could take the M&E reform agenda forward. JSRs are M&E exercises at the sector level which have the potential to satisfy the existing M&E needs of various stakeholders while, at the same time, also contributing to the M&E reform agenda. They are increasingly utilised on the ground, yet, so far, there do not exist any systematic stocktakings and/or analyses of them. Our own analysis of a sample of JSRs from the education sectors of Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger indicate that JSRs score highly on harmonisation, coordination, leadership and broad-based participation; but poorly on alignment. They generally prioritise accountability over learning needs; focus more on implementation than results; and largely neglect accountability and learning at the level of the sector institutional apparatus (including the M&E system). In this paper, findings from the field are contrasted with insights from evaluation theory and practice so as to provide suggestions for on the ground JSR improvements.

Download 2009.01 Nathalie Holvoet, Liesbeth Inberg | Monitoring and Evaluation at the sector level - Experiences from Joint Sector Reviews in the education sectors of Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger.

Abstract

The Rwandan government has recently adopted new agricultural and land policies that strive to increase productivity in the agricultural sector though land consolidation and concentration, and through the promotion of regional crop specialisation and monocropping. This paper, however, identifi es the strong inverse relationship between farm size and land productivity under the current land management system; also when taking into account farm fragmentation,
crop diversifi ation, frequency of multicropping and household size. In addition, it concludes that increased farm fragmentation, higher frequency of multicropping, and more crop diversifi cation do not necessarily have a signifi cant negative impact upon productivity, on the contrary. The paper reflects upon the implications of Rwanda's agrarian and land policies.

Download 2008.09 An Ansoms - Ann Verdoodt - Eric Van Ranst | The Inverse Relationship between Farm Size and Productivity in Rural Rwanda

Abstract

The EC recently launched a new aid instrument for the ACP-community: the "governance incentive tranche", a modality designed to incentivise ACP-governments to carry out governance reforms. In this paper we analyse whether this new initiative incorporates the principles spurred by the aid effectiveness debate and adopted by the Paris declaration (2005). Evidence suggests that in design and practice, the incentive tranche is surprisingly similar to some of the unsuccessful aid modalities of the past. The paper argues that in order to fully grasp the complexity of donor behaviour, the donor's domestic issues and political arrangements have to be brought into the analysis. The incentive tranche illustrates how the complexity of the European construction makes formulation of a coherent policy exceptionally difficult. 

Download 2008.08 Nadia Molenaers - Leen Nijs | The Bumpy Road from Paris to Brussels: The European Commission Governance Incentive Tranche

Abstract

The paper aims to identify the different livelihood profiles that prevail in post-conflict rural Rwanda. By means of exploratory tools such as principal component and cluster analysis, it combines variables that capture natural, physical, human, financial and social resources in combination with environmental factors to identify household groups with different asset portfolios and varying livelihoods. The paper also explores how household groups differ with regards to the intra-cluster incidence of poverty. Finally, for a subsample, it looks in detail at how the identified household clusters perceive changes in their living conditions between 2001 and 2004. The paper concludes that "fighting poverty" can take very different forms for groups with different livelihood profiles.

Download 2008.07 An Ansoms | Rural Poverty and Livelihood Profiles in Post-genocide Rwanda

Abstract

The World Development Report 2008 highlights the need for a green revolution in Sub-Saharan Africa. This paper reflects upon the visions and ambitions of Rwandan policy makers to make this happen. It first analyses the political economy of Rwanda in a historical perspective. It outlines how political evolutions and events – with special reference to 1994 – have brought to power a political élite whose identity (both ethnic and spatial) differs profoundly from
that of the overall majority. The main part of the paper links the identity of the current political élite to its vision and ambitions to create and foster a "green revolution" in Rwanda. Based upon interviews conducted by the author in mid-2007, the paper illustrates the strong ambitions of national policy makers to re-engineer the traditional agricultural sector into a modernized vehicle for economic growth, with little place left for traditional smallholder agriculture. The paper points to the flaws and shortcomings in this strategy. In the final part, it draws conclusions from the Rwandan case to feed the wider debate on how political economy dynamics shape the chances for a successful green revolution in Sub-Saharan Africa.

Download 2008.06 An Ansoms | A Green Revolution for Rwanda? The Political Economy of Poverty and Agrarian Change

Abstract

The new aid approach (NAA) pays particular attention to the politico-institutional dimension of development. It is largely centred around a reform-driven governance agenda. Donors must facilitate and support reform, and this implies that they move away from micro-managed and donor-driven projects towards more aligned and harmonized modalities of aid like capacity building TA and budget support, which are allocated and spent according to recipient
priorities. But the trust that donors have is seldom complete, and the quid pro quo of working with and through the recipient is a policy dialogue (PD) where donors can advise the government but also exert some pressure. In this paper we look critically at the policy dialogue between recipient government and donors in order to find out if and to what extent a medium-sized donor, can play a role and add value to the PD. To start with we enumerate seven principles that we think underlie the NAA, which we then contrast with what can be realistically expected from donors and recipient governments from a political economy perspective.

Download 2008.05 Robrecht Renard - Nadia Molenaers | Policy Dialogue under the New Aid Approach: Which Role for Medium-sized Donors ? Theoretical Reflections and Views from the Field

Abstract

This paper proposes a methodology for examining the use and relevance of human rights in local communities as they quest to change their reality of poverty, social exclusion or marginalisation. The methodology draws on an innovative conceptual approach denominated 'localising human rights,' a process which takes the human rights needs and claims formulated by local people as a basis for further interpreting and elaborating human rights in the context of economic globalisation. This paper, through a literature review of interdisciplinary methodological approaches and participatory case studies, offers an introduction on how local communities' use of human rights can be researched in the context of field studies.

Download 2008.04 Gaby Oré Aguilar | The Local Relevance of Human Rights: A Methodological Approach (pdf)

Abstract

The most influential literature on political transitions, the "transition paradigm", conceived a normative theoretical framework based on the fundamental assumption that any country, which shifts away from authoritarianism is a country in transition to democracy. The Rwandan transition does not fit the "transition paradigm" and Rwanda did not shift in an orderly manner from an authoritarian to a democratic regime. A second school of thought on political transition contends that political transition is not an orderly process and that democracy is not the sole outcome of transition. Scholars have coined new types of "hybrid" regimes that bear democratic and authoritarian regime features and indeed, the post-transition Rwandan regime bears both such features. This paper explores the Rwandan transition and post-transition from the perspective of regime change, that is, changing regime characteristics (ideological/procedural/behavioural attributes) between 1973 to the present day.

Download 2008.03 Marina Rafti | A Perilous Path to Democracy Political Transition and Authoritarian Consolidation in Rwanda

Abstract 

The new development paradigm strongly reconfirms and redefines the importance of M&E because of some newly incorporated principles. First, increased value is attached to results-orientation, iterative learning and evidence-based policy-making. Realisation of these principles is conditional upon a strong and well-functioning M&E system. A second major principle is an increased role and responsibility for the national government in elaborating and managing the entire M&E system. At the same time, donors are expected to increasingly rely and
align to national M&E systems and arrangements. So far, however, a narrowly confined 'technocratic' approach to M&E has been adopted, largely neglecting its institutional and political embeddedness. While the fact that politics are part and parcel of M&E has been acknowledged before in the context of projects and programmes, it seems that when moving to the sectoral and national level (where interests and stakeholders are multiplied) the interaction among 'politics' and 'M&E' is disregarded.
This paper elaborates a conceptual framework that furthers the understanding of the interlinkages among politics and M&E in a context of upwardly moving aid modalities. Bringing in case-study material from Rwanda, it argues that a narrow technocratic approach to M&E risks worsening political constraints and even undermines M&E's technical soundness. Yet, there exist ways of escaping this downward spiral. 'Smart' M&E that acknowledges the institutional and political embeddedness of M&E has the leverage to stimulate public discussion, to bring more 'sensitive' issues into the bargaining area, to shift debates on a more factual basis and to eventually open up closed political opportunity structures.

Download 2008.02 Nathalie Holvoet - Heidy Rombouts | The Denial of Politics in PRSP's Monitoring and Evaluation Experiences From Rwanda

Abstract 

The Article explores Rwanda's ongoing social experiment in people's courts (gacaca) from the perspectives of international fair trial standards and normative ethics and seeks to challenge some of the major intuitive and counter-intuitive assumptions regarding the necessity and utility of the experiment that tend to shield it from objective analysis. These assumptions consist in: First, contemporary gacaca is based on traditional Rwandan/African justice system, thus implying, inter alia, that it does not have to fully conform to international standards. Second, although, the gacaca process does not strictly conform to fair trial standards, it has some countervailing advantages over the standard criminal justice system, such as speedy trial, enhanced popular participation and reconciliation. Three, gacaca is a necessary evil because there simply is no better solution given the particularities of the Rwandan context. In conclusion, the article highlights the persistent need in Rwanda for the establishment of durable peace and  reconciliation based on inclusion, respect for the rule of law and human rights. The key to the attainment of those objectives, however, lies mainly in politics, and not in criminal justice, whether the latter is pursued through the regular courts or gacaca jurisdictions. More specifically, Rwandan political elites need to resolve the problem of legitimation of political power. In the latter respects, it will be argued, the gacaca process is very much part of the problem rather than the solution.

Download 2008.01 Dadimos Haile | Rwanda's Experiment in People's Courts (gacaca) and the Tragedy of Unexamined Humanitarianism: A Normative/Ethical Perspective

Abstract

The modernized tradition of the Gacaca courts has become the key mechanism to deal with the past in Rwanda. Due to the design of the Gacaca tribunals, truth telling is the cornerstone of the transitional justice framework. Nevertheless, popular narratives and survey results reveal a problematic quest for the truth. Based on 18 months of fieldwork in rural Rwandan villages, we demonstrate that the state-sanctioned speaking of the truth goes against  stablised social practices. Our exploration of the truth problem further brings into focus the socio-political environment mediated by a culture of deceit and dominated by a war victor as the context of the truth; the confession and  denunciation policy as the source of the truth; the decentralized and ‘traditional’ setting as the locus of the truth. A concluding section sketches the contours of the truth and questions the possible consequences of the truth.

Download 2007.07 Bert Ingelaere | "Does the Truth Pass Across the Fire without Burning?" Transitional Justice and its Discontents in Rwanda's Gacaca Courts

Abstract

Political transitions are dominantly analyzed top-down and focus on a narrow range of political processes and institutions. Critical rethinkings of the ‘transition paradigm’ entail that structural factors, such as historical legacies and ethnic make-up, determine the trajectory of political transitions. In this paper we intend to complement top-down approaches by offering a bottom-up perspective revealing what it means to live through a transition in the ordinary perception. We use the Rwandan transition as case-study. An analysis of over 400 life histories of ordinary Rwandan peasants and their subjective ranking exercises over time on a ‘ladder of life’ portrays the trajectory of the Rwandan transition as perceived from below. The ethnicity of the respondents functions as pivot to shed light on the structural
factor underlying the Rwandan transition: the Hutu-Tutsi bi-polarity.

Download 2007.06 Bert Ingelaere | Living the Transition A Bottom-up Perspective on Rwanda's Political Transition

Abstract

The idea of scaling up aid to developing countries has increased fears of “Dutch Disease” in the donor community and recipient countries. Through its impact on inflation and the exchange-rate, aid could slow down growth and human development, undermining the aims of donors and recipients. By using the basic model of Dutch Disease, adjusting it to the circumstance of developing countries and taking a medium-term view, we explain how it is possible to avoid Dutch Disease. Important factors determining the impact seem to be: the spending pattern of aid, the amount of imports financed with aid and the coordination between the fiscal and monetary authorities. As the IMF is one of the most important participants in the discussion around this topic, we also clarify the specific terms this institution uses to discuss this sort of topics. The paper ends with referring to the fact that understanding the problem is one thing, taking these economic decisions on a political level may in certain countries form another problem.

Download 2007.05 Karel Verbeke | Dutch Disease in Aid-recipient Countries Are there medicines to avoid an outbreak?

Abstract

The paper starts from the observation that the PRSP logic uses input output logic, meaning that it supposes that the input of ‘civil society participation’ into the policy cycle will inevitably lead to the output of poverty reduction. We argue that ‘civil society participation’ is a very vague concept and can constitute very different things depending on who is actually participating, who they represent, what influence they can yield... Consequently the type of input will also determine the extent to which the expected output will in fact be delivered and thus how civil society participation will ultimately contribute to poverty reduction. We test empirically what factors explain CSO participation in PRSP participatory processes based on data gathered from Honduran civil society organizations.

Download 2007.04 Sara Dewachter | Civil Society Participation in Poverty Reduction Processes: Who is getting a seat at the pro-poor table?

Abstract

The idea of a Basic Income Grant (BIG) has for long been an appealing alternative to the means-tested social security nets associated with the welfare state as we know it. Proponents of BIG highlight as comparative advantages its unconditionality, its inclusiveness and its administrative simplicity. Moreover, as capital-intensive investment and demographic evolutions engender a decline in activity rates, social security nets that rely on labour as both a source of financing and a condition for entry seem more and more untenable. These latter systems have however for long been in place and have a firm historical embeddedness. Hence, the introduction of BIG requires a revolutionary momentum.

Download 2007.03 Stefaan Marysse - Joris Verschueren | South Africa's BIG debate in comparative perspective

Abstract 
 

This paper critically analyses the challenges and priorities for Rwanda's rural sector policies in the fight against poverty. The lessons drawn are important, as this sector will be at the forefront of Rwanda's new Economic Development and Poverty Reduction Strategy (EDPRS or PRSP-2). The paper first looks at the dangers of the purely growth-led development focus in Rwanda's PRSP-1 (implemented between 2002-2005), and evaluates the extent to which the agricultural sector has, indeed, been a pro-poor growth engine. It then studies the government's current agricultural policies and looks at the recently adopted land law, both of which aim to modernize and 'professionalize' the rural sector. There is a high risk that policy measures in favour of a more professional and modern farm sector will be at the expense of the large mass of small-scale peasants. 
This paper stresses that the real challenge to transform the rural sector into a true pro-poor growth engine will be to value and incorporate the capacity and potential of small-scale 'non-professional' peasants into the core strategies for rural development. Rwandan policy makers and international donors should shift their focus away from a purely output-led logic towards distribution-oriented rural development policies. Striving for pro-poor growth requires reconciling output growth with equity, and perhaps even putting equity first.

Download 2007.02 An Ansoms | Striving for growth, bypassing the poor? A critical review of Rwanda's rural sector policies

Abstract

In this paper, we explore some of the methodological challenges that evaluators face in assessing the impacts of complex intervention strategies. We illustrate these challenges, using the specific example of an impact evaluation of one of the six focal areas of the Global Environment Facility; its biodiversity program. 
The paper discusses how theory-based evaluation can provide a basis for meeting some of the challenges presented.

Download 2007.01 Jos Vaessen - David Todd | Methodological Challenges in Impact Evaluation: The Case of the Global Environment Facility (GEF)

Abstract

This paper assesses the gender sensitiveness of Belgian aid at the turn of the century by looking at gender policy discourse and practice. It is shown that declarations regarding the integration of gender issues into development interventions largely live up to standards set at the Beijing conference. However, confronting the policy discourse with effective changes in procedures and resource allocation nuances the positive verdict. While promising changes are discernible there remains much room for improvement in policy implementation. The article argues that unequal results are due to the fact that on the one hand the gender equality ideal has been espoused enthusiastically as it fitted the evolving discourse of the Belgian donor well, whereas on the other hand the policy evaporation that often surrounds crosscutting issues such as gender was not effectively addressed. The inherent difficulty of managing gender issues has in the Belgian case further been aggravated by serious organisational problems that have weakened Belgian  development co-operation over the last decade.

Download 2006.11 Nathalie Holvoet | Gender-sensitiveness of Belgian Aid Discourse and Practice at the Turn of the Century 

Abstract

In this paper we look at the developmental consequences of aid flows on the Great Lakes Region in Africa. The reshuffling of international relations after the end of the cold war has dramatically changed the exogenous influence of external actors on the agency of local and regional actors in the developing world. Our main hypothesis is however, that political considerations and donor coordination problems still play an important role in directing aid, although in a very different fashion compared to the cold war era. The region of the Great Lakes in Africa is a good illustration of the « darlings » versus « orphans » policy of official development assistance (ODA). Following a new selectivity principle, extensive structural aid is only allocated to those countries who exhibited a very particular form of “good governance” to which donors are sensitive, while “failed states” cannot qualify for structural ODA. This has led to the “aid darling” status of Rwanda and the “aid orphan” status of Zaire/DRCongo and Burundi. Our contention is that these choices have unduly inflicted high costs to these two latter countries and to the region. Since their economies are extremely aid dependent, the allocation of aid has a considerable impact on economic development as we try to show in this article. Departing somewhat from the dominant pessimist stance on the effectiveness of aid in Sub Sahara Africa we will try to show that overall, the costs of exclusion are detrimental for economic development and create regional and even international public ‘bads’ because of the spill-over effects of exclusion on the region.

Download 2006.10 Stefaan Marysse - An Ansoms - Danny Cassimon | The Aid 'Darlings' and 'Orphans' of the Great Lakes Region in Africa

Résumé

Le Sénégal est un des pays les plus démocratiques de l’Afrique, très pauvre, et fortement dépendant de l’aide extérieure. A priori, on pourrait s’attendre à ce qu’il soit un des premiers bénéficiaires de la nouvelle approche
de l’aide initiée par les donateurs bilatéraux et multilatéraux au début de siècle. En réalité, ceci n’est pas le cas, et le présent article pose comme argument que la réticence des donateurs est justifiée. Les caractéristiques qui donnent à la démocratie sénégalaise sa stabilité expliquent en même temps sa grande inégalité et le manque de volonté politique du gouvernement à s’engager dans des stratégies qui profitent véritablement aux pauvres.

Download 2006.09 Nadia Molenaers - Robrecht Renard | L'aide internationale et la quête élusive du developpement socio-economique au Sénégal 

Abstract

Land property issues remain firmly on the agenda in Nicaragua. Revolutionary land reform, followed by additional
land redistribution and overnight liberalisation of land markets, are assumed to have caused severe insecurity of land tenure. Dominant received wisdom is that only significant state intervention through full-scale legal titling cum registration can put an end to the ongoing struggles that cause insecurity as well as injustices against poor agrarian reform beneficiaries. This view, inspired by economic and legal engineering perspectives on land rights, has however successfully been challenged in other development contexts, particularly Africa, where a legal pluralist view turned out to be more adequate to describe the complex social processes that define land rights. This view argues for a need to understand the detailed land right practices where legitimacy (and thus security) of land access and tenure is socially constructed by calling upon state as well as non-state sources of land rights. Policy conclusions do not call upon state intervention to remedy allegedly chaotic and unjust informal land practices, but rather calls for an institutional reorganisation that contributes to a greater synergy between different sources of rights, thereby reducing insecurities and injustices due to prevailing incompatibilities. Inspired by the legal pluralism view, our paper provides an attempt at interpretation of the real world land rights practices in an agricultural frontier region in Nicaragua.

Download 2006.08 Johan Bastiaensen - Ben D'Exelle - Cécile Famerée | Political arenas around access to land: a diagnosis of property rights practices in the Nicaraguan interior  (pdf)

Abstract

Before the First World War a global wave of foreign direct investment materialised. Belgium participated in it
on a global scale but after the War a shift towards the Belgian colony (Congo) was observed. With regard to these colonial investments, it is commonly argued that higher (expected) profit rates were a strong incentive, although others propose that the colonial powers actually lost money on their overseas possessions. We measure ex-post performance in terms of the time weighted rate of return by making use of a new database on Congo stocks. We demonstrate that, as far as the Congo sample is concerned in comparison with the Belgian sample, returns on Congo stocks were much higher, at least until country risk became a reality (1955-1960).

Download 2006.07 Frans Buelens - Stefaan Marysse | Returns on Investments during the Colonial Era: The Case of Congo 

Abstract

A new approach to development co-operation since the late nineties has substantially broadened the scope of civil society engagement in development. This approach has emerged in a setting where a growing number of aid recipient countries are facing conflict or the severe aftermath of conflict, or have governments that lack commitment and / or capacity to poverty reduction. This paper scrutinises the important role ascribed to civil society participation in these particular situations.The increased donor attention for these countries has not led to a shared and coherent classification or terminology. It is argued that this may well jeopardise efforts of harmonisation. The paper questions the validity of the assumptions underscoring the donor insistence on civil society participation in fragile states. Despite a questionable validity, the donor community sticks largely to an aid paradigm conceived for committed and capable development states, with budget support as the preferred modality. The paper highlights the problematic character of upholding a one size-fits-all paradigm in these specific, yet numerous situations. Capacity and security cannot be considered the sole problems to deal with in these countries; participation may not necessarily be good and lowering the threshold deserves to be questioned as the proper donor response. The recent initiative taken by the OECD-DAC to lay down a set of principles for good international engagement in fragile states is an expression of the honourable willingness to move forward. Yet, these principles should not block the process of critical thought, or the constructively questioning of the applicability of the new development paradigm and its instruments in these environments. Exploring alternative routes, including increased diversification of instruments and paradigms, seem very helpful to further the knowledge of working with fragile states.

Download 2006.06 Heidy Rombouts | Civil Society Participation in Fragile States: Critical Thoughts on the New Development Paradigm and its Implementation

Abstract

The rebellion of the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR) is the most recent in a series of rebellions that aimed to fight the post-genocide Rwandan regime from bases in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). The FDLR is a politico-military movement, which allegedly aims to initiate a national dialogue in order to change the Rwandan regime and to secure the return of FDLR combatants and Rwandan refugees under fair conditions, by military means. Between 3.000 and 4.000 FDLR troops are deployed throughout South Kivu, where they create pockets of insecurity. The Rwandan government considers the FDLR combatants as  ex-FAR/Interahamwe genocidal forces, which threaten the Rwandan population, as they allegedly aim to complete the genocide. Indeed, an ominous "Hutu culture" is in the making in South Kivu, as the Hutu ethnicity plays a key function in the FDLR's discourse, depicting post-genocide Rwanda as skewed in favour of Tutsi, and as inequitable and insecure for Hutu. The genocide is downplayed and it is replaced by feelings of injustice and victimisation of Rwandan Hutu by their ethnic "rivals," validating the Rwandan government's fears of the continuation of hate ideologies. Nevertheless, the FDLR is a greater threat to the population of South Kivu than to Rwanda. The FDLR does not occupy land in Rwanda but controls territory in South Kivu. In many parts of the province, the rebellion is very violent and has deeply wounded its social and demographic character. The scale of FDLR crimes denies the rebels their alleged "right to self-defence" and goes beyond the stated objectives of the rebellion. Over the long years in exile, and in its aim to survive amid a volatile region, the FDLR has lost much of its ideological impetus and has ultimately become a fragmented movement lingering in eastern Congo.

Download 2006.05 Marina Rafti | South Kivu: a Sanctuary for the Rebellion of the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda 

Résumé

Afin de sortir de l’impasse politique et de mettre fin à une décennie de violence, le Burundi a opté pour un système de partage du pouvoir typiquement consociatif. Le présent article fait une analyse des réformes politiques et institutionnelles introduites par l’Accord de paix d’Arusha signé en 2000 et la Constitution de 2005 ainsi que du paysage politique issu du marathon électoral de 2005. Celui-ci a été marqué principalement par la victoire de l’ancienne rébellion CNDD-FDD et l’élection de son leader Pierre Nkurunziza comme nouveau président. Le partage du pouvoir au Burundi est construit principalement sur base de piliers consociatifs, tels que la grande coalition, la proportionnalité, le droit de veto et la coopération entre élites segmentaires. Même si la littérature consociative permet d’espérer que le Burundi connaîtra une période de stabilité politique, plusieurs risques et défis continuent à se poser, liés, entre autres, aux origines largement exogènes du partage du pouvoir négocié.

Download 2006.04 Stef Vandeginste | Théorie Consociative et Partage du Pouvoir au Burundi  

Abstract

The mandatory participation of civil society in the PRSP is hardly ever questioned. It is on the contrary generally applauded by the experts inside and outside of the aid business. If only there could be more of it, things would even be better than they already are, but any start, however modest, is to be welcomed. But is participation, no matter at what stage, where and with whom, always so precious or relevant? In this paper a more cautionary approach is proposed. A four level readiness assessment framework is being offered to guide donors in deciding when, if at all, such participation must be encouraged.

Download 2006.03 Nadia Molenaers - Robrecht Renard | Participation in PRSP processes Conditions for Pro Poor Effectiveness

Abstract

International human rights lawyers tend to focus on establishing the universality of human rights rather than on improving the usefulness of human rights in addressing local problems. This paper draws attention to the need to make human rights more locally relevant, particularly in a context of economic globalisation. Human rights can be made more locally relevant by interpreting existing global norms in the light of needs identified by community organisations, and by developing human rights further, particularly at the local and regional levels in the light of these same needs. If made more locally relevant, human rights can offer protection against adverse effects of economic globalisation at the local level. There are also consequences for the activities of international institutions: the field work of the UN High Commissioner for human rights, and current developments in the opening up of state-investor arbitration to the consideration of human rights impact are taken as examples.

Download 2006.02 Koen De Feyter | Localizing Human Rights 

Abstract

Over the last five years a new enthusiasm has emerged among donors. Aid volumes have gone up and new modalities and instruments are feverishly experimented with. A new aid paradigm seems to have emerged. Breaking with the bad habits of the past, donors are working on harmonisation, alignment, recipient ownership, new partnerships, all in the spirit of poverty reduction. In this paper it is argued that the new paradigm is a fact. But it is based on a consensus about new modalities and instruments, not about the way they must be used. There are glaring inconsistencies between the PRSP approach and the MDGs, two major components of the new aid agenda. Even more insidious, two schools seem to have emerged on how best to overcome institutional and political failures in aid-dependent low-income countries, two schools that advocate diametrically opposed uses of conditionality. It is argued that these inconsistencies, largely ignored as they are, threaten the success of the new approach.

Download2006.01 Robrecht Renard | The Cracks in the New Aid Paradigm

Abstract

The Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers (PRSP) framework introduced by the World Bank and the IMF at the turn of the century goes well beyond the mainly macroeconomic conditionalities of the structural adjustment 
era by requesting that civil society participates in the preparation and the implementation of the strategy. Although constituting a significant shift in the international financial institutions’ discourse, the difference in the way in which the traditional and the “participation” conditions are scrutinized for compliance, considerably reduces the compulsory nature of the latter conditionality. Whereas clear standards and criteria are developed to evaluate compliance with the economic conditionalities, such standards seem to be lacking in the case of participation. This paper reviews the evaluation of the civil society participation in PRSP documents by the Joint Staff of the World Bank and the IMF. This desk-based study of 35 Joint Staff Assessments (JSAs) finds these JSAs to lack both clarity and candour.

Download 2005.06 Sara Dewachter |  The Participation Conditionality under Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers: The Joint Staff Assessment -experience

Abstract

Poverty assessment and targetting usually relies on expensive, large scale survey data. We argue that, in some cases, exploiting information villagers have on their immediate neighbors in close-knit agricultural societies might provide an alternative. We use the results of a participatory wealth ranking gathered in four villages in Tanzania and explore correlations between perceived wealth and indicators related to household characteristics, human capital, housing and durables, and productive assets. Comparing our results to a similar analysis using houshold expenditure survey data, we find that participatory methods confirm the validity of most commonly used poverty indicators, but we also find some remarkable differences.

Download 2005.05 Björn Van Campenhout |  Perceived Wealth as a Poverty Measure for Constructing a Poverty Profile: A Case Study Of Four Villages In Rural Tanzania

Abstract

This paper aims at analyzing the linkages between international trade openness and poverty in Argentina. Under a specific-factors setting, a two-step procedure is presented. In the first stage the change in prices of goods and factors in both tradable and non-tradable sectors, after a trade liberalisation episode, is considered. In a second step, these variations are applied to assess the changes in poverty and households' welfare. A micro-simulation approach, using households' survey data, is applied in this last stage. The results of the research are important since they provide an assessment of the impact trade policies have on poverty.

Download 2005.04 Ariel A. Barraud and Germán Calfat |  Poverty Effects from Trade Liberalisation in Argentina 

Abstract

Why don’t agents cooperate when they both stand to gain? This question ranks among the most fundamental in the social sciences. Explanations abound. Among the most compelling are various configurations of the prisoner’s dilemma (PD), or public goods problem. Payoffs in PD’s are specified in one of two ways: as primitive cardinal payoffs or as ordinal final utility. However, as final utility is objectively unobservable, only the primitive payoff games are ever observed. This paper explores mappings from primitive payoff to utility payoff games and demonstrates that though an observable game is a PD there are broad classes of utility functions for which there exists no associated utility PD. In particular we show that even small amounts of either altruism or enmity may disrupt the mapping from primitive payoff to utility PD. We then examine some implications of these results.

Download 2005.03 Andrew W. Horowitz and Renato G. Flôres Jr |  Beyond Indifferent Players: On the Existence of Prisoners Dilemmas in games with amicable and adversarial preferences  (pdf)

Abstract

Over the last few years a remarkable shift has taken place in the aid instruments advocated for low-income countries, characterised by a conversion from project to more programme oriented aid and by the inclusion of 
'broad-based civil society participation' as a form of new aid conditionality. PRSP constitutes a new framework for policy negotiations with the recipient government but also a new set of rules for aid implementation. As most of the PRSPs are currently in the early stages of implementation, so far scant attention has been directed to monitoring and evaluation and particularly to the implications of the PRSP 'participatory' rhetoric and 'programme-based' approach. This paper contributes to this under-exploited field of research by stocktaking and assessing different aspects of M&E systems for a selected number of SSA countries. Findings of our desk study confirm evidence from other studies that M&E is among the weaker parts of most of the PRSPs. We argue that PRSP with its focus on 'process conditionality' functions as a catalyst for change, while its basic philosophy of 'participation' and 'comprehensiveness' puts at the same time unrealistic demands on at best embryonic national M&E systems.

Download 2005.02 Nathalie Holvoet and Robrecht Renard |  Putting the new aid paradigm to work: challenges for monitoring and evaluation 

Abstract

In mid term program evaluations evaluators are often confronted with the double task of retrospectively judging the program's merit and worth while at the same time advising decision makers concerning future adjustments in courses of action. In such cases, it can be argued that it is particularly important that evaluators take into account the divergent views and needs of different stakeholder groups. In principle, program theory evaluation can constitute a sound basis for dealing with the double objective of retrospective judgment and proactive program improvement. However, as argued in the paper, current approaches in program theory evaluation may not be sufficiently equipped to systematically deal with divergent stakeholder values. Taking into account lessons from the literature on stakeholder values in evaluation, an alternative methodological framework is presented. The framework combines program theory evaluation with elements of multicriteria decision aid. An example is used to illustrate the framework.

Download 2005.01 Jos Vaessen |  Dealing with Stakeholder Values in the Evaluation of Development Programs; A Methodological Framework for Mid Term Evaluation 

Résumé

En partant de la présentation les fondements théoriques de l’approche monétaire de la pauvreté, nous faisons une critique méthodologique de cette approche en abordant quatre questions : la question de l’unité d’analyse, des ressources, de la comparaison du bien-être dans le temps et de la comparaison du bien-être avec le fameux seuil ‘universel’ de pauvreté. Chaque question représente une étape vers l’opérationnalisation du concept de pauvreté, mais chaque réponse contient également des éléments théoriquement triviaux, des supposés pragmatiques qu’il faut faire pour arriver au résultat final. 
La pertinence des differents débats méthodologiques est illustré avec les données des deux enquêtes représentatives menées à Kisenso, une des communes de Kinshasa. Nous allons constater que les supposés derrière la mesure de pauvreté monétaire déterminent dans une large mesure le résultat final, de manière qu’il est difficile de faire un énoncé définitif sur la comparaison 1997-2002 si nous nous contentons à utiliser l’indicateur monétaire de pauvreté à lui seul.

Download 2004.06  Tom De Herdt | Comment mesurer la pauvreté? Une déconstruction méthodologique de l'évolution de la pauvreté monétaire à Kisenso (Kinshasa RDC), 1997-2002

Abstract

The main advantage of decentralization over centralized government is its informational superiority. Local service delivery can then be tailored to the needs and preferences of the citizens. This paper analyses if this assertion, that holds for developed countries, is also valid in the case of a post-conflict low-income country. Since there is no panacea for successful decentralization, it then confronts theory with the case of the Democratic Republic of the  
Congo (DRC). Finally the author assesses the new law on decentralization in this country. 

Download 2004.05  Stefaan L. Marysse | Decentralization Issues in Post-Conflict Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC)

Abstract

We try to construct a bridge between an institutional perspective on poverty and poverty interventions (Bastiaensen, De Herdt & Vaessen 2002) and a more operational screening instrument to be used for a local socio-institutional analysis of anti-poverty interventions (LSIA). While reviewing existing research approaches, we discuss three fundamental issues that need to be taken into account in order to develop a more operational instrument for a socio-institutional analysis of development interventions. The first point is that poverty analysis should focus on the local level, since the final poverty effects of intervention clearly play at this level. This requires an appropriate understanding of what is meant as ‘the local level’, an issue we will deal with in both economic and sociological terms. Second, we must acknowledge that a locality is a pluriform social landscape whose dynamics are co-determined by interdependent but autonomously deciding actors of different kinds and with different interests and worldviews. The third and final issue is that one should be sufficiently aware of the role and position of the researchers. In the process of generating and interpreting information, researchers are ‘discursively’ interacting with local actors in their institutional environments. As we will see, the problem for the researchers is not unlike that of the development experts.

Download 2004.04  Tom De Herdt, Johan Bastiaensen and Ben D'Exelle | Towards a Local Socio-Institutional Analysis of Anti-Poverty Interventions: A Critical Review of Methods and Researchers (pdf)

Abstract

Most rural development interventions consciously or unconsciously make use of local intermediation mechanisms in their endeavour to combat poverty at the local level. At the same time, how these local intermediation mechanisms occur in practice exerts an important infl uence on the functioning of external development interventions, particularly who enters and who is excluded from the provided resources. However, local intermediation cannot be completely controlled by an external intervention. As an interface between two different worlds, it results from the interaction between an externally designed institutional structure and the existing local structures. Sustainable poverty reduction, however, requires the opening of local political structures in favour of the politically excluded. This makes it important to understand how and to which extent external interventions can steer local intermediation, in an endeavour to change local political structures. Using the data of a survey in 33 Nicaraguan rural villages the paper identifi es both structural and design variables that determine local intermediation and its infl uence on exclusion from aid fl ows. Special attention is paid to the local legitimacy of local leaders, the reliance on local brokers and the exclusion of the poor.

Download 2004.03  Ben D'Exelle | Poverty Reduction and local arenas: Community Level Intermediation and Exclusion of Externally Provided Resources

Résumé

Bien qu’il soit aujourd’hui établi la nécessité d’améliorer les méthodes de suivi-évaluation de projets et que des efforts dans ce sens aient été déployés les vingt dernières années, l’évaluation de l’impact des projets de développement sur les conditions de vie des bénéficiaires constitue un créneau dans lequel peu de travaux de recherche aient été menés en l’occurrence dans la région des Grands Lacs d’Afrique. Partant des stratégies du gouvernement du Burundi en matière de développement agricole entre 1991 et 2003, le présent article retrace les méthodologies mises en oeuvre pour mettre en place un système de suivi-évaluation flexible, tenant compte à la fois des spécificités du pays et des dynamiques observées tant dans la conception que dans la mise en oeuvre de ces stratégies. Dans ce cadre, deux expériences ont été menées au Burundi respectivement en 1991 et en 1996. Elles ont conduit à la constitution de deux bases de données pouvant servir de référence pour le suiviévaluation  
de projets agricoles. L’article présente les résultats d’une expérience menée dans le cadre de la conception et la mise en oeuvre d’approches et d’instruments spécifiques au suivi-évaluation dans le contexte du Burundi. Il illustre les contraintes auxquelles on peut être confronté, les solutions qui peuvent être adoptées et les résultats méthodologiques et techniques auxquels on peut s’attendre. La principale conclusion qui se dégage est que les efforts conceptuels et méthodologiques à faire sont certes énormes, mais surmontables. Par contre, c’est du côté des ressources humaines et des faibles capacités institutionnelles que viennent les contraintes critiques, notamment en termes de durabilité et de reproductibilité des systèmes de suivi-évaluation mis en place. La solution préconisée est une combinaison des complémentarités des services de recherche, des services étatiques et des services privés pour non seulement mettre au point et utiliser ces systèmes, mais également pour assurer une mémoire institutionnelle et une durabilité à tout le processus. 

Download 2004.02  P. F. Ndimira, Luc D'Haese and J. Ndimubandi | Suivi et évaluation des Projets de Développement Rural dans la Région des Grands Lacs d'Afrique: Leçons tirées des expériences du Burundi en matière de suivi-évaluation des projets agricoles
 

Abstract 

Post-genocide Rwanda has been trapped in a situation of armed peace. Paul Kagame has used repressive state machinery to rule over the entire political space. The opposition has either been eliminated or forced into exile,  
leaving the regime politically and intellectually unchallenged in the interior. A wave of defections began in 1995. Hutu personalities outside Rwanda were making efforts to form an opposition. Among them were elements linked  
to the genocide. The government, therefore, branded the opposition genocidal, accused it of being ethnic-based and called it an invalid interlocutor. A second wave of defections that began in 2000 changed the face of the political opposition in exile. Tutsi personalities, among them genocide survivors, began to flee Rwanda. This opened the way for inter-ethnic cooperation, making it difficult for the government to continue to accuse the opposition of being genocidal or divisionist. The Rwandan problem could consequently be re-defined as political, rather than ethnic. The political diaspora has mainly taken the path of pressure politics through the international community, calling for an inclusive inter-Rwandese dialogue. The alternative path– military intervention– has so far been avoided. However, following his crushing victory in the Presidential elections of August 2003, Kagame was able to claim that there is no opposition to the Rwandan regime. Kigali’s persistence to shut the opposition out of the Rwandan political scene has led to radicalisation. The presence of armed opposition groups in the Great Lakes region increases the possibility of a military confrontation. Certain movements among the opposition in exile are in a position to check the armed forces if Kigali appears ready to negotiate. 

Download 2004.01  Marina Rafti | The Rwandan Political Opposition In Exile: A Valid Interlocutor Vis-à-vis Kigali?

Abstract

According to the International Rescue Committee, as many as 3.3 million people have lost their lives, either in direct fighting or from the outbreak of diseases as a result of the war1. Despite the formation of a two-year national transition government, composed of representatives of the former Kinshasa regime, the pro-government Mayi Mayi-militias, rebel movements, the unarmed political opposition and civil society, the prospects for durable peace remain bleak. While intensified ethnic strife between Hema and Lendu militias in the resource-rich Ituri province has triggered a massive flow of refugees and the creation of a multilateral intervention force in June 2003, the Kivu provinces have witnessed renewed fighting between rebel forces of the Rwandan-backed RCD-Goma rebel movement and Mayi-Mayi militiamen. Even the south-eastern Katanga province has shown signs of evolving instability: on 8 August 2003, the international relief non-governmental organisation GOAL reported that six different armed groups were occupying the town of Manono, following the ejection of the local RCD-Goma administrator by the 8th Brigade, a mysterious group of 150 men claiming to be members of the former Kinshasa government’s army2. Unfortunately, the spiral of violence in Congo’s border regions is not the only source of concern to diplomats involved in overseeing the peace process. The dubious track record of some of the key members of the national transition government does not inspire much confidence in the preparatory work for the country’s first democratic elections since independence. Whereas a Belgian court has sentenced vicepresident Jean-Pierre Bemba to one year’s imprisonment for human trafficking, his colleague Abdoulaye Yerodia Ndombasi has also faced a Belgian judicial inquiry for his inflammatory statements concerning the DRC’s Tutsi population in August 19983. Finally, one of the biggest impediments to the Congolese peace process may be the issue of resource trafficking. According to the UN expert panel investigating the illegal exploitation of natural resources and other forms of wealth of the DRC, members of the Rwandan and Ugandan regime have developed mechanisms to continue the looting of diamonds, gold, coltan and timber after the official withdrawal of their troops from Congolese territory, as agreed in the Pretoria and Luanda peace accords. Previous reports by the Panel contained a detailed account of the multiple ways in which a selected group of Rwandan and Ugandan military officers, politicians and businessmen have taken advantage of the military presence of the Rwandan Patriotic Front and the Ugandan People’s Defence Forces to secure their stake in the Congolese mining business.

Download 2003.07  Jeroen Cuvelier and Stefaan Marysse | Rwandan economic involvement in the conflict in the Democratic Republic of Congo

Abstract

The conflict in Northern Uganda is now in its 17th year. It pitches a rebel group, the so-called Lord’s Resistance Army, against the Ugandan government and against its own people, the Acholi. The robustness of the conflict  
as a semi-permanent feature of the Ugandan condition for such a long time indicates that the forces working against peace appear to be stronger than the forces working for it. To understand the conflict, the complex genesis of the Northern war must be understood. It must be adequately explained why the insurgency occurred at all, why it did not occur at an earlier time and why it persists to this day. These conditions, once clarified, must be complimented by an analysis of the character of the LRA rebellion itself, often oversimplified and described in terms of its assumed millenarian character (with reference to the biblical Ten Commandments). The following analysis will first establish a brief historical perspective to the conflict in the North. It will then analyze the emergence of the conflict in terms of root causes and situational factors, and look at the question why the LRA rebellion adopted the format it did and why the war persists for all these years. It will finally look at the question of what next.

Download 2003.06  Frank Van Acker | Uganda and the Lord's Resistance Army: the New Order no one ordered

Abstract

The participation conditionality linked to the PRSP creates a wide range of problems. It is too ambitious to be workable, too vague to be monitored. The pragmatic way out has been for the Breton Woods institutions to be uncommonly lenient in the verification of this conditionality. Governments can thus get away with a semblance of civil society consultation. Rwanda's a case in point. We try to show that there has been very little civil society participation, and that any other outcome would have been quite unlikely, possibly even undesirable. We argue that donors should dramatically tune down their ambitions, and set country-specific, limited but firm benchmarks that a government must respect in its relations with civil society. If this had been done from the initial stages of the Rwandan PRSP, some small but significant steps forward could have been taken that stand in stark contrast with the hollow 'participation' actually offered to civil society in some limited areas where it was not ready to rise to the challenge, while at the same time the donor community did little to protect civil society when the regime was clamping down on elementary civil liberties. 

Download 2003.05  Robrecht Renard and Nadia Molenaers | Civil Society Participation in Rwanda's Poverty Reduction Strategy

Abstract

Impact studies at the level of the beneficiary are not very common in the case of small-scale development projects. In this paper we will present the case of an evaluation study on a training project in Low External Input  
Agriculture in Guatemala. The evaluation design is based on a simple quasiexperimental design and complemented by qualitative methods of data collection. We want to illustrate that the type of mixed method evaluation used  
in the case can constitute a useful alternative to study the outcome and impact of small-scale development interventions given their specific constraints of money, expertise and time. 

Download 2003.04   Jos Vaessen and Jan De Groot | Measuring Outcome and Impact of Small Development Projects: Lessons from the Evaluation of a Training Project on Low External Input Agriculture in Guatemala 

Abstract

This paper presents findings from a study testing the alternative of an institutional approach to model intrahousehold allocative behavior. It argues that the income-pooling test and the conventional neoclassical household models only capture part of allocative behavior as they start from the premise that human behavior is built upon free human agency only. The paper proposes an alternative economic institutional approach and sets out an expanded test framework. Research findings from my own south Indian household survey show that conventional and expanded test results may differ and that unveiling decision-making processes may indicate why individuals act as if they hold common preferences. The article demonstrates that changes in selected allocative outcomes only occur as a result of changes in underlying allocative processes. It further suggests that membership of women’s groups is one effective way of changing intrahousehold decision-making processes and outcomes. 

Download 2003.03  Nathalie Holvoet | Household Matters: On the Usefulness of an Institutional Approach for Understanding Intrahousehold Allocation

Abstract

In poor societies where nutrition and health status is very low, consumption of basic needs amounts to investment. It enhances labour productivity and reduces morbidity. In this paper it is shown that inequality can persist in rural Ethiopia due to the existence the low nutrition- low productivity trap. It is done mainly by establishing the link between nutrition and health on the one hand and labour productivity on the other. Using a panel data from rural  
Ethiopian households, farm production functions as well as earnings functions are estimated. In both cases, calorie intakes do affect the labour productivity of farm households. However, the effect of the stock of nutrition on productivity is observed only in the earnings function. For workers employed in social safety nets such as food for work programs, the productivity effect of nutrition is minimal. Moreover our estimates indicate that the returns to  
calorie intakes are much larger than that of chemical fertilizers. 

Download 2003.02  Tekabe Ayalew | The Nutrition-Productivity Link and the Persistence of Poverty

Abstract

Poverty, the increasing urbanisation of poverty and the environmental degradation are major problems facing the actual world. This is reflected in international conferences and agendas, such as Local Agenda 21. This agenda  
is responding to the current problems by promoting sustainable development through local action and by using participatory methods. Our major concern is to reflect on the impact of the Local Agenda 21 on the reduction of poverty in a Third World context. 

Download 2003.01  Eva Palmans and Stefaan Marysse | Local Agenda 21 and Poverty

Abstract

This paper gives a broad overview of the evolution of Belgian aid policies throughout the 1990s. It documents changes in stated motives and objectives, aid volumes, poverty orientation of aid, the structure and main components of the aid programme, the use of new types of aid instruments, the geographic concentration of aid and the institutional set-up. Official rhetoric on aid motives and objectives as it is captured in subsequent official policy notes is confronted with effective aid practice. It is argued that aid practice was strongly influenced by factors which are external to deliberate aid policy making.

Crisis in the countries in Central Africa, which were traditionally major beneficiaries of Belgian aid, for instance, did heavily impinge upon the structure and main components of the aid programme, the aid volume and the geographic concentration of aid whereas internal political discussions in Belgium, in particular linguistic tensions, largely dominated the various institutional reforms of the aid department.

Download 2002.08 Nathalie Holvoet - Robrecht Renard | Breaking with the past? Belgian development co-operation at the turn of the century

Abstract

The broader issue dealt with in the paper is to what extent multi-party development efforts are accountable to their intended beneficiaries. One mechanism for ensuring accountability is human rights. Traditionally, only States carried human rights obligations. International law has evolved, however, and now recognises that intergovernmental organisations, including the international financial institutions, are also bound by human rights law.

The World Bank has responded to some extent to this shift by creating the Inspection Panel. Beneficiaries can use the Inspection Panel to query compliance by the Bank with its own operational policies, some of which reflect human rights concerns.

Download 2002.07 Koen De Feyter | The international financial institutions and human rights-law pratice

Abstract

At a time when technological innovations are making our world increasingly smaller and our production systems are becoming increasingly more efficient, the benefits of economic growth and development as a whole have not been able to reach all of society. Indeed, many poor countries, characterised by their disadvantageous position in the global society and continuously plagued by weak governments, internal strife and natural disasters have missed out on many of the benefits of growth and development. Within countries that do gain advantage from the various developments of globalisation, significant groups continue to be excluded from the benefits of this new-found prosperity. It is quite significant that a generalised conclusion such as this is still a reality at the turn of the century, despite decades of national and international effort to promote development and combat poverty.

Download 2002.06 Johan Bastiaensen - Tom De Herdt - Jos Vaessen | Poverty, institutions and interventions: a framework for an institutional analysis of poverty and local anti-poverty interventions

Abstract

In the mid-1990s, an initiative was launched to provide special debt relief from public creditors to more than forty Highly Indebted Poor Countries (HIPCs). In 1999, this initiative was further refined and widened in what has been hailed as a new approach to development co-operation. The indebted country is to produce a Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper (PRSP), which will make clear how it will pursue the twin goals of sustainable growth and combating poverty. This is meant to provide guarantees to creditors that the budgetary resources freed by debt relief will be used tot combat poverty1. Interestingly, the conditions attached by the donor community for granting debt relief emphasize full country ‘ownership’, by which is meant that the PRSP process must be country-led and the result fully backed by the government, in contrast to some of the structural adjustment programs which where written by economists from the IMF and the World Bank and signed without conviction by the recipient government. A related feature is that the PRSP must be produced in an open and participatory2 manner. More specifically, civil society should be consulted and be involved in preparing the PRSP. The international donor community has eagerly espoused the thesis that civil society organizations (CSOs) can play an important role in democracy and development. There is now considerable funding for projects to strengthen CSOs in developing countries (Howell & Pearce 2000: 75). The Poverty Reduction Strategy goes one step further by insisting that organized civil society be acknowledged as a partner by government. This makes it the most important effort to date, to apply participatory approaches at the macro level (Tikare et al. 2001:3).

Download 2002.05 Nadia Molenaers - Robrecht Renard | Strenghtening civil society from the outside? Donor driven consultation and participation processes in poverty reduction strategies PRSP): the Bolivian case

Abstract

This is the final report of a study commissioned by the Belgian Secretary of State for Development Co-operation, with the purpose of outlining possible actions to be adopted by the European Union to ensure a better share of total coffee revenues to producers in developing countries.

The way to improve the participation of coffee producers in the economic gains accrued in the world coffee market translates, ultimately, in their receiving a fair price for the commodity they supply. A fair price is not an abstract entity in itself, but - in the competitive world economy - is perhaps better defined as a market price that results from fair market conditions in the whole coffee producing chain. Because of this, as will be seen below, for improving the lot of coffee producers, this reports outlines proposals to take place in the consuming countries, particularly Europe.

At first sight, it might seem a contradiction acting in one region to directly impact others, far away. The key to the logic of the argument lies in the definition in the previous paragraph. As we try to demonstrate, market conditions in the consuming-countries side of the coffee producing chain are not fair; the market failures and distortions ingenuously created there are responsible for the enormous asymmetry of gains in the two sides. Radical positive measures for the coffee farms must begin, ironically, in Brussels.

The structure of this report is as follows. Section 2 introduces preliminary background considerations. A summary of the past and present experiences in the application of supply management schemes is the content of Section 3 . Section 4 is an introduction to the main issues in the analysis of the coffee market . Finally, section 5 presents the proposals for consumer government supporting actions, and suggestions for a series of detailed studies to support the actions.

Download 2002.04 German Calfat - Renato G. Flores | Possibilities for consumer government action to support coffee producers

Abstract

Le revirement de la politique économique congolaise après la mort du président L.Kabila a su séduire la communauté financière internationale (entre autre le FMI et la Banque Mondiale ) qui a changé de ton et de politque en un temps record. Avec d'autres ouvertures sur le plan politique en ce qui concerne la guerre, ces évolutions ont suscité une renaissance d'espoir pour des lendemains meilleurs. Malheureusement, l'espoir et le changement d'attitudes (regain de sécurité et dimunition de la pratique de corruption) qu'on apercevait à Kinshasa et ailleurs, lors de l'accession au pouvoir du père Kabila, s'étaient dissipés à cause de la guerre et parce que le vécu quotidien de la population ne changeait guère. Maintenant, grâce aux premiers signes du déblocage du processus de la paix, de la dimunition de l'isolement international, des nouvelles mesures d'économie politique, un même climat d'espoir et d'attentes, sans doute multiples et difficiles à satisfaire totalement et dans l'immédiat, semble régner. Pour que ces attentes soient un peu réalistes, il faudrait voir les conditions (dispositions) réelles de création d'un environnement propice qui puisse permettre à cette période post-conflit de jeter les bases d'un développement durable.

Pour pouvoir déterminer le besoin de financement de la reconstruction post-conflit, il y a différents facteurs à prendre en compte. D'abord il faudra pouvoir évaluer le coût du rétablissement des fonctions minimales de l'Etat, mais aussi tomber d'accord sur la redéfinition du rôle de l'Etat. Ensuite, il faudra estimer le montant d'investissements étrangers dont on aurait besoin pour rétablir un appareil de production compétitif internationalement. Ces investissements ne se laissent pas commander par des institutions politiques nationales mais dépendent de la confiance (capital social) que la communauté internationale a dans la politique économique suivie. Ensuite dans une étape ultérieure on pourra reconstituer une assiette fiscale propre et des investissements endogènes sans dépendre de l'extérieur. Le problème crucial dans ce domaine est la trajectoire temporelle pour arriver à un développement macro-économique durable: en d'autres termes, le Congo devra parvenir à se financer par ses moyens propres pour accéder à une indépendance économique. Cette définition ne veut nullement prôner une déconnexion du système mondial pour le Congo, bien au contraire. Les pays en développement qui peuvent décider eux-mêmes de la politique économique qu'ils suivent, sont des pays qui se sont insérés de force dans la compétition internationale et ont bien utilisé leurs ressources économiques (L'île Maurice, le Botswana, Singapore, la Corée du Sud, etc).

Download 2002.03 Stefaan Marysse - Laurent Luzolele Lola Nkakala | Besoins de financement de la reconstruction de l'économie congolaise: ampleur et conditions préalables

Abstract

Notre texte s'articule autour de quatre axes essentiels.

1. Dans le premier axe nous évoquerons brièvement quelques définitions et les principales causes de la pauvreté. Selon la Banque Mondiale, la croissance économique est la meilleure politique contre la pauvreté. Cependant, elle constate que la croissance économique n'est pas synonyme de réduction des inégalités ou de diminution de la pauvreté. Celle-ci a plusieurs causes et exige plus que la simple croissance pour la combattre. Nous y donnons aussi quelques éléments spécifiques qui distinguent la pauvreté urbaine de la pauvreté rurale.

2. Le deuxième axe compare la situation du Congo (République Démocratique du Congo-RDC) avec celle de ses voisins sur les critères de l'indicateur du développement humain (IDH ou HDI). La situation socioéconomique du Congo se résume en ces termes: l'économie est bloquée et l'Etat ne dispose ni d'institution financière de grande envergure, ni de groupe d'hommes (bourgeoisie locale) d'affaires qui peuvent financer l'économie: dès lors, l'Etat congolais se doit de réunir les capacités de remettre la machine en marche avec la participation de tous les acteurs de développement (secteur public, secteur privé, secteur associatif) afin de renverser les tendances négatives de beaucoup d'indicateurs de développement humain pour le pays. Quelques stratégies de lutte contre la pauvreté en générale sont traitées.

3. En troisième lieu, nous donnerons quelques réflexions sur les contraintes liées au facteur Temps dans la lutte contre la pauvreté. Combattre la pauvreté dans la période de transition ne peut être valable que si cela s'inscrit dans une dynamique de développement global et durable (en d'autres termes, les résultats positifs obtenus doivent se reproduire). Dans le cas du Congo, les réponses doivent être trouvées à deux types de questions: Les questions liées au Temps dans la lutte contre la pauvreté (temps sociologique et économique, stratégies à court terme et à long terme). La pauvreté elle-même étant multidimensionnelle, elle n'a pas une définition univoque dans l'espace et dans le temps et ne peut être combattue par une seule action. Dès lors dans un pays où les structures socio-économiques sont désarticulées, les capacités de réceptivité ou d'absorption des innovations culturelles et morales à apporter peuvent exiger un temps long. Les stratégies de lutte contre la pauvreté même pendant la période de transition doivent donc se définir dans un processus cohérent de développement de l'ensemble de la société. Celui-ci (le développement) étant défini comme un ensemble des changements de structures associés à la génération, à la répartition, à l'utilisation du surplus économique. Dans ce même cadre, le temps sociologique renvoie aux stratégies de formation, de sensibilisation pour améliorer la participation de la population à tous les stades qui concernent la prise de décisions sur son devenir et le contrôle sur l'utilisation des ressources. Pour cela la démocratisation et la liberté des espaces culturels d'expression et de rencontre doivent être une priorité pour évacuer la situation anomique qui crée une société sans règles ni sanction sociale pour les gestionnaires politiques. La lutte contre la pauvreté doit compter sur la construction d'un capital social productif qui recrée des repères et des références qui incitent à la recherche de l'intérêt général pour sortir de ce qu'on pourrait appeler "culture des pauvres" (la reproduction de la pauvreté). Les questions liées aux moyens sociaux et financiers à mettre en oeuvre pour stimuler le développement économique à court et à long termes. La croissance et la construction de la société ne se réalisent pas sur les exclusions qui constituent une des causes fondamentales de la pauvreté. La solidarité est une tâche de la collectivité et non du privé. Cependant, le capital social productif suppose une articulation particulière de tous les acteurs de développement: secteur public, secteur privé (marché) et secteur associatif. Cette articulation nécessite également du temps (Temps économique). Le temps économique est régulé par le marché efficace. Ce dernier est aujourd'hui caractérisé par une explosion du secteur informel qu'il conviendrait de récupérer. Le problème qui se pose à ce niveau est celui de savoir si le pays, la RDC, dispose d'une capacité d'absorption des moyens financiers et autres qui peuvent être mis à sa disposition.

4. Enfin le quatrième axe conclura sur quelques pistes de réflexions concernant les stratégies à court et long termes pour lutter contre la pauvreté dans le Congo d'aujourd'hui. L'Etat doit retrouver son rôle de régulateur et de redistributeur. Il doit créer les conditions de reprise en relançant des programmes de crédit et des travaux publics (infrastructures) pour développer la capacité d'absorption par les entreprises et les ménages des moyens mis à la disposition du Congo. Une réflexion sur les instruments budgétaires (affectations des ressources) et fiscaux doit être menée pour voir dans quelle mesure on peut diminuer les coûts et proposer la gratuité de certains services sociaux bien ciblés à court terme pour une visibilité immédiate de nouvelles actions de l'Etat reconstruit.

Download 2002.02 Laurent Luzolele Lola Nkalala - Stefaan Marysse | Combattre la pauvreté dans le Congo en situation de post-conflit

Abstract

The first international african war is going on. From august 1998 on 2.5 million people have been killed directly or indirectly in this media-silent war 1, this is almost one tenth of all 'casualties' incurred by the Soviet Union during the second world war. A first important but partial explanation is the change within the world-system after the demise of the Soviet Union. I.Wallerstein wrote immediately after the fall of the Berlin Wall 2 that with the end of the cold war violence and international warfare would change in nature because   "The emperor  (the US or capitalist hegemony)  stood naked after he lost his figleaf  (of the communist countries)". The end of the east-west competition would open new arena's of threats to peace and in his almost profetic analysis he predicted that violence and new conflicts would rather increase because underdevelopment and regress could not anymore be imputed to the wrong policies.

However since the same international environment (the so-called globalisation) 
leads to very different outcomes in this world-system , the geo-political explanation should be complemented by other factors. Why do most of the violent conflicts occur in Africa where also economic regression is most prominently going on ? We shall explore some of the recent and influential theories in the second part of our paper.

In the third and last part of the paper, I will focus more specifically on one of the once key-peripheral countries of the african continent.: DRCongo. More specifically, we'll tackle some questions concerning the first international african war. Is this war the product of the new geo-political role of Arica in the world-system? Translating the Huntington thesis on the "Clash of Civilisations" that means that the unconditional help for the invading countries Uganda and Rwanda by the US is nothing else than reinforcing the regional agents of US-hegemony against the increasing influence of Islam fundamentalism (Sudan). Or should this war be seen as nothing else than a second scramble for Africa's wealth, reproducing the old good world imperialism thesis? We'll see that history never reproduces itself but is continually old and new producing new and unforeseen realities.

Download 2002.01 Stefaan Marysse | The new role of some key peripheral countries after the fall of the Berlin wall - The case of democratic republic of Congo