DevISSues volume 8, number 1, June 2006

Land, water and forests

Tanzania China Pakistan Egypt

Also in this issue: Interview with Martha Nussbaum

DevISSues DevelopmentISSues

Volume8/Number1/June2006

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From the Editorial Board This edition of DevISSues provides a glimpse of how the field of development studies engages issues of natural resource management. We hear from the organizers of the recent ISS-ICCO conference on Land, Poverty, Social Justice, and Development. New faculty member Lorenzo Pellegrini challenges the standard approaches to handling corruption in forestry management. Our list of new books by the ISS researchers includes three on environmental topics: environmentalism in Turkey, the distributional incidence of water and electricity subsidies, and contestation of the Sandar Sarovar dam project in India.

This edition also includes an article about dam development in China by ISS alum Michael Büsgen. Michael was one of three participants of the 2004-2005 MA class to receive the annual prize for best MA research paper. The other two awards went to Elizabeth Mulewa Ngutuku Mulongo and Clare Louise Ducker. Elizabeth has contributed a Letter to the Editor in this issue.

Clare’s work will appear in our fall issue. The three award-winning research papers are available in the ISS working paper series.

Also featured in this issue are an interview with Martha Nussbaum, who was recently awarded an honorary doctorate from ISS, and news about the new holder of the Prince Claus Chair, Rema Hammami. Participants from the Rural Livelihoods and Global Change MA specialization share their experience on a study visit to rural Egypt. In Teaching News, Marc Wuyts describes an innovative ISS diploma programme that uses distance learning to make advanced study on poverty analysis possible for working professionals in Tanzania.

Other new developments at ISS include the hiring of Thomas Tichar to be the in-house editor for both DevISSues and the redesigned ISS website, which will be unveiled this summer. The Editorial Board would like to thank Andy Brown, our external editor and a DevISSues veteran, for his dedication and hard work and to welcome Thomas to the DevISSues team.

The Editorial Board

A hot new website

About the cover

DevISSues is only one way that the ISS reaches out to our past, present, and future students, not to mention all our other readers and interested parties. In fact the bulk of this Institute’s activities – including research, projects, teaching and public forums – appear online through our website. During the Summer our brand new website will be launched. Its central aim is to bring you closer to us and the issues of development we work on. The website is a door that swings both ways, providing you with information and giving us your thoughts and experiences.

Among other, you will be able to express your feelings about the content of this, and our future DevISSues publications. So midsummer, go to www.iss.nl and step into Europe’s leading centre for Development Studies.

The cover picture is an example of illegal logging in the North-West frontier province of Pakistan. Lorenzo’s Pellegrini’s article on page 18, titled “Logging and Corruption” addresses this issue.

ISS alumni associations ISS alumni associations are both independent groups or a part of a Netherlands Alumni Association; we are looking to update our list of ISS associations for the new website. To ensure this list is comprehensive, we are asking ISS alumni associations or an ISS chapter within a Netherlands Alumni Association, to please provide us with your details by sending an email to alumni@iss.nl.

We’re looking forward to help putting you on the map!

Among others, ISS alumni are working on an initiative to set up the Netherlands Alumni Association of Colombia (NAAC). If you’d like to be a part of this, please email to nlgovbog@etb.net.co.

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The Institute generates, accumulates and transfers knowledge and know-how on human aspects of economic and social change, with a focus on development and transition. ISS is a leading centre in this field.

The views expressed in DevISSues are those of the original authors and do not necessarily reflect those of the Institute.

Development ISSues is also available on the ISS website at www.iss.nl

CONTENTS

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4 / The Angry River, Dam(n)ed Development in China Michael Busgen

Page

8 / Education for Democratic Citizenship Interview with Martha Nussbaum

Page 11 / ISS Land Conference: Land, Poverty, Social Justice and Development Page 16 / Letter to the editor Page 17 / Long distance learning in Tanzania Marc Wuyts Page 18 / Logging and Corruption in Pakistan, Swat Lorenzo Pellegrini Page 20 / A Study Trip to Egypt Azra Tasnim Abdul Cader, Diana Lee Henderson and Ibi-Ronke Lani M’Cleod

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The A n g r y R i ve r -

Dam(n)ed Development in China and the Role of the Central State Michael Busgen

There are competing interests involved around the Nujiang river in the South-West part of China. Some of the country’s most influential hydropower corporations, with the support of local and provincial governments, are planning to build a massive dam, against the resistance of central government departments and Chinese environmental NGOs. The following article describes the specifics of the ongoing dispute between the factions in the context of the sprawling economic expansion that is rapidly destroying China’s natural resources. It is based on the research of Michael Busgen, who is one of three 04/05 MA prize winners for his thesis on the increasingly influential role of NGOs in China (see box).

Over the past two decades, China’s overriding policy priority has been to generate economic growth. The reforms since the early 80’s have produced an average of almost 10 % annual GDP growth, turning China into one of the main contributors to global economic development. But this has come at a price. On the one hand, the gap between the rich and poor is constantly increasing, leading to growing social tensions and a rising fear of unrest, primarily in rural areas. Regional disparities between the booming cities in the coastal regions and the western hinterland are dividing China into a third and first world within one country.

Shanghai’s average GDP per-capita today is about ten times higher than in the landlocked, south-western Guizhou province. On the other hand, there are growing concerns over the ecological sustainability of China’s development.

The toxic spill in north-west China’s Songhua River last November and the recent sandstorms, which covered Beijing under some 300,000 tons of dust are only the tip of the iceberg.

The endemic causes of the environmental challenge are rooted in China’s resource-hungry economy, which is consuming an ever-growing share of the world’s natural resources. China’s Deputy Minister of the Environment, Pan Yue, estimates that his country uses six times as many resources in order to produce the same value of goods, compared to western economies. This has not only led to a rapid increase of imported global resources, but also a push to develop untapped national resources, most notably energy.

The endemic causes of the environmental challenge are rooted in China’s resourcehungry economy All this is taking place in a fundamentally changing institutional environment.

While some may still perceive

Chinese politics as being led by an autocratic and hierarchical central state, today’s situation presents a messier picture. Central authorities show a growing concern for more social and environmental sustainability, while local governments still think mostly in terms of GDP growth (and often rent-seeking opportunities). In addition to this diversity within the government, other players are making their growing influence felt. Most notable are large corporations which are pushing into the poorer, but resourcerich western regions of China. These corporate interests are challenged by an increasingly vocal environmental movement in China that appears to be one of the forerunners of an emerging civil society.

The Nujiang, or ‘Angry River’ in English, is one of the two remaining unregulated ‘virgin-rivers’ in China. It winds down some 2400 km from the Tibet plateau into China’s south-western Yunnan Province and then further through Myanmar before it finally flows into the Andaman Sea. The stretches in Yunnan feature one of the world’s steepest valleys, crowned by mountain ranges up to an altitude of 6000 m.

This geographic setting has created a unique wealth of biological, ethnical and cultural diversity. In 2003 UNESCO listed a 1.7 Million hectares area including parts of the Nujiang valley as a world heritage site, called the ‘Three Parallel Rivers’.

Only shortly after, the China Huadian energy corporation announced its plans to build a cascade of 13 dams along the river in order to provide energy to the booming coastal regions of eastern China. The projected capacity would

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MA Prize Winner 2005 Michael Busgen’s MA paper “NGOs and the Search for Chinese Civil Society - Environmental Non-Governmental Organisations in the Nujiang Campaign” was awarded the ‘05 MA prize as one of the three best research papers of the academic year. It addresses the changing role of Chinese grass roots NGOs, using the example of the recent Nujiang anti-dam campaign. Chinese NGOs have been analysed mostly within a state-corporatist model and are widely portrayed as being state-led and non-confrontational in

nature. But through assessment of the contribution of these organisations towards promoting participation, pluralism and people-centred development, this indicates that Chinese NGOs increasingly contribute towards the emergence of a critical civil society. It also demonstrates how proximity with (parts of) the state is used more as an asset by NGOs, rather then being a factor which limits their autonomy.

This paper, along with the other two prize-winners, can be downloaded through www.iss.nl/workingpapers

more than double the world’s largest dam, the notorious Three Gorges Dam, which is being built on the Yangtze River.

The company, together with local and provincial governments, were claiming that a dam on the Nujiang would bring development to one of Chinas most ‘impoverished and backward’ regions.

making process and more stringent assessments of possible environmental and social impacts by the dam. By April

The announcement by Huadian triggered a strong response by a coalition of Chinese environmental NGOs, scientists, the media and progressive forces within the government (mostly within the State Environment Protection Agency – SEPA), demanding more participation by affected communities in the decision-

increasingly driven by

Hydropower-development in Southwest China is

markets and political deregulation 2004, as a result of increasing public pressure, Premier Wen Jiabao ordered

A field that would be flooded should dam-building go ahead.

a suspension of the construction plans and demanded further investigation.

Opposition to the Nujiang dam also came from the National Development and Reform Commission, which insisted that local hydropower development be brought in line with national plans, thereby attempting to limit the unchecked rush on China’s natural resources. The latest FiveYear Development Plan, approved in February 2006, does not include plans for the construction of a dam on the Nujiang. Nonetheless, ‘exploratory and preparatory’ work continues along the Angry River and few people doubt that eventually the project will go ahead.

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And although plans to develop the Nujiang have been put on a temporary hold, they continue elsewhere. Recent years have seen a surge in hydropower development in Southwest China, with hydro-projects being built or planned on almost every river. Many of these are advanced without official approval or having conducted the required environmental impact assessment. In many of these cases, economic benefits have been much lower than predicted, and where they materialised they were distributed in a manner which often widened China’s growing wealth gap even further. At the same time, many local communities were burdened with the economic, social and environmental consequences.

energy was gradually broken-up and led eventually to the creation of five large energy corporations to which the State Council has assigned the development rights on China’s major watersheds.

Although these corporations are formally independent from the state, they retain strong personal linkages with

are challenged by

While Wittfogel’s ‘despotic states’ may have turned out to be a historic obstacle for building democratic societies, the time for rolling-back the state does not appear to be ripe yet in China. Instead, the Nujiang case suggests that a strong state and a vocal civil society are both vital to counterbalance the growing influence of commercial interests and to ensure more social equity and less environmental damage – both factors which are increasingly recognised as critical components for a stable China.

an increasingly vocal

Michael Busgen is a Sinologist, who graduated

Corporate interests

environmental movement

from the ISS in 2005 in the Major ‘Rural Livelihoods and Global Change’. Since the mid 80s, Michael Busgen has spent almost ten years in China, where

in China

from 1998 to 2004 he was working for different international NGOs. He is planning to return to

These developments mark a dramatic shift in China’s institutional landscape.

Large water works for millennia used to be the domain of the state.

Karl Wittfogel in his book ‘Oriental Despotism’ has linked the emergence of what he calls ‘hydraulic civilizations’ with the formation of strong hierarchical and authoritarian bureaucracies. Chinese mythology equally traces the origins of its civilisation back to strong rulers who set out to regulate rivers and make land habitable and productive.

But in the last decade this appears to have changed. Hydropowerdevelopment in Southwest China is no longer determined by a strong central state, but is increasingly driven by markets and political deregulation. In this process, the state monopoly on

China in 2006 for capacity building of local NGOs.

the government, resulting in numerous allegations of corruption. This new political economy has created a shift ‘from national to local politics’ and ‘from politics to money’ as the driving force behind electricity development.

While previous mega projects like the Three-Gorges Dam were still pushed by the central state, they are nowadays primarily advanced by a diffuse mix of interests of unaccountable rentseeking local political elites and large corporations, looking for investment opportunities and economic returns.

This coalition is unlikely to take national agendas of social equity and environmental sustainability on board.

Left unchecked, it rather bears a risk of becoming a major threat for stable development.

He can be contacted at busgen@iss.nl

Staff News News Staff New staff Ms Marianna Sickens de Wal, Financial Officer (Office of Resource Management) as of 1 January 2006.

Mr Thomas Tichar, Editor ISS web site & DevISSues, as of 1 April 2006.

Staff leaving Ms Antonella Sorrentino, Staff Group & Programme Administrator, to return to Italy early July.

Dr Haroon Akram-Lodhi, Associate Professor in Rural Development, end July to take up the position of Professor of International Development Studies at the Trent University in Canada.

Ms Els Mulder, Project Officer ORPAS will leave ISS end July to take up early retirement.

Ms Sylvia Schram, researcher, left the ISS on the 1st of May.

Appointment Appointment in the Price Claus Chair: Professor Rema Hammami

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Pr i n s C l a u s C h a i r holder: Rema Hammami

Human Agency at the Frontiers of Global Inequality This year the Prins Claus Chair holder position was awarded to Professor Rema Hammami. Her inauguration took place on Thursday the 20th of April in the presence of the Chair of the board, Princess Maxima. Through narrative support, she illustrated the plight of Palestinians’ daily struggle passing through Israeli imposed military checkpoints. Ultimately her talk argued that the processes of containment and resistance that happen at these checkpoints may be exemplary of wider global processes of social and economic exclusion within and across borders. The following is an excerpt of her speech.

Instead of unmaking inequalities, over the last decade there has been a move to policing them. The politics of security has increasingly come to dominate development agendas, immigration policies and states’ approaches to their own urban poor.

Everywhere security apparatuses and policing have become the substitute for addressing the root causes of today’s deepening inequalities as the focus has shifted towards containing the actual or potential violence these inequalities might engender.

In the North there has been a move to super-policing of urban ghettos rather than addressing issues of chronic unemployment, racism and the demise of welfare state provisions. Similarly, massive investments in policing of borders at the frontiers of Europe and the US have been undertaken as neoliberalism has led to a retrenchment from earlier development compacts and the global community has come to abandon areas of the increasingly impoverished South under the rubric of “failed states”. In all these cases, it is a security regime that mediates between those on the one side, who live as citizens and those on the other, who live in what is now called states of “extreme marginality” or “bare life”.

This talk discusses the policing of inequality through the experience of people who live it in a particular place; Palestinians living under the security regime of Israeli military control. By taking a close ethnographic view of the daily life of a society having to cross a military checkpoint we may better understand some of the processes and issues at stake in tangible and human terms. Among these are the human outcomes on both sides. But in particular, is to understand how the politics of security creates myopia, blindness to the very facts it creates, as well as to perceiving the creative forces of survival of its victims in positive terms.

These forces of survival and human agency under security regimes are only read as threats, while in fact they are resources of hope that should be galvanized in processes of restorative justice and ultimately in the unmaking of inequality.

For the full speech go to www.iss.nl/publiclectures Rema Hammami is a Professor at the Institute for Women’s Studies at Birzeit University, Ramallah, Palestine.

Rema Hammami in front of the Palestinian-Israeli separating wall.

For more information see www.princeclauschair.nl

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M a r t h a Nussbaum

Education for Democratic Citizenship Interview by Sharada Srinivasan, Jacob Boersma and Ellen Lammers On March 9th Martha Nussbaum was awarded the degree of Doctor Honoris Causa at the ISS for her outstanding contribution to development studies. Dr Nussbaum approaches development studies from a philosophical background and has published a number of articles and books on this subject matter. Her most recent is Frontiers

groups and individuals. I basically got drawn in more and more and never looked back.

Dutch universities have a very low number of female professors. What is your take on this and women’s position in academia in general?

of Justice, arguing that a just and decent world can be derived from the capabilities of people to build a life worthy of human dignity. The following interview by Sharada Srinivasan (ISS), Jacob Boersma (University of Amsterdam) and Ellen Lammers (Vrije Universiteit) addresses her thoughts on a wide variety of social, political, as well as development issues.

Could you tell us how you became involved in development work?

By the time I got involved in development studies I was appointed half in Philosophy and half in the Classics.

I was primarily involved in ancient Greek philosophy, but I had already started to take an interest in Aristotle’s political philosophy, which has a lot to contribute on the topic of human capabilities and human functionings.

These ideas were already interesting to me, but I hadn’t really worked on them in a political way. Amartya Sen and I co-authored a paper for a conference at the World Institute of Development Economics Research (WIDER), that had a project on values and development.

We wanted to say that internal criticism of tradition was a very important part of the development process. Since WIDER was an interdisciplinary institute founded to promote broader approaches to development policy, but it did not have any philosophers, I thought it would be good to have a high-level philosophicaleconomic project where the notion

of quality of life would be examined.

Through this project I became fascinated and drawn in by the urgency of the issues. They transformed my whole way of thinking about what my career was and what I ought to do. I realized that I was so incredibly narrow and insular before. I knew nothing about other cultures, I was ignorant of everything outside the Western tradition. This realization affected my thinking about education. One of the things my book on education emphasizes is that all

The wor l d s i t u a t i o n i s n o t like the s i t u a t i o n i n s i d e each na t i o n Americans need to learn a great deal about other, non-Western cultures. It also affected my thinking about what I should write about. Traveling to India only intensified my sense of the urgency of the problems, but also the pleasure that I had in working with various women’s

Women must deal with both sexual harassment and childcare problems. On the sexual harassment issue, there’s been great progress since I was a graduate student. At the time it was not recognized in policy or name and there was no sense that harassment was off-limits. Now there is a whole body of case law about it that universities derive policy from and its recognition as being illegal deters most from doing it. On childcare, by contrast, very little progress has been made. In academic spaces it is perhaps not so bad, but in places such as law firms there is more demand of overtime that makes it difficult to have a family.

Women have only made progress in the US academic space slowly, but they still encounter a lot of discrimination. In small countries such as Finland (where I was in charge of a set of Humanities Departments), special problems pop up; in this case a mentor system has developed; there are only a few top positions and powerful men will pass them on to similarly minded younger men, such that it is easier for women to be excluded. In fact the most prominent woman who is a Finnish professor of philosophy had to go to Sweden to get her chair.

But in general Finland has pretty good policies on women and in the political process they do very well. Finland’s president, for instance, is female.

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In the US by contrast the treatment of women in politics is very sexist, while in the academics it is not nearly so bad. The mentor system I mentioned in Finland for instance, couldn’t take place in the US because the average (philosophy) department might be twenty people. It’s more difficult to have a mentor system if a department is that large. If you look in the university presidencies it now seems that almost all major universities have female presidents. In the Ivy League, ten years ago there were zero, now look at them; Penn, Princeton, MIT. They all have female presidents and all the major candidates who are being mentioned for the presidency of Harvard are women.

Not because I think they should be women but it’s a good sign those are the ones being mentioned by everyone.

I don’t know what to suggest in the Netherlands. Maybe the openness of the EU will help people move around, and there will be a larger collective space. You just have to have a few individuals, especially men, who are committed to feminism. In Finland there is this man called Simo Knuuttila, a very great historian of philosophy. In the last fifty years he has gotten grants from the academy and the EU which he has used to support the research work of young scholars, most of them women.

By himself he has created a small army of gifted women working on Greek philosophy. This kind of an individual can make a big difference.

How do you see the concept of compassion being taught to people and put into practice in society?

Evidence has shown that any decent political structure cannot rely on the individual philanthropic instincts of citizens. There is the problem of people’s inconstant attention, which is more often the case with human beings. But equally there are also administrative problems, wherein donations can be unequally dealt out to various causes. And so the solution most nations have found is to have a tax system which takes money from all people on suitable principles and reallocates it in a suitably fair way, such as to health care and social welfare systems. Of course those institutional structures require sustenance. In the US we were beginning to get those institutional structures in the New Deal (’33-’37) and even in the Great Society

Martha Nussbaum during her award ceremony.

programs of Johnson (US President from ’63-’69). But during the ’80s President Reagan convinced people to think about themselves and their lives quite differently. This changed the national psychology, causing many such programs to disappear.

How do we approach such systems at the global level? It’s much, much harder because there is no world state. If we believe that the nation-state should remain a powerful player in people’s lives, as I argue, then we have to rely on nations to make agreements that are fair for their citizens. This though, is difficult, because there is no coercive institutional structure to enforce this, so it has to be reliant on education. In the case of the US for instance, you’d have to rely much more on the citizens to speak out against spending money on Iraq’s war, or on how little money is spent on foreign aid. We have to rely on international agreements that are held together only by people’s ethical commitment to them, by their

sense that this creates a better world.

International law as it stands today is the result of a gradual evolution of such agreements. The US puts these in jeopardy by flouting such regulation as the Geneva protocol, which is only upheld by an ethical agreement or, in other words, by the good will of member nations and their citizens.

So I think it is important for people to be educated so that they recognize it is happening when human rights are being broken. To some extent this has happened and I think that needs to happen a lot more. The world situation is not like the situation inside each nation. Within the US for example, we can at least say we now have got the Constitution fixed. Short of a massive upheaval things are going to work pretty well. But globally this is not the case, and so we have to rely all the more on education as well as civil society, student movements and protest movements of some kinds, which let us hope things will move in the right direction.

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The more liberal Dutch politicians are often frightened of using emotions in political debate. How do you see the role of emotions in politics?

audience, summoning the emotions of anger and hope, is a wonderful example of the good use of emotions in our recent history.

I was asked this last year by Dutch journalists and I find it a strange attitude. Emotions are always in politics; if people did not have any emotions it would mean that they don’t care what’s happening to them. If there is an injustice being done you should get angry about it, or worry about it. If there is something good, you should have hope. What else would sustain your political actions? The question isn’t about whether emotions should be involved, but which emotions and about what events? Emotions can be given out incorrectly, such as fearing something that isn’t really dangerous, stigmatizing a group, or getting angry because you’re being asked to pay your fair share. Americans have a lot of that kind of anger. You have to get down to the specific level and ask, what are you angry about and why? Are the values contained in your emotions correct or not?

Another example is Roosevelt. The New Deal would not have been possible without carefully manipulating compassion on a large scale: the way he funded artists and photographers and the kind of photos he asked them to take. Through his dictation they constructed certain kinds of emotions that would not have just automatically bubbled up. Today in America I don’t think we have anyone who can really make that appeal to the good emotions except maybe my own senator Barack Obama. Because he comes from this African American rhetorical tradition that originated from King, he is not afraid to stand up and summon his own, and others, emotions. This is the reason why I want him to be the next presidential candidate. He is the only

Liberals often have this reluctance to tap into their emotions and it leads them to great difficulty. In India for instance, the Hindu right has been unafraid to manipulate people’s emotions, while liberal Hinduism since the death of Gandhi has done nothing to mobilize people on a large scale, to call on the emotions of love and compassion that would counter the right. The intellectuals, many of them Marxists, disdain the popular emotions, while the opposing group is adept at crafting emotions politically. What is needed is a liberal emotional alternative. The US had that in the civil rights and abolition of slavery movement, both of which were powerful, rhetorical and emotional movements closely linked with liberal religion. Martin Luther King Junior is an example of someone who made use of emotions well, politically speaking. If only the violent had called on their emotions during the civil rights movement, violence would have been the only result. King had a big task, because he had to convince the white world that his ideal of integration was worthwhile while convincing the black world that it should be done so without violence. The clever way in which his speeches appealed to both colors of

emotions and it leads them

Liberals often have this reluctance to tap into their

to great difficulty one who can turn America in a positive direction. The other side is so adept, like the Hindu right, at manipulating fear; fear of the other, fear of the stranger and so on. You don’t counter that kind of manipulative use of emotions with high-minded philosophical arguments.

Would you say emotions are relevant to understanding and dealing with development problems like poverty?

Certainly; much more attention must be paid to psychological phenomena in development. One reason that people don’t is because they think of emotions as just hard wired, as parts of the personality that you are born with, that don’t interact with society. Research on emotions in both philosophy and psychology indicate this is not the case.

Emotions contain thoughts about what damages are worth getting angry about and dangers that threaten you. They are deeply shaped by social norms in ways that are often part of women’s development problems. Therefore the subject of emotions is highly relevant in

thinking about what sorts of worthwhile human lives we are trying to promote.

Let’s consider justified anger. Women are often brought up to think they must not get angry. In fact I myself was brought up to think this. Acknowledging that anger is a correct response to the damages that women have suffered is a very important part of women’s development, so keeping an eye on that as one is trying to construct women’s solidarity groups or an NGO is a very important thing. Good NGOs that I visited in India are all keenly aware of the emotional dimensions of trying to get women, instead of living in fear, to confront fear with constructive love for one another and then anger at the obstacles. They often use the arts to do that.

The second place wherein emotions are highly useful is in thinking about the source of a problem. Where does it come from? I am finishing a book on India, on the Gujarat riots, which I call The Clash Within. It is meant as a criticism against this “clash of civilizations” thesis that defines good and bad civilizations. What would be helpful is to think of the clash within each society, between people who can live with others and those who cannot, but more deeply the clash within each person—between the fear of the other and the ability to live in the world in terms of mutual and self-respect.

If you are going to have a public culture that supports human capabilities you will have to also consider emotional development. How do you get people to be considerate of problems so distant from their own lives, who are willing to give their money to that? In America we do not have such a public culture; we have a culture of people who do not know anything about what is happening, for example, in India. Even if they knew, many people would be so wrapped up in their own success that they wouldn’t have the kind of compassion that is needed to address those kinds of problems. So that is part of what a good education would cultivate- good emotions that would make a decent world possible.

The full interview can be found at www.iss.nl/nussint.pdf Martha Nussbaum’s ISS award speech can be found at http://www.iss.nl/publiclectures.

Martha Nussbaum is Professor of Law and Ethics at the University of Chicago Law Faculty.

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I S S L a n d C o n fe re nce: Pl o u g h i n g Ne w Te r ra i n o n L a nd Policy A five day Land Conference organized and hosted by the ISS brought together over 300 activists, policy makers and academics to discuss broader perspectives on land, poverty, social justice and development. The conference, held from 9 to 14 January, began with two days of civil society discussion, followed by a joint three-day academic debate. The civil society conference was coorganized with FIAN (Foodfirst Information and Action Network) and in close coordination with La Via Campesina and the Land Research and Action Network, while the academic conference’s main external support came from The Inter-Church Organization for Development Cooperation (ICCO). The conference organizers give a summary of lessons learned during the academic meetings in the article below, while Sofía Monsalve Suárez of FIAN shares her impressions of the civil society conference in the second piece.

A young boy raises his fist during a protest action on land in rural Brazil.

Picture taken by João Zinclar.

Land, Poverty, Social Justice and Development Worldwide, poverty still has primarily a rural face. Effective control over productive resources, especially land, by the rural poor is important to their autonomy and capacity to construct a rural livelihood and overcome poverty.

Moreover, for most rural people land has a multidimensional character: in addition to being an economic resource, it also has significant political, cultural and social dimensions. As a consequence, lack of access or loss of land can foster social exclusion, reduce human capabilities, and cultivate violence and conflict. The implementation of appropriate land policies will thus be a key factor in achieving social justice, sustainable development and the eradication of poverty.

Six general lessons about how to produce progressive change in land

policies and policy implementation emerged from the land conference.

First, the land problem in the contemporary neoliberal globalisation period requires a broader understanding than in the past. The

Lack of access or loss of land can foster social exclusion, reduce human capabilities, and cultivate violence and conflict land issue has to be framed in an interdisciplinary context that stands open to the various aspects it is related

to. Moreover, including key terms such as ‘territory’ into the land question would broaden the debate to include control of natural resources, and the social and political consequences for the (especially indigenous) people living there, while striving for ecological sustainability.

Second, the land question cannot be properly resolved from within the rural sector, but requires a new development strategy and interaction between the rural and urban sectors which overcomes the limitations of the current neoliberal model.

Third, furthermore, a sustainable solution to the land question cannot be obtained within the confines of the nation state but requires a new world system which establishes a just

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the national level depends in part on rural democratization. It requires greater attention from a broader community to ensure that more equal values are met.

Finally, redistributive land reform is a necessary but not sufficient condition to eradicate rural poverty and inequality.

From a rural perspective, the poor must form their own independent organizations and movements that can launch political pressure ‘from below’.

Meanwhile pro-reform coalitions must be supported at the national level to enforce a development agenda that includes land and ‘growth with equity’ economic policies.

Rafael Alegria of La Via Campesina speaks of the global campaign against neo-liberal land policies.

and equal relationship between the North and the South. The process of globalisation means that problems like biodiversity, unfair trading practices, food security (or ‘food sovereignty’), ecological degradation, technology, finance, and so on, have to be dealt with from within a new international system.

Fourth, a viable solution to the unequal race between capitalist and peasant farmers must be found. While transnational companies have offered genetically modified (GM) foods as an option, this has been met with considerable opposition by many rural social movement organizations

and environmentalists. If GM seeds are rejected then an alternative must be considered to slow the widening gap in production that leads to the displacement of the peasantry.

Fifth, the land issue concerns not just the peasantry and indigenous peoples in poorer countries, but those in urban areas in both the North and South. The economic livelihoods and social and political conditions across sectoral and spatial divides are closely interlinked.

For example, landlessness and rural poverty contribute to the rise of urban social and economic problems, and consolidation of political democracy at

Last, redistribution of land must be accompanied by large-scale public investment, state loans and technical assistance so as to ensure that the land reform is ‘productivity-enhancing.’ A key factor in the elimination of the anti-peasantry discriminatory factor of today’s global market forces is a more equitable distribution of economic assets. This, of course, has to be complemented with a redistribution of social and political power in favour of the poor.

This article was written by the ISS Land Conference Committee : ISS faculty members Cristóbal Kay (Chair), Max Spoor (Vice-Chair), Haroon Akram Lodhi, Eric Ross, and Jun Borras (Head of the Secretariat). Jun can be contacted at borras@iss.nl contacted at borras@iss.nl

A Joint Struggle for Agrarian Reform and Social Justice Sofía Monsalve Suárez When the ISS asked the Foodfirst Information and Action Network (FIAN) to co-organise the civil society part of the conference “Land, Poverty, Social Justice and Development” we gladly accepted the invitation. The conference’s particular goals were challenging because they involved bringing together such a broad variety of representatives. First, it aimed

at bringing together ‘opponents’ in the land policy and political debates to openly discuss their positions and points of view.

In the last few years the debates between the advocates of a ‘pro-market’ approach and their opponents have become rather heated. These talks presented a rare opportunity to witness a face-to-face discussion between these parties.

Second, the conference aimed to highlight the importance of the interaction between different actors - particularly rural social movements, NGOs, researchers and (inter)governmental officials. In fact, this was the first conference on land reform and rural development I had attended in which rural social movements were invited to examine the roles that the academics

13

have been playing in the current struggles for agrarian reform and social justice.

This conference was a unique opportunity to coordinate our work and strategies with organisations and actors from different backgrounds. FIAN has introduced the ‘rights-based approach’ into the debate on land reform and rural development issues. Herein

The ISS conference clearly showed that the pro-market discourse on land and rural development issues has lost enormous terrain A mobilisation by Movimento dos Trabalhadores Rurais Sem Terra in Brazil.

land is considered a vital resource for most rural communities, as it provides various economic, social and cultural rights, particularly the right to food.

These rights are also crucial to holding land institutions and governments accountable and responsive to rural poor peoples’ demands.

The ISS conference clearly showed that the pro-market discourse on land and rural development issues has lost enormous terrain. And yet while the representative land policies and programmes are still enforced on the ground, intergovernmental institutions are now more open to discuss

alternative land and agrarian reform issues in an alternative framework. This is an opportunity that we must take advantage of.

The ISS conference was a major step towards a more sophisticated interaction between different social actors working for agrarian reform processes. During the talks peasant representatives from rural social movements called on academics to renew their commitment with the current struggle for agrarian reform and social justice. In turn it was recognised that an important contribution researchers make to the rural social movements lies in identifying

the latter’s ‘blind spots.’ The fruit of the discussions could be qualified as “a respectful dialogue on an equal footing”. The ISS deserves our applause and our warmest gratitude for having made these debates possible.

Sofía Monsalve Suárez is Coordinator of the Global Agrarian Reform Campaign at the Foodfirst Information and Action Network (FIAN) International Secretariat (www.fian.org) Along with ICCO, we would like to thank Cordaid, Oxfam/Novib, and the Belgian 11.11.11 for their support of the conference. The photos of land protesters were taken with permission from www. mst.org.br

Research on land at ISS It was not a coincidence that the ISS organized and hosted this land conference. The institute has a long history that, to this day, has concerned itself with the issues of land, rural poverty and social justice.

One recent initiative within this theme is ISS-UNDP joint research on land and poverty that brought together twenty researchers worldwide. The product of this research is a cross-national comparative study of land-poverty issues in ten developing and transition countries (papers can be downloaded from www.iss.nl/land/research), which will be put together in a forthcoming edited book (Fall 2006). The launch of this edited book will also formally start the ‘Routledge/ISS Book Series on Land, Livelihoods and Globalization.’ Some of the papers presented at the land conference together with additional contributions will become part of the new book series.

The push for sustained research and teaching interest on land themes at the ISS is very timely because there are clear signals that land has been fully resurrected back onto the agendas of academic research and intergovernmental development institutions. For example on 6-10 March 2006, the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the U.N. and the Brazilian government organized the International Conference on Agrarian Reform and Rural Development (ICARRD) held in Porto Alegre, Brazil (www.icarrd.org). Three ISS staff actively participated at the ICARRD conference.

14

New Staff Publications Conflict and Collective Action: The Sardar Sarovar Project in India.

Ranjit Dwivedi Routledge 2006 This book by ISS alum Dr. Ranjit Dwivedi analyzes the complex policy debate and collective actions that took place around the contentious Sardar Sarovar high dam project in Gujarat, India. The book attempts to understand the unfurling crisis around the project in order to develop a comprehensive sociology of development action that goes beyond positivist methods and evaluative frameworks. Through a careful and critical analysis of data, the author examines both the negative and positive aspects of the project. This analysis constitutes the preliminary groundwork for the author’s perspective in the debate around the dam project.

The field of contestation include issues concerning threatened livelihoods and promises of security; environmental hazards and anticipations of economic benefits; and the politics and policies of state governments and social movements. The book ends with a description of the Supreme Court judgment on the Sardar Sarovar Dam. Dr. Amita Baviskar, an expert in the field of development sociology, illustrates the debate in a contemporary context in the preface.

Water, Electricity, and the Poor: Who Benefits from Utility Subsidies?

Kristin Komives, Vivien Foster, Jonathan Halpern, and Quentin Wodon (with Roohi Abdullah) Directions in Development Series, Washington, D.C.: The World Bank, 2005.

Subsidies for residential utility customers are widely popular because of the perception that they support greater affordability for poorer households. But it is in fact a subject of debate as to whether in practice these subsidies actually reach and distribute resources to the world’s poor. This book addresses this controversy by bringing together empirical evidence on the targeting performance of residential subsidies across a wide range of developing countries. The analysis reveals that the most common form of utility subsidy – quantity-based subsidies delivered through the tariff structure– are highly regressive.

And while geographically-targeted or means-tested subsidies do better, large numbers of poor households remain excluded. Low levels of coverage and metering severely limit the effectiveness of consumption subsidy schemes to reach the poor. Connection subsidies are an attractive alternative for low coverage areas, but only if utilities have the means and motivation to extend network access to poor households and only if those households choose to connect. This book is useful for those working on utility subsidies specifically and in the context of social policy.

Environmentalism in Turkey: Between Democracy and Development?

Fikret Adaman and Murat Arsel, eds. Ashgate Studies in Environmental Policy and Practice.

Ashgate Publishing Company, 2005.

Bringing together a mixture of theoretical discussion, political analyses and illustrative case studies, this volume provides the first comprehensive scholarly analysis of the tension between environmental protection and economic development in Turkey. Through its dual focus on democratization and modernization, this book also makes an important contribution to the literature on politics in contemporary Turkey. It identifies and analyses the forces underwriting the growth of environmental social movements, investigates the impacts these movements have on development and modernization, and above all, evaluates the role played by environmental movements in the democratization process of Turkey.

15

New Staff Publications ICTs and Indian Economic Development: Economy, Work, Regulation. Ashwani Saith and M Vijayabaskar, eds. Sage Publications, 2005.

Newly Emerging Needs of Children: An Exploration. Nico van Oudenhoven and Rekha Wazir. Garant Publications, 2006.

Poverty, Gender and Human Trafficking in Sub-Saharan Africa: Rethinking Best Practices in Migration Management.

Thanh-Dam Truong. UNESCO, 2006.

Desarollo y Transición en Asia. Seán Golden y Max Spoor, eds. Fundació CIDOB, 2005.

Working Through the War. Trajectories of Non-Governmental and Governmental Organizations Engaged in Psycho-social Assistance to Victims of War and Family Violence in the ex-Yugoslav States. Dubravka Zarkov. Admira Foundation, Utrecht, 2005.

Global Forces and State Restructuring: Dynamics of State Formation and Collapse. Martin Doornbos. International Political Economy Series, Basingstoke and London. Macmillan/Palgrave, 2006.

Globalization, Neoconservative Policies and Democratic Alternatives: Essays in Honour of John Loxley. Akram-Lodhi, A.H., Chernomas, R. and Sepehri, A. Winnipeg: Arbeiter Ring Publishers, 2005.

African Parliaments: Between Government and Governance. M.A.Mohamed Salih, ed. Palgrave Macmillan, 2006.

New PhD Theses Solid Waste Management in Nairobi:

development

Transplanted or Endogenized? FDI and industrial upgrading in developing countries: case study of Indonesia

Anne Karanja

Chia Thye Poh

ISS Publishing 2006

ISS Publishing 2006

Public defence held on 26

Public defence held on 10 April,

September, 2005

2006

Foreign Inventment, Human Rights and the Environment: role of public international law for

Development, Discrimination and Survival: Daughter elimination in Tamil Nadu, India

development

Sharada Srinivasan

Shyami Fernando Puvimanasinghe

Shakar Publishing 2006

ISS Publishing 2006

Public defence held on 22 May, 2006

Actors, institutional arrangements and contributions to sustainable

A perspective from S. Asia on the

Public defence held on 9 May, 2006

16

Letter to the editor er ating. As a form quite illumin es use Su ca IS ev be D g captivatin ober 2005 Phillips most ion in the Oct n at eas ip Be id ic d e rt an th pa er h ree wit rd Bern pectives on ly women. I ag article by Erha al e author’s pers s ci th e pe ou d su ri es is un d va is fo e I an th th the ISS, ate. It is nefit all, I found ent student at me to particip not actually be m ti ay op gh m el ou ev es D en gi d lo ve do r ha Gender an ipation metho ey almost neve out. of how partic out because th se lo ting to you ab to ri w nd of its mention te am I en at om th w n io at at th rticip authors ng from the ics of their pa raised by the those advocati her problemat or ot s, d rt an pe e ex m t ti lopmen e in projects of women’s ing if the deve le to participat st la ab er un ev e ar be n es ey tend to logies ca oftentim participate, th lem. Women ator y methodo ob do ip pr ic en rt is pa th om g w of n s in the ‘tigers of that whe of alleviat This weaknes In most cases rticipation is ok into ways s. pa lo t ng ’s ti no en ee do m om , e w de ed thes pside of academics’ si ey have attend h to do. The fli have too muc h to do after th uc ey m th o e to us ca ve be ey still ha ed because th having men r be overburden ’s unpaid labo care work and g en in om iz w al ci on -so ly re re ting for they would participation’ led by advoca ange diapers ck ch ta or be ok n co ca r of labo r duty to mentioned nder division ew it was thei ate the abovege vi kn l le en ua al m eq ld if un s ou e w ap of th Perh lution The problem sponsibilities. e day. This so lt hours of th e home care re cu th ffi of di e at m s so ng take up these meeti out organizing think twice ab e poor? What me to help th ion as well. co at at ld ip th ic s rt al pa on ’s interests), wou women e professi ill always have , who are thes w is or n at io o lit at D ci ip fa s? ic part on (a deavor out women’s on their missi velopment en tion to ask ab ate in these de en? Depending ip om ic w rt t has been left t pa ha ou w Another ques to t ab e y they carr oken agains lacking tim do sp as e en ag en be gg s om ba w ha l t nanans’ and ad wha e ‘Doxa’ of ideologica both an ‘expla they able to re aintaining th e be m ar ay d in m e an y s ak lit ic st ua a m eq they have mmunity dyna that gender in ledge of the co nd to ignore is te ’ ls na io ss fe they have know ese ‘pro e. hat many of th ng to alleviat ethodologies unspoken? W y they are tr yi rt ve rticipator y m po pa e n th n Ca r . fo ’ en m of the childre e of the ‘explanandum tify the needs ent from thos en er ff id di to be ng n ti te mee ng). ay of a ‘community’ cently increasi s of women m t had been re cilitated such unity the view fa ha m (t ce m place. st on co ce I a ok in ? n to t is hi st ba th Wit w to com ly address y that ince ho tl er as en op w m pr en ’) he ls ve om na io . His , denied fied by w (read ‘profess s several times llage headman e needs identi h his daughter e man, the vi ity. One of th it w on un st r, m ce m he in ot co d e an in th mmitte gns to one own to have co er and hand-si ubt the man is kn e m tooth.

Among laught ld nt to onal ways. I do se en ab ed her an these wom in unconventi k rn en ea ea ok d br odes of e sp ha m th as ts le g w es Durin what t so subt her prot my reading of subtle and no ence because in e id y th la ev ad at ng re ti th to ee re h m wife bo is muc is community r antenna’ th drew from th ‘pull out thei d ul co ” The success I ls na io called “profess in whether the so alized givens’ . en nd the ‘natur om w yo be by ve k n in io ha s at th ie ic to mmunit commun e women cause their co ts) to sensitiz be is e in at m ip fe ic t rt es gg il to pa nd I would su omen may fa e addressed, rofessionals’ (a oblematics ar ate actively. W pr ip e ic es rt th pa n to But we need ‘p he le them only w are the ink ities and enab r. Perhaps it is that we will sp ne n, an io m at t ip ha ic w rt their commun e and in ing of pa possible. lesale gender can participat it is a mission codified who ve but in the who ’ lie ns be io I ss s. se si g this ba e ‘listenin hodologies on not only in th icipator y met rt pa ng si es and start addr

Dear Editors

ongo Elizabeth Mul nya.

ISS Alumni, Ke

Elizabeth Mulongo graduated from the ISS’s MA programme in 2005. Her 04/05 MA prize-winning research paper examines the assumptions that underlie NGO interventions to address “teenage pregnancy”. The study recasts the issue of teenage pregnancy by focusing on ‘young single mothers’. It demonstrates how interventions have tended to view young single mothers as a social group living under problematic conditions and to see teenage pregnancy as a social problem. This perspective deflects attention from key structural issues that are necessary for effectively intervening to assist young single mothers. The study suggests an alternative approach: viewing young single mothers as social actors who can organize and form alliances to seek redress to injustices they face in society. “Young Single Motherhood: Contested Notions of Motherhood And Sexuality in Policy Discourses/Program Interventions” is available as an ISS Working Paper.

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Teaching News

Long distance learning in Tanzania Marc Wuyts On Saturday 3 December 2005 the students of the first cohort of the Tanzania-based Post-Graduate Diploma in Poverty Analysis received their diplomas at a ceremony held

government ministries, NGOs, universities, independent research institutions and the private sector, based in different parts of the country. Twenty of the total 23 students completed the diploma in time, and two students were given extensions to complete their research essays.

This retention and completion rate proved to be remarkably

in Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania. The design and delivery of this diploma programme was financed by UNDP and involved a collaborative venture between ESRF (Economic and Social Research Foundation) and REPOA (Research on Poverty Alleviation), based in Dar Es Salaam, on the one hand, and ISS, on the other.

This diploma programme experimented with a novel teaching approach, mixing teaching through distance learning with intensive workshops. The characteristics of the course were framed around poverty analysis, vulnerability and socioeconomic security. Combining the overarching conceptual and theoretical frameworks in poverty analysis with country specific (and comparative) analysis, provided a complementary recipe to develop the research capabilities needed for working professionals in policy-analysis.

The structure of the course was tri-fold, addressing poverty conceptually, through data analysis on inequality, and policy analysis for poverty reduction. Each section consisted of about 8 weeks of distance learning and a 10-day intensive workshop. Teaching materials were mainly text-based, but also involved the use of CD-Roms and audio-cassettes.

Text-based conferencing on the Internet allowed students to engage in group discussions with tutorial support by the teaching staff. Workshops involved seminars with invited speakers, role-playing activities, video-sessions and groupbased exercises and discussions. Parallel to the study of the teaching modules, each student was further required to carry out a small research project to be submitted as an extended research essay.

The diploma involved part-time study by working professionals – not necessarily based in Dar Es Salaam – over a period of approximately one year. In total, 350 applications were received, and 23 students (14 male and 9 female) effectively started the course. Students were drawn from research and policy analysis departments or units in

A n o v e l t e a c h i n g a p p ro a c h , m i x i n g t e a c h i n g t h ro u g h d i s t a n c e l e a r n i n g with intensive workshops good for a distance-learning programme that required students to combine work with study over a year-long period. This wouldn’t have been possible without the remarkable efficiency and rigour of the local management and administration, not to mention the local tutors who were previously unfamiliar with distance learning methods.

Without their tireless efforts, this diploma programme could not have been executed so well. But, most importantly,

Marc Wuyts with students.

the success of this experience owed a great deal to the dedication, enthusiasm and hard work that the students brought to the course.

In February 2006, 25 students had initiated their study as the second cohort of the diploma course. We look forward to a fruitful year.

Marc Wuyts is Professor in Quantitative Applied Economics at the ISS, and Convenor of the Tanzania-based Diploma Programme on Poverty Analysis. He can be contacted at wuyts@iss.nl

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Log g i n g a n d C o r r u ption in Swat:

Managing natural resources, corruption and poverty in Pakistan Lorenzo Pellegrini

Formal institutions that should regulate the management of natural resources in developing countries often fail to protect the environment and to promote the interests of the poorest in society. Corruption is often found to determine, or at least contribute to, this failure. The following piece discusses how to deal with corruption in a natural resources management regime. The analysis is based on research in Swat, North West Frontier Province, Pakistan. Swat has high deforestation rates, corruption in the enforcement agencies and dismal socio-ecological outcomes. Similarly to other aggrieved regions, the attempts to reform the natural resources management regime follow a familiar, and often unsuccessful, route.

Swat’s forests are crucial for the poor; for many the income and natural resources extracted from these forests are essential to providing them with the basic means of survival. But equally, the unsustainable rate of logging endangers their welfare.

It is because of the open access regime, wherein no effective enforcement of protective laws exists, that logging with impunity can take place. Corruption plays a crucial role in this situation because bribes are distributed to facilitate the (largely illegal) extraction of logs and their transport. Corruption substantially affects the welfare of deprived communities; while it facilitates the depletion of a natural resource the poor depend on, it also makes the exercise of their rights more difficult.

For example, locals have a legal right to timber free of charge if it is for their own consumption. Yet forest department officials demand bribes from them in return for access to these natural resources. Social and environmental

problems related to this management regime are well known and prompt the government to undertake measures that give the impression they are trying to solve these problems.

Corruption substantially affects the welfare of deprived communities The Swat region’s approach to tackling corruption is one of two that are usually recommended. The first is the familiar recipe of increasing the likelihood of detecting corruption deals and extending the punishment of those who are caught in such transactions (otherwise known as the ‘crime and punishment’ approach). The other usual advice is to copy the institutional settings of countries that are ‘less

corrupt’. The crime and punishment approach relies on the existence of a superior enforcement regime, and it is unlikely to yield the desired outcome in most developing countries. In the case of Pakistan, the judiciary and the police are among the main offenders with respect to corruption. It is unlikely that increasing the powers given to these control agencies would help to control corruption of other government offices (in this case of employees of the forest department).

The latter approach -promoting reforms resembling the developed countrieshave little chance of success, at least immediately. This is not to say that reforms such as promoting a free press, the democratization of the political process, or granting independence to the judiciary, are objectives not worth pursuing (even independently from their contribution to reducing corruption). But such reforms require alliance building, and must be embedded in the political process. They need time and political will to succeed. Given the problems of possibly irreversible depletion of a stock of natural resources and the undermining of the support base of poor communities, waiting for wide ranging reforms to be completed is an unrealistic option. The current institutional setting is also the outcome of a historical process with a highly skewed distribution of rights. Pointing unambiguously towards enforcement of the existing system and the strengthening of property rights risks cementing such injustice, as well as being difficult to implement in practice.

The way to approach the corruption problem, and often the related enforcement impasse, is to consider

19

opportunities for institutional change at the local level. These opportunities will be determined by history, local power structure, personal interests, and ultimately by features of the interaction of social and ecological systems. It follows that there is not a ‘one size fits all’ solution for these quandaries.

Emphasis should be put in the selforganization of local communities that are often in a unique position with respect to knowledge of the local ecological system and capability to enforce the management regime.

On the other hand, it is important to recognize that an undifferentiated local community does not exist. Local actors can reproduce among themselves the power structures that have impeded the sustainable management of natural resources: communal management as such is not a panacea. The process for reforming the management system should address the goal of obtaining socially equitable results. Instead of suggesting the best possible management scheme, the role of donors in such situations could be to

SCHOLAS News

Land owners discuss forest management regime.

provide the additional resources that the forest. These interventions give SCHOLAS is the ISS Students’ Association would render cooperation in the reform additional leverage to forest officials to process attractive for most, if not all, of extract bribes from those who are not the stakeholders. powerful enough to threaten them (that is, the most marginalized members of The choice of direction taken by the the local community). From the onset, reform process of the forestry sector in these types of reforms will produce a Swat pursues opposite lines to what is predictably gloomy outcome. The poor suggested above, following a typical will still be expropriated of part of their crime and punishment approach. The meager incomes and the forest will be logged at an unsustainable rate. If the emphasis of policy makers remains on The way to approach the enforcement per se, new reforms will be called for in the future, but they will corruption problem is to continue to consolidate the existing patterns of social injustice coupled by consider opportunities for the depletion of natural resources.

institutional change at the local level

Lorenzo Pellegrini is a lecturer in development economics at ISS, specialised in the field of environmental and ecological economics. He can be contacted at pellegrini@iss.nl

size of monetary fines for illegal logging has been increased, and the guards -that are blamed for being allied with timber smugglers- are being given weapons to help them watch over

This article is part of the research undertaken by the “Poverty Reduction and Environmental Management” (PREM) program, see http://www. prem-online.org/

20

An ISS Study Trip to Egypt Azra Tasnim Abdul Cader, Diana Lee Henderson and Ibi-Ronke Lani M’Cleod Each year, near the completion of their studies, participants in the ISS MA programme take a one-week study trip with faculty and participants of their MA specialization

well-known rural development policies and programs, and because participants had had little previous contact with the region and culture.

group. The study trips are organized around themes covered by each specialization.

includes participation in the CIVICUS World Assembly in Glasgow, Scotland; visits

Activities during the study visit included lecture sessions, small and large farm site visits, various tours of agricultural processing plants, irrigation systems

to the ILO and human rights organizations in Geneva, Switzerland; the study of a

The challenges of creating

regional development strategy in Almera, Spain; meeting with feminist organizations

a livelihood in a rural area

in Madrid, Spain, and a cooperative program with the Central European University in

were recognizable to all

Budapest, Hungary. With financial support from the participants themselves, some

participants

Most study trips take place in Europe. For example, this year’s group of study visits

more distant destinations have also been possible. In 2006, one group will travel to China to study the impact of economic transformation on international political economy. In 2005, participants of the Rural Livelihoods and Global Change (RLGC) specialization travelled to Egypt. Three of the students describe the experience.

On November 23rd, 2005 RLGC participants arrived in Egypt for a one-week study visit in the South Tahrir desert. Organized in collaboration with the Desert Development Centre (DDC), a non-profit research, technical training and extension services centre of the American University in Cairo, this was the first time an ISS MA study visit had been hosted by a developing country. The study visit had three objectives. The first was to synthesize the theoretical insights participants had developed through their studies in the RLGC program. The second was to apply learning about policy and project analysis to the analysis of one rural development institution: the DDC. Finally, the study visit tested the ability of participants to understand rural livelihoods and processes of agrarian change in a rural setting. Egypt was selected as a destination by the participants themselves. They were drawn to the country because of Egypt’s

and facilities, and the opportunity to interact with rural Egyptian families, businessmen and researchers. The visit concluded with memorable excursions to the city of Alexandria and the Pyramids of Giza.

ISS student during a farm site visit.

21

Students and teachers of the ISS with staff of the DDC on location.

Participants lodged at a training site of the Desert Development Centre (DDC). The Centre was founded in 1979 to support sustainable development in the desert areas. It offers services in the area of agricultural and animal production and works in collaboration with the Egyptian Ministry of Agriculture and Land Reclamation. DDC activities help to support the government’s development strategy of desert reclamation.

Although the natural and political environment of Egypt was not identical to the various environments of the ISS participants’ own countries, the experience held universal appeal. The macroeconomic policy dilemmas of rural and economic development and the challenges of creating a livelihood in a rural area were recognizable to all participants. As students of Rural Livelihoods and Global Change, it was particularly interesting to see the application of so many of the theories discussed and debated over the 15 months of the MA experience. Many of the issues brought forth during the visit, such as the integration of women in the labour force, poverty, land reform, labour standards, education, urban bias in development, globalization, food

security, were also directly applicable to our own individual contexts. There was a heightened sense of urgency and relevance to see people in the process of making the desert reclamation

Participants and lecturers were given a unique opportunity to socialize and cement the long-lasting friendships and professional relationships initiated at the ISS initiative work, which led to useful reflection on the policy implications and difficulties that have arisen in the rural areas.

farmer or new graduate farmer to the large-scale commercial producer.

Different perspectives were explored and deconstructed during follow-up sessions held by the ISS staff. Some of the strongest conclusions drawn from the week were the importance of natural resource management, community networks, capital investment and the importance of political commitment to rural development.

On the whole, participants and lecturers were given a unique opportunity, outside of the classroom, to socialize and cement the long-lasting friendships and professional relationships initiated at the ISS. The informal setting allowed students to debate theory and discourse and interact with the Desert Development Centre staff.

The excitement and beauty of Cairo, Alexandira, Tahrir and Giza gave all a lasting memory.

Azra Tasnim Abdul Cader, Diana Lee Henderson and Ibi-Ronke Lani M’Cleod are ISS students of the

During the study week participants and lecturers held informal Q&A periods that gave a deeper understanding of how Egypt’s rural development strategies were affecting various stakeholders; from the small family

04/05 academic year.

22 / LETTER

Development and Change The journal Development and Change is published six times a year by Blackwell Publishers (Oxford, UK) on behalf of the Institute of Social Studies. For more information, see the ISS website or email us at d&c@iss.nl. Available online at http://www.blackwellpublishers.co.uk/online. Special rate available to ISS alumni.

Volume 37 / Number 1 / January 2006 SPECIAL ISSUE Guest Editors: Peter Ho Arthur P. J. Mol Benjamin van Rooij Stephanie B. Ohshita and Leonard Ortolano Hongyan He Oliver and Leonard Ortolano Jimin Zhao Richard Welford, Peter Hills and Jacqueline Lam GØrild Heggelund Richard Sanders Peter Ho, Eduard B. Vermeer and Jennifer H. Zhao Peter Ho and Eduard B. Vermeer

China’s Limits to Growth: Greening State and Society Peter Ho and Eduard B. Vermeer Trajectories for Greening in China: Theory and Practice Environment and Modernity in Transitional China: Frontiers of Ecological Modernization Implementation of Chinese Environmental Law: Regular Enforcement and Political Campaigns Effects of Economic and Environmental Reform on the Diffusion of Cleaner Coal Technology in China Implementing Cleaner Production Programmes in Changzhou and Nantong, Jiangsu Province Whither the Car? China’s Automobile Industry and Cleaner Vehicle Technologies Environmental Reform, Technology Policy and Transboundary Pollution in Hong Kong Resettlement Programmes and Environmental Capacity in the Three Gorges Dam Project A Market Road to Sustainable Agriculture? Ecological Agriculture, Green Food and Organic Agriculture in China Biotech and Food Safety in China: Consumers’ Acceptance or Resistance?

China’s Limits to Growth?

The Difference between Absolute, Relative and Precautionary Limits

Volume 37 / Number 2 / March 2006 Jude Howell Yusuf Bangura Jasmine Gideon Tanja R. Müller Bernadette P. Resurreccion Wolfram J. Dressler Timo Goeschl and Danilo Camargo Igliori

Reflections on the Chinese State Ethnic Inequalities in the Public Sector: A Comparative Analysis Integrating Gender Interests into Health Policy Education for Social Change: Girls’ Secondary Schooling in Eritrea Gender, Identity and Agency in Philippine Upland Development Co-Opting Conservation: Migrant Resource Control and Access to National Park Management in the Philippine Uplands Property Rights for Biodiversity Conservation and Development: Extractive Reserves in the Brazilian Amazon BOOK REVIEWS

Volume 37 / Number 3 / May 2006 Zoe Marriage Gordon Wilson Cecile Jackson Isabelle Guérin Hassan Hakimian Amy Ickowitz Roberto La Rovere, Aden Aw-Hassan, Francis Turkelboom and Richard Thomas

The Comfort of Denial: External Assistance in Southern Sudan Beyond the Technocrat? The Professional Expert in Development Practice Feminism Spoken Here: Epistemologies for Interdisciplinary Development Research Women and Money: Lessons from Senegal From Demographic Transition to Fertility Boom and Bust: Iran in the 1980s and 1990s Shifting Cultivation and Deforestation in Tropical Africa: Critical Reflections Targeting Research for Poverty Reduction in Marginal Areas of Rural Syria

BOOK REVIEWS

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Development and Change Forum 2005 FOCUS Maxine Molyneux and Shahra Razavi Sunanda Sen

Volume 36

Number 6

November 2005

‘Beijing Plus Ten’: An Ambivalent Record on Gender Justice International Trade Theory and Policy: What is Left of the Free Trade Paradigm?

DEBATE: PUTTING INDUSTRIALIZATION BACK INTO DEVELOPMENT Howard Nicholas Introduction Sukti Dasgupta and Will Services be the New Engine of Indian Economic Growth?

Ajit Singh Servaas Storm and Strategic Factors in Economic Development: C. W. M. Naastepad East Asian Industrialization 1950–2003 Juan Carlos Moreno-Brid, Industrialization and Economic Growth in Mexico after NAFTA: The Road Travelled Jesús Santamaría and Juan Carlos Rivas Valdivia Peter Lawrence Explaining Sub-Saharan Africa’s Manufacturing Performance Mehdi Shafaeddin Towards an Alternative Perspective on Trade and Industrial Policies REFLECTIONS Ashwani Saith

Interview with Louis Emmerij

LEGACIES Cristóbal Kay Fernando Targetti Cristóbal Kay Sunil Mani Ashwani Saith Ajit Singh

Andre Gunder Frank: From the ‘Development of Underdevelopment’ to the ‘World System’ Nicholas Kaldor’s Contributions to Development Economics Celso Furtado: Pioneer of Structuralist Development Theory Charles Cooper: Institution Builder Sanjaya Lall: Demystifying Technological Change Lal Jayawardena: Crafting Development Policy

ASSESSMENTS Asef Bayat Servaas Storm Amitabh Kundu Jan Nederveen Pieterse

Transforming the Arab World: The Arab Human Development Report and the Politics of Change Development, Trade or Aid? UN Views on Growth and Poverty Services and the Poor: The World Development Report 2004 Development, Culture and Liberalism: The Pitfalls of Cultural Liberty INDEX TO VOLUME 36

Working Papers The full text of most ISS Working Papers can be downloaded from the ISS website: www.iss.nl, Publications/Working Paper Series. For print copies, email workingpapers@iss.nl or write Lidwien Lamboo, Working Papers, Institute of Social Studies, P.O. Box 29776, 2502 LT Den Haag.

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NGOs and the search for Chinese civil society environmental non-governmental organisations in the Nujiang campaign / Michael Büsgen - 2006 Jews, Arabs and Arab Jews: the politics of identity and reproduction in Israel / Clare Louise Ducker - 2006 Poverty-lines versus the poor : method versus meaning / Ashwani Saith - 2005 Perspectives on rural poverty and development strategies in Latin America / Cristóbal Kay - 2005 Gender and microinsurance / Irma van Leeuwen - 2005 Five methodological approaches for research on gender and trade impacts / Irene van Staveren - 2005 Are institutions more important than integration? / Dawood Mamoon and S. Mansoob Murshed - 2005 Food priorities and poverty in Uganda / Nicky Pouw - 2005

Refresher Courses Each year, the ISS organises refresher courses for its alumni on different topics and in different regions. The courses are set up in close collaboration with an organisation in the region. The refresher courses are intended for ISS alumni who studied at ISS 2-12 years ago with a fellowship from Nuffic (NFP). They are a way of refreshing alumni’s knowledge and provide an excellent opportunity to meet fellow alumni.

If you would like a refresher course to be organised in your region on a certain topic, please contact Wieke Blaauw at blaauw@iss.nl, before 1 September 2006. The Dutch Government has a special fund to finance refresher courses. Information can be found on the Nuffic website (www.nuffic.nl, Search: refresher course).

The next refresher course will be on “Mainstreaming Human Rights in Development and Governance through a Rights Based Approach“, and is meant for alumni from the Philippines only.

Location: San Fernando City, La Union, The Philippines Date: 16 – 30 September 2006 Convenor: Karin Arts (arts@iss.nl) Hosting Organisation: The Commission on Human Rights of the Philippines (CHRP) and the Philippine Association of Extension Program Implementors (PAEPI) Please check our website for exact dates or contact Irene Vos at vosi@iss.nl

Europe’s Leading Centre for Development Studies program a m o l p i ) duate d a r g t s – 10 weeks o 2 ( P s e s rt cour and sho Short Courses: �

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Achieving the Millennium Development Goals Gender and Economic Policy Analysis Globalisation and Labour Rights Rational Choice Approaches to Conflict Understanding and Managing Reproductive Health

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Diploma Programmes: �

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Children, Youth and Development Governance, Democratisation and Public Policy Modelling and Accounting for Sustainable Development Universalising Socioeconomic Security for the Poor

Development ISSues is published three times a year by the Institute of Social Studies, PO Box 29776, 2502 LT The Hague, the Netherlands, tel: +31 (0)70 4260 443 or 4260 419, fax: + 31 (0)70 4260 799, ISS website: www.iss.nl, email: DevISSues@iss.nl Editor: Thomas Tichar Editorial Board: Karin Arts, Erhard Berner, Kristin Komives, Peter de Valk Editorial Assistants: Marie-Louise Gambon, Karen Shaw Design and Production: MUNTZ Marketing Communication Group Circulation: 13,000. Material from Development ISSues may be reproduced or adapted without permission, provided it is not distributed for profit and is attributed to the original author or authors, Development ISSues and the Institute of Social Studies. ISSN: 1566-4821