Ch. 9 Journal

Agencies of Development

This chaptered talked about the role of the state, it's agency (actions and capacity to influence events) and structure (pattern and framework) in the context of development.

"In the South, political parties are political outputs, as instruments of the government. They frequently are created and used by political leaders to help legitimize their regimes, as well as to provide the distribution of patronage, a coalition of powerful political interests sufficient to sustain the government can be secured" (194).

Reaction: It is important to notice that political parties have their own agenda and are self-serving, using development initiatives to gain popularity. Many times political parties will not follow through with their promises.

Role of bureaucracies:

-frame or suggest policy outcomes, power & control

'Developmental state' sees development in terms of achieving economic growth, generally through state promotion of industrialization (196).

Reaction: This was a big trend in the late 1980s and early 1990s. Countries were trying to build capital, finances and be competitive in the world market. ODA's, official development assistance, refers to grants or soft loans provided by OECD to promote development. ODA is controlled by the Development Assistance Committee (DAC). Money is a tool used to spur development, and success is measured in terms of money.

The UN system has 6 principal organs:

-Trusteeship Council

-International Court of Justice

-Secretariat

-General Assembly

-Security Council

-Economic and Social Council

Some specialized agencies include UNDP, UNHCR, UNICEF, WFP, FAO, WHO. The IMF and World Bank are products of the Bretton Woods Conference in 1944. These are under control of rich countries because the President of the bank is always a US citizen and the director of the Fund is always Western European. This shows the imbalance of power within development agencies and reflects the division of the North and the South. The WB and IMF are further separated from the UN agencies because they provide a majority of the funding for development, serving the interests of the powerful. The poor countries are not the ones who have opinions on what is best for their country. The IMF and World Bank lack accountability to the rest of the UN. The World Bank shifted from poverty alleviation and lending money to finance projects to free-market strategies (206).

Conditionaality: giving loans or grants subject on conditions, popular in structural adjustment programs.

The NGO sector has grown considerably and provided lots of assistance since the 1980s. ODA is given through NGOs but this sector is not adequate in transform lives on the large scale because they lack capacity, support and funding. Some states ignore social issues and leave them up to NGOs or development agencies to handle, however true poverty reduction requires institutional changes provided as a right rather than goodwill (216).