Reconsidering Development (RD - E-Journal - Universiy of Minnesota)
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Where Am I a Citizen? Exploring Peace Education as Citizenship Education in Refugee Camps: An Analysis in Dadaab
Full text linkAs the world addresses the current refugee crisis, the international relief community and host countries are working to meet the needs of refugees. Access to quality education is an inalienable human right and is a basic necessity of life for all refugees. Particularly for those within camps who have escaped protracted conflicts, peace education can encourage refugees to mitigate conflict within the camp and prepare them for rebuilding their lives after repatriation or resettlement. This policy brief examines two peace education programs in the Dadaab Refugee Camp complex running from 1998-2005 and 2012-2015. This brief analyzes the messaging and purpose of the two programs and how the programs address conflict and citizenship within the refugee camp and beyond. As the world’s population of refugees grows, this is a critical time to assess and learn from past and current peace education programs to inform future education programming
Of Pots and Pumps: Attempting to Re-center Slum Struggles
Full text linkHumanitarians and mainstream media have been criticized for photographing the poor as passive observers or pathetic spectacles of suffering (Torchin, 2013; Chouliaraki, 2006). These representations encourage distant spectators to feel as if they are responsible for saving victims from their exploitative circumstances (Sliwinski, 2011; Sontag, 2003; Boltanski, 1999). War, disaster, and poverty photography is geared toward distant spectators. The images chosen are those that appeal to (usually Western) audiences, rather than those that express what is happening on the ground. Victims are portrayed as threatening, passive, or desperate. Portrayals of slums in Mumbai, as of tragedies in other parts of India, have fallen prey to these tendencies.
Inadequate access to water and sanitation are defining of slums (UN Habitat, 2003). Battles between slum residents and law enforcement center on the various objects used to extract and transport water: booster pumps and plastic jugs being chief among them (Graham et.al., 2013). Latour (2004) and many others have argued for the centrality of objects in the formation of publics and politics. Appadurai (2013) notes that “things could usefully be regarded as having… intentionalities, projects and motives independent of their human handlers” (p. 257). These insights have much to offer development discourses, which often overlook the importance of objects in shaping majority-world contexts.
Drawing inspiration from this insight, the photographs in this essay focus on the objects that animate fights over water and sanitation in Mumbai’s slums. They depart from stereotypical photography of the poor centered on humans as subjects to foreground the quotidian, inanimate objects around which these struggles take place. This approach aims to tell the story of slums from a new perspective, beyond portrayals of abject helplessness and desperate victimhood. The goal is to re-center representation of the slums’ lack of basic amenities around what are usually considered the accoutrements of resource acquisition: pots, pumps, and toilet blocs. The hope is to inspire fresh insights and perspectives for development theorists and practitioners while challenging how “beneficiaries” are often portrayed.
The images that follow were all captured during fieldwork for my dissertation, which focuses on activists’ struggles to secure water and sanitation in Mumbai’s slums. The explanations beneath each image combine information gleaned from many interviews with activists, humanitarians, and government officials with insights from my ethnographic observation.[1]
[1] My PhD research is supported by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC).
Acknowledgements: The images that follow were all captured during fieldwork for my dissertation, which focuses on activists’ struggles to secure water and sanitation in Mumbai’s slums. The explanations beneath each image combine information gleaned from many interviews with activists, humanitarians and government official with insights from my ethnographic observation. My PhD research is supported by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC). I am grateful for the numerous activists, particularly those affiliated with the Ghar Bachao Ghar Banao Andolan (GBGBA) and Slum Community Action Foundation (SCAF), that helped me understand their work
Un-Mapping Gay Imperialism: A Postcolonial Approach To Sexual Orientation-Based Development
Full text linkThe International Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Intersex Association’s (ILGA) annual report on lesbian and gay rights worldwide, first published in 2005, marked the entry of Western lesbian and gay movements into the realm of international development. By combining (anti)homophobia and human rights discourses, ILGA’s subsequent reports have provided a platform from which to advocate for global lesbian and gay equality. A postcolonial critique of ILGA’s 2015 report, however, suggests that these discourses are used to mask both imperial desires of domination, as well as Orientalist views characterized by racist representations of people from places considered “persecution” states. This approach to (anti)homophobia and human rights-based discourses provides an understanding of sexual orientation-based development as gay imperialism. Using Somalia (an ILGA “persecution” state) as a case study, this paper explores the complex ways in which racism and imperialist desires permeate (anti)homophobia and human rights discourses
Policy Transfer in International Development: Whose Security in Central America?
Full text linkCitizen security policy in Central America provides an excellent case for examination of 'policy transfer.' Policy transfer, or the process by which knowledge about policies or programs in one place is used in another place, has been the subject of a considerable literature over the past few decades (Dolowitz & Marsh, 1996; Benson & Jordan, 2011; Evans & Barakat, 2012). The trend of transferring policy has only accelerated with increased regionalization and globalization. Understanding the role of policy transfer in international development is important for donors, program implementers, and researchers in order to capitalize on potential efficiencies and to avoid the pitfalls charted in its history
Educating the Future Amidst Displacement: Refugee Teachers in Kakuma Refugee Camp
Full text linkThe role of teachers working in protracted crises, which expand across the humanitarian and development spectrum, is critical. Teachers in these settings teach numeracy and literacy skills to children with interrupted education, restore psychosocial well-being caused by conflict, foster peacebuilding and educate children for the future. While most photos of teachers in refugee contexts are limited to the challenging circumstances they face (i.e. under-resourced, overcrowded classrooms), the images in this photo essay reconsider these challenges as opportunities for improvement and perseverance. The images speak to the opportunities for collaboration, community building, and camaraderie that are rarely if ever discussed among teachers in crisis contexts. These images capture teachers’ resilience and their dedication to becoming better teachers despite the barriers they confront every day.
Acknowledgements: We would like to thank the many teachers in Kakuma refugee camp with whom we have worked on the Teachers for Teachers project. Your commitment to education and the futures of the children you teach is both humbling and inspiring. Thank you
Gender “Men-Streaming” CVE: Countering Violence Extremism By Addressing Masculinities Issues
Full text linkViolent extremist groups differ in many aspects- ideology, operations, geography etc.- but almost all seek and recruit disillusioned young men as fighters on their front lines. The ubiquity of this strategy means that young men are drawn to such groups less because of the groups' specific beliefs and more out of an inherent need to fulfill their identities as men. Policies and analysis to counter violent extremism must therefore incorporate gender analysis-- "men-stream" their efforts- in order to identify factors that make men vulnerable to recruitment by extremist groups.
Acknowledgements: I would like to thank my mentors at George Washington University who have introduced me to the field of gender and development and have provided invaluable guidance, including Dr. Christina Fink and Dr. Aisling Swaine, as well as Drs. Mary Ellsberg and Manuel Contreras-Urbina of the Global Women's Institute. I would also like to thank Dr. Gary Barker of Promundo, whose work has been an inspiration in writing this brief. I would also like to thank my mom
Implementing a Post-Project Sustainability Study (PSS) of a Development Project: Lessons Learned from Indonesia
Full text linkThis policy brief draws on lessons learned from a recent post-project sustainability study (PSS) of a community health project in Indonesia. Understanding how project components and results are evolved, sustained, and adopted after the conclusion of a project is important from policy perspective as the lessons learned serve to inform future programming, as well as contribute to the general body of knowledge. The paper suggests that the focus of any PSS should not only examine what activities are sustained, but also the factors responsible for sustaining the results. It also suggests that, mixed methods – quantitative and qualitative – help research teams understand why and how project activities are sustained. It further suggests that PSSs are different from traditional impact evaluations, so including all of the stakeholders in the study is crucial in order to understand how they contributed toward the project’s sustainability. Other conclusions related to sustainable development goals (SDGs) are also made
Gender Inequity in Moroccan Secondary Education: A Mixed Methods Case Study
Full text linkIn this mixed methods research, a private K-12 Moroccan school serves as a case study for examining lagging secondary education attainment for female students in developing countries. Through the use of questionnaires, interviews, and classroom observation, this study examines educators’ expectations for students, classroom instruction and interactions, and student aspirations in a group of students preparing to transition from primary to secondary education. While educators are found to have similar expectations for their students and to offer equitable learning opportunities in the classroom for males and females, there is a mismatch for many male and female students between what they would prefer to study in secondary education and what their families and society value. These findings suggest that Morocco’s secondary education tracking system may be contributing to lower educational attainment for both male and female students.
Acknowledgements: This author acknowledges the Michigan State University College of Education and Graduate School for their support in conducting this research
Discourse Analysis and Memory Work: Creating a Counter-Hegemonic and Counter-Ethnocentric Practice
Full text linkPartnerships established for aid and development purposes can be damaging if the hegemonic and ethnocentric assumptions of aid workers are not unearthed, acknowledged, and problematized. These hegemonic and ethnocentric assumptions can be particularly harmful when, within organizations like the United States Peace Corps, workers are encouraged to promote English as the sole language of legitimacy and value within a host country’s educational spaces. In this article, the author suggests one potential method for addressing this issue. The author and participants collaborate to mobilize Theo van Leeuwen’s (2007) framework for language legitimization, collectively examining discourse within a volunteer-generated narrative. This article examines the practical use of a table, inspired by Frigga Haug’s (2008) critical memory work, for narrative deconstruction and reconstruction. Furthermore, the method used appears to allow the participants an opportunity to expose and critique their initially subconscious assumptions and ethnocentric dispositions in a way that could have deep implications for their work within a post-colonial space
What “Getting By with English” Costs: Fieldworkers’ Language Choices and Organizational Language Policy
Full text linkWhen a development worker faces the decision of which language to use, the choice often depends on the belief that English is the natural and most efficient medium for international communication. This paper argues that cost-benefit analyses of language choices which tend to favor English ignore the hidden costs of English use. In order to fully appreciate the effect of choosing English, the linguistic ecology and the indexical field of the host community, as well as the limits of field interpretation, must be taken into account. Language policies for development organizations support fieldworkers to learn and use host languages when English use is not the optimal choice. Based on a study of one organization’s language policy, and a sociolinguistic understanding of language choice, this paper also proposes design principles for effective organizational language policies