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The participatory development approach under a microscope: the case of the poverty alleviation programme in Malawi

Journal of Social Development in Africa

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Field Value
 
Title The participatory development approach under a microscope: the case of the poverty alleviation programme in Malawi
 
Creator Chinsinga, Blessings
 
Subject


 
Description In the wake of democratization most developing countries have had to reorient their characteristically top-down development strategies to embrace a participatory development philosophy in a bid to reinvigorate their rural development efforts. This article argues that the professed commitment to participatory local planning, as a hallmark of contemporary grassroots development intervention, is largely rhetorical. The exogenous nature of the drives to reform forces developing countries to pretend they are committed to the reforms merely to appease the West. These reforms can only be genuine and sustained if the will to do so springs from within developing countries with external stakeholders playing simply a facilitatory role. The recognition of the voices, aspirations and fears of the poor in development efforts requires a pre-existing democratic structure and policymakers who are sympathetic to the basic interests of the rural poor.
(Journal of Social Development in Africa: 2003 18 (1): 129-144)
 
Publisher School of Social Work, Midlands State University, Zimbabwe
 
Contributor
 
Date 2003-01-01
 
Type info:eu-repo/semantics/article
info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion
Peer-reviewed Article

 
Identifier https://www.ajol.info/index.php/jsda/article/view/23822
10.4314/jsda.v18i1.23822
 
Source Journal of Social Development in Africa; Vol 18, No 1 (2003)
1012-1080
 
Coverage


 
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