Accountable Aid: Local Participation in Major Projects

Front Cover
Oxfam, 1998 - 176 pages
The Earth Summit in Rio in 1992 generated much rhetoric about the need for collaboration between local communities and multilateral funders of major development projects, in order to preserve natural resources. Since then there has been intense debate about the importance of local participation, accountability to local communities, transparent procedures and gender-sensitive planning. In this work, the author examines the case of the Rondonia Natural Resource Management Project (PLANAFLORO) in the Amazon, funded by the World Bank, and considers the frustrations created when local NGOs and communities were effectively excluded from decisions about a project that claimed to be participatory. In contrast, she considers examples of relatively good practice, most notably the Joint Forest Management project, funded by the British Overseas Development Administration, in Karnataka, India. The author also examines recent atttempts by the World Bank to involve local governments in decision making. From a focus on individual projects, the book moves to a consideration of local participation in entire projects - the World Bank's Country Assistance Strategies - and community involvement in projects funded by the private sector. It ends with a summary of the lessons to be learned by local and international NGOs and by major donors.

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Page 12 - Developed countries members of the Development Assistance Committee of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development...
Page 148 - Environmental issues are best handled with the participation of all concerned citizens, at the relevant level. At the national level, each individual shall have appropriate access to information concerning the environment that is held by public authorities, including information on hazardous materials and activities in their communities, and the opportunity to participate in decision-making...
Page 13 - Governance is defined as the manner in which power is exercised in the management of a country's economic and social resources.
Page 127 - alleged contraventions or maladministration in the implementation of Community law...
Page 148 - The human person is the central subject of development and should be the active participant and beneficiary of the right to development.
Page 22 - ... constraints to a minimum, the effective functioning of the Bank necessarily requires some derogation from complete openness. 50. Proceedings of the Board of Executive Directors and committees thereof are, under the Board's Rules of Procedure, confidential. Thus, unless disclosure is approved by the Board, documents prepared for the consideration or review and approval of the Executive Directors, such as President's Reports and Memoranda of the President for proposed loans and credits, and Operations...
Page 15 - learning process" on participatory development, defined as "a process through which stakeholders influence and share control over development initiatives, and the decisions and resources which affect them".
Page 124 - ... having its own legitimacy; non-discriminatory treatment: fundamental human rights; civil and political rights; economic, social and cultural rights. Every individual shall have the right, in his own country or in a host country, to respect for his dignity and protection by the law. ACP-EEC co-operation shall help abolish the obstacles preventing individuals and peoples from actually enjoying to the full their economic, social and cultural rights and this must be achieved through the development...
Page 156 - Evaluation of EU Aid to ACP Countries Managed by the Commission: Phase 1 Report'.
Page 125 - Convention and to facilitate the pursuit of its objectives. They shall refrain from any measures liable to jeopardise the attainment of the objectives of this Convention.

About the author (1998)

Patricia Feeney is a senior policy adviser on social and economic rights for Oxfam GB.

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