In Touch l General resources 205
GENERAL RESOURCES
Provocations for
development
l Robert Chambers
IDS, 2012
Do we use obscure
words to impress our
colleagues – or
fashionable ones to
win research
proposals? How do poor people define
their poverty? How can we use aid
budgets most effectively? Are many of
our actions against poverty simple, direct
and wrong? Provocations for
Development is an entertaining and
unsettling collection of writings that
questions concepts, conventions and
practices in development. It is made up
of short and accessible writings by
Robert Chambers, many from the past
ten years and some from earlier,
reflecting on the evolution of concepts
like participation and of organisations
like the World Bank. Besides
provocations, there is mischief, verse and
serious fun. The book is organised into
four sections. The first, Word play,
irreverently examines vocabularies of
development and how words are
instruments of power. The second,
Poverty and participation, challenges
concepts of poverty, presents
empowering breakthroughs in the
current explosion of participatory
methodologies, and concludes with what
can be done at the personal level. The
third, Aid, is critical of past and present
procedures and practices in aid and
points to feasible changes for doing
better. The provocations in the last
section For our future touch on values,
ethics, gender and participation,
immersions, hypocrisy and paradigms,
and sees hope in children. The final
provocation invites readers to find
answers to the question ‘what would it
take to eliminate poverty in the world?’
Provocations for development will be
enjoyed by development professionals,
including academics, students, NGO
workers and the staff of international
agencies, as well as the wider public.
n Available to buy from the IDS bookshop at:
www.ntd.co.uk/idsbookshop/details.asp?id=
1278
Principle 10: public
participation in
environmental decisionmaking (DVD)
l FIELD, 2011
Poor people in
developing countries often rely heavily on
their immediate environment for their
livelihoods. However, they are often
underrepresented or absent from
decision-making processes that affect
their environments and the natural
resources that sustain their communities.
Principle 10 of the 1992 Rio Declaration
on Environment and Development calls
for public access to information,
participation in decision-making and
access to justice as key principles of
environmental governance. Only when
these principles are protected by the law
and embodied in government practices
can decisions be equitable, responsive to
people’s needs and environmentally
sustainable.
The film Principle 10: public
participation in environmental decision
making provides a snapshot analysis of
the principle’s relevance in law and
practice. On the basis of various
interviews and research in Ethiopia, the
20-minute film reflects on some of the
work under way to improve
environmental decision-making, existing
barriers and challenges. Version with
Spanish subtitles forthcoming.
n Watch the film at:
http://vimeo.com/30856233
For more information on this research visit
FIELD’s website: www.field.org.uk