Development from below: Local Development Associations in the Yemen Arab Republic

The Local Development Associations (LDAs) of the Yemen Arab Republic illustrate how indigenous organizations led by local élites can promote participatory, widely beneficial rural development. LDAs reflect a tradition of community based self-help efforts. Today Yemen's six million people, from urban dwellers to those living in remote mountain areas, are served by nearly 200 LDAs. These associations are active in undertaking tasks the central government is not organized to perform. Supported primarily by their immediate constituencies and led by local notables, they build roads, schools, village water systems, and clinics. Over the past decade they have achieved dramatic development results and become important, nationally recognized institutions. This article documents the LDA movement. This example of succesfull local organization is particularly important because development experts often dismiss the potential of such movements on the ground that they are likely to be élite-dominated, probably to the detriment of the poorer members of the community. In describing the LDA movement, this article also consolidates for the first time the few published, frequently unavailable papers on Yemen's complex little-studied rural sector.     

社区参与——促进农村文化遗产保护之关键

促进农村文化遗产保护和经济社会协调发展是当前我国新农村建设工作的重要任务。农村社区居民是文化遗产动态保护的主体力量。其地位和作用的有效发挥,是做好农村文化遗产保护的关键。文章以文化遗产的动态保护为出发点,分析了当前制约我国农村文化遗产保护的社区因素,并从规划、政策引导、文化产业发展及宣传等方面,阐述促进社区参与农村文化遗产保护的有效途径。     

Photovoltaic water pumping in developing areas — A case study

Provision of adequate water supplies is probably the most keenly felt need in rural developing areas. Much time which is at present used in collecting water could be used far more productively if water was pumped where this was appropriate. However, many pumping systems are inappropriate for developing areas because of their high maintenance requirements and complexity. Photovoltaic (solar‐electric) pumping provides an attractive alternative: in addition to having low maintenance requirements, it is convenient and environmentally sound. However, tt has two major disadvantages: (i) it has a high initial cost; and (ii) it is an inherently high risk option as expensive equipment is necessarily placed in the open with little natural protection. This paper is based on a case study of a photovoltaic water pump installed in a community vegetable garden in KwaZulu. The study examined the effect of the pump on the garden's productivity, the economic competitiveness of PV pumping with dlesel and electric pumps, the suitability of PV pumping to the community, the attitudes of the gardeners to PV pumping and possible methods of financing PV pumps for disadvantaged communities.     

Video evidencing and palmtop computer technology to support the formalisation of land rights

Technology can be used to improve the legitimacy, accuracy and currency of land tenure information in urban informal settlements, site-and-service schemes and rural land restitution cases. Video images of landholders providing testimony as to their rights, interests and obligations regarding land, and palmtop computers using icon-based graphic interfaces, are two such technologies. Video imaging has the advantage that respondents can describe unusual situations in the tenure system on camera that might not normally be recorded in a written document, and thus improve the completeness of the record. Palmtop computers that can be used by community members to collect socio-economic data are one of many tools that enable a community to work in partnership with the land administration authorities to improve the quality of land records. This article describes pilot studies of how video images were integrated into a geographic information system with spatially referenced socio-economic data collected with a palmtop computer linked to a hand-held Garmin II Plus receiver. These studies were conducted as a part of a research programme in land tenure and cadastral systems in a rural community and an urban informal settlement.     

Community development: Alive in our memories or in our development efforts?

Community development was a very popular concept in Third World development a number of years ago although few people could explain what it really meant. This article discusses possible reasons for community development's early demise by pointing out certain weaknesses inherent in the literature and some misunderstandings among its proponents. It then traces currently popular concepts in rural development back to their community development origins to shown that although community development has lost its popularity some of its main principles are alive and well. Community development is a fairly recent arrival on the South African scene. It only gained in popularity here when it had already been severely criticized internationally. In the light of this a few thoughts are offered on its future in South Africa.     

喀斯特乡村旅游的社区参与与社区赋权

社区参与是喀斯特乡村旅游可持续发展的关键,社区参与的目的就要实现社区赋权。文章在对喀斯特乡村旅游及其社区参与、社区及社区参与的理论内涵进行分析的基础上,提出喀斯特乡村旅游的社区参与关键是要从经济、政治、心理和社会四个纬度上实现对喀斯特社区的赋权。     

Monitoring and evaluation of women's rural development extension services in South Africa

In South Africa, rural women's extension services are frequently based on the Western, middle-class ideology of a woman's place being in the private or domestic sphere of the home. Consequently, almost all extension services have a home economics feature which advocates the teaching of Western-type domestic skills, such as sewing, crocheting, knitting, cookery and child care, to name a few. The home economics extension services offered to rural women are inappropriate and ineffective in relation to women's triple role pertaining to reproductive, economic and community managing activities. Furthermore, most of the extension services are irrelevant to the real conditions of poverty prevailing in rural areas. Much of the planning of extension services is based on the needs of rural communities as decided by policy planners. Even where participatory approaches have been adopted, the monitoring and evaluation of progress made in achieving the objectives are often neglected. This article defines the concepts of monitoring and evaluation, explains their purposes in rural extension services, identifies suitable indicators for measuring sustainability of programmes, and highlights appropriate methods for collecting, handling and analysing data. In recognition of the inadequacies of and confusion in women's rural extension programmes, the article encourages reorientation of the processes used in monitoring and evaluating agricultural and rural development extension services in South Africa.     

Squatters,collective action,and participation: Learning from Lusaka

There are few large self-help housing projects that endeavour to have real squatter participation in the decision-making processes. Because of the substantial community building skills of the Zambians involved, the Lusaka Housing Project in Zambia may be a worthwhile example of what can be done. Utilizing the rational-actor model, this article identifies the core obstacles to collective action. Where collective action is necessary to deal with a problem, collective effort will rarely be rational and, hence, will rarely take place. If and when it does occur, it means increased leverage. At another level, therefore, this project raises a paradox. There is an intricate interdependence between rural and urban sectors in national development. Increased leverage for previously powerless urban squatters can add to the pressures for an urban bias in public expenditures and have negative consequences for rural development. If, however, there is no increased leverage, then one must question the reality of the participation.     

Cooperating in time of crisis: war,commons, and inequality in Renaissance Lombardy

This article addresses the question of how exogenous shocks led to economic redistribution at a local rural community level in the pre‐industrial period, and how inequality can be limited (or not) by institutions and endogenous social structures within the community itself. This article presents a micro‐analytical study conducted mainly on unpublished sources, focusing on a boundary area (the Geradadda) disputed by Milan and Venice during the long period of the Italian Wars (1494–1559) in a broad European perspective. To understand the impact of wars, the management of local commons and communal assets is analysed in the more general context of the management of local finances. This research shows how local communities organized cooperative behaviours for the defence of local resources, developing innovative credit systems and encouraging a process of redistribution. Before other important factors—such as the distribution of wealth or of local political and social power—cooperation between social groups and the role played by elites were the keystones to limiting the increase in inequality.     

农村社区公共服务设施配置探讨——以江苏省邳州市港上镇前湖村为例

农村公共服务设施主要指教育设施、文化体育设施和社区服务设施。在分析前湖村公共服务设施需求情况的基础上,文章参照农村村庄的各类公共服务设施配置标准和城市社区公共服务设施配置标准中的组团建设标准,提出了前湖村公共服务设施项目的配置标准。     

农村公益性小额信贷现状研究——基于贫困户需求视角的分析

文章基于对山东省嘉祥县3个乡镇(卧龙山镇、大张楼镇、马村镇)小额信贷情况的农户调查数据,从需求视角出发,分析得出小额信贷需求的影响因素和贫困农户需求不足的原因。发现以扶贫为设计初衷的农村小额信贷项目实际参与对象已从中、低收入贫困户转向进行非农生产性经营的中等偏上收入户和高收入农户,并且生产性小额信贷资金多被农户用于消费性支出。最后,文章尝试提出了一些公益性小额信贷的新思路和新模式。     

重庆环城游憩带乡村旅游可持续发展评价研究

乡村旅游在我国是一种比较新颖的旅游形式，其市场需求将随着我国都市化进程的加速和人口结构的变化呈不断上升的趋势。它是以大农业为依托而萌发出来的一种特殊的旅游项目。本文以重庆主城区的朝天门为中心作了三层环城游憩带．分析了重庆环城游憩带发展乡村旅游的条件，并选择了评价因子对乡村旅游可持续发展进行了客观评价．据此又进一步对重庆环城游憩带乡村旅游的可持续发展提出了建议和意见。     

Participatory research as a tool for community development

In Third World countries, where resources are scarce, social scientists are confronted with the challenge of providing knowledge and services relevant to national development. This paper attempts to address this ‘relevance’ question by exploring the relationship between participatory research (as a social science research paradigm) and community development. The assumption is that people possess indigenous skills and knowledge, but that these need to be harnessed and refined in order that they can be effectively utilised in the planning and implementation of development processes. It is argued that human capacity building and empowerment are core components of participatory research and a prerequisite for appropriate development. A participatory research project in a rural resettlement village in the Ciskei is presented to illustrate the implementation of participatory research as a tool for community development.     

浅谈建立和完善农村社会保障制度的对策建议

农村社会保障制度作为社会保障制度的重要组成部分,对促进社会稳定和社会主义经济发展发挥重要的作用。但目前,在推进农村社会保障工作进程中,仍然存在思想上认识模糊,整体效益不高等问题。本文着重从为建立和完善农村社会保障制度提供思想先导,政策规范、运行动力等方面提出了较好的对策建议。     

Integration of an Essential Services Package (ESP) in Child and Reproductive Health and Family Planning with a Micro-credit Program for Poor Women: Experience from a Pilot Project in Rural Bangladesh

In early 1992, a two-phased pilot project, initially integrating a micro-credit program for poor women with a family planning and expanded program of immunization (EPI) (in the first phase) and subsequently and incrementally with an essential services package (ESP) in reproductive and maternal and child health (in the second phase), was initiated in rural Bangladesh. Data on the project show that there has been a significant increase in contraceptive use and a decline in fertility since the initiation of the first phase of the project. There also has been an increase in the dissemination of information on, and utilization of, ESP medical technologies in the intervention community at large.     

熵理论与农村公共产品供给方式选择

在新农村建设的框架下,农村公共产品的供给是一个巨大的系统工程,需要各方面的改革与调整。目前,在农村公共产品供给中面临着诸多困境,建立有效的公共决策配置机制,完善不合理的供给结构,调整诱致性供给和强制性供给的格局,显得尤为重要。本文从熵的角度出发,依据最小熵原理,通过自组织功能和供给系统的外界环境,以正熵流或负熵流流向供给系统,致使强制性供给制度和诱致性供给制度都不能有效地阻止系统的熵增。最有效的途径是,使强制性供给制度和诱致性供给制度充分结合,优势互补,从而逐步完善农村公共产品供给中制度混乱的局面。     

农村社区公共产品供给制度的变迁

从新制度经济学和公共财政学的一些相关概念和理论出发,分析我国家庭承包制下农村公共品供给制度变迁的背景,然后通过与人民公社时期的这一制度进行对比分析,结合当今实际指出变迁过程中形成的几种模式,并进行相应的评述和政策建议。     

新农村建设中农村社区管理状况调查研究--以青岛市城阳区为例

农村社区建设和管理是统筹城乡发展的有效载体,文章以青岛市城阳区部分农村社区为例,对农村社区管理仍然存在的理念落后、公共服务薄弱、社区居民文明程度不高、资金匮乏、社区文化缺失等问题进行分析,并在此基础上提出了完善农村社区创新管理体制、优化公共资源、增强发展动力、强化社会教育的对策和建议。     

城乡统筹视角下农民工激励机制研究

改革开放以来,大量的农村劳动力涌入城市,形成了“农民工”这一独特的群体。长期以来,农民工的权益保障成为各方关注的焦点,但农民工的激励问题却相对关注较少。在国家城乡统筹综合配套改革试验区的背景下,文章针对农民工的新特点,旨在设计出新形势下满足农民工需求的激励措施,从而达到对不同类型的农民工进行分类管理,做到政府、企业、农民工三者间的激励相容,促进和谐社会的发展。     

Social exclusion and rural transport: Gender aspects of a road improvement project in Tshitwe,Northern Province

This article presents a case for a reorientation of the way in which rural transport needs are perceived, planned and provided for, with a view to improved targeting of interventions, particularly with regard to addressing the mobility and accessibility needs of rural women. In addition, it seeks to critically appraise the sustainability of poverty alleviation properties attributed to the labour-based road works, especially in respect of their impact on women. It also explores the role that non-motorised modes of transport could play in reducing the transport burden of the Tshitwe community.