Anna Toner

Reaching the promised land: can social enterprise reduce social exclusion and empower communities?

In the United Kingdom, social enterprise is promoted as a mechanism to capture the supposed innovation and dynamism of the private sector to (amongst other things) wean ‘Third Sector’ organisations off their dependence on grants and to offer opportunities to ‘empower’ socially excluded communities. In this article, we place current debate (on the potential of social enterprise to meet social needs) in the context of theoretical approaches to the role of the state. Whilst acknowledging some potential for social enterprise to play such a role, we examine the challenges that this entails. We draw on discussions from International Development, particularly in relation to microfinance and community-managed service delivery, in order to question some of the assumptions made in relation to the supposed transformative power of social enterprise, which in turn identifies issues of scale, sustainability, processes of inclusion/exclusion and appropriate external support as crucial factors.

Development planning and poverty reduction.

PART ONE: Introduction D.Potts, P.Ryan and A.Toner Poverty: What Have We Learnt? Experiences and Lessons from Asia J.Weiss Direct Budget Support and Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers: A Fundamental Shift or a Transitory Fashion? P.Ryan & A.Toner PART TWO: PARTICIPATION AND PLANNING The Power in Participatory Practices C.Harper Poverty, Participation and Dependency in Mali: A Tale of Two Projects P.Francis Opening Pandoras Box: Regional Action of a Concept of Sustainable Growth with Equity R.Bond Large Dams, Irrigation and Social Equity in Swaziland S.Atkins PART THREE: STRATEGIES AND PROGRAMMES FOR PUBLIC INVESTMENT Making Partnerships Work on the Ground: Experiences in Uganda E.Tumusiime-Mutebile Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers: A Role for Civil Society? R.McGee Development Expenditure Management M.Tribe & N.Wanambi Projects, Public Investment Plans and Medium-Term Expenditure Framworks: Evidence from Ghana A.Tsekpo PART FOUR: MEASURING THE BENEFITS Poverty Targeting, Distribution Effects and Project Analysis E.Londero Distribution Issues in Water Projects: An Application of Sens Entitlements Approach P.B.Anand Applying Distribution Analysis: The Mufina Project Revisited D.Potts Poverty Objectives and Economic Analysis of Health Projects J.Weiss Analysis of Poverty and Income Distribution Using the Effect Methods H.Jalilian

Direct Budget Support and Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers: A Fundamental Shift or a Transitory Fashion?

The landscape and language of development assistance has changed dramatically over recent years. From what can be characterised as primarily a donor-led, largely fragmented and uncoordinated, projectised approach to the delivery of development assistance, many donors have indicated their intention to shift towards direct budget support (DFID 2000, NFA 2001). This shift can be seen as a direct response to the problems associated with the donor-led project-based approach and to the failure of policy conditionality (Ruffer and Lawson 2002). It is also due to a recognition that in order to increase the efficacy of development assistance there needs to be a greater degree of local ownership of the development process, a sharper poverty focus and improved coordination between donors (DAC 1996, DFID 2000). During the same period the move towards direct budget support has been complemented by the adoption of Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers (PRSPs), a tool introduced by the World Bank in 1999 initially to ensure the proper use of debt relief under the enhanced Highly Indebted Poor Countries Initiative (HIPC). Since its introduction, the preparation of the PRSP has assumed a wider significance in terms of shaping development policy and the way assistance is allocated and delivered. There is now a distinct possibility that PRSPs may have a greater impact on development practice than on debt relief (Booth 2001).

Introduction: Development Planning and Poverty Reduction

This book offers a multidisciplinary approach to development planning and poverty reduction, in that the social analysis of projects and programmes informs the economic models used at both micro and macro levels to assess the distributive effects of development interventions. Kanbur (2002) argues that mainstream economics has tried to operate in isolation in development policy analysis, unaware of its weaknesses. It might equally be argued that social analysis sometimes ignores economic implications. As White (2002) suggests, more might be gained from a ‘productive synergy’ between quantitative and qualitative approaches. This book is intended to contribute towards such a synergy.