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Places of Poverty and Powerlessness: INGOs Working ‘At Home’

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Abstract

The search for transformatory development practice, distanced from colonial binaries and representations, has been the focus of decades of scholarship. Recent research suggests that international development non-governmental organisations (INGOs) are central in this regard, whether in their governance, fundraising, advocacy, knowledge-management, engagement with others or approach to programme design. This paper progresses these debates by providing empirical evidence of the value of domestic programming in this ‘project’. Drawing on three case studies, the paper finds evidence of INGOs’ search for a programme strategy, which moves minimising the violence of ‘othering’ from theory to practice. Findings indicate that domestic programmes incorporate dimensions of a development practice, which make visible a theory of poverty as powerlessness, distance it from the violence of ‘othering’ and are grounded in an ethic of ‘everyone matters’. If development practice and intervention design can incorporate these elements, a transformatory, decolonised development practice may be possible.

Résumé

La recherche de pratiques de développement transformatrices, loin des représentations et des conceptions binaires coloniales, fait l’objet d’études depuis des décennies. Des recherches récentes suggèrent que les ONG internationales jouent un rôle central sur ce sujet-là, que ce soit dans leur gouvernance, leur collecte de fonds, leur plaidoyer, leur gestion des connaissances, leurs échanges avec les autres ou leur approche de la conception de programmes. Cet article fait progresser ces débats en fournissant des preuves empiriques de la valeur de la mise en oeuvre nationale de programmes dans ce "projet". En s'appuyant sur trois études de cas, cet article trouve des preuves sur le fait que les ONG internationales sont à la recherche d’une stratégie de programme, qui vise à passer de la théorie à la pratique le sujet de la réduction de la stigmatisation violente de «l’Autre». Les résultats indiquent que les programmes nationaux intègrent les dimensions d’une pratique de développement qui: rend visible une théorie de la pauvreté comme impuissance; l’éloigne de la violence de la stigmatisation de «l’Autre» et se fonde sur une éthique du «tout le monde compte». Si les pratiques de développement et la conception des interventions peuvent intégrer ces éléments, une pratique de développement transformatrice, loin de l’approche coloniale, peut devenir possible.

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Notes

  1. Gaventa’s approach was informed by Steven Lukes’ (1974) work on power.

  2. Media sources used included: Daily Mail, Mail on Sunday, The Guardian, The Independent, and The Times 1994–1996, to coincide with the OGB domestic programme discussions.

  3. The 1994 Oxfam GB meeting for Oxfam Trustees, staff, partners, volunteers and supporters.

  4. Zakat is the tax paid by observant adult Muslims based on their surplus wealth and distributed to those in need. The distribution is considered to be an act of justice rather than charity; i.e. the beneficiary has rights over the donor, whose wealth is purified by the act of giving (Khan et al. 2009).

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  1. Department of Social Sciences, University of East London, University Way, London, E16 2RD, UK

    Susannah Pickering-Saqqa

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Pickering-Saqqa, S. Places of Poverty and Powerlessness: INGOs Working ‘At Home’. Eur J Dev Res 31, 1371–1388 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1057/s41287-019-00214-6

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