Building inclusive development partnerships: some reflections and questions for practitioners 
by Barry Smith, Regional Director, Southern Africa, The Synergos Institute, May 2007

The rhetoric of ‘partnership’ is all the rage in development. It is a commonplace that no one sector, or set of actors, can take exclusive responsibility for meeting the challenges of entrenched poverty and social exclusion. But we need to get beyond the conventional discourse of fuzzy, ‘feel-good’ partnerships – or of ‘public-private partnerships’ that often amount to little more than technical models or variations on the privatization of public services. A wider and more inclusive notion of ‘partnership’ and ‘the public interest’ is needed, premised on the requirement for broader public accountability, transparency, good governance and ‘power-sharing’ between stakeholders and sectors.

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In THE SHOCK DOCTRINE, Naomi Klein explodes the myth that the global free market triumphed democratically. Exposing the thinking, the money trail and the puppet strings behind the world-changing crises and wars of the last four decades, The Shock Doctrine is the gripping story of how America’s “free market” policies have come to dominate the world-- through the exploitation of disaster-shocked people and countries.  We re-publish here 4 extracts.

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On participating in the World Social Forum - Porto Alegre, 2005
By Rogério Silva, a development practitioner with Fonte, Brasil
an exuberant description of the life, passions and contradictions of our planet's largest annual gathering of social activists.

Participatory Research And Community Organizing
By Sung Sil Lee Sohng, Ph.D. University of Washington, School of Social Work, 1995
"...Originally designed to resist the intellectual colonialism of western social research into the third world development process, participatory research developed a methodology for involving disenfranchised people as researchers in pursuit of answers to the questions of their daily struggle and survival..."

What Can Be Done ?
By Meas Nee.  An extract from his book Towards Restoring Life in Cambodian Villages. 1999
A poetic story of remarkably respectful facilitation of development in deeply traumatised communities in Cambodia.

The Rights-Based Approach to Development: Potential for Change or More of the Same?

by Dzodzi Tsikata - Senior Research Fellow at the Institute of Statistical, Social and Economic Research (ISSER) of the University of Ghana - 2004

A "Rights-Based Approach" to development, as articulated in a particular way, has gained much currency in the development sector.  Dzodzi Tsikata has kindly allowed us to reprint her very thoughtful and stimulating reflection.

Financing Development Practice - How can we start to make the difference that makes a difference?

by John Wilson and Dan Taylor - 2004

Written by two experienced development workers who have worked on both sides of the donor funding fence, this thoughtful paper questions the nature of funding received by development organisations. They argue that there needs to be a fundamental change in the relationship between donors and recipients, because the current nature of such relationships is dysfunctional. The paper includes an analysis of some of the various agencies involved in funding development, and concludes by looking at the way forward, proposing what needs to change in order to establish good development practice.

Monitoring: a learning opportunity to foster accountability - A challenge for donors
by Khanyisa Balfour, SCAT, 2003
A guest writing by a practitioner who has experience in working for local South African donor agencies, posing some interesting and provocative challenges to donor practice.

Globalisation Briefing Paper
by Heather de Wet, 2002
A succinct 5-page description of the ins and outs of globalisation with some implications for development practitioners.