Women's rights in Peru: insights from two organizations

In this article we explore the appropriation of ideas about women's rights in Lima, Peru through an ethnographic study of two non‐governmental organizations. SEA is a local NGO grounded in the Catholic Church's liberation theology movement, which seeks to promote integrated human development, and is linked to the worldwide Catholic Church. DEMUS, the second NGO, with feminist roots, actively fights gender discrimination and belongs to networks of international women's human rights movements and UN organizations. We argue that the struggle for women's rights is part of a broader struggle for recognition and equality for the poor, shaped by changing notions of national identity, citizenship and diversity. Our research revealed clear examples of vernacularization, whereby local context, values and culture played a decisive role in the adoption of women rights ideas. Encounters with other concepts and movements, including social justice, family violence and women's mobilization, intimately shaped the vernacularization of women's rights. Ultimately, the adoption of rights ideas involved changes in women's individual and collective empowerment.     

Girls Incorporated of Alameda County at 50: a voice for girls (1958-2008)

Girls Incorporated of Alameda County is nonprofit human service organization that has delivered education, counseling, and advocacy services to girls aged 6 to 18 for 50 years. The organization began as a small, local girls club and has grown into a large multi-faceted service delivery organization attached to a national governing body. The history of Girls Incorporated of Alameda County introduces struggles in relation to external and internal factors that altered the way that the agency financed and managed and exemplifies the important role of nonprofit leadership. The organization's many accomplishments have also presented multiple challenges, particularly related to the changing roles of women in American society.     

Contemporary development forces in the nonmetropolitan west: new insights from rapidly growing communities

Nonmetropolitan areas in the western United States have experienced rapid growth rates measured in both economic and demographic terms. Macrolevel studies have found that a variety of forces are at work driving these regional patterns of growth including quality of life migrants, expansion of service industries, and nonearnings sources of income. While these macrolevel studies provide important insights into the processes of regional change, very little is known of the significance of these contemporary development forces at the micro, or community, level. This paper reports the results of four community case studies in rapidly growing rural communities within the western United States to provide a better understanding of economic and social change at the community level. Interviews with key players in each case study community provide the empirical evidence for this paper, and the data demonstrate community development processes to be complex. Resource-dependent industrial activities remain an important component for community economies. Furthermore, extractive activity is being supplemented (not supplanted) by various combinations of the factors reported in macrolevel studies including niche manufacturing, Lone Eagles, quality of life migrants, and retirees. The case studies also highlight a high degree of volatility in growing areas and potential problems with assimilation, fractioning, and planning associated with rapid growth in these small places.     

Through community eyes: the transition of international organizations from community aid to development in postconflict Sierra Leone

Sierra Leone experienced an 11-year civil war, brutalizing its people and destroying its communities. With the cessation of violence, international organizations helped to secure peace, deliver aid and supplies, and, after, assist with development projects. This grounded theory study, which aims to understand the role these organizations played from the viewpoint of community members in 2 communities, posits that community members’ regard of international organizations lessened as their efforts transitioned from securing the peace and relief efforts to aid for development. Highlighted are the successes and challenges of this work and a broad discussion of implications and recommendations.     

Sustainability of community-based organizations of the rural poor: Learning from Concern's rural development projects, Bangladesh

Based on two decades of grassroots experiences, Concern Bangladeshhas developed a federation structure to ensure the sustainabilityof community-based organizations (CBO). Despite capacity-buildinginputs to all federations, only a few of them have been ableto operate without substantial external aid. This lack of progressrelates to a ‘one size fits all’ capacity-buildingstrategy and other sociopolitical issues such as the alienationof federations from the wider community and to political manipulation.Successful federations demonstrate that a committed leader whoensures participation, respects transparency and accountability,and promotes second line leadership can contribute positivelyto sustainability, even in an adverse sociopolitical context,and with limited capacity-building support.     

Constructing the digital patient: Patient organizations and the development of health websites

In order to understand the constraints and challenges of realizing the democratic potentials of the Internet, this paper focuses on the attempts of three Dutch patient organizations to develop health websites. The authors describe how these patient organizations had to overcome specific barriers to develop their digital services. All three organizations faced certain constraints that had negative consequences for the plans they wanted to realize. Lack of financial resources and manpower were the main reasons why these patient organizations could not develop interactive parts of their website or provide personal advice services. Other barriers the patient organizations had to overcome were getting access to digital expertise to build the websites. The paper shows that the development of a website is a very demanding task, even for patient organizations that have in-house expertise with computers and Internet. Moreover, the paper shows that patient organizations do not consider the involvement of patients as crucial for the design of health websites. This research thus confirms previous research findings that users, in this case patients, are largely absent from the design process of information and communication technologies Finally, the paper shows how patient organizations' websites contribute to a redefinition of the patient from being a passive actor towards one who is an active participant in his or her care.     

Abortion,women and national development: the Nigeria experience

The author argues that, if women have the right of self-determination, it is immoral of society to withhold or limit women's access to abortion services in Nigeria. Morality must pertain to society as well as women. In Nigeria, the abortion argument tends to focus on the rights of the fetus or the third party's interest. The abortion issue must involve understanding the rationale that is used by abortion-seeking women. Denial of access to abortion services dehumanizes women and reduces growth in national development. Women carry the burden of responsibility associated with child bearing and rearing. Unwanted pregnancies impose severe psychological, physical, social, and medical dangers on women. Impaired psychological and physical illness creates pain and suffering and limits productivity. "Doing good" is not necessarily accomplished by either abortion or unwanted childbearing. Society both discourages the taking of a human life and supports the health of its citizens, many of whom are women. A child brought into this world who is not adequately taken care of will be a burden to society. When society pursues its own self-interest in preventing abortion as a choice for women, then society becomes immoral and selfish. A woman pursuing her own self-interest is not necessarily immoral. The decision becomes immoral if the woman acts against the wishes of the father. Morality is not necessarily the opposite of the promotion of one's self-interest. Women who seek to terminate a pregnancy for health reasons seek a virtuous option of enhancing the well-being of every individual in society. The right to life for the fetus is very different from the right to self-determination for the abortion-seeking woman. When the Yoruba define a wife as a servant to the husband, the Yoruba deny women personhood. Women know best what serves their self-interest and that of society.     

Professional development in the youth development field: issues, trends, opportunities, and challenges

This chapter reviews key issues in professional development in the youth development field, describing important work done over the past two decades and lessons learned from major philanthropic investments in capacity building both nationally and locally.     

Professional development laboratory: center for literacy and community services

We developed three Professional Development Laboratories: Centers for Literacy and Community Services that addressed four pressing needs in the current urban school crisis: the preparation of in-service teachers to be literacy specialists, the dire need for qualified teachers in urban settings, the professional development of uncertified urban teachers, and the literacy needs of the children and families these teachers serve. These centers were housed in three inner-city schools rather than at the university and thus were able to serve larger numbers of children. Since many of the teachers in these schools are novice or uncertified teachers, we offered on-site in-service courses in order to enhance their ability to help their students. By housing the Centers for Literacy and Community Services on site in the schools, we sought to reach students and families who might otherwise not be able to avail themselves of these services. Unique to this project was that our graduate literacy education students tutored students on site in schools, the university faculty worked alongside the graduate students, and both students and faculty provided services to enhance the professional development of teachers and administrators in the area of literacy. Additionally, this project was distinguished by the inclusion of a component designed to provide literacy education services to the families and caregivers of the children.     

Reintegration upon return: insights from Ecuadorian returnees from Spain

Using the ECM2 survey data on Ecuadorian migrants returning from Spain, we investigate the determinants of reintegration upon return. We study how the migration experience, but also the before‐ and after‐migration characteristics, correlate with migrants’ outcomes upon return. We adopt a broad conception of reintegration, considering jointly labour market‐related outcomes that proxy for structural reintegration and subjective indicators that provide insights on sociocultural reintegration. The determinants of these two types of outcomes appear to be different: reintegration indeed encompasses multiple dimensions which cannot be captured by a single indicator. Our results suggest that return assistance programmes’ efficiency in helping reintegration could be improved by (I) targeting, ex‐ante, returnees who plan to launch their own business, and, ex‐post, the most vulnerable workers (women, older returnees, unemployed), and (ii) facilitating the labour market integration of foreign‐educated returnees. They also call for further research to better understand the consequences of these programmes.     

Women and poverty: insights from individual consumption in Albania

This paper studies how a society with traditional gender norms and competitive marriage market conditions may favor unequal distribution of resources within households and a consequent increase in female poverty. We propose a method to estimate individual consumption from household expenditure data. After estimating individual consumption, we apply a fuzzy approach for poverty analysis. Compared to standard poverty measures, the approach is less sensitive to changes in the distribution of consumption around the poverty line, generated when accounting for unequal distribution of household resources. The approach, applied to the analysis of individual poverty in Albania, revealed considerable intrahousehold inequality that specifically affects women and is correlated with imbalances in the sex ratio induced by past migrations. This leads to an expected general increase in poverty rates, mainly driven by a previously unperceived issue, female poverty, which emerges as an aspect of concern to consider in future anti-poverty policies.     

Beneficiaries’ participation in development organizations through local partners: A case study in Southern Africa

In a case study of one European non‐governmental organization (NGO) (data obtained from 10 staff members in Europe and Southern Africa, and 19 representatives of local partner organizations) we investigate whether the involvement of the partners in local and ‘northern’ policy‐making affects their perception of the governance quality of their organizations and that of the European donor organization, as well as the perception of the NGO's staff members. The answer is positive as to the local organizations, but local partners (as representatives of the eventual beneficiaries) are hardly involved in decision‐making at donor level. Finally, the presence of specific participation mechanisms seems to be more affected by beneficiary country factors than by activity‐related influences.     

Structures and processes in intermediary nongovernmental organizations: Research evidence from Northern Ireland

This article reports the results of an exploratory study of the organizational characteristics, functions, and roles of intermediary nonprofit organizations selected by the European Union to deliver global grant funding in relation to its Special Support Programme for Peace and Reconciliation in Northern Ireland. The results show that the main factor for determining organizational processes is the need to respond to conflicting pressures from two directions: upward to funding agencies and downward to community groups. This produces contradictory demands that are imported into the organizations as a set of internal tensions. The different structures and capabilities developed by the organizations to maintain unity and integrity in response to these tensions are explored and related to differences in the perceived role of the organizations.