IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/wly/jintdv/v11y1999i6p811-823.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

After roads and dams: what role for engineers in the poverty reduction strategies of bilateral development agencies?

Author

Listed:
  • Trudy Harpham

    (School of Urban Development and Policy, South Bank University, London, UK)

  • Lance Anelay

    (School of Urban Development and Policy, South Bank University, London, UK)

Abstract

The role of engineers within the major bilateral development agencies is currently subject to change as agencies' foci converge on poverty reduction, expressed in their support for the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development's (OECD) agreed aim of reducing by half the proportion of people living in extreme poverty by 2015. The focus of development aid has shifted from the prioritization of macroeconomic growth, allied to a flawed assumption that this would filter down to the poor, to a focus on pro-poor growth that provides the poor with the necessary access to the economy and to services that meet their basic needs. Engineers perceive a risk of being marginalized within this new agenda. In many cases their reputations have been closely linked with the construction of large infrastructure projects designed to stimulate macroeconomic growth, the benefits of which were not perceived to have directly benefited the poor. This case study of a bilateral agency found that engineers have a clear role within the new agenda, and moreover that engineers were, in many cases, unfairly maligned for their previous work. Much of their problem appears to have been one of image resulting from a failure to effectively demonstrate results. This is an issue being tackled by many bilaterals across their sectors: improved needs assessments, indicators and evaluations being among their aims. To achieve this, development practitioners, including engineers will need to improve their use of participatory techniques, involving the poor in the planning, implementation and management of projects|programmes. The paper recommends methods that development practitioners, including engineers, should use to improve the impact of their interventions. These include the use of participatory methodologies to foster project|programme ownership by beneficiaries, contributing to the selection of appropriate donor inputs and long-term sustainability. The paper supports a move being made by many of the bilaterals away from a project to a broader programme approach to development, within which sectors and disciplines work together to deliver a useful mix of poverty reducing measures. Copyright © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Suggested Citation

  • Trudy Harpham & Lance Anelay, 1999. "After roads and dams: what role for engineers in the poverty reduction strategies of bilateral development agencies?," Journal of International Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 11(6), pages 811-823.
    • Handle: RePEc:wly:jintdv:v:11:y:1999:i:6:p:811-823
    DOI: 10.1002/(SICI)1099-1328(199909/10)11:6<811::AID-JID613>3.0.CO;2-7
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    To our knowledge, this item is not available for download. To find whether it is available, there are three options:
    1. Check below whether another version of this item is available online.
    2. Check on the provider's web page whether it is in fact available.
    3. Perform a search for a similarly titled item that would be available.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. World Bank, 1994. "World Development Report 1994," World Bank Publications - Books, The World Bank Group, number 5977.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Schiff, Maurice & Valdes, Alberto, 1998. "Agriculture and the macroeconomy," Policy Research Working Paper Series 1967, The World Bank.
    2. Shahbaz, Muhammad & Hoang, Thi Hong Van & Mahalik, Mantu Kumar & Roubaud, David, 2017. "Energy consumption, financial development and economic growth in India: New evidence from a nonlinear and asymmetric analysis," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 63(C), pages 199-212.
    3. Ghate Chetan, 2003. "The Politics of Endogenous Growth," The B.E. Journal of Macroeconomics, De Gruyter, vol. 3(1), pages 1-18, August.
    4. Hubbard, Michael, 1995. "The 'new public management' and the reform of public services to agriculture in adjusting economies: the role of contracting," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 20(6), pages 529-536, December.
    5. Sachs, Jeffrey D. & Warner, Andrew M., 1996. "Achieving Rapid Growth in the Transition Economies of Central Europe," Harvard Institute for International Development (HIID) Papers 294091, Harvard University, Kennedy School of Government.
    6. didier chabaud & Parthenay Claude & Yannick Perez, 2005. "Environnement institutionnel et trajectoire des entreprises : une analyse northienne de l’industrie électrique," Post-Print hal-04297605, HAL.
    7. Dunning, John H. & Lundan, Sarianna M., 1998. "The geographical sources of competitiveness of multinational enterprises: an econometric analysis," International Business Review, Elsevier, vol. 7(2), pages 115-133, April.
    8. Carter, Michael R. & May, Julian, 1999. "Poverty, livelihood and class in rural South Africa," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 27(1), pages 1-20, January.
    9. Pei, Fanyu & Tilton, John E., 1999. "Consumer preferences, technological change, and the short-run income elasticity of metal demand," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 25(2), pages 87-109, June.
    10. Das Gupta, Monica & Grandvoinnet, Helene & Romani, Mattia, 2000. "State-community synergies in development : laying the basis for collective action," Policy Research Working Paper Series 2439, The World Bank.
    11. Yang, Yongzheng, 1995. "The Uruguay round trade liberalization and structural adjustment in developing Asia," Journal of Asian Economics, Elsevier, vol. 6(4), pages 493-510.
    12. John S. Hill & Myung-Su Chae & Jinseo Park, 2012. "The Effects of Geography and Infrastructure on Economic Development and International Business Involvement," Journal of Infrastructure Development, India Development Foundation, vol. 4(2), pages 91-113, December.
    13. Diaz-Bautista, Alejandro, 2002. "The role of telecommunications infrastructure and human capital: Mexico´s economic growth and convergence," ERSA conference papers ersa02p102, European Regional Science Association.
    14. Ayse Pamuk & David E. Dowall, 1998. "The Price of Land for Housing in Trinidad: The Role of Regulatory Constraints and Implications for Affordability," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 35(2), pages 285-299, February.
    15. Richard Estes, 1996. "Social development trends in Asia, 1970–1994," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 37(2), pages 119-148, February.
    16. Nijkamp, Peter & Ubbels, Barry, 1999. "Infrastructure, suprastructure and ecostructure : a portfolio of sustainable growth potentials," Serie Research Memoranda 0051, VU University Amsterdam, Faculty of Economics, Business Administration and Econometrics.
    17. David Adams, 2004. "The Changing Regulatory Environment for Speculative Housebuilding and the Construction of Core Competencies for Brownfleld Development," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 36(4), pages 601-624, April.
    18. Chiara DEL BO & Massimo FLORIO, 2008. "Infrastructure and growth in the European Union: an empirical analysis at the regional level in a spatial framework," Departmental Working Papers 2008-37, Department of Economics, Management and Quantitative Methods at Università degli Studi di Milano.
    19. Prabir De, 2009. "Regional Cooperation for Regional Infrastructure Development : Challenges and Policy Options for South Asia," Development Economics Working Papers 22988, East Asian Bureau of Economic Research.
    20. Makokha, Racheal Omukhulu, 2017. "Does Decentralization Improve Provision of Health Services? Evidence from Kisumu and Makueni Counties in Kenya," Thesis Commons xef7a, Center for Open Science.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:wly:jintdv:v:11:y:1999:i:6:p:811-823. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/journal/5102/home .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.