Context-Sensitive Development: How International NGOs Operate in Myanmar

by Ware,Anthony

• ISBN13: 9781565495234
• ISBN10: 1565495233
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2012-10-15
• Publisher: Lynne Rienner

Summary

Development is a difficult endeavor in any environment, much more so in places such as Myanmar with its perfect storm of extreme poverty, international sanctions, and political repression and human rights violations with concomitant conflicts within development organizations over norms and policies. This book examines how to effect successful development interventions in Myanmar. The author points out how practitioners have questioned universal economic prescriptions for development in ways that they have not questioned the normative foundations behind their work. Ware does not argue for a facile moral relativism; he sees Myanmar as an egregious violator of human rights, but he does call for context sensitivity to help organizations adapt their values to meet better the needs of client populations. Through fieldwork and an extensive series of interviews, Ware brings into focus key issues of perception and practice that are intrinsic to the development enterprise. Although the focus is on Myanmar as a quintessential difficult case, Ware shows how his conclusions can be used elsewhere. His book represents a major contribution to both development theory and practice, vital for both the classroom and the development organization in situ.

Table of Contents

Tables and Figures	p. vii
Abbreviations	p. ix
Acknowledgments	p. xi
Preface	p. xiii
Prologue: Burma or Myanmar? A Note on Names and Political Orientation	p. xv
The Problem and Theory	p. 1
Myanmar and Context-Sensitivity in Development	p. 3
Context-Sensitive Development Theory	p. 29
Myanmar: A Historically Informed Analysis of Context	p. 69
Burmese Days: Antecedents of the Sociopolitical Context	p. 71
Myanmar Times: Contemporary Economic and Sociopolitical Context	p. 103
Context-Sensitivity in INGO Development Practice	p. 143
Doing Context-Sensitive Development in Communities	p. 145
Context-Sensitivity in Stakeholder Relations	p. 167
Dancing With the Devil but Not Holding Hands: Negotiating the Restricted Humanitarian Space	p. 199
Conclusions and Recommendations	p. 225
Afterword	p. 237
Glossary of Myanmar Terms	p. 239
List of Interview Participants	p. 241
References	p. 245
Index	p. 271
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