Abstract
Considerando a cooperação internacional para o desenvolvimento (CID) como campo político cujas bases filosóficas - a crença no progresso, a esperança como tarefa política ou imperativo, o desenvolvimento como meta - alimentam relações de assimetria, hierarquia e dependência, são apresentados e discutidos, neste artigo, os resultados de uma pesquisa empírica realizada em Duque de Caxias (região metropolitana do Rio de Janeiro) entre setembro de 2010 e janeiro de 2012, a fim de responder a duas perguntas principais: 1) o que revelam as práticas das agências internacionais atuantes no desenvolvimento local de Duque de Caxias? 2) o que o contexto local desse município da região metropolitana do Rio de Janeiro ilustra acerca das tendências analisadas pela literatura mais crítica sobre o papel da cooperação para o desenvolvimento? Valendo-se de autores críticos sobre o papel político das organizações da CID - B. Cooke, W. Easterley, A. Escobar, T. Hayter, G. Rist, entre outros - e, da pesquisa, de natureza qualitativa, é descrito e analisado o modo de atuação das agências internacionais, sejam elas governamentais multilaterais ou bilaterais, empresas privadas, organizações filantrópicas ou associações, na definição e implementação de estratégias de desenvolvimento em Duque de Caxias. Conclui-se que as organizações internacionais raramente atuam no plano municipal de Duque de Caxias, limitando-se a agir mais indiretamente na concepção de projetos pontuais de apoio ao desenvolvimento e exercendo seu poder de influência sobre as agendas de políticas públicas de âmbito local.
Highlights
This paper presents and discusses the results of an empirical research carried out in Duque de Caxias between September 2010 and January 2012, aiming to answer the following question: what are the main actions implemented by international cooperation organizations for promoting development in Duque de Caxias? This qualitative research was designed in order to describe and analyze modes of action by NorthSouth international cooperation agencies, be they multilateral or bilateral governmental organizations, private companies, philanthropic organizations, or associations, working in the conception and implementation of development strategies in Duque de Caxias
The selection of Duque de Caxias was due to a series of factors: (i) its economic importance within the metropolitan region of Rio de Janeiro and its participation in the national energy system; (ii) disparities between human development indicators and the economic income generated at the local level; (iii) contradictions between development promises and actual production of public goods; (iv) the absence of data on the development reality of this town; and (v) its location for conducting empirical research
The analysis of the role played by these international organizations in Duque de Caxias was rooted in the hypothesis that international cooperation for development (ICD) should be regarded as a political field, whose normative tenets tend to hide asymmetry, hierarchy, and dependence relations
Summary
This qualitative research was designed in order to describe and analyze modes of action by NorthSouth international cooperation agencies, be they multilateral or bilateral governmental organizations, private companies, philanthropic organizations, or associations, working in the conception and implementation of development strategies in Duque de Caxias. It sought to understand both the occasional participation of these agencies in designing specific projects in order to support the town’s development, their potential ability to influence public policy agendas, and their decision-making processes. According to Leal (2001, p. 213), who analyzes the specific problem of sexual violence against children and adolescents in Brazil, “[...] the international cooperation agencies, through the mobilization of organizations advocating human rights, have acted as coordinators between the different social actors”, and they may even generate institutional arrangement models regarded by some authors as innovative (FARAH, 2001)
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