Social Funds, Poverty Management and Subjectification: Beyond the World Bank Approach

Revisiting, from a Marxist perspective, the World Bank’s discourse on Social Funds, we highlight three findings. One, Social Funds gets deployed in the context of a larger Third Worldist discourse of poverty management, which in turn helps deepen the logic of capitalist development. Two, generating a class-focused understanding of Social Funds (via the concept of social surplus), we argue that class processes and need processes constitute one another and through this conduit emerges a relation between global capital and the poverty alleviation programme of Social Funds. Lastly, interrogating the management approach underlying Social Funds leads us to question claims of decentralisation and participation. Our analysis exposes an underlying process of subjectification by way of a control mechanism exercised through the code of conduct encapsulated in that managerial approach.

ABSTRACTParticipatory approaches remain central to development practice and the World Bank continues to espouse them with the promise to make its aid more pro‐poor. Yet participation's (in)effectiveness has become the focus of renewed, polarizing debates, and assessments of the form and function of the World Bank's participatory paradigm are still contested and unresolved. Through extensive field data collected in East Africa, this article seeks to move the debate forward. It presents three interrelated arguments: (1) the World Bank's participatory approach remains largely circumscribed by a Post‐Washington Consensus neoliberalism; (2) the approach, nonetheless, pro‐actively supports pro‐poor gains, and creates space for more alternative initiatives; (3) however, its effectiveness in fostering pro‐poor empowerment is undermined by deep inequalities and political economy dynamics on the ground. Two implications are discussed, which challenge conventional wisdom. First, the World Bank's approach could be seen as a hierarchical system of elements in which certain aspects, but not others, are insulated from popular deliberation. Second, participatory development should be (re)imagined as an open‐ended process rooted in the politicization of inequality and embedded in the dynamics of capitalist development, which also points to the critical role of a developmental state.

Gender inequality is now widely acknowledged as an important factor in the spread and entrenchment of poverty. This article examines the World Development Report 2000/01 as the World Bank's blueprint for addressing poverty in the twenty-first century, together with several more recent Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers (PRSPs), with a view to analysing the manner in which gender is incorporated into the policy-making process and considering whether it constitutes a new approach to gender and poverty. It is argued that the World Bank's approach to poverty is unlikely to deliver gender justice, because there remain large discrepancies between the economic and social policies that it prescribes. More specifically, the authors contend that the Bank employs an integrationist approach which encapsulates gender issues within existing development paradigms without attempting to transform an overall development agenda whose ultimate objective is economic growth as opposed to equity. Case studies from Cambodia and Vietnam are used to illustrate these arguments.

This article reviews the dramatic shift over the course of the 1990s in the World Bank's approach to development policy and conditionality, addressing the impetus to change and the substance of that change. It suggests that the shift can be explained primarily as a response to the negative experience of the failure of its own policy prescription. It argues that the World Bank's response has been to revise its view of what constitutes development. From a conception of development based on the primacy of economic growth, the World Bank has moved to embrace a conception which elevates the poorest as the focus of development policy and which relativises the importance of economic growth. The World Bank's approach to conditionality has been modified accordingly, leveraging a specific emphasis on poverty reduction over society-wide development goals. We conclude that, while claims are made of country ownership, the new conditionality severely constrains the potential for genuine ownership of development policy.

Avoidance and Settlement of Disputes - the World Bank's Approach and Experience

The impact of social action funds on child health in a conflict affected country: Evidence from Angola

The World Bank is currently the lead education research and lending body operating internationally, including in the area of girls’ education. As such, the World Bank wields considerable power in terms of shaping the policy agendas of borrower nations and for this reason is scrutinized in this paper for its privileging of an economic-instrumentalist normative framework for education policy development within which formal schooling is viewed exclusively as a means for economic growth, rather than as a potential tool for the achievement of social justice. An analysis of World Bank work in The Gambian education sector is used to illustrate the limits of a human capital-driven, economic-instrumentalist approach to education policy, with specific attention paid to gender and education issues and related policy solutions. We ultimately argue the value of the World Bank adopting the human capability policy approach as a means to advance World Bank education sector work.

This chapter analyzes the World Bank's Education Strategy 2020 (WBES) to assess its likely impact on inequality. The chapter begins with a review of assessments of the Bank's past education policies. It then compares four different theoretical perspectives on education policy: social class equalization, public goods, human capital, and neoliberalism. Applying quantitative and qualitative content analysis to the WBES, we identify the World Bank's approach as promoting a neo-liberal capitalist development ideology emphasizing private sector schooling and nonformal education along with standardized testing. Our analysis predicts that this strategy will not lead to major increases in educational equality in the developing world, and may even increase inequality.

Previous articleNext article No AccessEssay ReviewThe Right to Education: The Work of Katarina Tomasevski Education Denied: Costs and Remedies by Katarina Tomasevski. New York: Zed Books, 2003. 205 pp. $38.00 (paper). ISBN 1‐84277‐251‐1. Human Rights Obligations in Education: The 4‐A Scheme by Katarina Tomasevski. The Netherlands: Wolf Legal Publishers, 2006. 148 pp. $40.00 (paper). ISBN 90‐5850‐135‐3. “The State of the Right to Education Worldwide: Free or Fee; 2006 Global Report” by Katarina Tomasevski. Copenhagen, August 2006. 250 pp. http://www.katarinatomasevski.com/.Steven J. Klees and Nisha ThapliyalSteven J. Klees Search for more articles by this author and Nisha Thapliyal Search for more articles by this author PDFPDF PLUSFull Text Add to favoritesDownload CitationTrack CitationsPermissionsReprints Share onFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditEmail SectionsMoreDetailsFiguresReferencesCited by Comparative Education Review Volume 51, Number 4November 2007 Sponsored by the Comparative and International Education Society Article DOIhttps://doi.org/10.1086/520863 Views: 479Total views on this site Citations: 14Citations are reported from Crossref History © 2007 by the Comparative and International Education Society. All rights reserved.PDF download Crossref reports the following articles citing this article:Mieke T. A. Lopes Cardozo Learning to Become Smart Radicals: A Regenerative Lens on the Potential for Peace and Reconciliation through Youth and Education Systems, Journal on Education in Emergencies 8, no.11 (Mar 2022): 187.https://doi.org/10.33682/3qpc-3v3yRahul Alinje Observing silent, smooth and striated space: The case of Indian national curriculum policy 2009, Policy Futures in Education (Sep 2021): 147821032110210.https://doi.org/10.1177/14782103211021025David M Doyle, Marie Muldoon, Stephanie Thompson, Muiread Murphy Economic Obstacles to Education in Ireland, Journal of Human Rights Practice 13, no.11 (May 2021): 124–135.https://doi.org/10.1093/jhuman/huab004Rosanna Barros, Chiara Biasin The right of adults to education: A comparative analysis from the Portuguese and Italian policy agenda, Research in Comparative and International Education 14, no.44 (Oct 2019): 477–501.https://doi.org/10.1177/1745499919881027Maria Ramaahlo, Kerstin Monika Tönsing, Juan Bornman Inclusive education policy provision in South African research universities, Disability & Society 33, no.33 (Jan 2018): 349–373.https://doi.org/10.1080/09687599.2018.1423954Steven J. Klees Human Capital and Rates of Return: Brilliant Ideas or Ideological Dead Ends?, Comparative Education Review 60, no.44 (Sep 2016): 644–672.https://doi.org/10.1086/688063Kenneth King The global targeting of education and skill: policy history and comparative perspectives, Compare: A Journal of Comparative and International Education 46, no.66 (Sep 2016): 952–975.https://doi.org/10.1080/03057925.2016.1216781Francine Menashy Interrogating an omission: the absence of a rights-based approach to education in World Bank policy discourse, Discourse: Studies in the Cultural Politics of Education 34, no.55 (Dec 2013): 749–764.https://doi.org/10.1080/01596306.2013.728368Caroline Manion, Francine Menashy The Prospects and Challenges of Reforming the World Bank's Approach to Gender and Education: Exploring the Value of the Capability Policy Model in The Gambia, Journal of Human Development and Capabilities 14, no.22 (May 2013): 214–240.https://doi.org/10.1080/19452829.2012.693909Lanse Minkler Introduction: Why Economic and Social Human Rights?, (Jan 2013): 1–18.https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9781139235600.001Anne Hickling-Hudson, Steven J. Klees Alternatives to The World Bank’s Strategies For Education and Development, (Jan 2012): 209–226.https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-6091-903-9_14Steven J. Klees World Bank and Education, (Jan 2012): 49–65.https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-6091-903-9_4Francine Menashy Education as a global public good: the applicability and implications of a framework, Globalisation, Societies and Education 7, no.33 (Sep 2009): 307–320.https://doi.org/10.1080/14767720903166111 Steven J. Klees Reflections on Theory, Method, and Practice in Comparative and International Education Klees, Comparative Education Review 52, no.33 (Jul 2015): 301–328.https://doi.org/10.1086/589978

While there is some suggestion of a re‐orientation in the World Bank's income‐cantered conceptualization of poverty to one based on Amartya Sen's concept of ‘development as freedom’, it is hard to uncover definitive evidence of such a re‐orientation from a study of the Bank's urban programmes in Brazil. This paper attempts an application of Sen's capability approach to the problem of improving the urban quality of life, and contrasts it with the World Bank's approach, with specific reference to a typical squatter upgrading project in Novos Alagados in Salvador da Bahia, Brazil.

PurposeGood governance is often regarded as essential for a country's economic development. The World Bank's governance framework has guided development projects and governance reform in many developing nations over the past few decades. The purpose of this paper is to provide an overview of the World Bank's approach towards governance reform in the public sector, especially in developing economies of the world.Design/methodology/approachThe paper highlights various aspects of good governance that are relevant to the delivery of social and infrastructural services in developing countries. The paper also discusses the strengths and weaknesses of the World Bank's governance framework, especially pertaining to social and infrastructure sectors in developing economies.FindingsIn light of its past experience, the World Bank has expanded the reach of its developmental activities to incorporate governance reform in accordance with the institutional realities prevailing in a developing economy, instead of following a “one‐size‐fit‐all” approach to public sector governance reform. The bank has also encouraged the use of decentralized decision making and private sector participation to achieve greater efficiency, transparency and accountability in the delivery of social and infrastructural services.Originality/valueThe paper provides a useful contribution to the literature concerning the role of international development organizations in formulating strategies that developing economies can follow to pursue public sector governance reform.

As the World Bank approaches its fiftieth year of involvement in the education sector, its Sector Strategy for Education 2020 focuses on key challenges created in the past decade. With the successes in building up primary education systems, millions of matriculating students in many developing countries will now be seeking secondary and tertiary education. For most observers, this is a crisis: even if enough schools could magically be built in time, there would not be nearly enough trained teachers to staff them. For some observers, this is a crisis that can be coped with: information and communications technologies (ICT) have reached a stage where virtual schools and distance learning can be employed at scale to meet such challenges. Curiously, the Education Sector Strategy 2020 makes no mention of virtual schools or distance learning. In fact, it contains only a single, ambivalent reference to ICT for education. The curious silence belies the World Bank's vital leadership and active involvement over the years in identifying and funding model ICT uses in the education sector. However, this chapter is ultimately not about arguing over the extent to which ICT should be mentioned in the World Bank's Education Sector Strategy. Instead, the goal here is to draw attention to a specific opportunity that the World Bank has before it to shape and guide the many ICT-based virtual school projects that will be undertaken in the coming decade. The crucially important opportunity is one for which the World Bank is uniquely suited: to seed and grow an open e-learning movement based on open source, open educational resources, and open pedagogy for secondary and tertiary education in the developing world.

Helping People Help Themselves grew out of David Ellerman's ten years at the World Bank— and particularly out of his three years as advisor and speechwriter for Joseph Stiglitz during Stiglitz's tumultuous term as the Bank's Chief Economist. The book provides a structural critique of the World Bank's approach to development assistance—but the main purpose is to lay the intellectual foundations for an alternative approach. The book takes a broad interdisciplinary approach drawing from educational theory, management theory, community organizing, psychology, and philosophy. While many thinkers are discussed, there is a focus on eight individuals who have wrestled with the fundamental conundrum of trying to give external help that promotes (rather than thwarts) self-help. Those individuals are: Albert Hirschman, John Dewey, Paulo Freire, E. F. Schumacher, Douglas McGregor, Carl Rogers, Saul Alinsky, and Soren Kierkegaard. Helping People Help Themselves might be considered the companion

This paper examines the World Bank's position regarding health and development as expressed in its report Investing in Health. After analysing selected recommendations from the report such as privatization, decentralization, cost recovery fees, nutrition and essential drug programmes, we conclude that the World Bank's approach to health fits its ideologically‐driven development model which favours nations of the North at the expense of the poor of the South. The DALY index has major theoretical flaws. As a guide to health policy makers it is of little value and could be used to deny essential health services to the poor of the third world.

The World Bank is an important actor in the implementation of new information technologies (ITs) in Africa by means of loans to governments and support to private companies. Its policy is guided mainly by techno-economical aspects. The intended target group's socio-cultural context is hardly taken into consideration. Critics argue that the Bank's policy has resulted in inappropriate technology, ignorance of the African user and a reinforcement of Western elites. The World Bank's approach is embedded in a Western worldview, in which privatisation and liberalisation are the keywords. In this technology-driven view, IT is supposed to solve all kinds of problems, including socio-cultural problems, hence socio-cultural aspects are regarded as less important. Nevertheless, some recent documents of the World Bank indicate a growing interest in those aspects. Time will show whether we can label that discourse a neo-liberal doctrine embellished with some socio-cultural hot topics. This article is based on the licenciate's thesis ‘Socio-culturele aspecten van IT in Afrika, de vergeten factor? Een analyse van het beleid van de Wereldbank, ITU en Unesco (1990–1994)’ in the Department of Communication Sciences of the Vrije Universiteit Brussel.