Local Development in International Cooperation (original) (raw)

The politics of South-South Cooperation

Handbook on the politics of international development, 2022

Our understandings of international development cooperation are organized by theory and reflected in the broad range of diverse and contending theoretical approaches. Development as a field of study became an issue of urgent priority following the end of the Second World War. Conventional wisdom generally accepts the argument that development is a universal patter

Imagining cultures of cooperation: Universities networking to face the new development challenges Proceedings of the III CUCS Congress 345 LOCAL DEVELOPMENT IN INTERNATIONAL COOPERATION: ISSUES, APPROACHES AND PERSPECTIVES FOR A TERRITORIALISATION OF DEVELOPMENT POLICIES

Labour Organization) policies apt to secure decent work, fair income and participation into the development processes. In particular, the brief case study concerning the Ghana Decent Work Programme (GDWP) shows the importance of the dialogues between "local norms and values"-as embodied in traditional sources of power and legitimacy-and local government authorities and agencies. Once again, the interaction of different power architectures enact Local Economic Development processes and entails spatial transformation (in the Ghanaian case the multiplication, integration and upscaling of LED projects at different scales and in different regional contexts). A similar standpoint arises from Francesco Bicciato's account on the ART (Articulation of Territorial Networks for Sustainable Human Development) framework of the UNDP, where the role of local communities is twofold: on the one hand, they support decentralization and local governance; on the other hand they can get involved in South-South decentralized cooperation, facilitating the exchange and integration of LED practices. From a different perspective Carla Inguaggiato observes the interaction between producers' cooperatives and social structure in the case of Northeast Brazil. It is interesting to read the Latin-American case study in comparison with the African ones. Inguaggiato, in fact, takes into account three villages created by the agrarian reform (assentamentos) between 1997 and 2005. As such these settlements cannot be considered as bearer of traditional forms of legitimacy. On the contrary, they rather are the outcome of a policy dropped from central and local political authority. The assentamentos policy actually denotes a "third culture" between traditional indigenous settlements and State-sponsored massive colonization and intensive exploitation. Using the methodology of network analysis, the author shows that different social structures (arising from kinship ties, previous working experiences, political and/or religious background, and technical knowledge) do play a role in differentiating the Local Economic Development processes enacted by different villages. Of course it is not about "traditional" architecture of knowledge and power, yet it shows the transformative capability of different territorialization patterns to adjust and adapt LED. Massimo Pallottino's theoretical reflections show some "family resemblance" with Inguaggiato's standpoint, apart from the common geographical focus on Brazil. In particular, Pallottino emphasizes the continuity between theory and practices in Local Economic Development processes: as a consequence, the internal stratification of the local communities (that is, ties and relations among the social actors) becomes a pivotal element driving the success and the failures of LED projects.

What do we talk when we talk about South-South Cooperation? The construction of a concept from empirical basis

2011

What do we talk when we talk about South-South Cooperation? The construction of a concept from empirical basis Thirty two years from the Buenos Aires Declaration, South-South Cooperation (SSC) has acquired an increasingly protagonist role in the debates on International Cooperation. Given this scenario, SSC presents itself as a tool of solidarity that could facilitate the construction of capacities in developing countries, relaxing the traditional North-South Cooperation (NSC) model and allowing the appropriation of reforms by recipient countries. This paper points out that these conceptualizations present some weaknesses to better understand the distinctive nature of SSC and its potential to improve the effectiveness of international cooperation. While the political definitions of SSC may have some value, it still remains necessary to reach a higher level in their conceptualization. To attain this objective, the research works on two fields. The first one is the construction of the...

South-South Cooperation: An Alternative for Third World Economic Development

2020

The years after World War II have held numerous critical global occurrences for the global North and South, striking among them is the North-South dialogue which started as a battle by third world nations for a New International Economic Order (NIEO). Quite a long while down the line, various dialogues existed among countries of the developing South and the developed North. However, increasing inequalities between the North and third world countries have endlessly brought up issues regardless of whether these dialogues have accomplished the reason for which they were built up. Thehypothetically alternative model, 'South–South cooperation' has been recognized as an important cooperation modality, but encounters contradictions that are not too different from those of its North–South counterpart. Providers of the South- South cooperation are highly heterogeneous in terms of policies, institutional arrangements, and engagement with international forums and initiatives. This pape...

South-South Cooperation: Contributions to Third World Development

From military assistance to financial and humanitarian aid, countries in the global south have for long been holding hands in their bid to enhance the living standards of their people. Some, being more advanced and developed than their counterparts in the same sphere, have been the chief participants in championing the phenomenon: South-South Cooperation (herein referred to as SSC). These include the BRICS, standing for Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa, (though Russia is not included as a developing country) the rest of whom both cumulatively and individually play very pivotal roles in the South-South Cooperation set up. Despite being in existence for almost slightly more than half a century, the Africa-South America cooperation (ASA coop) (as the SSC is at times called), it only started to influence the development field in the late 1990s. This being the case, as compared to the north-south cooperation, the SSC is still an infant. Attesting to and confirming this is the little documented evidence in the way of significant development and impact on people's lives it has achieved. This factor notwithstanding however, the SSC has so far left quite a mark on the lives of many in the third world countries and is likely to cement its place in the world system with time. This paper seeks to explore and give more insight on the contribution this kind of cooperation has had in bettering the lives of citizens living in the so called developing countries.

Our North is the South: International Cooperation for Development within the Lusophone Sphere

The central hypothesis of the research here presented, regarding cooperation initiatives with developing countries — in particular with African Countries of Portuguese Official Language (Palops), implies the recognition that although its origin corresponds to a previous process, it is since the Labor Party (PT) electoral rise in Brazil that such initiatives acquire a new intensity, whose dimension allows conceiving them as a rupture. The purpose of understanding Brazilian foreign policy changes as a paradigm change, thus, configures an approach to understand the approximation movement towards developing countries that does not become a hostage to the pragmatism versus ideology dichotomy. In order to underpin that thesis, this article is divided in three sections. At first we develop some reflections on modernization, development and national interest, relating these ideas to the constitution of Brazilian foreign policy traditions throughout the 20th century. In the second section, in turn, we deal with the concept of International Development Cooperation (IDC), approaching its historical genesis and main implications. We will then analyze the Brazilian case, addressing cooperation and partnership initiatives aiming to establish closer relations with Global South countries. To this extent, having the political changes occurred in South America during the early 21st as backdrop, we will present the notions of Solidarity Diplomacy and Responsible Pragmatism as guidelines that structure a new Brazilian Foreign Policy approach. Finally, as an offshoot of this new perspective, some results of the partnership dynamic established between Brazil and Portuguese-speaking countries of the Global South will be presented in the last section.

South-South Cooperation in the 21st Century: An Analysis From

International Studies, 2022

During the first decade of the 21st century, the international system underwent a process of transformation in which emerging actors gained prominence, promoting a new stage that enabled the resurgence of South-South cooperation (SSC). The field of international relations approached this phenomenon mainly through studies of international development cooperation, but also from a foreign policy analysis approach. Although at the beginning of the century attention was focused especially on emerging countries like China, India, Brazil, and South Africa, among others, the consolidation of SSC between middle-income countries, particularly in Latin America, gave rise to a broad debate on the distinct identities of the Southern partners. Considering the substantial literature produced, and emphasizing a perspective rooted in Latin America, SSC is analyzed with the goals of contributing to understand SSC from its conceptual formulation, link SSC to foreign policy considerations, and, finally, understand how SSC has affected the International Development Cooperation System.

International Cooperation for Development at the Crossroads

Linea Sur, 2016

The 12th edition of Linea Sur, the international affairs journal of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ecuador, focuses on an ongoing debate regarding International Development Cooperation. My role in this publication was that of editor in chief.

Local development in international cooperation: issues, approaches and perspectives for a territorialisation of development policies

2014

The communication starts from the analysis of Italy-Cilss Fund (ICF), a cooperation program that has engaged for about a decade, from the beginning of 2000, the Italian governmental international cooperation in the Sahel, involving various forms of partnerships: International Organizations (UNOPS, Cilss), the central government of Mali, Senegal, Burkina Faso and Niger, regional and local governments of the selected areas of intervention (Zarese), Italian NGOs, and especially Sahelian various associations of civil society just to the villages of intervention. ICF represents a program of great interest, such as organic attempt to coordinate an approach focused on local development and territory, variously defined, combining a wide range of initiatives to combat desertification. Despite a great effort in the process of setting up and defining the program, with many innovative issues, in its implementation it has experienced considerable difficulties, delays, route changes, even radical...