The SID Approach
Development and Its Evolving Meanings
A frequently repeated truism is that both development concepts and practice are continually evolving. SID assists in learning about the important shifts away from what was once deemed to be a Euro-centric set of concepts to a more contextual and pluralistic understanding of development that embraces cultural, ecological, political, and territorial claims.
To the extent that development can no longer be seen merely as a collection of many national developments, SID seeks to contribute to the understanding that for any country or peoples, development elsewhere provides opportunities and threats and that in a post-Cold War world, peace, and development are closely interlinked.
We elicit fresh thinking about global, national, and local concerns impinging on development in the 21st century. SID stresses that poverty and its eradication remain central issues after fifty years of development efforts.
Managing and Implementing the Poverty-Focused Development Agenda
Institutional gaps pose major obstacles to development and conservation. Governmental agencies have a limited capacity to design and implement poverty-sensitive programs or to assess and monitor development/environment interactions. Social organizations are under-funded and overwhelmed. The framework of development "projects' has not always proven capable of remedying these problems.
Decentralization is easy to encourage, but difficult to manage and monitor. SID encourages an understanding of the issues and capacities needed to manage and implement aspects
of the development agenda.
SID courses examine approaches to planning, including participatory methods and strategies, community mobilization, beneficiary identification, capacity building, and technical assistance. They re-examine financing mechanisms targeted at the poor. They examine the interface between national goals and development aid priorities and review the demands that they make on each other. SID's goal is to create understanding of what is "do-able" in addressing poverty eradication.
Sustaining Development
At the project level, sustainable development implies improving standards of living while protecting the resource base.
The concept of sustainable development is often used with specific reference to ecologically-sound development. It can also mean achieving financial and institutional continuity and adaptation to constantly changing circumstances. It can also entail collaborative and inter-sectoral planning, co-management strategies, regional planning, and technology choices.
SID therefore reviews analytical concepts that affect policy making and practical planning efforts. Focusing on the poverty-environment nexus and reviewing local contemporary experiences is important to designing projects that address the needs of both the current and future generations.
Setting the Development Agenda
The development agenda of fifty years ago was set by mostly planners and aid officials. In a world where 70% of the poor are women, poverty is inseparably linked to a lack of power. The struggle for access to and control over resources has imposed new, urgent demands on the development agenda that lie outside of the economic arena.
Social inclusiveness, accountability, and transparency in public activities are as important to development as stability, security, sovereignty, and unity. SID examines elements of practical policy making and choices in gender and human rights issues. It also reviews principles and experiences in managing evaluation as an aspect of accountability in the development process.
