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Periodical article Periodical article Leiden University catalogue Leiden University catalogue WorldCat catalogue WorldCat
Title:Keeping 'the Last' in Mind: Incorporating Chambers in Consulting
Author:Hirschmann, DavidISNI
Year:2003
Periodical:Development in Practice
Volume:13
Issue:5
Pages:487-500
Language:English
Geographic terms:Mozambique
Zimbabwe
Malawi
Subjects:community development
popular participation
Development and Technology
Agriculture, Natural Resources and the Environment
External link:https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/0961452032000125866
Abstract:Many development professionals will be familiar with the influential work of Robert Chambers. Many will also be familiar with the operational challenge of putting much of Chambers' advice into practice, notably on short-term assignments. Here, it would seem that the essence of the work contradicts any serious effort to apply Chambers' ideas. People concerned with meaningful participatory development assume that rushed consultancy is not real development work, inevitably ignores participatory methods, and is bound to fail. Yet, like it or not, these rapid assignments are, and seem destined to remain, a common tool of development work. This paper gives four illustrations taken from the author's personal experiences of working directly or indirectly with programmes supported by a bilateral development agency, viz. A meeting with 'commercial' farmers in Tete, Mozambique; interviews with women tobacco farmers in Malawi; a 'customer' focus in Bangladesh; and participatory incentives through performance measurement in Zimbabwe. All cases involve attempts to incorporate Chambers' ideas. The main purpose of describing these cases is to stimulate discussion of the possibilities of incorporating the ideas of participatory and inclusive development processes within the unpromising confines of the two or three-week assignment. Bibliogr., notes, ref., sum. [ASC Leiden abstract]
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