Grassroot

Development
Direct involvement of the people
‘Bottom-up” or Grassroots approaches
Basic Needs(1970s)
● Top Down approaches were not so success in
eliminating poverty in most areas of the world.
● Rich countries were benefited rather than upliftment of
poor countries.
● Rethinking of development
● ILO and World Bank promoted the concept of basic
needs,
● Policies were focused on the poor groups of people
● Basic Needs Approach
Access to services, employment and decision making
for participation
● BNA advocated a focus on agricultural
development , support for urban informal sector
and research on labour intensive production
techniques for small scale activities
● Hunt stresses greater attention should be paid to
smaller-scale activities and poorer sectors of
society, alongside continued investment in large-
scale infrastructure.
● Meeting the needs of the poor would improve
education and skills that can potential for
Critics:
● Financial issue during
implementation
● Bake to rapid economic grow
Decentralization
● Tendency to move away from central
government activities and decision-making
to a more decentralized approach
● Economically, greater efficiency and cost-
effectiveness.
● Politically, people would be able to have a
greater say in the decisions made about
their services
Good Governance
● Popular in most north and south countries
● decentralization is regarded as a way of
reducing state control and policy making to
regional or local gov
● After the revolution on 1949, economy was
divided into small-scale productions units
but central gov had final power to make
decisions.
● Health and educations expenditure by
central gov and funds were provided to
local and provincial governments.
Critic
regional inequality in healthcare
provision
NGOs as the
Development Solution
● The role of the central state as the key player in ‘development’ has always been debated.

● It has become increasingly challenged from the 1980s onwards after neoliberal, market-led
approaches .

● The move away from the top-down approaches has been associated in particular with the
growth of non-governmental organizations (NGOs).

● There are a number of axes along which NGOs can be divided. NGOs came to be seen as the
solutions for ‘development problems’ by individuals from many different perspectives.

● Different NGOs will also have different forms of approach, either in terms of the overall
development philosophy, or through the types of activities in which they get involved. ( very
small-scale and operate in only one region or country and extreme would be the very large
organizations)
● NGOs are often regarded as the answer to the perceived limitations of the state or the market in
facilitating ‘development’ for a range of reasons. (Lewis and Kanji 2009)

● NGOs can provide services to local communities because they work with populations at the
grassroots to find out what facilities are required.

● They provide such services more efficiently and effectively through drawing on local people’s
knowledge, and also using local materials.

● The scale of operation and the linkages with local people shows their ability to react more
quickly to local demands.

● NGOs are beneficial to non-material aspects of ‘development’, in particular processes of

empowerment, participation and democratization.
● If such participation is expanded, these activities can help develop stronger civil society and
contribute to processes of democratization.

● NGOs has been termed ‘the magic bullet’.

● Significant amounts of multilateral and bilateral aid are now channelled through NGOs as part of
‘New Policy Agenda’ referring to the neoliberal approach within the international institutions,
such as the World Bank.

● The number of NGOs throughout the world has increased very rapidly, partly because of the
availability of funding, but also because of the lack of alternative support mechanisms for
communities indeed.
● In many cases it is clear that without NGO involvement many people’s living conditions and
quality of life would not be improved.

● However, the claims regarding NGOs have been revealed as being somewhat overstated.