IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/wdevel/v37y2009i7p1182-1196.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

"Teach a Man to Fish": The Sustainability Doctrine and Its Social Consequences

Author

Listed:
  • Swidler, Ann
  • Watkins, Susan Cotts

Abstract

Summary This paper analyzes the social consequences of the commitment to "sustainability" in donor-funded AIDS programs. Using survey, interview, and ethnographic data from rural Malawi, we examine how efforts to mobilize and empower local communities affect three strata of Malawian society: the villagers whom these programs are meant to help, the insecure local elites whose efforts directly link programs to their intended beneficiaries, and, more briefly, national elites who implement AIDS policies and programs. We describe indirect effects of sustainability on the experiences, identities, and aspirations of Malawians--effects that are much broader and deeper than the direct impacts of funding.

Suggested Citation

  • Swidler, Ann & Watkins, Susan Cotts, 2009. ""Teach a Man to Fish": The Sustainability Doctrine and Its Social Consequences," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 37(7), pages 1182-1196, July.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:wdevel:v:37:y:2009:i:7:p:1182-1196
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0305-750X(08)00287-8
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Kremer, Michael Robert & Miguel, Edward A., 2004. "The Illusion of Sustainability," Department of Economics, Working Paper Series qt94p8w1d7, Department of Economics, Institute for Business and Economic Research, UC Berkeley.
    2. Michael Kremer & Edward Miguel, 2007. "The Illusion of Sustainability," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 122(3), pages 1007-1065.
    3. Pauline Peters & Peter A. Walker & Daimon Kambewa, 2008. "Striving for Normality in a Time of AIDS in Malawi," CID Working Papers 167, Center for International Development at Harvard University.
    4. Jordan Smith, Daniel, 2003. "Patronage, Per Diems and the "Workshop Mentality": The Practice of Family Planning Programs in Southeastern Nigeria," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 31(4), pages 703-715, April.
    5. Ghazala Mansuri, 2004. "Community-Based and -Driven Development: A Critical Review," The World Bank Research Observer, World Bank, vol. 19(1), pages 1-39.
    6. Jennifer Johnson‐Hanks, 2002. "On the Modernity of Traditional Contraception: Time and the Social Context of Fertility," Population and Development Review, The Population Council, Inc., vol. 28(2), pages 229-249, June.
    7. Gauri, Varun & Vawda, Ayesha, 2003. "Vouchers for basic education in developing countries : a principal-agent perspective," Policy Research Working Paper Series 3005, The World Bank.
    8. Bratton, Michael, 1989. "The politics of government-NGO relations in Africa," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 17(4), pages 569-587, April.
    9. Finnemore, Martha, 1996. "Norms, culture, and world politics: insights from sociology's institutionalism," International Organization, Cambridge University Press, vol. 50(2), pages 325-347, April.
    10. Rebecca Marsland, 2006. "Community Participation the Tanzanian Way: Conceptual Contiguity or Power Struggle?," Oxford Development Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 34(1), pages 65-79.
    11. Susan Cotts Watkins, 2004. "Navigating the AIDS Epidemic in Rural Malawi," Population and Development Review, The Population Council, Inc., vol. 30(4), pages 673-705, December.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Smith-Greenaway, Emily, 2015. "Are literacy skills associated with young adults' health in Africa? Evidence from Malawi," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 127(C), pages 124-133.
    2. Beck, Erin, 2016. "Repopulating Development: An Agent-Based Approach to Studying Development Interventions," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 80(C), pages 19-32.
    3. Koch, Dirk-Jan & Schulpen, Lau, 2018. "An exploration of individual-level wage effects of foreign aid in developing countries," Evaluation and Program Planning, Elsevier, vol. 68(C), pages 233-242.
    4. Radhakrishnan, Smitha, 2015. "“Low Profile” or Entrepreneurial? Gender, Class, and Cultural Adaptation in the Global Microfinance Industry," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 74(C), pages 264-274.
    5. Koch, Dirk-Jan & Schulpen, Lau, 2018. "Introduction to the special issue ‘unintended effects of international cooperation’," Evaluation and Program Planning, Elsevier, vol. 68(C), pages 202-209.
    6. Cieslik, Katarzyna, 2016. "Moral Economy Meets Social Enterprise Community-Based Green Energy Project in Rural Burundi," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 83(C), pages 12-26.
    7. Vijayakumar, Gowri, 2018. "Collective demands and secret codes: The multiple uses of “community” in “community mobilization”," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 104(C), pages 173-182.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Sawada, Yasuyuki & Aida, Takeshi & Griffen, Andrew S. & Kozuka, Eiji & Noguchi, Haruko & Todo, Yasuyuki, 2022. "Democratic institutions and social capital: Experimental evidence on school-based management from a developing country," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 198(C), pages 267-279.
    2. Michael Kremer & Alix Peterson Zwane, 2007. "Cost-Effective Prevention of Diarrheal Diseases: A Critical Review," Working Papers 117, Center for Global Development.
    3. Katherine Casey & Rachel Glennerster & Edward Miguel, 2012. "Reshaping Institutions: Evidence on Aid Impacts Using a Preanalysis Plan," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 127(4), pages 1755-1812.
    4. Thomas de Hoop & Ricardo Fort & Luuk van Kempen, 2009. "Do people invest in local public goods with long-term benefits? Experimental evidence from a shanty town in peru," Artefactual Field Experiments 00070, The Field Experiments Website.
    5. Mekonnen, Daniel Ayalew & Gerber, Nicolas & Matz, Julia Anna, 2018. "Gendered Social Networks, Agricultural Innovations, and Farm Productivity in Ethiopia," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 105(C), pages 321-335.
    6. Peter Bergman, 2020. "Nudging Technology Use: Descriptive and Experimental Evidence from School Information Systems," Education Finance and Policy, MIT Press, vol. 15(4), pages 623-647, Fall.
    7. Raphaël Soubeyran, 2019. "Technology adoption and pro-social preferences," CEE-M Working Papers halshs-02291905, CEE-M, Universtiy of Montpellier, CNRS, INRA, Montpellier SupAgro.
    8. B Kelsey Jack, "undated". "Market Inefficiencies and the Adoption of Agricultural Technologies in Developing Countries," CID Working Papers 50, Center for International Development at Harvard University.
    9. Hoffmann, Bridget, 2018. "Do non-monetary prices target the poor? Evidence from a field experiment in India," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 133(C), pages 15-32.
    10. Bi, Xiang & Mullally, Conner & Gaonkar, Shweta, 2017. "Does Peer Adoption Increase the Diffusion of Pollution Prevention Practices?," SocArXiv 95xbj_v1, Center for Open Science.
    11. Katherine Casey & Rachel Glennerster & Edward Miguel & Maarten Voors, 2023. "Skill Versus Voice in Local Development," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 105(2), pages 311-326, March.
    12. Ariel BenYishay & A. Mushfiq Mobarak, 2014. "Social Learning and Communication," NBER Working Papers 20139, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    13. Fitzsimons, Emla & Malde, Bansi & Mesnard, Alice & Vera-Hernández, Marcos, 2016. "Nutrition, information and household behavior: Experimental evidence from Malawi," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 122(C), pages 113-126.
    14. Stephen Leider & Markus M. Möbius & Tanya Rosenblat & Quoc-Anh Do, 2010. "What Do We Expect from Our Friends?," Journal of the European Economic Association, MIT Press, vol. 8(1), pages 120-138, March.
    15. Magnan, Nicholas & Spielman, David J. & Lybbert, Travis J. & Gulati, Kajal, 2015. "Leveling with friends: Social networks and Indian farmers' demand for a technology with heterogeneous benefits," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 116(C), pages 223-251.
    16. Okeke, Edward N. & Adepiti, Clement A. & Ajenifuja, Kayode O., 2013. "What is the price of prevention? New evidence from a field experiment," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 32(1), pages 207-218.
    17. Brown, Joe & Hamoudi, Amar & Jeuland, Marc & Turrini, Gina, 2017. "Seeing, believing, and behaving: Heterogeneous effects of an information intervention on household water treatment," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 86(C), pages 141-159.
    18. Fischer, Greg & Karlan, Dean & McConnell, Margaret & Raffler, Pia, 2019. "Short-term subsidies and seller type: A health products experiment in Uganda," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 137(C), pages 110-124.
    19. Amanda Pallais, 2015. "Small Differences That Matter: Mistakes in Applying to College," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 33(2), pages 493-520.
    20. Baylis, Kathy & Ham, Andres, 2015. "How important is spatial correlation in randomized controlled trials?," 2015 AAEA & WAEA Joint Annual Meeting, July 26-28, San Francisco, California 205586, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:wdevel:v:37:y:2009:i:7:p:1182-1196. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/worlddev .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.