This presents twenty specially commissioned case studies of farmer participatory approaches to agricultural innovation initiated by NGOs in Latin America. Beginning with a broad review of institutional activity at the grassroots, the authors set the case material within the context of NGO relations with the State and their contribution to democratisation and the consolidation of rural civil society. Specific questions are raised: how good/bad are NGOs at promoting technological innovation and addressing constraints to change in present agriculture?; how effective are NGOs at strengthening grassroots organizations? and how do/will donor pressures influence NGOs and their links to the State? This title is part of a series on Non-Governmental Organizations co-ordinated by the Overseas Development Institute. To complete this comprehensive review and critique there are two other regional case study volumes on Asia and Africa and an overview volume, Reluctant Partners?

This presents twenty specially commissioned case studies of farmer participatory approaches to agricultural innovation initiated by NGOs in Africa. Beginning with a broad review of institutional activity at the grassroots, the authors set the case material within the context of NGO relations with the State and their contribution to democratisation and the consolidation of rural civil society. Specific questions are raised: how good/bad are NGOs at promoting technological innovation and addressing constraints to change in present agriculture?; how effective are NGOs at strengthening grassroots organizations? and how do/will donor pressures influence NGOs and their links to the State? This title is part of a series on Non-Governmental Organizations co-ordinated by the Overseas Development Institute. To complete this comprehensive review and critique there are two other regional case study volumes on Asia and Latin America and an overview volume, Reluctant Partners?

Presents twenty specially commissioned case studies of farmer participatory approaches to agricultural innovation initiated by NGOs in Latin America with case material set within the context of NGOs' relations with the State.

Foreword .-- Introduction .-- Part 1. Social policy institutions. -- Chapter I. Institutional framework for social development / Rodrigo Martínez, Carlos Maldonado Valera .-- Chapter II. Social development and social protection institutions in Latin America and the Caribbean: overview and challenges / Rodrigo Martínez, Carlos Maldonado Valera .-- Part 2. Components and institutional framewoek of social protection. -- Chapter III. Labour market regulation and social protection: institutional challenges / Mario D. Velásquez Pinto .-- Chapter IV. Institutional aspects of Latin America's pension systems / Andras Uthoff .-- Chapter V. Care as a pillar of social protection: rights, policies and institutions in Latin America / María Nieves Rico, Claudia Robles .-- Part 3. Policies for specific populations and their institutional framework .-- Chapter VI. Life cycle and social policies: youth institutions in the region / Daniela Trucco .-- Chapter VII. Disability and public policy: institutional progress and challenges in Latin America / Heidi Ullmann .-- Chapter VIII. Latin American Afrodescendants: institutional framework and public policies / Marta Rangel.

Governments throughout the developing world have witnessed a proliferation of non-governmental, non-profit organizations (NGOs) providing services like education, healthcare and piped drinking water in their territory. In Allies or Adversaries, Jennifer N. Brass explains how these NGOs have changed the nature of service provision, governance, and state development in the early twenty-first century. Analyzing original surveys alongside interviews with public officials, NGOs and citizens, Brass traces street-level government-NGO and state-society relations in rural, town and city settings of Kenya. She examines several case studies of NGOs within Africa in order to demonstrate how the boundary between purely state and non-state actors blurs, resulting in a very slow turn toward more accountable and democratic public service administration. Ideal for scholars, international development practitioners, and students interested in global or international affairs, this detailed analysis provides rich data about NGO-government and citizen-state interactions in an accessible and original manner.

Theorizing NGOs examines how the rise of nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) has transformed the conditions of women's lives and of feminist organizing. Victoria Bernal and Inderpal Grewal suggest that we can understand the proliferation of NGOs through a focus on the NGO as a unified form despite the enormous variation and diversity contained within that form. Theorizing NGOs brings together cutting-edge feminist research on NGOs from various perspectives and disciplines. Contributors locate NGOs within local and transnational configurations of power, interrogate the relationships of nongovernmental organizations to states and to privatization, and map the complex, ambiguous, and ultimately unstable synergies between feminisms and NGOs. While some of the contributors draw on personal experience with NGOs, others employ regional or national perspectives. Spanning a broad range of issues with which NGOs are engaged, from microcredit and domestic violence to democratization, this groundbreaking collection shows that NGOs are, themselves, fields of gendered struggles over power, resources, and status. Contributors. Sonia E. Alvarez, Victoria Bernal, LeeRay M. Costa, Inderpal Grewal, Laura Grünberg, Elissa Helms, Julie Hemment, Saida Hodžic, Lamia Karim, Sabine Lang, Lauren Leve, Kathleen O'Reilly, Aradhana Sharma

This book argues that non-governmental organizations (NGOs) have an important effect on political participation in the developing world. Contrary to popular belief, they promote moderate political participation through formal mechanisms such as voting only in democracies where institutions are working well. This is a radical departure from the bulk of the literature on civil society that sees NGOs and other associations as playing a role in strengthening democracy wherever they operate. Instead, Carew Boulding shows that where democratic institutions are weak, NGOs encourage much more contentious political participation, including demonstrations, riots, and protests. Except in extreme cases of poorly functioning democratic institutions, however, the political protest that results from NGO activity is not generally anti-system or incompatible with democracy - again, as long as democracy is functioning above a minimal level.