NGO Another Way (Stichting Bakens Verzet), 1018 AM Amsterdam, Netherlands.

 

Edition 04: 19 October, 2010.

Edition 05 : 15 September, 2011.

 

01. E-course : Diploma in Integrated Development (Dip. Int. Dev)

 

 

Quarter 1.

 

 

SECTION A :  DEVELOPMENT PROBLEMS.

 

 

Study value : 04 points out of 18.

Indicative study time: 112 hours out of 504.

 

Study points are awarded only after the consolidated exam for Section A : Development Problems has been passed.

 


 

First block : Poverty and quality of life.

 

Study value : 02 points out of 18.

Indicative study time: 57 hours out of 504.

 

Study points are awarded only after the consolidated exam for Section A : Development Problems has been passed.

 


 

First block : Poverty and quality of life.

 

First Block : Section 1. Analysis of the causes of poverty. [26.50 hours]

First Block : Section 2. Services needed for a good quality of life.

First Block : Exam. [ 4 hours each attempt]

 


 

Block 1 of Section 1. Analysis of the causes of poverty. [26.50 hours]

 

Part 2 : In depth analysis of the causes of poverty. [14.00 hours]

 

01. In depth : definition of poverty.

02. In depth : some factors linked with poverty.

03. In depth : debts and subsidies.

04. In depth : financial leakages : food and water industries.

05. In depth : financial leakage : energy.

06. In depth : financial leakage : means of communication..

07. In depth : financial leakage : health and education.

08. In depth : financial leakage : theft of resources.

09. In depth : financial leakage : corruption.

10. In depth : the industry of poverty.

 

Report on Section 1 of Block 1 : [06.00 Hours]

 


 

Part 2 : In depth analysis of the causes of poverty. [14.00 hours]

 

    04. In depth : Financial leakages : food and water industries.

 

Look at this slide :

 

04. Financial leakage: food industries and drinking water.

 

“Success in producing food has been accompanied by a failure to provide an improved entitlement to that food….. Exclusive emphasis on food production has led towards “the dissolution of systems of rural livelihood’’ and the erosion of exchange entitlements. The extra food produced enables the nation to reduce food  imports or increase exports, but does not necessarily lead  to more being eaten.”  (Pacey A. and Payne P. ) (ed.) Agricultural Development and Nutrition, Hutchinson , London, 1985, p. 159.

 

For a recent analysis of the consequences of industrial farming and the use of genetically modified crops, read the article by R. Cummins, Industrial Agriculture and Human Survival : The Road Beyond 10/10/10,  published by  Organic Consumers Association, October 7, 2010, Finland MN 55603 (USA).

 

1. Food dependence.

 

1. Opinion.

 

What do you think  «food self-sufficiency means » ? 

 

Who, in the modern world, enjoy food self-sufficiency ?

 

Take the following in turn :

 

Industrialised countries, a) large towns b) rural areas.

Emerging economies, a) large towns b) rural areas.

Least developed countries, a) large towns b) rural areas.

 

2. Opinion.

 

Which differences between industrialised, emerging, and least developed countries emerged in your analysis of food sufficiency ?

 

Is there any  difference between an inhabitant in an industrialised country  without self-sufficiency in  food and an inhabitant in a poor country without self-sufficiency in food?

 

Suggested reading : Agriculture in the City. A Key to Sustainability in Havana, Cuba., Cruz M.C. and Medina R.S., IDRC International Development Research Centre, Ottawa, 2003. (ISBN 1-5525-0-104-3).

 

2. Imposed production standards.

 

The International Standards Organisation (ISO) has developed more than 17500 international standards  and 1100 new standards are added each year.

 

Other influential standards organisations include :

 

American National Standards Institute ANSI,

Association Française de Normalisation AFNOR,

British Standards Institute BSI,

Deutsches Institut für Normung DIN.

 

The texts of the standards are not (legally) made available to the public free of charge.

 

3. Opinion.

 

Why do you think the texts of standards are so expensive ?

What is your view on the (high) compliance costs needed to meet the standards ? 

What do you think about the high costs of completing tests necessary to be able to comply with and obtain a certificate of compliance with the standards?

 

What are your conclusions?

 

4. Opinion.

 

Relate  your conclusions to control of industrial production structures.

 

In 2002 the European Commission tried to enforce pasteurisation of milk in Europe, including milk destined for cheese production.. The proposal was (successfully) resisted by farmers, with the support of the French Government.

 

Read : Goldsmith E., Lack of “Hygiene” as a pretext for closing down small food producers, Right Livelihood Award Foundation, Stockholm, undated.  

 

5. Opinion.

 

What do you think  was behind the proposal for the compulsory pasteurisation of milk ?

Why were French farmers opposed to it?

 

6. Opinion.

 

Relate you conclusions to the risk of loss of control by producers over their production.

 

3. Food conservation.

 

7. Research.

 

Why do we conserve food ?

 

Which systems were traditionally used for the conservation of food in your project area? For which foods ?

 

You may wish to consider, amongst other techniques, drying, the use of brine, vegetable oils, and glass.

Remember that food was traditionally conserved for a short term (for example butter and cheese) and for a long term (for example drying, pickling, and jams).

 

8. Opinion.

 

Make a comparison between industrially canned and bottled foods and the use of freezing and vacuum packing.

 

What do you know about  solar drying?

 

9. Opinion.

 

What do you think about the risk of loss of control by producers over their own production?

 

4. Freezing, vacuum packing, and packaging of foods.

 

10. Research.

 

Make a list of the main food industries in your chosen area, in your region, in your country.

 

How big are they?.

Estimate the capital invested in them.

Who own them ?

Where are the foods in question produced ?

Where are the industrialised food products consumed?

Indicate the relation between the turnover of the food industries in your project area, in your region, in your country with the state budget of your country. 

 

What are your conclusions ?

 

11. Opinion.

 

What is the relationship between your conclusions and the risk of loss by producers of  control over the food they produce ?.

 

5. Monoculture and imported foods.

 

12. Research.

 

Describe the monoculture the closest to your project area.

 

Human right to adequate food is exercised when “every man, women, or child, alone or in a community with others, has physical and economic access at all times to adequate food or means for its procurement.” Suárez S., Emanueli M, Monocultures and human rights, Food First Information and Action Network (FIAN), Heidelberg, and Habitat International Coalition Regional Office Latin America, Mexico City, June 2009, p. 7.

 

Production of staple foods:

 

13. Research.

 

How many people work on the production of staple foods in your project area ?

How many are women and how many are men?

How many hours a day do they work?

How many days a year do they work?

How much do they earn?

What are the maximum, median, and minimum revenues?

Who controls the level of the revenues ?

Who supply the seeds? Who determines their price?

Who supply the fertilisers? Who sets their price?

 

What is the level of food security where local  harvests are lower than expected ?

 

Industrial food production:

 

14. Research.

 

How many people are active in industrial food production in your project area ?

How many are women and how many are men?

How many hours a day do they work?

How many days a year do they work?

How much do they earn?

What are the maximum, median, and minimum revenues?

Who controls the level of their salaries ?

 

What is the level of food security where local  harvests are lower than expected ?

 

Some consequences:

 

15. Opinion.

 

What effect does employment in the industrial food production sector have on food self-sufficiency of the individuals and families involved?

What percentage of their revenues do they spend on the purchase of foods imported into the area?

Who control the prices of the imported foods?

 

What are your conclusions?

 

16. Opinion.

 

Relate your conclusions to the risk of loss by producers of  control over the food they produce ?.

 

6. Dependence for drinking water.

 

The following slides cover problems raised in  section 8 of the  Declaration for Sustainable Development adopted during the seventeenth plenary session of the World Conference on Sustainable Development signed in Johannesburg on 4 September 2002. 

 

Some inherent limitations to the Millennium Goals – slide 32.

Some inherent limitations to the Millennium Goals – slide 33.

Some inherent limitations to the Millennium Goals – slide 34.

 

Public-private cooperation is an economic paradigm supported by the United Nations agencies and by neo-liberal governments over the past 30 years. It appears likely that section 8 of the Millennium Goals was inserted to negate in practice the effects of objectives 1-7.  In any case, the purpose of section 8 appears to be the maintenance, and even the reinforcement, of the status quo of the currently dominating development aid system.

 

Cases of intervention by multinational operators in the drinking water sector in developing countries are widespread.  The consequences of it have been disastrous,  especially where long-term monopolist concessions have been awarded to multinationals for the distribution of drinking water in large towns in poor countries. Drinking water has become an exploitable commercial product instead of being recognised as a basic unalienable human right.

 

17. Research.

 

Document the case of concession of monopolist rights to the distribution of drinking water which is closest to your chosen project area.

 

What are your conclusions ?

 

18. Opinion.

 

Relate your ideas on monopolist rights to drinking water  to the risk of loss of control by local populations of their rights to drinking water.

 



 First  block : Poverty and quality of life.


Index : Diploma in Integrated Development  (Dip.Int.Dev)

 List of key words.

 List of references.

  Course chart.


 Courses available.

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