Human Development and Capability Association ()

Announcement:

2010 Conference of the HDCA:
Conference Title: "Human Rights and Human Development"
September 21-23, 2010
The University of Jordan Amman
Conference theme: Integrating Human Rights and Human Development

*** Conference Registration will close tomorrow: 9th September *** - click here for registration

Summer School on Capability and Multidimensional Poverty
Organised by OPHI with the Human Development and Capability Association
At the University of Jordan Amman Jordan
11 September - 20 September 2010 read more

Conference Papers

The following is a list of conference papers from HDCA conferences
To submit a paper for the upcoming conference, please click the Submit Document button.


[Members Only]
Arndt, Christian Strotmann, Harald Volkert, Juergen Submitted:		Among affluent countries in Europe Germany was among the first to adopt Amartya Sen’s capability approach (CA) as a theoretical framework for official German government’s poverty and wealth reporting. As the German reporting system, the process of its implementation and the reactions from scholars and the public might provide interesting insights for current and future realizations of similar reporting systems in other countries it is the aim of this paper to inform about the German experiences with a CA oriented reporting system. The paper gives an overview of the framework of main determinants of capabilities applied in German poverty and wealth reporting. Moreover, we describe the capability-related basic structure of the latest 3rd German Government’s Report on Poverty and Wealth and illustrate some of its major findings. Finally, the paper discusses both positive benefits of CA orientation for the German poverty and wealth reporting system and existing shortcomings and challenges.



Research Proposal - Establishing a right to the land of slum dwellers of Dhaka city. [Members Only]
Bashir, Abu Submitted:		Bangladesh is an Asian developing country. Dhaka is the capital city of Bangladesh and trying to touch mega city. The most of the poor people of this city are living in slum in the vacant lands of the government without proper legal documents and they are always being threatened for eviction from their living lands. These poor people come to this city in river erosion, poverty in rural area, etc. At present about 2.5 million people of Dhaka city live in slums (out of 10.3 million people). Due to poverty of the slum dwellers, they are unable to maintain standard of living. They are living in urban but deprived from water, gas, electricity, sanitation facility, health, education service, employment etc, But establishing a right to their living lands can solve or mitigate minimum half of their problems. In slum migration and floating are a common scenario. Establishing slum dwellers’ rights to the land can reduce crime in slum as there will be a record of ownership/ leasee. It will be helpful for Government and other law implementing agency to keep criminal records of any person in the city. This research will also try to reduce poverty in developing urban city of Dhaka and also can be a model of slum dwellers rights to the land. Right to the land may be established by two ways, i.e. (i) permanent settlement, & (ii) temporary settlement. Transferring ownership may be a form of permanent settlement. Ownership transfer is not an easy process and it will take time to completion the whole process. Moreover, giving permanent right to the land may occur Dhaka city a big slum in near future. However, giving lease for a certain tenure must be a good solution for the slum dwellers so that they can overcome their poverty and they will be no burden in future for a nation. Most of our human rights organization, NGO’s, Donor, international organization are crying for resettlement policy before demolishing slum in urban areas. But this research will find a model for establishing their rights to the land without any question of eviction.



Multiple Politics of the Governed: State-Poor Encounters in Calcutta, India Shruti Majumdar [Members Only]
Majdumar, S Submitted:



1 The Relationship between Development, Human Rights and International Trade in the Application of the World Trade Organization Enabling Clause [Members Only]
Anaya Vera, Esther Submitted:



: About measures preventing Family violence among indigenous communities: Developing instruments and mechanisms for a participative observation and evaluation [Members Only]
Nziou, Yolande Grace Submitted:



: Los desafíos para la construcción de una ciudadanía efectiva [Members Only]
Cristina Teixeira , Tania Royo, Isabel Submitted:		En el análisis de lo “global” se destacan los niveles estructurales, pero estos no agotan el conocimiento de la realidad. Al analizar lo “local” se encuentran aspectos que le son específicos y que no son una reproducción a pequeña escala de los niveles estructurales globales. Los procesos de empoderamiento, mediante el desarrollo de capacidades, se expresan en la dimensión local, al menos, en dos niveles: socioeconómico y sociocultural. Desde esta doble dimensión situamos el análisis de experiencias de participación “participativa”, que toman el pulso en los diferentes grados de participación según nos referimos a sociedades desarrolladas y en desarrollo, a través del análisis de sendos proyectos: Emprendimientos solidarios y ciudadanía: mujeres, hombres y jóvenes. Contra la pobreza y la desnutrición” y “Generación de renta y trabajo. Creando una puerta de salida de la pobreza y de la dependencia de la tutela gubernamental”. En relación al nivel socioeconómico, sostenemos que en todo ámbito local se genera un sistema de relaciones productivas de ‘riqueza’, por mínima que ésta sea, que da lugar a negociaciones entre los actores, en relación a la inversión y redistribución de excedentes. Y, de otra parte, la dimensión socio- cultural nos habla del sentido de pertenencia expresado en términos de identidad colectiva de los sujetos sociales. Cuando los individuos y grupos sienten una ‘manera de ser’ que los distingue de otros.



: Los determinantes de la oferta laboral femenina y masculina : una visión de largo plazo. [Members Only]
Espino, Alma Leites, Martin Machado, Alina Submitted:



: Multidimensional Measurement of Poverty in Morocco: The Case of Urban Poverty in the City of Marrakech [Members Only]
Mansouri, Brahim Ejjanoui, Fouzia Submitted:		Recent studies of poverty in Morocco have heavily relied on the monetary approach adopted by the World Bank. To characterize and measure the poverty phenomenon in Morocco, the Direction de la Statistique in Rabat uses the households’ expenditures as the leading variable. Well, this approach has proved its shortcomings in Morocco and the whole developing world as well, especially because of its particular mono-dimensionality. Indeed, a universal consensus has been occurred about the fact that poverty is somewhat a multiple privation. Thus, it would be interesting to take into consideration all monetary and non-monetary dimensions when measuring and analyzing poverty. The present paper project seeks to measure multidimensional poverty in the Moroccan city of Marrakech, using raw data from the 2000-2001 National Survey on Households’ Expenditures (Enquête Nationale sur les Dépenses des Ménages), and the 2004 General Census of People and Housing (Recensement Général de la Population et de l’Habitat). More precisely, we aspire to constructing a composite indicator of poverty for each household in the city. Two mean objectives have to be achieved through this research: i) analyzing the interaction between monetary and non-monetary poverty; and ii) to elaborate a multidimensional poverty map in Marrakech, using our multidimensional approaches. To do this, we have used two advanced empirical methodologies: the Multiple Components Analysis (Analyse des Correspondances Multiples), and the Classification Ascendante Hiérarchique. Our empirical results reveal that the monetary and non-monetary measures of poverty are weakly correlated. Results show also that certain households who are not subjected to monetary poverty suffer from multidimensional poverty. As far as the geographical distribution of monetary poverty through the various city districts is concerned, we have observed a strong disparity. The gap in terms of poverty between the richer district of Gueliz and the poorer district of Annakhil is estimated to be around 18.4 percent. Our empirical results from the multidimensional poverty map are largely different from those obtained by the monetary poverty map elaborated by official studies, especially those of the Haut Commissariat au Plan (Rabat, Morocco). On the basis of our empirical results, we confirm the shortcomings of the monetary approach to poverty in identifying the poor and its tendency to under-evaluate the phenomenon. When they rely heavily on the monetary approach, poverty alleviation policies would very probably be inefficient. Even when we assume that such policies are well-targeted, they would likely not benefit for the households considered as non-poor according to the monetary approach, while they are seen to be as poor following the multidimensional approach. This permits to conclude that it is necessary to take into account all dimensions of poverty, not only the monetary dimension, based on households’ expenditures (or income). As we have done, all available surveys and censuses should be exploited in order to grasp all the dimensions of poverty. The marginal cost of multidimensional approaches to poverty is low while their informational gains are particularly considerable.



A basic income grant: An appropriate anti-poverty strategy in countries such as South Africa, Namibia and Rwanda? [Members Only]
le Roux, Pieter Submitted:



A Capability Approach to Microcredit Programs in Bangladesh: Why Legal Empowerment of the Poor is Important for Long-Term Poverty Reduction [Members Only]
Uddin, Tanvir Submitted:		Microcredit has facilitated an alternative and innovative attempt at poverty reduction in many developing countries. However, it cannot singularly achieve long-term development of fragile and unstable communities. In countries such as Bangladesh, recurrent severe flooding and external economic shocks such as food price rises exacerbate the poor’s vulnerability. These forces can undermine the achievements and benefits of microcredit programs. A more severe and underlying problem is institutional weakness in the social, economic and political structures of society and the rule of law. More than economic gains, the poor often value legal empowerment as part of an expanding capability set to address long-term problems related to legal identity, political participation and access to basic human rights. The capability approach to development focuses on the ‘capabilities’ of an individual which covers their potential well-being and human development through enhanced functioning in society through economic, political and social means collectively. Thus, a capability approach to microcredit can assist in analysing the situation of the poor in terms of their economic, political and social capability needs and to develop appropriate policies to expand capability sets. This is particularly important for women, for whom neither the acquisition of credit nor constitutionalising and legislating rights can address underlying societal and environmental factors. Microcredit needs to be reconceptualised to incorporate notions of capabilities. Hence, a holistic and long-term oriented development program can be initiated to address the challenges of poverty alleviation in politically and socially unstable environments.



A Capability-Oriented View of Human Rights: A Case Study of The Mining Community of La Oroya-Peru [Members Only]
Valencia, Areli Submitted:		This paper introduces my dissertation proposal to obtain a doctoral degree in Law and Society at the Faculty of Law, University of Victoria - Canada. It is based on the study of the mining community of La Oroya -Peru. La Oroya is an Andean community that has 88 years of mining tradition. This history has deeply transformed peoples’ lives and social relationships. Over the last 10 years, medical research has revealed a high level of environmental toxicity in La Oroya and the potential long-term effects on people’s health, especially in children. Despite this fact, many citizens of La Oroya tend to place gainful employment over the protection of community health. My dissertation seeks to provide a holistic understanding of this tension by examining the historical and socio-economic factors inherent in the community that have placed people in the difficult position of prioritizing work and sacrificing their long-term community health. This creates unfortunate trade-offs between these two essential aspects of human well-being: the protection of health vs. securing their livelihood. The theoretical framework of my dissertation bridges the discourses of human rights and capabilities in order to provide a more comprehensive understanding of root causes, processes and outcomes in terms of human rights’ violations. My goal is to design a ‘capability-oriented view of the human rights’ framework that is appropriately suited to explaining the current tension between the right to work and the right to health in La Oroya. In methodological terms, this framework proposes to use the “voices” of the people as a direct window into local knowledge, experience and the identification of valuable capabilities for this community.



A Case Study on Early Marriage Practice in Midda Woremo District, Amhara Regional State, Ethiopia [Members Only]
Deribie Woldegies, Belete Submitted:



A Class of Association Sensitive Multidimensional Well-being Indices [Members Only]
Seth, Suman Submitted: 2008-09-12



A Comparative Analysis of Global Faith-Based and Secular Civil Society Organisation(s) in Pakistan and Bangladesh [Members Only]
Sajjad Sheikh, Karim Submitted:		The purpose of this research paper is to examine two global organisations: one faith based and one secular, in Pakistan and Bangladesh each. In this context it will subsequently investigates the cross-country cross-sectional faith-based and/or secular organisations practical applications of the notion of civil society in Pakistan and Bangladesh by evaluating the social and economic policies of national civil-society organisations that are designed to help to eradicate poverty in the countries. The research will contribute to reducing the gap in regional knowledge using a sociological perspective. It will generate new information about the different ways and how those actions are effective for the operation of different types of civil society institutions. The study will explore the successes and achievements of global civil society organisations as independent variable(s), and on the other hand, it will analyse faith-based and secular civil society organisations in two different countries independent variable(s). Then in each country, assessment will be made of the effectiveness of each kind of civil society organisation in the eradication of poverty. The time covered in the study is twelve years, from 1996 to 2007, because this period has witnessed a wave of globalisation of the economy and the appearance of several global-level institutions in the region. A complex, multi-level comparative analysis involved in this investigation is based on qualitative analysis of data and interview that I conducted with civil society organisation leaders in 2006-07 (find the information about my doctoral research project as an attachment).



A Comparative Analysis of Qualifications for Public Office: The Hidden Dimension of Democratic Representation [Members Only]
Botteron, Cynthia A. Shippensburg University, USA Submitted: 2008-09-12



A Conflict of Entitlements Failure [Members Only]
Osman, Hassab El Gawi The University of Tokyo, Japan Submitted: 2008-09-12



A Critical Analysis Of Sustainable Human Development Evaluation Methodology Used In Venezuela [Members Only]
Molina, Emiro Giménez, Claudia Gonzalez, Sliverio Submitted: 2007-09-17		In this paper we discuss the different approaches used in Venezuela by governmental and non- governmental organizations to evaluate sustainable human development and capabilities at national and local levels.



A Game Theoretical Explanation of "Missing Women" [Members Only]
Li, Qingfeng Institute of Population Research, Peking University, China Submitted: 2008-09-12



A group-based measure of capability inequality [Members Only]
Wietzke, Frank-Borge London School of Economics GB Submitted:		Researchers trying to measure a person’s capabilities set face a problem related to the counterfactual nature of capabilities (Sudgen 1993): While analysts may observe actually achieved (chosen) functionings it is usually more difficult to measure outcomes that were accessible to the individual but were, for various reasons, not chosen. Previous attempts to measure capabilities have typically tried to get around this problem with the help of subjective information on capabilities. Respondents are asked whether they are satisfied with their accomplishments, or options available to them, in a range of dimensions such as personal or professional achievements, social relations or health. Inferences are then drawn about the quality of a person’s capability set, controlling for other observed covariates of a person’s wellbeing, such as age, gender, employment status and so forth (Kuklys 2005: Anand / van Hees). However, it does not seem that this approach offers a fully satisfactory solution to the well known problem of adaptive preferences / cheap tastes which may bias a person’s self reported level of satisfaction with his or her capabilities. The proposed paper puts forward the idea that a more objective definition of a person’s capability set may be obtained by analysing his or her social or physical environment. Drawing heavily on recent literature which argues that individual levels of wellbeing and opportunities are usually strongly influenced by a person’s social circumstances or ‘group membership’ (Roemer 1998, Stewart 2004), an index will be presented that defines individual capability sets at the group level, using both average and absolute achievement of a person’s group as a benchmark for his or her possible individual achievements. Differences in group benchmarks will then be used to identify inequalities in individual capability spaces (shortfalls in individual achievements relative to the group benchmark will be used in the analysis of functioning inequality) The proposed approach avoids problems of using subjective data described above because it defines a person’s choices entirely on the basis of ‘objective’ and observable information. Moreover it takes account of the important idea that a person’s level of welfare will often depend on his or her relative achievements compared to living standards in the social environment (relative deprivation).



A Household-based, Distribution-Sensitive HDI: Empirical Application to Mexico, Nicaragua and Peru [Members Only]
Lopez-Calva, Luis F. Ortiz-Juarez, Eduardo UNDP, Regional Bureau for Latin America and the Caribbean Submitted:		In the light of a growing interest in examining the concept of human development and the calculation of the HDI, one of the main concerns relate to the inclusion of inequality. This paper proposes a straightforward way to estimate a household-based distribution-sensitive HDI by applying generalized means based on the class of indices by Foster, et al. (2005). The empirical illustration shows that the loss in human development due to inequality can reach up to 22%, 29% and 57% at the national level in Mexico, Peru and Nicaragua, respectively. Among dimensions the loss in the income index can reach up 61% in Nicaragua, while the education index appears as the most sensitive in the case of Mexico and Peru, with a percentage of loss between 38% and 48%. Overall, the estimations evidence a higher sensitivity of the HDI to inequality, and therefore an important space for public action.



A human development approach for the construction of safe and healthy adobe houses in seismic areas [Members Only]
Blondet, Marcial Submitted:		The Pisco, Peru, earthquake of August 15th 2007 caused the death of 593 persons, the destruction of almost one hundred thousand houses and many historical monuments, built mainly with adobe. The Peruvian government promptly created a special agency to manage the reconstruction process (FORSUR). All the citizens who lost their homes would receive a universal reconstruction bonus (about US $2000), and those who qualified would be offered a low-interest loan to buy new housing made with confined masonry. Unfortunately, many thousands of families do not qualify for the loan, and will have to rebuild their homes only with the small bonus offered by the government. This paper presents a proposal developed by the Catholic University of Peru and CARE Peru for the dissemination, training and construction of new earthquake-resistant and healthy houses made of reinforced adobe, to be built by low-income families. The philosophy behind the proposal is that the communities involved in the reconstruction process should not be mere recipients of external aid, but should be agents of their own development. An important goal of the process is therefore the development of the capacities of the participants in such a way that in the future they will be capable of building safe and healthy adobe houses. The proposal involves the development of educational materials, dissemination strategies for improving adobe construction, training of the community builders, logistics of materials purchase, and supervision of the construction by the home owners, and follow-up of the quality of future construction with adobe.



A Human Development Approach to Gender Budgets: The Case of Some Italian Local Governments [Members Only]
Picchio, Antonella Addabo, Tindara Corrado, Francesca Badalassi, Giovanno Submitted: 2008-09-12		Full list of authors: Antonella Picchio, Tindara Addabo, Francesca Corrado, Giovanno Badalassi, Reggio Emilia



A Human Rights-Based Approach to Development and Development Programming Based on Capacity Development [Members Only]
Jonsson, Urban Submitted:		The relationships between human development and human rights are far from clear. In principle five possibilities exist (1) Human rights are a sub-set of human development: (2) Human development is a sub-set of human rights; (3) Human rights and human development are overlapping paradigms; (4) Human rights and human development are identical paradigms; and (5) Human rights and human development are totally different paradigms (incommensurable). Based on an analysis of the five options a conceptual framework for a human rights-based approach (HRBA) to development is presented in the paper. It is based on the fact that development, in whatever way it is defined, always requires the simultaneous achievement of a desirable outcome (e.g. a MDG) and the establishment of an adequate process to achieve and sustain that outcome. From a human rights perspective human rights standards can be seen as representing the minimum acceptable level of a desirable outcome, for example universal primary education, universal access to basic health services, social protection, and all MDGs, while human rights principles, including equality, participation, accountability etc., specify criteria for an acceptable process. Human rights standards and human rights principles taken together can thus contribute towards ensuring a sustainable development process leading to sustainable development outcomes. Using this conceptual framework a human rights-based approach to programming (HRBAP) is then constructed, reflecting the third recommendation of the UN Common Understanding on a Human Rights-Based Approach to Development Cooperation (2003), “Development cooperation should contribute to the development of capacities of ‘right-holders’ to claim their rights and of ‘duty-bearers’ to meet their obligations”. The proposed approach is therefore focusing on identifying claim-holders and duty-bearers, their capacity gaps and the intervention required to contribute to closing these gaps. Capacity is central to this approach and is defined in a broader sense, including responsibility/motivation/commitment; authority/power; access and control of economic. human and organisational resources; capability for rational decision-making and learning: and communication capability.



A methodological approach to do research on tertimonios of female social leaders of Peru: experience, reflexivity, intersubjectivity, intersectionality and the other’s knowledge [Members Only]
Morote Ríos, Roxanna Submitted:		This study suggests a methodological framework to do feminist and semiotic research on female social leader’s testimonios. The key concepts are experience, reflexivity, intersubjectivity, intersectionality and the Other’s knowledge. The theoretical framework is based on postcolonial and feminist theories as well as on psychoanalytic theory. The analysis of forty life testimonios show that female social leaders represent their identities, national belongings, postcolonial condition and ideas of truth, fact and experience in a particular way. Latin American female narratives destabilize canonical understandings of the subject through their representations of the self, the Others and the symbolic and real bonds created between them. Therefore, it is needed a methodological an ethic framework to analyze women’s self-representations and the representations of their personal empowerment. This framework was constructed in order to answer the following central questions: How can Peruvian women’s self-representation be characterized and analyzed through their testimonial life narratives? And, how do they represent their sources of empowerment? In order to answer these questions I acknowledge women’s experience as a privileged source of knowledge which has to be criticized in terms of the context and history; reflexivity as a hermeneutic tool to locate the researcher throughout the research process; empathy and intersubjectivity as a tools based on reason and emotion and also on the imaginary encounter of the subjects; the intersectional dialogue of diverse categories of analysis and the located comprehension of those categories; and finally, the relevance of the Other’s knowledge as an analytic and ethic principle not exempt of controversy.



A Model- Based Multidimensional Capability Deprivation Index [Members Only]
Ballon, Paola Krishnakumar, Jaya Submitted: 2008-09-12



A New Look at the Economic Well-Being of the Elderly in the United States, 1989-2001 [Members Only]
Wolff, Edward Zacharia, Ajit Submitted: 2007-09-17		We examine the economic well-being of the elderly, using the Levy Institute Measure of Economic Well-Being (LIMEW).We find that the elderly are much better off, relative to the nonelderly, according to our broader measure of economic well-being than by conventional income measures, gross money income and the Census Bureau’s “extended income” concept.



A new Style of Development to face the current Crisis: Solidarity Economy, Collective Capabilities and Sustainable Development [Members Only]
Dubois, Jean-Luc Lasida, Elena Submitted:



A Plea for Responsible Pluralism [Members Only]
Drydyk, Jay Submitted:		For their effective realization, human rights must be perceived as culturally legitimate, which in turn requires that they be justifiable pluralistically, engaging all reliable moral discourses. Insofar as a human right calls for a specific capability to be respected, protected, and fulfilled, the capability approach can contribute to this task of pluralistic justification in two ways. First, it abstracts from particular goods to valuable functionings and capabilities in a way that affirms the particular conceptions of the good that affirm them. However, the model of justification adopted by Nussbaum – Rawls’s reflective equilibrium – needs to be replaced by anchoring this discussion in knowledge of care and neglect. Second, Nussbaum proposes that equal entitlement to central capabilities can be justified on grounds of equal human dignity, which, as I read it means that everyone’s striving to live well in the company of others matters, and matters equally. This affirmation of equal dignity, however, will be undermined if it is treated (as Nussbaum does) as a ‘purely political’ idea excluding public support from particular moral discourses. An alternative approach, responsible pluralism, enables us to enlist the support of all reliable moral discourses in support of equal dignity, rather than confining them to the background culture or the private realm.



A social indicator for the state of Rio Grande do Sul based on Capability Approach [Members Only]
Barden, Julia Elisabete Comim, Flavio Submitted:



A Sociological View on the Relationship between Capabilities and Functionings – A Critical Realist View [Members Only]
Neff, Daniel Submitted: 2008-09-12



Ability to sacrifice vs. propensity to absorb: a synthesis with the average and total principles in capability framework [Members Only]
Majumder, Amlan Submitted: 2007-09-17		By making a logical foundation, the present paper introduces a new concept with two faces: ability to sacrifice vs. propensity to absorb.



Aboriginal Management of Aboriginal Heritage in South Australia: Strategic Planning and the Capability Approach [Members Only]
Baker, David Panzironi, Francesca Submitted: 2008-09-12



Aboriginal Management of Aboriginal Heritage in South Australia: Strategic Planning and the Capability Approach [Members Only]
Baker, David Panzironi, Francesca Submitted: 2008-09-12



Aboriginal traditional medicine in South Australia: interpreting evidence based results through the capability approach [Members Only]
Panzironi, Francesca Submitted:		This paper aims to provide an analysis of the extent to which Aboriginal medicine is integrated into mainstream and Aboriginal health services in South Australia. The paper focuses on Indigenous medicine as being the areas of indigenous knowledge most affected by exclusion and discrimination in Australia. The paper will provide some preliminary results drawn from the ongoing fieldwork in South Australia. The paper will discuss the participative approach adopted to identify how Aboriginal health services can contribute to advance the inclusion of Aboriginal traditional doctors and their medicine within South Australia’s health policy frameworks and the delivery of health services. The results presented in this paper will be considered as the foundational evidence-based rationale to deconstruct the power relations underlying the current mainstream health delivery system offered to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders in Australia.



Academic diversity re-examined: caste-based discrimination in Indian higher education and affirmative action in the context of the capability approach [Members Only]
Watts, Michael Rout, Bharat Submitted:



Access to Justice is an Instrumental Right for the Improvement of People's Capability [Members Only]
Figueiredo, Ivanilda Submitted: 2008-09-12



Access to Justice: a human right essential to the capability approach as seen by the theories of Sen and Nussbaum with data from IBSA vulnerable groups [Members Only]
Figueiredo, Ivanilda Submitted:		he access to justice is a human right essential to the improvement of people capabilities. To verify the truth of this assumption, two approaches will be analyzed: one, theoretical; the other, empirical. At last year’s conference, I presented a paper about the illations made at the very beginning of the research. This year, I have been going deeply into the theoretical analysis in order to demonstrate the importance of access to justice to the improvement of people’s capabilities. The value of access to justice will be explored as it applies to both the approaches of Sen and Nussbaum. The objective of my PhD study is to demonstrate that when people have access to justice, they are able to improve their capability in two perspectives: people can enlarge their‘functionings’ (SEN, 2005, p 30) through the struggle for rights and for public policy; and people can also increase the scope of capability itself with the enhancement of their power of choice. Where Amartya Sen and Martha Nussbaum agree and disagree will be explored in the paper in order to show the importance of access to justice in both approaches of capability theory. At this point in the study, I have concluded that access to justice is a device by which people can improve their standard of living and gain practice in exercising their capability. In other words, access to justice is not a ‘functioning’ or a capability: access to justice is a tool to improve ‘functionings’ and capabilities. Therefore, as Amartya Sen commonly says, the success of a society could be measured according to the substantive freedom which their members enjoy (SEN, 2000, p. 32). And it is this very enlargement of the substantive freedom is one function of the access to justice that I have suggested. The study of these authors’ theories, as well as their followers and critics, will be analyzed to prove this contention. A grant from the Ford Foundation in a national contest allowed me to apply empirical research, so that the study would not only be confined to the realm of theoretical analysis, which would not have been consistent with my path as an academic and practitioner. For more than one year, I have worked with a team of academics and students analyzing and evaluating data compiled from three countries: India, Brazil and South Africa (called IBSA countries), whose constitutions include access to justice and access to rights1, and thus, have a commitment to access to justice in many international human rights instruments2.



Achieving Gender Equality through Capability Development: Efficacy of SHGs Micro Credit in Rural Pondicherry Region, India [Members Only]
Nirmala, V Pondicherry University, India Submitted: 2008-09-12



Acting Justly [Members Only]
Drydyk, Jay Carleton University Submitted:



Adaptation and income. The case of Uruguay [Members Only]
Vigorito, Andrea Salas, Gonzalo Instituto de Economia. FCEA. Universidad de la Republica (Uruguay) Montevideo UY Submitted:		Empirical studies of adaptive preferences for developing countries are scarce. Based on Burchardt (2005) we analyze adaptation to income in Uruguay considering the role of past income and reference groups. We use two different panel data surveys to check the validity of our results. Our main findings show that adaptation to the preferences of reference groups is significant whereas past income is not.



Adaptive Preferences and Education Policy [Members Only]
Watts, Michael Comim, Flavio Ridley, Barbara Submitted: 2008-09-12



Adopting the Human Development Idea: Lessons drawn from some initiatives to reduce poverty in Mexico [Members Only]
Flores-Crespo, Pedro de la Torre, Rodolfo Submitted: 2007-09-17		This paper seeks to address the following questions: • Are the Capability Approach (CA) and the Human Development (HD) paradigm really influential in shaping development and social policies? To what extent? • What circumstances have helped – or constrained - the dissemination and the utilization of the CA and the Human Development idea? • How were Sen’s ideas concerning the CA and HD introduced in the design of some initiatives to reduce poverty in Mexico? What can be learned from this process? • What are the possibilities for the Human Development and Capability Approach in shaping policy directed toward an alleviation of poverty in Mexico?



Advancing human development: values, groups, power and conflict [Members Only]
Deneulin, Severine Submitted:		The question of values is central to the human development and capability approach. Yet, the capability literature says little about where values come from, how they are shaped and change. Exploring the dynamics of value formation and change is critical to advancing human development, for different sets of values lead to different sets of policies, and hence different capability outcomes. The paper argues that the human development and capability approach needs to pay greater attention to the different groups which construct the value frameworks from which people derive their values. This requires a more critical analysis of the power dynamics between groups. The paper proposes some analytical tools to examine the dynamics of value formation and its influence on policy. It concludes by discussing some ways in which the kinds of values which are necessary for advancing human development can be nurtured.



African “Big Men” and the Liberation of Africa’s Oppressed [Members Only]
Schwenke, Stephen Submitted: 2007-09-17		This paper explores the ethical qualities of leadership, and the balance needed between pragmatism of meeting basic needs, and the ability to offer an inspirational, hopeful, even transformational vision of a better future.



Agencia, Género y Desarrollo Humano [Members Only]
Ruiz Bravo, Patricia Submitted:



Agency and Capabilities: Personal History, Capacity and Development-Oriented Agency in a Development Programme in Khayelitsha, Cape Town [Members Only]
Conradie, Ina Submitted: 2008-09-12



Agency, Empowerment and the Integenerational Transmission of Inequality: A Preliminary Exploration [Members Only]
Emma Santos, Maria Submitted:



Agency, Governance and Human Development: An Exploration [Members Only]
Anand, P.B. Submitted: 2008-09-12



Agents, not patients; projects, not programs. Participation in public mental health – a capabilities-based approach. [Members Only]
Hopper, Kim Submitted: 2007-09-17		I argue that agency should be centrally ingredient to the moral economy of recovery-oriented care – both because evidence argues for its importance to outcome and because a concern for agency compels us to come to grips with long-denied issues of power in treatment and service delivery.



Ages old-perceptios and truth about Turkish youth [Members Only]
Aytac, Aygen Submitted:



Ages old-perceptios and truth about Turkish youth [Members Only]
Aytac, Aygen Submitted:



Alternative Measures of Gender Inequality in Human Development [Members Only]
Stanton, Elizabeth Submitted: 2007-09-17		This and other articles in the same special issue (Dijkstra 2006; Klasen 2006; Schüler 2006) document the demand for gendered measures of human development and describe a proliferation of measures of gender inequality, but GDI, the most widely published measure, receives little attention. In this paper, I argue that the cause of this disregard is GDI’s failures in the realm of common-sense or intuitive explanatory power. I argue that the GDI is counter-intuitive in at least three ways: first, in what it is measuring; second, in the way it is measuring it; and finally, in the results of this measurement. I then articulate and demonstrate a series of alternatives to GDI as currently formulated.



An emerging picture on admissions, treatment and enforcement in developing and developed countries [Members Only]
Klugman, Jeni Medalho Pereira1, Isabel Submitted:		This paper presents an internationally comparable assessment of several dimensions of migration policies as of early 2009. For a selected set of 28 countries, both developed and developing, we analyse the admission criteria, policies on integration and treatment of migrants, and efforts to enforce those policies. Irregular migration is a particular area of focus. The analysis distinguishes between different entry regimes, namely: labour migrants (high or low skilled, with a permanent or a temporary permit), those who move with a family-related visa, humanitarian migrants (asylum seekers and refugees), international visitors and international students. The data is drawn from an assessment by country experts as well as by desk-research of HDRO staff.



An essay to measure poverty through multidimensional approach The case of Manarintsoa’s community- MADAGASCAR [Members Only]
Rabevohitra, Bako Nirina Rajaona Daka, Karen Submitted:



An heterogeneity index for the analysis of equality of opportunity and economic mobility [Members Only]
Yalonetzky, Gaston Submitted:		A recent literature on inequality of opportunity offers quantitative tools for comparison and measurement based on stochastic dominance criteria and traditional inequality indices. In this paper I suggest an additional way of assessing inequality of opportunity and operationalizing Roemer’s (1998) notion of equality of opportunity with an index of heterogeneity across distributions based on a traditional homogeneity test of multinomial distributions. I propose two similar indices: one is useful for the general analysis of (in)equality of opportunity and the other is helpful to compare discrete-time transition matrices. In its application of (in)equality of opportunity the index is more helpful than other tools when both circumstances and advantages / outcomes are multidimensional. It also highlights the correspondences between heterogeneity in outcomes across set of circumstances and the degree of association between circumstances and outcomes. An application to educational mobility in Peru shows that the transition matrices of males and females are more similar among the youngest cohorts of adults.



An International Comparison of the Incomes of the Vast Majority [Members Only]
Shaikh, Anwar Ragab, Amr Submitted: 2007-09-17		This paper is part of an ongoing project to analyze international inequality.In this paper we develop the VMI on an international scale.The VMI adds a new dimension, because it combines information on income levels and their distribution into a single measure which is the average income of the vast majority of the population.



Application of the capability approach to poverty in Nigeria: What can we learn from the missing dimensions of poverty? [Members Only]
John E., Ataguba William M., Fonta Hyacinth E., Ichoku Submitted:		This paper compares the assessment of poverty/deprivation using various conceptions – the traditional money-metric measure, and different forms of multidimensional constructs. It also explores factors that predict deprivation and are associated with multiple counts of deprivation. The data comes from a survey of households in Nsukka. The counting and FGT methodologies were used in addition to probit and count models. Between 70% and 78% of the study population is poor. Poverty decomposition shows higher headcounts among rural population, individuals with little or no education and larger household sizes. Also, poor housing characteristics, education, employment, and health are associated with poverty. Recommendations include the use of an integrated approach understanding the inter-linkages in the factors associated with poverty.



Applying the Capability Approach to the “medium of choice par excellence”: Using the Choice Framework for a holistic analysis of internet usage [Members Only]
Dorothea, Kleine UNESCO Chair/Centre in ICT4D, Royal Holloway, University of London London GB Submitted:		This paper identifies controllability and operationalisability as obstacles which prevent the capability approach from being used more widely in development studies and practice. It discusses the origins of the Choice Framework, a conceptual tool designed to help operationalise the approach. It can be used to analyze the appropriateness of development goals, to map development as a systemic process, and to plan interventions which can result in increased choice. Three examples of applying the Choice Framework in the field of information and communication for development (ICT4D) are given. These technologies can be placed at different points on a determinism continuum, depending on the degree of choice left to the user. The paper argues that while frameworks such as the Choice Framework can increase the operationalisability of the capability approach, funders need to accept the fact that people’s choices are never fully predictable or controllable. Full paper available from the author: dorothea.kleine@rhul.ac.uk



Approaching Capabilities with Children in Care [Members Only]
Bernhard, Babic Germes Castro, Oscar Graf, Gunter Submitted:		With their programmes and services organisations like SOS-Kinderdorf International (SOS-KDI) are working to enable people to live a life they have reason to choose and value. That is why these organisations have to know which capabilities are valued by the children, youths and families they care for, especially if they agree that (not only) in developing countries the assessment of their policies, programmes and services should not only take place “on the basis of their impact on incomes, but whether or not they expand the real freedoms that people value” (UNESCO 2003, p. 33). But generally the question how to select relevant capabilities is not clearly answered yet (see Schokkaert 2008, p. 16f) although there are already promising approaches to identify capabilities for children well-being (see Biggeri 2004; Biggeri et al. 2006). Therefore, SOS-KDI and the International Research Center Salzburg (Austria) started a research project in March 2009 that aims at analysing to which extent the capability approach could serve as a framework for assessing and optimising youth and family related services (e.g. family strengthening programmes) in different cultures. After reflecting theoretically about the meaning of the capability approach for child and youth development, especially in developing countries, two field studies will be conducted in cooperation with the national associations of SOS-Kinderdorf in Nicaragua and Namibia. As a part of the mainly qualitative, quasi-experimental investigations, young people living inside and outside facilities run by SOS-Kinderdorf will be asked for their values, the life they would like to lead, how they assess their chances to realize their plans, what kind of support they already get and what kind of support they need (additionally) to achieve their goals. Further more their families of origin, co-workers of SOS-Kinderdorf and partner organisations as well as others shall also be involved to realise a multiple-perspective approach. The goal of the project is to learn which capabilities are valuable for the respondents from two different cultures and how well the support they receive by SOS-Kinderdorf and others meets their needs in this context. This Knowledge shall also enable the organisation to create processes and tools to assess its work and optimise its programme development.



Are Adaptive Preferences Unchosen? [Members Only]
Khader, Serene Submitted: 2007-09-17		This paper is part of a larger project that argues against the claim that a commitment to liberalism requires leaving persons’ existing preferences intact, even if they are oppressive.Here, I propose and examine one potential way of justifying public intervention in the lives of persons with adaptive preferences.



Are Gender Differentials in Capabilities in Education Mediated through Institutions of Caste, Religion and Class in India [Members Only]
Unni, Jeemol Submitted: 2008-09-12



Are We Capable Enough? A Look at the Universality of the Capabilities Approach in Human Rights [Members Only]
Majumdar, Anindita Submitted: 2008-09-12



As bad as it gets:well being deprivation of sexually exploited trafficked women [Members Only]
Di Tommaso, Maria Shima, I. Strøm, S. Bettio, F. Submitted: 2007-09-17		The aim of this paper is to use the sub-sample of sexually exploited women in order to explore the relationship between their well being deprivation, their personal characteristics, and their working locations. We use the theoretical framework of the capability approach to conceptualize well being deprivation and we estimate a MIMIC (Multiple Indicators Multiple Causes) model.



Assess well-being: a question of access [Members Only]
Leyle, David University of Bordeaux FR Submitted:		Built from an experience in a research-action program in Coastal Guinea, the present work highlights the need to update, thanks to Sen’s capability approach, the classic and macroeconomic measures of human development, on which the development policies base their actions led in African rural areas. Here, we can observe a contemporary acceleration of geographical, economic, political and social changes: the connection of studied societies to a globalized world increases with the monetarization of exchanges and so their vulnerability in front of the prices instability. On a local scale, among villages, the lack of well-being (poverty) and the increase of the economic disparities show that the households do not work in a satisfactory way in the everyday life: their access to the resources, the markets and the public services are recurring problems. The construction of “autochtonous” indicators of accessibility, based on qualitative and quantitative methods, allows reporting difficulties of access for the households and the village communities they belong to in order to achieve their functioning. On the one hand, these indicators concern the implementation of the necessary mobilities and thus the construction of circulation spaces in several scales. On the other hand, they underline a low access to resources which is insufficient to improve their level, their living conditions and their social functioning. Finally, all these indicators of accessibility represent good indicators to report well-being, economic and social changes, as well as disparities and social functioning.



Assessing Citizen Participation Spaces through a Capabilities and Power Relations Framework [Members Only]
Salinas Lanao, Gabriela Submitted:



Assessing Corporate Social Responsibility’s Impacts on Human Development [Members Only]
Volkert, Jürgen Bhardwaj, Gunjan Submitted: 2008-09-12



Assessing human resource development needs to empower an indigenous group of people: The case of Papuans in Indonesia. [Members Only]
Imbun, Ben Submitted:		The Indonesian province of Papua has a chequered political history. The significant events that profoundly shaped the province had been mostly products of external powers which had scrambled to control its resource abundant land and its people. Up until late 1969, Papua was a colony of the Dutch and controversially became a province of Indonesia thereafter. Despite the province of Papua generating significant revenue to the Indonesian government coffers from its vast natural resources, the indigenous Papuans have largely remained subsistence farmers and poverty stricken all their lives. Almost all human development indicators put the Papuans at the lowest level relative to other provinces of Indonesia. This picture is beginning to get some attention after some political administrative changes were made, to the Indonesian political system in the 1990s, with the passing of a special autonomy law for the province. One of the achievements had been the election of an indigenous Papuan as the governor of Papua. Amongst other endeavours to empower the people of Papua, particularly the indigenous Papuans, the governor has embarked on an ambitious program to improve the province’s human resource development (HRD) opportunities. This paper discusses a rapid assessment of HRD in Papua in light of the governor’s development goals and programs as a way forward to understanding the critical human resource issues and identification critical areas for intervention by the government. The paper does this in the context of general discussion of the socio-economic contentions of the province and assessing ongoing/current relevant HRD activities and policies. Consequent of the analysis, gaps, challenges, problems and priorities are identified and suggestions for intervention made.



Assessing Rural Marginality: Contribution of the Capability Approach [Members Only]
Dissart, JC Bresson, Florent Lallau, Benoît Submitted: 2008-09-12



Assessing Tanzania’s rural households’ capabilities in a liberalized agricultural market: a Case study of Rukwa Region [Members Only]
Urassa, Justin Submitted: 2007-09-17		This paper aims at assessing the capabilities of rural households after the liberalization of the agricultural markets in the 1980s due to reforms in Tanzania’s economy and the agricultural sector in the mid 1980s, all aimed at speeding up Tanzania’s human development.



Authentic Equality, Poetic Justice and Positive Citizenship: Problems of Educational Fairness for 'New Immigrant-Outsider' in Taiwan [Members Only]
Wang, Chung Ping Submitted: 2008-09-12



Autonomy as a foundation for human development: A conceptual model to study individual autonomy
Muñiz Castillo, Mirtha Rosaura Maastricht University, Graduate School of Governance Submitted:		This paper presents a conceptual model of autonomy grounded in the theories of human needs and capabilities. The analysis suggests that autonomy can be considered a human need that requires satisfiers to secure a sufficient level of competence to effectively participate in social life, and a combined capability to make choices in significant matters and achieve positive results in one’s life. The model allows analysing individual experiences of autonomy, through attention to three determinants of autonomy: agency as an internal capacity, entitlements, and structural contexts. It highlights the relations of individuals that negotiate their entitlements and options in specific contexts. Personal and contextual, subjective and objective factors explain people’s conditions for and their feeling of being autonomous. The paper also discusses the relation between human development and autonomy and asserts that initiatives that aim at fostering human development should promote the expansion of individual autonomy and empowerment.



Bazaar Justice: Framing Citizenship and Capabilities in Online Communities [Members Only]
Lloyd, Tamsin Wadewitz, Adrianne Submitted: 2008-09-12



Believing in opportunities, trusting institutions in Latin America: the role of Government Effectiveness, Control of Corruption, Political Stability, and Voice & Accountability [Members Only]
Picon, Mario Development Research Group, The World Bank Washington US Submitted:		The paper attempts to shed light on how both individual circumstance and context shape individual perspectives of upper mobility, and, more generally, the individual’s faith in the opportunities created by the system, roughly defined as the institutional arrangements that facilitate individual progress and social cohesion. While previous research has used either GDP per capita or inequality measures such as the Gini as explanatory of trust in institutions or even the democratic system of government, here I assess how different governance dimensions, together with individual traits, affect the respondent’s expectations. This first version of the paper uses the Latinobarometro data for urban centers in 17 countries of Latin America, with the idea of expanding the analysis to other regions (particularly, Sub-Saharan Africa and the Middle East) using the Gallup World Poll data. The analysis shows that a general optimism on individual mobility coexists with widespread skepticism about the fairness of the system. More importantly, the paper shows how in countries where corruption and effectiveness of the government rank low, improvements in the past ten years have to be very high to actually have an effect on citizen’s faith in the system. While the perspective of upper mobility is closely linked to voice and accountability scores for the country, believing in the opportunity for a poor person to get out of poverty is linked to the government effectiveness rankings.



Beyond the index of GDP in HDI: New measures of economic power of nations [Members Only]
Majumder, Amlan Kusago, Takayoshi Submitted:		The objective of the paper is to compute new measures of economic power of nations according to average and total principles. Even though a considerable amount of theoretical and methodological advancements took place in studies on measurement of wellbeing at individual level, such measures are not to reflect macroeconomic state of affairs, as the methodology intuitively no longer focuses on income today, but on what income does to human beings. Moreover, we understand that the concept of economic well-being is a theoretical construct, which initiates welfare analysis at individual level only. Still individual level (average) well-being conditions are often translated into those of the nations. We also observe that the index of GDP in HDI for developing countries may not always reflect true pictures. We try to bridge the gaps by computing the proposed new measures as mentioned above. While computing the measures we have made some advancements in methodology in regard to discounting income with respect to a defined threshold level making adjustments for economic inequality. The study utilises data from Human Development Reports 2007/2008 and 2009.



Beyond the Urban-Rural Divide – Subjective wellbeing, income poverty and social transfers in Romanian villages [Members Only]
Rat, Cristina Submitted: 2007-09-17		The present paper tries to unfold the barriers in the effectiveness of state social transfers in combating income poverty and facilitating access to social services in the case of Romanian villages from Cluj county (North-West Development region).



Beyond well-becoming, towards well-being - Young people and the Capability Approach
Clark, Zoe Eisenhuth, Franziska Research School Education and Capabilities, Bielefeld University Bielefeld DE Submitted:		Until now there is only a minor debate about a capabilities perspective on childhood and youth. Whereas from a capability perspective in general it is argued for latitude of individual choices, it seems to be commonsense to a large extent in this field that during childhood and youth, freedom of choice has to be restricted in respect for developing future capabilities. Challenging the dominant perception, we are discussing why children and young people should not only be seen as future, but also as current addressees of social justice. For this purpose, we are using Nancy Fraser’s analytical distinction of the “who of justice”, the “what of justice” and the “how of justice”, considering who can be an addressee of social justice, what can be the objects of distribution for young people, and how young people can be taken into account as capable agents, even though they are dependent on care.



Blogging a new type of democracy through scale free networks: at the crossroads of Dewey, capability approach, and the blogosphere [Members Only]
Glassman, Michael Dashora, Pushpanjali Submitted: 2007-09-17		Sen has suggested that freedom is the key to positive, progressive human development (1999). Freedom allows us to establish social contexts that increase our own and others capabilities, and freedom allows us to recognize those capabilities. But Sen does not see freedom as dependent on pre-ordained, categorical liberties as suggested by liberal theorists such as Rawls (1971).



Bodily Integrity of Italian women: exploring freedom of choice Tawheed Reza Noor: Voices of Vulnerable Women under Multi-component Food Security Project: Bangladesh Experience [Members Only]
Tommaso, Di Dagsvik, J Submitted:		Italy has a very low position in terms of gender inequality respect to many other industrialised countries (Human Development Report 2008). It has position 17 in terms of the Gender Related Development Index and position 21 in terms of Gender Empowerment Measure. According to the World Economic Forum (2008), Italy is ranked number 67 in the Global Gender Gap Index. While there are great difficulties in making international comparison, these indexes provide evidence for a high gender inequality in Italy. Economic studies on Italian gender inequality have until now focussed on wage differentials, lack of women’s participation to the labour market, different distribution of un-paid work within the households. In this paper, we measure an aspect of inequality utilising the capability approach focussing on the capability of bodily integrity. In Nussbaum’s definition: “Being able to move freely from place to place; to be secure against violent assault, including sexual assault, marital rape and domestic violence; having opportunities for sexual satisfaction and for choice in matters of reproduction.” (Nussbaum, 1999, pg 41). In this paper, we explore this capability for Italian women. We would ideally need information on some functionings and on women freedoms. Not only, we need to take into consideration a list of functionings (if the woman has suffered from domestic violence, of which type, rape, etc) but also if the woman feel free to leave the house whenever she wants, if she feels safe to move freely, if she can decide about contraception. This set of functionings and indicators of capabilities depend on personal characteristics: for instance, a woman may be more restricted in terms of moving from place to place because of religious or social constraints, not working women may have less means to exit a violent relationship, etc; Moreover, they depend on external characteristics: for example, an individual could live in a more dangerous district than another; law enforcement could be different across regions, etc.



Breaking power structures through NGO collaboration for a more inclusive participatory development: an application to post-conflict South Sudan [Members Only]
Picon, Mario Submitted:		How is the success of participatory programs conditioned by local power structures and aid governance? What strategies can an NGO follow to improve the chances of success of participatory programs? These are the key questions the present case study explores. The transition from humanitarian assistance to development programs is seen by international organizations and donors as a key step in consolidating peace processes and re-building local capacity through human and physical capital. Previous research (Collier and Sambanis, 2002) has shown that the probability of a return to conflict is high in the years following a ceasefire. A preferred approach among donors and NGOs for starting development programs in a post-conflict environment is the through participation. Participatory development involves the community from the onset in the identification of priorities, promotes a sense of ownership of the outputs and outcomes of the development program (Mansuri and Rao, 2004), and generates functional capabilities, the ‘substantive freedoms people have reason to value’ (Sen, 1999). Critics of participatory development consider that the approach might slow down the development process and, moreover, either legitimize the local power structure, or create new dominant elites (Cooke and Kothari, 2001). This paper explores the challenges a well-recognized (and relatively well-funded) international NGO faces while moving from humanitarian to development programs in South Sudan’s Upper Nile State. After fifty years of almost uninterrupted war between the North and the South, the signing of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) in 2005 allowed thousands of South Sudanese to return to the lands they and their kin occupied before war. Most returnees have lived their whole lives in refugee camps, surviving only with food provided by donors. The CPA created a very particular status for Upper Nile State. While the area is part of autonomous South Sudan, and will participate of the 2011 Referendum to decide the independence of the region, Upper Nile is one of two states whose administrative authorities are still appointed by the Sudanese Government in Khartoum. Meantime, development coordinators are appointed by the autonomous government of South Sudan, in Juba.



Bridging Human Rights and Capabilities: A Critical Analysis of Promises, Limitations and Challenges for Advancing Social Transformation [Members Only]
Valencia Vargas, Areli Benoit, Cecilia Submitted:		The human rights discourse undoubtedly constitutes one of the most powerful rhetorics of current times. Underpinning the appeal of human rights rhetoric is the idealism that human rights can effectively solidify social equity and global justice goals. The language of human rights is currently spread across multiple levels of our social reality, sheltering a wide variety of claims. Activism in this sphere constantly seek redress for injustices and the reversal of the circumstances and factors that place people at risk of suffering rights abuses. Actions are taken with the hope of transforming the genesis of injustices as opposed to accommodating the “status quo” that produces them. However, the strong reliance on legal instruments along with the two common strategies employed by human rights advocates –the violation approach and the methodology of naming and shaming- have proven inadequate in effectively achieving this purpose. These mechanisms are designed to expose the outcomes of a situation rather than targeting its genesis; therefore, they provide a limited capacity for readily exposing the root causes of human rights abuses embedded in long-standing social processes. This identification is a crucial step to foster substantial social transformation. This paper explores to what extent the capability approach is able to assist us in addressing the aforementioned shortcomings of the human rights paradigm. Although the capability approach should not be seen as the panacea for resolving all unanswered questions and problems within the human rights discourse, it does locate human rights advocates in a better position to advance their social transformative goals. In effect, the capability approach has the potential to orient us in a particular manner that we argue will assist us to better understand human rights; specifically, in the case of socio-economic and cultural rights. We suggest viewing the capability approach’s potential contribution as a continuum that incorporates conceptual underpinnings and the richness of integrative methodologies. The last part of the paper briefly describes a community-based research project conducted in Victoria, British Columbia, Canada, in order to draw attention into the research methodology utilized and how that contributes to the realisation of human rights and capabilities. This particular case illustrates the research benefits of the incorporation of the voices and validation of experiences of vulnerable population and exemplifies the benefits of capacity building social research.



Bringing Together Sustainable and Human Development: A Conceptual-Methodological Proposal for the Implementation of Integrative Processes of Intervention [Members Only]
Paez, Guayana Buroz, Maria Teresa Submitted: 2007-09-17		This paper sets the discussion in an interdisciplinary field, where considerations of human development, environmental concerns and sustainability are at the core. It argues for the necessity of defining and implementing integrative processes that by considering the dynamic of social change fully incorporate the sustainable development perspective along with the human development and capability approach.



Broadening our Look: a New Approach to Poverty and Human Flourishing [Members Only]
Boltvinik, Julio Submitted:		The paper will present a radically new approach to poverty/human flourishing, founded positively on Marxist philosophical anthropology and on systematic reflection on human needs, and negatively on the critique of both what can be called the political economy of poverty and of existing answers to the question of the constitutive elements of human flourishing. The approach adopts as constitutive element of human flourishing, conceived as a multi-perspective conceptual axis, the development of what Marx called the human essential forces: needs and capacities. By cutting off all other perspectives than the economic one from the axis of human flourishing, one derives the standard of living axis, which looks at the development of human essential forces from the perspective of economic (in a broad sense) resources, conditions and opportunities. The paper presents the conclusions of a book of the same name as the title of this presentation (in two volumes) being prepared for printing. In each axis two dimensions of being: structural and circumstantial. This allows for the construction of four concepts of poverty/wealth (or human flourishing): structural being human poverty; circumstantial being human poverty; structural being economic poverty; and circumstantial being economic poverty. The paper presents three main sections each relating to a feature of the new approach: the negative foundations; the positive foundations; and a synthetic view of the new approach.



Brutal Intersections & Multiple Identity: Invoking the Critical Agency of Romani Women [Members Only]
Kosko, Stacy J. University of Maryland College Park Van Munching USA Submitted: 2008-09-12



Bystander Allegories [Members Only]
Esquith, Stephen Submitted: 2007-09-17		Now I turn to the challenge of interpreting simulations, representations and re-enactments of mass violence. I will focus on allegorical interpretive frameworks, some of which illuminate bystander complicity and others that tend to obscure the institutional dimensions of political responsibility for mass violence.



Can Financial Globalization be Subjected to an Ethical Appeal? A Capability/ Real-Freedom-for-All Assessment [Members Only]
Dymski, Gary Kerstenetzky, Celia Submitted: 2007-09-17		Financial globalisation has been subject to insufficient ethical discussion. This essay explores the ethical dimensions of contemporary financial globalization. It first describes financial globalization, focusing on the dramatic impacts, intended and unintended, of this process on social and individual welfare. It then presents some ideas about an ethical benchmark for evaluating this process.



Can Nussbaum’s Capabilities Approach Be Integrated Within a Complete Positive Psychological Theory of Happiness? [Members Only]
Jayawickreme, Eranda Pawelski, James Submitted: 2007-09-17		In this paper, we will evaluate the suitability of Nussbaum’s more substantive account of capabilities as forming part of an integrated account of well-being that positive psychologists argue is required for the proper psychological study of well -being.



Can We Reconcile Economic Growth with Human Rights? [Members Only]
Bandyopadhyay, Kaushik R. Submitted: 2008-09-12



Capabilities - the Environmentalist’s Metric? [Members Only]
Heyward, Jennifer Claire Submitted: 2007-09-17		I argue that from an environmental point of view, capabilities theory has an advantage over resourcism, including the “greened” form of resourcism. The paper will proceed as follows: after a very brief summary of the main points of the Nussbaum’s capabilities theory, I will provide an overview of how other authors have used it to generate environmental conclusions by proposing extensions.



Capabilities and Beyond [Members Only]
Comim, Flavio Submitted: 2008-09-12



Capabilities and Climate Change: The Psychological Consequences of Flooding [Members Only]
Crabtree, Andrew Submitted: 2008-09-12



Capabilities and Environmental Justice: Animals, Ecosystems, and Community Functioning [Members Only]
Schlossberg, David Submitted: 2007-09-17		The larger argument of this paper is that a capabilities approach to justice, one focused on individual and community functioning in both human and non-human systems, can be used to bridge the gap between conceptions of environmental justice, or justice among humans with regard to environmental issues, and ecological justice, or justice between humans and nonhuman animals and systems. An expansive capabilities approach to justice, then, is broadly applicable to a range of environmental concerns, and not just individual animals.



Capabilities and Psychiatric Disability: Rethinking public mental health [Members Only]
Alexander, Mary Jane Hopper, Kim Submitted: 2007-09-17		This presentation will describe the impact of severe mental illness on capabilities, and how the Center plans to apply Capabilities to study social recovery for people with psychiatric disabilities, using a participatory research framework.



Capabilities and the functionings production function with an application to the quality of the first job [Members Only]
Defloor, Bart Van Ootegem, Luc Verhofstadt, Elsy Submitted:		This paper is about transformation efficiency in the capabilities and functionings framework. Some individuals are functionings poor because they are lacking resources, others are functionings poor because of low transformation efficiency. They don’t manage to transform resources into valuable functionings. The former might be helped with an expansion of their resources, the latter might be helped by creating circumstances under which they can use his resources more efficiently. The theory is applied to an individual’s first job after graduation. We investigate causes why some individuals are more efficient in transforming (job) resources into (job) functionings than others. We use a distance function approach and stochastic frontier analysis to measure individual transformation efficiency. The results show that individuals are on average 46% efficient. In the next phase we regress these efficiency numbers on 13 ‘conversion factors, aspects influencing the transformation process. There are individual, social and environmental conversion factors. The results suggests that individuals who make a better impression, who are motivated for the content of the job and not only in material aspects of the job, who are male, who don’t live in a rural area with recent urbanisation, who are member of a club and who didn’t use many search channels to find the job are more efficient in transforming resources into functionings



Capabilities Life Satisfaction: Who is Happy with Life? [Members Only]
Krishnakumar, Jaya Submitted: 2008-09-12



Capabilities to change ideas and history: cultural liberties for a global democratisation of memory [Members Only]
Boele van Hensbroek, Pieter Submitted: 2007-09-17		In this model, we think of the great emancipatory ideas of freedom, democracy, human rights, or citizenship, we perceive these ideas as engaged in a struggle with older ideas that belong to less free societies, and imagine a gradual spreading of the emancipatory ideas, becoming rooted in peopleís political imagination and in relevant institutions which regulate the political, juridical and public spheres of societies.There are at least two aspects of this model which need questioning. First, what is exactly the nature and status of these great ideas? What is their exact meaning? Do they have relevance irrespective of place and societal context? Do they have a kind of superhistorical status as inventions of mankind, and if so, does that imply that they command automatic normative authority? The second point to be questioned is how we should understand this intuition of ideas spreading by taking hold of the imagination of people who were thinking differently before.



Capabilities, Values and Education [Members Only]
Peppin Vaughan, Rosie Walker, Melanie Submitted:		Recent theorising on capabilities in relation to education has led to the clarification of a number of points: the role of education in human flourishing; how education can diminish capabilities; education lists; and the distinction between capability to participate in education and capabilities gained through education (Walker and Unterhalter, 2007; Vaughan, 2007; Terzi, 2008). This paper is concerned with the centrality of individual values to a capability set, and how education should be understood in relation to this and as such is related to capabilities gained through education. Recently, scholars have called for a focus on how values are formed; it is necessary to provide ‘an analysis of the dynamics of value formation’ (Deneulin forthcoming: 14; Burchardt 2009). In this article, we argue that this is a particularly pertinent theoretical problem for capability theorists working in the domain of education policy. The paper argues that there is a key obstacle to evaluating education policy using the capability approach – the role of values in determining and shaping an individual’s capability set – and proposes a possible solution by conceptualising education as something which may enable an individual to realise and develop their core values and agency goals, rather than something which transmits or reproduces particular values.



Capability and Group Inequalities:Revealing the latent structure [Members Only]
Manuel Roche, Jose University of Sussex GB Submitted:		There has been growing interest in issues of multidimensionality, diversity in preference, agency, and freedom of choice in the recent literature on poverty and inequality. The capability approach and seminal works of Amartya Sen (1999 1992 1985a 1980) and Martha Nussbaum (Nussbaum 2000 2006) have particularly contributed to this debate. They propose that capability rather than commodities or utilities should be the space for the evaluation of wellbeing and social justice. Some capability scholars argue that the approach has not paid enough attention to groups, and debate about whether an individualistic perspective is still dominant (Alkire 2008; Burchardt and Vizard 2007; Deneulin 2006; Stewart and Deneulin 2002; Stewart 2003 2005; Majumdar and Subramanian 2001; Robeyns 2005). These authors call attention to the importance that groups may have in individual well-being, in shaping individual preferences, and in generating social mobilization and collective action. This debate has important similarities with the sociological academic tradition on social stratification (cf. Grusky and Kanbur 2006; Grusky and Weenden 2007). In this paper I shall argue that the sociological academic tradition in social stratification could complement the capability approach theoretically and methodologically in order to enhance the study of group inequalities. I will argue that the study of group inequalities implies not only dealing with the complexity of multidimensional space and the measurement of capabilities, but also dealing with its multiple social determinants.



Capability and Learning to Choose [Members Only]
Lessmann, Ortrud Submitted: 2008-09-12



Capability and women's well-being in Peru [Members Only]
Majumder, Amlan Chiappero-Martinetti, Enrica Submitted:		Empirical literature on women’s well-being within the framework of Capability Approach in Peruvian context is less extensive and less known. The present paper works out an wide range of indicators in five evaluative spaces reflecting well-being of Peruvian women in different dimensions of life, such as reproductive life, housing, education, autonomy, and leisure with the use of the fuzzy sets theory. It also does binary-multivariate logistic regression analyses to locate variations in the achieved levels of functionings with respect to a set of possible explicative factors, which include individual and household characteristics as well as social and environmental factors. The study utilises data from the Peruvian Demographic Health Survey (DHS) Continuous 2004 (Encuesta Demográfica y de Salud Familiar, Endes Continua 2004). By doing a comprehensive analysis the present study contributes some new knowledge and empirical evidence to the existing literature. This paper is an extension of the authors’ previously undertaken project on multidimensional assessment of well-being women in India, and later on which was generalised to assess well-being conditions of women in the developing countries utilising data from Demographic Health Surveys.



Capability Approach and Policies for those Likely to be Left Behind [Members Only]
Tiwari, Meera Submitted: 2008-09-12



Capability Building in the City Building Professions, and in Communities [Members Only]
Rubbo, Anna Submitted: 2008-09-12



Capability Deprivation and Poverty: An Application in the United States, 1994 and 2004 [Members Only]
Wagle, Udaya Submitted: 2007-09-17		Operationalizing such basic capabilities as education, health, and self-respect in the United States, this analysis suggests that capability deprivation and poverty have marginally declined between 1994 and 2004. Between the factor analytical—with absolute and relative criteria—and fuzzy set approaches used here, I find that application of the former with absolute criteria tends to provide a greater extent of poverty and a more comprehensive demographic and socioeconomic profiles of the poor.



Capability for social accountability: An initial exploration, employing the capability approach and critical realism as conceptual underlabourers [Members Only]
Walker, David Monash University AU Submitted:



Capability Justice: Equality, Sufficiency, or Priority for the Worst Off? [Members Only]
Drydyk, Jay Submitted: 2007-09-17		I argue that the capability approach should favour an expansive egalitarianism that aims both to eliminate capability deprivation and to raise the well-being freedom of all. It also sees special merit in reducing the greatest capability deprivations and in that way accepts a form of prioritarianism as a further virtue.



Capability, Functioning and Reproductive Choice: an analysis of Reproductive Freedom in Jordan [Members Only]
Majumder, Amlan Dinhata College West Bengal IN Submitted:		The objective of the paper is to present an analysis on fertility preferences from the perspective of reproductive freedom within the framework of Capability Approach. We have recognised the changes in the world-view on reproductive life recognising freedom of choice in matters of reproduction and contrasted capabilities of a mother on her perception on ideal number of children with those of functioning achievements or actual reproductive performance to define reproductive freedom and adopted a matrix representation of the problem exploring quadruplicate possibilities. We have tried to understand implications of those and realised that different sections of mothers in Jordan with different background characteristics are exposed to different conditions and warrant different set of policies or attention. The study utilises data from Demographic Health Survey (DHS).



Capacitation in the central american liberation Philosophy of Ignacio Ellacuria [Members Only]
Gandolfo, David Submitted: 2007-09-17		The liberation philosophy developed by the assassinated Basque-Salvadoran philosopher, Ignacio Ellacuria (1930-1989) argues that history must be understood as a process of capacitation, at both the physical and metaphysical levels, and that liberatory praxis will be misguided if it does not recognize this. My paper will present an overview of Ellacuria’s liberation philosophy, emphasizing the way in which genuine liberation is a process of capacitation.



Catholic Ethics and Empowerment in the Popular Sectors: A View from Argentina [Members Only]
Mallimaci, Fortunato Submitted:		The paper looks at the diverse roles and presence that Catholic and Evangelical groups have in popular sectors and in empowering them. It examines the ways in which these faiths impinge in popular groups’ conception of culture, of conflicts, and their relations to the state; a state that either ‘privatizes’ or ‘permits’ public space for these groups and their faiths. The paper aims to show religious plurality and the role of faiths in people’s refusal to participate in what is a common tendency to ‘individualize,’ and disembody people from institutions. The paper further examines what type of ethics flows from various religious movements and its relationship to empowerment. This is of particular important at a time of disenchantment and loss of credibility of in educational, political and union institutions.



Challenges and Achievements in Capability Approach based Participatory Monitoring of Community Development Programmes in Christchurch, New Zealand.
Schischka, John Christchurch Polytechnic Institute of Technology Christchurch NZ Submitted:		This paper summarises the results of a participatory appraisal methodology study carried out with groups of participants in two urban based community development programmes operating in low socio-economic areas of Christchurch. Based on the capability approach the methodology extends strategies used in previous studies of participant perspectives in development initiatives in Vanuatu and Samoa. Analysis of the transcripts of the focus groups conducted in these studies reveals significant outcomes from both programmes. Discussion is provided of the limitations and difficulties encountered during the course of the study as well as significant outcomes. Particularly important was the ability of the participatory methodology used to gain the perspectives of a wide range of participants, a number of whom are marginalised from mainstream society. The predominant views among participants in all groups are reported. A major theme in all of the discussions was that participants had experienced a significant increase in their confidence.



Challenges in operationalising the Capability Approach for evaluating the contribution of the Cambodian ICT4D project, iREACH, to capabilities, empowerment and sustainability [Members Only]
Grunfeld, Helena Centre for Strategic Economic Studies, Victoria University Melbourne AU Submitted:		This paper explores whether and how the Cambodian information and communication technology for development (ICT4D) project, iREACH, has contributed to capabilities, empowerment and sustainability (CES) by summarising the two initial waves of a longitudinal study of this initiative. The research underpinning this paper tested the “CES virtuous spiral framework”, a research framework informed by the capability approach (CA). Other key features of the framework is that it considers the micro-, meso-, and macro- levels in understanding the role ICT can play in the development process, takes a longitudinal perspective, and requires a participatory methodology. While there were strong indications that iREACH had contributed to livelihoods and other aspects of well-being in diverse ways, primarily in education, health, and farming, informants also valued the project because of its contribution to empowerment, particularly gender empowerment as well for intrinsic reasons, such as feeling part of the world in general. There were several challenges in operationalising the CA for this research and this paper summarises these, which ranged from designing the research framework in a way that would capture the essence of the CA, to obtaining data that would be relevant for the objective of the evaluation and useful for policy-makers. For example, whereas the contributions we were looking for are in the area of socio-economic impacts, many participants in the focus groups and surveys were still very fixated on just using iREACH facilities, i.e. learning how to use computers, accessing the Internet, learn Khmer and English typing.



Challenging Structural Causes of Human Rights Violations: Is the Capability Approach a Feasible Option to Advance This Goal? [Members Only]
Valencia, Areli Submitted:



Changing Ideas, Changing Tactics: From Law-Based Advocacy to Human Development Oriented Interventions [Members Only]
Greenberg, Marcia E. Submitted: 2007-09-17		By highlighting the preceding Keynesian thought, the organizers of this HDCA conference have invited us to consider not only the power of ideas, but also the possibility that they may in some cases be wrong – and thereby cause unintended consequences.



Changing the balance of power: can education increase the chances of political participation for all? [Members Only]
Sarojini Hart, Caroline Submitted:		This paper explores the conceptualisation of participation from both political and educational perspectives. It questions the assumption that increased participation in political processes by people from diverse groups will lead to a greater balance of political power. This assumption has tended to be coupled with the notion that broadening the scope of state education will overcome traditional socio-economic stratifications and will contribute towards the goal of shared political power. It is argued that participation in both educational and political processes does not guarantee greater power for marginalised socio-economic groups and furthermore affirmative action can cause harm as well as good. Striving to include the disempowered in political processes can mean these individuals unwittingly become complicit in their subjugation furthering longstanding injustices. It is vital that strategies to involve all citizens in the power structures of society acknowledge the cultural depth of stratifications and inequalities. Educational provision using a capability approach provides a starting point for developing citizens who may be able to begin to meaningfully address the political disempowerment of the poor and other marginalised groups. A range of global examples will be used to examine these issues and to consider how we can work towards meaningful political participation for all.



Child Poverty as Capabilities Deprivation: a case study in a slum area on New Delhi [Members Only]
Biggeri, Mario Trani, Jean-Francois Submitted:		In this paper the capability approach perspective is used to satisfy the multidimensional nature of child poverty and wellbeing. The objective of this paper is twofold. The first is to understand the level of deprivation of children in a slum area of New Delhi and the second to evaluate the impact of a community based projects named Project Why (PW) on their wellbeing. PW is an Indian community based NGO operating in New Delhi. PW benefits about 600 children, spread in 6 different localities in the southern part of Delhi: Govindpuri, Nehru Camp, Giri Nagar, Sanjay Colony, Okhla Phase I, Khadar. This NGO offers different services, depending on the child’s age and needs. There are crèche sections for children from 2 to 5 years old; children between 5 and 15 years old are supported by a tuition service aimed at complementing and strengthening the poor education they receive at school: according to their age they attend a primary or a secondary section or a computer centre. Furthermore, in the locality of Govindpuri two relevant structures have been created: a disabled section for about 20 disabled people of very different ages, mainly with learning difficulties, and a foster care centre hosting 4 children with very difficult backgrounds and 3 disabled people. In the neighbourhood of Khadar, there is also a women’s centre. The data used in the analysis were collected throughout an ad hoc survey just after the international workshop2. The survey based method is based on the procedure developed by Children Capabilities Thematic Group of the HDCA. The surveyl interviewed 120 children between 12 and 16 included (20 children in every location of Project Why). The children interviewed were from two groups: the first group from PW and the second a control group in the same areas. Children were randomly selected. The results and data elaboration evidence the level of subjective deprivation and the impact of the project in terms of capability expansion/reduction.



Child Poverty as Capabilities Deprivation: The Missing Dimensions [Members Only]
Biggeri, Mario Mehrotra, Santosh Submitted: 2008-09-12



Child Survival, Poverty, Inequality and Policy Options: Evidence from Kenya [Members Only]
Kabubo-Mariara, Jane Submitted: 2008-09-12



Childhood and Capability Deprivation in Germany [Members Only]
Volkert, Jürgen Wüst, Kirsten Submitted:		Child poverty is widely discussed in Germany after the publication of the third official Poverty and Wealth Report of the German government in 2008 which – inter alia – focused on the situation of children and families. However, child poverty is not only caused by low household incomes and impacts of child poverty are not restricted to financial consequences. The Capability Approach takes account of this multidimensionality of well-being and poverty of children. The Capability Approach conceptualizes human well-being as not only depending on financial means but gives at least the same importance to the personal and social conversion factors which determine how far financial means can be converted into personal well-being. Until 2008 the Capability Approach had only been applied to the well-being of adults in Germany, but not specifically to the well-being of children. There are several reasons why a capability analysis for children will differ from a capability analysis for adults. Adults’ capability sets comprise dimensions, that are not or at least less relevant for small children. These include social conversion factors like economic facilities, elements of social protection such as access to social security, political freedoms and transparency guarantees (no corruption and limited bureaucracy). Although these adult-specific dimensions of capabilities may not be directly relevant for children, they can indirectly affect the well-being in early childhood in manifold ways. For instance, unemployment of parents does affect the whole family including scarce material means but can also have non-material consequences as income poverty has been shown to have an impact on the parents’ educational style and the relationship of parents and children. Childhood is a very important stage in life. From a capability perspective it is especially important because functionings achieved in this early phase of life substantially determine future capabilities. This stage of life is also very particular as – more than in other stages of life – it depends very much on parents and other care-takers whether a young child has most important capabilities and can develop a number of important functionings. Furthermore, the wish to care adequately for a child depends on the goals of the parents and caretakers which are driven by the question of how important the well-being of the children is for them but may also be restricted by shortages of e.g. their own education, time, child care facilities and income. In this paper we analyze how functionings and capability deprivation in childhood are influenced by parents’ personal goals and willingness to achieve well-being of their children as well as by parents’ income and personal and social conversion factors. We use a new database based on German Socio Economic Panel (SOEP) data that allows assessing characteristics and interdependencies of major determinants of capabilities in early childhood. In our current paper we build upon our former results for two to three year-old children using a further extension of the German Socio-Economic Panel (GSOEP) added in 2008 with data for children aged five to six years. We assess the situation of 237 children aged five to six years in 2008. Besides income poverty we analyze opportunities like early childhood encouragement as well as activities outside and whether watching television on its own is not an exception for the child. For his or her social participation we differentiated between social participation which is exempt from charges and which charges fees. For the five to six years old, for the first time, functionings could be measured as personality traits of the child i.e. whether it is e.g. respectful to others, shares things with other children, is hyperactive and so on were assessed. While a deprivation in social participation which charges fees is highly correlated with income poverty and with a child’s television habits our findings based on logistic regression analyses suggest that this is not the case neither for the deprivation in free-of-charge social participation nor for a child’s early childhood encouragement. Children of income-poor families are, on the other hand, less affected by a deprivation in outdoor activities. The analyzed social conversion factors of the child have a high impact on the child’s capabilities and their functionings which can be measured: we see that children who are deprived of childhood encouragement are less helpful to others. Children who watch television regularly on their own treat others with less respect, lack concentration, feel unhappy more often and are more often mobbed by other children.



Childhood Poverty in Mozambique. A situation and trends analysis. [Members Only]
Dupraz, J. Handley, G. Willis, O. Submitted: 2007-09-17		This analysis of childhood poverty provides a comprehensive review of the socioeconomic situation of the ten million children in Mozambique and presents an overview of the public policy and service delivery environment for children. This in turn is intended to support the development and implementation of policies which help to reduce childhood poverty and strategies to reach the most vulnerable and marginalised children.



Children well-being and family characteristics in Italy [Members Only]
Addabbo, Tindara Di Tommaso, Maria Submitted: 2007-09-17		This paper explores the possibilities of using structural equation modelling to measure capabilities both at a theoretical and empirical level with special reference to child well being in Italy.



Children's development, a way for human development in Peru [Members Only]
Thorne, Cecilia Submitted:		El camino hacia el desarrollo humano está indefectiblemente ligado al desarrollo del niño. Como muchos países en vías de desarrollo, el Perú se caracteriza por una población joven, donde el 40% se encuentra por debajo de los 19 años y el 10% está por debajo de los 5 años. Más del 50% de los niños vive en condiciones de pobreza, lo que no permite su evolución favorable. Se presenta un panorama de la situación de la niñez en el Perú y el contexto en que crecen muchos niños. Se enfocan aspectos socioeconómicos, de salud y nutrición y de educación, que de una u otra manera afectan negativamente su desarrollo. Existe suficiente evidencia empírica en la que se destaca la importancia de los primeros años en la evolución favorable de la persona. Un buen inicio conlleva una serie de ventajas como el aumento en el éxito escolar, mejor empleo y una tasa de retorno significativa. A pesar de la evidencia, no existe en el país políticas sostenidas ni inversiones significativas que presten atención a los niños y niñas desde el nacimiento. Se discuten algunas propuestas y programas que promueven el desarrollo humano.



Children's development, a way for human development in Peru [Members Only]
Iguiñiz, Javier Submitted:		Substantive freedoms are the result of the interaction of, among others, economic, political and social instrumental freedoms. Two types of questions emerge. The first one relates to how free are agents in each sphere from those in the rest, and how helpful and limiting are such interactions. The second ones relate to how free are agents operating in the economy, and particularly inside the rules of the markets. This paper deals with the second type. How free can the economic agents be to participate in the market? But freedom in the economy has both instrumental and substantive freedom aspects. It is having both in mind that the problem of the distribution of substantive freedoms has to be addressed to face the challenge of markets. In this paper we are going to carry out a partial approximation to the analysis of such challenge, focusing our attention in one aspect of the workings of the market: competition among firms. We analyze three aspects of market competition. Although in each one of them one can appreciate different aspects of the freedom to compete, they also contribute specially to some of them. We propose that the “neoclassical general equilibrium” framework mainly contributes to the discussion of the outcomes of an economic activity, the “barriers to entry” approach calls for a study of the resources necessary to compete, and the “competition as a process” approach emphasizes the competitive activity itself. As we move from the first onwards, enriching the meaning of competition, the possibility of gaining and losing opportunities to participate in the market, and of doing it adequately becomes more evident. Entry and exit are after all part of the competitive process, but also are improvements and deterioration of capabilities. Each concept of competition responds to theories that specify or allude to certain types and distribution of freedoms of manoeuvre of economic agents in the competitive arena. Finally, we use the above distinctions to suggest some more causal connections between economic competition and development as expansion of freedom.



Children’s Good and the Limits of Pluralism Luara Ferracioli and Rosa Terlazzo [Members Only]
Submitted:



Classroom-hunger in the Context of Capability Approach: Analysis of the National Programme of Nutritional Support to Primary Education in India [Members Only]
Narayanan, Lakshmi Submitted: 2008-09-12



Conceptual Framework: Development Processes, Inequalities & the Capability to Achieve Health [Members Only]
Ariana, Proochista Saith, Ruhi Submitted: 2008-09-12



Conditional Cash Transfers, Empowerment and Knowledge of Rights. Evidence from the Uruguayan PANES [Members Only]
Amarante, Verónica Vigorito, Andrea Instituto de Economía Universidad de la Republica UY Submitted:		The aim of this paper is to understand to which extent conditional cash transfer programs (CCTs) can contribute to empowerment and knowledge of civil, political and labor rights of their beneficiary populations. By discussing this issue we will able to contribute to the debate on which policy actions are consistent with the capability approach. We study the impact of PANES (Plan Nacional a la Emergencia Social), a temporary package of interventions that included a conditional cash transfer program implemented in Uruguay in 2005-2007, on empowerment and knowledge of rights among its beneficiaries. We carry out an impact evaluation based on quasi experimental methods. Fostering social networks and social participation and increasing awareness of a broad set of civil, labor and political rights were explicit goals of this intervention and specific actions were carried out in order to achieve these goals. As in most CCTs, PANES involved conditionalities such as child school assistance and health checkups as well as participation in social activities (Rutas de Salida) and a workfare program (Trabajo por Uruguay). These activities could potentially have exerted an effect on outcomes such as knowledge of rights and empowerment. The main findings of this paper show that trust, participation and access to networks were unchanged. The only effect that was found in relation to social refers to trust in the President and on MIDES among beneficiaries.



Confronting Power Through Policy: on the creation and spread of liberating Knowledge [Members Only]
Hill, Marianne T. Submitted: 2007-09-17		The expansion of capability opportunities is an underlying objective of the capability approach. However, related goals such as righting basic social inequities or correcting ecological imbalances require changes in social institutions and practices. Such change in turn rests on the creation and spread of liberating knowledge and practices.



Constructing New Indicators of Learning Outcome [Members Only]
Young, Marion University of London, UK Submitted: 2008-09-12



Construction of a new indicator of development for the African countries [Members Only]
Ignace, Kamga Tchwaket Chomteu Kouam, Sorel Eloundou, Adolphe Freddy Submitted:		Since the Second World War, the economic growth to characterize the development was dreaded by the international community through a certain number of indicators. And so the GDP was used for a long time as the reference but considering the fact that this indicator does not take into account certain aspects of the development such as the well-being and the sustainable development, the UNDP proposed another indicator, the Human Development Index (HDI). Africa, the poorest continent of the world presents certain number of peculiarities which are not totally taken into account by the various indicators of development which were elaborated until now. This report biases a little the vision of the development which we can have of Africa. So, according to the indicator GDP by head it would seem that in 2005, Equatorial Guinea is the country the most developed in Africa, in front of Libya, South Africa and Nigeria. The HDI came a little to improve the measure of the development in particular in Africa. However it does not take into account all the aspects relative to the development of the African continent. In fact, the HDI does not include a very important dimension which is the one of the insertion of the populations in the active life. So, leaving of this report we elaborated a new indicator of development for Africa. This indicator, which we named Human Development Indicator for Africa (HDIA) was obtained by adding to the HDI the dimension occupational integration which we measure with an indicator of insertion calculated from the widened unemployment rate. The results obtained by simulations on some African countries were very decisive. Certain countries as Lesotho, the Burkina Faso saw their HDIA decreasing with regard to the HDI because of an indicator of very low insertion. This report is very relevant because it allows to notice that there is numerous efforts of insertion to be made in the country to move on the path of the development. We also noticed that certain countries saw rather their HDIA increasing with regard to the HDI. It allows to notice that the country was on a good path of struggle against poverty, but efforts should be realized in connection with the level of the HDIA.



Contribution of the capability approach to the building process of the European Higher Education Area. Theoretical discussion and practical proposals to foster democratic citizenship into University [Members Only]
Boni, Alejandra Lozano, Felix Submitted: 2007-09-17		In this paper, our purpose is to discuss the possibility of using the Capability Approach (CA) framework to criticize and complement the competences discourse on which European Higher Education Area is based and to analyze the fundamental knowledge, abilities, skills and values that must be promoted in education processes to encourage democratic citizenship in accordance with CA.



Cooperation for Capabilities Over-determined Responsibility and Twofold Fairness [Members Only]
Submitted:		Martha Nussbaum, in Frontiers of Justice (2006), updated her view on human capabilities and put forward ten principles that are intended to guide the corresponding socio-economic reform of the global structure. The very first of these principles emphasizes the overdetermination of responsibility for capabilities in the sense that the richer and the poorer nations are together responsible for providing a world-wide social minimum in terms of human capabilities. Over-determination of responsibility, however, also leads to complex questions about fairness as these responsibilities are to be allocated. In the current paper, the author will first calls attention to the idea of fair cooperation in capabilities promotion and then moves on to analyze how this abstract idea could be specified. He begins by showing how the distinction between symmetrical and asymmetrical fairness can be used to addess some nagging questions about ideal and non-ideal approaches to fair cooperation. He then moves on to identify another eleven distinctions about the concept of responsibility, beginning with the distinction between moral and non-moral responsibility and ending up with that between accountable and unaccountable responsibility. Finally, he spells out what these distinctions, which together form so called fair responsibilities for capabilities (FRC) framework, could mean in terms of responsibilities for education.



Corporate Responsibility and the Capability Approach to Development [Members Only]
Palmer, Eric Submitted: 2007-09-17		This presentation engages the capability approach to human development with libertarian philosophical foundations of business ethics as introduced by the Chicago School of economic theory. It particularly applies thinking from Amartya Sen’s Development as Freedom to discussions of freedom articulated in the writing of Milton Friedman, and characterization of the good for society authored by Michael Jensen.



Cosmopolitanism, global social justice and gender equality in education [Members Only]
Unterhalter, Elaine Submitted: 2007-09-17		This paper examines a debate in the literature on cosmopolitanism concerning different understandings of global social justice in the light of a number of declarations by UN organizations on gender equality in education. The paper attempts to locate the existing literature on gender, education and notions of the international within the discussion on global justice.



Counting and Multidimensional Poverty Measurement [Members Only]
Alkire, Sabina Foster, James Submitted: 2007-09-17		We present a simple new identification method using a dual cutoff approach. The paper then traces through this identification strategy for cardinal data and the Pa family of poverty measures and identifies the axioms that are satisfied. It then extends the identification strategy to the full ordinal case, and the mixed cardinal-ordinal and scrutinizes the properties of such measures. Thus far all discussion has employed equal weights for each dimension; now we demonstrate how to modify the identification strategy for general weights. The empirical application illustrates the core strategy and the modifications discussed, drawing on data from Indonesia and the USA.



Country Behavior on Human Development:All Good Things Don’t Always Go Together [Members Only]
Ranis, Gustav Stewart, Frances Samman, Emma Submitted: 2007-09-17		The central aim of this paper is to adopt a more expansive definition of HD than that encompassed by the HDI, in order to explore such alternative patterns of country behavior. We are interested in identifying countries which, for one reason or another, seem to do particularly well on one dimension and less well on others, or particularly badly on one dimension and better on others, as well as managing to do well on all, or failing to do well on any.



Creating Empowering Environments: How Action on the Urban Built Environment Can Enhance Basic Capabilities and Freedoms [Members Only]
Luxion, Mona Oxford Brookes University Oxford GB Submitted:		In a world with growing urban poverty, urban environmental considerations are increasingly important. This paper looks at the impacts of built environment projects on six basic capabilities: health; safety; association; livelihood; senses, imagination, and thought; and control over one's environment. Drawing on design theory, case studies from Indonesia, Kenya, and South Africa, and a review of the literature in a number of fields, the author makes the case for practitioners to incorporate actions on the built environment as a tool to promote human development. Further, this paper examines the role of citizen participation in empowering environments, finding that successful projects need a balance of training, participation, and leadership to be sustainable. In conclusion, the author presents a model of empowering environments, with implications for both practice and academia, and calls for further research on the topic.



Cultura, educación y desarrollo: Cambios en las relaciones entre genero y religión
Basterretxea, Iziar Submitted:		Desde que comenzaron a desarrollarse los estudios de opinión y los sondeos generalizados de comportamiento es una verdad universalmente aceptada que las mujeres son más conservadoras que los hombres. Desde la aprobación de la Constitución Española de 1978, y el reconocimiento constitucional de la igualdad de géneros, la educación ha conseguido ser un derecho garantizado por el estado, expandirse de forma que hoy la mayor parte de los estudiantes universitarios son mujeres y ampliarse para las mujeres a cualquier tipo de estudio. En este contexto, encontramos que entre los más jóvenes , los porcentajes de hombres y mujeres que se declaran religiosos tienden a equipararse. Además, entre quienes declaran haber abandonado la religión el porcentaje de mujeres es mayor que el de hombres. Es decir, que los cambios de patrones culturales y educativos ofrecen la posibilidad de construir nuevas identidades que rompen la relación mujer-conservadurismo religioso.



Decentralization, poverty and inequality reduction analysis by capability approach: The case of Ankilivalo rural common (Madagascar) [Members Only]
Razikatiana, Sahondra Submitted: 2007-09-17		The issues of this article are organizing around the following question: do the poorest categories see their participation, space of freedom and choices widened by decentralization system?



Decomposing changes in multidimensional poverty in 10 countries. [Members Only]
Apablaza, Mauricio Pablo Ocampo, Juan Yalonetzky, Gaston Submitted:		Among the burgeoning literature on multidimensional poverty indices, the Alkire- Foster (AF) measure stands out for its resilience to identify the multidimensionally poor with cut-o¤ criteria that cover the spectrum from the union approach to the intersec- tion approach. The intuitive and easy applicability of the identi?cation and aggrega- tion methods used by the index are re?ected in ongoing adoption of the AF measure to di¤erent applications including topics related and unrelated to poverty measurement. This paper shows intuitive ways to monitor changes in multidimensional poverty across time using the AF measure for cross-sectional data. The empirical applications track changes in poverty for ten developing countries using DHS datasets. We ?nd that most countries experienced signi?cant reductions in multidimensional poverty. How- ever the relative contributions of reductions in the number of multidimensionally poor people vis-a-vis reduction in the average number of deprivations varies substantially by country.



Deconstructing neo-liberalism to construct democracy [Members Only]
Reynaud, Patricia Submitted: 2007-09-17		My presentation will focus on Le nouvel esprit du capitalisme authored by two sociologists, Luc Boltansky and Eve Chiapello.1 Not available in English, this major work deserves to be made accessible to an American academic audience. The authors observe that, as capital is more prosperous than ever, the social fabric of society is rapidly deteriorating. To address the increasing discrepancy, they think that new theoretical tools are needed with which neo-liberalism may be understood better and critiqued with more pertinence



Defending Capabilities: more than unrestricted preference satisfaction; less than unacceptable paternalism1 [Members Only]
Cripps, Elizabeth Submitted: 2007-09-17		The aim of this paper is to sketch a version of the capabilities approach, as identifying the components of, or conditions for, human flourishing, which neither collapses into a preference satisfaction account, nor becomes unacceptably paternalistic. Call this the Preference-or-Paternalism Puzzle (PPP), and the two components of the complaint the Preferences Accusation and the Paternalism Accusation.



Definition of equality and framework for measurement: Final Recommendations of the Equalities Review Steering Group on Measurement [Members Only]
Vizard, Polly Burchardt, Tania Submitted: 2007-09-17		Following consultation on its Interim Report, the Equalities Review commissioned the authors of this report, Tania Burchardt and Polly Vizard (both at the Centre for Analysis of Social Exclusion, London School of Economics), to take forward the development of a framework for monitoring equality in Britain based on the capability approach.This paper summarises the recommendations of the Steering Group on Measurement, and outlines the measurement framework, proposed techniques for analysis, and data needs.



Deliberative Action Arenas on Public Policy Making in Conflict Zones: A Case Study with Women’s Groups in Colombia [Members Only]
Abitbol, Pablo Flechas, Daniel Submitted: 2008-09-12



Democratization and Human Development: How an idea on the former transformed the latter and challenged modernization theory in Central America [Members Only]
Acuña - Alfaro, Jairo Submitted: 2007-09-17		This paper argues that democracy should be considered a capability – a potentiality. This paper evaluates the effect of prescribing democracy as a remedy that contributes to cause advances in human development in Central America.



Democratizing Policy Making in India: Role of Participatory and Deliberative Governance in Advancing Human Capabilities and Freedoms [Members Only]
Mandira, Kala Submitted: 2007-09-17		Is the design of participatory and deliberative governance appropriate for advancing capabilities and freedoms of ordinary citizens? In practical terms, how do deliberative democratic institutions overcome power dynamics to enhance citizen voice, capabilities and freedoms? The present paper provides a theoretical context for participatory and deliberative governance and the capability approach.



Deprivation and capability: Poverty measurement in a European context [Members Only]
Hick, Rod Submitted:		In providing a framework for engaging in interpersonal analysis of well-being, the capability approach makes a significant shift away from the dominant traditions of poverty analysis in welfare economics. However, within the field of social policy a range of approaches to conceptualising and measuring poverty and deprivation exist, some of which share important similarities with the capability approach. One particular tradition of poverty measurement in Europe is the use of deprivation indicators in large scale social surveys as a direct measure in order to identify the poor. The deprivation indicators that are used typically relate to a range of activities and commodities that a person does / has. Furthermore, the question wording that is typically adopted looks not just at participating in certain activities (do you do x?) but for those who do not participate in such activities asks whether this is by choice or whether they have been constrained due to a lack of income. Thus, these do look at one specific constraint on a persons ability to engage in specific activities (namely due to lack of resources) but clearly exclude all other potential constraining factors (e.g. disability or discrimination). While there are broad similarities in the deprivation items used in the major UK and EU social surveys, there is less agreement about how to use the information these gather to determine a poverty line, with a variety of approaches adopted (e.g. Townsend, 1979; Gordon et al, 2000; Saunder and Adelman, 2006; Whelan and Maitre, 2007). However, it may be useful to formally compare such approaches to the capability approach in terms of poverty measurement. To what extent do the current deprivation indicators measure capability failure? Does capability measurement require completely new measures or could some of the existing measures that are used in poverty analysis in Europe be used or amended to measure capability deprivation? The paper will (i) outline some poverty concepts and measures that are common in the European context that share some similarities with the capability approach, (ii) examine specifically the deprivation indicators approach from a capability perspective, (iii) discuss the possibility of using deprivation indicators to measure capability failure and (iv) highlight the challenges that exist in constructing a poverty measure using deprivation indicators. The paper draws on the doctoral research of the author which examines the possibilities and limitations of capability approach for the measurement of poverty in a European context.



Deprivation and Social Exclusion in Switzerland : An Analysis of the Swiss Household Panel [Members Only]
Macculi, Iris Submitted:



Derechos para libertades: El caso del derecho a la salud [Members Only]
Saco, Alexandro Submitted:



Desafíos teórico-metodológicos en el abordaje de la segregación residencial [Members Only]
Suárez, Ana Lourdes Universidad Católica Argentina Buenos Aires AR Submitted:		La segregación residencial es un proceso por el que se van conformando territorios polarizados basados en coordenadas sociales de diferenciación, que se visualizan especialmente en los ámbitos urbanos densamente poblados y desiguales. El paper presenta una discusión teórico-metodológica en torno al tema. Se presentan las dos dimensiones constitutivas de la segregación residencial: la concentración territorial de la pobreza, y la insuficiente articulación de los territorios en la trama urbana (geografía de oportunidades), y sus implicancias para la cohesión social. Desde una perspectiva metodológica se presentan dos tipos de indicadores. Los primeros analizan la evolución de asentamientos precarios y de urbanizaciones cerradas; los segundos describen los procesos socioterritoriales a través de índices de segregación. Se discuten las implicancias, dificultades y desafíos vinculados a la utilización de estos indicadores.



Desarrollo humano y políticas de reconocimiento [Members Only]
Tubino, Fidel Submitted:		El desarrollo humano es una normativa que se propone la ampliación de las libertades y las capacidades de las personas para que puedan realizarse de acuerdo a los valores y al modelo de vida buena que han elegido. En este sentido, la “libertad cultural” ocupa un lugar medular en la propuesta del desarrollo humano pues consiste en “ poder optar “ por un plan de vida de acuerdo a un modelo de vida y una jerarquía de valores no impuesta desde fuera. En el lenguaje de Martha Nussbaum, la libertad cultural es una capacidad combinada pues involucra el desarrollo tanto de una disposición interior como de un conjunto de condiciones externas que hagan posible su actualización efectiva. Y si dichas condiciones externas no existen entonces hay que generarlas. Desde este punto de vista , la estigmatización social, la discriminación y el racismo son obstáculos externos que bloquean el desarrollo de la libertad cultural de las personas pertenecientes a los grupos injustamente menospreciados de la sociedad. Se hace por ello necesario implementar desde los actores “ políticas de reconocimiento “ de la diversidad , tanto multiculturales como interculturales, que generen aquellas condiciones que hagan posible que los sectores discriminados accedan al ejercicio de la libertad cultural y con ello, del desarrollo humano que merecen.



Design Is Ceremony: Knowledge, Culture and Power in Indigenous Design
Nichols, Crighton University of Sydney Sydney AU Submitted:		The notion that different cultures will have different perceptions on what it means to ‘do’ design seems intuitive, yet to date scant attention has been paid to non-Western interpretations. This paper demonstrates the applicability of the process of re-interpreting the meaning of the interrelated dimensions of agency, culture and knowledge from an Indigenous perspective, and explores how these interpretations can inform an understanding of contemporary Indigenous design. The purpose is to help address the chronic under-representation of Indigenous Australians in the technical design professions, such as architecture, engineering and product/industrial design, by making them more relevant and accessible to Indigenous Australians. This has the potential to create meaningful employment opportunities whilst maintaining cultural integrity, leading to a greater sense of self-determination. Additionally, being capable of technical design is a necessary (though not sufficient) requirement to democratise the technology transfer process, which will inform government investments in areas such as Indigenous housing and the roll-out of high-speed internet connectivity in Australia. Finally, the decolonising process is likely to yield significant policy implications in terms of how to best empower Indigenous communities and strengthen their cultural identity. In essence, Indigenous technical design appears to be more consensual, harmonious and subtle in nature. The profit motive is less emphasised, and the context more so, allowing a deeper meaning, or story, to influence the design. The next step of future research in this area will be to critique, evaluate and refine the proposed understanding of design through detailed discussions with Indigenous Australian technical designers professionals. This work may be complimented by identify relevant case studies, possibly in the Indigenous housing design or Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) fields. Finally, the appropriate methodologies required to support an Indigenous design pedagogy also require further investigation.



Design, implementation and evaluation of public management systems/ Diseño, implementación y evaluación de los sistemas de administración pública [Members Only]
Roquette, Francisco Submitted:		This thesis aims at overcoming a gap identified in the design, implementation and evaluation of public management systems: an explicit focus on and embedding of human development outcomes. Building on Sen's capability approach, the thesis explores the delivery of agricultural extension services in the Amhara region of Ethiopia. Through survey work and in-depth interviews it builds up a detailed picture of how user groups rank and value particular capabilities, understood as their ability to achieve certain functionings, and how far public services contribute to the accomplishment of these functionings. It then examines a recent business process reengineering initiative of the bureau of agriculture from the point of view of its contribution to capability expansion. Similarly, the measurement and evaluation system of the bureau is critically reviewed. The thesis analyses an emergent alternative to existing approaches based on the use of real time feedback from users to service providers and it demonstrates how the informational richness that stems from impact evaluation - including the process of choice, functionings and capabilities - can be used to enhance the effectiveness of service delivery. This emergent approach, labelled here the Public Sector Impact approach, can be seen to provide a superior management philosophy and system for public services in developing countries.



Designer Diversity: Moving Beyond Categorical Branding [Members Only]
DePoy, Elizabeth Gilson, Stephen Submitted: 2008-09-12



Determinants of Poverty in Developing Countries: Factors that Effect the Human Poverty Index
Prince, Heath The Heller School for Social Policy and Management, Brandeis University Waltham US Submitted:		This paper is a preliminary exploration of factors that theory and the development literature suggest should contribute to changes in the United Nation Development Program’s Human Poverty Index (HPI) for developing countries. It is primarily concerned with inteventions that relate to economic growth, the expansion of human capabilities, and the development of assets. The study focuses on the outcomes of a panel data set of HPI scores for a set of 108 developing countries, between 1998 and 2007. Several models are created to empirically test the relationship between the HPI and indicators relating to economic growth-based, capabilities-based and asset-based approaches to development. Preliminary findings suggest that growth-based interventions have a mixed effect on poverty reduction, depending on the level of a country’s deprivation. Education, livestock value, and the employment to population ratio all tend to reduce deprivation, while other variables included in these models suggest no relationship to deprivation.



Determinants of Student Achievements in Primary Education in Paraguay [Members Only]
Otter, Thomas Villalobos, Carlos Submitted:		The idea that schooling scores depend on a combination of family background characteristics, ability and school (institutional) variables is quite clear. Regarding the issue of intergenerational transmission of inequality in the educational system, the most important question would be if and to what extent could a better institutional performance of the school service compensate for problems related to family background. By means of the estimation of a reduced form equation for selected scores, we investigate the impact of institutional performance on scores after controlling for family background and individual characteristics. We do this by using a novel data set and an OLS and quantile regression approach to analyze how heterogeneous the process of score generation can be. By providing integral health solutions, minimizing under-nutrition and providing ideal conditions in the classroom, training teachers can impact positively on low and mean learning outcomes, thus contributing to an improved educational quality and breaking cycles of intergenerational transmission of inequality. Increasing learning outcomes for levels above the median, only strengthens the transmission of inequality. Consequently, the equality approach should focus on trying to improve the worst scores and our results show that this can be reached at a significant level closing teacher training gaps, improving classroom conditions and improving health and nutrition.



Developing a capability list: Final Recommendations of the Equalities Review Steering Group on Measurement [Members Only]
Burchardt, Tania Vizard, Polly Submitted: 2007-09-17		The current paper focuses on the need for a list of central and valuable capabilities in terms of which inequality in Britain can be conceptualised and appraised (a ‘capability list’). The paper sets out a methodological framework for developing a capability list involving (1) derivation of a core capability list from the international human rights framework; (2) supplementation and refinement of the core list through democratic deliberation and debate.



Developing Indigenous human rights-based instruments and mechanisms for observation and evaluation of child welfare policies within the context of family violence among Aboriginal Australian communiti [Members Only]
Nziou, Yolande Grace Submitted:



Developing Research Culture in Higher Education: A Collaborative Approach [Members Only]
Ullah, Rahmat Afridi, Tahira Submitted: 2008-09-12



Development and Poverty Reduction: Economics and Human Rights Perspectives [Members Only]
Marks, Stephen Mahal, Ajay Submitted: 2007-09-17		Governments, development agencies, and other stakeholders have undertaken international commitments to link human rights to poverty reduction and to development more generally. Secondly, human rights specialists have been introducing quantitative and qualitative indicators to measure progress, including with respect to social and economic development, and to take into account resource limitations in achieving human rights goals These considerations,form the backdrop for the present inquiry into the relative insights and potential linkages of the perspective of economics and human rights.



Development Dynamics in Cyprus: Engaging Youth in Civic Participation [Members Only]
Peristianis, Nicos Bosio, Elisa University of Nicosia CY Submitted:		Young Cypriots are at a crossroads. Amid political uncertainty they are struggling with their transition from childhood to adulthood in a world that is increasingly competitive, challenging and confusing. Their pursuit of education, decent jobs, friends and relationships is taking place against the background noise of the Cyprus Problem. This paper begins by presenting an overview of the first Human Development Report for Cyprus, which explored key human development dynamics in Cypriot society through focusing on perhaps of the most critical stakeholder in the future of the island, namely youth. More specifically, the Report brought to the fore the voices of young Cypriots through a research study, which for the first time mapped the aspirations of youth in both the Greek-Cypriot and Turkish-Cypriot communities; it was largely based on the results of a comprehensive, island-wide Youth Aspiration Survey administered to over 1,600 young Cypriots across the island. Based on these sources, this paper will present the aspirations and perceptions of youth in a variety of areas, including relationships with their families and views on education. Attitudes towards national identity interaction with individuals from the other community, and young peoples’ opinions on building peace in Cyprus are also explored. The paper then examines how Cypriot youth grow to become entrenched in the Cyprus Problem, feeling unable to contribute to its resolution. From an early age, the development of Cypriot youth is affected by the typically overprotective relationships that form between them and their families. The other side of the ‘safety’ provided by their families is dependence and feelings of powerlessness – which can potentially result in problems that spill over into all domains of the lives of Cypriot youth, such as education and socio-political participation. The paper explores how the relationship between Cypriot youth and their families and, consequently, the impact that this may have on the development of Cypriot youth, may be explicated through Bourdieu’s concept of habitus. The paper concludes that, ultimately, youth development needs to be geared towards ensuring that all young people have the tools and skills to thrive in the communities and countries in which they live.



Development Outcomes of Internet and Mobile Phones Use in Kenya: The Households’ Perspectives. [Members Only]
Nyambura Ndung’u, Margaret Waema, Timothy M. Submitted:		Usage of Internet and mobile phones referred to as the “new technologies” in the paper, have promoted and sometimes hindered various aspects of development bringing radical changes to Kenyan’s households in the last couple of years. RIA (2007) established that households with as little as Ksh. 774 (US$10.32) monthly income owned a mobile phone or had an active SIM card. Those who had an average income of Ksh. 12,823 (US$ 171) had access to Internet from homes. With the rapid spread of mobile broadband, Internet usage at the household level is expected to have increased and to have led to some development outcomes. This paper makes use of the Capability Approach model as the research framework and focuses on the social, economic and knowledge development outcomes of Internet and mobile phone use at the household level, using the RIA (2007) data and qualitative data from a Preliminary survey (2010). It notes that the social, economic and knowledge status of individuals, coupled with the choices they make determines the extent to which use of these technologies results to development outcomes. The paper will establish the development outcomes associated with the rapid spread and usage of the Internet and mobile phones at the household level and explore if the wide usage is expanding or shrinking the capabilities of the households’. The paper makes some recommendations on further research on the effects of new technologies on quality of life.



Development Policy Trade-Offs in History? Human Development Reports, Capabilities Approach and Sustainable Development [Members Only]
Kuonqui, Christopher Submitted: 2007-09-17		While several human development theorists make valuable contributions to the framework of sustainable development, the full dimension of linkages between the concepts and policies of sustainable development and the capabilities approach remains partially unexplored. This paper attempts to further establish the links between these two approaches by comparative analysis of concepts, policies and measures deployed across 15 global, regional and national Human Development Reports (HDRs).



Development, Rights, and Indigenous Australians – A Critique of Australian Government Policy Using the Capability Approach [Members Only]
Vaughan, Donna Submitted:		The United Nations Declaration on the Right to Development (UN RTD) 1986 requires the State to ensure equal access and opportunity to participate in the economic, social, cultural and political domains and distributional equity in the allocation of State resources. The United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UN DRIP) 2007 lays down the rights of Indigenous people to maintain, protect and develop their own political, economic and social systems (Article 20), to the improvement of their economic and social conditions without discrimination (Article 21), and to set development priorities and strategies for exercising their right to development (Article 23). The previous Australian Government in office until 2007 did not support the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous people when it was first proclaimed in September 2007 however this position was reversed by the new (current) Government elected in late 2007 who eventually announced its support for the Declaration in April 2009. The position of the previous Government was based on a concern that its policies might not be construed as compliant with the declaration, even though it considered them to be consistent with a human rights based approach and consistent with the obligations of the State to accord these rights to all people without discrimination. In this paper I begin by comparing current Government policy to the UN DRIP with reference to the situation of Australian Indigenous people. I conclude that policy remains unchanged from the previous Government and is focused on developing Indigenous communities in line with Government priorities based on a uniform service delivery, welfare and economic model as applied to the rest of the population and country. I then examine concepts of Indigenous well-being from Government, civil society and the literature, and a subjective community view taken from my own fieldwork. While Government limits itself to measurable and quantifiable social and economic development outcomes the literature argues for a broader set of well-being objectives specifically for Indigenous people. The subjective community view, taken from my own field research, is anchored in a very different paradigm to that of Government, that is, one based on their traditional connection to country. In the final part of the paper I attempt to illustrate how the capability approach as a focus for policy would result in a better alignment with the intent of the UN DRIP. Acknowledging that the imperative for Government to ‘close the gap’ on severe Indigenous disadvantage in access to resources and services is overwhelming, I propose a parallel strategy to the current policy approach to enable Indigenous Australians to progressively take charge of their own development in line with the UN DRIP and their particular aspirations for well-being. This paper draws on a Doctoral research project currently nearing completion which uses the capability approach to evaluate Government policy on Information and Communications Technology (ICT) for development as it relates to communities and also to evaluate community ICT initiatives for their contribution to well-being as defined by the community. The research has been conducted in Sri Lanka and in four remote Indigenous communities in Cape York Australia.



Dialogue and Non Violent Communication: a Capability Approach [Members Only]
Motmans, Jos Motmans, Jannes Submitted:		Democracy and political freedom are fundaments of Sen’s capability approach. In Development as Freedom (2001:145-159) he clearly illustrates not only the instrumental significance of both for the process of development but also its intrinsic importance and its constructive role in the selection and ordering of people’s needs and capabilities. Although Sen’s point of view is clear and acceptable, this is not the case with his answer to the question of ‘How to realise and how to implement democracy and political freedom?' However the need and the will for coherent and effective strategies to implement democracy and political freedom grows in a globalizing world. New notions of governance arise, new and different issues come to the fore and new mental frameworks concerning political participation are formed. As Steven Rosell (2004:47) states, traditional governance and decision making was relatively simple. The homogenous elite that was involved in policy making had, most of the time, a same social and cultural background, similar system believes and language. However, homogeneity is changing towards diversity as a result of globalisation. This change is confronting us with new challenges on the field of governance. In this article we state that dialogue and non violent communication are both necessary and complementary additional steps in decision making processes confronted with this new complexity. This does not apply to the national policy alone, but to the international policy as well. Classic interpretation and implementation of democracy and political freedom is no longer sufficient. Future orientated democracies better call on people’s natural born competences to step in dialogue, to communicate in a non violent way and to enlarge their capabilities to practice these competences in order to create a sustainable fundament for political freedom, as a mean (the instrumental contribution), an end (the intrinsic importance) and for its constructive role in development. After we explain the concept of dialogue and non violent communication both as a competence and a capability, we illustrate our central statement in the case of the Palestinian Occupied Territories. In our conclusion we also set a draft for a further research agenda.



Disabled Children and the Capabilities Approach in Conflict - Affected Fragile States: What Can We Learn from the Capability Approach [Members Only]
Bakhshi, Parul Kett, Maria Trani, Jean-Francois Submitted: 2008-09-12



Discussing Development Planning and the Capability Approach: Capturing Complexities and Safeguarding Participation. [Members Only]
Ferrero, Gabriel Osorio, Loma Apsan Frediani, Alexandre Submitted:		In the field of Development Planning, since the end of the Second World War different strategies have been put forward to support the practice of development. Approaches have been elaborated and implemented, influenced by assumptions, pragmatic needs and underpinning conceptualizations of poverty and development. As international donors aim to increase their budgets for aid and the development industry become more concerned with the effectives of their programmes, the field of development planning has become increasingly important, by providing reflection and operational guidelines for practitioners in this industry. The tendencies in the new generation of tools from the field of development planning aims at capturing the multi dimensions of poverty, absorbing complexities of social realities while safeguarding participatory methods from its instrumental and limited application. However there is still a need for a conceptual framework that can address those tendencies while also being applicable for development initiatives. This paper hopes to contribute such debate by making the links between development planning literature and the Capability Approach. It aims to assess how far the Capability Approach can contribute to the theoretical discussions underpinning the new generation of development planning tools. Meanwhile, it hopes to contribute to the operationalization of the Capability Approach, by assessing particular tools from development planning literature that can support the application of the concept of capabilities in the practice of development.



Displacement and development ethics: Theories and two Peruvian case studies [Members Only]
Gasper, Des Merino, Lenny Submitted:



Displacement, Identity, and Human Capabilities: Martha Nussbaum's Development Ethics and Joyce Carol Oates's The Gravedigger's Daughter [Members Only]
Chatterjee, Srirupa Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur, India Submitted: 2008-09-12



Does Political Reservation for Minorities Reduce Poverty? Evidence from India [Members Only]
Prakash, Nishith Submitted: 2008-09-12



Doing Business With The Poor: Beneficial For Profits AND The Poor? [Members Only]
Volkert, Juergen Zoll, Florian Submitted:



Dynamic aspects of capability deprivation on the micro-level; an empirical assessment for Germany using the SMOP method [Members Only]
Arndt, Christian Strotmann, Harald Volkert, Juergen Submitted: 2007-09-17		This paper contributes to reducing the lack of longitudinal microlevel CA studies by examining whether the application of the “Surface Measure of Overall Performance (SMOP) approach” might be a suitable way to aggregate multiple capability deprivation and to analyse the dynamics of capability failure.



Early childhood development as a foundation of Human Development [Members Only]
Llanos, Martha Submitted:



Early Childhood, Agency, and Capability Deprivation: A quantitative analysis using German socio-economic panel data
Wuest, Kirsten Volkert, Juergen Hochschule Pforzheim Pforzheim DE Submitted:		Based on a recent extension of the German Socio-Economic Panel (GSOEP) data for children aged zero to three years old, we assess the situation of 1,067 babies that were born in Germany between 2002 and 2006 as well as the follow-up results for 457 children who were two or three years old in and after 2005. Besides income poverty we analyzed the health situation of children as measured by the participation in preventive medical examination for infants, the infant education and the social participation. Although income poverty and a deprivation in the childrens’ health care and education are highly correlated, our findings based on logistic regession analysis, suggest that it is first of all the household type and the mother’s educational degree that affect the non-income childrens’ functionings.



Eastern European way of political and social-economic transformations
Genyk, Mykola Senych, Maria Subcarpathian National University named after V.Stefanyk Ivano-Frankivsk UA Submitted:		The struggle for political changes was the main substance of the activity of oppositional movements of East Central Europe (ECE). ECE was the region of the greatest geopolitical changes. For the period Cold War ECE was the weakest region of Soviet Bloc. The turning-stage in Cold War became Helsinki Conference. The fixation of borders inviolability and human rights guaranteeing created preconditions for liberal evolution of Soviet totalitarianism. After Helsinki Conference organized oppositional movements emerged – Polish Independency Mutual Understanding, Ukrainian Helsinki Group, Czech Charter’77, Confederation of Independent Poland, Association of Independent Trade-Unions “Solidarity” etc. Emigration had a great influence on elaboration of transformation conceptions. The task of disassembling of Pax Sovietica was also provided for solution of complex of problems of national and social character in post-communist period. It included formation of a new geopolitical order, solution of the borders problem, national minorities, the overcoming of international stereotypes and international reconciliation.



Ecology and the Limits of Justice: Establishing Capability Ceilings in Nussbaum’s “Capabilities Approach” [Members Only]
Holland, Breena Submitted: 2007-09-17		In this paper I want to consider a normative question that bears on the rise of economic goals to this position of prominence in the environmental debate.



Economic Growth, Inequality and Human Development: Experience of Indian States [Members Only]
Prabhu, K. Seeta UNDP, India Submitted: 2008-09-12



Educated Indian Women’s Experiences of Education and Human Capabilities: A Location of Challenges and Hopes [Members Only]
Sharma-Brymer, Vinathe Fox, Christine Submitted: 2008-09-12



Education and Adaptive Preferences in Ethiopia [Members Only]
Ridley, Barbara Submitted: 2008-09-12



Education and Human Development in Gujarat, India [Members Only]
Dutta, Indira Submitted: 2008-09-12



Education and Human Development: Coexistence [Members Only]
Prabhu, Narayan Krishna Submitted: 2008-09-12



Education and Human Development: Patterns of Potential Human Progress [Members Only]
Dickson, Janet R. Submitted: 2007-09-17		This paper reports on the development and early use of a forecasting system for exploring the future of global education and its relationships to broader human development. Although the central purpose of the broader project is to explore global educational and human development paths and to investigate human leverage to affect those paths, the primary purpose of this paper is to introduce the tool under development. Provision and consideration of its early results in historic context and relative to other forecasts helps us evaluate its strengths and weaknesses and determine the next steps for the project.



Educational Attainment and School-to-Work Conversion of Roma in Romania [Members Only]
Kosko, Stacy J. University of Maryland Submitted:		The right to education is enshrined in numerous international declarations and treaties. It is also one of the surest ways for individuals to expand their own set of valuable capabilities and, as a source of dignity and even joy, can be inherently valuable. Unfortunately, for many Europeans, the promise of a rich education remains unrealized. This crisis is especially acute for Europe’s eight to ten million Roma, or “Gypsies”, a great many of whom never complete primary, let alone secondary, school. This lack of education is both a cause and a consequence of the severe social, economic and political marginalization many Roma face. However, few empirical studies have examined this issue. This paper calls into question the assumption that educational opportunity is something that all “have reason to value” if it does not bring clear benefits—for example future income—if at the same time it interrupts the pursuit of other valuable opportunities, such as those for present income. While perhaps not a silver bullet, education may be one of the most powerful weapons available to combat exclusion, poverty, and abuse. It is also crucial to developing the critical agency necessary to recognize and pursue the things in life that one values and has reason to value. Yet the opportunity to expand one’s capability set through education is enjoyed unevenly by Roma and non-Roma, not only because of differences in quality but because Roma “pursue” fewer years of education. Clearly, the severe imbalance between average years of education among Roma and non-Roma contributes to Roma poverty and marginalization. Thus, one important policy question is whether Roma are actually receiving less education than non-Roma once we account for factors such as poverty, or whether it is that the poor are receiving less education and that the Roma account for many of the poor. Either case represents a failure on the part of the government to meet its human rights obligations, but there is something particularly troubling about the wholesale educational marginalization of a particular ethnic group, poverty notwithstanding. There is also evidence that, even given the same number of years of schooling, Roma are still less able to convert that education into gainful employment. Given the value of education in expanding one’s real capability set, this dampened school-to-work conversion among Roma might be one source of so many Roma individuals’ “revealed preference” to consume less education. This paper explores two questions which aim to assist the Romanian government in identifying the most effective policies for increasing educational attainment among its most disadvantaged group. Relying on 2002 census data from Romania—the country with the largest Roma population in Europe—I first test whether Romanian Roma complete primary education at the same rate as non-Roma and find that being Roma reduces the odds of finishing eighth grade by 96 percent. Even when 2 important factors such as native language and income are accounted for, being Roma still reduces the odds of attaining primary education by a staggering 76.8 percent. Next, this study seeks to explain this difference: Do Roma simply not “value” education? I hypothesize that the high opportunity cost of education (due to the extreme poverty many Roma face) combined with perceptions of low returns to education (due to comparatively high unemployment levels and low average wages) decreases the incentive to stay in school and can result in a rational calculus to drop out. Put another way, Roma may have less reason to value education in the face of immediate deprivation. Logistic regressions reveal that the odds of being employed at all are 65 percent lower for Roma and remain 57 percent lower even when I control for a variety of factors including education. Roma also have two and a half times the odds of winding up in unskilled labor regardless of education level; that figure jumps to six times the odds if we remove the controls. I hypothesize that one omitted variable that could be driving these results might be discrimination in hiring. Another might be differences in the quality of education, with many Roma being sent to “special schools” for children with learning disabilities. This study reveals that not only are Roma completing fewer years of schooling than similarly situated non-Roma, they are less able to convert that education into gainful employment, a fact that compounds and perpetuates existing inequalities between groups. If the government wishes to increase educational attainment of Roma, it should take into account the problem of disrupted school-to-work conversion. Further, this evidence provides an alternative to the often heard explanation that Roma do not “value” education and instead forces us to ask whether the education they are receiving is something that they should “have reason to value” if it does not result in an expanded capability set, especially given the high opportunity cost of secondary schooling.



Effective Freedom and Combined Capabilities:Two Different Conceptions of Capability [Members Only]
Lessmann, Ortrud Submitted: 2007-09-17		In many areas Amartya Sen and Martha Nussbaum, the two main advocates of the Capability Approach (CA), argue along the same lines and eve use similar phrasing. This paper argues that Sen’s and Nussbaum’s conceptions of capability differ fundamentally. This is done with regard to several components of the conception of capability.



Efficiency and Equity under the Domain of Social Evaluation Space in India [Members Only]
Ratnesh, Kumar Pt. Jawaharlal Nehru P.G. College, Banda, India Submitted: 2008-09-12



El desarrollo de la sociabilidad en la población de Buenos Aires: un aporte para su operacionalización enmarcado en el enfoque de las capacidades
Lépore, Silvia Pontificia Universidad Católica Argentina Capital Federal AR Submitted:		Este documento se inspira en el enfoque de las capacidades de Sen, que enriquece Nussbaum. Se propone una operacionalización de la Sociabilidad concebida como el conjunto de relaciones sociales horizontales y verticales que las personas manifiestan en una pluralidad de vínculos que se diferencian según el estrato socioeconómico. Esta natural capacidad de relacionarse caracteriza a todos los individuos, pero no todos logran convertirla en un funcionamiento valioso, originándose efectos de aislamiento, especialmente en los sectores más desaventajados. A su vez la población exhibe una marcada preferencia por mantener relaciones cercanas mientras son poco propensas a involucrarse en emprendimientos colectivos. Esto ratifica la segmentación y polarización de la sociedad estudiada y la heterogeneidad entre los estratos bajos. Los indicadores fueron elaborados con los microdatos de la Encuesta de la Deuda Social Argentina (EDSA) de la Pontificia Universidad Católica Argentina correspondientes al Área Metropolitana de Buenos Aires.



El enfoque de derechos en el desarrollo rural [Members Only]
Guerrero, Grace Larenas, René Submitted:		El enfoque de derechos, concebido como la posibilidad de exigir el cumplimiento de los deberes del Estado y de ampliar las capacidades de las personas para ejercer sus deberes y derechos humanos, se torna una tarea impostergable para las Agencias de Cooperación y todos los actores que trabajan en el desarrollo rural en América Latina. Ello supone un esfuerzo por declinar las agendas propias y volcarse a apoyar las iniciativas locales con una visión y práctica que respete la integralidad que implica el desarrollo, teniendo como centro a la persona humana. Varias agencias de cooperación al desarrollo están reactivando la discusión de su cooperación, los impactos que han generado, los montos que están destinando para cooperación al desarrollo y sus enfoques. Como ejemplos de esta necesidad está la firma de presidentes de los estados miembros de la ONU para conseguir los objetivos de desarrollo del milenio (ODM) y de la reunión de París, parte de los encuentros que periódicamente realiza la OCDE. Los enfoques de apoyo a los sectores más pobres se han realizado tradicionalmente como medidas sectoriales, en los campos de educación, salud, seguridad social, vivienda, protección de grupos vulnerables (mujeres, niños, jóvenes, indígenas, afro-descendientes) o en “situación de riesgo”. Esta visión sectorizada, y de hecho fragmentada, socava las posibilidades de lograr cobertura, impacto y eficiencia en el acceso a mejores condiciones en dichos campos “sociales”. Muchas veces, estos enfoques se han dado desde una perspectiva “paternalista”, desde el que más tiene hacia el “pobre o empobrecido”, y muchas veces, como una “concesión o dádiva”.



El poder de las TIC sobre el desarrollo productivo y social poder de las tic sobre el desarrollo productivo y social [Members Only]
Liliana, Ruiz de Alonso y Fátima Ponce Regalado Submitted:



El poder de las TIC sobre el desarrollo productivo y socialL PODER DE LAS TIC SOBRE EL DESARROLLO PRODUCTIVO Y SOCIAL [Members Only]
Ruiz de Alonso, Liliana Ponce Regalado, Fátima Submitted:



Empirical Social Choice [Members Only]
Gaertner, Wulf Submitted: 2007-09-17		We shall see in the following sections that proportionality of some sort between giving and receiving or between contributions and rewards plays a role in formulations of distributive justice, at least in certain situations. In the following sections, we shall discuss, based on questionnaire–experimental investigations, aspects of needs (section 2), aspects of effort and productivity (section 3), the function of the veil of ignorance (section 4), and, in the concluding section 5, various other aspects that seem to play a role.



Empowerment and Human Development [Members Only]
Singh Shekhawat, Prahlad Submitted:		The concept of human development emerged as an alternative to definitions of development focused on economic growth. The World Bank and many development theorists have been emphasizing the combination of growth in per capita income with special assistance to the poor. One of the strategies was described as redistribution with growth, another was labeled as the basic needs approach. In all these strategies it was assumed that economic growth and increase in real incomes would by itself lead to over all development. This approach was disputed by development thinkers like Amartya Sen, Paul Streeton, Mahbub Ul Haq and others who believed that increased income should be regarded as a means to human welfare and development and not as an end in itself. Mahbub Ul Haq under whose leadership the first human development report was prepared in 1990, proposed that the main difference between the economic growth and human development schools was that the first focused exclusively on the expansion of one choice i.e. income, while the second embraces the enlargement of all human choices whether economic, social, cultural or political.1 It was argued by Sen and Haq with the help of evidence from many countries that income growth does not automatically lead to expansion of human capabilities, choices, and freedom.



Enfants sorciers à Kinshasa (RD Congo) :De la décomposition à la marchandisation Sorcerer (Children in Kinshasa (RDC):From decomposition to commodization) [Members Only]
Ballet, Jerome Dumbi, Claudine Lallau, Benoît Submitted: 2007-09-17		Sorcerer Children is a new and growing phenomenon in Kinshasa. First, we present the phenomenom and the social context favourishing its extension. Secondly, based on a qualitative survey and interviews of children we highlight several problems in relation with this phenomenon affecting the well-being of children. Third, we stress on the ambiguous role of neo-pentecotist churches. Fourth, we conclude.



Enforcing Rights and Correcting Wrongs: Overcoming Gender Barriers in Legal Systems [Members Only]
Rajivan, Anuradha Cheema, Hasna Human Development Report Unit (HDRU) UNDP Asia Pacific Regional Centre Submitted:		The aims of this paper are two-fold: to uncover barriers to equality in legal systems that restrict human rights along gender lines–patent and latent; and to propose possible ways to redress legal discrimination for accelerating human development. The focus of evidence is from countries of Asia-Pacific. However, given widespread gender-linked gaps in justice systems, and similarities of legal challenges posed, the paper is expected to be relevant for other similarly placed countries as well. Asia-Pacific has some extreme forms of discrimination and violence, not seen elsewhere, that prosperity has not been able to eliminate. Despite being one of the world’s most economically dynamic regions with broad policy consensus around ‘inclusiveness’, exclusion on the basis of gender has continued to persist not just in fact, but also in law. The motivation of the paper draws from a conviction that all human beings are equally valuable, and that gender by itself is not a legitimate basis for legal discrimination. It is based on the premise that men and women must be able experience substantive equality in justice systems; mechanical equality is not adequate. Women, much more than men, are excluded from the rule of law. Barriers operate, one, in the content of laws and legal practices; and two, in restricted access to justice systems. The substantive content of laws itself can be a source of discrimination. Laws may be discriminatory, have gaps or be contradictory. Women’s access to formal and customary justice systems remains restricted and inadequate enforcement mechanisms continue to be of serious concern. Specific barriers, rooted in gender, prevent women from getting to courts or finding fair judgments once there. The paper explores three strategic avenues for simultaneous action. One, fixing institutions – laws, legal practices and modes of access; two, changing attitudes of those who create, uphold, and use laws; and three establishing ongoing assessments to reveal inequalities and monitor progress.



Enhancing Global Health: Patterns of Potential Human Progress [Members Only]
Peterson, Cecilia Mosca Submitted: 2007-09-17		This paper lays out our global health forecasting framework, the rationale behind our methodology, exploratory analyses, and a plan for moving forward. The completed project will result in the development of a publicly and freely available policy analysis tool. Users will be able to forecast health outcomes out to mid/late-century and consider the leverage points for intervention. Proposed interventions of interest include those that target health behavior (e.g. smoking), health spending, and health systems capacity.



Ensuring Universal Access to Water Resources: Potentials and Limits of Decentralized Cooperation [Members Only]
Makkaoui, Raoudha Dubois, Jean-Luc Submitted:		Water issues are presently at the heart of the international community concerns, particularly the policy makers in developing countries who face high population growth, rapid urbanization and uncontrolled development of irrigated agriculture. The last World Water Forum, held in Istanbul in March 2009, emphasized the seriousness of the issue explaining that social consequences on people’s health and life expectation may be considerable. The UN report on water (2009) showed that 20 percent of the world's population has no access to drinking water and that 40 percent do not have any sanitation base. Consequently, more than five million people die each year from various diseases caused by water inappropriate for human consumption, among which 90 percent are children less than five years. To address this alarming situation, the international community pledged to halve, between 2000 and 2015, the proportion of people without access to drinking water. It encourages all kind of actions and new governance that could improve the access to drinking water and sanitation. In France, a legal and regulatory framework was set up in 1992 to allow local authorities, at the level of the towns and regions, to promote their own cooperative relationships with communities in developing countries. These programs are currently denominated under the label "decentralized cooperation". Decentralized cooperation refers to any form of partnership set up between actors from the French civil society and communities from developing country. Corresponding decentralized programs are based on participatory actions and aim at developing the synergy between the actors of both civil societies. Actors who are involved in the definition and the implementation of focused projects. This vision provides a new impetus to the international cooperation as it allows overcoming the usual limits of conventional bilateral and multilateral cooperation between North and South. This paper discusses this issue of “decentralized cooperation” in the field of water management. To ensure the "access to safe drinking water for all", cooperation between decentralized entities now constitutes a preferred water governance option in many places. In a first part, we will provide an overview of people’s difficulties to access to water in developing countries, showing the current deficiencies in rights and entitlements. Then we will review the various forms of water management, with their potential and limits, emphasizing the new role played by civil society in the definition and implementation of water projects. In a second part, we will address the particular case of Seine-Saint-Denis General Council, in Paris’ area, France, which is presently conducting such type of “decentralized cooperation” in partnership with the city of Figuig in Morocco. We will consider the values and limits of such a process that focuses on people’s capabilities, at both individual and collective levels. This participatory approach, which considers intergenerational equity in the access to water, leads to a more accountable and equitable vision of human development, in both social and ecological terms.



Entitlements Failure?Implication for Conflict and Livelihoods [Members Only]
Elgawi, Osman Submitted:		This paper examines the relationship between entitlement failure and violent conflict. Three types of potential linkage are examined: (i) entitlement failure causes violent conflicts (ii) entitlement failure has not significant effect on conflicts (iii) entitlement failure is correlated with conflicts only through its influence on institutions, environmental, economic opportunity and entitlement failure as such has not additional effect. Darfur crisis has been taken as a case study examining the above linkages. We hypothesized that the Darfur region crisis can be better understood as entitlements failure, when we assumed that the conflict occurred because different social groups share a finite remote rural area, and the current facilities management and utilization of resources in the absent of cultural harmony and state policy does not have the capacity to serve their increasingly cultural interactions.



Epistemology changing History [Members Only]
Pellé, Sophie Submitted: 2007-09-17		This paper aims to deepen one moment of what can be called the ‘normative epistemology’ of economics in presenting the epistemological breaks that appear between welfare economics and social choice theory on one side, and the capability approach on the other side.



Equality and Exclusion: Violence against Indigenous Women and the Development of Public Policy Responses in Australia [Members Only]
Cunneen, Chris Submitted: 2008-09-12



Equality and Inclusion by Capacity Building [Members Only]
Dass, Purvi PRIYA, New Delhi, India Submitted: 2008-09-12



Equity and Practical Ethical Challenges for Development Tomorrow [Members Only]
Marshall, Katherine Submitted: 2007-09-17		This paper presents a practitioner’s perspective on contemporary discussions (and lack thereof) about equity and development. It was in part inspired by dialogue with Denis Goulet and builds on and sometimes contests his challenge to what he called the “one-eyed giants” working as development specialists.



Equity in Mexico´s higher education institutions [Members Only]
Flores-Crespo , Pedro Submitted:



Escaping Poverty in Rural Mewat [Members Only]
Gandhi, Valentine Submitted:		The Mewat region of Haryana falls under the semi-arid zones and were not benefited by the green revolution. Agriculture is the major livelihood option. It is inhabited by Meo – Muslims who are a unique ethnic group. Due to their cultural practices, they still use traditional farming techniques and have not ventured into non farm livelihoods such as migration even during drought years. This ‘closed’ culture has kept the region extremely poor. The Institute of Rural Research and Development has been implementing a Integrated Sustainable Village Development (ISVD) model for the last 8 years in 17 villages in the Mewat region. The components of the ISVD are interventions in the areas of Rural Health, Alternative Energy, Life Skills Education, Income Enhancement and Water Resource Management. The approach followed by ISVD is community empowerment, the programs are designed to enable people of Mewat to come out of their shells and participate in their development. This paper will present success stories of households moving out of poverty as well as case studies of households that could not move out of poverty. The findings are based on an ongoing study being conducted in 7 intervention villages. The study uses both qualitative and quantitative tools for measuring the impact of these programs in bringing people out of poverty. The analysis is still on, initial findings suggest that ‘education’ as well as ‘migration’ play a major role in helping the people of Mewat come out of their ‘closed’ nature and work towards improving their livelihoods.



Estimating individual total costs of domestic violence [Members Only]
Santos, Cristina Submitted: 2007-09-17		This paper estimates total individual costs of domestic violence. It draws on a survey that includes data on self-reported victimization variables, individual income and a self-reported general satisfaction variable.



Estimating Poverty in Human Concerns : A Case Study of Indian States [Members Only]
Gaur, Achal K. Submitted: 2008-09-12



Estrutura espacial do índice de desenvolvimento de família das regioes rural e urbana de estado de Minas Geris- Brasil [Members Only]
Eduardo Rocha, Luiz Submitted:		This article aims at estimating the Family Development Index (FDI) in both urban and rural areas in the State of Minas Gerais. Due to a heterogeneous social-economic situation of the State, the index will be separated from the micro-regions, a fact which will allow for better evidence of regional differences. The FDI is composed by six dimensions: a) non-existing vulnerability, b) access to literacy, c) job opportunities, d) available services and resources, e) infant development, f) housing conditions. To one extend, each one of such dimensions represents the access to resources in order to satisfy the families’ needs. To another extent, they also cater for a complete and effective satisfaction of the families. This article implement the exploratory spatial data analysis through the Moran’s I statistic and also through the cluster analysis. On showing the welfare level in the Mineira’s families, this article will contribute to identitying both the needs of specific public policies as well as the regions in need, differentiating them from more developed regions and areas.



Ethical Dimensions of Targeted Poverty Programs [Members Only]
Vinay, Claudia Submitted:



Ethics, Politics and the Poor [Members Only]
Dussel, Enrique Submitted:		The presentation builds on Enrique Dussel’s recent book Twenty Theses on Politics 8Duke University Press), a groundbreaking manifesto charting new terrain toward de-colonial political philosophy and political theory. It is based on the experience and interpretation of current events in Latin America. Synthesizing a half-century of his pioneering work in moral and political philosophy, Dussel presents a succinct rationale for the development of political alternatives to the exclusionary, exploitative institutions of neoliberal globalization. In twenty short, provocative theses he lays out the foundational elements for a politics of just and sustainable co-existence. Dussel first constructs a theory of political power and its institutionalization, taking on matters such as the purpose of politics and the fetishization of power. He insists that political projects must criticize or reject as unsustainable all political systems, actions, and institutions whose negative effects are suffered by oppressed or excluded victims. Turning to the deconstruction or transformation of political power, he explains the political principles of liberation and addresses matters such as reform and revolution.



Ethnicity and gender inequalities in the Ecuadorean job market [Members Only]
Cuesta Zapata, Mauricio Submitted:		Estimates from a regression model show evidence of a no-black-no-indigenous male worker premium on earnings. Earnings gaps are the greatest for indigenous, followed by females and blacks, in that order, whereas, discrimination increases from gender to blacks and indigenous worker. Females are the most discriminated group in the labor market while indigenous are in the other end of the acceptance (or no-acceptance in society) of the different. Their decomposition produces an odd result about differences of opportunities placing indigenous in the greatest inferiority of endowments. Average earnings gaps are 43%, 40% and 15% for indigenous, females and blacks, respectively. 72%, 67% and 24% of the gap is due to discrimination for females, blacks and indigenous, respectively. These results give way to 76%, 33%, and 28%, of the gap explained by endowment inferiority of indigenous, blacks, and females in relation to their respective reference group: no-indigenous, no-black and male worker. Being a female member of an ethnic minority increases the likelihood of being at the low end of the income distribution. Females, just for being, are discriminated in their payments. The average gap for females is 38%. Further, if the odds make this female indigenous, she receives an additional punishment of a wider gap in her payments (17%) with respect to the appropriate payment of the no-indigenous-no-black male payments for a total of 55% earnings gap. The earning differential in payments for being black and woman in the labor market is an additional 4% to the 38% female earnings gap.



Ethnicity, Inclusion and Post-Conflict Justice: The Kenyan Case [Members Only]
Hellsten, Sirkku Submitted: 2008-09-12



Evaluación de la pobreza multidimensional en grandes ciudades argentinas. Una propuesta de medición basada en el enfoque de las capacidades [Members Only]
Lépore , Eduardo UCA AR Submitted:



Evaluación de la pobreza multidimensional en grandes ciudades argentinas. Una propuesta de medición basada en el enfoque de las capacidades [Members Only]
Lépore, Eduardo Submitted:		Es conocido que el crecimiento económico experimentado por la Argentina en los últimos cuatro años se ha visto acompañado por un importante proceso de creación de empleos, que permitió una sostenida reducción del desempleo y de la pobreza por ingresos. Sin embargo, cabe preguntarse en qué medida dicho proceso hizo posible una mejora sustantiva en las condiciones materiales de hábitat, salud y subsistencia, especialmente en los grupos de mayor vulnerabilidad. El Indice de Hábitat, Salud y Subsistencia arroja resultados novedosos acerca de lo ocurrido en la coyuntura socioeconómica reciente, alternativos a los obtenidos por la medida oficial de pobreza, centrada en los ingresos requeridos por los hogares para comprar una canasta esencial de bienes y servicios valorizada según el Indice de Precios al Consumidor del INDEC. Siguiendo una reconocida corriente de estudios en el campo de las capacidades del desarrollo humano, el marco teórico que sustenta esta propuesta metodológica sitúa las necesidades de hábitat, salud y subsistencia en el espacio de análisis de las condiciones materiales de vida. Desde una aproximación multidimensional a dichos contenidos se busca conocer en qué medida las personas y los grupos familiares de los principales centros urbanos de la Argentina lograron acceder en los últimos cuatro años a condiciones de vida suficientes para asegurar un apropiado resguardo y habitación, un mínimo nivel de consumos básicos y un buen estado de salud psico-físico. Se trata sin duda de un elenco de necesidades estrechamente emparentadas con las capacidades de conservación de la vida en el orden biológico, cuya destitución da cuenta siempre de la denegación de derechos humanos fundamentales. Se presenta aquí una síntesis de los principales resultados obtenidos sobre la base de los datos recogidos por la Encuesta de la Deuda Social Argentina entre los años 2004 y 2008. Las evidencias encontradas indican que los problemas asociados a las dificultades de realización de consumos básicos han tendido a retroceder, acompañados de una ligera merma de los problemas de acceso a una vivienda adecuada. Sin embargo, las condiciones de salud psico-física de la población adulta no cambiaron de modo significativo. En ese marco, siete de cada diez personas de 18 años y más localizadas en el estrato socioeconómico más bajo de los centros urbanos estudiados continúa sin poder acceder a oportunidades mínimas de hábitat, salud y subsistencia.



Evaluación Participativa e Incremento de Capabilidades Humanas Agencia colectiva y procesos de influencia en las política públicas contra la pobreza: Un estudio comparativo de indicadores múltiples e [Members Only]
Gutiérrez, Ramón-Antonio Submitted:		El vínculo entre evaluación y políticas presenta una oportunidad para la participación social como modalidad de expansión de las capabilidades de ser y hacer de las personas. En general, la relación entre evaluación y políticas públicas es un vehículo, si bien arduo, no por ello menos oportuno de fortalecer la eficacia de las acciones para el desarrollo humano. Por su parte, se ha venido insistiendo - desde hace ya casi 40 años (1970s)- en la relevancia de la "evaluación participativa" en los procesos de desarrollo, y destacando con ello su función de "empoderamiento" de los beneficiarios de las políticas públicas. Se afirma también, que la institucionalización de la "evaluación participativa", enfrenta a los beneficiarios con su propia responsabilidad (deber) de encarar los problemas que les afectan, y con la tarea de decidir (derecho) bajo cuales criterios deberan resolverse, y mediante cual diseño apropiado de procedimiento (un particular programa social). Asimismo, se ha avanzado ampliamente en el establecimiento de la efectividad de los procedimientos de participación social, en materia de incremento y degradación de las capabilidades (Gutiérrez, 2005 y 2007), y especialmente en lo atingente a la "libertad de participación", y de los diferentes grados de contribución que realizan (Kumar, Roddy y Parry, 2005). En consecuencia, la "evaluación participativa" no solamente apuntaría a incrementar la transparencia y efectividad de las políticas públicas (de aquellas "sociales", muy especialmente), sino que haría más relevante el rol en materia de decisiones y acciones que atañe a los beneficiarios; incrementando su poder real de insidir en los diferentes momentos del proceso, político-técnico, de la planificación para la intervención social.



Evaluating Subjective States Objectively: Using Adam Smith's Impartial Spectator to Assess Capability [Members Only]
Wells, Thomas Submitted: 2008-09-12



Evaluation for freedom, justice and capability development: a case study of India [Members Only]
Kant Jha, Krishna Submitted:		Education may be progressive or regressive. Progressive education is an input for human development if it is designed and planned appropriately. Countries with high levels of human development certainly encourage their citizens to participate in such education and this gives them the opportunities to make informed choices. On the other hand, for example, the Taliban are the outcome of a regressive education. The young rank and file Taliban were typically Koranic students in Afghan refugee camps whose teachers were often “barely literate,” and did not include scholars learned in the finer points of Islamic law and history. The refugee students, brought up in an extremely male dominated society not only had no education for a better quality of life but learned that women should be subordinated and that people in general should be deprived of many modern amenities. So the regressive education of Madrassas creating the Taliban, SIMI (Students Islamic Movement of India) and al Qaeda on the one hand and the progressive education of modern educational institutions on the other frame an environment of educational injustice. The objectives of this paper are to examine the impact of the existing education system in India and to suggest a new model of education guaranteeing freedom, justice and capability development. Positive freedom in terms of increased Individual Income leading to good health in general, and freedom for women in particular, both matrimonial and economic, is a pre-condition. However, there are problems. It appears that the denial of access to knowledge, which is a denial of justice, to a substantial number of Indians is the first and the most important problem in this country. It is knowledge which enlightens an individual to explore avenues for a decent standard of living necessary for long and healthy life. Freedom from addiction will improve the quality of life. Corruption is a significant hurdle in the way of capability development. Problems of religious blind faith have contributed to the enslavement of women and to a population explosion. A meaningful education system will ensure attitudinal changes towards women and population control. Pictures of human development are viewed in this paper through the lenses of Attitudinal Change, Women’s Empowerment and Population Control. It is argued that well planned Education and Training facilities for all will provide people with employment and the knowledge necessary to change their attitudes, support the empowerment of women and curb the population expansion.



Expanding Collective and Strong Agency in Rural Indigenous Communities in Guatemala. A Case for el Almanario Approach [Members Only]
Fariñas, Sarai Peris, Jordi López, Estela Boni, Alejandra Submitted:		The notion of agency has received increasing attention in development planning and development processes and is considered an essential aspect of Human Development as conceived through the capability approach. In addition, there is a growing trend to consider agency not from the perspective of the individual agent but emphasizing its collective dimension. Within this framework, this paper aims to explore how collective capabilities and agency are being expanded in rural indigenous Guatemala through small community-led development projects supported by United Nations Global Environment Fund. To this end, an analytical framework is defined from the capability approach perspective on the grounds of Ibrahim’s (2006) conception of collective capability and the notion of strong agency in Ballet et al (2007). Research has been carried out on the basis of a case study of six indigenous communities in Western Guatemala, currently being supported by the Small Grants Programme of the United Nations Global Environment Fund. These interventions have been implemented following El Almanario approach, an innovative approach aimed at empowering communities in the design, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of their own projects.



Expanding Individual Capabilities through the Collectivity: The Case of Anti-FGM Women in Egypt [Members Only]
Ibrahim, Solava Submitted: 2008-09-12



Explaining and overcoming marginalization in education: a focus on ethnic/language minorities in Peru [Members Only]
Cueto, Santiago Guerrero, Gabriela León, Juan Seguin and Ismael Muñoz, Elisa Submitted:		Inequality is one of the main social challenges for Latin America and other developing regions. Education is often seen as a way to overcome inequalities, but often times it does exactly the contrary. There are many predictors of educational inequality, such as parental education (the educational results of children correlate positively with that of their parents), area of residence (rural children often time have lower indicators than urban children), and first language learnt at home (children learning an indigenous language have lower educational indicators than children who have learned Spanish), among others2. The focus of this paper will be on the educational gaps in primary and secondary education between the Spanish- and Indigenous-speaking populations of Peru but will include analysis of the other predictors. The main goals of this paper are to: a) document the gap in educational opportunities and outcomes between the Spanish and Indigenous populations; b) present statistical analysis with predictors of the gaps in achievement; and c) discuss the educational policies targeting bilingual populations in Peru and explore alternatives based on the data analyzed in the paper.



Explaining and Reducing 'Health Poverty' among Rural Households in Uganda [Members Only]
Nyakato, Viola N Pelupessy, Wim Submitted: 2008-09-12



Explaining interpersonal differences of power in a capability perspective [Members Only]
Scholtes, Fabian Submitted: 2007-09-17		In this paper, I offer a conceptual integration of power into the capability approach (CA), in order to explore how CA may contribute to explaining how the social realities it describes and evaluates actually come about.



Exploring 'Empowerment and Agency' in Dworkin's Theory of Rights: A Study of Women's Abortion Rights in India [Members Only]
Ray, Nupur Submitted: 2008-09-12



Exploring the lived experience of governance in social enterprises [Members Only]
Cornelius, Nelarine Wallace, James Submitted: 2007-09-17		In this paper, it will be argued that our understanding of corporate governance policy and practice in general can be extended by considering governance activities in third sector organizations, and social enterprises, in particular. We conclude by considering the implications of our findings for understanding of governance policy and practice and in particular, the additional insights generated through the capabilities perspective.



Exploring the theory on agency or empowerment towards democratizing urban Space in India [Members Only]
Khandare, Lalit Ayyar, Varsha Indiana University/Tata Institute of Social Sciences US Submitted:



Expressing Agency in the Management of Aboriginal Heritage Information in South Australia [Members Only]
Baker, David Submitted: 2008-09-12



Extending the Equality Measurement Framework: Selecting the Indicators for Children and Young People [Members Only]
Tsang, Tiffany Vizard, Polly Submitted:		This paper provides a briefing on a recent project that has been undertaken to extend the Equality Measurement Framework (EMF) to cover children and young people. ? Section 1 provides an overview of the EMF; ? Section 2 discusses the extension of the EMF to cover children and young people; ? Section 3 summarizes the process for developing and agreeing a short-list of indicators for children and young people (the Specialist Consultation on the Selection of Indicators for Children and Young People). The capability list for children and young people that has been developed as a basis for the project is presented in Appendix 1, and a provisional shortlist of indicators that has been drawn up as a result of the project is presented in Appendix 2. Full details of the project will be published in Autumn 2010 (Holder, Tsang and Vizard forthcoming) and will be available on the Equality and Human Rights Commission website (http://www.equalityhumanrights.com).



Factors Affecting the Sociability of Children with Special Needs in an Inclusive Setting [Members Only]
Vadhavkar, Tejal Bhargava, Shruti Submitted: 2008-09-12



Failure in the mandatory education fr the mexican population: normative proposals for its measurement [Members Only]
Escobar, Mariel Robles, Hector Submitted:



Familias vulnerables, interés ciudadano y resiliencia [Members Only]
Balián, Beatriz UCA AR Submitted:



Fecundidad y pobreza en Uruguay 1996-2006 [Members Only]
Perazzo, Ivone Submitted:		En esta investigación se busca profundizar en la relación entre fecundidad y pobreza. Para ello, se analizan las diferencias en la fecundidad por estrato socio-económico, y el efecto del tamaño del hogar en la probabilidad de ser pobre. También se intenta comprender los determinantes a nivel micro-económico de las decisiones reproductivas en los hogares uruguayos. Se analizan los determinantes de la fecundidad en base a la estimación de modelos econométricos sobre las decisiones de fecundidad. En esta investigación se busca profundizar en el estudio de la evolución de la fecundidad en Uruguay en las últimas dos décadas, considerando las diferencias por estratos socio-económicos. El análisis se aborda con un enfoque fundamentalmente económico. En primer término se presentan los principales aspectos de la discusión sobre determinantes de la fecundidad desde la perspectiva económica (sección I). A continuación se describe la evolución de la tasa global de fecundidad en los últimos veinte años, así como la de indicadores asociados (sección II). Para profundizar en el conocimiento de la relación entre fecundidad y pobreza se analiza el rol del tamaño del hogar en la probabilidad de ser pobre, a través de la estimación de modelos de variable binaria para diferentes momentos del tiempo (sección III). Se intenta luego comprender los determinantes a nivel micro-económico de las decisiones reproductivas en los hogares uruguayos, a través de la estimación de un modelo econométrico (sección IV). Finalmente, se presenta una síntesis y conclusiones (sección V).



Fighting Poverty at the Limits of Law and Human Rights [Members Only]
Submitted:		This Law degree final paper examines how Law and Human Rights emerge from Peruvian extreme poverty contexts where “Juntos” Peruvian government program is implemented. Following an inductive and qualitative methodology, I conducted a 5 month fieldwork in Totora, a poor village of Peruvian Andes. As an activist of an Italian humanitarian organisation, I participated and observed the dynamics of local poverty and local development as well as the impact of Juntos program on them. Phenomenological analysis based in the review of Legal Anthropology and Human Rights literature revealed that Juntos program isn’t really relating poverty, law and human rights within a humanizing perspective because it fails to promote social and legal status of poor people and development through the engagement of social and law practitioners with vulnerable people, ultimately through the construction of a humanized Law where ideal and reality converge. This paper is divided in three chapters. In the first one, it tackles poverty as a multidimensional and local problem as well as poverty in Peru. Next, it describes Totora population basic needs verified through my experience as well as “Juntos programme” as a Peruvian government response to these needs. The second chapter is devoted to explain how Law and Human Rights appeared in this context. Presents some ideological deformations: poverty as a social stigma, poverty as an absolute denial of Human Rights, Law as a complete and efficient system and Law as an unilateral demand, this part of the paper argues that, in poverty context, Law emerge as a local and autonomous normative practice and Human Rights as the efforts of many Totota inhabitants who struggle for better living conditions. Finally, the paper concludes that Juntos program isn’t really relating poverty, Law and Human Rights within a humanizing perspective, neglecting some development policy goals: to humanize the legal status of poor people and to promote equality and development through the engagement of law practitioners with vulnerable people. Further, research on crusade against poverty, requires Law and Human Rights definitions where ideal and reality converge.



Financial Inclusion and Development [Members Only]
Pais, Jesim Sharma, Mandira Submitted: 2008-09-12



Findings of the 2008 Egypt Human Development Report Civil Society in Egypt: Vital Partners in Development [Members Only]
Submitted:



Fines éticos y desarrollo social [Members Only]
Quintanilla, Pablo Submitted:		Esta ponencia se propone discutir la justificación de los presupuestos éticos que subyacen a la concepción del desarrollo en términos de ampliación de las capacidades. Se intentará mostrar que la justificación ética de este enfoque proviene de un modelo consecuencialista de regla que no está filosóficamente comprometido con el utilitarismo sino con el liberalismo. El consecuencialismo, sin embargo, ha sido objeto de agudas críticas de parte de muchos autores. La ponencia discutirá esas críticas e intentará defender al modelo de las capacidades de ellas. El objetivo último, sin embargo, será mostrar que aunque hay importantes diferencias conceptuales entre un consecuencialismo utilitarista y uno liberal, en el mediano plazo las consecuencias prácticas de abrazar uno u otro son las mismas, dado que la ampliación de la libertad en principio conduce a la mayor felicidad del mayor número de personas.



Freedom of choice and poverty alleviation
Lessmann, Ortrud independent scholar Submitted:		The Capability Approach (henceforth CA) views poverty as a multidimensional phenomenon and emphasises that restricted freedom of choice is a crucial aspect of poverty. If poverty is seen in this way there are two ways to improve the situation of the poor: by broadening the set of opportunities open to them or by strengthening their ability to choose. The paper concentrates on the latter. The paper summarizes which circumstances are seen in the CA as suitable for strengthening freedom of choice, namely the market, democracy and participatory projects. Two shortcomings of the CA are identified by this: first, the social embedding and secondly, the process aspect of agency. These two shortcomings are intertwined as is shown in a model for social work stemming from a different approach which may serve as a point of reference.



From civil rights to economic security: Bayard Rustin and the African american struggle for full employment, 1945-1978 [Members Only]
Forstater, Mathew Submitted: 2007-09-17



From cultural dimensions to institutional generation of poverty. A qualitative survey in Madagascar Highlands [Members Only]
Gondard-Delcroix, Claire Submitted: 2007-09-17		As early as the seventies, poverty started to be considered as a deeply multidimensional phenomenon, and over the last three decades, this concept was gradually extended towards fields well beyond the mere monetary aspect. Razafindrakoto and Roubaud (2005) go back over the progressive evolution of the poverty concept.



From Gender Inequalities to Women Quality of Life Index [Members Only]
Bérenger, Valérie Verdier-Chouchane, Audrey Submitted: 2008-09-12



From Resources To Capabilities In The Development Discourse: A Gender Critique [Members Only]
Ray, Nupur Submitted: 2007-09-17		The first objective of this paper is to critically analyze the traditionally dominant theories of development from a gender justice perspective and discuss their implications on the lives of women. The second objective of this paper is to explore the credibility of widely acclaimed Capabilities Approach, conceived by Amartya Sen and developed further by Martha Nussbaum, in the Human Development paradigm, for achieving the real development of women not just as ‘objects’ but as ‘subjects’ in the development process .



From results to agency. Exploring possibilities for an operative framework for conceiving development projects
Peris, Jordi López, Estela Cuesta, Iván Boni, Alejandra Grupo de Estudios en Desarrollo. Universidad Politécnica de Valencia Valencia ES Submitted:		Given a background of complexity, dynamism and uncertainty, this paper assumes that, rather than being oriented towards achieving preconceived results, aid programmes and projects should be oriented towards strengthening the agency of actors with the potential to influence and support development processes and social change dynamics. Therefore, we draw on the idea of collective agency based the notion of responsibility and the two-way relationship with structure. This leads us to suggest some key elements in the project process for expanding collective agency such as: 1) incorporating the relational perspective between actors, 2) generating deliberative processes and 3) introducing critical reflection and power analysis. While examining the Logical Framework Approach (LFA) and stating its limitations in relation to promote collective agency, we point out some possibilities for a new framework for conceiving development programmes and projects as instruments to support development processes through the expansion of collective agency.



From Valued Freedoms, to Polities and Markets: The Capability Approach and Policy Practice [Members Only]
Gasper, Des Submitted: 2008-09-12



Fundamentos éticos para una política pública del desarrollo. El ejemplo de España [Members Only]
Ferrero, Gabriel Pedrajas, Marta Submitted:



Gasto público y desarrollo humano en Uruguay [Members Only]
Perazzo, Ivone Submitted:



Gender differences in Italian children capabilities. [Members Only]
Maria Laura Di Tommaso, Addabo Submitted:		The paper will explore gender differences among Italian children capabilities. In a previous paper on children capabilities in Italy (Addabbo, Di Tommaso 2009) , we have found that there are many gender differences and in this paper we analyze these differences and explore the causes. The capabilities analysed in this paper are 1. Living an healthy life; 2. Senses Imagination and thought 3. Play We will use data from ISTAT 1998 FSS (Famiglie, Soggetti Sociali e Condizione dell’Infanzia) and ISTAT 2006 multipurpose survey matched with Survey on Household Income and Wealth (1998, 2006) , and data from the OECD Programme of International Student Assessment (PISA) for 2006. First, we utilize descriptive statistics to assess different achievements for the above capabilities by gender for children in different age groups (6-10 and 11-14). We also consider different areas of the country to take into account the effect of different institutions. Secondly, we will use the tools offered by Structural Equation Models. We estimate a SEM model where the three above capabilities are estimated as latent variables which are intrinsically interrelated. For each of these capabilities, a set of indicators of functionings is utilised. We explore the freedom of choice dimension, utilising information on the availability and quality of infrastructures which can influence children choice sets. Moreover, in order to take into account gender discrimination embedded in the society, we utilise gender gaps in labour force participation and gender pay gaps across regions as proxies of the differences that girls and boys may have in their choice-freedom. These structures of the capabilities will be related to parents’ employment and personal characteristics to analyse the effect of family conversion factors on children’s well being.



Gender employability discrimination in Europe [Members Only]
Poggi, Ambra Submitted:		Decent work permits individuals to develop their talents and capacities to actively participate in society, and enjoy a broad equality of life-chances. Conversely, bad working conditions and discrimination reduce individual well-being, self-esteem and increase inequality of life-chances. This paper focuses on gender discrimination; in particular, it focuses on differences in the chances of accumulating employability on-the-job between men and women. In facts, accumulating employability on-the job permits to build capabilities to remain active in the labour market increasing opportunities in such a way that the entire life chances are affected. First, we assess the existence of an employability gaps penalizing females workers. Second, we try to understand whether observable characteristics help in explaining the employability gaps. Third, we identify the discriminated female workers and we study their discrimination experiences. Our aim is an exhaustive analysis of the factors (i.e. geographical areas, age groups, occupations or sectors) that characterize employability discrimination in the European Union. We find that gender employability discrimination exists in EU and it is differently spreads among countries, age groups, occupations and sectors. For example, we find that the Southern European countries have the highest proportion of discriminated female workers, the largest average employability gap and the greater severity level. Our results give useful indications to draws new policies aimed to reduce employability discrimination in EU and, therefore, to increase equality of life-chances and participation in the society.



Gender Sensitive Budgeting and HIV/AIDS Policies in India: Some Reflections for the application of Capability Approach and Human Rights Paradigm for Social Policy (Working Paper) [Members Only]
Nakray, Keerty School of Sociology, Social Policy and Social Work, Queen’s University Belfast IE Submitted:		This research is based on insights from qualitative in-depth interviews conducted with sixty-three women living with HIV/AIDS in the Indian cities of Mumbai, New Delhi, Chennai and semi-rural Thane district. The research applied the gender budgeting framework to HIV/AIDS policies in India to examine the question ‘how do HIV/AIDS policies address the gender concerns?’ The research examines the catchphrase of ‘feminisation of HIV/AIDS’ which is often utilised to denote women’s risk situations in the context of HIV/AIDS. However, on the basis of analysis of policies and also interviews with women living with HIV/AIDS and policy informants the research concludes that the existing HIV/AIDS policies in India are gender blind and also suggests the way forward for gender sensitisation of HIV/AIDS budgets. The debates on capability approach and human rights paradigm have been applied for developing the normative framework for HIV/AIDS policies in India. The main contention is that Capability Approach and Human Rights paradigm mutually strengthen each other and can be utilised to develop a normative framework for gender –sensitive HIV/AIDS policies in India.



Gender, Caste and Economic Class in Access to Schooling: Compounding and Competing Inequalities In Rural South India [Members Only]
Iyer, Aditi Submitted: 2008-09-12



Gender, Class and Caste [Members Only]
Sen, Gita Submitted: 2008-09-12



Gendered Patterns of Undergraduate Study and Early Career Development in the UK and the Implications for Human Development [Members Only]
Purcell, Kate Elias, Peter Submitted: 2008-09-12



Generating Collective Capabilities in Vietnam: How to encourage the participation of the rural poor into the poverty reduction process? [Members Only]
Mai Thi Hoang, Dao Vietnam Institute of Economics/University of Versailles Hanoi VN Submitted:		Considering the participation of the rural poor in the poverty reduction process, there are a strong linkage among their individual capabilities. In acting collectively, the collective capabilities of the group is created. This paper aims to analyze how the poor are able to become more active in acting together in the reducing poverty campaign, through some case studies. The first section analyses why the participation is needed for the poor. Next section describes the situation of the poor and the poverty reduction process. The last section demonstrates some perspectives on poverty reduction and poor’s participation in Vietnam.



Generating Collective Capabilities in Vietnam: How to encourage the participation of the rural poor within the poverty reduction process? [Members Only]
Thi Hoang Mai, Dao Submitted:		Over the last few years, Vietnam achieved a rapid economic growth, resulting in a remarkable progress in the reduction of poverty. Between 1993 and 2004, with real GDP per capita grew by 5.9 percent a year on average. The ratio of poor people dropped by two thirds and approximately 30 million people were lifted out of poverty. However, this poverty reduction appears to be more and more costly, because the marginal poverty reduction effect resulting from economic growth become smaller than that it was before. Therefore, a higher growth rate is required to reduce each percentage point of the poverty rate while, in turn, each percentage point of economic growth requires a higher level of investment. In the mean time, Vietnam is expecting to graduate out of the list of the poorest countries by 2010, and as an emerging country is likely to be confronted to a series of challenges in the coming years due to the change in the international context. Even if they receive various supports from the Government and other development institutions, the poor still have to fight hard when they want to escape from poverty. Unfortunately, for many Vietnamese people, especially in remote rural areas, poverty is still considered as a natural component of their lives since a long time. Overcoming the poverty reduction challenge requires the willingness and activeness the poor themselves. Without their participation the progress in poverty reduction will slow down and may even never succeed. Moreover, there are strong disparities in the poverty rates and in the pace of poverty reduction among regions and ethnic groups. This is a serious cause of concern. In 2004, the ethnic minorities, who represent approximately 14 percent of the population, account for 39 percent of the poor. In the same way, the Northern Mountains, the North Central Coast and the Central Highlands, make 57 percent of the poor while they only represent less than 20 percent of the whole population. This paper shows, with some case studies, how the poor, especially in some ethnic groups, are becoming more efficient by acting collectively within the poverty reduction process. It is bases on qualitative interviews and quantitative surveys conducted among the poor in the Northern part of Vietnam. The first section will explain why participation is required by the poor. The second section will describe the situation of the poor and the current poverty reduction process. The last section will argue for new perspectives in poverty reduction by associating the poor to the reinforcement of collective capabilities.



Giving a Step Further: A Proposal of Going Beyond the HDI
Piza, Caio Cicero Toledo Kuwahara, Monica Yukie Mackenzie University São Paulo BR Submitted:		TThe aim of this paper is to explore the multidimensionality of quality of life in 39 municipalities of Sao Paulo Metropolitan Region in Brazil. The main concern has to do with the appropriate procedure for making an indicator of quality of life distributive sensitive. In order to deal with this challenge, we propose a multidimensional index life quality (MIQL) which could be seen as an extended version of HDI. The index is based on six dimensions: (1) health, (2) education, (3) income, (4) housing, (5) infrastructure and environment, and (6) access to information. To make MIQL distributive sensitive, we follow the same steps of Foster et al (2003) by estimating the Atkinson index of welfare for each dimensional separately. There are two main results. First, the inequality sharply changes the ordering of municipalities in terms of life quality. Second, public policies should be concerned with the distribution of public resources.



Global convergence and the Decoupling of Sub-Saharan Africa 1975-2005: A Human Development Approach [Members Only]
Levine, Sebastian Submitted: 2008-09-12



Good for Children? Local Understandings vs Universal Prescription: Evidence from Three Ethiopian Communities [Members Only]
Camfield, Laura Submitted: 2008-09-12



Goulet on Development Ethics and Non-elite Participation [Members Only]
Crocker, David Submitted: 2007-09-17		One of the ideas that has changed the recent history of development theory and practice has been development ethics -- ethical reflection on the ends and means of local, national, and global development. One of the pioneers of this interdisciplinary field was Denis Goulet. In this paper I address four interrelated themes in Goulet’s work: (1) the three-fold curse of underdevelopment—poverty, powerlessness, and hopelessness; (2) “authentic” development as the “transforming the [the victims of underdevelopment] into subjects, conscious and active shapers of their history;” (3) the diverse tasks of the development ethicist as analyst, critic, advocate, and change agent; (4) the three ethical principle of “decent sufficiency for all, solidarity, and non-elite participation. Especially important in this paper is my analysis, evaluation, and attempts to strengthen Goulet’s suggestive typology and assessment of types and channels of citizen participation in development.



Growth, Capabilities and Empowerment: A Comparison of Concept and Role of Empowerment within the Economic Growth Approach and Capability Approach [Members Only]
Keleher, Lori Submitted: 2008-09-12



Hanging Together or Falling Apart? Social Capital and Crisis Coping in Indonesia [Members Only]
Ha, Wei Submitted: 2008-09-12



Happiness Properly Understood: The Engine of Well-Being [Members Only]
Jayawickreme, Eranda University of Pennsylvania US Submitted:



Health and Social Justice
Prah Ruger, Jennifer Yale School of Medicine US Submitted:		Societies make decisions and take actions that profoundly impact the distribution of health. Why and how should collective choices be made, and policies implemented, to address health inequalities under conditions of resource scarcity? How should societies conceptualize and measure health disparities, and determine whether they've been adequately addressed? Who is responsible for various aspects of this important social problem? In Health and Social Justice, Jennifer Prah Ruger elucidates principles to guide these decisions, the evidence that should inform them, and the policies necessary to build equitable and efficient health systems world-wide. This book weaves together original insights and disparate constructs to produce a foundational new theory, the health capability paradigm.



Health Care Accessibility in Kerala: An Analysis across Different Socio-Economic Groups [Members Only]
Simon, T.D. Submitted: 2008-09-12



Health Care and Health Outcomes of Migrants : Evidence from Portugal [Members Only]
Pereira, Isabel Pita Barros, Pedro Submitted:		This paper studies the performance of immigrants relative to natives, in terms of their health status, use of health care services, lifestyles, and coverage of health expenditures. We base the analysis on international evidence that identified a healthy immigrant effect, complemented by empirical research on the Portuguese National Health Survey. Furthermore, we assess whether differences in health performance depend on the personal characteristics of the individuals or can be directly associated with their migration experience.



HIV/ AIDS, Female Genital Mutilation and Khat in Djibouti: Role of the Researcher in a Participatory Approach – Room for Manoeuvre? [Members Only]
Trani, Jean Francois Bakhshi, Parul Submitted: 2008-09-12



Housing Happiness and Capabilities: A Survey of the International Evidence and Models [Members Only]
Coates, Dermot Anand, Paul Norris, Michelle Submitted: 2008-09-12



How do policies of citizenship in sending countries affect the process of female labour migration and the protection of their labour rights? [Members Only]
Submitted:



How can a Non Governmental Organization assist the efforts to achieve the Millennium Development Goal 5: The case of BRAC in the provision of microfinance and maternal health services [Members Only]
Kafantari, Georgia Harvard University US Submitted:



How do women who experience extreme violence during conflict become agents of peace within a peace-building process? [Members Only]
Rodriguez-Carrión, Vivianna Submitted:		In post conflict situations of today there exist many women’s organizations that are working together for a common benefit for both their families and their communities. Theses associations develop significant change within their communities at a local, national and international level achieving a social, political and economic impact. Unfortunately they encounter many obstacles that don’t permit them to be at the forefront of the decision making process and sit at the table of government to be able to make further development. The problem then is often that the policy makers or/and elites are distanced (sometimes culturally, ethnically and/or socially) from the realities that are being experienced by the people who are impacted by these policies. The role that women play in the peace-building process is essential for the reconstruction of their governments and communities in order to avoid future conflict.



How Economists Generate Breakthrough Ideas:Amartya Sen And The Capability Approach [Members Only]
Wentzel, Arnold Submitted: 2007-09-17		This paper takes the view that scientific progress is driven by unsolved problems. The work of Amartya Sen, with emphasis on the liberal paradox and the capability approach provides a running illustration, and shows that an understanding of the structure of economic problems can allow more theorists to deliver innovative theoretical work.



How the caDoes Individual’s Achievement Depend on Capability, Effort or Family Background? New Evidence on Inequality of Opportunity in India [Members Only]
Singh, Ashish Submitted:		What part of an individual’s achievement is due to unequal circumstances, rather than due to differences in individual capabilities, efforts or luck? Drawing on the distinction between ‘circumstance’ and ‘effort’ variables in the recent work on equality of opportunity, inequality of opportunities is associated with outcome differences that can be accounted to morally irrelevant pre-determined circumstances which lie beyond the control of an individual, such as parental education, parental occupation, caste, religion, place of birth etc. This paper estimates the opportunity share of inequality in per capita household earnings as well as per capita household consumption expenditure for India, for different age based cohorts for the year 2004-05. The results indicate that a significant part of earnings inequality can be attributed to difference in circumstances rather than individual capabilities or efforts and call for compensation (in terms of redistributive policies) to those who suffer from inferior circumstances beyond their control.



How to Distinguish Empowerment from Agency [Members Only]
Drydyk, Jan Submitted: 2008-09-12



Human Capabilities (and the Law) within the Framework of an Onto-Phenomenological Approach [Members Only]
Bernardini, Paola Submitted: 2007-09-17		The fundamental concepts of the onto-phenomenological approach such as ius gentium, being, ontological substance – do belong to the western metaphysical tradition, but are nonetheless conceived as derived from a reflection on the common, universal experience of man. The ontological conception of the person might still prove to be useful in “bringing the good to the world”, in justifying the protection of all human beings, and the universal ownership of rights’ claims.



Human Development and Space: Discourse on Democracy, Inclusion and Equality in West Bengal [Members Only]
Dubay, Barnali B. Submitted: 2008-09-12



Human Development Human Security and Social Quality: Contrasts and Complementarities [Members Only]
Gasper, Des Submitted: 2008-09-12



Human Development Index and Distribution [Members Only]
Hirai, Tadashi University of Cambridge,UK Submitted: 2008-09-12



Human Development Reports as an Advocacy Tool to Influence Policy Decisions [Members Only]
Sanjines, Marisol Ascencios, Maritza Submitted: 2007-09-17		This paper traces the role of advocacy in the process of preparing, producing and launching a Human Development Report, drawing on specific examples from the global HDR 2006 and the 2005 national report for Guatemala, with its internal campaign.



Human Development, Equality and Economic Growth : Issues and Policies [Members Only]
Jahan, Selim Submitted: 2007-09-17		The basic thrust of the paper is to link development with equality – in an analytical context as well as in an operational perspective through policy interventions. The paper starts with a relevant concept and notion of development, addresses the various issues related to equality and identifies the characteristics of equitable development. The paper then highlights various policy instruments and institutional reforms that are required to generate and sustain equitable development.



Human Rights Concerns in Bangladeshi Migration to West Bengal [Members Only]
Sarkar, Jyoti Parimal Submitted: 2008-09-12



Human Rights to Human Development—The Critical Journey [Members Only]
Khetarpal, Abha Submitted: 2008-09-12



Human rights, capabilities and the Education for All movement [Members Only]
McCowan, Tristan Institute of Education, University of London London GB Submitted:



Human Rigths and Capabilities: A Bridge Towards Social Inclusion [Members Only]
Camlot Reicher, Stella Submitted:		As Hannah Arendt says, is through the process of understanding that we become adjusted and 3 reconciled with reality, that is, we try to feel well in the world." So, in a moment where geographical boundaries are no more obstacles to the construction of a global citizenship, progress in terms of human rights requires understanding their new contours. After the Second World War, human rights became the only ethical paradigm able to reestablish a reasonable logic when human beings value was forgotten. A bound effort was established between nations in order to develop a new ethos based on human rights and States were lead to think about international mechanisms to avoid the repetition of crimes against humanity. The international human rights era was started and human rights contemporary conception, based on the ideas of universality, indivisibility and interdependency, was formally recognized by the Universal Declaration on Human Rights, allowing rights protection to transcend domestic jurisdiction reaching a global dimension and stressing the idea that all human beings are human rights holders. Even though last year the Universal Declaration celebrated its 60th anniversary, human rights still faces several challenges such as the recognition of equal value for civil, political, social, economic and cultural rights and human rights interpretation that still request a closer analysis. For understanding human rights we must take into account that to guarantee such rights it is necessary to go beyond the legal texts that apparently protect all human beings. It shall be understood that the meaning of “to be entitled to” involves besides the legal provisions, the possibility of each and every person to put such rights into practice, according to their own will in view of flourishing as a free human being.



Human Security: A Conceptual Exploration [Members Only]
Mine, Yoichi Submitted: 2008-09-12



Human-Intensive Innovations in Welfare Sector – The Capability Approach [Members Only]
Sarlio-Siintola, Sari Submitted:



Humanist vs. Political Conceptions of Human Rights [Members Only]
Gilabert, Pablo Submitted:		This paper arbitrates the current debate between two conceptions of human rights. According to the associativist, or others call it, political, conception, human rights are primarily claims that human beings have against certain institutional agencies, in particular states. According to the humanist conception, human rights are primarily claims that human beings have against all other human beings as such. The humanist view does not deny the importance of institutions to promote or violate human rights, but it sees their significance and role as largely instrumental. This paper defends the humanist view by proposing an articulation of human rights in terms of the capability approach. Such approach also helps, however, to identify and absorb some important intuitions on which the associativist conception relies.



Ideas changing health: the influence of capabilities on health care decision making in the UK [Members Only]
Coast, Joanna Smith, Richard Lorgelly, Paula Submitted: 2007-09-17



Ideas that should change aid history: processapproaches and participation to Expand Capabilities [Members Only]
Ferrero y de Loma-Osorio, Gabriel Zepeda, Carlos Salvador Submitted: 2007-09-17		This paper critically evaluates how the CA (CA) challenges methodologies used in development interventions, evaluating how these methodologies can contribute to mainstream the CA. We argue that the ideas of development as a participatory learning process represent the ideas that should change the history of development aid relationships, instruments, methods, goals towards expanding capabilities and may lead to long-term results on poverty reduction. Moreover, we argue that a methodological reversal is needed in order to enhance CAes in practice: in other to facilitate the CA to “reach people’s lives”.



Identifying the Poor’s Capabilities in Egypt: New Tool? New Results? [Members Only]
Ibrahim, Solava Submitted: 2007-09-17		The literature on well-being is diverse, however, many of the developed paradigms neither correspond to the actual perceptions of the poor nor do they account for the cultural diversity in their well-being perceptions. This is why the starting point of any development strategy should be a comprehensive understanding of people’s perceptions of well-being to help them constructively achieve this aspired well-being.



Identity and Democracy: Linking Individual and Social Reasoning [Members Only]
Davis, John B. Solange, Regina Marin Submitted: 2007-09-17		The following essay provides a brief historical and contemporary overview of the role of international migration and remittances and their social, economic and cultural effects on the relatively large and highly poor Mayan-speaking indigenous population of Guatemala. I attempt to highlight some of the concerns that the members of Mayan migrant Home Town Associations (HTA) here in the United States have for helping to promote the economic and social development of their home communities in Guatemala. I also briefly describe, in the conclusion to this essay, some of the current problems that these Mayan migrants from Guatemala, as well as indigenous Mayan migrants from Mexico, currently face in terms of gaining legal recognition and not being systematically deported or kept from seeking employment here in the United States.



Impact of Parental Education on Intelligence of Children from Low Income Families [Members Only]
Sidhu, Manjit Malhi, Prahbhjot Jerath, Jagat Panjab University, Chandigarh, India Submitted: 2008-09-12



Impactos Potenciales del Cambio Climático en el Desarrollo Humano: Un Análisis con base en el Abordaje de las Capabilidades [Members Only]
Correa, Esmeralda Comim, Flavio Submitted:		This paper reviews the processes by which climate change influences human development. Its original contribution lies on a proposed structure to classify and characterize the potential impacts of climate change on different dimensions such as health, education, security, livelihoods, cultural values and social relations. The analysis suggests direct and indirect relations, as well as mechanisms that link components of the climate and well being, which are the natural resources of water, soil and biodiversity and ecosystem services. This study is based on the vision of human development as characterized by the work of Amartya Sen



Improving capability, empowerment and responsibility to face the political crisis in Côte d'Ivoire [Members Only]
Boussou, Viviane Submitted:		Since the agreement concluded at Ouagadougou in March 2007, the government of Côte d'Ivoire has been engaged on a path to peace. It wishes to use the Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper (PRSP) to draw up a new social contract and to reinforce social cohesion, the only solution leading to a long-lasting peace. In this context, an equitable reinforcement of people's capabilities, aiming at making them less vulnerable to internal and external shocks, would make it possible to take part in the rebuilding of the country and the maintenance of peace. After the 2000 presidential election, Côte d'Ivoire's authorities decided to work out a PRSP. It was unfortunately interrupted in 2002, due to the political crisis that splitted up the country in two parts. However in 2007, the government took over a process that led to the design of the PRSP 2009-2013. This PRSP was finally accepted on January 7th, 2009, by the Bretton Woods institutions. It was a big step ahead; however all remain to be done. In fact, according to this PRSP, the peoples who have income less than 241.145 FCFA, i.e. $480 per year or $1.35 per month, are considered poor. For the first time since 1998 official data are available on poverty in Côte d'Ivoire and the reality appears to be worst than expected. These data are based on a household living conditions survey conducted in 2008. According to it poverty has considerably increased in Côte d'Ivoire. In monetary terms, the poverty rate increased from 33.6 percent in 1998 to 48.9 percent in 2008. This means that today, one person out of two is poor. Côte d'Ivoire's political authorities have a big responsibility in the worsening of the poverty situation and there is now much to do to decrease the poverty rate and to procure better conditions of living to the population. To achieve this, they have to take into account the population needs and what the people really want in order to see their well-being improve. This requires a reinforcement of both individual and collective capabilities in order to change the current power relationships between the various groups of people that have led to the country North-South divide.



Inclusion of Sugali Community in the Development Process: A Case Study from South India [Members Only]
Kassi, Eswarappa University of Hyderabad, India Submitted: 2008-09-12



Inclusive growth, a new idea? [Members Only]
Huyghebaert, Patricia Submitted:		The paper aims to explore whether the emerging notion of “inclusive growth” is just another new idea or an appropriate means to human development. It will argue that despite the various definitions provided by the World Bank, the United Nations, the Commission on Growth and Development, it may be an appropriate means to human development, coherent with the capability approach if in line with with a human-right based framework to development. The paper is an exploratory paper aiming to look at some of the public policies implications that the emerging notion of inclusive growth may lead to.



Indigeneering: Promoting Diverse Knowledge Systems in Technical Design [Members Only]
Nichols, Crighton Submitted:		In simple terms, engineering can be defined as the application of mathematics and science to solve problems of a technical nature. However, Western science and technology are seen as having little relevance to the lives of many Indigenous Australians, of whom very few are attracted into engineering and related programs at university. As an unfortunate and largely unintentional consequence, Indigenous Australians have been almost completely excluded from participating in the scholarship and practice of engineering, and in doing so, denied the benefits and opportunities offered by this profession. These benefits and opportunities would be especially welcome given the poverty and disadvantage faced by so many Indigenous Australians. By adopting a conceptual framework that is based on the capability approach, this paper explores a novel approach to attracting more Indigenous Australians into the engineering profession that is centred around opening-up the engineering culture to be more inclusive of Indigenous values, knowledge systems, and perspectives. Consideration will be given to both the content and pedagogy of engineering education, as well as the process of design in engineering practice. Precedent for a similar approach has been established with the recent trend to encourage more women into engineering by attempting to change the perceived masculine culture of the profession. Indigenous communities will benefit from more engineers be able to understand, engage and effectively participate with them in the design and development of critical infrastructure such as housing, resource management and transport. As communities become more familiar and comfortable participating in design process, it is contended they will become increasingly empowered to design innovative solutions to local issues that require a greater understanding of the specific context and tacit knowledge that may not be available to external design professionals. In turn, this will help address the woeful track record of poor infrastructure and service delivery by external parties in many remote Indigenous Australian communities. The benefits to health and wellbeing that will arise out of improving the provision of infrastructure and services may then create a positive feedback loop that will encourage an increasing number of Indigenous youth into meaningful education (such as more Indigenous engineers) and assist in the creation of innovative employment opportunities, helping to ensure the increased community empowerment is sustainable. Also, this approach is expected to benefit the engineering profession, and economy in general, by engaging a wider diversity of perspectives than would traditionally be considered, potentially resulting in more innovative solutions.



Indigenous children Rights. Parents and Teachers in the Life of Indigenous Children [Members Only]
Llanos, Martha Submitted:



Indigenous Law and Capabilities from a Gendered Perspective [Members Only]
Duff, Danielle Submitted:		The states of Oaxaca and Chiapas in southern Mexico are poor, indigenous, and developmentally marginalized from the northern beneficiaries of the modern political economy. The “indigenous question” has been a popular point of discussion in the international community over the past decade. There has been an international recognition that indigenous populations have specific needs that have not been adequately addressed by their respective nations, particularly in the realm of development. This paper will look specifically at the development of indigenous women in southern Mexico through justice. Seeing development as an expansion of human capability, the judicial system provides a new institutional space in which women can challenge structural factors of gender inequality, ideally resulting in greater economic, social and political opportunity. Beginning with an examination of the existing policies and mandates in Mexican law and politics, this paper seeks to determine the reality of these policies in practice. Once the framework for judicial reform is in place, the change happens in the enforcement. The existence of indigenous institutions creates a respectful and familiar space for dialogue, especially for women. On the other hand, indigenous law and custom maintains traditions of staunch patriarchy and cemented gender roles.



Indigenous Peoples and the Amazon Forests in route to Copenhagen 2009 Their participation in building a post-Kyoto World regime [Members Only]
Páez-Acosta, Guayana Submitted:		Indigenous Peoples are the traditional dwellers of the Amazon territory, an ecosystem that has sustained their lives both physically and spiritually, providing shelter from wood and alimentation from fishing, hunting, and non-timber resources, and basis of their Cosmovision. Their history has been one of struggle and of socio-political, cultural and economic discrimination until not long ago. While over the last two decades Indigenous Peoples have began to see their efforts come to fruition, with their rights having experienced an unprecedented legal recognition2, theirs remain an ongoing fight for self-determination and for building a world that actively embraces ethnic and cultural diversity. By the end of 2009, the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen will set the stage for a post-Kyoto regime that will have a profound impact on Indigenous Peoples lives. An ongoing and heated debate at the core of the negotiation towards the Copenhagen conference revolves around a forest related market-based mechanism, the so-called Reduced Emissions for Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD) mechanism, which if approved will commit Nations towards reducing deforestation - currently responsible for 25% of the greenhouses gasses emitted to the atmosphere - on the basis of assigning economic value to the standing forest of each Nation. To ensure sustainability of such scenario, economic benefits derived from Forests that are left standing and for which a carbon based crediting system is being discussed will have to, firstly, be able to demonstrate that in the absence of a REDD mechanisms the expected emissions will be higher than those under business as usual forests based activities and to some degree compensate for the opportunity cost of such other economic activities often purely extractive and depleting (i.e. gold-mining, large scale agribusiness, and illegal logging), and secondly, effectively be able to direct benefits towards those populations whose livelihood is dependent or somehow relate to Forest use, as their existing relationship with Forests will most likely change. Addressing key issues like who will benefit from keeping forests standing; what are the rules and mechanisms to compensate those avoiding deforestation; how and by whom can forests use be made sustainable; how and by whom reforestation efforts can be undertaken, will determine whether a market-based mechanism might be feasible or not as a response for moving forward a climate change mitigation agenda based on protecting and restoring forest.



Indigenous Peoples In Latin America: Economic Opportunities And Social Networks [Members Only]
Patrinos, Harry Skoufias, Emmanuel Trina, Lunde Submitted: 2007-09-17		Despite significant changes in poverty overall in Latin America, the proportion of indigenous peoples living in poverty did not change much from the early 1990s to the present.It is shown here that low income and low assets are mutually reinforcing. Social networks affect the economic opportunities of individuals through two important channels: information and norms. However, our analysis shows that the networks available to indigenous peoples do not facilitate employment in non-traditional sectors.



Indigenous Peoples’ Self-determination and Development Policies [Members Only]
Panzironi, Francesca Submitted: 2007-09-17		The need for priority setting in health care requires that health programmes be adequately evaluated. Currently there is no consensus as to what characteristic of health programmes should be of primary concern. Capability, the ability to achieve valuable beings and doings, represents one alternative. The appropriateness of the capability approach depends, in part, on its distributional implications. The objective of this study, is to examine whether these implications can be assessed, and if so, what they are.



Indigenous Youth, Cultural Tourism & Sustainable Development: A Case Study of Interventions by Grassroots Youth Organizations in Tanzania [Members Only]
Jaksch, Marla L Kweka, John Chaca Serian, Aang Tanzania Submitted: 2008-09-12



Individual Capabilities, Collective Action and a Solidarity Ethos [Members Only]
Lasida, Elena Demuijnck, Geert Submitted: 2008-09-12



Inequalities across Dimensions of HD/CA. [Members Only]
Ranis, Gustav Samman, Emma Stewart, Frances Submitted: 2008-09-12



Inequalities, Individual and Collective Capabilities in an African Rural Society: The Case of Coastal Guinea [Members Only]
Bidou, Jean-Etienne Droy, Isabelle Submitted: 2008-09-12



Inequality in non-income dimensions and resource allocation rules [Members Only]
Chakraborty, Achin Institute of Development Studies, Calcutta University Calcutta IN Submitted:		While inequality in per capita state domestic product in India has increased over time, state level indicators of human development show decreasing dispersion for the obvious reason that indicators of health or education are fundamentally different from income in one very important respect. As the average value of an indicator like literacy rate, mean years of schooling, or ‘average life span’ for the whole population increases, inequality among sub-groups of population decreases, simply because unlike income all these indicators have a natural upper limit. Does it then mean that instead of worrying about disparity in social indicators we should focus only on disparity in per capita income? We argue in this paper that there are relevant aspects of disparity across and within states as far as non-income dimensions of well-being are concerned. In the process we clarify several conceptual issues around equity and inequality in non-income dimensions. Even though at the abstract level the definitions of vertical and horizontal equity are well understood, in the specific context of resource allocation by a federal government among sub-national entities, the interpretation of equity can take a variety of forms depending on the way one seeks to capture empirically the equity consequences of an allocation mechanism. In this paper, we have examined two well-known allocation rules, viz. population-weighted utilitarianism and leximin, whose axiomatic properties are well-discussed in the social choice literature. The normative implications of these rules, we argue, are not the same across evaluative spaces. While population-weighted utilitarianism in the space of income is criticised for being insensitive to equity, the force of the criticism seems to be weak, for example, in the space of infant mortality. One could argue that saving infant lives would be valuable irrespective of where the infants are situated, and the boundaries between the states may not be morally too relevant. However, the counter-point to this argument may be based on fairness. We pursue this point through actual resource allocation for human development in India. Almost always disparities in health or education refer to inequality in outcomes. Yet, equalizing outcome can hardly be a practical goal of any egalitarian policy. An objective to attain equal health would raise problems in defining and comparing health levels as well as being exceedingly expensive to obtain. But equalizing marginal met need may be possible. Equal access for equal need might be one plausible alternative. If in region A the probability of remaining illiterate, for example, is the same as in region B, then it can be argued that both A and B should have the same level of resources. Alternatively, if in region A the probability of remaining illiterate is higher than in B, the allocation priorities should be such that the quality of primary school infrastructure in A should not be worse than in B. We checked this basic intuition of ours with the data provided by the District Information System for Education (DISE) of the Ministry of Human Resources, Government of India. We find that the distribution of school infrastructure is highly perverse, in the sense that areas that had high rates of illiteracy are the ones which have poorer infrastructure even in 2005-06, after several years of Sarva Siksha Abhiyan, the massive intervention programme in elementary education.



Inequality, Capability and Freedom: The Case of Japanese Labor Market [Members Only]
Kataoka, Yoko Yukio, Ikemoto Submitted: 2007-09-17		A basic assumption is that utility or well-being of people is an increasing function of income. However, well-being or capability is not just an increasing function of income. Increasing income may not necessarily result in increasing well-being. This paper tries to show how people’s satisfaction is determined by other capabilities and by income.



Inequities in Child Health in India: Evidence from NFHS 3 [Members Only]
Joe, William Submitted: 2008-09-12



Informacion a escala local, recurso clave para el diseño de estrategias orientadas a la ampliacion de las capacidades humanas [Members Only]
Pol, María Albina Universidad Nacional de Cuyo - CONICET Mendoza AR Submitted:		Con base en la concepción del desarrollo como un proceso centrado en las personas y territorialmente localizado, el artículo sostiene la importancia estratégica de contar con información acerca de las capacidades a las que las personas pueden acceder en el particular entorno en que se desenvuelven cotidianamente. Se introduce, en primer lugar, una breve reflexión sobre la noción de “territorio”, en tanto espacio de ampliación de las capacidades humanas, y sobre la relevancia de la información para el diseño de estrategias de desarrollo humano en ámbitos territoriales específicos. En segundo lugar, se exponen los resultados del análisis crítico aplicado al cúmulo de información socioeconómica disponible a escala local a partir de un estudio de caso. Finalmente, se esbozan algunas consideraciones generales orientadas a avanzar en la elaboración de “Sistemas Integrados de Información Territorial”.



Informal Payments and Health Care Access in India [Members Only]
Saran, Indrani Submitted: 2008-09-12



Information Technology underpinnings to Amartya Sen’s Capabilities Model: An NGO example from Lima, Peru [Members Only]
Wresch, William University of Wisconsin Oshkosh Oshkosh US Submitted:		The United Nation’s Millennium Development Goals highlight the value of Information and Communications Technologies in enhancing the capabilities of individuals and of NGOs. To illustrate the value of ICTs in development, a case study of a nutrition program established in Lima, Peru is described. The constant communication between NGO partners in Lima and in the United States enabled project leaders to overcome significant and continuing obstacles to their success. By 2008 the project was able to provide protein-rich soy milk to 3000 children each day. A review of the information and communications technologies used in the project was undertaken and an analysis of their role in participation patterns and power distribution is included.



Instituting Democratic Debate: A Process for Investigating and Developing Capabilities [Members Only]
Dubois, Michael Giust-Ollivier, Annie-Charlotte Submitted: 2008-09-12



International Business Immigration Law & The Neuroeconomics of Free Movement Within The CSME, EEC and USA: Comparing Socio-Legal Behaviours & Cultural Values in People Trade [Members Only]
Brathwaite, Terrence Submitted:



International Development NGOs: Increasingly Ineffective Partners in Promoting Human Rights [Members Only]
Hammock, John Guevarra, Ernest Submitted:



Intra-Household Inequalities and Gendered Outcomes of Malnutrition: Some Theoretical and Empirical Reflections from Mumbai Metro [Members Only]
Choudhary, Neetu Parthasarathy, D. Indian Institute of Technology Bombay, India Submitted: 2008-09-12



Investigating the role of “resources” in enhancing women’s agency, freedom and empowerment? Uganda’s Experience. [Members Only]
Ninsiima, Anna Submitted: 2007-09-17		This paper argues that we should not over stretch the role of agency because the societies we live in are quite different with different environments, cultures, power structures and many more. I suggest that while we may emphasize freedoms for individual people, we should even emphasize more, the freedoms and role of institutions and states.



Is extreme poverty a violation of human rights? [Members Only]
SC Castilho, Leonardo Submitted:		Extreme poverty is one of the most urgent challenges in the world today, both from a human rights and a development perspective. From the human rights perspective, a first conceptual discussion needs to be addressed: is extreme poverty a violation of human rights? This question, then, takes the discussion towards the definition of extreme poverty from a human rights perspective: how does international human rights law define extreme poverty? The two questions are both difficult and disputable but, if a solid definition of extreme poverty, based on international human rights law, is put forward, it should be possible to answer the question of whether extreme poverty is a violation of human rights.



Is Strong Sustainability Consistent with Utilitarianism? New Perspectives from the Capability Approach Point of View [Members Only]
Reboud, Valérie Submitted: 2008-09-12



Is There a Numbers vs. Rights Trade-off in Immigration Policy? : What the Data Say [Members Only]
Rodríguez, Francisco Cummins, Matthew Submitted:		This paper explores the empirical support behind the idea that there is a trade-off between the size of the migrant population and the rights and entitlements enjoyed by immigrants. We first look at the empirical correlation between measures of migrants’ rights and the size of the stock of immigrants in a number of existing databases. Using data on migrants’ rights from three recent studies—the Economist Intelligence Unit’s Migrant Accessibility Index, the Migration Policy Group and British Council’s Migrant Integration Policy Index (MIPEX) and the Human Development Report Office’s Migrant Entitlements and Services Index—we fail to find a systematic correlation of any sign. We then turn to regression analysis using OLS and instrumental variable techniques and again fail to find evidence in favor of the existence of a correlation. The numerical magnitudes of the correlations suggest a quantitatively small relationship which in several cases is positive rather than negative.



Job Satisfaction, Working Conditions and Job-Expectations [Members Only]
Poggi, Ambra Submitted: 2008-09-12



Justice and Feasibility in the Capability Approach to Socioeconomic Human Rights [Members Only]
Gilabert, Pablo Submitted: 2007-09-17		To be justifiable, the demands of a conception of basic global justice centered on human rights must be such that (a) they focus on the protection of extremely important human interests; and (b) their fulfillment is feasible. This paper provides a discussion of (b), the Feasibility Condition.



Justice, Capabilities, and the Curriculum of Survival [Members Only]
Curren, Randel Submitted: 2007-09-17		My aim is to stimulate a wider discussion of the educational dimensions of survival than what has been transacted in the conceptual space of cultural identity, autonomy, and citizenship.This is what I’ll address here: the material basis of (multi-) cultural survival and the shape and moral basis for a curriculum of survival adequate to the challenges of global interdependence and looming ecosystem collapse.



Kantian Foundations Of The Freedom In The Capabilities Approach [Members Only]
Pedrajas, Marta Submitted: 2007-09-17		The aim of this paper is to present a Kantian philosophical foundation of the concept of Freedom as the most appropriate for Sen’s capabilities approach and his model of justice and development as freedom.



Kerala's Development Experience: A Fresh Look at Its Outliers [Members Only]
Shyjan, D. Sunitha, A.S. Submitted: 2008-09-12



La brecha educativa en el Perú como freno al desarrollo humano: entre la educación rural y urbana, entre la estatal y la privada [Members Only]
Ansión, Juan Submitted:



La democracia deliberativa como marco de la política pública de desarrollo. El proceso de elaboración del III Plan Director 2009-2012 de la Cooperación Española. [Members Only]
Ferrero, Gabriel Pedrajas, Marta Cortés, Javier Baselga y Mateo Ambrosio-Albalat, Pilar Submitted:



La desigualdad de oportunidades de acceder a un trabajo decente en México
Sánchez Pérez, Hidalia Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México Ciudad de México MX Submitted:		This paper analyzes the effect of Mexican economy’s structural inequality in the opportunities to access a decent work. A cluster analysis was made for drawing a map which shows regional differences between groups of federative entities. The analysis also considers employed population’s, sex, educational level and age. It was built a Decent Work Index (DWI) as a dependent variable based on Sen´s human capabilities approach and ILO´s notion of decent work. Results show that the opportunities to access a decent work are greater for employed population who lives in federative entities that have the highest rates of growth in tertiary sector. In turn, in poorest federative entities, where opportunities to access a decent work are lower, the inequality gaps between employed population with different educational levels are higher. Education plays an important role in enlarging people’s opportunities to access a decent work, but, this is true particularly for women.



La importancia de los procesos participativos en las políticas de desarrollo rural. El caso de Nicaragua [Members Only]
Luz Ortega, Maria Ambrosio-Albalat, Mateo Submitted:		El escaso éxito obtenido en la reducción de la pobreza rural durante las últimas décadas, y en particular en América Latina, pone de manifiesto la necesidad de buscar nuevos enfoques, estrategias y políticas para promover el desarrollo rural. La Nueva Ruralidad Latinoamericana y el Enfoque Territorial constituyen un nuevo marco desde el que entender la ruralidad y proponer modelos alternativos para el desarrollo rural en la región. La presente comunicación pretende aportar elementos y criterios que puedan facilitar la formulación de políticas de desarrollo rural apropiadas en América Latina, como son una interpretación en profundidad del propio fenómeno de la formulación e implementación de dichas políticas y el estudio de las variables que influyen en la calidad y el impacto de las mismas. Para ello se ha empleado una estrategia cualitativa de investigación basada en la triangulación, alrededor del estudio de caso de Nicaragua, empleando observación participante de larga duración, análisis documental de marcos de política y evaluación comparativa ex post de dos procesos de incidencia en las políticas de desarrollo rural. Los resultados de la investigación han sido la aportación de un marco para la caracterización y el análisis comparativo de políticas de desarrollo rural, la construcción de un modelo representativo de las variables presentes en el fenómeno y sus interrelaciones y propuestas derivadas de su aplicación empírica. Las principales conclusiones de la investigación apuntan a que no sólo los “marcos de principios teóricos” constituyen las variables clave para el éxito de las políticas de desarrollo rural de entre sus atributos y características: la influencia del “proceso de elaboración” es igualmente importante y puede ser mayor. Por ello, es necesario adoptar un Enfoque de Proceso, que enfatiza la formulación e implementación de políticas e intervenciones como una actividad ascendente, abierta, flexible, adaptada y adaptable al contexto, abierta al aprendizaje, donde la participación de la población es un fin en sí mismo al abordar la formulación e implementación de políticas de desarrollo rural



La incidencia de la educación media en la desigualdad de capacidades en Uruguay y Chile [Members Only]
Méndez, Nadia Zerpa, Mariana Submitted:



La necesidad de incluir la dimensión del tiempo en el enfoque de capacidades [Members Only]
Damian Gonzalez, Araceli Submitted:



La organización para la sobrevivencia y el trabajo: los jornaleros agrícolas migrantes en México [Members Only]
Rojas Rangel, Teresa Submitted:



La pobreza como crítica política a la democracia
Ponce Leon, Fernando Pontificia Universidad Católica del Ecuador Quito EC Submitted:		En esta ponencia intentaré mostrar cómo la pobreza, entendida como privación de libertad individual, podría convertirse en una crítica conceptual al sistema democrático en el que supuestamente vivimos. Para esto identificaré algunas implicaciones filosófico-políticas que resultan de concebir la pobreza según el enfoque de las capacidades. Con esto sostendré que la existencia de la pobreza pone en duda que vivamos en sociedades democráticas porque cuestiona la finalidad y la esencia de estas comunidades, a la vez que les urge a pensar cómo pueden ser realmente sociedades justas. Comenzaré con una interpretación filosófica de la pobreza a partir de algunas ideas de Sen (sección 1). Seguiré con el análisis de la relación que se podría establecer entre la privación de libertad y la comunidad política según Aristóteles, Espinosa y Locke (sección 2), y terminaré presentando tres desafíos que la pobreza presenta a nuestras democracias (sección 3).



Labour as an Instrumental Freedom. The Case of ‘Work Care’ in Flanders [Members Only]
Motmans, Jos Submitted:		In this article we explore the meaning and importance of Sen’s concept ‘instrumental freedom’ in the case of ‘work care’ in Flanders (the Northern Dutch speaking part of Belgium). Work care is a rather literal translation of the specific Flemish and difficult to translate topic ‘arbeidszorg’. Work care is about work and occupational opportunities for people who in fact have no ‘real’ access to the normal labour market due to different reasons. Using ‘Supported employment’, a better known concept as a translation would be misleading since in work care workers do not have a labour contract. Furthermore work care is more than voluntary work due to the fact that the government supports specific and necessary guidance and coaching of the workers in work care programs. A case study of seven work care projects was at the core of this research project. We only used qualitative research methods. In each case (work care project) we had an in-depth interview with a coordinator, a coach and a worker. Interview data were analysed by using Sen’s five instrumental freedoms. In fact we used six instrumental freedoms, based on Anantha Duriappah (2004) and Jurgen Volkert (2007). We added ‘ecological security’ as the 6th, which seems to be a relevant option based on our analyses. Most literature on work care emphasizes the importance of participating in work care project because it enforces the latent functions of labour (Jahoda). In the different cases, we illustrate that work care clearly has social functions besides its personal importance. Projects in work care can make a huge difference for their workers between being included in society or being excluded and/or being subjected to (even extreme) poverty. When several instrumental freedoms (in their mutual coherence), are implemented in work care projects on the work floor, on guidance as on the organisational level, they clearly fulfil functions of social integration. Based on these findings we advised the Flemish government not to approach work care as a simple instrument of activation in the labour market. When work care is evaluated only in terms of (social) economic value – as is usually done nowadays in neo liberal economic policy – it is reduced to a labour market instrument. Such a reduction prohibits work care to play its potential and strongly inclusive role.



Lack of Instrumental Freedoms: Social Exclusion from and Unfavourable Inclusion into the Labour Market – An Empirical Analysis for Germany [Members Only]
Strotmann, Harald Volkert, Jürgen Submitted: 2008-09-12



Lessons Learned from the Long Term Application of a Capability Approach Based Participatory Monitoring and Evaluation in the South Pacific [Members Only]
Schischka, John Submitted: 2008-09-12



Linkages between Human/Social Development and Inclusive Economic Growth: The Experience of India and Kerala [Members Only]
Kurian, N.J. Submitted: 2008-09-12



Literacy And Illiteracy: A Capabilities Perspective On Thresholds And Wellbeing [Members Only]
Maddox, Bryan Submitted: 2007-09-17		This paper examines the arguments on literacy as a centrally important human capability, and illiteracy as a powerful form of capability deprivation. The paper critically analyses the notion of ‘minimum thresholds’ of literacy functioning.



Literacy Rate and Gender Gap in Scheduled Castes among different Religions [Members Only]
Kaur, Navjeet Kumar, Shammi Submitted: 2008-09-12



Long Time Passing? Digital Ambivalence and the Fall and Rise of the (Global) Information Society’ Idea [Members Only]
Franklin, M.I. Submitted: 2007-09-17		This paper argues that the idea-set encapsulated by the fall and rise of “(global) information society” discourses and multilateral agenda-settings needs critical attention in practical terms for Human Development and Capacity Approaches, but also for theory and research into the interface between any given knowledge-power hierarchies, ideas legitimising their respective “world order of things”, propagating institutional actors and discursive--ideational and material--practices.



Looking for long-run development effectiveness: An autonomy-centred framework for project evaluation
Muñiz Castillo , Mirtha R. Gasper, Des Maastricht University / International Institute of Social Studies (of Erasmus University Rotterdam) Submitted:		This paper proposes an analytical framework to assess project effects on human lives. It goes beyond looking at project outputs and short-run effectiveness in terms of project-specified objectives, and proposes a development effectiveness criterion that looks at whether and how projects positively influence participants’ autonomy: a human autonomy effectiveness criterion. The focus is on individuals as agents of change, and on their goals and values, rather than on projects as designed to directly produce other changes. The framework identifies relevant processes, practices and relationships during a project cycle. It aims at contributing to design, implementation and evaluation of aid projects so that participants are able to achieve valuable goals, with greater chance of sustained positive effects. The paper is based on a study of four infrastructure projects in Nicaragua and El Salvador supported by Luxembourg’s aid agency, between 1999 and 2005.



Mainstreaming economic, social and cultural rights: Democracy, reparations and development in Peru’s political transition [Members Only]
Laplante, Lisa Submitted: 2007-09-17		This paper discusses the new social movement in Latin America that contests the Washington Consensus’ trickle down theory and demands that states take an active role in assuring basic minimum social and economic conditions for all citizens.



Making the Case for Collective Capabilities: What does it really mean? [Members Only]
Ibrahim, Solava Submitted:		Collective capabilities, social capabilities, relational capabilities, group capabilities and external capabilities, all these are concepts that have been recently introduced by various scholars to extend the analysis of the capability approach from the individual to the collectivity. These concepts emphasize the importance of collectivities, social structures, communal relations and groups for the expansion of human capabilities. However, are these concepts inherently different or are they describing – more or less- the same ‘type of capabilities’. For example, are these capabilities simply the sum of individual capabilities in a particular group or are they new kinds of capabilities that go beyond the individual ones. In case of the latter, what is then the difference between each of these ‘types’ of capabilities? The aim of this paper is to undertake a ‘conceptual exploration’ of these concepts. The paper first reviews these concepts and examines how each of them describes the relationship between individual capabilities and social/ collective structures. Section two analyzes the strengths and weaknesses of each of these concepts. Section three streamlines these concepts by introducing the ‘criteria’ and ‘conditions’ for the building and expansion of these capabilities at the collective level. Section four demonstrates the importance of these capabilities for the poor’s well-being. The last section concludes by demonstrating the importance of these concepts for enriching the analysis of human capabilities and the capability approach.



Marginalised Capabilities – Mental Health, Justice and Policy Priorities. [Members Only]
Crabtree, Abdrew Submitted: 2007-09-17		This paper argues that a capabilities concept of justice can play a significant role in bringing mental health onto the agenda in developing countries, and has played an important role in mental health’s status in East African countries.



Maternal and Child Health-Lessons from Kerala [Members Only]
Menon, Rajini. R. Submitted: 2008-09-12



Measures of Freedom [Members Only]
D'Agata, Antonio Submitted: 2007-09-17		In this paper the measures of freedom proposed by Steiner (1983), (1994) and Carter (1992), (1999), (2003), by Rosenbaum (2000) and by Kramer (2003) are critically analysed.



Measuring Child Undernutrition in India and Assessing Socio-Economic Inequality in it Using the Mean of Squared Deprivation Gaps [Members Only]
Submitted:		Drawing on the literature on poverty measurement, we suggest the application of the mean of squared deprivation gaps (MSDG), which captures the dimensions of level, depth and severity, as an alternative index of undernutrition. However, the intuitive interpretation of the index substantially differs when it is applied to measure nutritional deprivation. While in the context of poverty it captures the feeling of relative deprivation of the poor, with respect to undernutrition it is justified by the greater physiological risks associated with higher levels of undernutrition. Applying the subgroup consistency feature of the MSDG, we have used the relative share of each wealth quintile in total MSDG to calculate the concentration index of undernutrition among children in each of the major states of India. We find that states perform differently with respect to socioeconomic inequality in the level of nutritional status and that in the multidimensional notion of undernutrition. It may so happen that socioeconomic inequality in the level of undernutrition is abated but that in undernutrition as a multidimensional concept (bringing into consideration its depth and severity as well) increases. The scenario of child underweight in Karnataka, Gujarat, Haryana and Chhattisgarh depict such a situation.



Measuring Poverty in Germany - A formal and empirical comparison of the relative deprivation and the capability approach [Members Only]
Jindra, Christoph Submitted:		This paper gives an overview over the outline of a dissertation project. The focus of the thesis is the formal and empirical comparison of dierent poverty concepts and their application for an advanced capitalist society, namely Germany. The poverty concepts that will be compared are the income, the deprivation, and the capability approach. Additionally, the thesis is going to make a proposal on how to operationalise the capability perspective of the capability approach. By comparing the concepts for Germany and making a proposal on the operationalisation, the thesis will help to animate the discussion about the advantages and disadvantages of the capabilitiy approach as a base for poverty analyses in advanced societies.



Measuring the well-being of Lithuanian Households [Members Only]
Ivaskaite-Tamosiune, Viginta Submitted:		This paper describes the first attempts to measure overall well-being of households in Lithuania. Despite simple economic indicators such as gross domestic product (GDP), per capita average income, expenditures and etc. are widely accepted and easy accessible, they lack comprehensiveness in terms of well-being measurement. Traditional income or expenditure-based approach is one-sided, not taking into consideration very complex structures of everyone’s life. In recent decades a well-being or quality of life issue has been investigated not only in economics but also in other social sciences (sociology, political science, psychology). Growing literature on indicators and dimensions of well-being attempts to reveal the various aspects of well-being of deprivation. However, no single measure can be proposed in order to capture the complexity and multidimensionality in terms of relevant dimensions and indicators. The paper describes measurement methodology employed to create an index of well-being in Lithuania and presents the first results of well-being. The approach taken in this paper is based on the A. Sen’s capability approach, which enables to create an index by looking at households’ resources, functionings and utilities. The dataset used for the construction of a well-being index is Generation and Gender Survey, which was conducted in 2006, covering over 10 thousands households in Lithuania (a multi-stage random sample design was used for this Survey). Despite the dataset was not collected for the purpose of the measuring well-being, it was chosen because it contains relatively rich micro-level non-monetary information on households. Making use of information from the Generation and Gender Survey and following A. Sen’s capability approach 4 domains of well-being, consisting of a number of indicators were finally combined to form an overall index of well-being of Lithuanian households. These domains are material welfare, health, employment and education. Material domain contains indicators such as incomes, various durables and fulfilment of basic needs. Health consists of group of indicators, which reflect disabilities that interfere with daily routines, experiences and feelings of respondents’. When looking at employment dimension we examine whether respondent is engaged with any formal activity (she or he is an employee, employed, a students, a pensioner, in a military, is on maternity or paternity leave, etc.) or is unemployed or helping in a private household. Finally we look at the highest educational level achieved by a respondent. At first we have included the fifth, housing dimension, consisting of indicators such as property of the dwelling and number of rooms per person, but after reliability test was performed this dimension was excluded from the further analysis of the well-being.



Measuring Well-Being Differences across EU Countries: A Multidimensional Analysis of Income, Housing, Health, and Education [Members Only]
Angelini, Elisabetta Croci Michelangeli, Alessandra Submitted: 2008-09-12



Mediating Power Through The Lens of Social Capital In Informal Water Market: A Case Study Of Rural Gujarat, India [Members Only]
Naz, Farhat Submitted:



Medición multidimensional de la pobreza en la infancia y la adolescencia en Uruguay [Members Only]
Zerpa, Mariana Nathan, Mathías Submitted:



Methodological proposal for monitoring inequality between social groups: A combined use of Fuzzy Set Theory and Principal Component Analysis [Members Only]
Roche, Jose Manuel Submitted: 2007-09-17		This paper proposes a combined use of Fuzzy Set Theory (FST), and Principal Component Analysis (PCA) for the design of a set of indicators for monitoring inequality between social groups. It proposes a methodological solution for the operationalization of the capability approach based on the complementarities of both techniques.



Migration, Remittances and Ethnic Identity: the Experience of Mayan Indian Migrants from Guatemala in the United States [Members Only]
Davis, Shelton Submitted: 2007-09-17		We explain identity in terms of three identity concepts: personal identity, social identity, and individual identity. We then argue that democracy in combining the individual reasoning of all citizens responds to individuals’ different personal identity concerns and needs, reflects their shared social identity interests and goals, and accords them rights and responsibilities associated with their many different individual identities. We argue that this framework makes it possible to address the issue of what ought to be included in a list of ‘essential’ capabilities in terms of different ways specific democratic contexts address the various identities of individuals.



Mobility and Human Development: the National Perspective: Insights from National and Regional Human Development Reports on Mobility and Migration [Members Only]
Pagliani, Paola Submitted:		Migration has a different impact on migrants, their families and country of origin according to the characteristics of migrants (e.g. skilled or unskilled), their social networks in both country of destination and country of origin, the type of migration (forced or voluntary), and other dimensions which have a profound impact on human development achievements. Migration issues are analyzed from different perspectives in 2 regional (RHDRs), 15 national (NHDRs) and 2 sub-national human development reports. In three cases (Albania, El Salvador and Mexico) migration was the central theme of the NHDRs, while in most cases migration was mentioned as one of the issues with an impact on a specific topic relevant to human development in that country or region. This paper highlights national HDR work in applying the Human Development analytical framework to the analysis of migration issues, particularly with respect to gathering data, including through surveys and their analysis to convey related policy recommendations. We offer a comparative analysis to showcase how NHDRs can be used as tools to assess the impact of migration at the country level, what is the value added of applying the human development methodology, what are the main shortcomings and the potential to overcome them. The paper also explores various definitions of migration: who are migrants and how to understand the continuum of choices and policies characterizing internal and international, legal and illegal, and voluntary and forced migration? Measurement issues that have emerged during the preparation of the HDRs are highlighted, including the use of proxies to determine the value added of migration, capturing migration through a revised version of the HDI, elaborating targeted surveys to collecting migration-relevant information and other migration-specific statistics. We conclude by offering a comparative analysis of national policy recommendations, which reflect sending countries’ diverse perspectives, but also the relative availability of data and information, which ultimately influence the debate linking migration and human development.



Modeling Martha Nussbaum's human capabilities framework for policy-making: survey design to measure basic capabilities of migrant seasonal agricultural workers in Mexico [Members Only]
Aguilar Bellamy, Alexandra Submitted:



Moral Dimensions of a Capability Approach to Risk Analysis [Members Only]
Murphy , Colleen Gardoni, Paolo Texas A&M University US Submitted:		Risk typically refers to a set of scenarios, their associated probability of occurrence and consequences. In a capability approach, risk is defined as the probability that the capabilities of individuals will be reduced. This paper focuses on the criteria for evaluating the acceptability of a risk. Our specific interest is the relationship between a concern with the predicted impact on capabilities [and so with the probability of occurrence and consequences components of risk] and other widely recognized morally relevant aspects of risks. Among the additional, relevant moral factors to consider when assessing the acceptability of a risk are: (1) the distribution of risks; (2) who is at risk and who stands to potentially gain from risks; (3) the source of a risk; and (4) whether a risk is voluntary or not. We consider whether judgments of the acceptability of a risk should, for example, give special priority to the predicted impact on capabilities and whether a negative impact on capabilities be outweighed by other morally salient considerations. The risks on which we concentrate are those associated to natural hazards, where the societal impact is the result of the interaction between the natural hazard and the engineered environment.



More Policies, More Adaptations [Members Only]
Watts, Michael Submitted: 2008-09-12



Movilidad de ingreso, educación y trampas de pobreza: nueva evidencia para los países del Cono Sur [Members Only]
Salas, Gonzalo Leites, Martín Arim, Rodrigo Dean, Andrés Submitted:



Multi-dimensional Poverty Measurement: Restricted and Unrestricted Hierarchy among Poverty Dimensions [Members Only]
Esposito, Lucio Chiappero-Martinetti, Enrica Submitted: 2008-09-12



Multidimensional Measurement of Poverty in Sub-Saharan Africa [Members Only]
Batana, Yélé Maweki Submitted: 2008-09-12



Multidimensional poverty among children in Uruguay 2004-2006. Evidence from panel data. [Members Only]
Amarante, Verónica Arim, Rodrigo Submitted: 2007-09-17		the aim of this paper is to compare three existing methodologies: generalized Foster Greer and Thorbecke indexes (Chakravarty and Bourguignon, 2003), fuzzy sets (Lemmi, 2005; Chiappero-Martinetti, 2001) and stochastic dominance (Duclos and Sahn, 2006). Our purpose is to compare the three approaches in terms of their advantages and disadvantages to build multidimensional poverty measures, concerning aggregation methods, flexibility of substitution among dimensions and weights. After that, we present an empirical illustration of the convergence and divergence of poverty profiles using the three methodologies and of their time path considering the evolution of each of the dimensions included.



Multidimensional Poverty and BPL Measures in India: A Comparison of Methods [Members Only]
Alkire, Sabina Seth, Suman Submitted: 2008-09-12



Multidimensional Poverty in Bhutan: Estimates and Policy Implications [Members Only]
Santos, Maria Emma Ura, Karma Submitted: 2008-09-12



Multidimensional Poverty in Cameroon: An Alternative Approach via the Principal Component Analysis [Members Only]
Manga, Nadine Submitted:		Based on Micro and Macroeconomic data ECAM II, (Cameroon Household Consumption Survey in 2001), this paper evaluates the extend of poverty in Cameroon, confronting the uni-dimensional and multidimensional impact of poverty in Cameroon. Computing multidimensional poverty, we use the Principal Component Analysis approach which aggregates different dimensions of poverty and aids in creating a welfare composite index used to gauge poverty. Based on non-monetary indicators of well-being obtained via the data analysis approach, we compare results obtained with the orthodox monetary approach. Results obtained reveal that non-monetary poverty is severe than monetary poverty along geographical and household characteristics. Additionally, multidimensional poverty contributes more to total poverty than monetary poverty. Policy implication entails that government tilts its attention of policies and programs that go beyond simply income activities to asset based enhancement programs that contribute to welfare as posited by Armatia Sen’s capability approach.



Multidimensional Poverty in Latin America: A Comparative Analysis. [Members Only]
Lopez Calva, Luis Felipe Lugo, Maria Ana Submitted: 2008-09-12



Multidimensional Poverty in Senegal: A Non-Monetary Basic Needs Approach [Members Only]
Bosco, Jean Salimata & Bocar, PMMA, Senegal Submitted: 2008-09-12



Multidimensionality and Group Inequalities: Insights on the Complexity of Social Stratification [Members Only]
Roche, José Manuel University of Sussex, UK. Submitted: 2008-09-12



Multiple deprivation, vulnerability and governance: The case of Macedonia regions [Members Only]
Peleah, Mihail Ivanov, Andrey Submitted:		The paper examines the relationships between multiple deprivation, social exclusion and involvement in local governance process. The paper is based on the data from the second round of representative survey conducted in Macedonia in 2008. The data is representative for the eight Macedonian regions as well as for major groups (defined by ethnicity, gender, education and age). To analyze multiple deprivation and vulnerability we propose a set of composite indicators, which include monetary and non-monetary aspects of poverty and aggregate estimates of social exclusion. The list is based on consensus building in the process of report preparation. Using composite indicators of multiple deprivation and vulnerability computed for the overall sample and individual sub-samples, correlation between levels deprivation and other factors like social exclusion, involvement in local government are investigated. The paper assesses the ‘input’ and relative weight of individual determinants of deprivation into overall ‘exclusion from governance participation’. Based on the analysis of these relationships between deprivation, exclusion and governance, the paper suggests areas of priority involvement that could offset certain severe deficits individual groups are facing in regards their involvement in the governance process



Multiple Identities and Preference Formation [Members Only]
Binder, Constanze Submitted: 2008-09-12



Natural Disasters, Resettlement and Human Development: A Post- Earthquake Experience from India [Members Only]
Kumar, Ashok Submitted:



Negotiating Inter-cultural dialogue in a postcolonial environment; the evolution of institutional knowledge-production in modern Cambodia1 [Members Only]
Peycam, Phillippe Submitted: 2007-09-17		How to ensure that a proper allay of exchange between individuals belonging to different cultural, historical, social contexts, in a postcolonial global setting, where the Western model of ‘scientific’ analysis reigns without serious epistemological or methodological rival? Can, under these terms, an inter-cultural dialogue actually take place, especially when dealing with interacting ‘cultures’ largely marked by the Western colonial legacy? In attempting to answer this fundamental, lingering, question, the following article sets out to trace the institutional history of ‘modern’ academic knowledge on - and in - Cambodia, a typical example where Western colonialism and its avatars were responsible for framing the initial mechanisms for this exchange.



Neuroeconomics, Rationality and Preference Formation: Methodological Implications for Economic Theory [Members Only]
Martins, Nuno Submitted: 2007-09-17		I will examine and develop Sen’s critique of mainstream microeconomic theory resorting to recent developments in the study of neurobiological structures.



Objective and Subjective Well-Being: evidence from rural Peru [Members Only]
Bellani, Luna De Los Rios, Carlos Instituto de Estudios Peruanos PE Submitted:		In this paper we study the relationship between objectively measured multidimensional well-being and the individual's subjective perception of it. Subjective well-being has increasingly become a part of economic analysis. However, to the best of our knowl- edge, the links between objective deprivation and subjective perception of it have not been fully explored. In particular the present contribution aims at investigating em- pirically individual's multidimensional well-being in three domains (income, education and health) using a unique database. We use data from a survey recently conducted in rural Piura, a northern coastal region in Peru. In this survey, we could collect data on the variables of interest and also ask direct questions on the individuals' subjective perception of their economic condition.



On the Contribution of Mother's Education to Children's Nutritional Capabilities in Mozambique [Members Only]
Burchi, Francesco Università degli Studi Roma, Italy Submitted: 2008-09-12



On the measurement of multidimensional gender inequality: Continuing the debate. [Members Only]
Permanyer Ugartemendia, Iñaki Submitted: 2007-09-17		The few papers that in recent years have dealt with the problem of measuring gender inequalities in a multidimensional context, have proposed certain measures that can be criticized on different grounds.In this paper we make a comprehensive and critical review of these indices and propose some constructive alternatives. Moreover, we present the levels of gender inequality according to our new indicators for most countries of the world during the period 1995-2005 using United Nations’ (UN) data.



Operationalising the Capability Approach for Child and Youth Care: Results of an International Research Project [Members Only]
Babic, Bernhard Graf, Gunter Germes Castro, Oscar Submitted:		Operationalising the Capability Approach (CA) for alternative child and youth care is the task of the international research project “Approaching Capabilities with Children in Care”. It was carried out by SOS Children’s Villages International and the International Research Centre Salzburg (IFZ). The CA was in this context understood as “a broad normative framework for the evaluation of individual well-being and social arrangements, the design of policies and proposals about social change in society” (Robeyns 2003, 5). As such it needs careful empirical adaption before it can be applied to a specific field (see Babic, Germes Castro, Graf 2009; Babic forthcoming). This is according to Schokkaert last but not least necessary because “the translation of (...) abstract capabilities in implementable terms will depend on the specific social, cultural and economic context” (2008, 16). As a consequence, we conducted our own, mainly qualitative field studies to take all these aspects adequately into account instead of limiting ourselves to applying already existing lists of capabilities. In this context we were additionally following Sen (1999; 2004), and Alkire (2002), who suggest to involve those who are primarily affected by certain programmes in the definition of valuable capabilities that should be realised by according actions. Therefore we asked within qualitative interviews and focus groups children, youths, their caregivers, their parents (if available) and other relevant adult persons (e.g. school teachers) what kind of life should the young people placed in different forms of alternative care (provided by SOS Children’s Villages as well as by other organisations) be able to lead later on. These investigations were conducted in cooperation with our national associations as well as with local external scientists and accompanied by national advisory boards on four different locations in Nicaragua and Namibia. The field studies, which started in October 2009, were completed in February and March 2010. Although the analysis of the data is still work in progress, at first glance the results are very promising. Amongst others they confirm impressively that children can be involved successfully into the definition of valuable capabilities and that they are not generally “not mature enough to make decisions by themselves” as Saito (2003) assumes. Therefore we are not only able to report about the capabilities valued by the respondents but also about relevant findings concerning the operationalisation of the CA for alternative child and youth care.



Operationalizing Capability Approach (CA) for Evaluating Small Projects [Members Only]
Chandra Khanal, Ram Institute for Evaluation and Studies Kathmandu NP Submitted:		This study aimed to devise Capability Approach (CA) based evaluation tools for development project management at local level. Two small development initiatives at local level were selected and examined in a rural community in Nepal by employing participatory appraisal methods such as focus group discussion, key informant survey, participatory ranking, and transect walk. Based on the review, an evaluation framework, comprises of six major evaluation aspects, was proposed to assess functioning, capability, freedoms and agency. Similarly, in order to incorporate normative aspect in evaluation, axiological and existential aspects, in tandem, were also reviewed, analysed and attempted to assess based on the contribution made by the selected development initiatives on people’s life and livelihoods. Some conceptual and operational challenges were encountered during the study. CA is still new area of application at project level so its operationalisation was constrained by inadequate conceptual clarity, and amorphous tools and techniques that can be used at project contexts. Application of axiological and existential stands added further complexity in analysis and ranking. Although, the study revealed the possibility of devising capability based evaluation systems for small projects, further analysis and probing is a must.



Opportunities for Girl’s Schooling in Rural Communities in Rajasthan and West Bengal [Members Only]
Samson, Meera Submitted: 2008-09-12



Opportunity or impoverishment? Expansion in Ethiopian higher education [Members Only]
Ridley, Barbara Submitted:		In 2003, only 1% of the population was enrolled in higher education in Ethiopia. With the higher education sector review came an agenda for change linked to the reduction of poverty: new universities were planned, colleges merged and up-graded, private sector institutions flourished and enrolment increased. But the speed of these developments has left the HE sector in disarray with few material resources, a lack of academic and management expertise to implement government policy and poor quality assurance mechanisms. Put together, these undermine the very concept of a meaningful university education. Poverty alleviation might be the rhetoric, but impoverishment of university provision remains the reality. From a capability perspective, increased tertiary provision should enable more individuals to realise their valued functionings, but as Sen asserts, those institutions ‘not only…contribute to our freedoms, their roles can be sensibly evaluated in the light of their contributions to our freedoms’ (1999, p. 142). At the macro level, disagreements between government and donor agendas and between national and federal responsibilities have impacted on institutional roles. In addition, at a more local level, differences between academics and their superiors, and the rights students have to make choices (whether academic or situational) have all contributed towards, or detracted from, freedoms. This paper looks at the tensions within the expansion programme, the opportunities it could enable, but within a context of distrust and dissent.



Oral Histories and Understanding Multilateralism: The Experience of the United Nations Intellectual History Project [Members Only]
Weiss, Thomas Submitted: 2007-09-17		While theorizing about the roles of ideas in the multilateral system is a laudable objective, the argument here is that far more adequate historical investigation is a prerequisite.



Oral History as a Method to Enhance Sustainable Human Development through the Capabilities Approach. Theoretical Assumptions and Implementation Methodology of a Development Project in rural Tamil Nadu
de Heering, Alexandra Leyens, Stephane University of Namur Namur BE Submitted:		Our aim is to show that oral history is an interesting method to implement development projects using the Capabilities Approach (CA). We show this in three steps. First history is a necessary dimension to be taken into account in ethical reflections and hence in development strategies using the CA. Indeed an historical approach allows tackling the adaptive preference problem which is a stumbling block of the CA. Second we show how oral history as a qualitative inquiry methodology can bring possible benefits to action policy and development project. Combining CA and oral history methodology seems particularly promising in framing development projects. Third the rationale of a development project we carry out in Tamil Nadu (India) based on those theoretical assumptions is presented in order to illustrate the place oral history methodology can hold in sustainable human development projects using the CA.



Our Moral Obligations to the Global Poor [Members Only]
Nalven, Hilary Submitted: 2007-09-17		In my paper I conclude that Pogge successfully argues that the global institutional order is unjust because it fails to meet minimal standards of justice, from which all people are granted their basic human rights. I concur that the structure of this global institutional order that the citizens and governments of rich countries impose plays a significant role in the perpetuation of severe global poverty.



Outline of a method for discovering philosophy in development policy: Bangladeshi poverty reduction and the capability approach
Stru Schmidt, Troels Submitted:		This article outlines a method with which an aspect of development policy can be analysed as philosophical conceptions of the good life. It puts the method to use by discussing whether Bangladeshi development policy has norms equal to those of the capability approach. The interdisciplinary method seeks to combine elements of social anthropology and welfare economics. In order to see what conceptions of the good life are present in a given development policy, two steps must be taken. Firstly, diverse, context-sensitive descriptions of the development policy must be made, equal to those found in social anthropology. Secondly, the development policy must be operationalised as a set of values to make it comparable with a conception of the good life. Testing the method, a field work on Bangladeshi development policy is described and operationalised as the degree to which the policy values agency, equality and universalism.



Parental Consent and Children’s Rights in Europe: A Balancing Act
Kosko, Stacy J. University of Maryland College Park College Park US Submitted:		Three recent European Court of Human Rights cases of discrimination in education against Roma raise the question of what conditions must be present for parents to give “meaningful” consent in decisions pertaining to their children and whether such consent can be meaningful when a fundamental freedom is at stake. The paper investigates the nature and limits of parental consent and makes the case for a “threshold” above which respect for the dignity of the parents requires meaningful consent for any decision pertaining to their children and below which respect for the human rights of the child prohibits interference with the exercise of a right. Identifying the exact location of the threshold in any specific case requires local-level public deliberation; insisting that decisions meet those threshold conditions, and enforcing their recognition, is a job for the Court.



Parents at Play; Participation and Empowerment in Arts-Based Development Research in Two Communities of Peru
Nigrini, Melissa Submitted:		Effective development should respond to and improve the lives of people and to do so, it must promote their active participation and lead to empowerment. This paper discusses the use of participatory arts-based research in a comparative study on child participation in the highlands and coast of Peru. The experience demonstrates the potential of arts-based research methodology both in the quality of information it gathers and in the possibilities for participation and empowerment that it offers. The methodology explicitly values the experience, perceptions and desires of the beneficiaries. They are considered active subjects, experts who participate throughout the research process of data collecting, analyzing and proposing through the use of accessible and engaging artistic activities. Moving away from ‘prescriptive’ development, this methodology holds a constructive and respectful position towards development. This approach is essential for effective and sustainable development and should be fostered through regular use of participatory development methodologies.



Participación, poder y agenda de la eficacia de la ayuda: retos y oportunidades [Members Only]
Ferrero, Gabriel Baselga, Pilar Submitted:		Tras la “agenda del cambio social” en los años 90 y la emergente “nueva agenda de la pobreza” de principios de 2000 (Maxwell, 2003), desde la comunidad donante se está realizando un importante esfuerzo para lograr la “eficacia de la ayuda al desarrollo”. La Declaración de París y el trabajo desarrollado en el seno de la OCDE-CAD y la UE, suponen la máxima representación de esta tendencia. La nueva “agenda de la eficacia de la ayuda” puede entenderse de dos maneras diferentes: por un lado, como un enfoque de gestión dirigido por el donante que busca más valor en las inversiones de la ayuda. Por otro, como una sólida herramienta para, precisamente, tener en cuenta una visión más amplia del desarrollo, y como una redefinición totalmente diferente de la relación donante-receptor tradicional. Se pueden identificar varias “ventanas de oportunidad” para un cambio en profundidad en este nuevo contexto, que plantea un indudable reto al rol tradicional de las ONGD. En este artículo se discuten los antecedentes, enfoques subyacentes en la agenda de eficacia y los retos y las oportunidades que ésta presenta para la sociedad civil.



Participation and empowerment through self-reliant survival strategies [Members Only]
Crétiéneau, Anne-Marie University of Poitiers FR Submitted:		Facing mal-development, academicians, international institutions and development practitioners are moving towards bottom-up strategies which involve directly people in the projects and actions. These aim the livelihood outcomes which individuals and their families or communities aspire to, considering their territory's potentialities. We demonstrate which practical response forms survival strategy based on self-reliance principles. It implies participation and empowerment insofar as people are deciding to take charge of their own problem of life and as policy processes allow a community-driven development. All monographs throughout the world reveal the same essential characteristics and underlying philosophy. It enlightens on interconnections between local, national and global levels and how regeneration through one's own efforts is combined with participation and solidarity. Individual self-reliance also rehabilitates values of being and the capabilities in order to construct oneself. This dynamic movement from the 'periphery' conduces to a realizable utopian model for human development that enhances the capability approach.



Participation Power and the poor – Pakistan’s experience [Members Only]
Baqir, Fayyaz Akhter Hameed Khan Resource Center PK Submitted:		Democratic discourse is influenced by the ways and means available to citizen’s to check and balance the power of state in shaping their choices and life patterns. This depends on the range and diversity of citizen’s institutions that articulate and energize their interaction with the state. In essence the question of discourse probes how voluntary associations negotiate their turf with associations based on coercion and hegemony. There are two most important pillars of citizen’s organizations, interest based organizations and supporting mechanism which define the contours of citizen’s discourse. Social infrastructure in all its diversity draws strength from these two sources to shape the democratic discourse. This article describes the role of social infrastructure in defining democratic discourse with reference to some very innovative cases from Pakistan.



Participation: From Tyranny to Human Development? Participatory Capabilities in Development Planning [Members Only]
Apsan Frediani, Alexandre Development Planning Unit University College London London GB Submitted:		Participatory methods have been strongly criticised as being too context specific and localised; by being instrumental to predetermined objectives, rather than an end in themselves; by addressing manifestations of poverty rather than the underlying causes of deprivations; by reproducing local power relations, rather than challenging the nature of discrimination; by being a “tyranny” rather than a means for transformation (Cooke and Kothari, 2001). The critiques call for a theoretical framework that can safeguard the original radical roots of participatory methods (Hickey and Mohan, 2004). This article argues that Human Development can complement participatory methods by providing the theoretical underpinnings necessary to assess participation as an end in itself (Frediani, 2006). With the objective to assess this complementarities between Human Development and Participatory methods, this paper expands on the concept of “participatory capabilities” to unfold local residents’ choice, ability and opportunity to engage in different dimensions of participation. The paper proposes a framework for the application of participatory methods through a human development perspective in a way that unfolds its limitations and opportunities for transformative change.



Participatory democracy in action: women in Khayelitsha, Cape Town [Members Only]
Conradie, Ina Submitted:



Participatory Governance and Pro-Poor Targeting: Evidence from Central India [Members Only]
Submitted: 2007-09-17		This paper examines the impact of a poverty alleviation program called the District Poverty Initiatives Project (DPIP), which is being implemented in the second largest state in India.We use a unique data set that combines Indian census data for 300 villages and survey data of 6000 households spread over those villages. Findings confirm positive spillovers of the program on village governance issues.



Participatory Research Methods and Capability Approach: Researching Dimensions of Housing. [Members Only]
Aspen Frediani, Alexander Submitted: 2007-09-17		This paper is based on the PhD research which applies the capability approach through participatory methods to evaluate a squatter upgrading programme in Salvador da Bahia, Brazil. While complementing each other in a variety of ways, this paper argues that participatory methods and the capability approach also share similar limitations and challenges.



Participatory Watershed Management and Capabilities of the Stakeholders: An Analysis of the Role of Institutions [Members Only]
Mahendravada, Indira Submitted: 2007-09-17		The present study makes an attempt to understand how the shift from scientific to participatory approach influenced the capabilities of stakeholders and the role of institutions in facilitating the process.



Perceptions of Pluralism [Members Only]
Suransky, Caroline Manschot, Henk Submitted: 2008-09-12



Philosophy, Constitutions, and Democracy: Who Should Decide on Capabilities and Rights? [Members Only]
Crocker, David Submitted:		Who should select which capabilities, functionings, and rights are most valuable, and how should they do so? Nussbaum emphasizes the role of philosophers but leaves some room for the methods of global dialogue and Rawlsian reflective equilibrium. Sen, who employs reflective equilibrium to argue philosophically for the evaluative space of freedom and achievement (both agency and well-being varieties), argues at least since the mid-1990s that groups as well as individuals themselves should select and weigh various freedoms and rights and that groups should do so by expressing their agency through rational scrutiny, public deliberation, and democratic deliberation. The “evaluative exercises” and moral authority that, with some qualifications, Nussbaum gives to philosophers and, -- derivatively -- to constitutionally-enshrined rights, Sen gives to democratic publics. In this paper I examine both Nussbaum’s and Sen’s evaluations of the roles of philosophers, constitutions and judges, democratic bodies, and individuals in evaluating capabilities and functionings and the rights that protect those deemed most urgent. Often in response to the charge of paternalism—Nussbaum does assign a role, albeit limited, to philosophical dialogue, public discussion, democratic decision-making, and individual freedom or autonomy. However, these concessions to democratic processes, while important, are insufficient; she and we should, like Sen, give a much more robust role to democracy conceived as an inclusive and deliberative process. In a concluding section, I will illustrate my theoretical argument by drawing on civil society efforts in Morocco and Latin America to defend and protect rights to active citizenship and democratic decision making.



Planning for Rights, Capabilities and Justice for the Urban Poor [Members Only]
Kumar, Ashok Submitted: 2008-09-12



Poder y participación femenina en la economía rural. Trabajadoras temporeras agrícolas: invisibilidad económica y política. [Members Only]
Ramírez, José Antonio Submitted:		Una mirada respecto a la invisibilización de la participación femenina en la economía rural, implica ver que en dicho ámbito, ya sea en las actividades agrícolas, pecuarias o productivas existen notorios contrastes económicos y sociales. En uno de ellos, la agricultura, se distinguen escenarios modernos, de rendimientos crecientes, con elevado uso de tecnología y en donde la explotación agrícola está basada en contratos y acuerdos formales, en contraposición, la agricultura precaria o explotación informal se caracteriza por contar con baja tecnología, uso intensivo de mano de obra y precariedad laboral, en donde las personas que laboran en ella están excluidas socialmente y viven en condiciones de pobreza. En este último escenario, una de las formas más ignoradas, extensas, invisibles y precarias, es el trabajo temporal agrícola, especialmente el orientado a la exportación. Puede hablarse de la “feminización” del trabajo temporal agrícola al haberse convertido en un nicho de empleo muy extenso en mano de obra de mujeres. Alrededor del 60% del trabajo temporal en el sector es realizado por mujeres, la mayoría de ellas en situación de pobreza. Es así que la mujer campesina empieza a acceder a la economía rural, como una agente necesaria para trabajos en los predios, parcelas y para los locales de parking o embalaje de productos agroexportadores, pero este trabajo de “temporera” exhibe diversas complejidades: es ocasional, diverso, altamente informal, sin protección laboral y con fuerte presencia de discriminación racial, entre otras. Pero esta inserción se realiza en los términos de precariedad señalados líneas arriba. La desigualdad y discriminación salarial va de la mano con el escaso reconocimiento laboral y social de sus derechos. Son trabajadoras invisibles, más allá de su contribución a la economía rural.



Policies and Practices of Participatory Resettlement and Rehabilitation: An Indian Experience [Members Only]
Arora, Kavita Submitted: 2008-09-12



policies and Sustainable Development: The Freedom of Strategies [Members Only]
Mendez, Paola Submitted:		The objective of this paper is to analyze how energy impacts sustainable and social development and how important is to clarify the relationship between social aspects and energy at the household level. To do so, we will take as basis the concept of development as freedom and the concepts define by the Brundtlandt report1. This will help us to clarify how energy sustainable policies should look like and what issues must be included when designing national energy policies. Sustainable Development as defined by the Brundtland report focuses on meeting needs of the current generation without compromising the possibilities of the future generation. However this is not the only condition for Sustainable Development mentioned in this report. In this way, not only the discussion of needs fulfillment as a central part of SD should be consider when discussion about sustainable development but also the other social concepts of SD also mentioned in the Brundtland report as • Extending to all the opportunity to fulfill their aspirations for a better life. • Ensure that the poor get their fair share of the resources. • Assure more equitable access to resources. All these concepts are closely related to the Sen´s capability approach since, the capability approach emphasizes everybody’s freedom to choose their own life as a goal for development. The way persons live their lives is a continuous set of decisions which are made everyday and according to the available options. Taking the definition Rauschmeyer (2008)2 made about needs; we should consider that people choose among different strategies to fulfill their needs continuously which influence their development path. The strategy chosen to fulfill a need may impact the quality of life of a person’s life, it is not the same to have access through tap water than walking hours to get water from a well. Thus, we may link the concept of development as freedom with the daily aspects of decision strategies within a sustainable development framework. In order to define what should be taken into account when designing an energy sustainable policy at the local level, an analysis to the interaction between strategies, needs, options and social impacts is needed. Is Energy an essential need as Brundtland report declares or should it only be consider as a strategy following the definition of Rauschmeyer (2008). Secondly, how impacts energy strategies to the social aspects of development and what should take in account a sustainable energy policy. This forces us to include concepts as inter and intra generation equity, vulnerability from an energy social perspective.



Policies, Process and Power in the UK [Members Only]
Harriss, Kaveri Submitted: 2008-09-12



Political equality in deliberative democracy and capability
García Valverde, Facundo Universidad de Buenos Aires Buenos Aires AR Submitted:		The recognition and fulfillment of the principle “one person, one vote” by most contemporary democracies would seem to minimize the relevance of the justification of political equality. However, the upcoming of deliberative democracy conceptions implies the need of a reinterpretation. Here we offer a non-instrumental justification for the substantive dimension of political equality which demands that every participant have a fair opportunity for political influence. First, we show that non-ideal contexts supposed by Bohman’s theory obscure our intuitions about political equality. Next, we show that Rawlsian theory, designed under ideal contexts, justifies a demand of political equality on the grounds of self-respect; to clarify these grounds, we distinguish three possible interpretations each one related to an egalitarian metric and we show that institutions of political participation should guarantee capabilities to participate in deliberations. Finally, we show why Crockerian account must develop a specific space for deliberative agency.



Poor Children in Germany - How to adapt the CA framework for the analysis of child well-being? [Members Only]
Sadlowski, Iris Submitted: 2008-10-02



Potential and limits of new international tools in water resources governance: capabilities approach [Members Only]
Makkaoui, Raoudha University of Versailles FR Submitted:		Water in developing countries (DCs) is now at the heart of the concerns of policy makers and the international community. The recent World Water Forum, held in Mexico in March 2006, emphasized the seriousness of the problem of access to water for all as the human, health and social derived from them are considerable. The second UN report on water (2006), shared that 20 percent of the world's population had no access to drinking water and 40% did not have a sanitation base. It is an obvious phenomenon that, water is closely linked to health. Poor water quality can cause many diseases. According to the report, more than five million people die each year from diseases caused by water unfit for human consumption: 90 percent of these victims are children under five years old. This alarming situation particularly affects populations in developing countries where the problem of water is mainly due to population growth, urbanization and uncontrolled development of irrigated agriculture. Faced with this situation, the international community pledged to halve, between 2000 and 2015, the proportion of people without access to drinking water and has therefore provided a major impetus to the actions of solidarity in access to drinking water and sanitation. For example, in France, since 1992, local authorities had a legal and regulatory framework that enabled them to promote cooperative relationships with communities in developing countries. These programs are known as "decentralized cooperation". More generally, decentralized cooperation refers to any form of partnership set up in developing countries by an actor in civil society. Decentralized cooperation programs ensure synergies between different actors and they promote the processes of widely participatory action. Civil society thus becomes involved in the definition and implementation of cooperation projects. This new vision of cooperation provides a new impetus to the policy of international cooperation as it allows overcoming the limitations of conventional bilateral and multilateral cooperation between North and South.



Potentialities of the Capability Approach in Impact Assessment of Technology-Based Development Aid Projects: The Case of Micro Hydro Power in Andean Bolivian Communities [Members Only]
González, Andrés Hueso Submitted: 2008-09-12



Poverty and Human Development in Orissa – Issues for Policy [Members Only]
Panda, R.K. Nanda, B.N. Submitted: 2008-09-12



Poverty and Inequality in Tunisia: A Non-Monetary Approach [Members Only]
Ayadi, Mohamed Submitted: 2008-09-12



Poverty in Mexico from an Ethnic Perspective [Members Only]
Gonzalez de Alba, Ivan Submitted:



Poverty, inequality and human development of indigenous peoples in Bolivia [Members Only]
Gigler, Björn-Sören Submitted: 2007-09-17		Bolivia, with a GDP per capita of $980, is the poorest country of South America (EIU, 2005). With a population of about 9 million people, this land-locked country has had since its independence in 1825 a legacy of extreme levels of poverty, high economic and social inequality, and political instability (Klein, 1982).



Poverty, Rural Capabilities and Asset Accumulation [Members Only]
Fennell, Shailaja Submitted: 2008-09-12



Power and Developing Indigenous Human Capability in a Developed Western Nation: The Case of New Zealand Maori [Members Only]
O'Neill, Paul Bryson, Jane Lomax, Helen Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand Submitted: 2008-09-12



Power and Pedagogy in the Higher Education language classroom [Members Only]
Crosbie, Veronica Submitted:



Power Dynamics of Children Participation in Local Public Budget/ El dinamismo del poder en la participación de los niños en el presupuesto público [Members Only]
Mendoza García, Rosa Submitted:



Power understood as deliberative participation [Members Only]
Patrón, Pepi Submitted:		En la discusión teórica contemporánea, son muy sugerentes algunas concepciones del poder que vinculan a éste con la capacidad humana de deliberar, de ejercer la llamada racionalidad práctica en espacios públicos que permiten los acuerdos y consensos entre los agentes y el examen crítico de la vida que se considera valiosa vivir. El poder, así, se concibe no como dominación, control o violencia, sino como capacidad de acción concertada de los ciudadanos y ciudadanas (Hannah Arendt); o como poder comunicativo que se genera tanto en las instituciones del Estado cuanto en las redes de la sociedad civil (Jürgen Habermas). En la propuesta del enfoque de las capacidades, la importancia de la razón práctica también resulta fundamental. Así, Nussbaum la señala como parte de la lista de las capacidades humanas centrales y Sen insiste de manera permanente en la importancia de la deliberación y los debates públicos en la configuración de los valores y del ejercicio efectivo de la libertad. Sin embargo, y esto es lo que se propone discutir este texto, no parece haber una concepción particular de poder o de relaciones de poder vinculada al ejercicio de la razón práctica o comunicativa en espacios deliberativos. Más aún, se discutirá las razones por las que, eventualmente, el enfoque de las capacidades requiere de una concepción de poder vinculada a sus propios supuestos teóricos y a la propuesta de sociedad y de democracia que sustenta. Consideramos que (el poder) es uno de los temas que necesitan ser discutidos y desarrollados tanto para plantear sus límites cuanto para enriquecer la perspectiva del enfoque de las capacidades.



Predecessors of HDI
Hirai, Tadashi Comim, Flavio Submitted:		Human Development Index (HDI) has gained prominence as an alternative index to GDP. The fact is worth noting given that the earlier indices created for similar purposes (i.e. predecessors of HDI) ceased to exist. Overall, the HDI has three main strengths: simplicity for universality; inclusion of income indicator for receiving attention from the public; institutionality by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). However, it seems standstill vis-à-vis the predecessors in terms of the degree of explicit normativeness; selection of variables, weighting and distribution is specifically relevant. To this issue, however, the response by the UNDP seems rather passive despite constant critiques outside. Given the controversial nature, such a normative issue is better to be treated in national and regional level rather than international level. To this extent, the UNDP National and Regional Offices have much potential to make the HDI correspond to the original concept of Human Development / Capabilities.



Preferencias Adaptivas Y Capacidades: El caso de los sin techo en Montevideo [Members Only]
Ceni, María Fernanda Ceni, Rodirgo Salas, Gonzalo Submitted: 2007-09-17		Este trabajo tiene el objetivo de analizar los vinculos entre la pobreza monetaria, las privaciones vinculares, la condicion psicologica y el desarrollo de preferencias adaptativas. La poblacion utilizada es la usuaria de la red de refugios de Montevideo, Uruguay.



Presidential Address: Horizontal Inequality: Two types of trap [Members Only]
Stewart, Frances Submitted: 2008-09-18



Professional capabilities, poverty reduction and transformation in South African universities [Members Only]
Walker, Melanie University of Nottingham GB Submitted:		This paper reports on a project investigating poverty reduction, understood as a 'human development transformation goal for South African universities. Specifically, professionalism and professional education is identified as a measure for evaluating the extent to which universities are contributing to social change. We take the preparation of professionals as one of the essential social functions of the university, situated at the interface of university and society. Public service professionalism and pro-poor are taken to be co-terminous in the South African context. Using the theoretical framing of the capability approach, we are exploring how professional education in universities might be understood as contributing to poverty reduction through expanding the capabilities and functionings of students in professional education, who in turn are able to expand the ‘comprehensive’ capabilities of poor individuals and communities. We are developing a human development public good professional capabilities index as a guide to action and monitoring of educational change.



Promoción de capacidades desde sectores eclesiales en el Perú. [Members Only]
Felipe Zegarra, Luis Submitted:		En 1967 Pablo VI escribió una encíclica sobre el desarrollo de los pueblos (Populorum Progressio), en la que señaló varios aspectos muy cercanos al enfoque del Desarrollo Humano, en una perspectiva que partía de la problemática internacional de la pobreza, la injusticia y la violencia. Esta presentación, destaca en una primera parte algunos conceptos más relevantes; en un segundo momento, ante la pregunta frecuente sobre el escaso compromiso de muchos sectores del catolicismo al respecto, recuerda el impacto de la Conferencia de Medellín y de la teología de la liberación en la iglesia latinoamericana, y presenta –en un nivel “micro”, pero bastante ubicuo- diversas experiencias de crecimiento en capacidades, promovidas por las comunidades eclesiales de base en el Perú.



Public Action and Human Development: Lessons from Kerala and Cuba [Members Only]
Tharamangalam, Joseph Submitted: 2008-09-12



Public Policy and Human Development: A Study of State Interventions on Dalits Development in India [Members Only]
Venkatesan, S. Submitted: 2008-09-12



Pursuing Equity in Health through Community Health Insurance in India: The Need of a Transformative Social Protection Perspective [Members Only]
Michielsen, Joris Submitted: 2008-09-12



Quality Indicators for Educational Capabilities [Members Only]
Bagolin, Izete Comim, Flavio Submitted: 2007-09-17		Here, we put forward a simple methodology for producing quality indicators for educational capabilities and provide an illustration of a survey carried out with more than 8.000 children in Brazil during 2006 where the proposed methodology has been applied. We conclude by making a case for the development of ‘quantitative assessments of quality’. Without them, a considerable gap between the capability approach and practical measures for assessing education, within a human development perspective, should remain.



Radical Impact of Dalit Power [Members Only]
Seth, Piyush Sharma, Vinay Submitted:		This paper focusing on the emergence of a Dalit Chief Minister alongwith her political party as a power center is indicative of the radical changes in the political participation, reduction in the levels of identified discrimination or a form of social inclusion and the enhancement of the levels of social confidence of Dalits and its preliminary effects on the socio-economic structure of the largest state of India i.e. Uttar Pradesh. The word ‘dalit (a)’ comes from the Indo-Aryan root dal and means ‘held under check’, ‘suppressed’, or ‘crushed’, ‘oppressed’ but largely has become synonymous to ‘discrimination’ , which has been deep rooted in the social and caste structure of India.



Raiders of the Lost Capital [Members Only]
Watson, Nicole Submitted: 2007-09-17		This paper will be divided into three parts. By way of background part one will discuss the nature and history of Australian Indigenous land titles. Part two will examine moves to privatise Indigenous lands and part three will argue that the central tenets of de Soto’s thesis are largely inapplicable to Indigenous Australians.



Rank Robustness of Composite Indices [Members Only]
Seth, Suman Submitted:		Many common multidimensional indices take the form of a ‘composite index’ or a weighted average of several dimension-specific achievements. Rankings arising from such an index are dependent upon an initial weighting vector, and any given judgment could, in principle, be reversed if an alternative weighting vector was employed. This paper examines a variable-weight robustness criterion for composite indicators that views a comparison as robust if the ranking is not reversed at any weight vector within a given set. We characterize the resulting robustness relations for various sets of weighting vectors and illustrate how they moderate the complete ordering generated by the composite indicator. We propose a measure by which the robustness of a given comparison may be gauged and illustrate its usefulness using data from the Human Development Index. In particular, we show how some country rankings are fully robust to changes in weights while others are quite fragile. We investigate the prevalence of the different levels of robustness in theory and practice and offer insight as to why certain datasets tend to have more robust comparisons.



Rationality in economics and the capability approach [Members Only]
Mabsout, Ramzi Submitted: 2007-09-17		The paper uses the insights of the capability approach to further question the predominant concept of rationality and choice. It is argued that with ubiquitous irrational behaviour, freedom is a problematic concept.



Reaching the Last Beneficiary: Resource Convergence Mantra Model [Members Only]
Sharma, Aruna Submitted: 2008-09-12



Realising the Right to Development for Indigenous communities: the Case of Home Ownership in Mapoon [Members Only]
Holden, Jane Walker, David Submitted:



Redistribution, Recognition and Participation: Incorporating politics of difference to the capability framework [Members Only]
Uyan-Semerci, Pinar Submitted: 2007-09-17		One of the main dimensions of the capability approach is its ethical individualism. While some groups may undermine its members to develop other individual capabilities, some capabilities can only be realized within a group.The relationship between groups and individuals is hard to grasp and when we consider the capabilities of individuals, it is even harder. To overcome this difficulty, I suggest incorporating Iris Young’s ‘politics of difference’ to the capability framework.