1991: Volume 22
Volume 22 Number 4 October 1991
Edited by: Melissa Leach and Robin Mearns
The late 1980s saw a phenomenal growth of international concern over the global environment. It has begun to influence politics both in industrially advanced countries and in the newly democratising countries of Eastern Europe. Recognising that the roots of this concern are not new, this Bulletin addresses its twin aspects in the context of developing countries and at different scale levels. On the one hand, environmental change poses significant challenges for development policy and practice. On the other, the development process itself presents challenges for sound environmental management.
Volume 22 Number 3 July 1991
Edited by: Melissa Leach and Susanna Davies
There is an obvious connection between poor people's food security and the preservation of the environment in which they live. Yet there is little consensus about the nature of this relationship. Unless their interactions are better understood, there is a danger that policies for environmental protection - in an increasingly environmentally-concerned aid climate - will unknowingly compromise food security. An obvious illustration is the promotion of goats in marginal areas as an insurance against harvest failure; a policy which enhances food security but may have disastrous environmental consequences.
This issue of the Bulletin arises from a new research initiative at IDS, linking the work of the Environment Programme and the Food Security Unit. A number of workshops held at IDS considered whether two such diverse and extensive fields of inquiry could usefully be linked and, if so, what kinds of approaches would be most appropriate.
The Bulletin articles are the result of these workshops. Taken together with a Discussion Paper setting out the issues [Davies, Leach and David 1991] and Development Bibliography reviewing relevant literature [David 1991], they form a starting point for more focused research on particular conflicts and complementarities between the pursuit of food security and environmental goals.
Volume 22 Number 1 January 1991
This issue of the Bulletin arises from a workshop on 'Household Arrangements as a Factor in Adjustment' held at the IDS in January 1990. It was convened as a way of furthering work within the IDS on the gender dimension in the analysis of the social impact of structural adjustment in developing countries (see Humphrey, Joekes and Kabeer, forthcoming). Most of the papers were the basis or are elaborations of presentations made at the workshop, and others are contributions from persons working in the field who were unable to attend.
1990: Volume 21
Volume 21 Number 4 October 1990
Edited by: James Manor
Adrian Leftwich has recently identified two problems that assail the study of Third World politics. First, there has been 'a drift away from some of the fundamental questions to do with the role of power, politics and the state', so that in studies of the Third World, the discipline of politics has 'to some extent lost its way'. Second, the reluctance of many western governments and international aid agencies to consider the political dimension in their policy studies has distanced political analysts from research exposure to the role of politics and the state in the development process.
These two problems are related but different, and they need to be tackled in different ways. Political analysts at IDS are at work on both fronts. The second problem is being addressed through research on the 'developmental state' in various Third World settings.
This Bulletin arises out of an effort to address the first problem by redirecting the attention of political scientists to fundamental questions such as those outlined above.
Volume 21 Number 3 July 1990
Edited by: Simon Maxwell
In April 1989, the IDS convened a workshop on Food Security in Developing Countries. The workshop was organised by Simon Maxwell and Stephany Griffith-Jones at the request of the UK Overseas Development Administration, ODA provided most of the participants; others came from related departments of the British Government, from aid ministries in other countries and from the international agencies.
The papers presented to the workshop form the core of the Bulletin, though all have been revised and some have been written from scratch since April 1989. Additional papers have been contributed by Walter Kennes of the EC Commission and Peter Dearden and Eamon Cassidy of the ODA. Taken together, the papers provide a snapshot of current thinking on food security, both in the academic community and in the aid agencies. There is a bias in the Bulletin to sub-Saharan Africa, but this is an accurate reflection at least of Agency interests. Otherwise, the Bulletin demonstrates the range of food security concerns in production, marketing and consumption.
We are grateful to ODA for their initial encouragement of the workshop; and to the participants for their comments on the material presented. Needless to say, ODA bears no responsibility for this publication.
