Winds of Change: does development intervention help or hinder community action?

Live Stream on Civil Society Policy Forum - WorldBank

Tags: Worldwide , Civil Society Building
Additional tags: Worldbank , Civic action , Civil society

Are capacity development projects needed that support local leaders to enable social action to demand citizen rights? "Yes!", argue the organizers of the roundtable 'Winds of Change: Will they Bring a new paradigm to Development Assistance?'. Indeed, we wrote before that citizen action matters. But research findings  from the Participation, Power and Social Change research team from IDS, Sussex, say that international (outside) actors at best can play a facilitating role, provided that they are flexible and in it for the long haul. Findings from our Knowledge Programme also suggest that aided change is not 'engineered' easily (see studies Mobilising Social Justice in South Africa and Social Movements and NGO Interaction )

Do you agree or disagree with the proposition of the Round Table? On friday 15th April 2011 from 2-3.30 PM  (= Washington DC time. Amsterdam time:  8-9.30PM), we can follow a roundtable via a live- webstream, and twitter actively via #windsofchange to engage in this interesting discussion.

The roundtable 'Winds of Change' will be moderated by Jennifer Lentfer (Online Community Manager, CDRA/ blogs on how-matters) and Tom Grubisisch (consultant, developed World Bank's Development Market Place). The session is part of the Civil Society Policy Forum, that will be held from 13 to 16 April in Washington DC, prior and during the 2011 Spring Meetings of the International Monetary Fund and World Bank Group. It will be organized by the WBG and IMF Civil Society Teams. The Forum will bring together CSO representatives, Bank and Fund staff, government officials, and other stakeholders to exchange views on a variety of topics ranging from global economic recovery, and food price volatility, to climate change.

In the attachment you can find a brief session description, session format and bios of the speakers for 'Winds of Change'.

For Windows Media Streaming : mms://wbmswebcast1.worldbank.org/live2  

For Flash: http://streaming7.worldbank.org/vvflash/extlive1