Ventriloquising ‘the Poor’? Of voices, choices and the politics of ‘participatory’ knowledge production

Abstract

The World Bank's Consultations with the Poor made development history. One of the most widely discussed piece of development research ever, the Consultations made much of claims to be participatory and to represent the ‘‘voices'' of more than 20,000 ‘‘poor people'' in 23 countries. It findings were used to garland speeches and affirm the overwhelming approval of ‘‘the poor'' for the bank's policy prescriptions, lending them narrative form and moral legitimacy. More than a decade later, references are still made to the ‘‘voices of the poor''. As the MDG deadline draws closer, there is talk of repeating the exercise to inform the next round of goals. In this article, we look back at this exercise, and examine the methodology that was used to ‘‘listen'' to ‘‘the voices of the poor''. Taking one of the regions where the studies were done, Latin America, we trace quotes through from site reports to synthesis. Our findings offer no surprise to those familiar with what Broad describes as the Bank's exercise of the ‘‘art of paradigm maintenance''. But it offers useful pause for reflection on the politics of knowledge production and the encounters between international development agencies and those whom they would call their ‘‘clients''.

Notes

We are grateful to Karen Brock, Rosalind Eyben, Irene Guijt, Rosie McGee and Joy Moncrieffe for comments on an earlier version of this paper. We owe special thanks to Ian Scoones for having first suggested the idea of tracing the quotes from the wdr back to the original site reports, to Cecile Jackson for the term ‘ventriloquising the poor' which fit so perfectly, and to Anne Rademacher and Robert Chambers, who shared with us reflections on their involvement in the Consultations process. A longer version of this article was originally published in Rosalind Eyben and Joy Moncrieffe's book The Power of Labelling (Earthscan, 2005).

1 This was published as D. Narayan, R. Chambers, M. Shah and P. Petesch, Crying Out for Change, Oxford: Oxford University Press/World Bank, 2000, the second in a three volume series. The first volume in the series, D. Narayan with R. Patel, K. Schafft, A. Rademacher, S. Koch-Schulte, Voices of the Poor: Can Anyone Hear Us?, Oxford: Oxford University Press/World Bank, 2000, culled a further 40 000 ‘voices’ from the rather uneven but plentiful selection of Participatory Poverty Assessment reports and other such studies amassed by the Bank.

2 Reproduced on the flyleaf of Narayan et al, Voices of the Poor: Can Anyone Hear Us?.

3 Several of these questions have been raised by those involved in this exercise, including Robert Chambers. See R Chambers, ‘Power, knowledge and policy influence: reflections on an experience’, in K Brock & R McGee (eds), Knowing Poverty: Critical Reflections on Participatory Research and Policy, London: Earthscan, 2002; and R Chambers, ‘The World Development Report: concepts, content and a Chapter 12’, Journal of International Development, 13(5), 2001, pp 299–306. See also A Rademacher & R Patel, ‘Retelling worlds of poverty: reflections on transforming participatory research for a global narrative’, in Brock & McGee, Knowing Poverty; and Brock & McGee, Knowing Poverty.

4 World Development Report 2000/1 Attacking Poverty, World Bank, 2000.

5 Rademacher & Patel, ‘Retelling worlds of poverty’, p 275; and Brock & McGee, Knowing Poverty, p34.

6 Chambers, ‘Power, knowledge and policy influence’.

7 Rademacher & Patel, ‘Retelling worlds of poverty’, p 275.

8 Ibid, p 176.

9 World Bank, Consultations with the Poor: Methodology Guide for the 20 Country Study for the World Development Report 2000/1, Washington, DC: Poverty Group, prem, 1999.

10 Ibid, n p.

11 Ibid, pp 9–15.

12 Ibid, pp 16–41.

13 R Chambers, Whose Reality Counts? Putting the First Last, London: Intermediate Technology Publications, 1997.

14 World Bank, Consultations with the Poor, p 37.

15 R Pithouse, ‘Producing the poor: the World Bank's new discourse of domination’, African Sociological Review, 7(2), 2003, p 123.

16 Ibid, p 118.

17 Ibid, p 127.

18 I Scoones, ‘Investigating difference: applications of wealth ranking and household survey approaches among farming households in Southern Zimbabwe’, Development and Change, 26, 1995, pp 67–88; and A Welbourn, ‘rra and the analysis of difference’, rra Notes, 14, 1991, pp 14–23.

19 Site Report, Vila Junqueira, pp 7–12.

20 Site Report, Chota, pp 6–7.

21 Site Report, Ilha Talavera, p 21.

22 Narayan et al, Crying out for Change, p 219.

23 Ibid, p 112, emphasis added.

24 Site Report, Atacucho, p 55.

25 WDR, 2000, p 100; and Narayan et al, Crying Out for Change, p 205, from Site Report, Nuevas Brisas del Mar, p 52.

26 Site Report, Nuevas Brises del Mar, pp 53, 40–42.

27 Narayan et al, Crying Out for Change, p 209; and Site Report, La Matanza, pp 45, 48.

28 Site Report, La Matanza, p 51.

29 Brazil National Synthesis Report, p72.

30 http://siteresources.worldbank.org/EXTEFFWBSUPCOMDRIDEV/Resources/cbdcdd_advisory_committee_comments.pdf, accessed 3 August, 2012.

31 Brazil National Synthesis Report, p 86.

32 Argentina National Synthesis Report, p 38.

33 Ibid, p 38.

34 Workshop, Urban area of Paján, Report Paján, p 88.

35 Narayan et al, Crying out for Change, p 147.

36 WDR, 2000, p 100.

37 Chota Report, Tablas Workshop, p 24.

38 Cañal Report, Juncal Workshop, p 24.

39 Ecuador National Synthesis Report, p 5.

40 Pithouse, ‘Producing the poor’; S Batliwala & D Dhanraj, ‘Gender myths that instrumentalise women: a view from the Indian frontline’, ids Bulletin, 35(4), 2004, pp 11–18; and M De la Rocha, ‘The construction of the myth of survival’, Development and Change, 38(1), 2007, pp 45–66.

41 N Chandhoke, The Conceits of Civil Society, Delhi: Oxford University Press, 2003; and B Fine, Social Capital Versus Social Theory: Political Economy and Social Science at the Turn of the Millennium, London: Routledge, 2000.

42 M Moore, ‘Empowerment at last?’, Journal of International Development, 13(3), 2001, pp 321–329.

43 J Cohen & N Uphoff, ‘Participation's place in development: seeking clarity through specificity’, World Development, 8, 1980, p 222.

44 Pithouse, ‘Producing the poor’.

45 R Broad, ‘Research, knowledge, and the art of “paradigm maintenance”: the World Bank's development economics vice-presidency’, Review of International Political Economy, 13(3), 2005, pp 387–419.

46 Ibid.

47 L Mehta, ‘The World Bank and its emerging knowledge empire’, Human Organization, 60(2), 2001, pp 189–196.