Editorial

This is the first issue of Development in Practice for 2022, as we go into the third year of the COVID pandemic and the disruptions and distress it has caused, not least to those of our colleagues and partners in the Global South. There are still massive inequalities in COVID responses, with the most obvious being access to life-saving vaccines at affordable prices, but also inadequate health systems unable to rise the massive task of managing a very infectious disease that affects the vulnerable the most. New COVID variants are emerging, and it is a lottery as to whether one arrives that puts us all back to square one in terms of vaccines and treatments.

This issue of DiP has three viewpoints and an article, which examine the effects of COVID in quite different contexts and raise important questions. Chattopadhyay looks at water supply in Indian cites and reminds us of how important water is in tackling the pandemic and that there needs to be a rethink on how water is suppled to urban residents, especially those in slum areas. Rakatama and colleagues look at Indonesia during the COVID crisis, and how COVID exposes the fragility of the economy, and how a more sustainable and green economy is the way forward if crises like COVID are to be well managed. Vincent Arkorful looks at the role of Indigenous chiefs in Ghana and the role that can have in COVID governance and promoting the behavioural change necessary for a society that is having to learn to live with COVID. Yeboah, Antoh, and Kumi examine strategic responses of microfinance institutions in Ghana to COVID, which has devastated many of their borrowers, and emphasise the need for support packages to vulnerable communities to help them with repaying outstanding microfinance loans through the pandemic.

The rest of the papers explore the broad issues of livelihoods and finance. Barnett and Brown found that prizes for innovative ideas such as around climate change or new ways to deal with old problems such as sanitation are all well and good, but are ultimately ineffective unless the prize-winning idea is taken up, and call for more longer-term, post-prize support for the innovator. Serbeh, Adjei, and Forkuor argue that while mobile money is the darling of financial service providers, in rural areas, it is poor internet and mobile phone connectivity, irregular service delivery, and digital illiteracy that all point to the need for policy makers to actively target these areas if the benefits of mobile money are to reach rural areas. In Soweto, Nnaeme, Patel, and Plagerson explore the diverse range of livelihoods in which direct cash transfers supported people in their livelihoods and meeting basic needs, but found that to be successful, cash transfers still need good regulatory and support networks to benefit the poor the most. Continuing the theme of cash transfers, Reddy and Barbalat argue that if cash transfers are put together with an asset-based community development programme, they can complement each other and contribute to each other’s effectiveness. The connecting theme of these papers is the urgent call for stronger government support programmes and social welfare protection for the poor, especially in the rural areas, who continue to live precarious lives, which has been heightened by the pandemic.

Andaregie and colleagues argue that age, gender, family size, working experience, age of the enterprise, and educational level are significant factors that affect enterprise growth in Ethiopia and are issues that should be addressed by government if these small enterprises are to be most effective. Robinson et al. found that in Nepal, having government support for bio-mass cook stoves was not enough. There needs to be a closer look at the end users and how they use cook stoves, and if the supply of cook stoves is about expanding use or simply replacing older models – also, a better understanding is needed of their contribution to household air pollution and respiratory diseases, when multiple cooking methods are used together. Underlying these issues is that gender relations and norms continue to be barriers for women and girls, as gender division of labour plays a strong role in dictating their opportunities and wellbeing.

Liz Mount looks at NGO “mission creep” in response to funding with the line in the title “Funding does something to people”. The ethnographic study examines two NGOs and finds that, despite a strong commitment to values, the large amounts of funding “pose insurmountable challenges” to staff and increase the “distance” from staff to the beneficiaries of the programme. Whilst quantitative based evaluations are useful, qualitative evaluation approaches, such as Mount’s case study, can provide us with more nuanced information about the complexities of “doing” development.

The issue also includes a book review of Dan Brockington and Christine Noe’s (eds) recent book Prosperity in Rural Africa?: Insights into Wealth, Assets, and Poverty from Longitudinal Studies in Tanzania, a must-read open-access volume that explores the asset/poverty nexus in rural Tanzania and challenges us to rethink how we see and measure rural poverty.