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Flipping Around the Development Paradigm

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Flipping Around the Development Paradigm FLIPPING AROUND THE DEVELOPMENT PARADIGM RESEARCH ON THE ROLE OF NEW DONORS IN GLOBAL DEVELOPMENT Glocalisation - Contents Flipping Around The Development Paradigm Research On The Role Of New Donors In Global Development Executive Summary 3 Towards an Inclusive Global Society 5 Editor: Ana Kalin Co-authors: Ana Kalin, Anna Karolin, Igor Loncarski, Katarzyna Szeniawska, Polland: How the State Decided to Support Energy Prosumerism 17 Kristīne Ļeontjeva, Tihomir Popovic Croatia: The Gap Between the Technical and Practical Aspects of Reconciliation 23 Text editor and summary: Vita Tērauda Slovenia: What Comes First – the Chicken or the Egg? 29 Layout: Anna Ceipe Estonia: A New Approach to Global Development 35 LAPAS, 2015 Latvia: Is Cooperation the New Development? 41 Conclusion: Time and Opportunity for a New Paradigm? 47 Bibliography 57 About Lapas 61 This research has been produced within the project of Latvian Platform for Devel- opment Cooperation (LAPAS)“Glocalization – a key to sustainable development from local to global level. EYD2015 and EU Presidency Project for the Latvian EU Presidency 2015”. The project is funded by European Union (90%), Society Integration Foundation (5,42%) and Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Latvia (4,58%). The contents of this research are the sole responsibility of authors and Latvian Plat- form for Development Cooperation and can in no way be taken to reflect the views of the European Union. Executive Summary coherent action, effective use of re- society. One can think of such plat- sources, multi-stakeholder cooper- form as a brokerage venue for ideas, ation, transparency, accountability, funding, promotion, problem solv- ownership and sustainability, change ing, consulting and dissemina- In September 2015 a new global and Reconciliation efforts in Croatia illus- is possible at the local level. These tion of know-how and knowledge. principles would guide the creation universal agreement for the eradica- trate the crucial nature of local level What remains to be seen is whether of the platform. Through small steps, tion of poverty and achievement of sus- participation and engagement. Latvia the Governments of the examined coun- the platform would cater to immedi- tainable development will be adopted. offers a glimpse into three development tries will seize the opportunity, offered ate needs that cannot be met by the It aims to be transformative, but will it? cooperation projects, where private to them by the changing times, their own contacts and initiatives have played a authorities, while also paving the way This paper outlines a paradigm for national circumstances and the already crucial role, yet the individuals involved for changed patterns of behaviour a new global partnership and lays existing initiatives led by their members do not consider themselves to be en- both by community members and by out a case for transformative social of civil society. Will they be bold enough gaged in development cooperation. authorities. An overarching aim of the change, change that would find a bal- to show that there is not only a single Development cooperation implies a hi- platform would be reinstating com- ance between a minimum threshold path to development, currently known erarchy of one side teaching or helping munal trust and a sense of belong- of fundamental human rights and the as the existing development paradigm? the other, yet these individuals eschew ing in today’s highly individualised outer limits of environmental capac- hierarchy and are engaged in mutually ity. A new development agenda will beneficial cooperation. Estonia illus- need to tackle a number of difficulties: trates the potential of crowdsourcing in * the lack of a global ‘’we’’, a re- improving legislation and sparking civ- sult of dynamics between groups ic participation. Estonia also highlights (states) following national interests, the power of business as usual, and the inability to change entrenched political * a powerhouse of interests focused on habits such as pork barrel financing retaining some form of the status quo, in politics. Poland describes a policy * the vast gap between the language shift to energy prosumerism – where of international agreement and the im- consumers of energy become small plementation of these agreements. scale producers. The policy shift was brought about by well-organized NGO * the immense variance of interpreta- activism, working across traditional tion on poverty. Poverty is relative and issue area divides of environment and defined in relation to society, therefore development to counter the opposition minimum standards in rich countries of big business. Slovenian development are far higher than in poor countries. NGOs made the leap to impacting the This poses a great challenge to set- global debate, and brought the glob- ting standards perceived as fair by all. al post-2015 debate home to local de- The authors see a way forward to cision-makers and non-development end the current development cooper- NGOs, proving that ‘glocalisation’ is an ation model, described as exploitative apt term for existing NGO initiatives. and asymmetric, and losing its legit- The authors propose to create a plat- imacy. Local initiatives striving to by- form for change at the grass roots lev- pass the state and contribute to social el that will unite all actors that are al- change through active participation ready leading their separate battles for of members of society point the way. improving life in communities at home Examples of local level transformative and abroad. The case studies present- change that can provide lessons for glob- ed show that by respecting the under- al change are included as case studies. lying principles for global cooperation: 3 4 Towards an Inclusive Global Society Fifteen years after the adoption of as rising global tempera- Authors: Ana Kalin, Igor Loncarski the agreement for a global partner- tures, biodiversity loss or ozone ship to eradicate poverty and inequal- depletion know no borders. ities and to change the lives of peo- In the changed global context, the dy- ple around the world, we now have According to the social contract, in- And if that were not enough, we are namics that used to be attributed to the opportunity to rethink what went dividuals agree to give up some of faced with environmental degrada- North – South relations can today be wrong and why, and consider how to their freedoms and transfer them to tion that only exacerbates already related to the interaction between the tackle the challenges in a better way. the state in order to gain protection existing poverty, illnesses, famine, few (politically and/or military) pow- of their rights. While Hobbes believed competition for resources and so on. A New Global Partnership erful Western countries and their cor- that in the absence of the state, there porations, and the rest of the world. In addition, the balance of power is Before proposing any specific solu- would be anarchy and war, Locke and Development experts have been point- changing on more than one level. On tions, it would be opportune to explore Rousseau claimed that the aim of the ing to the importance of policy coher- one hand, the equilibrium in inter- the nature and scope of a new glob- state is to uphold and protect the natu- ence for development (PCD). They have national relations is starting to shift. al partnership that might be able to ral rights of its citizens.1 Regardless of been critical of the perception that The primacy of the Global North is in- address the less than optimal reality. the reasons behind the creation of the only development aid and its increas- creasingly put under question, be it There are numerous reasons speak- state, its aim is to ensure increased lev- es in quantity and quality matter when through the rise of emerging econo- ing against the continued pursuit of a els of safety and security for its mem- dealing with poverty eradication. Much mies such as China, or by challenging partial development model that focus- bers. This need for a sense of security more important than aid itself is the the untouchable security status of the es barely on the Global South. Poverty and safety is an essential part of being lack of coordination and coherence be- West. On the other hand, we observe a is not only a problem of the developing human. It “…emerges very early on in tween internal (fiscal, trade, migration, decrease in state sovereignty and the world, but of all countries in the world. the life of the child, and is ‘much more agriculture, etc.) and external policies emergence of non-state actors, fight- Poverty is not only a lack of material important in the human being than the of developed countries. The incoheren- ing for power and influence over global resources such as money or proper- impulses resulting from a feeling of cies have drastically reduced the po- governance. Especially strong among ty. According to Markuš, “poverty is a hunger, or thirst.’”2 In other words, the tential impact of aid policies, which can non-state actors is the private sector, complex web of disempowering rela- feeling of security is the basis for a sta- best be described with the expression which is playing an increasingly influ- tionships, which don’t work. House- ble, coherent, continuous and mean- that developed countries give with one ential role in shaping world politics. We holds trapped in this spider’s web ingful life narrative that enables the in- hand and take with the other. In addi- are in a sense living in rather schizo- suffer from material poverty, vulnera- dividual to enjoy platonic and intimate tion, global non-development rules and phrenic times, in which “markets are bility, powerlessness, physical weak- personal relations, as well as being a regimes are often disadvantageous for striving to become global, while the in- ness, isolation and spiritual poverty.”5 loyal and solidary member of the com- developing countries, which is certainly stitutions needed to support them re- munity that contributes to it.
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