Unit 6: Conclusions from a Learning Diary

The last ten weeks have been very information and enlightening… is probably an understatement but that sums up my experience of Development Politics. Prior to doing this module I probably would have thought some of the following things:

• Political development is having peaceful elections and a political machinery which represents the interests of the people

• Democracy is to growth and development as authoritarianism is to stagnation

• Corruption is an evil which must be immediately addressed and it certainly has no informative lesson to impart

• Social movements are contemporary things with fleeting impacts

However, after the last ten weeks I can happily say that my perspective has shifted and deepened, as I learnt the following lessons:

• Political development is a complex issue which encompasses the interactions between the state machinery, lines of accountability and the legal space within which activities can be executed. Politics has significant implications for how development happens because, inter alia, its power dynamics can either detract from or enable interventions. While most development practitioners understand the importance of politics they do not have an easy task in leveraging it to engender development progress, for reasons such as bureaucratic environs and uncertainties of politics.

• Although it is easy to conclude that democracy is automatically linked to development while autocracy is not, reality is not as black and white. Reality presents cases which defy this conclusion with exceptions such as China and Ethiopia but there is a lack of empirical research to truly understand such realities.

• Corruption can sometimes exist to fill gaps in the development process and it behoves practitioners to understand such roles, to add more context specific knowledge and experience to their interventions.

• Social movements have existed since time immemorial and when done right, they can have lasting impacts on people’s lives. Sadly, these impacts are not all positive and the nature of such movements does not present readily available opportunities for formal development practitioners to operationalise their agendas. Social movements are an important aspect of informal politics and in some cases can be vital to engendering accountability.

Development Politics is the last module I have to do in my programme so I will also like to make some general comments. In this programme of International Development I found it intriguing that on the very important issues such as poverty, development, livelihoods, politics and development initiatives, there are a myriad of schools of thought. In some cases, there is even a lack of consensus. In the face of such, one wonders is consensus possible and would it enable more effective development thrusts? I would love to find the answers to such questions. Specifically in reference to political development, some literature (such as the World Bank’s 2016 report on politics) emphasise governments “making politics work better” by having greater political will, citizenry involvement and more transparent processes. Then there are some literature which discuss how development practitioners fail to adequately incorporate and leverage politics. Both sets of literature will have lessons to impart and represent one aspect of understanding the role of politics in development. Ultimately, however, the important thing is to recognise the intricacy of politics and its ability to skew development outcomes if it is not properly understood.

Reference

The World Bank, 2016. Making politics work for development – harnessing transparency and citizen engagement , Washington : International Bank for Reconstruction and Development .