The Missing Middle: Global Development Policy Faces a World Full of Religion - Stephen K. Commins - CSR Lecture Series Fall 2014 Global development goals such as the Millennium Development Goals (2000-2015) and the Sustainable Development Goals (2015-2030) are premised on concepts of secular progress and shared principles. For the past 70 years, international development discourse has been dominated by different forms of modernization theory in the practice of ‘development assistance’ and ‘foreign aid.’ Whatever the ideological foundation of the development program, the general approach has presumed that the countries and communities involved are on the path towards the ‘modern’ world. What is often lacking in development thinking and practice is an appreciation of and engagement with the ‘missing middle,’ the worldviews through which people interpret their life worlds and the broader political, economic, ecological and social forces that affect their lives. The most widespread interpretive frames come from different religious traditions, which are complex, contextual and frequently contradictory. This seminar will explore how these frames are central to the global development discourse. The World Bank – Directory Faith-based organizations: goo.gl/VHU0a About the Speaker: Stephen K. Commins works in areas of regional and international development, with an emphasis on service delivery and governance in fragile states. Dr. Commins was Director of the Development Institute at the UCLA African Studies Center in the 1980s, and then worked as Director of Policy and Planning at World Vision International in the 1990s. He was Senior Human Development Specialist at the World Bank from 1999-2005; his work at the World Bank included Managing Dimensions of Economic Crisis: Good Practices for Policies and Institutions, the establishment of the Banks children and youth cluster, and a survey of service delivery programs implemented by civil society organizations. Dr. Commins was one of the co-authors of the World Banks World Development Report 2004, Making Services Work for Poor People. Following the Reports publication in 2003, he managed several initiatives on service delivery in post-conflict countries and the relationships between political reform and improved services. Since leaving the World Bank in 2005, he has continued to work on service delivery programs, including the major study, Service Delivery in Fragile States: Good Practice for Donors, for the Fragile States Group of the Development Assistance Committee of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development in 2006. Currently, he is Strategy Manager, Fragile States, International Medical Corps, and coordinator for the Health and Fragile States Network. His recent work has included testing the DFID state building framework in Lao PDR and Cambodia, managing studies on disasters and safety nets for the World Bank in Bangladesh, a co-authored paper on participation, accountability and decentralization in Africa, and producing studies on health systems strengthening in fragile states for World Vision Canada and on sub-national fragility in India and Pakistan for the HLSP Institute. For academic year 2013-14, he worked as the consultation coordinator for the World Banks World Development Report 2015 (Mind, Behavior, and Society). He is currently working with a long term study of livelihoods and post-conflict reconstruction in Pakistan, as part of a seven country project with the Sustainable Development Policy Institute in Islamabad and the Secure Livelihoods Research Consortium at ODI in the UK.
Posted on: Sat, 22 Nov 2014 23:06:39 +0000
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