Abstract
The global aid community has spent vast resources to alleviate poverty and improve the livelihoods of the world’s most disadvantaged people. Despite these efforts and decades of investment, 700 million people are living on less than $1.90 a day, and in Sub-Saharan Africa, 1 in 3 children will experience stunted growth. Conventional development practices, centered in the Global North, have failed to address fundamental systemic issues, and acknowledge Global South knowledge sources. Leaders in the Global South have pointed to a development industrial complex and theories of neo-colonialism as new systems of oppression underlying global development efforts. Recently, some Global North leaders have joined calls for a paradigm change, moving from powerful, centralized implementers, to more decentralized, locally controlled approaches to development. One of these such actors is CARE International, a major global development agency that spans 104 countries around the world, implementing 1,349 projects and reaching 433.4 million people. In 2020 CARE International partnered with UC Davis to better understand how they could shift their hierarchical model to a more localized network model. Acting as a hub to hundreds of global partners, CARE International is uniquely positioned to develop the theory and proactively test a more localized network. Through understanding “positive deviants” – people and organizations that have emerged as leaders and visionaries – and theoretical network structures, we aim to envision and support new development ecosystems that more equitably distribute power.
Presenters
Erin Mc GuireAssociate Director, UC Davis, Plant Sciences, Feed the Future Innovation Lab for Horticulture Innovation Lab, California, United States
Details
Presentation Type
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session
Theme
2022 Special Focus—Rethinking the Local: Who, How, Why?
KEYWORDS
Development, Localization, Decolonization, Decentralization, Network Analysis
