Development Studies

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Browsing Development Studies by Subject "440401 Development cooperation"

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    Engaging with the private sector for development : a critical analysis of attempts to partner with business for women's economic empowerment in Vietnam : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Development Studies at Massey University, Manawatū, Aotearoa New Zealand
    (Massey University, 2023) Nguyen, Lan Phuong Thi
    Development agencies have increasingly recognised the private sector as playing an important role in the progress toward achieving sustainable development. While scholars contest the private sector’s role in development, development agencies and NGOs continue collaborating with the private sector to deliver social results for the poor. There have been numerous studies on the role of large companies, mostly multinational corporations, in development. However, limited literature sheds light on the engagement of donors with micro and small enterprises in development as well as their impacts on women’s economic empowerment. This research aims to fill this gap by critically investigating donor-private sector partnerships implemented under an Australian aid programme in which micro and small enterprises are engaged to economically empower ethnic minority women in Vietnam. My findings suggest that micro and small businesses are important development partners in creating economic opportunities for low-income women. Locally- and socially-embedded businesses can achieve success and sustainability through their ability to engage with ethnic minority women. They also have the potential to create economic, social, and cultural impacts. They can be inclusive, with some small businesses reaching poor ethnic minority women regardless of production scales, and they can help women improve their incomes by supporting women to cultivate and sell unique, traditional, and cultural products. However, these private sector partners face challenges that constrain their partnership with development agencies and limit the objective of empowering ethnic minority women. My research findings challenge the instrumentalist notion of women’s economic empowerment, which donors commonly deploy in partnerships with a business by focusing solely on providing training and access to productive resources for market integration. It confirms that this instrumentalist approach is insufficient to genuinely empower women. Instead, my research recommends a holistic donor-private sector partnership framework for women’s empowerment to plug the gaps and transform the prevailing women’s economic empowerment approach. This proposed framework includes two elements which emerged from the research findings: relational and collective empowerment. Relational empowerment emphasises the importance of the relational aspects of empowerment and how changes in power relations in the surrounding environment affect women's empowerment. Collective empowerment reflects the need for collective action to influence changes in social norms and rules to recognise and improve women’s positions within households and the broader community. The proposed framework also involves civil society organisations, non-government organisations, and local governments as important partners in addressing unequal structures and barriers to women and enabling transformative outcomes for women. These research findings will support development agencies to better engage with the private sector to enable ethnic minority women’s empowerment.
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    The gift of health : Cuban medical cooperation in Kiribati : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Philosophy in Development Studies at Massey University, Turitea, Palmerston North, New Zealand
    (Massey University, 2020) Werle, Cristine
    Since its 1959 Revolution, Cuba has assisted more than 160 countries to deliver health care to the poorest and most remote communities in the world. Cuba draws on its experience of expanding primary care and building health workforce capacity with limited resources to help partner countries to develop their own comprehensive health systems. This example of South-South Cooperation reached Kiribati, a Pacific nation at the forefront of climate change where a combination of scattered geography, public health issues and insufficient health workforce continue to be barriers to the achievement of universal health coverage and the fulfilment of the right to health. Cuba has offered scholarships for I-Kiribati students to undertake medical education at the Escuela Latinoamericana de Medicina (Latin American School of Medicine, or ELAM) and nearly doubled Kiribati’s health workforce. While much of the literature on the Cuban medical cooperation analyses the programme itself, less has been said about the way it functions in particular contexts, particularly in small nations such as Kiribati. This thesis analyses how the Cuban health care model aligns with understandings of health in Kiribati, focusing on the similarities and differences between the countries’ health care systems, on the experiences of I-Kiribati doctors in translating the training received in Cuba to the Pacific context, and on the successes and limitations of the Cuban outreach. I argue that the Kiribati health system, and most of health assistance offered through traditional aid channels to Kiribati, focuses on a curative model of care that is not sufficiently responsive to the reality of the country. Drawing on Maussian gift theory to explore the value of reciprocal exchanges in international development, this study concludes that the Cuban approach to foreign assistance is primarily oriented by an ethos of solidarity that differs from conventional aid and which has the potential to provide an alternative way forward to deliver the gift of health to the global community. However, this approach does not always translate easily into Pacific health contexts and more work is needed to integrate the skills and knowledge of the Cuban-trained graduates and best use the gift of health they represent.