Introduction to Development, Aid and Coexistence

GRADUATE PROGRAMS IN COEXISTENCE AND CONFLICT

COURSE SYLLABUS

Preliminary DRAFT

HS 260 F;

Introduction to Development, Aid and Coexistence

Fall Module II, 2016

Theodore A. Johnson, JD, MA, PhD, Professor

Class: Wednesdays, 9:00 – 11:50 am

Location:

Contact information for Prof. Johnson:

Office: Heller-Brown 348, Phone 65023

Office Hours Tuesdays and Thursdays 10 am to 12 pm.

Course Description

The class will offer an introduction to the theory and practice of International Conflict and Development. Specifically, this involves offering basic knowledge and skills necessary to undertake and engage in development and aid work under conditions involving violent conflict. Under such conditions, aid and development workers often either increase tensions within divided societies, or undertake their work in ways that increase intercommunal equity, understanding and cooperation. Students will become aware of the theoretical and practical debates taking place among various development, aid, and coexistence institutions, and will explore a variety of “best practices” in developmental, conflict ridden, post-conflict, and disaster affected societies. Students will also examine how aid often results in divisive and unintended political processes that contribute to structural inequalities in distribution, economic, and social impacts as a result of manipulation by various “inside” and “outside” organizations and groups. Such activities frequently exacerbate the overall dynamics thereby making conflicts more difficult to diagnose, manage and or resolve. The course begins with a focus on a the concept of “Do no Harm” as applied to responsibilities of international development workers and moves to examine the challenges and difficulties of fragile states that seem to exist despite the good intentions of many in the development community. The course will then examine the concept of systems thinking as a means of probing some of the failures in development practice as systemic in nature. The final two sessions will examine the arguments for a “rights-based” approach to development, and some examples of successful interventions in the Middle East and Northern Africa (MENA) region.

Course Format

The overall course will be taught as a one-half semester or module unit. The course will meet on Wednesdays from 9:00 am to 11:50 am for seven weeks and is open to graduate students of the Heller School, GSAS, and IBS. Undergraduate students may take the class with special permission of the instructor.

Narrative.

This class was designed to meet the demands of Brandeis University students in the SIDCO program, which offers dual Masters Degrees in Conflict &Coexistence and Sustainable International Development. Additionally, the course is designed to address the overlaps between Development and Coexistence issues in societies divided by violent conflict. Over time, there have been a steadily increasing number of theoretical and policy/practice literature relevant to this phenomenon and its importance to the fields of Development and Coexistence field. (See attached Bibliography)

Increasingly, Development and Aid organizations working at international and national levels are establishing internal teams and work units to plan for and create structures that address this overlap within their programs – seeking to ensure that the overall impacts are positive when addressing issues of Development, Coexistence and Conflict.

Some of the agencies involved in integrated planning and implementation include: UNDP (United Nations Development Program), UNHCR (United Nations High Commission on Refugees), the World Bank, the European Union, USAID (United States Aid and Development agency), SIDA, CIDA and DiFID (the development agencies of Canada, Sweden and the UK), as well as large aid agencies such as Action Aid, Mercy Corps, and Oxfam. This module will help expand the professional career possibilities of students taking the course, as well as contributing to the growing body of research and the combined and overlapping issues affecting both fields of study.

Overview of the class:

The purpose of this class is to increase the knowledge and skills of students undertaking development and aid work in situations of pre and post violent conflict. Such work can either increase the tensions within divided societies, or be undertaken in such a way that the work can increase intercommunal equity, recovery, understanding and cooperation. Students will learn about the debates taking place between the development, aid, and coexistence community and institutions over how to develop best practices in developmental, pre and post conflict and disaster dynamics undertaken in societies so affected. We will examine how humanitarian aid can play a role in the politics of divisive distribution and inequities, can be controlled by and used by particular groups to the exclusion of others, can be seen to assist political or military agendas, and can become part of the economy of war, thus making conflicts more difficult to resolve. We will explore issues of programming, neutrality, human rights and humanitarian law. Students will increase their skills in understanding effective programmatic creation that address both development and aid requirements, while simultaneously contributing to coexistence needs in divided societies.

Course Format:

This course will involve the following learning objectives:

· To learn, understand, and apply essential critical thinking skills and concepts of development/aid theory and practice to past, and current pre and post conflict/ disaster relief dynamics;

· To synthesize and summarize lessons and applications from theories and case studies covered during the course;

· To learn and apply the skills of small-group work and timed presentations to convey theories and lessons throughout the course;

· To prepare and present a timed final small-group presentation of a project and paper on a chosen topic.

During the course students will be assigned to small groups to prepare and give “mini” presentations on assigned portions of the readings. The presentations will be presented in the 2nd half of each session. These presentations will require the development and use of the following: a) theoretical accuracy, b) critical thinking skills and analysis, c) efficient and effective summarization, d) organization and time management and, d) overall effectiveness and impact. More details on this process will be explained during first class session.

Grading: The final grade in this course will consist of the following components:

· Class participation 15%

· In-Class Group Presentations 40%

· Final small-group presentations and Paper 45%

Final Assignment

In the final assignment, you are asked work in a small group (three or four) to give an in-class timed-presentation consisting of a “Memorandum” to an agency or organization of your choice (e.g., NGO, Funding Agency, Government Department or Ministry) addressing a conflict of your choice. In the presentation and memo, your objective is to urge and recommend a “conflict sensitive” approach for an intervention in your selected area of conflict. For example, you may choose to write a memo to USAID to enlarge and improve refugees in the Syrian conflict as part of an expanded US role in humanitarian aid. In your memorandum you are expected to identify the following:

· The main points of the conflict,

· The need for an intervention (aid or development strategy),

· The relevant national or international policy implications to ensure that the intervention “does no harm,”

· Your recommendations for a conflict-sensitive strategy/approach for implementing the intervention, and

· Your overall guidelines for an M&E strategy and guidelines for success.

While the “paper” is called a “Memorandum”, for this class it remains an academic writing assignment. As such, appropriate references to course literature, readings, and or/lectures, discussions, and a short bibliography will be expected. In the paper, you are to use the APA writing format and reference guide and apply critical thinking and analytical skills.

The final in-class presentation should be 5 to 7 minutes and the final paper should be 10 to12-pages (spacing 1.5 in 11 or 12 point type). The presentation and paper will be graded as a group.

Due Date: The due date for the final group papers will be due Wednesday December 23, 2015.

Class Dates: 10/26, 11/2, 11/9, 11/16, 11/30, 12/7, 12/14.

Class Sessions:

Session 1. October 26, 2016

“Conflicts Today”

Challenges of development and humanitarian assistance within conflict and post-conflict situations in today’s world.

This session will include an overview of conflicts in the world today, including how war has changed over the last few decades, necessitating new ways of working in the fields of development, aid, and coexistence. It will also look at the academic and practical work undertaken in the last two decades on issues about how best to undertake development work in divided and conflicted societies, and the challenges and debates which have accompanied such development.

In-Class Discussion:

1. What are the components of an effective presentation?

2. How would you incorporate “critical thinking” into a presentation?

3. What is an effective evaluation of a presentation?

Required Readings

1. Anderson, Mary B. (1999) Do No Harm (et al) pp. 7-22 Today’s Wars and Pursuit of Justice and Characteristics of Conflict.

2. Fisher, Simon, Dekha Ibrahim Abdi, Ludin Jawed, Smoth Richard, Williams, Sue (2000) Working With Conflict, Skills and Strategies for Action New York: Zed books, pp. 1-15

3. Ballentine, K. and Nitzshke, H. (October 2003) Beyond Greed or Grievance: Policy Lessons from Studies in the Political Economy of Armed Conflict. IPA Policy Report. International Peace Academy

4. Lang, Maria; Quinn, Mick (2003) Conflict Humanitarian Assistance and Peacebuilding: Meeting the Challenges, International Alert: London

Recommended Readings

5. J. Joseph Hewitt, Jonathan Wilkenfeld & Ted Robert Gurr. “Executive Summary” Peace & Conflict 2012, University of Maryland Center for International Development and Conflict Management (CIDCM)

6. Gurr, Ted R and Marshall Monty. Peace and Conflict (2006). A Global Survey of Armed Conflicts, Self-Determination Movements, and Democracy. From http://www.cidcm.umd.edu/paper.asp?id=15

Week 2. November 2, 2016

“Do No Harm”

In this session the class will explore the basic principles of “Do No Harm” (DNH) from Mary Anderson’s book of the same title. Anderson’s book was published in 1999 and many approaches and practices have evolved since then. Most specifically, numerous interventions have taken place globally applying DNH. As a result, a number of lessons and modifications in DNH process have been learned and adapted. For example, in 2014, Marshall Wallace, a long-term practioner at Mary Anderson’s firm Conflict Development Associates (CDA), wrote a document entitled “From Principle to Practice, A User’s Guide to Do No Harm.” Written in 2014, this document has become a book by the same name, and is now available on line at Creative Commons Attribution. The book updates many of the lessons and practices now being applied in DNH work. In this session, we will examine some of the key lessons from the book during small group applications in class.

Required Readings: From: Mary B. Anderson, Do No Harm; How Aid Can Support Peace or War. Lynne Rienner Publishers Inc. Boulder, Colorado, 1999.

Chapter 3: Characteristics of Conflict Areas

Chapter 4: AID’s Impact on Conflict Through Resource Transfers

Chapter 5: AID’s Impact on Conflict Through Implicit Ethical Messages

Chapter 6: Framework for Analyzing AID’s Impact on Conflict.

Wallace, M. “The Six Lessons of Do No Harm” (Pages 11-36) in From Principle to Practice A User’s Guide to Do No Harm.

Do No Harm: New Model of the Framework – from theory to practice.

Activity

Case Study: “Food For Work for Rebuilding War-Damaged Homes in Tajikistan.”

Week 3. November 9, 2016;

Post Millennium Development Goals and the challenge of Fragile States

In this session the class will explore the International Communities aim to deal with global poverty and development in a post Millennium Development Goal era with the advent of identifying and dealing with “Fragile States.” The readings and discussion begin with the Paris Declaration on Aid Effectiveness, and the Accra Agenda for action. We then examine portions of Seth Kaplan’s seminal and highly relevant book Fixing Fragile States, A New Paradigm For Development. We conclude with a 2015 review of the Fragile States Index for the most recent results of efforts deal with Fragility.

Student groups will be assigned for some aspects of the readings.

Required Readings:

“The Paris Declaration on Aid Effectiveness of 2005 and the Accra Agenda for Action of 2008.” Published by: OECD.

“Fostering Development: The Missing ingredients” and, “Fragile States, Fractured Societies” Chapters 2 & 3 (pp. 18-45) in Kaplan, Seth D. Fixing Fragile States.

“A New Paradigm for Development” Chapter 4 (pp. 49-64) in Kaplan.

Case Studies:

“The Democratic Republic of Congo: Constructing the State Bottom Up” Ch. 6 (pp. 82-97) in Kaplan.

“Somaliland: Reconnecting State and Society” Ch.8 (pp.114 – 129).

For Reference and Recommended Review

“Fragile States Index 2015” Published by FFP at http://fsi.fundforpeace.org/ (accessed 11/5/15).

“Fragile States Index 2015 Report” and also available at the above website reference.

Week 4. November 16, 2016

Why has development assistance to the “third world” has failed?

In this session the class will examine some of the key arguments in Thomas Dichter’s 2003 book, Despite Good Intentions. Dichter offers theoretical and factual insights that examine development work from several viewpoints. The readings begin with the romantic vision of doing good and then examine development as a business, and end with an analysis of the field as a calling and a profession. Prior to the session, students will be assigned to small groups to prepare brief reports on specific portions of the readings.

Required Readings: All readings are in Dichter unless indicated.

“Romance” Story one, pp. 11-18 in Dichter.

“The Developing world and Its Condition,” Chapter One, (pp. 23-30)

“The Evolution of the Idea of Development,” Chapter Two, (pp. 48-74)

“Sliding toward Dependency” Story six, (pp. 91-97)

“Development Assistance as an Industry,” Chapter Three, (pp. 98-110)

“The Professionalization of Development,” Chapter Seven, (pp. 226-238)

“Unintended Consequences,” pp. 271-280.

If Aid is NOT Working, What can and should be done?

Up to this point, the course has examined the nature of current day conflicts, the mandate of doing no harm, the challenges of fragile states, and why some believe that development has failed. This session continues with that theme by examining the 2009 book Dead Aid, by Dambisa Moyo. However, this book posits some difficult proposals to gradually wean some countries off of the dependency treadmill of aid by developing strong financial markets and boost internal capacities similar to the path followed in Latin America. But will it work? Are there yet other models worth considering?