This article analyzes the transfer and 15-year policy trajectory of Colombia's "global best practice" "Escuela Nueva in Brazil." This program, initially transferred to Brazil in 1997 with the help of the World Bank, was largely unknown for the first decade of its life span. Then, between 2008 and 2011, "after" the…

Drawing on recent research with NGO-driven projects in rural Cajamarca, Peru, we examine the paradoxes of relying on wind, solar and micro-hydro generation of electricity for rural community development. In spite of cost, vagaries of these energy resources and limited material benefits, especially with wind and solar systems, villagers are eagerly…

This article is essentially written as two linked parts. The first part considers how space, spatiality and history can contribute to understanding and "doing something about" the sustainability of rural communities. This is done by extensive reference to Soja's (1989 & 1996) space and spatial theorising and selective perspectives of…

Since its establishment in 2003, the Japan Council on the UN Decade of Education for Sustainable Development (ESD-J) has paid close attention to informal learning processes in community-based efforts to promote local sustainable development. ESD-J carried out two projects to collect information on and visualise community-based ESD practice: the…

In a rapidly changing society like Botswana, the competition for employment, training and progression on the job has become very high. The development of skills is therefore a crucial and integral part of nation building, which needs a direct link to a training programme to continuously help staff to cope with the different needs they meet in the…

Rural communities such as Stanthorpe on Queensland's Southern Downs, in Australia, are familiar with turbulent environmental, social, technological and economic change and the adversity that frequently accompanies such changes. The capacity of individuals and communities to bounce back from adversity is referred to as resilience. Participation in…

Includes "Introduction to International Perspectives" (Allen); "Volunteerism in the Welfare State: The Case of Denmark" (Habermann); "Grassroots Organizing in Bangladesh" (Chowdhury); and "Volunteerism in Latin America" (Guerra). (SK)

This monograph outlines the trends of rural development communication in Bangladesh and places the processes of communication in the Comilla Rural Development Project in a broad historical perspective. In this way, it relates rural development communication to the larger framework of cultural and political change within the country. Five sections…

A brief resume of literacy, adult education, and rural development activities have been abstracted from the UNESCO Director-General's report for 1974. (LH)

This case study describes the Bangladesh Rural Advancement Committee (BRAC), which was formed to explore ways to help children from its rural development program gain access to improved education. Working mainly in rural areas, BRAC focused on improved quality through improved education service delivery, management detail, and finance. While…

Details essential elements of any rural development program, describes a seven-stage project development strategy which has proved successful in water management projects in Pakistan and Egypt, delineates the key concepts in each of the seven stages, and recommends integration of the client system into rural development programs. (Author)

The rural development program described here works toward integrating education with problems of the masses in Maharashtra, India. Seventeen graduates from six universities and a rural institute live in the villages and work in agricultural development and extension (providing supervision and demonstration) and in social education and…

An extension program sponsored by the Venezuelan government attempted to change a rural area's shifting cultivation system into one that produced cash crops. The program's failure was due in part to the lack of understanding on the part of the extension agents regarding the communities' traditional resource use systems. (LH)

The author describes an Indonesian program for village development: graduate students in any discipline at State universities must spend six months working at community development in a village in order to receive their master's degrees. Results have been varied; the author raises several questions and warns against unexpected negative results.…