Breaking the Poverty Cycle: The Human Basis for Sustainable Development

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1 Oxford Scholarship Online You are looking at 1-10 of 50 items for: keywords : teleonomy psysoc psyhea Breaking the Poverty Cycle: The Human Basis for Sustainable Development Item type: book acprof:oso/ Many international development efforts have been limited because they are elaborated as exclusively economic projects. Nobel Laureate Amartya Sen argues, however, that combating poverty requires expanding individual freedoms and capabilities, in place of bolstering only macroeconomic growth. Based on the work of IMIFAP (The Mexican Institute of Family and Population Research) in Mexico and Latin America, this book seeks to transform Sen s philosophical approach into an operative model for sustainable development through its Framework for Enabling Empowerment (FrEE). The book offers a new, practical paradigm based in social psychology which empowers marginalized individuals to interact critically and constructively with their social, education, health and civic contexts. Introduction acprof:oso/ The introduction presents the theoretical foundation of the book, based on IMIFAP s experience in the field in Mexico and Latin America, and the psychology and development literature. The discussion centers on the importance of making Amartya Sen s Capability Approach operative, and highlights the need for a psycho-social focus for development program implementation and policy. It introduces the Framework for Enabling Empowerment (FrEE) as such a focus. Page 1 of 5

2 Socio-Cultural Norms as Impediments to Individual and Social Change: The Case of Mexico acprof:oso/ The purpose of this chapter is to illustrate how socio-cultural norms and the political culture can be both barriers and facilitators of personal and community development. Psychological barriers (e.g., shame, guilt, and fear) are often tight social norms that manifest themselves as impediments to individual choices and behaviors. Both social norms and psychological barriers must be addressed for the sustainable implementation of programs that focus on changing behaviors at the personal and community level. Examples drawn from Mexico and Latin America provide a context for the rest of the book. Testimonies acprof:oso/ This chapter will serve as an introduction to some of the Mexican Institute of Family and Population Research (IMIFAP) programs whose outcomes went beyond the directly targeted changes in knowledge, skills and behaviors. It was these non-targeted results and the close analysis of the underlying factors that lead to the idea of developing a framework as a means of making Sen s Human Capabilities Approach operative. Five short stories of IMIFAP program participants provide the human face of development, and emphasize the role of the individual role in community development. These are supplemented with descriptions of IMIFAP s school-based and community programs for life skills, health promotion and poverty reduction. Page 2 of 5

3 The Framework for Enabling Empowerment acprof:oso/ The goal of this chapter is to provide a theoretical framework that will contribute to the development of programs and policies, which make human development more likely and more sustainable. The chapter outlines the Framework for Enabling Empowerment (FrEE), illustrating how it works in practice, and its foundation in the psychology and development literature. It introduces such terms as choice, behaviors, personal agency, and extrinsic and intrinsic empowerment. Development as Enhancing Capabilities acprof:oso/ The historical context of development economics is discussed, as well as the role of behavioral economics and psychology at the macro and micro policy levels. Sen s Capability Approach is presented as an alternative model to traditional development economics, and the practical implications of its implementation is covered. The Elements of FrEE: Enhancing Opportunities and Reducing Barriers to Development by Addressing Situational Demands acprof:oso/ The basic tools that individuals need to respond to situational demands are outlined in this section: knowledge, skills, and competencies. Skills including decision making, communication, negotiation, self-knowledge, identifying and managing emotions, empathy and perspective taking, Page 3 of 5

4 and reflection. Comprehensive development programs and education systems ideally promote the development of these individual tools through participatory methodology and repetitive practice. Such programs go under the name Programming for Choice. This chapter also explores attitudes and intentions as precursors to behavior, working from Fishbein and Ajzen s Theory of Reasoned Action. Behavior as Choice acprof:oso/ The chapter focuses on behaviors and their subsequent impact on personal norms and attitudes as a means to developing personal agency and impacting the context. The importance of focusing on children and prevention, of the perceived repeated behavioral success, the reflection process, and how the generalization of behaviors can take place across domains is also highlighted. This discussion is based in a presentation of the Stages of Change Model and its components of precontemplation, contemplation, preparation for action, action, maintenance. Context acprof:oso/ The interaction between the individual and the various levels of the context are discussed in this chapter. Specific barriers and opportunities for personal agency are analyzed in various domains: education, politics, economics, health, security, and environment using Mexico as an example. Page 4 of 5

5 Strategy for Program Development and Implementation acprof:oso/ This is the practical section of the book, which highlights the essential link between research, policy, and understanding community needs. This chapter aims to demonstrate how the framework can be employed in program development and implementation, through a series of programmatic stages: 1) Needs assessment and problem definition 2) Design and piloting of Program, Materials and Evaluation Instruments 3) Formal Implementation of the Program (local level) 4) Scaling-up the program. Evaluation, advocacy and dissemination are integral components of each of the stages. IMIFAP programs are used as examples to illustrate the practical application of the methodology. Page 5 of 5