This article discusses the privatisation of public services in Argentina in light of the severe crisis that afflicted the country between 1999 and 2002. An inadequate regulatory framework and the absence of effective regulatory agencies resulted in the exercise of monopolistic power over public service fees. The emergence of a series of external shocks, starting in 1997 with the SE Asia crisis, weakened the country's external accounts. In the context of a strict fixed exchange-rate regime, rising public service fees and overseas obligations contracted by the privatised firms placed growing pressure on the balance of payments. Although privatised firms were not directly responsible for the four-year recession or the balance-of-payments crisis, their actions contributed to the onset and prolongation of the difficulties faced by Argentina.

Andean farmers have traditionally adapted and selected varieties of quinoa and potatoes to reduce their vulnerability to a range of environmental risks. Data suggest that this strategy is being undermined. Market pressures, particularly the requirements for consistency and quantity along with the import of subsidised wheat products, are leading to the displacement of quinoa and indigenous potato varieties. This paper explores the feasibility of maintaining crop diversity while ensuring that farmers benefit from market opportunities. For potato, the most promising approach is one of ‘conservation through use’, whereby development practitioners identify market niches for local rather than cosmopolitan varieties. Meanwhile, quinoa production and consumption has been enhanced by government-sponsored initiatives that use quinoa in food-support programmes. The success of these efforts to enhance livelihood security requires an enabling policy environment that encourages extension approaches, where the emphasis is on farmers' active participation, and supports public and private interventions in remote rural areas.

Fair trade represents an innovative approach to make the rules of global trade work for disadvantaged producers in the South and for sustainable development. But who are the real beneficiaries of fair trade? Has fair trade resulted in any discernible improvements in the lives of small coffee producers and their communities? This paper examines the effectiveness of fair trade as a development tool and the extent of its contribution to the alleviation of poverty in coffee-producing regions of Nicaragua. The paper argues that it is crucial to analyse the experiences and problems of small coffee producers and producer organisations involved in the fair trade market to ensure that the objectives and claims of fair trade are achieved in practice. The study concludes that there are limits to the extent to which fair trade can significantly raise the standard of living of small coffee producers because of factors such as the debt problems faced by cooperatives, lack of government support, and volatile international coffee prices.

A corporation has only limited ability to create social capital through philanthropic activity, and, in the context of a decline in official aid, the corporate sector is increasingly assuming a de facto developmental role. The presence of social capital assists communities in moving towards sustainable development and may contribute to the business case for corporate–community partnerships. While it is not the role of corporations to deliver social services, their ability to enhance social capital by partnering with community organisations can contribute both to development and work to their own commercial advantage. Such partnerships, whether philanthropic or commercial, will be more effective if delivered through balanced and transparent relationships with community organisations that help to create social capacity at the local level.

Asiyati Lorraine Chiweza lectures in Public Administration at the University of Malawi and is currently a PhD student at Curtin University of Technology, Australia.

Jane Gilbert has extensive clinical and managerial experience as a Consultant Clinical Psychologist in the UK National Health Service (NHS) and has been freelance since 2001. She has carried out consultancies within a variety of mental healthcare environments, and is a skilled facilitator. She has designed and delivered workshops on cross-cultural mental health in the Gambia, Lesotho, Uganda, and the UK, and contributed to pre-departure cultural awareness courses for UK NGOs. Her workshops and publications have focused on the synthesis of Western knowledge with traditional approaches to emotional distress, and she is particularly interested in the development of culturally appropriate curricula in mental health.

Service Opare holds degrees from the University of Ghana and the Institute of Social Studies (ISS) in The Netherlands, and is currently an Assistant Director at the Department of Community Development in Accra, Ghana.

This article identifies the need for an appropriate methodology for evaluating Fair Trade, given that most evaluations to date have been in-house or commissioned reviews and hence have not followed a consistent approach. Focusing on the development aspects of Fair Trade, the article reviews a range of impact evaluation methods and presents a detailed methodology for analysing Fair Trade. This methodology incorporates standard project evaluation criteria and is based on a wide range of proven methods for collecting and analysing data, principally qualitative but also quantitative. This framework is a modular package from which practitioners may select according to their needs and means, while still retaining an overarching logic. The article illustrates its use by reference to evaluations undertaken in Costa Rica, Ghana, Nicaragua, and Tanzania. The approach allows for a comprehensive understanding of Fair Trade programmes and enables these to be compared with conventional development projects.

As retailers in the North increasingly adopt codes of practice containing social and/or environmental provisions in global supply chains, there is a need for rigorous assessment of their social impact. Moving beyond the rhetoric, it is important to establish the actual impact of such codes on poorer workers, their families, and other local stakeholders. This paper sets out the key methodological and conceptual issues arising in such an assessment as identified by a three-year study on the South African wine industry. It reviews the different motivations and approaches employed by code bodies, donors, academics, and practitioners, and highlights the lack of workers' voices in the debate on corporate responsibility as well as some of the early research findings. Finally, it explains how the inherent power inequalities in global supply chains make it more difficult to adopt a truly empowering approach to assessing the impact of codes of practice.

Rosalind Boyd has been the Director of the Centre for Developing-Area Studies (CDAS) at McGill University since December 1996. For over two decades, she has conducted research concerning women in conflict situations, notably in El Salvador, Indonesia, Rwanda, South Africa, Sri Lanka, and Uganda. She is also the founding editor of the journal Labour, Capital and Society.