The vision shared by most development scholars and practitioners today is for beneficiary driven development, the impediment and the means to which both lie with communication. The debate concerns the communication approach that would best realise this vision. This paper examines and critically comments on two major approaches, Development Communication and Development Support Communication, though it argues for neither of these. Rather, it draws on the 'Another Development-Another Communication' paradigm and proposes a Participatory Communication approach, which both resonates in people's own moral values, conforms to the reality of many communities in Africa, and offers better prospects of achieving beneficiary-driven development.

Organizational capacity-building may be so focused on the hope for an improved future that it unwittingly fails to draw upon key learning from past experience. Reflection upon and public affirmation of those moments in organizational life when members felt high commitment can ignite imagination and build momentum for a better future. Appreciative Inquiry methods of organizational transformation suggest that a positive future image of one's organization can be a compelling, if not irresistible, force, the creation of which needs to embrace the already-lived and shared satisfying moments of members. Organizational capacity is best understood, and most enjoyably and authentically pursued, when the process and desired product is co-generated from within the lived realities of all its stakeholders.

The author recounts his experience in developing Community Listening Theatre with RISE, a Namibian non-governmental organization that works in shanty-town districts and with dispossessed farming communities. In depicting their concerns through dramatic expression, previously diffident people began to address pressing political issues, and to challenge their own 'self-oppression', before proceeding to organize around specific issues, and take sometimes audacious collective action towards their own (re)empowerment. Reflecting on the role of the outsider, the author warns that it often proves disempowering to assume that such experience can be distilled into a replicable formula.

Drawing on a case-study from Central Argentina, this article suggests that researchers can be too cautious about introducing technologies of which farmers have no previous experience. In particular, it challenges the notion that the only technology appropriate to peasant conditions is that which is rooted in traditional ideas and culture. Under certain circumstances, externally supplied technologies may also be appropriate. Rather than focusing solely on the technology, it is necessary to look at the socio-economic and historical context in which the technology will be used.

This paper offers an insight into the creative ways in which a major social institution in one of the most progressive states in India has attempted to take gender issues on board. The Maharashtra Police Force has taken a major step towards empowering women by opening all mainstream duties to them as from 1994. The paper records the process through which the Force has taken this up as part of a larger agenda to tackle the issues of violence against women, and may serve as an example for similar organizations and students of gender issues.

The concept of sustainability has evolved and expanded to include more than just environmental issues. Development practitioners now address questions linking sustainability to population and, in particular, to poverty alleviation. Environmentally sustainable development cannot be achieved, let alone maintained, unless poverty is reduced. Thus, the connection between sustainability and poverty reduction must be properly understood if economic assistance for the poor is to be successful. These questions can be confusing and difficult to address satisfactorily in practice. How can poverty reduction programmes and projects be designed for sustainability? How can the elements of sustainable poverty reduction be built into all stages of the project cycle? These issues are examined and a set of guidelines and minimum standards proposed. Relevant examples are cited to illustrate how the inclusion of poverty alleviation concerns into the project cycle can be achieved.

Drawing on recent research, it has been explored how far and in what ways UK NGOs have tried to incorporate gender into the policies and procedures of their international development work, and how far a formal recognition of gender issues is shaping the way each organization functions. The strengths and weaknesses of different strategies are assessed (such as specialist staff or units, formal gender policies, gender training, equal opportunity recruitment policies, and mainstreaming) for transforming organizational practice.