Civil society Archives - Page 26 of 27 - Oxfam Policy & Practice

Discussion paper

Building Sustainable Peace: Conflict, conciliation, and civil society in Northern Ghana

01/01/1999

1 documents

69 pages long

Languages: English

Keywords

Overview

Intense fighting in the Northern Region of Ghana in 1994 and 1995 led to the loss of 15,000 lives and the displacement of 200,000 people. A Formal peace treaty, negotiated by the government, ended the fighting but did not address the underlying causes of the conflict, which were a complex mix of economic, political, and […]

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Discussion paper

Post-War Reconstruction in Central America: Lessons from El Salvador, Guatemala and Nicaragua

01/01/1999

1 documents

78 pages long

Languages: English

Keywords

Overview

This study originated as a proposal to reflect on the experience of Oxfam GB ‘ in Central America during the 1980s, both to contribute to its ‘institutional memory’ of working in situations of armed conflict, and to trace the relationship between its previous and current work in the region. Oxfam’s wider interest coincided with that […]

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Journal article

Civil society and substantive democracy: governance and the state of law in Belgium

01/11/1998

12 pages long

Free access through journal website

Keywords

Overview

Since the late 1980s, democratic institutions and an active civil society are being prescribed as important ingredients and preconditions to reduce poverty, social exclusion, and violent civil strife. Multi-party systems and elections are seen as the most important expressions of formal democracy. This paper argues that more attention is needed to substantive democracy, which requires […]

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Journal article

NGOs, civil society and the state: avoiding theoretical extremes in real world issues

01/08/1998

7 pages long

Free access through journal website

Keywords

Overview

The standard models of the state and civil society balancing each other, as propounded by de Tocqueville, Hegel and Gramsci, are no longer useful in all cases when thinking about the relationship between the state, civil society and NGOs. The emergence in many countries of a weak state and relatively strong civil society organisations has […]

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Book

A Safer Future: Reducing the human cost of war

01/01/1997

1 documents

128 pages long

Languages: English

Keywords

Overview

A Safer Future draws on Oxfam’s experience of working with communities caught up in armed conflict in many countries around the world and makes recommendations for urgent action by governments that would reduce the risk of war and protect civilian lives. It looks specifically at changes in international policies and pre-emptive action by the international […]

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Book

Empowering Communities: A casebook from West Sudan

01/01/1997

1 documents

97 pages long

Languages: English

Keywords

Overview

This casebook examines the way in which a participative approach to development can result in empowerment for communities. The Kebkabiya project in the west of Sudan began as an attempt to improve food security in the wake of a major famine. Over the years Oxfam, who initiated the project, handed over responsibility to a community-based […]

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Book

Questioning Empowerment: Working with women in Honduras

01/01/1997

1 documents

192 pages long

Languages: English

Keywords

Overview

Empowerment is a term which is used by organisations as diverse as the World Bank and grassroots community groups. This book examines the various meanings given to the concept, and the many ways in which power can be expressed, in personal relationships and in wider social interactions. It focuses on two development projects in Honduras, […]

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Book

Mali: A prospect of peace?

01/01/1997

3 documents

64 pages long

Languages: English

Keywords

Overview

Most people in the industrialised world have heard of Timbuktu, even if they could not find this ancient centre of civilisation on the map. In fact, it is in Mali, a West African country which is rapidly coming to terms with the modern world. In 1991 the people of Mali overthrew a military dictatorship; democratic […]

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Journal article