What do buzzwords do for development policy? a critical look at ‘participation’, ‘empowerment’ and ‘poverty reduction’

TLDR

Buzzwords such as participation, empowerment and poverty reduction shape the framing of development policy solutions. The study critically examines how these terms are employed in international development policy to frame and justify interventions. The authors analyze the use of these terms within Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers and Millennium Development Goals. The study finds that participation, empowerment and poverty reduction have been reconfigured into apolitical, one-size-fits-all language that offers little promise for genuine poverty alleviation.

Abstract

Abstract In the fast-moving world of development policy, buzzwords play an important part in framing solutions. Today's development orthodoxies are captured in a seductive mix of such words, among which ‘participation’, ‘empowerment’ and ‘poverty reduction’ take a prominent place. This paper takes a critical look at how these three terms have come to be used in international development policy, exploring how different configurations of words frame and justify particular kinds of development interventions. It analyses their use in the context of two contemporary development policy instruments, the Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers (prsps) and the Millennium Development Goals (mdgs). We show how words that once spoke of politics and power have come to be reconfigured in the service of today's one-size-fits-all development recipes, spun into an apoliticised form that everyone can agree with. As such, we contend, their use in development policy may offer little hope of the world free of poverty that they are used to evoke.