Structural Adjustment and Social Emergency Funds: The Cases of Honduras, Mexico and Nicaragua

Household Welfare in Four Rural Mexican Communities: The Economic and Social Dynamics of Surviving National Crises

“…While there are certainly valid arguments concerning the limitations of such programs for sustainable community development (see Benería and Mendoza 1995), our results suggest that, in communities characterized by relatively high levels of social capital, 13 collaboration between local groups and national or international entities can contribute to the "co-production" (Bebbington and Per-13. The term "social capital" captures the idea that mutually constitutive social bonds, societal norms, and culturally shared values and meanings can provide a basis for producing collective economic, social, and political goods.…”

Planning and the Politics of Markets: Some Lessons from Financial Regulation in Nepal

“…Speci cally, the paper examines recent initiatives in Nepal to maintain a role for banking as an instrument of social planning through policies requiring banks to target some of their lending to the rural poor, and especially to women. This approach may be contrasted to the trend in many Latin American and African countries which radically liberalized their economies and then introduced such remedial instruments as 'social emergency funds' to mitigate the social costs of liberalization (see, for example, Benerṍa & Mendoza, 1993). Financial regulation in the US and UK, too, has increasingly permitted banks to exclude the poor from basic services as they concentrate geographically and sectorally on niches that yield the highest returns (Leyshon & Thrift, 1997).…”

Decentralization and Citizen Participation in Mexico

“…The work of Beneria and Mendoza (1995) examined the role of citizen committees in the decision-making process but focused on the regulations of an outdated program no longer in operation.…”

“…The social policy of the 1990s followed a demand-driven approach that accompanied the neo-liberal economic policies of the last decade (Beneria and Breny 1995). "This approach represent[ed] a shift in social policy orientation: from one that views the state as being responsible for redistributive mechanisms and social services affecting all citizens, to one that targets only specific groups and projects [Stahl, 1994].…”

“…: 139). More recently, programs like PRONASOL have utilized traditional indigenous practices to induce civil participation (Beneria & Breny 1995). Moreover, although "today the civil offices and the mayordomo positions do not have an explicit relationship to one another […] it is not unusual for a villager seeking a political career in the pueblo to volunteer regularly to serve either as a mayor-domo in a religious fiesta or as a presidente de fiestas patrias in the secular cycle" (Friedlander 1981: 140).…”