Partnerships in international social development: Evolution in-practice and concept

Focusing on Latin American and Canadian experience in international cooperation, partnerships are examined critically in concept and practice in relation to social development from the 1950s to the present. The principal actors considered include governments and their organization, NGOs and popular sector organizations (both grassroots and community-based) representing the poor. In the context of a changing world order with global poverty as a major issue in northern and Third World countries alike, it is argued that greater emphasis in development practice needs to be placed on linking popular sector groups and organizations in the North directly with their counterparts in the South drawing on the tradition and practice of communitarianism and voluntarism.