Development Interventions Are Social Processes

Development interventions involve complex social processes. They generate hopes, fears and opposition. The results of an action are not so much what was defined beforehand as they are the contingent fruits of the social interplay the action provokes. If this reality is not taken seriously, projects expose themselves to classical drift in which the adhesion of the "beneficiaries" is dependent on the indirect effects of actions that do not concern them, or certain stakeholders instrumentalise or neutralise the actions that are useful to the greatest number but that threaten them.
If one wishes to intervene in a pertinent manner, one must be able to grasp these approaches and the interplay among stakeholders, enter into dialogue with the stakeholders involved, elaborate and negotiate pertinent proposals, and adjust the intervention to the realities that come to light during the course of the action.

Learning from Experience: Increasingly Necessary as Professions Evolve

Engaging in dialogue with local interlocutors, setting up negotiated action-research approaches, and capacity building are as many necessary ambitions for efficient and healthy cooperation, yet they demand analytic ability and rigorous methodology. One must learn from experience, be able to analyse the effects of one's interventions, and learn the appropriate lessons for methodology. At a time when development professions are evolving, it is more than ever crucial to produce and make available to development aid stakeholders analytic tools and tested methodologies in the framework of demanding dialogue with social sciences.

The Role of Social Sciences: for Constructive Collaboration

Social reality is never transparent. Due to differences in culture or training, and due to the stakes involved in the intervention, communication is never transparent between beneficiaries, stakeholders and actors. Approaches involving listening and dialogue are necessary but not sufficient. New forms of collaboration with the social sciences—for socio-anthropological impact assessments and even more for "process monitoring" during the action—can be valuable tools to better understand the stakes underlying the interventions for the various groups of stakeholders and strategically steer the interventions for greater pertinence and effectiveness.

understanding economic and social dynamics, for development stakes that are not yet well known and that pertain to our operational intervention themes;

critical analysis of interventions in relation to the social and political dynamics surrounding them and their pertinence in terms of their contributions to development defined as the sustainable improvement of populations' living conditions; and

production of methodology references that endeavour to make explicit the conditions necessary for pertinent, high quality interventions.

action-based intermediation and institution-building;

Southern practitioners and their relationships with Northern practitioners;

the internal logics of the aid system and its impact on actions; donors' procedures and quality; and

development and cooperation policy elaboration and implementation.

A certain number of research and applied research programmes are elaborated and implemented by GRET's clusters. They aim to produce new knowledge on development stakes that are not yet well known and strengthen the skills of our partners in developing countries. Related to specialised scientific themes and to established scientific partnerships, they have their own knowledge production and publication dynamics.
In particular, GRET coordinates or contributes to a certain number of research projects, notably in the framework of INCO-DEV (European Union, Research DG). 3 projects have recently been completed and are currently undergoing scientific analysis and documentation; 4 projects are underway or were launched at the end of 2002.