From "the Will to Improve" to "the Will to Transform": Some Promises & Challenges of Sida's Multidimensional Poverty Analysis (MDPA) Framework in Bolivia

Abstract: Objectives: This study sets out to answer the following research questions: 1. How do Sida and CEDLA problematize poverty and what does this reveal about their underlying development paradigms? 2. What are some of the key promises and challenges of Sida and CEDLA’s differing understandings of capitalism for their use of the MDPA framework in Bolivia? The key areas of focus are the organizations Sida and CEDLA, Sida’s Multidimensional Poverty Analysis (MDPA) framework, and in particular, its use within the context of Bolivia. Methods: This paper presents a qualitative case study of the above topics with recourse to semi-structured and paired depth interviews as well as a focus group, with Sida informants, in both Sweden and Latin America, as well as two non-Sida participants from a Sida-funded Bolivian think tank called CEDLA. The paper, moreover, uses a combination of post-structuralist concepts, such as discourse analysis, and materialist notions regarding Elite Development Theory (EDT) versus Labor-Centered Development (LCD), in order to answer the aforementioned research questions. Principal findings: Sida, it turns out, re-problematizes poverty as multidimensional, in response to earlier unidimensional understandings of poverty, such as the World Bank’s reductive focus on resource poverty, to the exclusion of the environmental, social, and political dimensions and contexts, among others. It does so, in part, in response to SDG 1’s exhortation to “end poverty in all its forms.” Sida’s discourses on poverty have an underlying liberal development paradigm, influenced by Amartya Sen’s capabilities approach. CEDLA, on the other hand, understands poverty through a materialist lens, as caused by the structural inequalities and exploitative dynamics inherent to global capitalism. While Sida tends to have more of an EDT, CEDLA has a perspective which could be considered representative of LCD. Sida is driven by “the will to improve,” whereas CEDLA is driven by “the will to transform.” Both organizations should continue their mutually-beneficial development cooperation.