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42. The New Transparency in Development Economics: Lessons from the Millennium Villages Controversy
- Author:
- Michael Clemens and Gabriel Demombynes
- Publication Date:
- 09-2013
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Center for Global Development
- Abstract:
- The Millennium Villages Project is a high profile, multi-country development project that has aimed to serve as a model for ending rural poverty in sub-Saharan Africa. The project became the subject of controversy when the methodological basis of early claims of success was questioned. The lively ensuing debate offers lessons on three recent mini-revolutions that have swept the field of development economics: the rising standards of evidence for measuring impact, the “open data” movement, and the growing role of the blogosphere in research debates.
- Topic:
- Development, Economics, Poverty, and Foreign Aid
- Political Geography:
- Africa
43. Is Poverty a binding constraint on Agricultural Growth in Rural Malawi?
- Author:
- Mirriam Muhome‐Matita and Ephraim Wadonda Chirwa
- Publication Date:
- 07-2013
- Content Type:
- Policy Brief
- Institution:
- African Economic Research Consortium (AERC)
- Abstract:
- Agriculture remains the most important sector in sub‐Saharan Africa and is a dominant form of livelihood for a majority of the population that resides in the rural areas. In Malawi, agriculture accounts for 35 percent of GDP and generates more than 80 percent of foreign exchange. In addition, agriculture is the most important occupation for 71 percent of the rural population in which crop production accounts for 74 percent of all rural incomes. However, agriculture has failed to get Africa out of poverty, and most countries are experiencing low agricultural growth, rapid population growth, weak foreign exchange earnings and high transaction costs (World Bank, 2008). In Malawi, for a long time, economic growth has been erratic (see figure 1) with huge swings and poverty has remained high. For instance, the annual growth rates in per capita gross domestic product averaged ‐2.1 percent in the 1980‐84 period, ‐2.7 percent in 1990‐94 period, 3.8 percent in 1995‐99 and ‐0.2 percent in the 2000‐05 period.
- Topic:
- Agriculture, Development, Economics, Political Economy, Poverty, GDP, Inequality, Economic growth, and Macroeconomics
- Political Geography:
- Africa and Malawi
44. An Equitable Allocation of the Constituency Development Fund
- Author:
- Frank Kakungu
- Publication Date:
- 12-2013
- Content Type:
- Policy Brief
- Institution:
- Zambia Institute for Policy Analysis and Research (ZIPAR)
- Abstract:
- The disbursement of an equal quantum of funding per constituency has equity concerns because constituencies are not equal. This favours smaller, least populated constituencies against greatly populated and or the poorest – where needs are greatest. The blanket allocation of Constituency Development Fund (CDFs) across the country, without recourse to policy targets underscores national failure to address important policy concerns. This is unfortunately the case in Zambia. In this report, we devised a model that reallocates resources based on the socio-economic conditions prevailing in constituencies. The research developed a composite index of material and social deprivation using data from the Census 2010. Furthermore, the study evaluates the distribution of deprivation in constituencies and considers ways in which deprivation index can contribute to discussions relating to public resource allocation of the CDF. The research results has potential usages beyond the CDF reallocation, it informs decision-makers on resource allocation and planning and budgeting activities.
- Topic:
- Development, Poverty, Governance, and Inequality
- Political Geography:
- Africa and Zambia
45. Building Effective Drinking Water Management Policies in Rural Africa: Lessons from Northern Uganda
- Author:
- Christopher Opio
- Publication Date:
- 08-2012
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Centre for International Governance Innovation
- Abstract:
- While the need to provide clean drinking water is widely recognized as a priority in rural Sub-Saharan Africa, there is a lack of specific data on water quality to build effective drinking water management policies. This discussion paper describes a water quality study undertaken in Northern Uganda, to test the potability and potential contamination of water taken from wells, open water sources and households. Key lessons from the study include the fact that clean well water can be contaminated during transportation to, and storage in, homes. Building on the data from the water quality tests, this paper explores the policy implications for national governments, non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and individuals at the household level. In the absence of more specific, country-by-country studies, the results from this study are applicable across the region due to similarities in water sources and storage practices in rural Africa.
- Topic:
- Security, Development, Non-Governmental Organization, Poverty, and Food
- Political Geography:
- Uganda and Africa
46. Côte d'Ivoire : faire baisser la pression
- Publication Date:
- 11-2012
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- International Crisis Group
- Abstract:
- En Côte d'Ivoire, la sortie de crise est menacée par une situation sécuritaire volatile et des blocages politiques. Le dernier trimestre a été marqué par une série d'attaques meurtrières qui ont visé un commissariat de police, l'un des principaux camps militaires du pays, plusieurs posi- tions de l'armée et une centrale électrique. Ces incidents ont été précédés par d'autres violences à l'Ouest. Même si ces évènements ne constituent pas une menace immé- diate pour la stabilité, ils indiquent que, pour certains, la guerre n'est pas terminée. Lenteur de la réforme du sec- teur de la sécurité, gel du dialogue politique, fragilité de la coalition au pouvoir, ret our de la violence verbale, révélation de projets de coup d'Etat, doutes sur la réalité d'une volonté de réconciliation nationale, sont autant de signes préoccupants. Le présid ent Alassane Ouattara et son nouveau gouvernement formé le 22 novembre ne doivent pas compter exclusivement sur la relance économique et le verrouillage sécuritaire pour consolider la paix. La com- munauté internationale ne do it pas détourner son regard d'un pays dont la stabilisation est d'autant plus cruciale pour l'Afrique de l'Ouest que le Mali voisin a basculé dans une crise profonde et durable.
- Topic:
- Security, Political Violence, Poverty, and Governance
- Political Geography:
- Africa
47. Land Tenure and Economic Activities in Uganda: a Literature Review
- Author:
- Michael Kidoido, Rasmus Hundsbæk Pedersen, Rachel Spichiger, and Sarah Alobo
- Publication Date:
- 11-2012
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Danish Institute for International Studies
- Abstract:
- Land is an important asset for people's livelihoods and for economic development in Uganda, where the majority of people live in rural areas. This working paper reviews the literature on Uganda's tenure systems and their relationship with economic activities, focusing primarily on rural agricultural land. The review illustrates that these relationships are complex and context-dependent.
- Topic:
- Development, Economics, Gender Issues, Poverty, and Law
- Political Geography:
- Uganda and Africa
48. Resources, risk and resilience: scarcity and climate change in Ethiopia
- Author:
- Alex Evans
- Publication Date:
- 08-2012
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Center on International Cooperation
- Abstract:
- Ethiopia's resource scarcity context presents a daunting challenge, but also a significant opportunity. The country's current scarcity context includes: Low agricultural yields and farm sizes: Even if farm productivity were to increase by a factor of three, the average farm would still not produce enough food for a family of five. With 83% of Ethiopia's people directly dependent on agriculture for their livelihoods, the country has a major food security challenge; 7.5 million people depend on food safety nets. Major exposure to drought: Ethiopia has erratic rainfall, and acutely limited water storage capacity: the country has only 43m3 of reservoir storage per person, compared to 750m3 in South Africa and 6,150m3 in North America. Levels of irrigation are also low: the World Bank estimates that only 5% of irrigable land in Ethiopia is actually irrigated. Limited access to energy: Ethiopia's total primary energy supply is less than 60% of the African average, and only just over a fifth of the global average. The country depends on waste and biomass for 90 of its energy needs – leading to consequences including deforestation, and soil degradation as a result of biomass not being returned to the soil. High dependence on imported oil and food: Ethiopia currently imports all of its liquid fuels and a significant proportion of its food. This creates major exposure to global commodity price volatility, with the attendant risk of balance of payments problems, inflation and outright supply interruptions.
- Topic:
- Agriculture, Climate Change, Development, Economics, Poverty, Natural Resources, and Food
- Political Geography:
- Africa, South Africa, North America, and Ethiopia
49. 'Our Land, Our Lives': Time out on the global land rush
- Author:
- Kate Geary
- Publication Date:
- 10-2012
- Content Type:
- Policy Brief
- Institution:
- Oxfam Publishing
- Abstract:
- Today, stories of communities driven from their lands, often at the barrel of a gun, left destitute and unable to feed their families, have become all too familiar . As the scale and pace of large - scale land acquisitions increases globally, evidence is mounting that the land rush is out of control and that the price being paid by affected communities is unacceptably high. A huge amount of land has been sold off or leased out globally in the past decade: an area eight times the size of the UK. In poor countries , foreign investors bought up an area of land the size of London every six days between 2000 and 2010. Commercial interest in land could accelerate once again as recent food price spikes motivate rich countries to secure their own food supplies and make land a more secure and attractive option for investors and speculators. The 2008 boom in food prices is widely recognized as having triggered a surge in investor interest in land : from mid - 2008 – 2009 reported agricultural land deals by foreign investors in developing countries rocketed by around 200 per cent .
- Topic:
- Agriculture, Development, Poverty, Natural Resources, Territorial Disputes, and Food
- Political Geography:
- Africa and United Kingdom
50. Subjective Risk and Participation in Micro Life Insurance in Ghana
- Author:
- Lena Giesbert
- Publication Date:
- 12-2012
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- German Institute of Global and Area Studies
- Abstract:
- This paper analyzes the determinants of households' decisions to purchase micro life insurance, the most common but least investigated type of microinsurance. It uses household survey data collected in southern Ghana in 2009. Insurance participation and extent of coverage are examined against a standard benchmark model, which argues that life insurance uptake increases with risk aversion, the probability of risk, initial wealth, and the “intensity for bequests.” Many of these predictions indeed hold in the case of micro life insurance. However, the results of probit and tobit models show that nonstandard factors also explain the participation decision. Unlike the case with other available types of insurance, there is a significant negative association between households' subjective idiosyncratic risk perception and the uptake of micro life insurance. Additionally, households' micro life insurance participation is strongly related to their relationships with formal financial services providers and their membership in social networks. These findings suggest that poorer households view microinsurance as a risky option.
- Topic:
- Health, Poverty, and Health Care Policy
- Political Geography:
- Africa and Ghana