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21. Eastern Africa: Security and the Legacy of Fragility

Author:
Gilbert M. Khadiagala
Publication Date:
10-2008
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
International Peace Institute
Abstract:
“Eastern Africa” denotes the geographical area comprising the seven member states of the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD): Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Kenya, Somalia, Sudan, and Uganda. Tanzania is also included because it has had long historical and political interactions with Kenya and Uganda within the rubric of the East African Cooperation (EAC). The main challenges to human security in this region have originated from political and state fragility, resource scarcities, and environmental degradation. All these factors have contributed to a regional context that is characterized by intrastate conflicts, interstate wars, and political extremism. Raging civil wars and interstate conflicts have, in turn, produced forms of statelessness and marginality that have deepened societal insecurities and strained human livelihoods. Consequently, in addition to profound political instability and economic destitution, human security is arrayed against escalating communal violence, small arms proliferation, and massive movements of people within and beyond the region.
Topic:
Development, Environment, and Poverty
Political Geography:
Uganda, Kenya, Africa, Sudan, Ethiopia, and East Africa

22. Assessing Infrastructure Constraints on Business Activity in Kisumu, Kenya

Author:
Jacob Winiecki
Publication Date:
10-2008
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Columbia Center on Sustainable Investment
Abstract:
The success of commercial activities in any city depends in great part upon the quality of infrastructure services available to businesses including (but not limited to) reliable electricity and liquid fuel supplies to power engines, sufficient supplies of clean water for irrigation and industrial processes, and reliable roads for obtaining raw materials and transporting finished goods in a timely and cost efficient manner. Poor quality infrastructure can drive up the cost of doing business and constrain economic growth in any city.
Topic:
Development, Infrastructure, and Foreign Direct Investment
Political Geography:
Kenya and Africa

23. Sugar in Kisumu,kenya

Publication Date:
11-2008
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Columbia Center on Sustainable Investment
Abstract:
An investor, seeking to financially benefit from producing sugar as a commodity in Kisumu, Kenya, needs to consider the entire investment environment before making a decision. Since Kenya is a net importer of sugar, domestic demand cannot be satisfied by domestic production, which creates a potential opportunity for an investor looking to bridge the gap. As a result, an opportunity may exist for an investor who wants to play a significant role in the future of the industry. Sugar, produced as a commodity within Kisumu, may have the ability to compete on a global scale if time, investment, and governmental support align.
Topic:
Agriculture, Development, Globalization, Markets, and Foreign Direct Investment
Political Geography:
Kenya and Africa

24. Free Distribution Or Cost-Sharing? Evidence From A Randomized Malaria Prevention Experiment

Author:
Jessica Cohen
Publication Date:
12-2007
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
The Brookings Institution
Abstract:
It is widely believed that cost-sharing—charging a subsidized, positive price—for a health product is necessary to avoid wasting resources on those who will not use or do not need the product. We explore this argument in the context of a field experiment in Kenya, in which we randomized the price at which pregnant women could buy long lasting anti-malarial insecticide-treated nets (ITNs) at prenatal clinics. We find no evidence that cost-sharing reduces wastage on those that will not use the product: women who received free ITNs are not less likely to use them than those who paid subsidized positive prices. We also find no evidence that cost-sharing induces selection of women who need the net more: those who pay higher prices appear no sicker than the prenatal clients in the control group in terms of measured anemia (an important indicator of malaria). Cost-sharing does, however, considerably dampen demand. We find that uptake drops by 75 percent when the price of ITNs increases from 0 to $0.75, the price at which ITNs are currently sold to pregnant women in Kenya. We combine our estimates in a cost-effectiveness analysis of ITN prices on infant mortality that incorporates both private and social returns to ITN usage. Overall, given the large positive externality associated with widespread usage of insecticide-treated nets, our results suggest that free distribution to pregnant women is both more effective and more cost-effective than cost-sharing.
Topic:
Development, Globalization, Health, and World Health Organization
Political Geography:
Kenya

25. Norway's Fredskorpset Youth Program: Study of Selected Exchange Projects

Author:
Axel Borchgrevink and Torild Skard
Publication Date:
01-2005
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Norwegian Institute of International Affairs
Abstract:
The Fredskorpset Youth program is a North-South exchange program facilitating the exchange of young people between partner organizations or institutions of Norway and countries of the South. The present study was commissioned in order to assess the degree to which stated goals of the exchanges were realized. Four exchanges were selected to be studied: between a Norwegian and Kenyan student organization (AIESEC); between a Norwegian missionary organization (NMS) and its counterpart church in Madagascar (FLM); between local Red Cross organizations in Norway and Uganda; and between a Norwegian (VUC) and two Malawian teacher training institutions (CC, LTTC). Objectives of the programs included acquiring new knowledge, attitudes and commitment at the level of individual participants, organizational strengthening and development of international contacts at the institutional level, and dissemination of information. As goals were mostly quite loosely formulated, it was difficult to assess the degree to which they were realized with any precision. Findings varied between the exchanges, but in general individual objectives were reached to some extent, while results might have been even stronger with more systematic attention to them. Institutional goals were achieved in most of the cases. In terms of information dissemination, this could be strengthened in most of the exchange programs.
Topic:
Development, Human Welfare, and International Organization
Political Geography:
Uganda, Kenya, Europe, Norway, and Madagascar

26. The Tax Reform Experience of Kenya

Author:
Stephen Njuguna Karingi and Bernadette Wanjal
Publication Date:
12-2005
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
United Nations University
Abstract:
In evaluating tax reform in the developing countries, one first needs to determine what is the unique role of the tax system in each particular country. One of the key reasons for undertaking tax reforms in Kenya was to ad dress issues of in equality and to create a sustainable tax system that could generate adequate revenue to finance public expenditures. In this respect, the tax modernization programme introduced in the country was to achieve a tax system that was sustainable in the face of changing conditions domestically and internationally. Policy was shifted towards greater reliance on indirect taxes as opposed to direct taxes. Consumption taxes were seen to be more favourable to investments and hence growth. Trade taxes, instead of being used for protection or revenue-maximization purposes, were viewed more as instruments to foster export-led industrialization. Trade taxes were therefore used to create a competitive exports sector rather than protect the import-competing manufacturing sector, as had been done in the past.
Topic:
International Relations, Development, and Economics
Political Geography:
Kenya and Africa

27. Trade in the Small-and Micro-Enterprise Sector in Kenya and other Countries in Eastern and Southern Africa

Author:
Poul Ove Pedersen
Publication Date:
04-2005
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Danish Institute for International Studies
Abstract:
Since the famous ILO report on the informal sector in Kenya was published in 1972 the smallscale enterprises have been recognised to play an important role in the Kenyan economy as in other African countries. However, although often more than half of all the small enterprises are traders. Most small enterprise policies have focussed almost entirely on the small scale producers. The small-scale traders have generally been seen as unproductive activities with no positive role to play in development, a sign of poverty, although they are responsible for a large share of the national distribution system. The paper attempts to look at this paradox and investigate the role of the small scale traders in the small enterprise sector and in the development process.
Topic:
Development, Economics, and Third World
Political Geography:
Kenya and Africa

28. Development of African Freight Transport - the Case of Kenya

Author:
Patrick O. Alila, Meleckidzedeck Khayesi, Walter Odhiambo, and Poul Ove Pederson
Publication Date:
02-2005
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Danish Institute for International Studies
Abstract:
The Kenyan transport system is still to a large extent structured by physical infrastructure, legislation and institutions developed during the colonial period, and by import-substitution policies which during the first decades after independence to a large extent allowed the transport system to deteriorate. However, since the late 1980s the structural adjustment policies have led to a renewed interest both from the government and the donors in developing the transport infrastructure. At the same time trade liberalisation, deregulation of domestic trade and privatisation of the parastatals have since the mid-1990s led to a reshaping of both trade and transport which is still ongoing. The so-called logistical revolution, which since the early 1970s has revolutionised transport in the industrialised and industrialising world, has with a delay of two decades also reached Africa. This is resulting in much closer integration of transport into production and trade which tend to shift the focus away from the physical transport infrastructure to the institutional structures and organisations which support and exploit the infrastructures. This paper tries to describe the resulting transformation of the Kenyan transport system.
Topic:
Development, Economics, and Human Welfare
Political Geography:
Kenya and Africa