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31. We No Longer Share the Land: Agricultural change, land, and violence in Darfur

Publication Date:
04-2014
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
Oxfam Publishing
Abstract:
Small-scale traditional agriculture provides the foundation of economic, political, and social life in Sudan's Darfur region. Traditionally, it included shifting crop cultivation and agro-pastoral livestock herding, with different ethnic groups specializing in each activity. Under this system, rights over land were not exclusive; various overlapping rights prevailed, and land use was not permanent. These arrangements allowed for the exchange of production inputs (manure for fertilizer, crop residues for animal feed), and permitted the different ethnic groups to coexist peacefully to their mutual advantage.
Topic:
Political Violence, Agriculture, Climate Change, and Economics
Political Geography:
Africa and Sudan

32. Who Wants to Farm? Youth Aspirations, Opportunities and Rising Food Prices

Author:
Jennifer Leavy and Naomi Hossain
Publication Date:
03-2014
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Oxfam Publishing
Abstract:
Who wants to farm? In an era of land grabs and environmental uncertainty, improving smallholder productivity has become a higher priority on the poverty and food security agenda in development, focusing attention on the next generation of farmers. Yet emerging evidence about the material realities and social norms and desires of young people in developing countries indicates a reasonably widespread withdrawal from work on the land as an emerging norm. While de-agrarianisation is not new, policymakers are correct to be concerned about a withdrawal from the sector: smallholder productivity growth, and agricultural transformation more broadly, depend in part on the extent to which capable, skilled young people can be retained or attracted to farming, and on policies that support that retention. So who wants to farm, and under what conditions? Where are economic, environmental and social conditions favourable to active recruitment by educated young people into farming? What policy and programmatic conditions are creating attractive opportunities in farming or agro-food industry livelihoods?
Topic:
Agriculture, Economics, and Food
Political Geography:
Africa and Latin America

33. Gender equality and land administration: the case of Zambia

Author:
Rachel Spichiger and Edna Kabala
Publication Date:
04-2014
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Danish Institute for International Studies
Abstract:
Land, and in particular agricultural land, is central to livelhoods in rural Zambia. Zambia is characterised by a dual legal system of customary and statutory law and by dual land tenure, with state land and customary land. A first wave of socialist-oriented reforms took place after independence in 1964, which abolished previously existing freehold land in favour of leasehold. Subsequent changes in government policies under the influence of structural adjustment programmes and a new government in 1991 paved the way for a market-driven land reform. The 1995 Lands Act introduced the privatization of land in Zambia and provided for the conversion of customary into state land, with the hope of attracting investors. However, the Act has been unevenly implemented, at least in rural areas, in part due to problems plaguing the land administration institutions and their work, in part due to opposition to the main tenets of the Act from chiefs, the population and civil society. Civil society, with donor support, calls for more attention towards women's precarious situations with regard to access to and ownership of land under customary tenure, but it still expresses a desire for customary tenure to remain. However, civil society also recognizes that customary practices are often also discriminatory towards women who depend on male relatives for access to land.
Topic:
Agriculture, Economics, Gender Issues, and Human Rights
Political Geography:
Africa

34. Gender Equality Concerns in Ghana's Land Reform: Current challenges and the role of donors

Author:
Rachel Spichiger and Paul Stacey
Publication Date:
03-2014
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Danish Institute for International Studies
Abstract:
Ghana has been implementing a land administration reform since 1999. The Land Administration Project (LAP), an ambitious programme supported by donors, aims to strenghten land administration institutions and increase land holders' security of tenure on both state and customary land. This working paper reviews the literature on this land reform process, with a focus on issues related to gender. At first absent from the 1999 Land Policy, gender concerns were later incorporated into the project and a gender strategy was developed in 2009, with the goal to mainstream gender in land-related agencies and activities. Although donors have contributed to the gender strategy, the inclusion of gender equality has not been at the forefront of their priorities.
Topic:
Agriculture, Gender Issues, and Governance
Political Geography:
Africa

35. Self-Selection into Credit Markets: Evidence from Agriculture in Mali

Author:
Dean Karlan, Bram Thuysbaert, Christopher Udry, and Lori Beaman
Publication Date:
09-2014
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Center for Global Development
Abstract:
We partnered with a micro-lender in Mali to randomize credit offers at the village level. Then, in no-loan control villages, we gave cash grants to randomly selected households. These grants led to higher agricultural investments and profits, thus showing that liquidity constraints bind with respect to agricultural investment. In loan-villages, we gave grants to a random subset of farmers who (endogenously) did not borrow. These farmers have lower – in fact zero – marginal returns to the grants. Thus we find important heterogeneity in returns to investment and strong evidence that farmers with higher marginal returns to investment self-select into lending programs.
Topic:
Agriculture and Economics
Political Geography:
Africa

36. Is There a Role for Mobiles to Support Sustainable Agriculture in Africa?

Author:
Batchelor Simon, Scott Nigel, Valverde Alvaro, Manfre Cristina, and Edwards David
Publication Date:
07-2014
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Oxfam Publishing
Abstract:
This paper from the Proceedings of the 2nd International Conference on ICTs for Sustainability (ICT4S 2014) reviews findings from detailed consultation with 50 global experts in Agriculture and Information Communication Technologies (ICTs). The study explores how ICTs (particularly mobile phones) could be used to accelerate the uptake of sustainable agriculture in sub-Saharan Africa. The paper develops a detailed conceptual model, built around the smallholder farmer, for understanding the flow of information through the agriculture sector.
Topic:
Agriculture, Human Rights, Human Welfare, and Science and Technology
Political Geography:
Africa

37. Moral Hazard? 'Mega' public-private partnerships in African agriculture

Author:
Robin Willoughby
Publication Date:
09-2014
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
Oxfam Publishing
Abstract:
After decades of underinvestment in agriculture, African governments are rightly looking at how best to mobilize funding for the sector. Donors in turn are keen to reverse a trend of neglect and to support initiatives that are simultaneously likely to enhance productivity, improve livelihoods and increase private sector investment. Private investors, concurrently, are looking for new consumer markets and production opportunities in Africa.
Topic:
Agriculture, Food, Famine, and Foreign Direct Investment
Political Geography:
Africa

38. Improving Access to Food in Sub-Saharan Africa: Using the Diffusion of Agroecological Information to Mitigate Climate Change Effects

Author:
Suhani Bhushan and Stephanie C. Fauquier
Publication Date:
11-2014
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
Centre for International Governance Innovation
Abstract:
By 2050, the world's population is expected to exceed nine billion people. Population growth is occurring most rapidly in Africa, which will see the population grow from one billion to 2.1 billion by 2050. Africa will see significant population growth; however, agricultural output is not growing at the same rate. Africa's abundant natural resources are being used ineffectively, and the country is unlikely to sustain current population growth. According to reGina Jane Jere (2014), "Barely a fraction of fertile agricultural land [in Africa] is being cultivated - just 10 percent of the 400 million hectares."
Topic:
Agriculture
Political Geography:
Africa

39. Effectiveness Review: Drought Management Initiative: Livestock Component, Kenya

Publication Date:
12-2013
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Oxfam Publishing
Abstract:
Under Oxfam Great Britain's (OGB) Global Performance Framework (GPF), samples of sufficiently mature projects are being randomly selected each year and their effectiveness rigorously assessed. The livestock component of the Turkana-Pokot Drought Management Initiative (DMI) was randomly selected for an Effectiveness Review under the adaptation and risk reduction thematic area in the 2012/13 financial year. DMI was a three-year programme implemented by a consortium of NGOs which aimed to mitigate the effects of climatic shocks among pastoralist communities in north-western Kenya. Oxfam GB was responsible for implementing the livestock component of this programme in three of the most remote pastoralist communities in the northern part of Turkana County. The activities carried out included establishing pastoralist field schools (PFSs) in each community, to provide members with training on improving livestock management, drought mitigation, and livelihood diversification. In the same communities, the project supported the establishment of village community banks (VICOBAs), as well as training community animal-health workers (CAHWs) and setting up village land-use planning committees (VLUPCs).
Topic:
Agriculture, Climate Change, Development, Human Welfare, Humanitarian Aid, Non-Governmental Organization, and Natural Resources
Political Geography:
Kenya and Africa

40. A Mushrooming business: How Oxfam is facilitating development of the horticulture sector while improving the status of women in Rwanda

Author:
Sharad Eldon Mahajan and Laura Kigali
Publication Date:
09-2013
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Oxfam Publishing
Abstract:
What change(s) was this approach intending to influence through its leverage strategy? Oxfam's livelihoods work in Rwanda focuses on women's economic leadership in the horticulture sector. In making women an integral part of the supply chain, we hope to bring about long - term societal change, both facilitating development of the horticulture sector and improving the status of women. We seek to do this by working with and through partners such as the government, private sector, micro finance institutions (MFIs), and civil society, to leverage large - scale change through evidence - based advocacy.
Topic:
Agriculture, Civil Society, Development, Gender Issues, and Labor Issues
Political Geography:
Africa