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291. Africa Capacity Indicators 2011: Capacity Development in Fragile States

Publication Date:
01-2011
Content Type:
Special Report
Institution:
The African Capacity Building Foundation (ACBF)
Abstract:
Africa's recent development performance has generated optimistic talk that the Continent will soon join the league of “emerging markets.” While Africa has in fact, over the past decade, achieved significant gains in restoring macroeconomic stability and robust economic growth, thereby breaking with and starting to tackle the economic stagnation, debt crisis and severe poverty of the previous three decades, these developments are uneven and they need to be sustained.
Topic:
Development, Emerging Markets, Markets, Fragile States, Economic growth, Capacity, and Macroeconomics
Political Geography:
Africa

292. Do Public Transfers Discourage Farmer Participation in Subsistence Crop Production? Empirical Evidence from Botswana

Author:
Tebogo Seleka and Khaufelo Lekobane
Publication Date:
08-2011
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Botswana Institute for Development Policy Analysis
Abstract:
We analyze the impact of public food and cash transfers on farmer participation in Botswana’s subsistence arable agriculture. The results indicate that publicly provided social pensions and food packages (rations) reduce the probability of participation in subsistence crop farming. Engagement in paid off-farm employment, which is sometimes facilitated through a public works programme (PWP), also discourages farmer participation in the subsistence economy. Therefore, public food and cash transfers and the PWP yield work disincentive effects in Botswana’s subsistence agriculture. This is because transfers are usually consistent and regular in Botswana, impacting on household behaviour. The design of social protection policies should therefore consider such potential disincentive effects on the agricultural sector.
Topic:
Agriculture, Development, Economic Development, and Farming
Political Geography:
Africa and Botswana

293. Factors Underlying Communal Beef Cattle Marketing Decisions in Botswana: The Role of Public and Private Transfers

Author:
Tebogo Seleka and David Mmopelwa
Publication Date:
08-2011
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Botswana Institute for Development Policy Analysis
Abstract:
This article examines factors underlying communal beef cattle marketing at a household level in Botswana, with emphasis placed on the role of public and private transfers. Results show that public and private transfers (pensions, remittances, government food rations, and food supplies from friends and relatives) discourage cattle marketing. Thus, while they are important sources of household food security, cash and food transfers may adversely impact on beef export performance in Botswana. It is therefore fundamental that public transfer programmes are well targeted to needy and poor households, in order to minimize their adverse effects on the cattle industry. On the positive side, the paper argues that public transfer programmes may assist poor farmers rebuild their cattle and other livestock inventory, contributing to transition out of inter-generational poverty.
Topic:
Development, Economics, Public Policy, Economic Development, Private Sector, and Cattle
Political Geography:
Africa and Botswana

294. Competition and Trade Policy: The Case of the Botswana Poultry Industry

Author:
Masedi Motswapong and Roman Grynberg
Publication Date:
09-2011
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Botswana Institute for Development Policy Analysis
Abstract:
The poultry sector is the most successful example of import substitution in Botswana with the country having achieved national self sufficiency. The paper describes the value chain in the industry and shows how, given the small size of the market, a high degree of market concentration exists. There is an estimate of the loss of consumer surplus from the current trade regime. The paper raises issues regarding the fundamental tension between competition and industrial policy in a small developing country. As the larger firms in the poultry industry move towards export readiness after 32 years of protection, the question of a new trade and industry regime is considered.
Topic:
Development, Economics, Economic Development, Trade Policy, Strategic Competition, and Industry
Political Geography:
Africa and Botswana

295. A Case Study from Ghana: Understanding the Links between Sexual and Reproductive Health, Gender Equality and Poverty Reduction

Author:
Akosua K. Darkwah
Publication Date:
01-2011
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
Institute for the Study of International Development, McGill University
Abstract:
Ghana is an interesting case study for this project for two reasons. First, it has an anomalous reproductive health profile. The country has the lowest Total Fertility Rate (TFR) in West Africa and one of the lowest in the sub-region. As at 2008, the TFR for the country was 4.0, for urban areas it was 3.1 and for the Greater Accra area, the most urbanized part of the country, it was 2.5 (GDHS 2008). This is a quite rapid decline from a TFR of 6.4 children per woman as at 1988. Even more interesting is the fact that the Contraceptive Prevalence Rate (CPR) stood at a low 24% in 2008. Some scholars such as Grey and Blanc (2002) argue that abortion rates help explain the gap between the CPR one should expect given the low TFR and what actually pertains as measured by the GDHS. Abortion in Ghana, however, inspite of a liberal law, accounts for between 13% (Sedgh 2010) and 25% (Baiden 2009) of maternal mortality cases in the country. In other words, in Ghana if the assertions of Grey and Blanc (2002) are valid, a low TFR has been achieved at the peril of women’s lives, quite contrary to what one would expect if reproductive health concerns were addressed systematically in the country. Second, the country exhibits quite some discord between its policies and its practices. Over the years, Ghana has been influenced and positively impacted by the global regimes in first Family Planning and later Reproductive Health. It joined the UN system of Population Censuses in 1960 and was an African Pioneer in the development of official Population Policy. It has an illustrious son, Fred Sai who is well known in international circles for his work on Reproductive Health. Fred Sai was the president of the International Planned Parenthood Association during the International Conference on Population Development (ICPD) held in Cairo in 1994 at which the conceptual shift from a narrow emphasis on family planning to the much broader notion of Reproductive Health was made. As president of such a key institution, he was instrumental in the processes that led to this effort and worked tirelessly to ensure that the Ghanaian State in its policies and practices reflected the conceptual shifts from Population Control to Reproductive Health. Two years after ICPD, the Ghanaian Reproductive Health Service Policy and Standards were developed and revised in 2003 to incorporate sexual health and gender based violence.
Topic:
Development, Gender Issues, Poverty, and Reproductive Health
Political Geography:
Africa and Ghana

296. "Dreams Don't Come True in Eritrea": Anomie and Family Disintegration due to the Structural Militarization of Society

Author:
Nicole Hirt
Publication Date:
01-2010
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
German Institute of Global and Area Studies
Abstract:
This article analyzes contemporary Eritrea's acute crisis within the framework of the theory of anomie. It is based on the hypothesis that militarization, forced labor, mass exodus, and family disintegration can be interpreted as the consequences of two incompatible norm and value systems: the collectivist, nationalistic, and militaristic worldview of the former liberation front and ruling party People's Front for Democracy and Justice (PFDJ), and the traditional cultural system of Eritrea's society. In 2002 the regime introduced an unlimited "development campaign," thereby forcing large parts of the society to live as conscripts and perform unpaid labor. This has caused a mass exodus of young people and a rapid process of family disintegration. The article is based on empirical fieldwork and evaluates the ongoing developments, which have led to rapid economic decline and the destabilization of the entire fabric of society.
Topic:
Development, Economics, Migration, Fragile/Failed State, and Governance
Political Geography:
Africa and Eritrea

297. How reform of the Fast Track Initiative should lead to a Global Fund for Education

Author:
Katie Malouf Bous
Publication Date:
01-2010
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
Oxfam Publishing
Abstract:
Remarkable progress has been made in the last ten years toward achieving the education-related Millennium Development Goals. Many more girls are in school and enrolment rates are on the rise, due to higher-quality aid and to political commitment in developing countries. However, these achievements could be derailed by the global economic crisis, newly falling aid levels, and educational challenges. With 72 million children still out of school, the world's poorest countries urgently need a global financing initiative that can deliver the resources to scale up to Education For All.
Topic:
Development, Education, and Gender Issues
Political Geography:
Africa

298. Peace-Building without External Assistance: Lessons from Somaliland

Author:
Nicholas Eubank
Publication Date:
01-2010
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Center for Global Development
Abstract:
Since its secession from Somalia in 1991, the east-African nation of Somaliland has become one of the most democratic governments in eastern Africa. Yet Somaliland has never been recognized by the international community. This paper examines how this lack of recognition—and the consequent ineligibility for foreign financial assistance—has shaped Somaliland's political development. It finds evidence that Somaliland's ineligibility for foreign aid facilitated the development of accountable political institutions and contributed to the willingness of Somalilanders to engage constructively in the state-building process.
Topic:
Development and Foreign Aid
Political Geography:
Africa and Somalia

299. Who Are the MDG Trailblazers? A New MDG Progress Index

Author:
Benjamin Lee and Julia Barmeier
Publication Date:
08-2010
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Center for Global Development
Abstract:
In September, world leaders will assemble in New York to review progress towards the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). Ahead of the ensuing discussions, we examine how individual countries are faring towards achieving the highly ambitious MDG targets. We outline a new MDG Progress Index, which compares country performance against the core MDG targets on poverty, hunger, gender equality, education, child mortality, health, and water. Overall, we find evidence of dramatic achievements by many poor countries such as Honduras, Laos, Ethiopia, Uganda, Burkina Faso, Nepal, Cambodia, and Ghana. In fact, these countries' performance suggests that they may achieve most of the highly ambitious MDGs. Moreover, sub-Saharan Africa accounts for many of the star MDG performers. Interestingly, poor countries perform nearly on par with middle-income countries. Not surprisingly, the list of laggards largely consists of countries devastated by conflict over the last few decades, such as Afghanistan, Burundi, the DRC, and Guinea-Bissau. Most countries fall somewhere in between, demonstrating solid progress on some indicators and little on others.
Topic:
Development, Human Welfare, Poverty, Third World, and United Nations
Political Geography:
Uganda, Africa, New York, Cambodia, Nepal, United Nations, and Ethiopia

300. Will China relocate its labor-intensive factories to Africa, flying-geese style?

Author:
Terutomo Ozawa and Christian Bellak
Publication Date:
08-2010
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
Columbia Center on Sustainable Investment
Abstract:
China has developed increasingly close economic relations with Africa in its quest for oil and minerals through investment and aid. The World Ban k recently called upon China to transplant labor-intensive factories onto the continent. A question arises as to whether such an industrial relocation will be done in such a fashion to jump-start local economic development—as previously seen across East Asia and as described in the flying-geese (FG) paradigm of FD.
Topic:
Development, Economics, and Industrial Policy
Political Geography:
Africa and China