Nationality and Nationalism in Africa: the Uganda case

Depuis 2006 et l'exode de migrants ouest-africains tentant de rejoindre l'Europe à bord de pirogues, la lutte contre l'émigration clandestine a été mise à l'agenda des relations afro-européennes. A partir de l'étude du tissu associatif et non-gouvernemental sénégalais, plus particulièrement d'une initiative féminine de la banlieue dakaroise, cet article souhaite revenir sur les conditions d'émergence et de possibilité d'un tel agenda et des mobilisations collectives y ayant trait. Le consensus relatif entre acteurs du Nord et du Sud concernant la lutte contre l'émigration irrégulière provient de l'articulation, dans une conjoncture d'urgence, de facteurs qui tiennent aux conditions structurelles d'insertion à l'international des acteurs du Sud, d'effets d'aubaine et de cadrages interprétatifs rendus compatibles. L'internationalisation d'acteurs sénégalais en charge de cet agenda a alors eu pour conséquences de générer un registre d'action victimaire, contraignant toute action protestataire, et de nourrir factionnalisme et concurrence au sein des champs associatif et politique, locaux et nationaux.     

Policy reforms in sub-Saharan Africa: Conditions for establishing a dialogue

Third World debt continues to be a critical and intractable issue. A particularly interesting aspect of the story is the effort by external donors and lenders to promote specific policy changes in exchange for assistance in dealing with indebtedness and promoting economic development. This study looks at the interactions between donors and decision-makers in sub-Saharan African countries, an area where donors rather than private banks play a dominant role. Donors have been learning from the uneven response to the reforms and are attempting to tailor the reforms somewhat to different contexts and to encourage more consultations. To succeed in these efforts they need to reexamine their view of analysis as a purely technocratic exercise among experts. They can learn from recent changes in the policy sciences, here called an interactive approach to policy analysis. It makes three assumptions: policy relevant knowledge includes time and space information and is diffused; participants can reason together and learn from each other; and there is a need for procedures and institutions to facilitate interaction and learning. The study explores the assumptions implicit in donor actions and proposes that an interactive approach, with its more open-ended perspective on knowledge, can stimulate greater dialogue and expand the kinds of information that are fed into the process. Louise G. White is associate professor in the department of public affairs at George Mason University, Fairfax VA 22030–4444. Her research is in the general areas of development management and policy analysis. Her most recent books areCreating Opportunities for Change: Approaches for Managing Development Programs, andPolitical Analysis: Technique and Practice. She has recently published articles inPublic Administration Review andWorld Development.     

The Effect of Food Price Changes on Child Labour: Evidence from Uganda

Most people in developing countries spend up to 60 per cent of their income on food, even though the majority of them are farmers. Hence, a change in food prices affects both their revenue as well as expenditure, and it may thereby affect their labour market decisions. Using the Uganda National Panel Survey and monthly regional food prices, this paper examines the effect of changes in food prices on child labour. The empirical evidence shows that an increase in food prices is linked to an increase in the probability and the intensity of child labour. We find the effect of food price increases to be smaller among landowning households, which is consistent with the view that landowning households can better compensate for price shocks. The empirical results suggest that periodic shocks in food prices may have longer lasting effects on economic development in developing countries through the channel of child labour.     

Transforming Staple Food Value Chains in Africa: The Case of Teff in Ethiopia

We study changes in the last decade in the teff value chain, Ethiopia’s most important staple food crop by area and value. Upstream, there is increasing adoption of modern inputs and new varieties – especially by those farmers living close to cities – leading to higher land productivity. Mid- and downstream, we find improved processing costs and increasing willingness-to-pay for convenience and quality, as illustrated by the emergence of one-stop retail shops and the rise of more expensive teff varieties. Because of the large numbers of teff producers and consumers, this transformation has important implications on the country’s food security.     

State Failure and Success in Uganda and Zimbabwe: The Logic of Political Decay and Reconstruction in Africa

This article uses the post-colonial experiences of Uganda and Zimbabwe to demonstrate both the strengths and weaknesses of competing theoretical explanations for problems of state and economic failure in Africa. It shows that they all explain some but not all of these processes. It demonstrates the crucial role of contextual circumstances and ongoing structural changes in each country in determining the success or failure of policy regimes and, of current prospects for a long-term transformation to liberal democratic capitalism.     

The Impact of Trade Credit on Customer Switching Behaviour: Evidence from the Tanzanian Rice Market

We use primary survey data to analyse the relationship between trade credit and customer switching in the context of trade transactions between wholesalers and retailers in the Tanzanian rice market. Results reveal a negative relation of trade credit and customer switching, that is, trade credit acts as a switching barrier; retailers are reluctant to move to another supplier if they depend on trade credit as a source of external finance. This interpretation fits with the underdeveloped financial markets in Tanzania, in which access to external finance is poor among rice retailers.     

Policy Reforms and Evolution of Market Structure in an Emerging Economy: The Case of India

Policy reforms have facilitated entry of quite a few transnational corporations (TNC) into Indian industries. This has important implications for the evolution of competitive industrial structure. This article focuses on the issue of the response mechanism of local firms to competition from new entrant TNCs and the possible strategies of TNCs in penetrating the Indian market. It develops a conceptual framework by incorporating elements of intangible assets theory and new institutional economics into a simple sequential entry oligopoly model. This yields interesting insights into qualitative behaviour of firms in the post-reforms period. A few hypotheses drawn from the conceptual framework are empirically tested on the basis of firm level panel data drawn from a set of Indian industries.     

Responding to Food Insecurity: Employing the Market Information and Food Insecurity Response Analysis Framework in Rural Northern Kenya

Aid agencies are increasingly advocating for cash transfers as a substitute or complement to food transfers when responding to both emergency and chronic food insecurity. Yet, cash is not always optimal. In this article, we demonstrate how a newly developed response analysis tool, the Marketing Information and Food Insecurity Response Analysis (MIFIRA) framework can guide evidence-based identification of appropriate transfers. We present findings from a MIFIRA analysis in Marsabit; a remote and generally food-insecure district of northern Kenya. As a demonstration of the analytical versatility of MIFIRA, we utilise a variety of data, ranging from rigorously-collected household data, to market surveys and rapid assessments in focus groups. As a proof of concept, this article shows how MIFIRA can be effectively deployed in other regions facing chronic or emergency food insecurity to help response agencies make systematic decisions on a solid evidence base.     

The state of politics in Africa: The corporatist factor

In the past decade, studies of thestate in Africa have either suggested its pervasiveness in both political and economic life or have concentrated on its nonrepresentative (i.e., undemocratic) nature and its dependence on foreign capital for its survival. This study adopts a different reasoning. It suggests that thestate in African countries should be viewed as grappling with problems of managing society within the context of underdevelopment, a task that is increasingly becoming more difficult given the recurring economic crises on the continent. Politics ofcorporatist organization thus become an attractive option for the state to express its authority and attempt to legitimize its existence.     

Decentralisation and government provision of public goods: The public health sector in Uganda

While many developing countries have devolved health care responsibilities to local governments in recent years, no study has examined whether decentralisation actually leads to greater health sector allocative efficiency. This paper approaches this question by modeling local government budgeting decisions under decentralisation. The model leads to conclusions not all favourable to decentralisation and produces several testable hypotheses concerning local government spending choices. For a brief empirical test of the model we look at data from Uganda. The data are of a type seldom available to researchers–actual local government budgets for the health sector in a developing country. The health budgets are disaggregated into specific types of activities based on a subjective characterisation of each activity's ‘publicness’. The empirical results provide preliminary evidence that local government health planners are allocating declining proportions of their budgets to public goods activities.     

Cattle Markets Integration and Price Discovery: The Case of Mali

This article analyses the level of integration in 10 cattle markets in Mali. The results indicate a limited interdependence among markets where, in majority of cases, more than 70 per cent of price variation is due to own-price shocks. However, the Ségou market exhibited a high level of interaction with other markets, behaving mostly as a price information receiver. Some markets behaved as sources of price information, however, without taking a clear price leadership role. This low level of market integration may be attributed to limited access to livestock markets and timely price information.     

Enhancing food access in Africa: The Botswana experience

A combination of drought and misguided economic policies have resulted in decreased food security and frequent famines in many African countries in recent years. Botswana is a rare exception that has survived its worst drought without a single death from hunger. It has adopted a National Food Strategy that has both long term and short term policy dimensions. The long term goal is to increase food security through improved agricultural production and diversified rural economy. In the short term, the goal is to provide food security to the most vulnerable segment of its population. The two components of the food access program are human supplementary feeding and cash for work. The article examines Botswana’s experience in enhancing food security, based on an exploratory case study of the public employment program (cash for work) in the South East District of the Republic of Botswana. Sisay Asefa is associate professor of economics at Western Michigan State University. His current research is in country development studies, African (economic) studies, and rural/agricultural development studies. He is the author of “The Role of the Government of Botswana in Increasing Rural and Urban Access to Food” inSouthern Africa: Food Security Policy Options, edited by M. Rukuni and R. H. Bernesten, 1989 and editor ofWorld Food and Agriculture: Economic Issues and Problems (W. E. Upjohn Institute, 1988).     

The spread of famine in Africa: Avoiding the worst

The aim of this article is to provide an evaluation of Uganda's current strategy to fight corruption. Like many countries on the African continent, Uganda has deemed it necessary to make attempts to reduce and control corruption within the public sector. As awareness of the deleterious and debilitating effects of corruption has grown, so too have both internal political factors and external pressures from aid donors increased in order to push for fundamental change in this respect. In terms of the donors, many have stipulated specific conditions relating to a good governance agenda based upon adherence to public integrity and minimum standards of public conduct. Sensitivity to pressure also stems in part, from a wish by government to be seen to be actively responding to donor concerns. Internal pressures stem from a growing desire by the public to demand accountability from those in government.     

The African struggle continues: The awakening of North Africa

La crise de l’État moderne en Afrique prouve que cette formation historique ne constitue pas la forme achevée du nationalisme africain contemporain. L’État moderne est né d’un contexte occidental historique. Il revient aux Africains eux-mêmes de penser leur propres structures étatiques avec des éléments endogènes de conceptualisation. La structure ethnique en est un. Comment peut-on l’intégrer de manière politiquement et économiquement viable en ce siècle de génocides et de conflits interethniques? Les liens ethniques créent un cadre économique et social basé sur d’autres institutions que celles de la modernité étatique. Le pouvoir ethnique harmonise autrement les trois monopoles de l’État moderne, à savoir la violence légitime, la distribution des ressources et la représentation politique. Il est donc possible de combler l’espace publique avec d’autres loyautés que la loyauté nationale.