Public–Private Partnerships in International Agricultural Research: An Analysis of Constraints

Public–private partnerships are a potentially important means of conducting pro-poor agricultural research in many developing countries. Yet within the international agricultural research sector, there are few examples of successful collaboration that have contributed to food security, poverty reduction or agricultural development. This study hypothesizes that partnerships between public research agencies and private, multinational firms are constrained by fundamentally different incentive structures; prohibitive costs, both direct and indirect; mutually negative perceptions between the sectors; and high levels of competition and risk associated with valuable assets and resources. Based on a survey of key stakeholders and a review of the literature, findings suggest that the primary impediments to partnership are perceptions, competition and risk, while issues of costs and conflicting incentives are secondary. These findings suggest that investment in innovative organizational mechanisms and supportive public policies could facilitate more, and more successful, public–private partnerships in pro-poor agricultural research.     

Acquiring Political Craft: Training Grounds for Top Officials in the German Core Executive

Political craft is an essential qualification of senior officials in the German Federal ministerial administration. The emphasis on political craft as a vital complement to administrative-technical competence reflects a policy-making system that is characterized by multi-party government, an assertive Parliament, a strong opposition, influential Lander , and growing informalization. In fostering political craft, three institutions play a key role: (i) the Chancellery; (ii) the political support units to the executive leadership; and (iii) the parliamentary parties in the Bundestag, which employ Federal ministerial officials on temporary leave. The centrality of these institutions in Federal policy-making makes them into outstanding training grounds for future top officials.     

Staasbildung oder Staatszerfall? Zum Formwandel Kriegerischer Gewalt in der Weltgesellschaft

The nexus between warfare and statebuilding that historians have stressed for European history, seemingly does not apply for the history of warfare after 1945. Instead, numerous political scientists hint to an ongoing depolitization of contemporary warfare and interpret civil wars as “state failure”. This analysis of war development after 1945 shows along the distinction of five realtypes that neither the thesis of a depoliticisation can be supported by the material presented, nor is the system of states endangered by the outcome of intrastate warfare. The problems of state-building, it seems, might rather be caused by economic decline and an increase of internationalisation.     

Geopolitics,Patagonian Toothfish and living resource regulation in the Southern Ocean

This paper is concerned with the ongoing controversies regarding the over-harvesting of Patagonian Toothfish (Dissostichus eleginoides) in the Southern Ocean. After some thoughts on the varied geographies of this region, attention is then paid to the Convention for Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources. Thereafter, illegal, unregulated and unreported fishing of Patagonian Toothfish is considered in some detail because it forms the basis for a subsequent examination of attempts by states and intergovernmental organisations (IGOs) to manage living resources. These measures have been contested by a variety of bodies and interest groups, however. The final part of the paper considers how the latest fishing crisis in the Southern Ocean challenged intergovernmental governance in the late twentieth century.     

Intervening in Value Chains: Lessons from Zambia's Task Force on Acceleration of Cassava Utilisation

Abstract

Smallholder farmers operate in vertical supply chains. Therefore, an understanding of key opportunities and constraints up through the value chain becomes necessary for sustaining smallholder growth. Yet market analysis is of little value unless key private and public sector stakeholders agree to implement necessary reforms. This paper advocates an approach which marries together value chain analysis with a stakeholder task force to ensure that analysis of opportunities and constraints gets translated into actions that will facilitate commercial growth. Using Zambia's cassava task force as an example, the paper describes the value chain task force method and identifies elements critical to its effective implementation.