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Shifts in thinking and practice concerning aid have posed serious challenges in monitoring and evaluation (M&E) for both donors and recipients, but progress in reform remains slow. An important first step in any initiative involving M&E capacity development is the diagnosis of the systems' current status. This article presents a diagnostic checklist that captures issues of M&E policy: indicators, data collection and methodology; organisation; capacity-building; participation of nongovernmental actors; and use. It applies it to a review of the PRSP M&E arrangements of 20 aid-dependent countries in sub-Saharan Africa to demonstrate comparative strengths and weaknesses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sub-Saharan African cities have been growing at historically unprecedented rates. Since the early 1970s, they have received considerable international assistance, involving a succession of major thematic objectives. The main agency involved in urban assistance has been the World Bank. But as its goals have changed, it has been obliged to operate increasingly through a decentralised, more democratically structured local-government system. Overall, the success of this international-assistance regime has been positive but modest, given the overwhelming needs of African cities. Still, African cities are increasingly finding solutions both co-operatively and on their own. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the nature and origins of state-society relations in sub-Saharan Africa ( SSA). It traces the region's predatory state-society relations to slavery and colonialism and the concomitant extractive institutions, which are not conducive to sustainable economic development. Consequently, attempts to achieve sustainable development have been largely futile. The paper proposes a strategy for transforming the region's economic and governance institutions for inclusive and enduring growth and development. This strategy includes the promulgation and enforcement of coherent international codes and guidelines for state-society relations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary: Motivation: There are three puzzling features of sub‐Saharan African tax systems: tax administrations maintain records on vast numbers of small enterprises that actually provide no revenue; they continually invest resources into registering even more of these "unproductive taxpayers"; and discussions about taxing small enterprises are framed by the ambiguous, misleading concept of the "informal sector." Purpose: To make sense of these separate puzzling practices and narratives by exploring the synergies between them, and the broader organizational and political interests that they serve. Methods and approach: There is little statistical or sociological information on the functioning of national tax administrations in sub‐Saharan Africa. The analysis is based on the results of recent research; along with a thorough search for useful data; my own extensive interactions with African tax administrators and relevant international organizations; and a sensitivity to the political dimensions of taxation. Findings The three features of tax systems that are individually puzzling make sense when examined holistically. The continual drive to register more taxpayers provides an unduly favourable impression of the extent of policy and managerial efforts to collect more revenue. The informal sector narrative locates the apparent cause of revenue scarcity in the alleged undertaxation of small enterprises and poorer people, and thus helps divert attention from failures adequately to tax more privileged Africans and larger enterprises. Policy implications: Be very wary of claims that it would be a good idea to invest resources in registering large numbers of new taxpayers in sub‐Saharan Africa. Try to avoid using the term "informal sector" when discussing issues of tax policy and administration—it is confusing and diversionary. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary: Motivation: Given the changing nature of work and recent shocks to environmental, health, and economic systems, secondary education in sub‐Saharan Africa must prepare youth to be adaptive and resilient as they transition into challenging labour markets. Access to opportunities to develop relevant skills and knowledge through secondary education is critical to ensure girls and other marginalized young people can secure work or create their own entrepreneurial ventures to improve their livelihoods. Yet many girls and marginalized youth either drop out of school or progress through the education system without developing the skills needed to effectively transition into labour markets. Purpose: This article aims to synthesize insights from Mastercard Foundation's portfolio of programming in secondary education and situate these findings in the broader literature on equitable secondary education and preparing youth for the transition to work in sub‐Saharan Africa. Methods and approach: This article draws on Mastercard Foundation's portfolio of work in secondary education in sub‐Saharan Africa, including its flagship report Secondary education in Africa: Preparing youth for the future of work, the donor collaborative Partnership to Strengthen Innovation and Practice in Secondary Education (PSIPSE), and the Scholars Program in addition to a wider literature and evidence base. It synthesizes key findings from research and programmes focusing on equitable access to and relevant skills development in secondary education. Findings Three key insights are explored: the importance of targeted financing to expand access, flexible approaches to improve completion, and entrepreneurship programming to develop relevant skills—each critical for promoting secondary education that prepares young women and men for work. Policy implications: A systems‐based approach is critical to improving the access and relevance of secondary education. Gender‐equitable approaches that account for intersecting barriers are necessary to improve inclusion of disadvantaged youth in education systems and prepare them for work. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Calls for liberalising cash-crop sectors in sub-Saharan Africa have been voiced for decades, yet the impact of reforms remains elusive in empirical studies. This article offers new opportunities for solving this problem by creating precise and consistent market organisation indices for 25 African cotton markets from 1961 to 2008. The aggregation of scores reveals interesting trends: markets are no more competitive today than in the late 1990s, 50% of production still originates from markets with fixed prices and reforms are giving rise to a new type of regulated market in both East and West Africa. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using a recent public expenditure dataset, this article proposes a 'reality check' of the level and composition of input subsidies in nine African countries between 2006 and 2013. Results show that input subsidies (1) received close to 35% of agricultural-specific expenditure on average and (2) cover a variety of interventions, including investments in capital, such as on-farm irrigation, and in on-farm services, such as inspection or training. Further, the figures show that input subsidies tended to become entrenched in agricultural budgets over time, leading to sub-optimal execution rates, and were primarily funded by the national taxpayer, while donors invested more in public goods. Findings confirm that input subsidies crowded out other spending categories likely to be more supportive of long-term agricultural development objectives. The article concludes that the political economy of input subsidies should be directed to making more concrete efforts to attain a better balance of public expenditure on agriculture. Furthermore, policy-makers should aim to increase the efficiency and policy coherence of input subsidies, since merely abolishing them is likely to be unfeasible in the short term. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary: Motivation: Young people's futures are at risk. Global crises such as armed conflict, climate change, mass displacement, and public health emergencies are threatening the education and wellbeing of adolescents all over the world. But young people are also resilient and innovative. It is vital that they have opportunities to develop relevant skills and knowledge, to build resilience, and overcome these challenges now and in the future. Purpose: This special issue brings together researchers and practitioners in the field of international education. Its purpose is twofold: to illustrate how current global challenges shape the types of skills needed to build resilience; and to offer possible solutions to supporting young people's development of such skills. Methods and approach: The articles in this special issue draw on both quantitative and qualitative data, including surveys and interviews with students, parents, teachers, school leaders, nonformal education providers, and government officials. Most studies present evidence from sub‐Saharan Africa. Findings The findings presented in this special issue address a range of skills, including foundational literacy and numeracy, hard skills in digital literacy, financial literacy, and entrepreneurship, and soft skills, such as critical thinking, confidence, voice and agency. Policy implications: With the special issue we aim to draw more attention to the need for research and policy that equip youth with relevant skills and that see them not just as subjects of the challenges they encounter, but also as active agents of change. We also highlight the importance of an intersectional lens that addresses not just gender, but also other individual and household characteristics, such as student age, disability status, and poverty to support youth resilience and skills development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The term 'land grabbing' has recently attracted widespread, and sometimes agitated, attention, and its literature grows at exponential speed. At the same time, the concept remains little understood concerning both its meaning, magnitude and consequences and even who the grabbers are. Different attempts to define land grabbing appear to reflect ideological lenses and pre-defined positions rather than a genuine ambition to find out what is actually going on. Based on a comprehensive literature review, this article aims at presenting a more nuanced understanding of this disputed topic and therefore a less biased account of what land-grabbing and/or private investments in land represent. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary: Motivation: The Sustainable Development Goals targets include decent work for all by 2030 but progress in sub‐Saharan Africa has been slow. Over the past five years, the platform work sector (e‐hailing platforms in particular) has expanded considerably on the continent, providing work opportunities to the growing urban populations. The quality of this work, however, is heavily contested. Purpose: We deepen and extend our understanding of the gig economy in sub‐Saharan Africa and assess its potential for creating decent work. Our unique contribution lies in looking at the gig economy in comparison to the local threshold (the informal economy) as opposed to wage employment. Methods and approach: We first review the literature on the gig economy, the informal sector, and decent work in low‐ and lower‐middle‐income countries. We then draw on a case study of e‐hailing in Lagos, Nigeria, to assess the sector's potential to create decent work. We discuss our findings against the four pillars of the International Labour Organization's Decent Work Agenda: productive employment, labour standards, social protection, and social dialogue. Findings: We find that e‐hailing platforms may offer certain gains compared to regular taxiing in the informal sector but these are context‐ and platform‐specific. Examples include access to insurance, credit, and cash transfers. Gig work remains embedded in the informal economy: it is unregulated and does not abide by labour standards nor offer social protections. We also find evidence of well‐organized labour movements. Policy implications: E‐hailing may be productive work, as platform intermediation facilitates outreach and matching, translating into increased wages. This happens with the added cost of longer working hours in the absence of labour standards. We propose exploring the role of digital records kept by platforms (e.g. income volume and regularity, or customer ratings data) to facilitate the progressive transition of transport workers towards formality. We also recommend fostering industry standards (such as fair work certification) to protect workers' rights. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary: Motivation: Governments in sub‐Saharan Africa (SSA) have rapidly expanded cash transfer programmes as part of their social protection strategy over the last decade. Currently 46 countries have a state‐sponsored social protection programme, compared to just 25 countries in 2005, with the most common type of programme being cash transfers, representing 51% of all social protection spending in the region. Purpose: We present evidence on the overall impacts of state‐sponsored cash transfer programmes in SSA, using data from three impact evaluations of government programmes. All three programmes were a key component of the poverty reduction strategy of the respective governments at the time of the evaluations. Methods and approach: We show impacts across nine broad domains including both protection, production and human development, using baseline and follow‐up household surveys on Treatment and Control groups. We relate the pattern of impacts to programme design parameters to further understand the constraints faced by ultra‐poor rural households. Findings: All three programmes have strong effects on their primary objective—food security or food consumption, as well as on secondary objectives that include livelihood strengthening and children's well‐being. The largest and most consistent impacts occur in Malawi, where transfer values are in line with international best practice and payments were made regularly during the study period. All programmes show a positive income multiplier, with the multiplier largest in Malawi at 2.94. Policy implications: The overall results across three national programmes add to the growing evidence from Africa that government unconditional cash transfers have important positive effects on households, that these effects are not limited to just food security, and that programme design features influence the pattern and size of impacts. Results in this article are based on programmes that pass both criteria of implementation feasibility and political acceptability, and thus provide a more accurate reflection of what real‐world cash transfer programmes can achieve in SSA. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article analyses how inheritance is being addressed to enhance socio-economic equity and opportunities in five sub-Saharan African countries: Ghana, Kenya, Mozambique, Rwanda and Uganda. Based on interviews with governmental and non-governmental actors, as well as policy analysis and reviews of the literature, it considers how inheritance is understood as a public policy issue, and focuses attention on three areas that offer opportunities for safeguarding women's inheritance: marriage; customary land governance; and local arbitration. Initiatives to change policies and practices related to these areas are discussed, together with the lessons that can be learned. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The global food system is undergoing rapid processes of transformation and modernisation. This is causing important changes in developing-country food supply chains, particularly in supermarket-driven and high-value export chains, but the welfare implications of these changes are poorly understood. This article analyses and compares the welfare effects in different horticulture export chains in sub-Saharan Africa, disentangling different types of effects and the channels through which rural households are affected. Its main conclusion is that increased high-value exports and the modernisation of export supply chains can bring about important positive welfare effects, which can occur in various ways through product- or labour-market effects and through direct and indirect effects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

During the 1960s, Uganda was the largest cotton producer in sub-Saharan Africa. Attempts to revive the sector following its demise in the 1970s were unsuccessful in the 1980s and more effective in the 1990s. However, there is a sense that it still lags behind its full potential. Low quality of the cotton, lack of a domestic textile industry, and low use of purchased inputs due to lack of rural credit are identified as key constraints. This article argues that the fundamental problems are low profitability, which reflects the displacement of cotton by food crops, and the forced-labour conditions under which cotton was grown. It concludes that promotion of biotechnology and training cotton growers are two areas that should receive priority. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Motivation: Intergenerational wealth transfers are economically important and have direct consequences on the distribution—or redistribution—of household and community wealth. In sub‐Saharan Africa, documented instances of weakly enforced statutory laws and outdated or misaligned customary laws create a space for practices that undermine the fair and smooth transition of wealth across generations. Purpose: This study presents data drawn from a larger mixed‐methods study that evaluated a succession (inheritance) curriculum offered in a farming community in Kenya. Approach and Methods: A sub‐set of intervention participants (n = 58) ranging in age from 20 to 78 were invited to participate in post‐test focus group discussions. Discussions followed a semi‐structured interview guide and included questions that evaluated the succession curriculum. Findings: In addition to evaluating the intervention, emerging conversations centred on the economic and sociocultural significance of intergenerationally held family wealth. The narrative from these focus groups underscores the importance the community places on family‐held wealth and how failures in the financial socialization process have compromised the generational wealth‐transfer system. Further, both younger and older participants identified youth unemployment and substance misuse as factors that have led to a breakdown in the wealth‐transfer process. This breakdown can and has resulted in the loss of household wealth, as well as in the marginalization of vulnerable individuals including women and children. Implications: This article concludes by identifying mutable factors that have implications for economic empowerment policies and programmes. This includes strengthening parental financial capabilities and facilitating access to legal resources to facilitate wealth transfers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Motivation: The Sustainable Development Goals target decent work for all, including youth, by 2030. In sub‐Saharan Africa (SSA), however, a "youth employment crisis" is now central to public and policy discourse. Consequently, the idea of "investing in youth" grows in importance, leading to a proliferation of interventions targeted to and specific to youth. Purpose: This article interrogates the framing of the problem as a "youth employment" crisis. Approach and Methods: The article brings together evidence from a range of sources and disciplines, indicates where the evidence supports the current policy orthodoxy and where it does not, and maps out an alternative framing. Five pillars of the dominant narrative about youth employment are identified: demography, violence and civil unrest, training and skills, rural economy and urban economy. Three critical dimensions of Africa's broader employment crisis are highlighted: economic risk, stability and protection. Findings: The dominant narrative about Africa's youth employment crisis foregrounds young people themselves, and strongly suggests that the crisis is all (and often only) about them. Little about the employment crisis, however, is youth‐specific. The "it's all about the youth" framing ignores that young people are caught up in a broader "missing jobs crisis" that reflects fundamental structural constraints within African economies. In other words, the problem is with the economy, not the young people. Policy implications: The emphasis on youth‐specific targeting and youth‐specific interventions is largely misplaced. Instead of initiatives that only or specifically target youth, priority should be given to broader structural issues which have the potential to deliver better and larger results, for both young people and others. Reframing the problem from a youth employment crisis to a missing jobs crisis is a necessary first step. We provide a counter‐narrative to support this shift. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Motivation: While public and civil sector nutrition interventions in low‐ and middle‐income countries have demonstrated positive impacts on nutritional status, micronutrient deficiency remains persistent and severe. Accordingly, there is much debate about the viability of market‐based strategies directed at reducing micronutrient deficiencies among the poor, particularly concerning the role businesses can take. Purpose: This article explores the potential for both large and micro/small businesses to engage in markets for nutrient‐dense foods. It examines the challenges businesses face in establishing and maintaining sustainable business models and whether these businesses can achieve the scale required to achieve substantive impacts on the nutrition of the poor. Methodology: This article presents a comprehensive literature review and in‐depth case studies of market‐based initiatives directed at enhancing the access of the poor to nutrient‐dense foods. The case studies involved analysis of secondary data and interviews with stakeholders, including value chain actors, civil society organizations, government officials, etc. Findings: All bottom of the pyramid (BOP) businesses face considerable challenges in the context of markets for nutrient‐dense foods directed at the poor that relate to the difficulties faced in presenting a viable value proposition to consumers and in distributing products to the places where the poor reside, while achieving sustainable scale. Importantly, the results indicate a critical role for micro/small businesses in promoting the consumption of nutrient‐dense foods by the poor. Policy implications: The findings raise important questions over the role and focus of public support to businesses looking to enter and/or expand in markets for nutrient‐dense foods directed at the poor, and especially with respect to micro/small businesses as opposed to large/multinational corporations. Originality: The article presents the first comparative analysis of market‐based strategies of micro/small to large businesses directed at reducing micronutrient deficiencies in the poor. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Motivation: Farmer input support programmes (FISPs) have been implemented in sub‐Saharan Africa (SSA) since the 1970s in order to improve agricultural productivity and production. Whether FISPs are effective is much debated in the region. This article assesses whether FISPs can reduce gendered productivity gaps in agriculture, which in theory they should, by improving access to productive inputs for all farmers. Purpose: Because FISPs improve access to productive inputs for women as well as men, this article asks whether subsidy programmes can reduce the gendered productivity gaps in agriculture. We assess the direct impacts of accessing FISP on maize productivity and whether these impacts are heterogeneous between women‐ and men‐managed plots. Approach and methods: We combine the control function and the correlated random approaches to control for the endogeneity of access to FISPs and unobserved heterogeneity, and use the two‐wave panel of the Rural Agricultural Livelihoods Survey data collected in 2012 and 2015 in Zambia. The analysis is done at the level of farm plots. Findings: Access to FISPs does not disproportionately raise maize productivity for women‐managed plots. This implies that a FISP alone is insufficient to address the gendered productivity gaps in agriculture. On average, FISPs were associated with average yield gains between 35 and 105 kg/ha in our sample, with larger gains for men‐managed subsamples. However, the use of fertilizers at these low rates of return is unlikely to be profitable for smallholder farmers. Policy implications: Given that FISPs are likely to remain an important part of agricultural development policies in the region, there are reasons to believe they may have a role to play in reducing gendered gaps. However, reducing gendered productivity gaps in agriculture requires other non‐input factors that constrain women's access to productive resources such as insecure land tenure and factors that limit the responsiveness of soils to fertilizer use among smallholder farmers to be addressed concomitantly. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Motivation: Many countries in sub‐Saharan Africa (SSA) experience thwarted economic development and corrupt public administration. As the United Nations Convention Against Corruption (UNCAC) focuses on implementation mechanisms in SSA, there is a need to examine the causes of the setbacks affecting these mechanisms, looking at the current trends of corruption and their impact on socioeconomic development. Purpose: This article focuses on assessing setbacks in anti‐corruption strategies to advance economic development in SSA, primarily looking at how and in what conditions UNCAC prevents corruption and manages responses in SSA. Approach: This article adopts a descriptive and an explanatory perspective, using case studies of Kenya and Nigeria to explain and show how far the objectives of anti‐corruption strategies have been met, and assessing the causes of setbacks. In this context, the article also explores the challenges facing the UK's Department for International Development (DFID). Conclusions: Socioeconomic development in SSA is hard to separate from maladministration and large‐scale corruption. The findings reveal the gravity of this impact and its interrelated factors of "active" and "benign" corruption. This article concludes that for SSA to create sustainable economic environments, the causes of the failure to stamp out corruption need to be addressed, and dishonesty, maladministration, illicit activities, nepotism curtailed, along with corrupt influences on anti‐corruption legislation. Policy implications: The article concludes that if governance does not prevent the failures of anti‐corruption strategies, an interventionist response will only weaken national endeavours, making it difficult to reach UNCAC's vision of sustainable and corruption‐free economic environments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Motivation: The gap between policy, implementation and outcome is neither new nor specific to the sphere of sanitation. This article attempts to apply policy implementation literature in the context of developing countries, when much of the scholarly work on implementation and policy process and empirical research has been in the context of developed countries. Purpose: This article explores the gap between sanitation policy intentions and outcomes in a comparative study in Rwanda and Uganda with "good" and "limited or no" reported progress respectively towards the former Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). Approach and methods: From a multi‐level governance perspective, the gap between strong political will and insufficient resources, implementation and outcome, is examined by drawing on policy and implementation theories and empirical research. The selection of variables for comparison is based on a range of factors theorized as affecting outcome in contemporary governance. Findings: Whereas the policy climate and prioritization of sanitation has been favourable in much of sub‐Saharan Africa (SSA), resources and capacity constraints, especially at the local level, negatively affect sector performance in an increasingly decentralized governance landscape. Progress in Rwanda is explained by stronger political leadership and support for sanitation, stringent performance monitoring and oversight, an institutionalized community‐based approach, and investment in rural sanitation. Policy implications: This article shows that the management of sanitation depends on a changing governance landscape; leadership is important for overall sector improvement; networks present co‐ordination challenges; approaching sanitation as a public concern requires strong government intervention; the move towards markets necessitates government oversight; approaches that foster inclusion and legitimacy at the local level need to be considered. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Post‐colonial sub‐Saharan Africa continually experiences a collapse of consensual democracy as an ideology and system of governance. Poverty, greed and corruption have bred political instability, conflicts and dependence on exporting primary products. For post‐colonial Africa to feel truly independent, its adoption of consensual democracy needs to be sincere. Ideological theories, the epistemological origins of development programmes, and the philosophy of choice cherished in consensual democracy have been overlooked in current African political cultures, which habitually disregard grassroots voices. Using the Department for International Development's Research Strategy (2008–2013), the article explores how ideological functions transcend the political cultures, underdevelopment and insecurities of sub‐Saharan Africa. It is hoped that the possibility of sustainable development may be enhanced by the inclusion of an African school of thought. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: The article analyzes light forms of Public–Private Partnership (PPP), namely management and service contracts, in the water supply sector of sub‐Saharan Africa, based on original research in Malawi and on a review of five additional case studies. We refer to information asymmetries and contract theory to explain the observed performances of the PPPs. The article considers the incentives to engage in the partnership and to commit effort, together with the challenges which can prevent effort from translating into actual results. The study concludes that some problems encountered by light PPP experiences are intrinsic to their incentive structure and discusses the policy implications of light PPPs promotion in the context of the Aid Effectiveness debate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This analysis concerns the use of punitive actions to curb corruption. Propositions from the literature on corruption state that by prosecuting offenders for corruption-related crimes and thus ending impunity, particularly among high-level political figures ('big fish'), a political culture of less corruption will evolve. This, however, hinges on there being no impunity and politicization of prosecutions. This study empirically assesses whether this condition holds in the sub-Saharan African political context. A unique database on corruption-related prosecutions at the level of ministers across Africa was compiled and patterns were found that suggest that prosecutions are indeed politicized and serve as a way to eliminate political rivals. These findings are a warning in the face of the international community's overly technical and apolitical approach to anti-corruption in sub-Saharan Africa. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Employment in Household Enterprises (HEs) has been an integral part of the recent economic growth in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). Yet employment and development strategies tend to exclude the sector, despite the fact that households with HEs tend to be richer. A good example is Mozambique, where 34% of households rely on income from this source. Analysis of household livelihoods using panel data shows that starting HEs is associated with upward wealth mobility and poverty reduction, particularly for rural and poorly-educated households. Targeted programmes directed towards the constraints to HE creation, survival and income growth would be likely to enhance the effectiveness of employment and poverty reduction strategies in Mozambique as well as in other low income countries in SSA. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article analyses trends in wheat consumption and imports in sub-Saharan Africa since 1980, and estimates the economic and demographic determinants of this rising demand for wheat. Results point to rising incomes, growing populations, and increasing women's labour-force participation as key drivers. Urban wheat-expenditure shares generally exceed rural ones and SSA's demand is met largely by imports and partly through domestic production on large-scale farms. Rising demand may therefore entail few farm-non-farm synergies and minimal prospects to spur broad-based economic development. The article concludes by discussing policy options for African countries to meet their staple food needs while also promoting pro-poor agricultural growth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Contemporary land reforms in sub-Saharan Africa tend to be evaluated based on the state-centric reforms of the past, which disadvantaged women. However, this article argues that the new-wave of land reforms and their decentralised administration institutions and anti-discriminatory legal frameworks may be different. Based on field research on the implementation of Tanzania's 1999 Land Acts, it identifies an institutional reconfiguration in which the formal institutions are gradually strengthened and the customary institutions slowly changed. This does not in itself pose a threat to women's access to land and some women, who are otherwise often perceived to be weak, are left better-off. Nevertheless, access to land becomes socially more uneven. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There has been relatively little thinking about the political context of climate-adaptation policy in sub-Saharan Africa, what this means for the quality of governance, and the capacity to plan and deliver what are often quite complex policies and programmes. This is all the more surprising given the quantity and depth of what is already known about politics and governance in Africa. This article asks what can be learned from this body of knowledge and experience that is relevant for climate-adaptation policy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Policy-related discussion on assisting countries to make use of trade preferences tends to focus on the provision of hard infrastructure to facilitate external economies from modern-sector exports. This is as opposed to harnessing potential knowledge spillovers. This omission is emblematic of tensions within new trade/new growth theory. Using two country case studies in Asia - Bangladesh and Cambodia - this article shows how different approaches towards making use of trade preferences have resulted in divergent industrial structures and firm-level technological capability indicators. Less stringent rules of origin requirements may offer new opportunities for late industrialisers in sub-Saharan Africa to tap into the modern export sector, but a more interventionist approach towards harnessing knowledge spillovers may also be necessary. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Widows in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) are perceived to face discrimination in asset inheritance, leading to poverty for themselves and their children. However, large-sample empirical research supporting this claim is scarce. This article explores asset inheritance among widows using two data sources: (i) nationally representative demographic and health survey (DHS) data from 15 SSA countries, and (ii) a 13-year longitudinal panel from the Kagera region in north-west Tanzania. Results indicate that, across the 15 DHS countries, less than half of widows report inheriting any assets; the proportion reporting inheriting the majority of assets is lower. Findings from Kagera indicate that the value of inheritance is significant in determining changes in long-term household welfare. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is an influential view that South-East Asia's economic success is based on export-oriented industrialisation, and that African states should above all imitate this aspect of Asian development strategy. This article, however, uses evidence from Indonesia, Nigeria, Malaysia and Kenya to argue: (i) that the historical roots of South-East Asian economic success actually lie in pro-poor agricultural and rural development; (ii) that even when it has been pro-rural, as in the case of Kenya, African development strategy has not been pro-poor; and (iii) that pro-poor agricultural development, not export-oriented industrialisation, should be the first priority of African states seeking to achieve sustained growth and poverty reduction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Tracking Development project aims to explain the divergences in development outcomes in sub-Saharan Africa and South-East Asia over the past fifty years through the pair-wise comparison of four countries in each region. The development trajectories in South-East Asia revealed that the transition to sustained growth has consistently been associated with policies aimed at (i) macroeconomic stabilisation; (ii) improving life in the rural sector, increasing agricultural productivity and ensuring an ample supply of food; and (iii) liberalising the economy and creating conditions of economic freedom, particularly for peasant farmers and other small actors. In Africa, initiatives in these directions have been taken in some instances, but the simultaneous pursuit of all three policy objectives has not occurred. Most noticeably, policies aimed at macroeconomic stabilisation were pursued in both regions, but whereas in South-East Asia these were associated with policies leading to poverty reduction, this was not the case in Africa. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Export of agricultural products is increasingly seen as one of the few viable instruments to solve the problem of food insecurity in developing countries. Using the configurative comparative method to study 17 countries in sub-Saharan Africa, this article argues that increasing agricultural export is only beneficial for certain types of developing countries. Before agricultural exports are encouraged, food availability, agricultural labour productivity, the share of agriculture in total GDP, the amount of staple food imports, and the share of investment goods in total imports should be considered. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article reviews the changing perspectives for improving access to water in the slums of developing countries, especially in sub-Saharan Africa. While much of the literature continues to maintain an aversion to state-led urban development policies, there is now increasing emphasis on the importance of informal, small-scale providers and communitarian initiatives, following the many failures of privatisation. The article argues that market-oriented solutions are inappropriate for sub-Saharan African countries where over two-thirds of the urban population live in squatter settlements with multidimensional challenges. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This is the first of two articles evaluating the nature and extent of, and possible responses to, two of the central challenges that globalisation poses for revenue mobilisation in sub-Saharan Africa: trade liberalisation, and corporate tax competition. Both articles use a new dataset with the features needed to address these issues meaningfully: a disentangling of tariff from commodity tax revenue, and a distinction between resource-related and other revenues. This first article describes that dataset, and provides a broad picture of revenue developments in the region between 1980 and 2005. Countries’ experiences have varied, but the overall picture is of non-resource revenues having been essentially stagnant. Within this, however, and with exceptions, reductions in trade tax revenue have been largely offset by increased revenue from domestic sources. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This second article evaluates and discusses the challenges to government revenue in sub-Saharan Africa posed by developments in corporate taxation. Using the dataset described in the first article, it shows that, in broad terms, corporate tax revenues in the region have held up, despite a reduction in rates and evidence of substantial base-narrowing (mainly through the provision of tax holidays in Investment Codes and Free Zones). This is something of a puzzle. Options for dealing with the continuation and intensification of the challenges to these revenues, including through regional co-operation, are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article consolidates and expands on evidence on how National AIDS Commissions (NACs) in sub-Saharan Africa are measuring up to expectations that drove their rapid adoption across the continent. While their overall performance seems reasonably good, most NACs still lack adequate power and incentive structures to hold line ministries accountable, a key requirement for co-ordinating activities and mainstreaming HIV-AIDS across the public sector. Second-generation African NACs urgently need the authority and institutional stature to effectively co-ordinate the channelling of the larger funds now available through government bureaucracy. The evolution of the epidemic also imposes requirements different from those when the current NAC architecture was crafted. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study analyses the outcomes of African independent power projects (IPPs). Nearly 40 such projects have taken root to date, concentrated mainly in 8 countries. More balanced outcomes are perceived in North Africa than across sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), for reasons linked to more attractive investment environments, more robust policy frameworks, fewer planning mishaps, abundant low-cost fuel and secure fuel contracts as well as credit enhancements such as sovereign guarantees. With few exceptions, these elements were absent in SSA, where the role of development finance institutions and the strategic management of projects seem more important. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Today a number of sub-Saharan African countries display the outward signs of modern, democratic states. International aid agencies often treat them as though power and decision-making reside within government institutions and that they function as designed. When they do not they are labelled dysfunctional though their action is actually quite logical when viewed through a ‘neopatrimonial lens’. This article outlines a number of neopatrimonial practices observed in Africa in the past two decades and attempts to explain the ‘logic’ that underpins them. It provides several recommendations about the way donors should assist states where deeply rooted anti-democratic and non-developmental behaviour dominates. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many have alleged that those who are now aware that they are HIV-positive are driving the epidemic. This article reports the results of a study in Malawi that provides empirical evidence of differences in knowledge, attitudes and behaviour between HIV-positive people and those unaware of their sero-status. It comes to three conclusions: HIV-positive people report better knowledge and attitudes; there is substantially higher safer-sex practice among those aware of their HIV-positive status; and the assertion that the epidemic is spread by those aware of their positive sero-status is unsubstantiated. The overall message is that there is a need to accelerate both HIV testing and positive-prevention work. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Developing countries, and especially Least Developed Countries, were promised a WTO ‘Development Round’ at Doha in 2001. In fact, the Round's agenda became dominated by topics and proposals of little relevance and at times threatening for some groups of developing countries, particularly those in sub-Saharan Africa. As a result, African engagement in the Round has been generally low and defensively articulated, though some fringe gains have been achieved. If and when the Round is revived, these could be complemented by a more aggressive stance on preferences. This, in turn, will need to be backed by greater exploitation of the heightened role of moral argument in international political and economic discourse. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article surveys the main economic issues associated with the HIV/AIDS epidemic, paying special attention to sub–Saharan Africa. It explores the economic and behavioural determinants of HIV transmission, the microeconomics of market failures associated with high HIV prevalence, the prospects for regional development from a macroeconomic perspective and the efficient design of policies for coping with the epidemic. In line with the recent appeal by the UN Secretary General, the article argues that, without a decisive effort to halt HIV/AIDS, people living in the region are bound to experience a further fall in their standard of living in both relative and absolute terms. However, to be effective, anti–AIDS programmes must be rooted in sound economic principles. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]