Search

AGRA (formerly known as the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa) was founded in 2006 by the Rockefeller Foundation and the Gates Foundation to initiate agricultural transformation in Africa. Although critics have argued that AGRA’s approach insufficiently addresses the needs of African smallholder farmers, there has been little analysis of the broader politics and networks that shape AGRA, a gap this paper aims to fill. Using a network analysis and key informant interviews, we identify the actors that constitute AGRA’s network, and describe related power constellations. Our paper illustrates that AGRA’s network is dominated by foundations, intergovernmental organisations and corporations, with decision-making located within Global North institutions. We reveal that the alliance displays characteristics of an ideological advocacy network and conclude that it can be considered a neoliberal food regime. We suggest better control mechanisms to hold accountable organisations without a political mandate, and to increase the transparency of their activities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since the 1980s, inequality has been rising in Europe, North America and parts of Asia. How does our understanding of global inequality dynamics change if coverage is extended to the rest of the developing world? To rebalance the perspective on global inequality trends, this paper surveys data and literature on recent inequality trends in Latin America, Asia, Africa and the Middle East. It finds that in these regions there are more countries with falling than rising inequality over the past 20 years, as measured by Ginis of income or consumption inequality. At the global level, therefore, there are signs of inequality convergence, as inequality has been falling in countries with high inequality in the 1990s (particularly Latin America), and rising in historically low-inequality countries. We discuss the political and economic drivers of inequality decline in countries with a steady fall in the Gini. This suggests some common trends across the globe, including the role of democratisation, the rise of new social movements, and the expansion of education and social safety nets and favourable commodity prices, in reducing income disparities. This paper calls for more country-level comparisons of inequality trends, to highlight the multiplicity of paths in this latest phase of globalisation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper seeks an alternative approach to the questions What ends do non-governmental organisations (NGOs) serve in Africa, and why does the proliferation of NGOs matter? The answers lie in exploring whether it is to develop Africa or to consolidate the western-dictated (under)development trajectory. Extending Shivji’s depiction of ‘Africa at the crossroads of the defeat of the national project and the rehabilitation of the imperial project’, this paper explores the ideological role of NGOs in perpetuating imperialism, reproducing alterity and entrenching dependency. Staged in Kenya with over 11,262 registered and 8893 active NGOs operating in various sectors of the economy, the problems necessitating the rise of NGOs remain obstinate, but the role and features of NGOs appear to situate them within the imperial project of disarticulation. The paper argues that NGOs are (un)witting allies in the neoliberal network/project of arrested development in Africa. The proliferation of and uncritical subscription to (neoliberal) orthodoxy while parading as neutral and apolitical enlists NGOs in servicing the structures of underdevelopment. Through a synthesis of secondary data and semi-structured interviews, it emerges that NGOs are implementing nodes of neoliberal orthodoxy feigning neutrality and only concerned with ‘problem-solving’, with no interest in fundamental changes aimed at challenges necessitating their emergence and proliferation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) is a massive Chinese state/capitalist programme of transnational infrastructure construction initiated in 2013. Between 2013 and 2016, Chinese banks extended hundreds of billions of dollars –principally across Asia, but also Europe and Africa – for transportation and energy networks. Recently released statistics, however, suggest that project lending for the BRI collapsed from 2016 onwards. Our paper examines the reasons for this contraction through a case-study of the BRI in Africa. We contend that the lending contraction resulted from political and economic contradictions generated by this form of international interconnection, including the types of debt traps it helped create. This outcome is explained partly by the fact that the BRI is simultaneously a geopolitical and geoeconomic project. Whereas the balance of economic risks is arguably skewed against borrowers (in some cases leading to debt traps), from a geopolitical perspective, the Chinese state also seeks to expand influence in Africa and elsewhere in the developing world. This creates counter-pressure on further expansion of such financing, which, complemented by domestic economic implications of loan failure, helps to explain the contraction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The importance of effective implementation of new land laws and the difficulties associated with it are alluded to in almost every recent piece of writing on African land reform. However, the process of implementation has remained neglected and little theorised. Drawing on a body of political science and policy studies literature which considers implementation and the difficulties to which it gives rise, this paper will attempt to advance a critical approach to the role of law in altering land relations in Africa. It will use the experiences of Tanzania, Uganda and South Africa to illustrate that, while some barriers to implementation are easily identified, and therefore receive relatively more attention, there are other important factors which might hamper attempts to change land relations. It is usual to understand land reform as direct state intervention in property relations. However, this paper will argue that the capacity of the state in Africa to carry out land reform is severely limited. The paper therefore attempts to identify an altogether different set of actors in the reform process. Its starting point will be the observation that land reform may take place less as a result of direct state action and more as a consequence of the actions of private individuals within the state. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper revisits the discourse on development in Africa, following in the footsteps of leading development thinkers and focusing on social policy. Some of the thinkers and scholars have specifically and directly discussed development discourse in Africa. Others have made insightful points regarding inclusive development in Africa even though not directly engaging with development discourse. The paper also acknowledges earlier thinking regarding development in Africa, including perspectives that deal with underdevelopment. The paper concerns itself with the critical role that social policy can play in ensuring inclusive development in Africa. The interface between economic and social policy is emphasised. Although Africa faces many intractable challenges, most of which are externally imposed, robust social policies will go a long way in bringing about effective social and economic development. In the main, though, Africa needs a comprehensive socio-economic development approach that can ensure lasting inclusive development. Social policies are critical for any development endeavour in African countries. Another main point that the paper makes is that economic transformation is not enough to fully advance wellbeing in Africa (and probably the world at large). By restructuring economies in Africa, not much would be achieved though some gains would be made. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper examines the class relations emerging in a contract farming scheme in Mozambique. Debates in the literature about contract farming characterise this market arrangement as leading to farmers losing control over production at the hands of capital. By discussing both the drivers and impacts of changes in the division of property and labour, this paper reveals a complex class structure in which the pressure of merchant capital on farmers is internalized within households and transferred onto workers and sharecroppers. This challenges the pertinence of conventional policy that prescribes empowering contract farmers without considering their varied class positions and interests. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

With the rise of the South–South Development Cooperation (SSDC), the international development community has entered into a new paradigm of development cooperation. The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development – Development Assistance Committee (OECD-DAC) has had to consider what recently added members might have to offer, particularly South Korea given its dramatic transformation from official development assistance (ODA) recipient to donor. Post-colonial theory sees ODA as a system that reinforces the traditional hierarchy of North–South relations and reaffirms the hegemony of dominant countries; the SSDC has faced similar neo-colonial allegations. By employing post-colonial theory this paper investigates some neo--colonial criticisms of the ODA activities of major OECD-DAC and SSDC providers, before turning its focus on those of South Korea to determine whether it does indeed offer an alternative strategy to development. The African region was chosen as the focus in light of the increased amount of aid South Korea has allocated to the region. This paper concludes by offering a different role South Korea might play engaging within the OECD-DAC/SSDC context. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper engages critically with the increasing importance of South–South cooperation and the shift from African–European to African–Asian interaction. It argues that South–South cooperation is too often framed in a spatial logics of regional integration and transregional cooperation and thus reproduces spatial understandings that are characteristic for African–European relations but misplaced in the context of African–Asian relations. Moreover, it analyses perceptions about the difference of European and Asian cooperation partners amongst political and societal elites in Kenya and Tanzania, arguing that instead of a shift from African–European to Afrasian spaces of interaction, the two mutually coexist and fulfil complementary functions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper is a conceptual exploration of the dimensions of the contemporary politics of informal economies, from the vantage point of collective organising by 'informal workers'. It inquires into the formation of the political subjectivities and collective identities of informal actors. The importance of the relations between their organisations and other organised actors is illustrated with a discussion of emerging alliances with trade unions. The transnational scales of collective organising by 'informal workers' are addressed. The paper suggests an analytical approach that takes account of the diversity of organised actors, of a variety of governing powers and of the various spatial scales of social struggle involved in the politics of informal livelihoods today. The reflections are informed by the considerable social and economic differentiation contained in informal economies and emphasise the importance of the great diversity of actors, positions, agendas and identities for understanding the complex and contingent politics of informality. Empirical illustrations are drawn from the African continent, but the discussions in the paper address wider trends and theoretical debates of relevance for other developing regions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Regional integration remains an integral part of Africa's development strategy and has underpinned most pan-African development policies for the past 50 years. This paper explores the issue of regional integration in the context of 'development' theory and the neo-patrimonial state system in Africa. A central contention of the paper is that Western, Euro-centric conceptions of regionalism, particularly those centred on the market integration approach, have promoted a very biased understanding of regional integration in many parts of the developing world. Using southern Africa as an exemplar case study, the paper argues that the various meta-theories focused on explaining the political economy of regionalism, often closely allied to a development theory paradigm, fail to account for the nature, character and evolution of regional integration. Regional integration in sub-Saharan Africa has been conceived and analysed in the light of the market-led approach, modernity and development. Thus far, it is has failed. This paper therefore explores why market-led regional integration has failed and why, for the foreseeable future, it will continue to do so. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines theoretical and methodological issues in the study of African developmental states. We argue that applying this concept beyond East Asia must take into account changes in the global economic context - in particular systemic tendencies towards deficient consumer demand - to uncover the conditions under which demand for commodity production remains or becomes expansionary. We further argue for a mixed methods case study approach to structural transformation, blending quantitative and qualitative evidence at multiple levels of analysis. The examples of concrete manufacturing and oil and gas in Nigeria and Tanzania illustrate our approach to researching state-led development in Africa. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While post-development theory is very concerned with the ways in which development has impacted upon the countries of the Global South, there has been relatively little written on post-development theory from an African perspective. This paper identifies some of the ways in which post-development theory fails to adequately understand the African experience of development. In particular, I explore the difficulty that post-development theory confronts when faced with the continued desire on the part of many people in Africa for development. In his introduction to the new edition ofThe Development Dictionary, Wolfgang Sachs discusses this desire, noting that despite development’s many failures, many still associate the concept with self-affirmation and redress. He explains this continued desire for development as being indicative of the need for the decolonisation of the imagination. In this paper, I show some of the problems with this explanation and present alternative ways of understanding the persistence of the desire for development in Africa. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

It is argued that China's relationship with Africa has transformed into one defined by a dynamism and African agency, thereby lessening the hold the former previously had on Africa in the early days of this evolving alliance. First, the authors will conduct a literature review of historical Sino-African relations, from the early Han dynasty to its contemporary manifestations. The second section will continue with this analysis by focusing exclusively on the status quo of the Sino-African economic relationship, including analysis of trade flows, investments, development, economic cooperation, and Chinese support for regional integration. Finally, this paper will conclude with an elaboration of some key, emerging relationship areas, such as opportunities for China and Africa to collaborate on the achievement of the latter's Agenda 2063 and African Mining Vision. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The spectacular scale and speed of China's domestic renewable energy capacity development and technology catch-up has in recent years been followed by the 'go out' of Chinese clean energy technology firms seeking new markets and opportunities in sub- Saharan Africa. This paper explores the growing involvement of China in the development and transfer of renewable energy technologies in Africa and examines the key drivers and obstacles shaping Chinese renewable energy investments and exports. Far from there being some kind of grand or harmonious strategy directed by a single monolithic state, we argue that fragmented and decentralised state apparatuses and quasi-market actors in China are increasingly pursuing their own independent interests and agendas around renewable energy in Africa in ways often marked by conflict, inconsistency and incoherence. Moving beyond the state-centric analysis common in much of the research on contemporary China-Africa relations, we examine the motivations of a range of non-state and quasi-state actors, as well their different perceptions and constructions of risk, policy environments and political stability in recipient countries. The paper explores the case study example of South Africa, where Chinese firms have become increasingly significant in the diffusion of renewable energy technology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper engages with non-Western, specifically African, scholarship and insight with the goal of highlighting the importance of African contributions to IR theorising. We highlight the Western dominance in IR theorising and examine the inadequacy of the major analytical constructs provided by established IR theory in capturing and explaining shifting reality in Africa. We argue that African insights, experience and ideas present a challenge to dominant IR constructs and knowledge within the international system, and that these insights, when taken seriously, would enrich our understanding of IR. We show this by problematising some central (often taken-for-granted) IR concepts such as the state, liberalism and individualism and underscore the need to reconstruct more encompassing ‘stories’ and images to innovate, revise and potentially replace some of the conventional ‘stories’ that have been told in IR. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Boko Haram insurgency has caused the death and displacement of thousands of Nigerians. Its means of terror has evolved from the use of crude weapons to bombs, kidnappings and the use of children as suicide bombers. Its reach has expanded beyond Nigeria into neighbouring West African countries and it has pledged allegiance to Al-Qaida and Islamic State. To address this security concern, its cause should first be ascertained. This paper argues that to do this, Boko Haram should be located in northern Nigerian historical context/environment. This paper reviews economic greed and grievance, extreme religious ideology and political opportunity in historic insurgencies in northern Nigeria. It finds that while the interplay of different factors shaped these insurgencies; it was political opportunity that ignited their onsets. Finally, the article submits that as long as these factors remain the same, military quelling of Boko Haram will not prevent a re-emergence of its likes. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

In response to the paucity of human resources in post-conflict societies, various agencies have implemented programmes to facilitate returns of qualified diasporas to their countries of origin. This paper examines the context in which diaspora return programmes have emerged and developed, and implications of the return programmes for post-conflict societies. It specifically looks at Migration for Development in Africa (mida) using the example of Rwanda. The paper demonstrates that the prime purpose of diaspora return programmes is to mitigate the effect of brain drain caused by migration from the South to the North. Furthermore, the paper argues that a secondary purpose of the programmes can be to secure a chance of return for diasporas who would like to return to their countries of origin but would like to stay away from the politics of these countries. In conclusion, the author suggests that diaspora return may increase the multiplicity of voices available in countries that tightly control dissident voices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While debates continue about China's role in sub-Saharan Africa, there is growing consensus that China is a different kind of development partner. One distinct feature of Chinese partnerships is that they include support for the tobacco industry, a sector other donor states and institutions shun. Not only is tobacco a primary agricultural export in a number of Africa states, the state-owned Chinese National Tobacco Corporation is the largest tobacco company in the world. This paper analyses Chinese support for the tobacco industry in three states – Zimbabwe, Malawi and Zambia – documenting how co-operation is shaped by Chinese state capitalism and assessing the development and governance implications. Following an introduction situating the analysis within the context of China–Africa co-operation and tobacco's global value chain, Chinese engagement in each country is analysed. Findings indicate that, despite differences across case studies in terms of development outcomes, common governance implications are apparent. African elites initiated tobacco-related co-operation to meet their interests, but Chinese interests dominated implementation. Consequently, Chinese investments have maintained hierarchal governance of an exploitive and harmful industry. Analyses of Chinese African co-operation need to move beyond public–private paradigms and interrogate the nuances of Chinese state capitalism in Africa. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The concept of human security became popular in the 1990s as a new framework for conceptualising security, shifting its referent from states to human beings and expanding its scope. While acknowledging the widespread criticism and rich debate that developed around the concept of human security after its appearance, this paper analyses the context in which human security emerged as a concept and reviews its different usages with a particular focus on its application to Africa and refugee-hosting areas. It maintains that the contribution of this concept goes beyond the simple statement that security is a matter of people's lives. Thanks to its focus on subjective understandings of security, human security can be used as an analytical framework to produce context-specific knowledge about security based on people's perceptions of what makes them secure/insecure and on local practices of human security – what people do to feel more secure. The application of a human security framework to refugee-hosting areas in Africa would contribute towards enhancing refugees' agency in a context often dominated by a victimising narrative, as well as providing a comprehensive understanding of security priorities, providing important information for more context-specific policymaking. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Korea Aid was a development project delivering Korean medical services, food and pop music via trucks to rural communities in Africa. The project was poorly conceived, vulnerable to corruption and ultimately ineffective. While Korea Aid marked a backward step for Korea's development cooperation, revealing many of the challenges associated with emerging donors, it also reflected Korea's aspiration to become a cultural and developmental alternative to hegemonic nations. This paper examines the historical circumstances that led to the formation of Korea Aid, and further argues that Korea Aid embodied a synthesis of 'cultural soft power' and 'developmental soft power' intended to create the perception of Korea as culturally and developmentally attractive and benign. Korea's current pursuit of developmental soft power intentionally transforms the country's development experience into a 'politically odourless' model, masking its authoritarian undercurrent and in turn camouflaging growing aspirations to expand its global influence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper (prsp) initiative came out of the 1999 Cologne annual meeting of the G-7 governments, when the leaders of the industrialised countries announced the Enhanced Heavily Indebted Poor Countries Initiative (hipc II). 1 The joint Boards of the imf and the World Bank officially approved the prsp in December 1999 as a new approach to the challenge of reducing poverty in low-income countries and as a framework for development assistance. The prsp approach is supposed to represent a major departure from previous development strategies whereby the World Bank and the imf dictated the directions of economic policies in poor countries. Implementation of the prsp approach is now in its sixth year and the purpose of this article is to critically examine the challenges that African governments are confronted with in preparing and implementing credible, nationally owned poverty reduction strategy plans. The article further examines the degree to which the prsp approach has transformed donor–recipient country relations, thus allowing African governments the policy space to develop home-grown policies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a gender analysis of the World Bank's recent Policy Research Report. It assesses the implications for women, and more widely for gender relations, of the World Bank's approach to land relations. The analysis focuses on two issues: the Report's promotion of formal rural credit and its assumption of the availability of women's agricultural labour. This paper challenges the notion of 'non-contractible labour', as well as the Report's use of the household as a unit of analysis and its underlying assumption of motivated family labour. It discusses the consequences for households of defaulting on rural loans and challenges the Report's attempts to link the promotion of credit markets and reliance on women's unpaid labour to poverty reduction. In light of this discussion, the paper argues that it continues to be important for advocates of women's rights in Africa to be attentive to land issues and in particular to respond to the World Bank's land agenda. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

HIV/AIDS is the major threat to development, economic growth and poverty alleviation in much of Africa. And yet the full extent of the catastrophe facing the continent is only just being recognized, and still not by all. The international development targets set by the great and the good of the global community--or at least by those members of the community who attend the international summits that set these goals--do not consider what HIV/AIDS means and are unachievable. This paper begins by setting the scene, describing the epidemic, explaining why it is so important and what makes HIV/AIDS different. It then explores how the poverty/epidemic cycle works, whereby poverty increases the spread of HIV and AIDS increases poverty. It suggests we need to look beyond monetary poverty to understand these relationships. Finally the paper assesses what can and should be done to break the HIV/AIDS poverty cycle. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Employing secondary research and semi-structured interviews, this article examines the use of private maritime security companies (PMSC) in providing maritime security services in the Horn of Africa. It consists of four parts. The first part explains the origins and development of the use of PMSC in the Horn of Africa. The second section discusses the regulation of the private security industry, paying particular attention to the maritime context. Part three examines the challenges associated with the use of maritime PMSC in the Horn of Africa, including negative human rights implications, compromising the innocent passage of commercial ships, and creating confusion in the hierarchical control of ships. Finally, the paper analyses the findings and concludes that PMSC, despite their apparent short-term effectiveness, cannot be regarded as a long-term solution to the piracy phenomenon in the Horn of Africa. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The acknowledgement of politics and institutions in developing countries is well in line with debates not only in the area of development effectiveness but also regarding new public management. Results-Based Approaches (RBApps), conceptually framed within these two debates, are designed to support outcome- and impact-oriented development goals. They link the achievement of results to monetary and/or non-monetary reward mechanisms. However, so far, development cooperation partners have mainly applied RBApps in the form of Results-Based Finance and Results-Based Aid. Through the provision of a conceptual framework, this paper embeds RBApps between different tiers of government within the discussion and applies Rwanda as a case study to it. Along the lines of Rwanda's Domestic Performance Approach Imihigo, the article argues that development co-operation should be more proactive in considering these approaches, as they might be crucial in terms of sustainability and serve as a promising entry point for programmes supported by development partners. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper has two main objectives. First, to address the problematic of the socioeconomic impact of land deals in sub-Saharan Africa by looking at what we know from the available literature so far, namely what has been claimed and how much research has been done, as well as why we do not know very much despite the quantity of material published. This is done via a systematic scoping review, which aims to avoid some of the biases inherent in conventional literature reviews and to provide evidence for some basic features of the emerging research on land grabs in Africa, with specific reference to their contribution to the understanding of livelihood impacts. Second, the article links empirical questions about the impact and implications of land grabs with a discussion of alternative (neglected) research questions, notably the implications of the current land rush phenomenon for the classic agrarian questions of capital and labour, as understood in agrarian political economy. Thus the paper proposes a re-engagement with debates on the classic agrarian questions in a Marxist political economy tradition in order to move the land grab research agenda towards more conceptually and empirically challenging research questions. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper draws on ethnographic research with teenage schoolgirls in Tanzania to explore the impact of education on their experiences of sexual agency and empowerment. School-based education is frequently presented within international development as a route for empowering girls to exercise agency over their sexuality; yet school itself often constitutes a space in which the same restrictive gendered and sexual norms that exist outside the classroom are reproduced or go unchallenged by those working with girls. Despite the constraints to their agency from both outside and within school, girls themselves do resist the narratives of girlhood and sexuality imposed upon them. Recognising how these dynamics challenge our understanding of sexual empowerment is key to finding ways to support girls in navigating repressive norms beyond the classroom. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the legitimacy of the restrictions the Moroccan and Algerian governments have placed on democracy in their countries. In each case the democratic process is subject to a range of limitations. These controls are justified on the grounds that they help prevent Islamist parties from winning power and that, if in government, these parties would roll back many of the political and civil rights enjoyed by Moroccan and Algerian citizens. Yet is this the case? By looking at the pjd's and msp's manifesto pledges from the most recent parliamentary elections, the paper uncovers a different attitude. Far from opposing democracy and the various rights and liberties commonly associated with it, the pjd and msp are working to strengthen it. Their commitment to democracy has grown, not diminished, over the past decade. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This article is predicated on the view that African Muslim women do not necessarily perceive Islam or Islamic practice as incompatible with their goals and aspirations of education, independence or leadership. Drawing on the representations of the hijab in three African novels, this paper will simultaneously affirm and challenge certain orientations within African and particularly African feminist theories vis-á-vis African Muslim women and Islam. In responding to the claims by certain African feminist thinkers that Islam is incompatible with female leadership, that African Muslim women mostly practice Islam against their will and that forms of Islamic practice, in this case the hijab, are of little religious significance to African Muslim women, this paper will demonstrate that not only do African Muslim women choose to practice Islam by consciously and voluntarily situating themselves as agents of Islamic practice, but, in so doing, they, in fact, embody leadership, education, independence and consequently a re-affirmation of their religious identity. Islamic practice among African Muslim women, as will be explored in this analysis of the hijab, therefore, is infused with a deeper religious meaning and it cannot be convincingly concluded that the women have little regard for it. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In parts of the developing world the fundamental requisite of democracy - stateness - is in recession. This paper engages the literature on failed states with regard to the implications for global democratic diffusion. The heart of the paper summarises and analyses the four main frameworks for assessing and responding to failed states. The status quo framework regards failed states as sick patients that can be revived. This state revival framework has a mixed track record, however, and many critics. The 'shared sovereignty' framework advocates quasi-permanent intervention in the most difficult cases of state failure. A third approach argues for the recognition of de facto sovereignty and the restructuring of de jure international boundaries when necessary. A fourth framework insists on a historically grounded analysis of modern statehood as a failed global project. The article's final section surveys the stateness - democracy nexus in sub-Saharan Africa. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The latest fashion in a sequence of global interventions by donors, designed to make a difference to the lives of poor people, is the use of budgetary support mechanisms. These have emerged afresh at the start of the twenty-first century as the increasingly dominant mode of desired aid delivery for many donors in the African context. However, this paper argues that such an approach to 'development', particularly when combined with an understanding of poverty largely as an absolute concept that can be eliminated through economic growth, will have damaging effects on the lives of the poor and marginalised across the continent The time is ripe for a new global agenda that seeks to place as much emphasis on equity as it does on economic growth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Development partnerships are frequently represented as a way of giving recipient countries 'ownership' of their development programmes, whereas critics argue that partnerships are little more than conditionality by another name. Drawing on analyses of governmentality in modern liberal societies, this article advances an alternative understanding and argues that development partnerships can be regarded as a form of advanced liberal rule that increasingly govern through the explicit commitment to the self-government and agency of recipient states. Focusing in particular on the New Partnership for Africa's Development (NEPAD) and Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers (PRSPs), it argues that as a form of advanced liberal power, partnerships work not primarily as direct domination and imposition, but through promises of incorporation and inclusion. They derive their power through simultaneously excluding and incorporating, and by using freedom as a formula of rule partnerships help produce modern, self-disciplined citizens and states by enlisting them as responsible agents in their own development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Post-development theorists have declared development obsolete and bankrupt and have called for 'alternatives to development'. What do they mean by such calls and what should be the African response to such calls? In this paper I will attempt to address three important questions: first, what is meant by post-development theory's call for 'alternatives to development'? Second, why consider post-development theory from an African perspective? Third, what contributions can a consideration of African difference and diversity make towards debate on 'alternatives to development'? I conclude by arguing that increased consideration of the African experience would be valuable for all who are seeking alternative ways of dealing with the problems that development purports to address. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

If globalisation is the mighty tremor shaking the landscape of the 'project of development', then, in certain regions of the world, HIV/AIDS is surely its epicentre. Nonetheless, for all the burden of the disease, Western donor policy on HIV/AIDS still remains largely silent about the provision of anti-retroviral treatment. This paper seeks explanations for this pervasive medical neglect and donor preference for prevention programmes over treatment. The postcolonial approach taken in the paper is to regard donor policy on HIV/AIDS --as illustrated by the UK's Department for International Development and the Norwegian Agency for Development Co-operation--as cultural and political exchanges framed by prevailing representations of Africa. The different 'logics' which skew policies towards prevention are identified. For donors and African states alike, HIV/AIDS policies--like development interventions more generally--would benefit immensely by foregrounding the human right to health, including, critically, promoting treatment within a genuine 'prevention-care-treatment' policy continuum. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Urban studies scholars drawing on Foucault's analysis of governmentality have investigated how urban social orders are increasingly more concerned with the management of space rather than on the discipline of offenders or the punishment of offences (Merry, 2001). This paper examines the 'rationality' and efficacy of spatial governmentality in post-apartheid Cape Town, and shows how the city has increasingly become a 'fortress city' (Davis, 1990), much like cities such as Los Angeles, Sao Paolo and Rio de Janeiro. These 'global cities' are increasingly characterised by privatised security systems in middle class suburbs, shopping malls and gated communities (Caldeira, 1999). These spatial forms of governmentality draw on sophisticated security systems comprising razor wire and electrified walls, burglar alarms and safe rooms, as well as vicious guard dogs, neighbourhood watches, private security companies, and automated surveillance cameras. On the other side of the race and class divide are urban ghettoes characterised by growing poverty and everyday violence. These socio-spatial inequalities continue to be reproduced despite urban planning initiatives aimed at desegregating the apartheid city. Although the media and the middle classes highlight the dangers of crime and violence, they tend to ignore the structures of inequality that fuel the growth of crime syndicates and violent drug economies that are reproducing these urban governance crises. Given the diminished resources of the neo-liberal state, the policing of middle class residential and business districts is increasingly being 'outsourced' to private security companies. In working class neighbourhoods of Cape Town such as Manenberg, the state has attempted to re-establish governance by resorting to new forms of spatial governmentality. The paper draws attention to the limits of these attempts to assert state control through the management of space. Spatial governance in places like Manenberg will continue to be relatively ineffectual given existing levels of social inequality and racial polarization. Such processes are reproduced by massive unemployment and racialised poverty resulting from socio-spatial legacies of apartheid and Cape Town's shift from a manufacturing to a tourist, IT and financial services economy. Although this paper focuses on attempts at re-establishing governance in a crime and gangster-ridden working class neighbourhood of Cape Town, it addresses these issues in relation to city-wide shifts to new forms of spatial governmentality after apartheid. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Current internal wars in Africa are increasingly being driven by the desire to control important sources of revenue, not by revolutionary ideals of redressing real or perceived injustices. It is not accidental that some of the nastiest wars in Africa are being fought in countries richly endowed with natural resources. This paper deals with Angola, a potentially rich country ravaged by war since independence. It suggests that control of important diamond producing areas has given the rebel UNITA group a new lease of life after suffering serious setbacks at both the national and international levels. The paper also highlights the political and military miscalculations committed by the rebels and attributes them to the quick infusion of large sums of money into rebel coffers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the power topography of international private capital movements with specific reference to FDI and portfolio equity flows. A number of important development conclusions emerge from the paper. There exists little relationship between incomes and levels of FDI participation, although developed and resource-endowed economies have received greater inflows. While greater liberalization from the mid-1980s has stimulated the explosive growth of portfolio equity capital flows, it has also exposed developing economies to serious systemic risks. Contrary to neoliberal arguments, developing economies that have managed to utilize FDI effectively and to prevent systemic volatility generated from portfolio capital movements from seriously destabilizing them, have generally relied on effective governments. Inter-country economic development has become increasingly unequal in the period 1980-97. While the material conditions of the majority of developing economies have improved, those located in Africa and South Asia in particular have remained seriously disadvantaged. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

How we understand the state is important when addressing issues of human rights. During the debate on the Anti-Homosexuality Bill in Uganda, the country was, at times, presented as nearly uniformly homophobic, exemplified by references to ‘Uganda’s Anti-Homosexuality Bill’. The state, which does discriminate against gender and sexual minorities, is comprised of different institutions and people, holding, at times, conflicting positions. This paper documents these differing positions that parts of the state adopted, along with how those positions changed over time in response to political changes and lobbying from civil society. Uncovering gaps in the coherence of the state by identifying these opposing views is useful both for how we understand and study the state, and for activism against political homophobias. Strategies against legislation similar to the Anti-Homosexuality Bill can target those within most likely to oppose such laws. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper examines the extent to which South Korea’s developmental aid programme to Africa can be understood as a form of ‘aid as imperialism’. We argue against the depiction of a crude determinism between the ‘interests of capital’ and the international activism of the South Korean state through aid provision. Drawing on Harvey’s theory of the new imperialism, we argue that, while the structural transformations in the South Korean political economy explain Seoul’s ODA programme at a general level, it is strongly influenced by geopolitical objectives which often undermine South Korea’s ability to pursue distinctly mercantile aims. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The UN peacekeeping operations in the Central African Republic (CAR), Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and Mali were in 2013 given peace enforcement mandates, ordering them to use all necessary measures to ‘neutralise’ and ‘disarm’ identified groups in the eastern DRC and to ‘stabilise’ CAR and northern Mali. It is not new that UN missions have mandates authorising the use of force, but these have normally not specified enemies and have been of short duration. This article investigates these missions to better understand the short- and long-term consequences, in terms of the willingness of traditional as well as Western troop contributors to provide troops, and of the perception of the missions by host states, neighbouring states, rebel groups, and humanitarian and human rights actors. The paper explores normative, security and legitimacy implications of the expanded will of the UN to use force in peacekeeping operations. It argues that the urge to equip UN peacekeeping operations with enforcement mandates that target particular groups has significant long-term implications for the UN and its role as an impartial arbitrator in post-conflict countries. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper traces the emergence of Band Aid celebrity humanitarianism and its ongoing legacy, making use of Tester’s concept of ‘common-sense humanitarianism’ and Fassin’s reasoning on ‘humanitarian governance’. Using different examples of celebrity engagement during the 1983–85 famine in Ethiopia and the 2011 famine in Somalia, it argues that the, in essence, anti-political understanding of disaster propagated by celebrity humanitarians not only masks the underlying dynamics of power and of social and economic relations that underpin every famine, but at the same time manufactures a truth about ‘Africa’ and other places perceived as destitute. In doing so celebrity humanitarianism more generally legitimises a global hegemonic system characterised by increasing inequalities. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The exponential growth in the size of the private security sector (PSS) in Africa has helped give the issue of its regulation new importance. Yet the ongoing debates over what laws should be passed and by whom tend to ignore the more basic and arguably urgent question of whether African states' justice systems are sufficiently robust to give this legislation meaning. The aim of this paper is to cast some much needed light on this topic by drawing lessons from Nigeria's current experiences. By tracing the development of its PSS code and examining instances of malpractice in its justice system, the article argues that its regulatory framework is fundamentally compromised by corruption. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article describes and explains the impact of the donor-driven Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper (PRSP) and the aid modalities surrounding it in Ghana. It focuses on the period in which the New Patriotic Party (NPP) government was in power from 2001 until 2008, but places this within the broader context of aid dependence in Ghana since the 1980s. It is argued that the PRSP documents produced by the government had little impact on implementing policy actions, but rather their function was to secure debt relief and the continuation of foreign aid from official donors. The article examines what was actually implemented during the NPP government and the factors that influenced those actions. More generally it highlights the constraints Ghanaian governments have faced in pursuing economic transformation within contemporary domestic and international contexts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As part of broader neoliberal economic policies most governments of Latin America and sub-Saharan Africa have implemented reforms of the formal health sector since the early 1980s. Driven both by the need for greater efficiency and calls for increases in patient choice and participation, these reforms have taken on different forms across the regions, but the main features have been decentralisation, increased user fees and the introduction of forms of health insurance. This paper considers the nature of these reforms, how the broad category of 'neoliberal health sector reform' has played out in different places and the impact of these reforms across socioeconomic groups. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article aims to provide a review of music sponsorship to market cigarettes in sub-Saharan Africa. Using analysis of previously secret corporate documents from British American Tobacco (bat) and focusing on two separate case studies of sponsorship in Africa, Nigeria and South Africa, the paper illustrates how tobacco companies have sought to undermine health legislation from 1990 to 2001. Both case studies suggest that music is an important marketing tool in Africa because it can effectively target young consumers; has a universal appeal; transcends barriers to communication imposed by limited literacy and language barriers; has a long-term appeal and can be successful in undermining tobacco control measures. The case studies highlight the limitations of national regulatory efforts and reinforce the significance of the implementation of the who's Framework Convention on Tobacco Control in Africa, a critical region for the convention's success. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Efforts to bring peace and reconstruction to the Central African region have been fashioned by contemporary conflict resolution models that have a standard formula of peace negotiations, with a trajectory of ceasefire agreements, transitional governments, demilitarization, constitutional reform and ending with democratic elections. Local dynamics and the historical and multifaceted nature of the conflicts are rarely addressed. Furthermore, participants in the peace process are restricted to representatives of political parties, the state and rebel movements, to the exclusion of civil society. Using as examples the conflicts and peace processes in three Great Lakes countries—Rwanda, Burundi and the Democratic Republic of Congo—the paper contends that contemporary global frameworks for peacemaking and peace building that rest on the acceptance of neoliberal political and economic models cannot lay the foundations for the conditions necessary for sustainable peace. This necessitates the utilisation of a more inclusive concept of peace, the starting point of which has to be the emancipation of African humanity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article offers an interpretation of the political culture which has emerged in South Africa since President F. W. de Klerk's reforms of February 1990. A useful way of approaching political cultures is to see them as syntheses of contradictory elements or impulses. For instance the sometimes contrary demands of liberty and equality, or of ethnicity and common citizenship might struggle for expression. Elements of continuity and change will mark a political culture in either evolutionary or revolutionary transformation. To observe that the political culture which has been evolving since February 1990 is marked by deep contradictions does not make South Africa unique, but there are aspects of these contradictions which make it singular among others with similar experiences. It is the argument of this paper that South Africa's prospects of a settled future can be seen in terms of five contradictions in search of a synthesis and that the April 1994 election will provide an important pointers as to whether and how this synthesis is likely to be achieved.

Is maritime strategy in Africa fit for purpose? Africa has generally sought maritime security through international law, cooperation and diplomacy in the post-Cold War US-led international order. However, the rise of China and the resurgence of Russia challenge the US-led order, raising questions about the fitness of Africa's strategic orientation in the maritime domain. This article evaluates Africa's maritime strategy, theory and practice, to determine its suitability for Africa's maritime strategic environment, at the beginning of the third decade of the twenty-first century. It argues that Africa's current maritime strategy is unsuitable for its maritime security – as an element of national and regional security. The argument rests on the findings that: (1) Africa suffers from low maritime domain awareness, (2) it has not shaken off its historical seablindness, (3) Africa in general and individual African states retain little or no seapower and take few practical steps to address the situation, and (4) Africa suffers persistent challenges in exploiting and securing maritime wealth. The AU's Africa's Integrated Maritime Strategy is a wish list with no realistic or practical steps to its realisation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The twenty-first century has been shaped by the emergence of powers from the developing world, with the growing weight of the Global South within the international system. The alliances achieved by these countries gave a new impetus to multilateralism, placing development at the centre of the global agenda. As a result, since the early 2000s, South–South cooperation (SSC) has been gaining increasing prominence, constituting an essential part of the cooperation strategy of many Global South countries. Focusing on its economic, political and technical dimensions, and considering their similar development challenges, this article tries to map Latin America–Africa bilateral SSC initiatives and subsequently reflect on these data. Furthermore, a closer look into those SSC initiatives is provided by considering Africa's two main partners in Latin America: Argentina and Brazil during the period 2003–2015. The study concludes by providing an analysis of their productive bilateral SSC initiatives in order to derive conclusions on the (medium- or long-run) economic potential of such experiences. This would indicate that such SSC potential can help alleviate Global South countries' so-called external constraint through the improvement of their productive structure and trade diversification. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]