bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
The Promotion of Non‐traditional Agricultural Exports in Honduras: Issues of Equity, Environment and Natural Resource Management
Authors: Stonich Susan C. 
Published: October 2008

ABSTRACTA recent trend in development in Central America is the promotion of non‐traditional agricultural exports as a means of revitalizing economic growth and increasing income among the region's small producers. Using an approach which integrates environmental concerns into political‐economic analysis, this article examines the impact of this strategy on regional inequality and environmental degradation. The article begins with a synopsis of efforts to further non‐traditional exports in Central America since the Second World War. Then, in order to demonstrate the complex articulation among social, economic and environmental factors, the investigation focuses on the impact of non‐traditional exports on southern Honduras. Analysis concentrates on the most important of several non‐traditional exports being encouraged — shrimp mariculture in coastal areas along the Gulf of Fonseca. The study demonstrates the systemic interconnections among the dynamics of agricultural development, associated patterns of capitalist accumulation, rural impoverishment and serious problems of environmental degradation. The article illustrates how larger international and national forces affected people and the national environment and how local people, in turn, are attempting to affect those powers. Finally, the Honduran case is related to policy concerns regarding effective environmental management.First we were evicted from our land … now they are throwing us out of the sea. Where will we go? (Honduran peasant and artisanal fisherman, La Tribuna, 26 May 1988)
National Factor Markets and the Macroeconomic Context for Environmental Destruction in the Brazilian Amazon
Authors: Kyle Steven C. , Cunha Aercio S. 
Published: October 2008

ABSTRACTThis paper discusses Amazonian agricultural development with emphasis on the interrelations between regional conditions and the economic context represented by the national economy. The extreme abundance of land relative to complementary factors, together with the position of the region as a price taker in both factor and output markets, create the conditions for environmentally destructive expansion of cultivation at the extensive margin. It is argued that policies to promote a more ecologically sensitive pattern of development must take into account these links with the larger Brazilian economy and society as well as conditions within the region itself.
Absorbing External Shocks: The Gulf Crisis, International Migration Linkages and the Indian Economy, 1990 (with special reference to the impact on Kerala)
Authors: Saith Ashwani 
Published: October 2008

ABSTRACTThe paper analyses the impact of the Gulf crisis on the Indian economy as a whole, on the state of Kerala which was the origin of the majority of the Indian migrants in Kuwait and Iraq, and on the returning migrants them‐ selves. The scale of the disturbances is estimated both with respect to the labour market, as well as the flow of remittances. Alternative policy responses are discussed, especially in the context of the Kerala economy, and the problem is viewed separately from the vantage point of the returning migrants, as well as that of the State Government. The effects of the crisis become more acute as the focus shifts from the level of the macroeconomy, to the state of Kerala, to the migrants themselves.
Peasant Women and Economic Transformation in The Gambia
Authors: Carney Judith A. 
Published: October 2008

ABSTRACTContemporary agricultural development strategies in The Gambia are centred on irrigated rice and vegetables—crops traditionally cultivated by women. Irrigated agriculture, however, is opening up new avenues to capital accumulation at the national, regional and household levels. This article examines the contradictions for women of donor‐funded schemes that combine gender equity with productivity objectives. The gender conflicts rife in Gambian irrigation projects point to the significance of female labour for contemporary patterns of agrarian transformation as well as the linkage between women's access to land for independent farming and forms of project participation.
Evaluating Cost‐Benefit Analysis as a Tool for Gender Planning
Authors: Kabeer Naila 
Published: October 2008

ABSTRACTThis article evaluates the usefulness of cost‐benefit analysis (CBA) in the field of gender and development planning. While the incorporation of distributional considerations into CBA would appear to have made it more sensitive to gender differentials, the article argues that it is limited by a number of factors. These include both its own methodological biases, such as the bias towards marketed activities and quantifiable indicators, as well as the political economy of gender at different stages of the project cycle. Empirical examples from both First and Third World contexts are drawn on to demonstrate how these biases work in practice. The article concludes that CBA is best suited to interventionist, rather than participatory projects; to efficiency, rather than equity goals; and, where equity is the goal, to women's practical needs rather than their strategic gender interests.
Malaysian Electronics: The Changing Prospects for Employment and Restructuring
Authors: Narayanan Suresh , Rasiah Rajah 
Published: October 2008

ABSTRACTThe electronics industry in Malaysia was assigned a central role in creating urban jobs for the indigenous Malays and restructuring their employment from low‐ to high‐paying activities. The initial labour‐intensive phase generated jobs but failed to provide openings for Malays higher up in the occupational hierarchy. In the current phase, a buoyant economy makes job creation per se less important; but the growing technological sophistication in the industry threatens to undermine the restructuring of Malay employment because many Malays lack the critical skills necessary to take advantage of this development. This article reviews these issues and suggests policy initiatives.
Consumer Subsidies in India: Is Targeting Effective?
Authors: Jha Shikha 
Published: October 2008

ABSTRACTThis article analyses the effectiveness of self‐targeting in the Indian public distribution system and shows that implicit targeting leaves considerable scope for improvement. There is a wastage of the associated consumer subsidy in the sense that a substantial amount goes to the non‐targeted population while a part of the deserving population is left out of the scheme for various reasons. Hence, it is worth diverting resources to goods which are better targeted from goods which are poorly targeted. That is, even if targeting cannot be improved, switching of subsidies both between goods and areas can lead to improved distribution of subsidies to the poor.
Restructuring the Post‐Cold War World Economy: Perspectives and a Prognosis
Authors: Sideri Sandra 
Published: October 2008

ABSTRACTIn exploring the consequences of changes in Eastern Europe for Western Europe, the Third World and the global economic order, this article examines the need for economic management which is more solidly based on the new theory of international trade, and which extends beyond the national level. The rapidly deteriorating situation in Eastern Europe and the Gulf crisis both form valuable examples of the problems and opportunities ahead. There is a clear move towards the formation of regional blocs such as the European Community, the intention of which is to strengthen the industrial countries against the uncertainties and risks involved in the current reshaping of the world order by multipolarity, as well as in the growing nationalist tensions and movements for national independence. This article will argue that bloc formation is bound to either further marginalize the majority of developing countries, or increase their dependence on the few regional centres that are emerging.
Bursting the Bubble: The Pseudo‐Development Strategies of Microstates
Authors: Baldacchino Godfrey 
Published: October 2008

ABSTRACTDeveloping microstates are bountiful on the world political map today. Yet the concept of smallness, apart from being relativistic, conjures up a sense of deviation, indicative of a subtle discrimination which implicitly takes large to be normal and preferable. Based on an extensive yet selective literature review, this article suggests that the orthodox development paradigm, in both its liberal and radical traditions, has borne little relevance to small developing states, either in theory or in practice. On looking more closely at the survival strategies of developing micro‐economies, it is proposed that a different conceptualization of ‘development’ is warranted; one which, for all its negative connotations, is both plausible and consistent with the peculiar practices of microstates.
For Whom is the Rural Economy Resilient? Initial Effects of Drought in Western Sudan
Authors: Gray Leslie , Kevane Michael 
Published: October 2008

ABSTRACTThis discussion piece addresses two recent debates: entitlement theory and the resilience of rural systems. The authors find that in western Sudan entitlement theory provides a specific and useful framework for understanding the nature of the crisis confronting the society. Arguments about the resilience of rural systems, however, need to be more closely examined and will depend on site‐specific factors. The rural economy and society of western Sudan were not found to be resilient.
Structural Reform of the Veterinary Profession in Africa and the New Institutional Economics
Authors: Leonard David K. 
Published: October 2008

ABSTRACTThis article reviews a number of critical issues in the structural reform of animal health services in Africa. Using the New Institutional Economics, it highlights several problems that others concerned with the privatization of this service area have tended to neglect. Most notably it calls attention to: (1) the need to retain a central role for paraprofessionals in the new delivery system; (2) the desirability of competition between the veterinary and para‐veterinary professions; (3) the importance of developing state contracting procedures for assisting the private delivery of animal health that will avoid the problems of local monopoly; and (4) the central role that new and strengthened professional associations will have to play in this area if collective goods and the public interest are to be served. The article's larger purpose is to demonstrate that the New Institutional Economics has a great deal to contribute to the older precepts of neo‐classical economics in anticipating and thinking through the fundamental changes that privatization of professional services in Africa are posing. In this sense it is a first step in a larger programme of empirical and theoretical research.
Voluntary Agencies as Development Organizations: Theorizing the Problem of Efficiency and Accountability
Authors: Brett E. A. 
Published: October 2008

ABSTRACTCo‐operatives, NGOs and community groups are being increasingly used as development agencies by policy‐makers, because they are thought to provide more accountable, effective and equitable services in many areas than public or private agencies. This article attempts to consider some of the theoretical and practical implications of this growing role by treating them as ‘value‐driven’ organizations, and asking how this differentiates them, in terms of efficiency and accountability, from public or private agencies. It notes the lack of developed theoretical models capable of dealing with this question, and examines the relevance of existing theories (neo‐classical economics, public administration and especially varieties of organization theory including the New Institutional Economics) in dealing with agencies which claim to be dominated by motivations based on democracy and altruism rather than self‐interest. The author looks at problems associated with the measurement of efficiency and enforcement of accountability in organizational life and at the need for effective incentives and sanctions which provide a stable basis for maintaining commitment. He then considers the issues involved in the enforcement of accountability to ensure the efficient use of resources in producer co‐operatives on the one hand and service delivery NGOs on the other. In the former, the focus is on the strengths and weaknesses of market competition and the costs of collective management; in the latter on the varied relationships between ‘principals and agents' involved in the production and management of services.
Bureaucratic Domination of Hunter‐Gatherer Societies: A Study of the San in Botswana
Authors: Hitchcock Robert K. , Holm John D. 
Published: October 2008

ABSTRACTSocial science analysis of hunter‐gatherer societies has highlighted their economic and cultural subordination to neighbouring peoples. This article shows that, at least in the case of the San in Botswana, state bureaucratic domination is becoming the determining factor in social change. The authors provide evidence of bureaucratic domination with respect to settlement of the San, the establishment of headmanship, extension of social services and environmental legislation. In this new environment, hunter‐gatherer self‐determination requires the creation of effective political organizations to counter the bureaucratic state. Some San groups in Botswana are already reacting to the expanding presence of the state by dramatically increasing their involvement in various aspects of Botswana's electoral politics. While the outcome of the San political challenge to the state is still in doubt, the authors conclude that San settlement is a precondition for political change in spite of the serious cultural sacrifice involved.
The Samoan Farmer: A Reluctant Object of Change?
Authors: Ronnås Per 
Published: October 2008

ABSTRACTStagnation and a failure to break out of a subsistence‐oriented type of production continue to characterize the agricultural sector in Western Samoa. The lack of dynamism in agriculture has variously been ascribed to subsistence affluence and limited wants, the inhibiting impact of fa'asamoa – the Samoan way of life – and, more recently, to the effects of migration, remittances, aid and bureaucracy on economic development. This article suggests that the explanatory power of these factors by themselves is unsatisfactory. Instead, it argues that an absence of secure market outlets offering predictable and sufficiently attractive prices to farmers and the lack of rural‐urban links in general are at the heart of the problem. The economy seems to be caught in a vicious circle where farmers fail to commit themselves to production for the market because of a lack of secure outlets, while adequate downstream distribution and processing channels do not develop for lack of secure supplies. The interchangeable nature of commercial and subsistence production in agriculture, widespread access to overseas remittances, and the smallness of the domestic economy serve to perpetuate the deadlock.
Dimensions of Structural Adjustment: Gender and Age in the Costa Rican Labour Market
Authors: Tardanico Richard 
Published: October 2008

ABSTRACTIn a restructuring world economy, Costa Rica has been substantially more successful than other Central American countries in changing the composition of its exports and regaining prosperity. Given debates about the socioeconomic impact of the country's structural adjustment policies, this article explores changes in the gender and age dimensions of Costa Rica's labour market in the period 1979‐91. On balance, what occurred in Costa Rica was a modest degree of increased and reorganized labour‐market inequality by gender and age, as well as by social class. Key comparative Central American questions concern national variation in the magnitude of labour‐market change during this period and its cyclical or secular components, as well as their interplay with the sectoral, spatial and social dimensions of such change.
Crop Diversification and Export Growth: Dynamics of Change in the Sri Lankan Peasant Sector
Authors: Dunham David 
Published: October 2008

ABSTRACTSelf‐sufficiency in foodgrains has seen countries of South and East Asia diversifying their agricultural base and trying to move peasant producers from rice to higher‐value crops. This article examines policies applied in Sri Lanka in the wake of structural adjustment. Contract farming and corporate sector involvement are analysed as a mechanism of change, and crop characteristics, the macro policy environment, infrastructural facilities and other state supports are identified as important contributing factors. The government commitment to developing horticultural exports as a major industry is seen as a central issue, given constraints that have emerged in the implementation of this policy and pressures to curtail expenditure and reduce the budget deficit. A better focused and more coordinated package of supports is considered to be necessary. The welfare impact of recent growth is also analysed and is found to give some cause for concern.
Community‐based Fisheries Management, Tradition and the Challenges of Development in Marovo, Solomon Islands
Authors: Hviding Edvard , Baines Graham B. K. 
Published: October 2008

ABSTRACTThis study examines traditional fisheries‐related resource management through a case in which local communities, from a basis of customary, ‘common property’ control over the sea and its resources, handle a multitude of development issues. Presenting first some important issues relating to people's role in fisheries management and to the ‘common property’ debate, the article then describes a traditional system for management of land and sea resources in a Pacific Islands society; that of Marovo Lagoon, Solomon Islands. Emphasis is given to fisheries resources, with a view to explaining in practical terms how a system of customary marine tenure operates under the wider social, political, economic and ecological circumstances of change arising from development pressures. Against this background, assessments are made of the viability of this traditional fisheries management system under present conditions of state control and of both external and internal pressures for large‐scale resource development enterprises.
Ecological Knowledge and the Regional Economy: Environmental Management in the Asesewa District of Ghana
Authors: Amanor Kojo Sebastian 
Published: October 2008

ABSTRACTThis study examines perceptions of the environment in farming communities in the forest ecotone of Ghana. It places local knowledge within a socio‐economic and historical context and argues that knowledge is continually evolving, attempting to solve existing problems and discovering new ones. It maintains that favourable conditions exist in farming communities for environmental actions and development approaches based on sustainable development, since these areas have suffered from the negative effects of degradation. However, major constraints exist within the wider political economy and policy framework, which is still locked into environmentally‐hostile export‐oriented production, and political models which marginalize rural people.
Sustaining the Forests: The Community‐based Approach in South and South‐East Asia
Authors: Colchester Marcus 
Published: October 2008

ABSTRACTThe concept of sustainability emphasizes four basic principles when applied to rural communities: that basic needs must be met; that resources should be subject to local control; that local communities must have a decisive voice in planning; and that they should represent themselves through their own institutions. These principles have been notionally accepted by development planners and conservationists at all levels. Yet, throughout the tropical forest belt, they are being systematically overridden by international and national policies and development programmes, leading to increasing poverty, social conflict and rapid deforestation. Traditional knowledge and systems of land use have proved far more environmentally appropriate, resilient and complex than initially supposed by outsiders. Forest peoples have successfully opposed many socially and environmentally destructive development schemes proposed for their lands. However, these societies are not resisting all change: population increase and the internal dynamic for development have also created social and environmental problems. A review of community‐based initiatives in South and South‐East Asia shows that in some countries, positive initiatives have been taken by local and national governments to promote a community‐based approach. Notable successes have been achieved but many other initiatives have failed. The examples show that, besides the four principles noted above, environmentally successful management also depends on innovative political organization at the community level.
NGOs and Sustainable Development in Zimbabwe: No Magic Bullets
Authors: Vivian Jessica 
Published: October 2008

ABSTRACTA number of case studies of NGO projects have suggested that NGOs may have an important role to play in addressing environmental problems in developing countries. Drawing on research conducted in Zimbabwe, this analysis seeks to broaden and contextualize the discussion of NGO involvement in sustainable development initiatives. It reviews the theoretical basis for the current emphasis on NGOs, assesses the environmental problems in Zimbabwe within their historical and social contexts, and summarizes the findings of recent research on the characteristics of the NGO sector in the country. The purpose is not to evaluate specific NGO environment projects, but rather to assess the mechanisms through which the NGO sector as a whole might make a significant contribution to sustainable development, and the problems in doing so. It is argued that one major obstacle faced by NGOs is the demand made upon them to find simple, neat and comprehensive solutions to complex development problems. The tendency on the part of donors and NGO supporters to expect success stories is called here the ‘magic bullet syndrome’, and it is argued that this emphasis on simplicity and on success is unrealistic and counterproductive.