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on Africa |
| By: | Sophie King |
| Abstract: | Abstract Opinion is divided about the capacity of non-governmental organisations (NGOs) to enhance the political capabilities of disadvantaged groups within an inclusive liberal development paradigm that seeks to advance ‘poverty reduction through good governance’. Advocates of inclusive liberalism argue that the participatory spaces created by the good governance agenda have increased the political space for NGOs focused on popular empowerment and policy influence. More radical critiques cast NGOs as apolitical brokers of neo-liberal development which distract from, or are disinterested in, more progressive development possibilities, including questions of redistribution. Drawing on a qualitative study of civil society organisations in Western Uganda, this paper argues that attempts to promote the participation of rural people in inclusive liberal governance spaces has proved less effective in enhancing their political capabilities than strategies based on economic associational development. Whereas strategies for enhanced inclusive liberal participation engage with the formal de jure rules of the game in ways that either sidestep or re-enforce the de-facto patronage-based political system, associational membership can catalyse shifts in the socio-economic power relations required to enable poor people to gain political agency in ways that begin to undermine patronage politics. This has important implications for both the theory and practice of political capabilities development among disadvantaged groups. |
| Date: | 2014 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:bwp:bwppap:19314&r=all |
| By: | Co, Catherine Y. (University of Nebraska at Omaha); Dimova, Ralitza (University of Manchester) |
| Abstract: | In 2005 China provided duty-free access to 190 items from 25 least developed sub-Saharan African (SSA) countries. Three years later duty-free access was extended to 454 items from 31 SSA LDCs. We find no evidence that China's preferential market access program for the least developed sub-Saharan African countries has helped these countries gain competitive edge over other exporters into the Chinese market. While there is evidence of decreased export bundle concentration and movement up the value chain for SSA countries involved in the program, the effect differs significantly across countries. |
| Keywords: | preferential market access, export diversity and sophistication, triple difference, China, sub-Saharan Africa |
| JEL: | F13 F14 O24 |
| Date: | 2014–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp7908&r=all |
| By: | Bénédicte H. Apouey (EEP-PSE - Ecole d'Économie de Paris - Paris School of Economics - Ecole d'Économie de Paris, PSE - Paris-Jourdan Sciences Economiques - CNRS : UMR8545 - École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales (EHESS) - École des Ponts ParisTech (ENPC) - École normale supérieure [ENS] - Paris - Institut national de la recherche agronomique (INRA)); Gabriel Picone (Department of Economics - University of South Florida) |
| Abstract: | This paper examines the existence of social interactions in malaria preventive behaviors in Sub-Saharan Africa, i.e. whether an individual's social environment has an influence on the individual's preventive behaviors. We focus on the two population groups which are the most vulnerable to malaria (children under 5 and pregnant women) and on two preventive behaviors (sleeping under a bednet and taking intermittent preventive treatment during pregnancy). We define the social environment of the individual as people living in the same region. To detect social interactions, we calculate the size of the social multiplier by comparing the effects of an exogenous variable at the individual level and at the regional level. Our data come from 92 surveys for 29 Sub-Saharan countries between 1999 and 2012, and they cover approximately 660,000 children and 95,000 women. Our results indicate that social interactions are important in malaria preventive behaviors, since the social multipliers for women's education and household wealth are greater than one - which means that education and wealth generates larger effects on preventive behaviors in the long run than we would expect from the individual-level specifications, once we account for social interactions. |
| Keywords: | Social interactions ; Social multiplier ; Malaria preventive behavior |
| Date: | 2014–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:wpaper:halshs-00940084&r=all |
| By: | Maria Kuecken (CES - Centre d'économie de la Sorbonne - CNRS : UMR8174 - Université Paris I - Panthéon-Sorbonne, EEP-PSE - Ecole d'Économie de Paris - Paris School of Economics - Ecole d'Économie de Paris); Josselin Thuilliez (CES - Centre d'économie de la Sorbonne - CNRS : UMR8174 - Université Paris I - Panthéon-Sorbonne); Marie-Anne Valfort (CES - Centre d'économie de la Sorbonne - CNRS : UMR8174 - Université Paris I - Panthéon-Sorbonne, EEP-PSE - Ecole d'Économie de Paris - Paris School of Economics - Ecole d'Économie de Paris) |
| Abstract: | We examine the middle-run eff ects of the Global Fund's malaria control programs on the educational attainment of primary schoolchildren in Sub-Saharan Africa. Using a quasi-experimental approach, we exploit geographic variation in pre-campaign malaria prevalence (malaria ecology) and variation in exogenous exposure to the timing and expenditure of malaria control campaigns, based on individuals' years of birth and year surveyed. In a large majority of countries (14 of 22), we find that the program led to substantial increases in years of schooling and grade level as well as reductions in schooling delay. These countries are those for which pre-campaign educational resources are the highest. Moreover, although by and large positive, we nd that the marginal returns of the Global Fund disbursements in terms of educational outcomes are decreasing. Our findings, which are robust to both the instrumentation of ecology and use of alternative ecology measures, have important policy implications on the value for money of malaria control eff orts. |
| Keywords: | Malaria, Sub-Saharan Africa, Education, Quasi-experimental |
| Date: | 2014–01–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:wpaper:halshs-00924112&r=all |
| By: | Achyuta Adhvaryu (University of Michigan Stephen M. Ross School of Business); James Fenske (University of Oxford, Department of Economics) |
| Abstract: | We test whether living through conflict in childhood changes political beliefs and engagement. We combine data on the location and intensity of conflicts since 1945 with nationally representative data on political attitudes and behaviors from 17 sub-Saharan African countries. Exposure from ages 0 to 14 has a very small standardized impact on later attitudes and behaviors. This finding is robust to migration and holds across a variety of definitions, specifications, and sources of data. Our results suggest that at the population level in Africa, conflict does not alter political beliefs, though the most exposed sub-populations may experience large, lasting effects. |
| Keywords: | conflict, political beliefs, early childhood, Africa |
| JEL: | D72 D74 O12 O17 |
| Date: | 2014–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hic:wpaper:164&r=all |