RTI International. P.O. Box 12194, Research Triangle Park, NC 27709-2194. Tel: 919-541-6000; e-mail: publications@rit.org; Web site: http://www.rti.org, Nov 30, 2003
Acknowledgements: This paper is the first of three papers related to pastoral economic growth and... more Acknowledgements: This paper is the first of three papers related to pastoral economic growth and development in Ethiopia that were commissioned by the Department for International Development (DfID) at the request of the Government of Ethiopia. Ian Scoones served as a peer reviewer of the report and we wish to thank him for his constructive comments and suggestions. The authors, of course, assume full responsibility for the views and contents expressed in this report.
This study analyzes baseline data from an impact evaluation of USAID/Ethiopia’s Land Administrati... more This study analyzes baseline data from an impact evaluation of USAID/Ethiopia’s Land Administration to Nurture Development (LAND) project, which is being implemented in Ethiopia’s Oromia Region in the Guji and Borana pastoral zones. The LAND Project aims to protect land and resource rights of pastoral communities and strengthen land governance institutions in customary grazing units (dheeda). This study presents a series of baseline indicators on land rights, land use, environmental quality, incomes, investments, conflict and conflict resolution, and external transfers of food aid and other assistance. The findings indicate that both Guji and Borana zones are undergoing important transitions, including increases in cultivation, settlements, bush encroachment, drought incidence, communal and individual rangeland enclosures (kalo), and NGO involvement. At the same time, per capita livestock holdings have declined relative to the recent past and that the role of customary institutions ...
This paper addresses informal cross-border trade in the Horn of Africa, with an emphasis on the S... more This paper addresses informal cross-border trade in the Horn of Africa, with an emphasis on the Somalia borderlands. It will be shown that despite the collapse of a government in 1991, Somalia’s unofficial exports of cattle to Kenya have grown considerably during the past 13 years. It will be argued that while informal exports and imports of animals are illegal in Kenya and Ethiopia, local institutions and agreements allow the trade to function ‘on the ground ’ in the absence of official recognition. The paper concludes with a discussion of the policy implications of informal cross-border commerce in regions of weak administrative control.
RTI International. P.O. Box 12194, Research Triangle Park, NC 27709-2194. Tel: 919-541-6000; e-mail: publications@rit.org; Web site: http://www.rti.org, Nov 30, 2003
Acknowledgements: This paper is the first of three papers related to pastoral economic growth and... more Acknowledgements: This paper is the first of three papers related to pastoral economic growth and development in Ethiopia that were commissioned by the Department for International Development (DfID) at the request of the Government of Ethiopia. Ian Scoones served as a peer reviewer of the report and we wish to thank him for his constructive comments and suggestions. The authors, of course, assume full responsibility for the views and contents expressed in this report.
This study analyzes baseline data from an impact evaluation of USAID/Ethiopia’s Land Administrati... more This study analyzes baseline data from an impact evaluation of USAID/Ethiopia’s Land Administration to Nurture Development (LAND) project, which is being implemented in Ethiopia’s Oromia Region in the Guji and Borana pastoral zones. The LAND Project aims to protect land and resource rights of pastoral communities and strengthen land governance institutions in customary grazing units (dheeda). This study presents a series of baseline indicators on land rights, land use, environmental quality, incomes, investments, conflict and conflict resolution, and external transfers of food aid and other assistance. The findings indicate that both Guji and Borana zones are undergoing important transitions, including increases in cultivation, settlements, bush encroachment, drought incidence, communal and individual rangeland enclosures (kalo), and NGO involvement. At the same time, per capita livestock holdings have declined relative to the recent past and that the role of customary institutions ...
This paper addresses informal cross-border trade in the Horn of Africa, with an emphasis on the S... more This paper addresses informal cross-border trade in the Horn of Africa, with an emphasis on the Somalia borderlands. It will be shown that despite the collapse of a government in 1991, Somalia’s unofficial exports of cattle to Kenya have grown considerably during the past 13 years. It will be argued that while informal exports and imports of animals are illegal in Kenya and Ethiopia, local institutions and agreements allow the trade to function ‘on the ground ’ in the absence of official recognition. The paper concludes with a discussion of the policy implications of informal cross-border commerce in regions of weak administrative control.
What are the local effects of major economic and political reforms in Africa? How have globalized... more What are the local effects of major economic and political reforms in Africa? How have globalized pro-market and pro-democracy reforms impacted local economics and communities? Examining case studies from The Gambia, Ghana, Mozambique, Kenya, Ethiopia, and Somalia, Peter D. Little shows how rural farmers and others respond to complex agendas of governments, development agencies, and non-governmental organizations. The book explores the contradictions between what policy reforms were supposed to do and what actually happened in local communities. Little’s bold vision of development challenges common narratives of African poverty, dependency, and environmental degradation and suggests that sustainable development in Africa can best be achieved by strengthening local livelihoods, markets, and institutions.
In the wake of the collapse of the Somali government in 1991, a "second" or "informal" economy ba... more In the wake of the collapse of the Somali government in 1991, a "second" or "informal" economy based on trans-border trade and smuggling is thriving. While focusing primarily on pastoral and agricultural markets, Peter D. Little demonstrates that the Somalis are resilient and opportunistic and that they use their limited resources effectively. While it is true that many Somalis live in the shadow of brutal warlords and lack access to basic health care and education, Little focuses on those who have managed to carve out a productive means of making ends meet under difficult conditions and emphasizes the role of civic culture even when government no longer exists. Exploring questions such as, Does statelessness necessarily mean anarchy and disorder? Do money, international trade, and investment survive without a state? Do pastoralists care about development and social improvement? This book describes the complexity of the Somali situation in the light of international terrorism.
This book examines the social and political dimensions of Africa's food and environmental crises... more This book examines the social and political dimensions of Africa's food and environmental crises. Written by an anthropologist, it focuses on the changes and the problems faced during the last century by one particular ethnic group, the Il Chamus of Kenya and traces the area's transformation from a food-surplus 'granary' to one that is dependent on food imports and aid. By documenting the history, social structure and ecology of the area, Peter Little is able to show that the crisis among the region's herders is rooted in processes that preceded the devastating droughts of the 1980s. Drought is in fact a 'normal' state of affairs in semiarid Kenya, but the processes that have inhibited herders from adequately coping with it are not. The author analyses the relationships between social, political and ecological variables and he treats topics such as land management, food production, marketing, state policy making and labour organisation in an integrated fashion. This is a book that challenges many of the stereotypes about African social life, agriculture and ecology and it will be of interest to anthropologists, academics and practitioners in development studies, historians, ecologists and geographers.
Pastoralists’ role in contemporary Africa typically goes underappreciated and misunderstood by de... more Pastoralists’ role in contemporary Africa typically goes underappreciated and misunderstood by development agencies, external observers, and policymakers. Yet, arid and semi-arid lands (ASAL), which are used predominantly for extensive livestock grazing, comprise nearly half of the continent’s land mass, while a substantial proportion of national economies are based on pastoralist activities. Pastoralists use these drylands to generate income for themselves through the use of livestock and for the coffers of national trade and revenue agencies. They are frequently among the continent’s most contested and lawless regions, providing sanctuary to armed rebel groups and exposing residents to widespread insecurity and destructive violence. The continent’s millions of pastoralists thus inhabit some of Africa’s harshest and most remote, but also most ecologically, economically, and politically important regions.
Features case studies primarily focusing on Ethiopia and Kenya to offer research from a variety o... more Features case studies primarily focusing on Ethiopia and Kenya to offer research from a variety of regional communities to explore issues of household sales behavior, price determinants, livestock market information systems, cross border and export marketing, and crisis period marketing. Firmly tied to recommendations for future research and policy, the editors contend that current thinking, which asserts that more effective marketing will automatically achieve multiple desirable outcomes, including environmental benefits, may be flawed.
Todays growing fascination with flows of people, commodities, technology, capital, images and ide... more Todays growing fascination with flows of people, commodities, technology, capital, images and ideas across national and other boundaries poses fresh theoretical and methodological challenges to anthropology. Commodities offer a particularly useful window on globalization because they, unlike electronically conveyed capital, transport cultural messages. These ideological or symbolic transfers are of particular interest to economic anthropology. This collection considers how conceptions and roles of commodities may change in response to widening spheres of economic interaction and exchange.
Prior work has shown that there is a significant amount of turnover amongst the African poor as h... more Prior work has shown that there is a significant amount of turnover amongst the African poor as households exit and enter poverty. Some of this mobility can be attributed to regular movement back and forth in response to exogenous variability in climate, prices, health, etc. ('churning'). Other crossings of the poverty line reflect permanent shifts in long-term well-being associated with gains or losses of productive assets or permanent changes in asset productivity due, for example, to adoption of improved technologies or access to new, higher-value markets. Distinguishing true structural mobility from simple churning is important because it clarifies the factors that facilitate such important structural change. Conversely, it also helps identify the constraints that may leave other households caught in a trap of persistent, structural poverty.
The papers in this book help to distinguish the types of poverty and to deepen understanding of the structural features and constraints that create poverty traps. Such an understanding allows communities, local governments and donors to take proactive, effective steps to combat persistent poverty in Africa.
Wracked by poverty, famine, and drought, Africa is typically represented as agriculturally stagna... more Wracked by poverty, famine, and drought, Africa is typically represented as agriculturally stagnant, backward, and crisis-prone. Living Under Contract, however, highlights the dynamic, changing character of sub-Saharan agrarian systems by focusing on contract farming. A relatively new and increasingly widespread way of organizing peasant agriculture, contract farming promotes production of a wide variety of crops—from flowers to cocoa, from fresh vegetables to rice—under contract to agribusinesses, exporters, and processers. The proliferation of African growers producing under contract is in fact part of broader changes in the global agro-food system. In this examination of agricultural restructuring and its effect upon various African societies, editors Peter Little and Michael Watts bring together anthropologists, economists, geographers, political scientists, and sociologists to explore the origins, forms, and consequences of contract production in several African countries, particularly Kenya, the Gambia, Zimbabwe, and the Ivory Coast. Documenting how contract production links farmers, agribusiness, and the state, the contributors examine problematic aspects of this method of agrarian reform. Their case studies, based on long-term field work and analysis on the village and household level, chart the complex effects of contract production on the organization of work and the labor process, rural inequality, gender relations, labor markets, local accumulation strategies, and regional development. Living Under Contract reveals that contract farming represents a distinctive form in which African growers are incorporated into national and world markets. Contract production, which has been a central feature of the agricultural landscape in the advanced capitalist states, is an emerging strategy for "capturing peasants" and for confronting the agrarian question in the late twentieth century.
Uploads
Papers by Peter Little
Firmly tied to recommendations for future research and policy, the editors contend that current thinking, which asserts that more effective marketing will automatically achieve multiple desirable outcomes, including environmental benefits, may be flawed.
The papers in this book help to distinguish the types of poverty and to deepen understanding of the structural features and constraints that create poverty traps. Such an understanding allows communities, local governments and donors to take proactive, effective steps to combat persistent poverty in Africa.
A relatively new and increasingly widespread way of organizing peasant agriculture, contract farming promotes production of a wide variety of crops—from flowers to cocoa, from fresh vegetables to rice—under contract to agribusinesses, exporters, and processers. The proliferation of African growers producing under contract is in fact part of broader changes in the global agro-food system.
In this examination of agricultural restructuring and its effect upon various African societies, editors Peter Little and Michael Watts bring together anthropologists, economists, geographers, political scientists, and sociologists to explore the origins, forms, and consequences of contract production in several African countries, particularly Kenya, the Gambia, Zimbabwe, and the Ivory Coast. Documenting how contract production links farmers, agribusiness, and the state, the contributors examine problematic aspects of this method of agrarian reform. Their case studies, based on long-term field work and analysis on the village and household level, chart the complex effects of contract production on the organization of work and the labor process, rural inequality, gender relations, labor markets, local accumulation strategies, and regional development.
Living Under Contract reveals that contract farming represents a distinctive form in which African growers are incorporated into national and world markets. Contract production, which has been a central feature of the agricultural landscape in the advanced capitalist states, is an emerging strategy for "capturing peasants" and for confronting the agrarian question in the late twentieth century.