At the same time that comparative and international political scientists have been confronting the problems of analysing state behaviour under conditions of uncertainty, state-centred political scientists are attempting, somewhat belatedly, to deal with the increasing complexity and uncertainty which underpins modern governance. Yet despite similar research agendas these disciplines have continued to speak past each other. This article contends that policy transfer analysis can provide a context for integrating some key concerns of these disciplines. Further, we argue that the process of policy transfer should be examined through a structure and agency approach with three dimensions: global, international and transnational levels, the macro-level and the interorganizational level. This three-dimensional model employs the notion of a policy transfer network as a middle-range level of analysis which links a particular form of policy development (policy transfer), microdecision making in organizations, macro-systems and global, transnational and international systems. It is hoped that this approach will stimulate an empirical research agenda which will illuminate important policy developments in domestic and world politics.
Development policies in the pastoral areas of Africa assume that pastoralists are poor. Using the Afar pastoralists of Ethiopia as the focus of research this article challenges this depiction of pastoralism by exploring pastoral livelihood goals and traditional strategies for managing risk. Investment in social institutions to minimise the risk of outright destitution, sometimes at the cost of increased poverty, and significant manipulation of local markets enable the Afar to exploit a highly uncertain and marginal environment. Improved development assistance and enhanced targeting of the truly vulnerable within pastoral societies demands an acceptance that pastoral poverty is neither uniform nor universal.
The World Initiative for Sustainable Pastoralism (WISP) recently commissioned a series of reviews on the economics of pastoralism. Eight regional desk studies were conducted: (1) Southern Africa and the Horn, (2) West Africa, (3) East Africa, (4) North Africa, (5) South America, (6) Asia, (7) the Middle East, and (8) Europe. The studies sought to identify the contribution of pastoralism to domestic and global markets, by gathering productivity indicators and market behaviour, and identifying indirect values and methodologies for analysing indirect values. This review is intended to add to the global understanding on the importance of mobile pastoralism as a form of productive and sustainable land management. By gathering information, the review highlights existing knowledge on the value of pastoralism, gaps in this knowledge, trends in pastoral economies, and policy options that can support rangeland economies most effectively. Presented here is a summary of the main points relating to economic valuation of mobile pastoralism.
The issue of exploitative labour practices against migrant workers has been well established in previous work. Yet most research and policy focus on severe forms of exploitation, including types of 'modern slavery' such as human trafficking and forced labour. Research has paid less attention to 'routine' labour abuses that are less extreme than severe exploitation, but which are still exploitative or harmful. This article argues that a stronger emphasis is needed on routine labour exploitation, which risks being overlooked when contrasted with severe exploitation. Drawing on a qualitative study of migrant labour in the UK food industry, the article demonstrates that workers experience a range of mistreatment in the workplace, which is unlikely to fall within the scope of severe exploitation and remit of 'criminal justice' interventions. In order to achieve full 'labour justice', more consistent attention is needed on these routine and banal practices, not just the most brutal.
Research and practice are increasingly demonstrating the environmental benefits of pastoralism and the opportunity for sustainable development of pastoral communities through a combination of livestock and biodiversity-related business. To take full advantage of the potential biodiversity-pastoral synergies, it will be crucial to put in place supporting policies. They need to be embedded in the context of overall pastoral development. However, rangelands and pastoral societies in drylands are heterogeneous, and development options cannot be assumed to be uniform. Factors such as aridity, access to markets and population pressure influence the constraints and the opportunities for both pastoral and non-pastoral communities. We describe the differential challenges to development along these gradients and identify investment priorities if the policy objectives were to support the complementarities between pastoralism and biodiversity conservation.
Adoption of sustainable management practices on agricultural lands and degraded soils can enhance soil quality, including the available water holding capacity, cation exchange capacity, soil aggregation, and susceptibility to topsoil crusting and erosion, with positive effect on the capacity to store carbon. Research in Argentina, India, and the West African Sahel has found that crop yields can be increased by 20-70 kg/ha for wheat, 10-50 kg/ha for rice, and 30-300 kg/ha for maize with every 1000kg /ha increase in soil organic carbon pool in the root zone. This has obvious bene ts for food security in developing regions, and could also offset fossil fuel emissions at the rate of 0.5 GtC/year through carbon sequestration in agricultural soils 65. However, achieving such high increases in SOC requires high levels of water input, which is a major constraint in most drylands and implies potential externalities and opportunity costs that have not yet been adequately explored.
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