Development for whom? Emerging donors and Africa's future

Debrah, Isaac Ofosu; Yeboah, Thomas; Boafo, James

doi:10.1504/ajesd.2015.072700

Cited by 3 publications

(8 citation statements)

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“…Ghana established formal relations with China in 1960 during the tenure of Kwame Nkrumah, Ghana's first president [19,20]. The independence of African countries in the 1960s coincided with the Cold War epoch [21]. During the Cold War, China's foreign policy was primarily centered on gaining ideological support from newly independent African States [22].…”

Section: China's Pursuit Of Resources In Africamentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In particular, the rise of China as a global economic and political power and the search for resources to sustain its economic growth drove a revival of relations between China and African countries. China's intent has been to leverage and expand access to Africa's energy and mineral resources through soft and interest-free loans [21,25]. As a result, the outflow of energy and mineral resources from Africa to China has increased significantly over the years.…”

Section: China's Pursuit Of Resources In Africamentioning

confidence: 99%

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Illicit Chinese Small-Scale Mining in Ghana: Beyond Institutional Weakness?

2019

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While the engagement of Chinese migrants in small-scale mining in Ghana has gained traction in scholarship, the extant literature pays little attention to how the relationship between the so-called formal institutions (e.g., the Minerals Commission and Ministry of Land and Natural Resources) and informal institutions (e.g., the chieftaincy and customary land institutions) enables illegalities in the mining industry. This paper addresses this gap in the literature, focusing on the relationship between formal state and informal customary land institutions in the small-scale mining sector. Using an institutional analytical framework, we argue that the increasing involvement of the Chinese in small-scale mining in Ghana is an expression of a bigger and deep-seated problem characterized largely by uncoordinated interactions between key state and customary institutions. This, we suggest, creates parallel operations of formal and informal systems that promote different levels of agency and maneuvering among actors-breeding uncertainty, bureaucratic logjams, and illegalities in the mining industry. Based on our findings, we recommend that a more efficient coordination between the relevant state and traditional land governing institutions could curb the proliferation of illegal mining activities, and in particular, those involving Chinese migrants. As part of the conclusion, we suggest that future empirical research be conducted to explore the interactions between formal and informal institutions and how they affect mining activities.

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Section: China's Pursuit Of Resources In Africamentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: China's Pursuit Of Resources In Africamentioning

confidence: 99%

Illicit Chinese Small-Scale Mining in Ghana: Beyond Institutional Weakness?

2019

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“…By occupying the 'international scale', development partners assume a powerful position that enables them to shape national agricultural policies. The ability of international donor actors to interact with national policies is enabled by integration of development planning at a 'national scale' into the 'international scale' through neoliberal development aid and assistance (Debrah et al, 2015;Moyo, 2009;Teye and Torvikey, 2018). In Chapter Six, the thesis also analyses how modernisation narratives at the global level are shaping national agricultural policy narratives through the uptake of Green Revolution technologies at the 'local scale'.…”

Section: Multi-scalar Processes Of Agricultural Transformation In Ghanamentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The illustrations from the Deputy Minister reiterate that aid and development assistance are often tied to promoting the interests of donor countries in recipient countries (also see Debrah et al, 2015;Moyo, 2009). Thus, the aim of donors who provided development assistance to Ghana is to drive market-based development ideologies in the sectors of the economy (Debrah et al, 2015). our disadvantage is the money, it is the money we don't have.…”

Section: Aid In the Form Of Financial Assistancementioning

confidence: 99%

“…This is because the agricultural sector in Ghana is heavily dependent upon foreign aid in the forms of financial and technical assistance (Al-Hassan et al, 2014;IFPRI, 2017). The reliance on aid has financially and technically tied policymaking processes in the agricultural sector to international donors, as aid most often comes with conditionality, usually demanding policy reforms and changes (Debrah et al, 2015). Moyo argues that, "aid flows only as long as the recipient country agrees to a set of economic and political policies" (Moyo, 2009, p. 39).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Agrarian transformation in Ghana’s Brong Ahafo region: Drivers and outcomes

Boafo¹

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Food and agricultural systems in the global South have undergone recent and significant transformation. Such changes are driven by an array of actors, and alongside social, political and economic forces, including a renewed investment by global development actors following the global agri-food crisis in the mid-2000s. The global agri-food crisis, in particular, is associated with speculations in food and agriculture, alongside the introduction of new modernisation policies and programmesincluding the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa. Such interventions are often couched as a response to the challenge of feeding the world's growing population, estimated to reach nine billion by 2050. In Africa, an agricultural transformation is also closely tied to initiatives to modernise agriculture, including expanding export-led agricultural development. Turning to Ghana in particular, market-based and export-led agricultural development policies and narratives have expanded since at least the mid-2000s, incorporating new actors, and extending their local level impacts. During this period, dominant agricultural development narratives framed Ghana's agrarian problems as largely technical and supply-side problems, which could be solved by increasing productivity as well as diversifying into production of export crops, thereby addressing poverty, food insecurity and global market access issues. In particular, the promotion of cashew nut production as export diversification has integrated farmers in the Brong Ahafo Region into the global commodity market. These market-based approaches are shaping agricultural practiceswith outcomes that are transforming agriculture in Ghana, particularly the Brong Ahafo Region. With this as context, this thesis adopts a critical political ecology approach to analyse contemporary processes and outcomes of agricultural transformation in Ghana's Brong Ahafo Region. Political ecology was adopted to render transparent the complex political, economic and sociocultural processes across different global and local scales shaping agricultural transformation in the region, often referred to as the 'breadbasket' of Ghana. The research adopts qualitative methods, including interviews, focus group discussions, observation and policy document analysis, to gather in-depth data on farming systems in the Brong Ahafo Region.

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2019

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Theme The African Studies Association of Australasia and the Pacific (AFSAAP) invites submissions for its 2019 conference from academics, researchers, students, practitioners and policy makers, and the diaspora community, with interests in African studies, both on the African continent and in the Australasia and Pacific region. In 2019, the conference theme is 'Africa: Diversity and Development'. The conference seeks to explore the richness of the continent and its diversity in a wide range of social, economic, political and cultural dimensions, while simultaneously discussing development options, challenges and experiences. Papers from all disciplines considering African issues in a broad range of topics, such as culture, history, literature, physical, social and economic development, environment, politics, geography, ecology, demography, health, education, migration, media, aid, climate change, natural and human-induced disasters, civil society and gender are welcomed.

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Development for whom? Emerging donors and Africa's future

Cited by 3 publications

References 17 publications

Illicit Chinese Small-Scale Mining in Ghana: Beyond Institutional Weakness?

Illicit Chinese Small-Scale Mining in Ghana: Beyond Institutional Weakness?

Agrarian transformation in Ghana’s Brong Ahafo region: Drivers and outcomes

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