Peter Little | Emory University (original) (raw)

Uploads

Papers by Peter Little

Pastoral Livestock Marketing in Eastern Africa, 2006

Pastoralism, Jun 15, 2017

This article explores the concept of resilience as outlined in a recent World Bank publication th... more This article explores the concept of resilience as outlined in a recent World Bank publication that applies the concept to rangeland areas in Africa. The paper does not attempt to speak to all of the dimensions of resilience and debates about the concept's applications to pastoral ecology and rangelands. Instead, we utilize a panel data set from northern Kenya and southern Ethiopia that has been analysed in other published studies to reconsider it from a resilience perspective. We show how different livelihood groups in the region are impacted by climate, disease, market, conflict, and land use shocks in a time characterized by a drought phase and a recovery phase. In many cases, there are livelihood-specific impacts of these shocks, and these help explain long-term herd dynamics and pastoralist poverty traps. Our analysis then turns to different ways of measuring resilience and finds that measurements of combined income and asset thresholds provide the most convincing outcomes. We further assess some broader opportunities and innovations that have the potential to enhance resilience in the drylands. Finally, different policy relevant steps that can be taken to enhance resilience are discussed in the context of the considerable heterogeneity in livelihood strategies which occurs in African rangelands.

SSRN Electronic Journal, 2001

This paper introduces a simple method of price risk decomposition that determines the extent to w... more This paper introduces a simple method of price risk decomposition that determines the extent to which producer price risk is attributable to volatile inter-market margins, intra-day variation, intra-week (day of week) variation, or seasonality. We apply the method to livestock markets in northern Kenya, a setting of dramatic price volatility where price stabilization is a live policy issue. Large, variable inter-market basis is the single most important factor in explaining producer price risk in animals typically traded between markets. Local market conditions explain most price risk in other markets, in which traded animals rarely exit the region. Seasonality accounts for relatively little price risk faced by pastoralists in the dry lands of northern Kenya.

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.

Pastoral Livestock Marketing in Eastern Africa, 2006

Commodities and Globalization Eds A Haugeraud, MP …, 2000

SSRN Electronic Journal, 2001

This paper starts from the premise that diversification of assets, activities, and incomes is imp... more This paper starts from the premise that diversification of assets, activities, and incomes is important to African rural households, in that diversification into nonfarm income constitutes on average about 45 percent of incomes, and the push and pull factors driving that diversification are bound to persist. From that premise, we noted that the empirical study of diversification has been beset by practical problems and issues relating to (1) definitions and concepts, (2) data collection, and to (3) measurement of the nature and extent of diversification. The paper addressed each of those problems. Two points are of special interest to the overall conceptualization of diversification research. The first is that empirical studies have exhibited a wide variety-bordering on confusion-of systems of classification of assets, activities, and incomes as pertains to diversification behavior. We argued that the classification should conform to that used in standard practice of national accounts and macro input-output table construction, classifying activities into economic sectors that have standard definitions, and the classification of which does not depend on the location or functional type (wage-or self-employment) of the activity. We further argued that given a sectoral classification, it is useful to make a functional and locational categorization of the activity, and keep each of these three dimensions of the activitysectoral, functional, and locational-separate and distinct so as to avoid confusion. The second is that it is useful to have an image of a production function in mind when analyzing the components of diversification behavior: (1) assets are the factors of production, representing the capacity of the household to diversify; (2) activities are the ex ante production flows of asset services; (3) incomes are the ex post flows of incomes, and it is crucial to note that the goods and services produced by activities need to be valued by prices, formed by markets at meso and macro levels, in order to be the measured outcomes called incomes. "Livelihoods" is a term used frequently in recent diversification research, and while its meaning differs somewhat over studies, it generally means household and community behavior, with respect to holdings and use of assets and the productive activities to which the assets are applied. The link between livelihoods and incomes needs to be made by valuing the output of livelihood activities at market (and/or virtual) prices. That valuation permits an analytical link between household/community behavior (thus a micro view of diversification) and the aggregate functioning of markets (thus a link with the meso and macro levels and the policies pertaining thereto).

The Journal of Development Studies, 2018

This paper examines changing patterns of land rights and use in Borana and Guji zones, southern E... more This paper examines changing patterns of land rights and use in Borana and Guji zones, southern Ethiopia. It seeks to understand how heterogeneous groups of pastoralists and agropastoralists gain access to land under varied institutional configurations. We find different means of exclusion are pursued, including private enclosures that rely on customary institutions, government administration, and/or hybrid combinations to enforce claims. We also find that some herders may be making claims to farm plots with the goal of securing access to land rather than planting crops. By assessing how different situations and socioeconomic factors affect land claims, the paper deepens understanding of motivations for plot acquisition by pastoralists and challenges the common dichotomy between customary and formal administrative rules and institutions.

African Studies Review, 2013

he recent popularity of the term resilience in the development discourse concerning arid and semi... more he recent popularity of the term resilience in the development discourse concerning arid and semiarid lands in Africa can be traced to two major international issues. The first is climate change, concerned with how to build resilient communities in the face of increasingly extreme weather events. The other is recurrent humanitarian crises, especially traced to the most recent drought-and conflict-induced 2011 disaster in the Horn of Africa. Both of these phenomena have strong relevance for African pastoralism, which many climate-change models show will be strongly impacted. (Thornton et al. 2009). The objectives of this chapter are to summarize (1) applications of a resilience framework for pastoralism, (2) key challenges to resilience among pastoralists, (3) local responses and initiatives, and (4) conclusions and development implications. The chapter draws on research findings and data from northern Kenya and southern Ethiopia gathered for the Pastoral Risk Management Project (PARIMA) (McPeak, Little, and Doss 2012), as well as studies from elsewhere in Africa. Applications to Pastoralism Recent approaches to understanding dryland economies encompass the idea of "bounce back," the capacity to prepare for, cope with, and recover from different types of shocks without significant welfare loss or derailment of trajectories of welfare improvement. There are at least three reasons why resilience should appeal to researchers and practitioners in the context of pastoralism: • It supports the notion of bounce back in the boom/bust drought cycles so prevalent in pastoralist areas.

The Horn of Africa (HA) includes some of the world's poorest rural populations, most volatile pol... more The Horn of Africa (HA) includes some of the world's poorest rural populations, most volatile political conflicts, and extreme cases of food instability. This proposed project will initiate new field research, build on existing studies and databases, and extend the comparative work in the Horn of Africa to include analyses in another region, Central America. The objective of the project is to improve understandings of the ways in which asset cycles and poverty affect and are affected by factor market processes. As an empirical backdrop, the project highlights the theme of 'shocks' (climatic and other) to better assess the dynamics of these cycles under stress and the harsh realities that confront some of the world's poorest populations. The ultimate goal of the study is to identify policies that improve household access to land, labor, and capital and factor market performance, thus allowing impoverished households to escape the debilitating cycles of poverty, asset depletion, and food insecurity. In the Horn of Africa these households are increasingly trapped in food aid dependency and unsustainable ('destructive') land use practices.

Bildhaan: An International Journal of …, 2008

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 ...

Nomadic Peoples, 2021

This special issue of Nomadic Peoples interrogates the increasingly overused concept of resilienc... more This special issue of Nomadic Peoples interrogates the increasingly overused concept of resilience by examining a series of case studies from East Africa. It addresses the ways in which anthropologists have studied the interactions between pastoral communities and outside actors (e.g., development and government agencies) under the guise of 'building resilience'. The essays challenge readers to think beyond persistent dichotomies of local/global, modernity/tradition, subject/object, human/nature and culture/environment in the context of studying pastoralist resilience. 'Resilience'-and its frequently presumed antonym 'vulnerability'-are commonly used terms in academic and non-academic narratives about pastoralists and the risks they confront, especially those related to climate change. Increasingly, food insecurity, extreme poverty, low-intensity conflict, displacement and natural disasters that are impacting East African pastoralists are attributed to global climate change, regardless of the empirical evidence. In particular, the need to 'build resilience' among East African pastoralists is frequently highlighted whenever humanitarian and developmental interventions to address these problems are considered

SSRN Electronic Journal, 2004

Journal of Agrarian Change

Key findings included: 41 (13%) of the 315 samples analysed were positive for ESBL/AmpC-producing... more Key findings included: 41 (13%) of the 315 samples analysed were positive for ESBL/AmpC-producing E. coli Three (0.95%) of all the samples tested were positive for the mcr-1 transferable colistin resistance gene None of the 41 E. coli isolates were found to be resistant to the 'last resort' carbapenem antimicrobials Overall, between 2018 and 2020, the percentage of samples positive for ESBL/AmpCproducing E. coli remained almost identical at 13.6% and 13% respectively Between the 2016 and 2018 EU AMR surveys, there was a significant reduction in the proportion of chicken samples positive for ESBL/AmpC-producing E. coli This is the first time that retail chicken samples were found to be positive for mcr plasmidmediated colistin resistant E. coli. A risk assessment was carried out and the risk was deemed very low. This was endorsed by the ACMSF AMR Working Group.

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.

Pastoral Livestock Marketing in Eastern Africa, 2006

Pastoralism, Jun 15, 2017

SSRN Electronic Journal, 2001

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

Pastoral Livestock Marketing in Eastern Africa, 2006

Commodities and Globalization Eds A Haugeraud, MP …, 2000

SSRN Electronic Journal, 2001

The Journal of Development Studies, 2018

African Studies Review, 2013

Bildhaan: An International Journal of …, 2008

Nomadic Peoples, 2021

SSRN Electronic Journal, 2004

Journal of Agrarian Change

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.