Participation without Negotiating: Influence of Stakeholder Power Imbalances and Engagement Models on Agricultural Policy Development in Uganda (original) (raw)
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African Journal of …, 2011
Agricultural policy formulation in Sub Saharan Africa has been dominated by research initiatives that alienated other farmers and stakeholders. The Sub Saharan Africa Challenge Programme (SSA CP) seeks to use multi-stakeholder partnerships as an institutional innovation for agricultural policy formulation and development. This paper uses some experiences from the SSA CP to discuss the design principles for an effective partnership that can deliver relevant agricultural policies. It argues that consultation, negotiation, having a shared understanding of key relationships and interdependence between partners are important principles in multi stakeholder partners. Government's role should be streamlined to be a participant, provider of a conducive environment for policy formulation and provider of public goods.
African Journal of Agricultural Research, 2011
Agricultural policy formulation in Sub Saharan Africa has been dominated by research initiatives that alienated other farmers and stakeholders. The Sub Saharan Africa Challenge Programme (SSA CP) seeks to use multi-stakeholder partnerships as an institutional innovation for agricultural policy formulation and development. This paper uses some experiences from the SSA CP to discuss the design principles for an effective partnership that can deliver relevant agricultural policies. It argues that consultation, negotiation, having a shared understanding of key relationships and interdependence between partners are important principles in multi stakeholder partners. Government's role should be streamlined to be a participant, provider of a conducive environment for policy formulation and provider of public goods.
Agricultural Stakeholders and Policymaking in Kenya: the Bates-Lipton Hypothesis Revisited
For a long time, Kenya's agricultural sector (like the agricultural sector in many other African countries) has witnessed stagnation as indicated by the frequent scarcity of food and declining prices of its major cash crops. Before the 1980s this stagnation was associated with the monopoly status of state corporations which took the lion's share of the profits that was due to the farmer living him/ her with barely enough to cover his/ her costs of production. Even though the era of liberalization in the 1980s has had the effect of eliminating of state monopolies in the sector, problems within the agricultural sector are far from over. Drawing from the Lipton-Bates urban-bias thesis, this chapter seeks to demonstrate the argument that the persistence of problems within Kenya's agricultural sector has its roots in urban bias. The chapter proceeds by examining the extent to which the groups representing agricultural interests have been inclusive, the extent to which policy making within the agricultural sector has been inclusive and hoe effective have been the strategies used by the groups representing agricultural interests. The chapter relies almost exclusively on secondary data including library sources, government documents in the Ministry of Agriculture and documents possessed by the major agricultural stake-holders, e.g., agricultural cooperative societies. The study finds that there is evidence of urban-bias regarding the manner in which the Jubilee government has handled agricultural policy-making since its coming to power, albeit with some indications that this is changing. The study recommends among other things that the war on mismanagement of public institutions and corruption in high places be intensified; that public participation in all government projects be intensified, and; that the government considers experimenting with liberal theory's law of comparative advantage in dealing with some of the challenges facing the agricultural sector.
The paper presents findings from a study carried out to assess the contribution of stakeholders' participation on the performance of the national agricultural farmers' extension services programme in Uganda known as Operation Wealth Creation (OWEC). Specifically, the study sought to establish how participatory planning, budgeting, monitoring and evaluation (M & E) respectively contributed to the performance of OWC in selected district in central Uganda. The study adopted a cross-sectional survey design using both quantitative and qualitative data collection and analysis techniques and employed both questionnaires and interview guides on key participants in the programme. Findings of the study indicated positive relationships between stakeholders' participation and programme performance with participatory planning, budgeting and M & E all having positive significant effects on the performance of OWC programme. The study concluded that indeed stakeholders' participation contributed to improved performance of the OWC programme. The study recommends increased funding and M & E of the agricultural extension programmes for improved performance.
Extension professionals facilitate community development through the strategic manipulation of learning and power in peer-to-peer learning partnerships. We discuss the relationship between empowerment and power, highlight relevant literature on the difficulties power presents to learning and the efficacy of service learning tools to facilitate mutual learning and present original findings from our research on an international development partnership in which Extension professionals had partial success in creating opportunities for mutually empowering learning among farmers from Iowa and Uganda. We recommend that Extension professionals encourage learning across power gradients by providing opportunities for informal conversations and encouraging reflection by participants.
African Journal of Business Management
This study sought to determine the impact of resource mobilization by stakeholders on the viability of government-funded agricultural initiatives, using a case study of the Kabale area. The lack of stakeholder participation in resource mobilization and decision-making has an influence on the longterm viability of donor-funded potato projects in the Kabale district. This study required a prior study of the cross-sectional survey in order to lead to expected outcomes. 75 respondents provided information, and we integrated quantitative and qualitative analysis. The analysis, which was conducted at three separate levels, utilized descriptive, bivariate, and multivariate approaches. The descriptive analysis required the presentation of just one variable and its properties, frequency tables were used to illustrate the data. A Pearson correlation matrix was used to analyze the bivariate correlations between the dependent variable and the predictor components. At the multivariate level, the dependent variable was regressed against the updated predictor factors of sustainability of government projects. The results of a regression analysis showed that resource mobilization from stakeholders has a positive impact on the effectiveness of potato initiatives in Kabale District (coef =-0.890, p-value = 0.000). The main finding of this study is that resource mobilization by stakeholders has a substantial impact on the sustainability of potato projects. The study recommends putting greater attention on implementing stakeholder resource mobilization by defining the provision of capital, human resources, and availability of land in order to assure the sustainability of potato projects.
2012
This was followed by fieldwork which utilised a semi-structured questionnaire. Interviews with individuals and focus groups were done using the questionnaire. Fieldwork was conducted across a sample of sites with substantial smallholder agriculture and advocacy movements. Interviews were held with key informants including leaders of advocacy organisations and senior civil servants. Questions focused on marginalisation of smallholder farmers and/or their differential treatment by the state visa -vis the lavish state support of large scale-farming, especially in Rift Valley and Central. 3 This disproportionate treatment of farmers primarily highlights problems of land tenure and related policies. These are clearly mentioned in the AU CAADP document, specifically the Pillars of Smallholder Production, and easily fit within the problematique of agricultural policy in Kenya. The adoption of AU/CAADP framework points to the need to look at land and water management, labour and inputs and technology and market access.
Networks among agricultural stakeholders in the Southwestern Highlands of Uganda
Journal of Agricultural Extension and Rural Development, 2011
The aim of this study was to explore the interactions that exist among agricultural stakeholders in the southwestern highlands of Uganda as a way of identifying opportunities and gaps for operation of Innovation Platforms (IPs) under the proof of concept of Integrated Agricultural Research for Development (IAR4D) research project. The specific objectives were to (i) characterize the agricultural stakeholders in the study sites (ii) determine the nature, diversity and relative importance of horizontal and vertical networks that exist among stakeholders in the Southwestern Highlands of Uganda. Data were collected from both stakeholder analysis and household interviews in Kabale and Kisoro Districts. Results show that extension staff, local governments and farmer groups accounted for approximately 75% of all categories of stakeholders in the area. Most of these organizations started after 10 to 15 years ago following the return of relative political stability in Uganda. Generally, stakeholder interactions in site with limited ARD intervention are more limited compared to their high-intervention counterparts. Sites with "good" market access have more institutions operating there but majority are isolated from each other. At household level, an individual household has networks with approximately two different organizations most of which are farmer groups or credit associations. The greatest proportion of horizontal networks that a household has is with fellow farmers. In order to make the value chain complete, establishment of IPs should pay special attention to including the private sector such as input and produce dealers. Facilitating IP actors to identify critical challenges and opportunities, and effectively articulate them will ensure cohesion. It is also critical to periodically monitor and evaluate stakeholders in terms of the quality of the networks to minimize conflict situations.