Barbara Thomas-Slayter

Structural change, power politics, and community organizations in Africa: Challenging the patterns, puzzles and paradoxes

Abstract This paper explores two phenomena shaping processes of local institutional and organizational change in rural Africa. The first is the complexity of institutional layering and dissonance in which local organizations and institutions in rural Africa coexist. The second is the paradox often found in state local relations in Africa. Central governments encourage local communities to take on responsibilities which the center cannot manage. Should significant organizational strength emerge at the local level, however, central powers often move expeditiously to destroy it. Illustrative material comes primarily from Kenya and Zimbabwe and selectively from several other countries. We ask what new structures are emerging and what old ones are being adapted to new functions. We argue that local organizations are critical for addressing ecological decline and restoring the productivity and sustainability of rural Africa. Both localities and national governments have much to gain if the capacities of local organizations can become, themselves, a valued resource in the resource-scarce setting comprising much of rural Africa.

Sustainable investments: Women's contributions to natural resource management projects in Africa

Can prospects for improving livelihood security and building sustainable environments in Africa be increased if women have greater influence in decisions about how to manage resources? Anecdotal evidence suggests that this question should be answered in the affirmative, yet few development agencies perform systematic evaluations with gender-disaggregated data despite nearly two decades of development literature describing the pitfalls of failing to do so. This paper explores this question through analysis of cases from Kenya, Nigeria, Malawi, The Gambia, and Rwanda gleaned from a literature search of more than 50 natural resource management projects across Africa. It highlights enabling conditions which facilitate effective involvement of both men and women in natural resource management, and develops indicators to clarify progress in terms of impact, process, and sustainability.

Alternatives to anarchy: Africa's transition from agricultural to industrial societies

Abstract Policy makers, development assistance agencies, and the media paint a grim picture for Africas twenty-first century. Famine, chaos, overpopulation, resource degradation, and anarchy are oft-cited buzzwords that have, in recent years, encouraged donors to abandon the continent. Africa is in trouble. But the buzzwords that precipitate donor withdrawal are symptoms, not causes. Africa is in trouble because the institutions of governance and management that external agencies have prescribed and national politicians embraced do not match the need. Colonial regimes in the early 20th century and development agencies in the later decades have imposed institutions of centralized decision-making at a time when most African states are navigating the treacherous shoals of transitions from agricultural to industrial societies. Central rule has enabled small and powerful elites to gain control of political and economic institutions and impose arbitrary and self-serving policies. Fragmented agricultural societies lack national institutions of accountability; many of Africas people have therefore endured capricious rule with little opportunity for recourse. Alternatives exist to African anarchy. Poverty can be reduced, livelihoods improved, and resource degradation reversed. Eight brief case examples suggest how local planning and action, rooted in community based-institutions compatible with Africas transition, have enabled village organizations to mobilize internal resources, link with external agencies, and implement action plans of their own design. Lessons learned suggest that structured and systematic tools that engage local people in decision-making can ease the agricultural-to-industrial transition, build local institutional capabilities, and strengthen the accountability that many Africa countries currently lack.