Roy Love

Drought, Dutch disease and controlled transition in Botswana agriculture

The rapid expansion in diamond production in Botswana during the 1980s places the country into that category of economies where the growth of other sectors can be examined only with reference to the direct and indirect impact of the ‘booming sector’. Parallels with the impact of North Sea gas exploitation on non‐gas sectors of the Dutch economy in the 1970s, which came to be known as ‘Dutch disease’, are evident. It is shown that, principally through exchange rate movements, the exceptional growth of the mineral sector in Botswana created relative price disadvantages in the agricultural sector and that these were positively correlated to output. To focus on the irregularity of rainfall patterns alone is thus to relegate the importance of economic and political factors in accounting for low agricultural productivity in Botswana. In its role as beneficiary of most of the domestic revenues from mineral exploitation the government has, however, adopted a discriminatory expenditure pattern, favouring livestock...

HIV/AIDS in Africa: Links, livelihoods & legacies

Of the significance of HIV/AIDS at household, village and community level throughout Africa there can be no doubt. By 2002, the cumulative number of deaths from the disease in Africa had been estimated to be of the order of 19 million (calculated from Barnet & Whiteside, table 1.1 and UNAIDSa), almost 30 million Africans were estimated to be HIV positive, and by 2010 some 6 million of the then total deaths will have been in South Africa alone (Lewis, 2004). Although it is impossible to be precise, such figures considerably exceed those of around 11 million often (conservatively) estimated to have been transported during the entire period of the Atlantic slave trade (Austin, 1987). As with slavery, HIV/AIDS also primarily claims adult victims where the impact on economic production is greatest - another recent estimate is that between 1985 and 2020 over 20% of adult farm workers in the nine hardest hit African countries will have lost their lives because of AIDS (UNFAO, 2004a). While the impact is likely to be similar in many respects, two obvious differences from slavery are that the perpetrator is less easy to identify and moral judgements more readily confused, producing many examples of politically loaded policy decisions and value-laden interventions. Moreover, debates about ‘being faithful’ to one partner, possibly in marriage, and postponing teenage sex are institutional camouflage over the fact that a primary means of transfer of this disease in Africa has been through a physical activity as natural as eating and drinking, and which often involves great emotional and affectionate intimacy between two people. It can also of course be a violently imposed act by men on women and girls. In either case, there is the heightened pathos of human tragedy to which we as commentators should not lose our sensitivity and potential for empathy as a result of excessive intellectualising.

Corporate wealth or public health? WTO/TRIPS flexibilities and access to HIV/AIDS antiretroviral drugs by developing countries

Between 1994 and 2003, the TRIPS (Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights) Agreement of the WTO was refined to allow for flexibilities in the use of compulsory licences to import and export ‘generic’ varieties of pharmaceutical products, including ARV drugs for the treatment of HIV/AIDS. After summarising this process, and assessing its implications in practice for developing countries, this article briefly places the current regime in a longer-term context of the institutional protection of patents in Britain and Europe dating from the nineteenth century. It traces how that pattern, which benefits major patent holders, continues to be present in TRIPS. The article goes on to demonstrate the continuity of corporate influence over the state, as expressed in the ‘TRIPS-plus’ conditions, which are appearing in bilateral free-trade agreements between the USA and either individual developing countries or regional groupings. This array of what amount to institutional obstacles to the sustained availability of cheap drugs presents serious problems for future operations of the supply chain for many imported medicines and, in the case of HIV/AIDS, has negative implications for the long-term clinical effectiveness of the most widely used drugs.

Conflict and Peace in the Horn of Africa

ROAPE has commissioned several special issues on the Horn of Africa in the last 25 years. The first in 1984 (No. 30), ‘Conflict in the Horn of Africa’, started off by characterising the hallmark of the region as ‘manifold, violent social conflict . . .’ Although by 1996 (No. 70), ‘The Horn of Africa’ looked forward hopefully to peace dividends emanating from the successful end to liberation wars within the region, and from the end of the Cold War which had been fuelling conflicts in this part of Africa, new conflicts within Somalia had already ruptured the state there. By 2003, the ‘Horn of Conflict’ (No. 97) emphasised the centrality of violence to the region’s political economy.

Religion, Ideology & Conflict in Africa

The last issue which ROAPE devoted entirely to religion (‘Fundamentalism in Africa: Religion and Politics’, No. 52, 1991) reflected what its editors saw then as the principal area of concern, particularly Christian fundamentalism often sponsored by US evangelical churches. Global events since the devastation of the ‘twin towers’ in New York on 9 September 2001, the election and re-election to the American presidency of a ‘born again’ Christian,1 terrorist atrocities in Kenya and Tanzania and the invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq, have altered the picture so radically that a revisit to the topic is now timely, if not overdue. In so doing it is appropriate also to update the terminology. ‘Fundamentalism’ has increasingly come to be seen as a problematic label, with a shift from its meaning of a dogmatism of belief that did not depart from literal interpretation of sacred texts. Concern today is not with religious belief per se, but faith as the basis for political activities and organisation, even if the rigidity of those beliefs adds intolerance to violent politics. This will be the focus of the current issue. In it we will tend to use the now more standard ‘Islamism’ and talk about Islamist movements rather than ‘Islamic fundamentalism’; likewise, rather than Christian fundamentalism we will talk about ideologies such as evangelism or Pentecostalism and in organisational terms concentrate on the familiar ‘Christian right’. There is also a contextual shift internal to Africa (and elsewhere globally) in the apparent burgeoning of religious bodies, of converts to new faiths and in the centrality of religious concerns, especially in politics – in turn reflected in the number of books, articles and conferences on these themes.2

The Ethiopian Coffee Filiere and Its Institution: Cui Bono

From the middle of the last century coffee has been the major source of foreign exchange for the Ethiopian economy and its governments. The bulk of production comes from small‐scale peasant producers located in parts of the south, southwest and east of the country, from where it is channelled through a largely privately owned marketing system to auction in Addis Ababa or Dire Dawa. It is then purchased by exporters for further processing and onward shipment. This marketing structure has evolved in a highly regulated way, comprising a set of institutional relationships which are not the product of chance and which in a number of respects predate both the current government and the Derg. As such the coffee filiereoffers an interesting case study of the relative merits of an analysis built upon the principles of ‘new institutional economies’, where efficiency is the benchmark, and one which adopts a more historically based political economy approach in which power and control are the markers. The distinction is not always transparent.

Changing aid patterns in Southern Africa

The paper argues that the increase in official development assistance to South Africa following its transition to majority rule was largely at the expense of other countries in the region. While this refocusing of aid has been aimed at disadvantaged black groups, it will also reinforce the regional dominance of the South African economy. Aid to Botswana, Lesotho, and Namibia has also become far more concentrated on human resource investment than on, for example, assistance for industrial development. It is argued that this will create a skill base which will benefit South African business expansion and which, when placed in the context of liberalised trade regimes, will tend to favour those already well placed in market terms who will often be white, male, and South African. Only a properly coordinated gender- and poverty-sensitive regional aid programme will help to counterbalance the polarisation in favour of established South African business interests that seems the likely consequence of present policies.

Funding the Ethiopian state: who pays

Two topics have dominated discussion of Ethiopia in recent years. One is the military position in the north and to a lesser extent the east of the country, and the other is the agricultural situation, frequently, but not solely, concerned with famine in Wollo and Tigre. Although these topics are undoubtedly important in any analysis of the current situation, their predominance in discussion has tended to create an imbalance in the overall picture. By 1985 agricultural production contributed only 44% of Gross Domestic Product and yet we hear little of the nature and significance of the remaining 56% consisting principally of industrial production (16%) and services (39%). Among more general economic indicators, occasionally price inflation or the balance of payments is mentioned, but rarely in a context of overall economic performance and usually in connection with the agricultural situation. Of key importance in all such discussions is the role of the state whose influence pervades every aspect of economi...

State, class & civil society in Africa

In the first week of 2006 the British press reported on two events relating to Africa: one emblazoned on front pages, but of little real significance, and the other tucked away on an inside page, of potentially greater significance. The former was the recruitment of Bob Geldof to the newly branded UK Conservative Party to advise on poverty and Africa. He was appointed for his presumed ‘expertise’ on Africa even though he is strongly non-partisan in a party political sense, implying that the causes and cures for Africa’s underdevelopment are agreed upon between the major UK political parties. However, the appointment of a high profile media campaigner disguises the underlying theme of neoliberal consensus across the political spectrum in the UK and indicates that any change of government will bring about little change in policy towards the developing world. Thus, the point is not that there are many better qualified experts in Africa and beyond, but the Conservatives (like New Labour) are happy using concern for Africa as evidence of their ethical credentials. ‘Caring for Africa’ is proof positive of your humanity and respect of human rights, while all the time treating vast swathes of the globe with derision.

Another World is Possible

The exhibition over the past year. The works were produced throughout 2011 with the sponsorship of the New Israeli Fund for Cinema and Television, within the framework of experimental film. The Fund asked the artists to examine the relations between experimental film and other forms of art, including film, music, and theater. The ten works displayed in this exhibit differ from each other in their presentation and their form, and they were chosen out of interest in the initial proposals submitted by the artists participating in the exhibit.