Basis for poverty reduction? A rich civil society, farmer innovation and agricultural service provision in Kabale, Uganda

This paper looks at the potential for poverty alleviation in one part of Uganda, based on a poverty analysis of the local, and on analyses of the local civil society and of development discourses that are often dominated by the central over the local. In response to calls for microstudies of actually existing civil society it points to the usefulness of including community wide processes and hegemonic discourses in analyses of the local civil society’s development role. Inspired by the IDS civil society Concept paper’s list of civic organizations’ roles: “ • representation of the interest of specificic groups in relation government and to other sectors of society; • mobilization of social actors to increase their conciousness and impact; • regulation and monitoring of state performance and the behaviour and actions of public officials; • developmental or social action to improve the wellbeing of their own or other constituencies,” (IDS 1998, p6) It includes both the great plurality of local groups found in Rubaya, a poor, fairly isolated and distant sub-county in Southwest Uganda, as well as community planning and plan implementation, as important parts of civil society analyses. Rubaya is really poor compared to other parts of Uganda, especially because of its constrained non-agricultural sector, and because people seem to be making up for that by selling food crops to get an income, which to some extent endangers their own food security. It is also clear, however, that there is social differentiation with repercussions for different groups of farmers’ agricultural and livelihood strategies, as well as their abilities to respond to agricultural interventions. The analysis revealed that Rubaya is endowed with a rich and vibrant local civil society, which is a potential link or counterforce to larger external institutions – developmental or financial in nature. A civil society that does mirror the social differentiation, but which still, despite their somewhat lower group membership and planning participation, encompasses the poorer sections of society. In the last 15-20 years 2-4 different community planning processes have been introduced into and adopted by village communities, which have proven to be able to plan and implement work on their own needs as communities. Participatory methods can make it more inclusive, as in the CARE FIP project, but disintegration into disparate planning processes, may lead to community frustration. New civil society structures, in ther form of local functional groups have also mushroomed in recent years, because of new opportunities, partly opened by NGO interventions like CARE FIP. They enhance further the basis for agricultural innovation – which also, contrary to expectations, appear to have been existing for a long time. Contrary to the popular development discourse about Kabale district, farmers have historically invented and/or adopted basic additions to, and thus maintained their farming-systems, in response to population growth, new socio-economic conditions, and externally introduced innovations. While this is supported by mutual communication and being organized through local groups, and by community capacities being enhanced through participatory planning processes, both NAADS and FIP, as new extension initiatives, are, though inclined in that direction, to different degrees in their conception and implementation far from really embracing a new paradigm , where most important would be empowering farmers on technology development, by enabling them to: identify problems; work with problem solutions; experiment with their own and new solutions; – and thus enhance their self respect, also by showing that outsiders respect, what they are doing

Gendered district poverty profiles and poverty monitoring Kabarole, Masaka, Pallisa, Rakai and Tororo districts, Uganda

The overall objective of the Danida supported Agricultural Sector Programme Support (ASPS) in Uganda is to improve the conditions for the poorest part of the population and contribute to reduce gender-based inequalities in Uganda in general and in the pilot focus districts in particular. Late in 2000, Danida asked Department of Agricultural Economics, Makerere University, Kampala, and Centre for Development Research, Copenhagen, to form an external task group with the purpose of monitoring the gender and poverty impact of the ASPS. The present Working Paper presents a slightly revised version of one of the reports that have been the response to this task.1 The Paper presents gendered district poverty profiles for the five ASPS pilot districts, i.e. Kabarole, Masaka, Pallisa, Rakai and Tororo districts, as well as the methodology for developing these profiles. It depicts and compares the situation of the ‘betteroff’, the ‘less poor’ and the ‘poorest’ households in the five districts according to a number of dimensions, which local people themselves have identified as important when describing poverty and well-being in their communities. In addition, the report analyses the aspect of equality and inequality in gender relations within the household. Based on women’s own perceptions of female well-being, three levels of equality in gender relations are distinguished and related to household poverty. These profiles are the district baselines against which the gender and poverty impact of the ASPS can be monitored in the future. Finally, the report makes a very preliminary attempt at analysing the outcomes, including both the households reached and the resulting behavioural changes achieved through the various interventions supported by the ASPS components. This is related both to poverty levels, gender relations and differences between districts. The Paper concludes by outlining how the analysis should be undertaken when the exercise of developing gendered district poverty profiles is repeated three to four years later as part of ASPS impact monitoring

ETNISKE GRUPPER I DE ØSTAFRIKANSIE CENTRALADMINISTRATIONER

-

From waterwars to waterriots? Lessons from transboundary water management. Proceedings of the international conference, December 2003, DIIS, Copenhagen

Water issues impact on security at the various levels, albeit most directly on ‘human security’. Hence, it is a potential source of conflict. Following a prelude of water and ‘the human condition’, the paper presents an analytical survey of the various aspects of the water-conflict-security nexus, describing how water may cause or constitute security problems, and how conflicts and the quest for security may cause problems with water. Not only may water be a direct cause of insecurity; it may also constitute an indirect security threat by virtue of its potential for causing conflicts which may, in turn, represent security threats to states as well as societal groups and individuals. Conversely, the very ‘securitisation’ of water issues, i.e. their being referred to by relevant actors as urgent and of existential importance, may lead to conflict, as scope is thereby created for resorting to ‘extraordinary measures’ such as going to war. Based on this analysis of how water problems and conflicts are linked, the concluding sections are devoted to the question what might be done to break the vicious circles – or even better, to transform them into ‘benign circles’ where the resolution of water problems may help prevent violent conflicts and the prevention of conflict help solve water problems

The "success story" of peasant tobacco production in Tanzania : the political economy of a commodity producing peasantry

This book studies how Tanzania in a period of 25-30 years became a tobacco producer and exporter. But its emphasis is on production, and therefore on the producers. It analyses the processes that made Tanzanians into peasant producers of tobacco for the international market. The dynamics of the organization of production under changing conditions of production. The effects on the development of productive forces, reproduction processes and the standard of living among the producers

Ujamaa : socialism from above

Contents: Part 1: The Setting – The ideology and and the region -- 1. Ujamaa as an Ideology and a policy – 2. West Lake Region: Socio-economic development – 3. West Lake Region: Ujamaa in the context of agricultural development -- Part 2: Ujamaa Villages in West Lake Region – The problems of social and economic viability, transformation, and participation -- 4. “Successful” ujamaa villages in a peasant society under pressure – 5. Ujamaa as forced and subsidized resettlement – 6. Ujamaa enterprises in traditional villages – 7. Summary and concluding remarks on the development of ujamaa villages in West Lake Region -- Part 3: Ujamaa and the Tanzanian Social Formation – 8. The emergence of a new class structure – 9. Bureaucratization of the ujamaa policy </p