Development beyond global integration: Livelihood strategies, small-scale agriculture, and regional value chains in Namibian conservation areas

In recent years, African economic policies have increasingly focused on intra-continental, rather than global integration, for instance through the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) launched in 2019. These initiatives follow a similar logic as neoliberal global value chain approaches such as those promoted by the World Bank: governments envision integration within the African continent as a driver of industry growth, economic diversification, and global competitiveness. However, the vision of such neoliberal value chain integration and its implementation through top-down regulatory and facilitative policy making has often not resulted in the expected positive outcomes. Therefore, the question remains to what extent and under which conditions the shift of economic networks from a global to a more regional scale can benefit regional development and ultimately local livelihoods. Scholarship on Global Value Chains (GVC) and Global Production Networks (GPN) addresses the ‘dark sides’ of global integration, tending to exclude peripheral areas, exploit certain actors within value chains, resulting in enclave economies. Moreover, perspectives within this literature criticise an inclusionary bias in research that often focusses on regions and sectors integrated into the global economy, thereby neglecting non-participating actors. Addressing these shortcoming, alternative forms of regional integration are increasingly gaining attention by scholars, which revolve around more localised and bottom up approaches for economic development. Against this backdrop, this dissertation firstly addresses the empirically discernible pitfalls of global integration and secondly expands the conceptual understanding of economic development in rural areas. It does so by extending the conceptualisation of regional value chains (RVC) as local, regional, or domestic economic systems with a more holistic and inclusive localised approach. Combining aspects from GVG/GPN theory, Evolutionary Economic Geography and livelihoods approaches, the dynamic livelihood strategies connected to value chains, their governance, and the potential of RVCs for inclusive regional development are considered that have received limited attention so far. With the aim to capture the evolution and organisation of RVCs and possibilities for livelihood upgrading, it provides a case study beyond global integration narratives, by the example of a RVC in horticulture in a rural area of northern Namibia. There, RVCs are governed by a myriad of multi-layered institutions, which can be distinguished between local collective action, private sector engagement, or national protectionist and commercial industry policies. Namibian regional development policies not only envision large-scale production of fresh fruits and vegetables as one central development pillar, but secondly build on international, nature-based tourism through conserving the unique flora and fauna of the Zambezi region. Examining interlinkages between both sectors, this dissertation contributes critical and timely insights into the role of polycentric value chain governance from an evolutionary viewpoint, highlighting its intersection with other sectors. It is based on an exploratory, single case study approach, building on rich mixed-methods data generated during nine months of field research. By showing how the RVC in horticulture contribute to a more inclusive regional economy, the importance of local initiatives as opposed to poorly functioning industrial policies is stressed. Furthermore, agricultural RVCs can, through their capacity to capture value from globalised economies such as the tourism industry, reduce inter- and intra-regional inequalities, depending on certain socio-economic and institutional conditions, which this dissertation unravels. Both the role of nation state policies and local institutions that distribute captured value horizontally, are stressed, adding novel insights to the existing scholarship

Understanding regional value chain evolution in peripheral areas through governance interactions-An institutional layering approach

Due to 'dark sides' of global value chain integration, a growing body of literature engages with regional value chains (RVC) as alternative strategy for inclusive regional development. To date, we know little about the conditions and actors under which RVCs evolve. Research dominantly highlights the role of regional lead firms, such as supermarket chains in food RVC, and state interventions. However, the role of other stakeholders such as public organisations and civil society at the local remains unclear. Therefore, the embeddedness of RVCs in multiple institutional layers and their exposure to institutional change needs consideration to understand how they evolve. The analysis of an emerging horticulture RVC in Namibia allows disentangling the interactions of state-driven market protection, firm-driven standardisation, and civil-society-driven collective action by analysing the processes of institutional layering underlying value chain governance. This study asks (1) how public, private and civil society governance forms hamper or foster the expansion of RVCs, and (2) how the layering of various institutions can create synergies rather than frictions. The case study helps to develop a grounded understanding of multi-layered governance, which is a crucial step to understand how RVCs can contribute to inclusive economic development in peripheral, rural areas

Building adaptive capacity to external risks through collective action - Social learning mechanisms of smallholders in rural Vietnam

Adaptation to various socio-economic risks attendant to climate change represents an increasing challenge for agrarian populations across the Global South. Rural households mitigate risks through both individual and collective strategies that have proven viable for establishing long-term adaptive capacities. However, while the importance of social interactions has been acknowledged, there has been little in-depth empirical research on the influence of collective structures on vulnerable livelihoods. Based on research with smallholders in rural Vietnam, this paper explores how social capital deployed through informal collective actions compares with the effects of formal collective organisations for the overall adaptive capacity. We apply a mixed-methods approach combining a rich survey dataset from three rural provinces, and qualitative interviews with farmers in four case study villages. The results reveal the emergence of informal and semi-formalised collective actions in farming practices as synergistic supplements to existing formal structures and institutions through mechanisms of social learning

Path Formation and Reformation: Studying the Variegated Consequences of Path Creation for Regional Development

The emergence of new regional paths is a key topic in economic geography. While new paths are largely associated with positive regional economic outcomes, little is known about how the formation of a new industry affects other parts of the regional economy. By linking recent conceptual advancements on early path formation and interpath relationships, this article develops a framework for studying how path creation, as a result of diverse resource formation processes, can cause reformation processes of existing industries. The value of the framework is illustrated in a case study on the tourism path formation process in the Zambezi region (Namibia) and its impacts on the agricultural sector. The findings reveal how the path formation has caused new forms of intraregional inequalities as well as novel opportunities for the existing agricultural sector depending on the interpath relationship. Beyond these case study-specific findings, the results emphasize the importance of a broader perspective that goes beyond a single new path and includes nonparticipating regional actors in the analysis. Only in this way can we understand how new path creation translates into regional economic development

Spatially heterogeneous effects of collective action on environmental dependence in Namibia?s Zambezi region

Many poor rural households depend on products from non-cultivated environments for subsistence and commercialization. Collective action schemes, such as community-based natural resource management (CBNRM), aim at maintaining natural resource quality and thus potentially contribute to the sustainabil-ity of environmental income sources. Little is known about whether and under which contextual condi-tions these schemes effectively promote environmental income generation or imply trade-offs between wildlife conservation and socioeconomic development. We rely on a unique combination of original farm-household data with a rich set of spatiotemporal covariates to quantify environmental income and dependency in Namibia's Zambezi region at the heart of the Kavango-Zambezi Transfrontier Conservation Area. We then estimate the effect of CBNRM on environmental income and dependency in a quasi-experimental regression-based approach. Controlling for historical variables that affected selection into formal CBNRM schemes, we further explore the role of contextual variation in exposure to tourism activity. Results suggest that CBNRM fosters livelihood strategies that are, on average, more dependent on the environment. However, this effect is driven by outcomes of households that live in close proximity to touristic enterprises, where such livelihood strategies align better with other income generating opportunities than in areas where agriculture represents the only viable economic alternative.(c) 2022 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd

Development visions, livelihood realities - how conservation shapes agricultural value chains in the Zambezi region, Namibia

In the Zambezi region, seemingly unrelated political visions propagate two development paths: nature conservation to promote tourism and Community-Based Natural Resource Management (CBNRM), and agricultural intensification. This study examines the unintended interrelations between these top-down visions by linking upgrading possibilities in agricultural value chains (AVC) with livelihood strategies of farmers from a bottom-up perspective. The results are based on qualitative field research that explains the how and why of the emergence of multiple rural development trajectories. We operationalise upgrading as actual and aspirational hanging in, stepping up and stepping out strategies. Findings show that although farmers envision stepping up their agricultural activities to better position themselves in AVCs, they remain in a strategic hanging in or downgrading state due CBNRM-related institutions. Concluding, we propose implications for CBNRM that synthesise competing development visions with actual livelihoods realities through the acknowledgment of small-scale agrarian systems rather than the crowding out of such

Navigating through the storm: conservancies as local institutions for regional resilience in Zambezi, Namibia

The COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted global production networks and challenged the resilience of regional economies to external shocks. The tourism sector was severely affected by the travel bans imposed, as were regions characterised by tourism development, such as Zambezi in northern Namibia. Nonetheless, with the support of the national government, conservancies, as local governance institutions, partly maintained the distribution of value from tourism throughout the pandemic and strengthened agriculture-tourism linkages to achieve long-term transformation. These findings suggest that local institutions are able to create regional resilience through their capacity to drive adaptation and adaptability in a diversified regional economy

Collective Capacity to Aspire? Aspirations and Livelihood Strategies in the Zambezi Region, Namibia

This paper investigates rural development from a micro-level standpoint, focusing on individual and collective aspirations. We aim to deepen understanding of how a person's socio-economic environment shapes their aspirations and simultaneously how aspirations contribute to future-oriented actions. In combining concepts of sustainable livelihoods and aspirations with a context of 'ordinary uncertainties' (Pine, Ordinary uncertainties: remembering the past and imagining the future at times of rupture and mobility. In: Paper presented at the conference Rurality and Future-Making. Comparative Perspectives from Europe, the Middle East, and the Mediterranean, 22-24 May, Cologne, Germany, 2019), we discuss the role of individual and collective aspirations in developing livelihood strategies. Drawing on qualitative data from field research in Namibia's Zambezi region, we identify crucial factors that influence aspirations: multiple uncertainties, experiences, and role models. Access to diverse experiences and social exchange shapes future-oriented aspirations, and therefore needs to be included in rural development strategies that account for diversity within communities

An argument for place-based policies: The importance of local agro-economic, political and environmental conditions for agricultural policies exemplified by the Zambezi region, Namibia

This article outlines the importance of place-based policies derived from knowledge on local realities. Through an analysis of maize policies and their impact on the Zambezi region, Namibia, we illustrate the constraining limitations of insufficiently place-based policies. We highlight the problems of current top-down policies of production promotion, value chain integration, and sector protection which barely integrate region-specific knowledge. We emphasize the importance of integrating knowledge on soil, climate, water conditions, pro-duction capacities, and local farming practices. Based on our analysis, we recommend a more knowledge-and place-based policy including a multidimensional perspective, adapted agricultural management, and open decentralized governance structures that engages region-specific agricultural, economic, political, and envi-ronmental knowledge