18 research outputs found
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Linking natural product producer & processor organisations to natural product enterprises: a discussion of past, present and future models
The big idea for sustainability for indigenous natural product (INP) harvesting is that communities have a reason to protect and manage their resources when those resources pay them a suitable regular income. Forming a long-term healthy commercial relationship between harvesting groups (Producing and Processing Organisations - PPOās) and up-stream companies that develop and promote products from INPs is one of the essential steps along the pathway to proving this big idea works. Namibia has, arguably, one of the richest recent histories of developing such PPO/commercial INP enterprise models and there is much to learn from considering the range of approaches that have been adopted.
In this Chapter the aim is to share the range of models and enterprise/PPO interactions tested during the MCA-Namibia INP Programme period, many of which build upon a much longer history of similar efforts going back to the Colonial times. We shall draw some conclusions about what models might be suitable to meet the current and future problems facing the INP sector in Namibia and what important lessons we have learned.
Six main types of INP ā SME relationships (sometimes called āmodelsā) are identified. These are: the āTrader modelā, the āNGO modelā, the āGovernment modelā, the local āSME led modelā, the āPPO modelā, and a āfuture modelā. Considering the INP sector today, it could be said that all of these models are now present and working in parallel
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Does the Millennium Challenge Corporation reinforce capitalist power structures or empower citizens?
In development practice, how does āmutual benefitā accrue, and to whom? China criticises America for perpetuating capitalist power relations and claims it can seek a new geo-political order based on South-South cooperation. Meanwhile, there has been an extraordinary shift of emphasis toward the private sector as a driver of development, but this shift is attracting increasing criticism. The Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) - the only development agency to grow in influence under the Trump administration - is evaluated in the light of these two key themes. Neither China nor the private sector are successful in achieving āmutual benefitā for ordinary citizens ā both replicate existing power inequalities. As with the rise of both China and the private sector, the MCC also enmeshes developing countries further into the existing neoliberal capitalist structures. However, the advantages of the agency should not be dismissed outright, as its Ruling Justly and Investing in People indicators can enhance the capacity of citizens to challenge these power structures themselves
Trains, Trade, and Transaction Costs: How Does Domestic Trade by Rail Affect Market Prices of Malawi Agricultural Commodities?
We measure the impact of low-cost transport by rail in Malawi on the dispersion of agricultural commodity prices across markets by exploiting the quasi-experimental design of the nearly total collapse of domestic transport by rail in January 2003 due to the destruction of a railway bridge at Rivirivi, Balaka. Estimations are based on monthly market prices of four agricultural commodities (maize, groundnuts, rice, and beans) in 27 local markets for the period 1998-2006. Market pairs connected by rail when the railway line was operational are intervention observations. Railway transport services explain a 14 to 17 percent reduction in price dispersion across markets. Geographical reach of trade varies by crop, most likely related to storability and geographical spread of production. Perishability appears to increase impact, reflecting limited scope for arbitrage. Overall, impacts are remarkably similar in size across commodities