Becoming a bwana and burley tobacco in the Central Region of Malawi

Smallholders now grow most of Malawi's main export crop – burley tobacco. Based on nineteen months' fieldwork in the Central Region, this article offers a sociological interpretation of why some smallholder growers spend a proportion of burley income on conspicuous consumption in rural towns and trading centres. This practice can be seen as a form of inculcated behaviour whereby smallholders reproduce elements of one model of success in this region: that of the Malawian tobacco bwana (boss/master). The article discusses implications from this form of potlatch behaviour by describing the contrasting fortunes of two non-farm rural enterprises, examining data on how tobacco production and „cooling off? is viewed by wives, and comparing the crop preferences of husbands and wives. It concludes by suggesting that the concept of conspicuous consumption may provide an alternative prism through which to view apparently unintelligible investment decisions in African economies to the instrumental lens of neo-patrimonialism.

A comparative value chain analysis of burley tobacco in Malawi - 2003/04 and 2009/10

This article conducts a value chain analysis of smallholder burley tobacco production in Malawi for the 2003/04 and 2009/10 agricultural seasons. The comparison suggests in 2003/04 smallholder profits from growing burley were limited by two main factors: first, the practices of leaf merchant companies on the auction floors who operated as a cartel (and governed the burley supply thread); and secondly, by inefficient marketing arrangements. By the 2009/10 season the rents, governance and systemic efficiency within the supply thread had changed considerably: there was greater competition on the auction floors largely due to direct state intervention (which increased growers' net margins in nominal terms), improvements in marketing arrangements, tighter state regulation (including the introduction of minimum prices for grades of burley) and increased systemic efficiency (through a rapid expansion of contract farming). The article concludes by highlighting some of the opportunities and threats that this form of vertical integration poses smallholder growers.

A century of growth? A history of tobacco production and marketing in Malawi 1890-2005

During the past century tobacco production and marketing in Nyasaland/Malawi has undergone periods of dynamism similar to changes since the early 1990s. This article highlights four recurrent patterns. First, estate owners have either fostered or constrained peasant/smallholder production dependent on complementarities or competition with their estates. Second, rapid expansion of peasant/smallholder production has led to three recurrent outcomes: a large multiplier effect in tobacco-rich districts; re-regulation of the marketing of peasant/smallholder tobacco by the (colonial) state; and, lastly, concerns over the supply of food crops. The article concludes by arguing that whilst the reform of burley tobacco production and marketing in the 1990s engaged with the first two issues, it may have benefitted from paying greater attention to the latter two issues as well.

What role for qualitative methods in randomized experiments?

The vibrant debate on randomized experiments within international development has been slow to accept a role for qualitative methods within research designs. Whilst there are examples of how „field visits? or descriptive analyses of context can play a complementary, but secondary, role to quantitative methods, little attention has been paid to the possibility of randomized experiments that allow a primary role to qualitative methods. This paper assesses whether a range of qualitative methods compromise the internal and external validity criteria of randomized experiments. It suggests that life history interviews have advantages over other qualitative methods, and offers one alternative to the conventional survey tool.

What role can Prezi play in students’ learning process?

This project offers an initial evaluation of using the online learning platform Prezi as a tool for increasing student learning within a MA unit in human geography. It does this by comparing the use of Prezi to four other learning activities conducted during the course. The aim of the project is to see whether the use of this technology became an end in itself, thereby distracting students and detracted from their learning, or whether it added some value to the course. Data comes mainly from five semi-structured interviews with participants. The qualitative data suggests that students appreciated Prezi because it allowed them to be more creative, to select and condense knowledge and to offer a new dimension to presenting knowledge. But, overall, lectures, discussion and group presentations were more important than Prezi in terms of their learning process. The only activity which was less important than Prezi was the other addition to the course: formal debates. Prezi appears to be able to complement students’ learning when they have been able to acquire knowledge through other teaching activities. In essence, it can enhance learning based on more traditional, tried and tested teaching techniques

Financing the Clean Development Mechanism through debt-for-efficiency swaps? Case study evidence from a Uruguayan wind farm project

As one of Kyoto’s three flexibility mechanisms for reducing the cost of compliance, the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) allows the issuance of Certified Emission Reduction (CER) credits from offset projects in non-Annex I countries. Whilst much attention has focused on the widespread use of the mechanism by China and India, the complex project cycle, and the lack of convincing baselines, little attention has been paid to the financing of CDM projects. In this paper we assess the extent to which CDM projects with public bodies should utilise debt swaps as a form of finance. The paper does this through analysing the use of a debt swap between Uruguay and Spain within a CDM wind farm project in Uruguay. The paper assesses this transaction according to a simple framework by which debt swaps can be evaluated: whether it delivers additional resources to the debtor country and/or debtor government budget; whether it delivers more resources for climate purposes; whether it has a sizeable effect on overall debt burdens (thereby creating ‘indirect’ benefits); and whether it adheres to the principles of alignment with government policy and systems (key elements within the new aid approach).

The pitfalls and potential of debt-for-nature swaps : a US-Indonesian case study

The vital role of forests in limiting the likelihood of dangerous climate change has precipitated renewed interest in debt-for-nature swaps. This article uses evidence on past debt-for-nature swaps and similar debt mechanisms to assess the recent second wave of debt swaps. It outlines five typical shortcomings of this form of financial transaction: that they often fail to deliver additional resources to the debtor country; often fail to deliver more resources for conservation/climate purposes; often have a negligible effect on overall debt burdens, and, as such, do not generate more ‘indirect’ benefits; and are often in conflict with the new aid delivery paradigm’s emphasis on alignment with government policy and systems. Our analysis is applied to a recent debt-for-nature swap initiative between the United States and Indonesia. We show that this case, which we consider as a litmus test for current swap practice, performs unevenly across the five shortcomings identified. On the one hand, the swap does not create additional resources for the Government of Indonesia, is too insignificant to create indirect (positive) economic effects, and appears at odds with the new aid delivery paradigm’s insistence on system alignment. On the other hand, the swap does not reduce Government of Indonesia resources, and is very much in line with current national policy. The extent to which the resources provided by the swap are additional to other donor support and reserved domestic budget lines for conservation goals is unclear. Whilst a second generation of debt-for-nature swaps should clearly be avoided, there is a need to debate broader ways of linking debt service repayments to forest conservation.

Impact evaluation midline report for FP026 - Sustainable Landscapes for Eastern Madagascar

The Sustainable Landscapes in Eastern Madagascar (SLEM) project (FP026) aims to increase the resilience of smallholder farmers and reduce carbon emissions by implementing climate-smart agriculture and more sustainable forest management in the remaining large blocks of forest in the eastern part of Madagascar covering 660,000 hectares across 15 districts. The estimation of the SLEM midline impacts relied on comparing the outputs and intermediate outcomes of early beneficiaries with those of beneficiaries who receive project interventions later. Baseline data was collected in early 2019 on 1,822 households from local community associations. These households were interviewed again for the midline survey in late 2022. A total of 1,654 were successfully re-interviewed, resulting in an attrition rate of 9.2 per cent. Midline results show significant improvements in households’ short-term outcomes, with widespread adoption of a range of conservation agriculture practices, such as soil conservation, agroforestry, terracing and drought-resistance crops. Households who have received the SLEM interventions report greater food security as measured by the Consolidated Approach for Reporting Indicators of Food Security index.They also report deriving less income from non-environmentally sustainable activities in both summer and winter. Overall, the promising outcomes observed in the midline results for short-term impacts suggest a trajectory towards achieving the SLEM’s medium-term and longer-term objectives. This assumption will be tested by measuring the project’s longer-term impacts in an endline survey planned for 202