Opportunity or necessity? Conceptualizing entrepreneurship at African small-scale mines

This article critically examines the policy environment in place for artisanal and small-scale mining (ASM) – low-tech, labour-intensive mineral extraction and processing – in sub-Saharan Africa, with a view to determining whether there is adequate ‘space’ for the sector's operators to flourish as entrepreneurs. In recent years, there has been growing attention paid to ASM in the region, particularly as a vehicle for stimulating local economic development. The work being planned under the Africa Mining Vision (AMV), a comprehensive policy agenda adopted by African heads of state in February 2009, could have an enormous impact on this front. One of its core objectives is to pressure host governments into Boosting Artisanal and Small-Scale Mining by following a series of streamlined recommendations. It is concluded, however, that there is a disconnect between how entrepreneurship in ASM has been interpreted and projected by proponents of the AMV on the one hand, and the form it has mostly taken in practice on the other hand. This gulf must be rapidly bridged if ASM is to have a transformative impact, economically, in the region. © 2017 Elsevier Inc

Neoliberalism and the revival of agricultural cooperatives: The case of the coffee sector in Uganda

Agricultural cooperatives have seen a comeback in sub‐Saharan Africa. After the collapse of many weakly performing monopolist organizations during the 1980s and 1990s, strengthened cooperatives have emerged since the 2000s. Scholarly knowledge about the state–cooperative relations in which this “revival” takes place remains poor. Based on new evidence from Uganda's coffee sector, this paper discusses the political economy of Africa's cooperative revival. The authors argue that donors' and African governments' renewed support is framed in largely apolitical terms, which obscures the contested political and economic nature of the revival. In the context of neoliberal restructuring processes, state and non‐state institutional support to democratic economic organizations with substantial redistributional agendas remains insufficient. The political–economic context in Uganda—and potentially elsewhere in Africa—contributes to poor terms of trade for agricultural cooperatives while maintaining significant state control over some cooperative activities to protect the status quo interests of big capital and state elites. These conditions are unlikely to produce a conflict‐free, substantial, and sustained revival of cooperatives, which the new promoters of cooperatives suggest is under way

How development corridors interact with the Sustainable Development Goals in East Africa

Investment in infrastructure and industry has reached record levels across the global South, leading to claims that the world is at the dawn of a fourth industrial revolution. This claim is reflected in the central position that infrastructure and industry occupy in the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). SDG Goal 9: Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure has been described as fundamental to the achievement of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. With this in mind, it is important to investigate how Goal 9 interacts with other SDGs. Informed by SDG interactions literature, this article considers emerging trade-offs between Goal 9 and other SDGs in East Africa – where infrastructure and industry are dominating development planning and financing. Based on in-depth, qualitative research along two new ‘development corridors’ in East Africa, we highlight the complexities and nuances of SDG interactions and offer insights into why certain SDGs are often prioritised over others

Young Zambian 'Waiting' for Opportunities and 'Working Towards' Living Well: Lifecourse and Aspiration in Youth Transitions

It has become increasingly difficult for young Zambians to construct youth-to-adult transitions that meet the normative expectations of coherent life trajectories towards being successful. We explore 60 young Zambians’ experiences through qualitative life history interviews focusing on processes of economic (dis)empowerment. We focus closely on what these Zambian youth aspire to, their ‘models’ for life course achievement and how they position their own progress towards and prospects for ‘success’ in relation to their peers. In doing so, we contribute to understanding the importance of youth wellbeing in times of increasing uncertainty