Experimentation in rural development: Kenya's special rural development programme

The author, who was a major contributor to the Institute for Development Studies' Second Overall Evaluation of the Special Rural Development Programme (Occasional Paper No. 12, 1975), presents here some of his personal observations and conclusions concerning the S.R.D.P.. He evaluates the Programme in terms of its success as an experiment, its record in improving project preparation and implementation, its success as a system of development administration, the coordination of projects and progress towards integrated rural development, the achievement of local involvement, and its performance as a medium for foreign financial and technical assistance to the rural sector. He concludes that a great many positive results have emerged from the Special Rural Development Programme, but the results have frequently been disappointing. The shortcomings of the Programme stem from the fact that it was not given the best chance to succeed in the first place and reveal the great difficulty of making headway in the promotion of social and economic change. This accentuates the heed for pre-testing and closely monitoring rural development programmes, along the lines envisaged in the S.R.D.P.

What do economists really know about population? or, the benefits of cost-benefit

This paper distinguishes two approaches to the economic evaluation of the benefits of population control, the simple cost-benefit approach and the approach through macroeconomic models incorporating the population variable. While indicating some advantages of the second approach, it is suggested that the two approaches have some important common elements and some of the same important limitations. Various criticisms are categorised and reviewed. It is concluded that economists know much less than they think they know about the rate of return on population control expenditures, and that not too much weight or generality can be attached to the rather precise estimates made of the costs and benefits of a prevented birth

Economic irrationality among pastoral peoples in East Africa: myth or reality?

This paper represents an examination by an economist of the so-called "theory of pastoral conservatism" in order to establish some limits as to its validity and some ways in which this validity might be properly tested. To most officials, overstocking arises out of the irrational 'cattle complex' of the pastoralists, but this view is challenged by two alternative explanations which are presented here: the economic 'common property' explanation that overstocking is likely to arise from the divergence between private and social interests so long as cattle are individually owned and the land is owned communally, and the sociological explanation which refers to a number of social functions of cattle beyond theprovision of sustenance. As an alternative to these two explanations, it is suggested that an excess cattle population may simply be associated with an excess human population. At any rate, when assessing the proper stocking level in any area both the stock-to-land ratio and the stock-to-human ratio must be taken into consideration. A "lack of commercial-mindedness" among pastoralists is also frequently hypothesised, but this notion must be tested with more systematic information on marketing facilities , on the actual level of sales and on the stock-to-human ratio. Evidence is presented that among the Pokot of northern Kenya resistance to selling cattle in order to reduce the size of herds is very strong. A case study from Tanzania also indicates that when a substantial investment programme was carried out in a pastoral area, the number of livestock rose enormousl. Some of this increase in numbers was ecologically supportable, but a great deal was not. Finally the usefulness of the term 'cattle complex' is questioned. The focus should be rather on more testable propositions such as the holding of excess stock, the level of sales, the willingness to limit large individual holdings of cattle, the purchase (given an adequate level of realisable income) of cash goods, and the like, which may throw light on behaviour and its rationality according to some stated criteria

From educational policy issues to specific research questions and the basic elements of research design

This module concentrates on such decision-oriented research, and seeks to help researchers identify important issues needing attention, through a systematic ‘mapping’ of the educational territory. It then proceeds to find ways to establish priorities, using a consensus-building approach to select projects from the infinite number of problems which exist ‘out there’. Finally it comes down to specifics, with a discussion of ways to develop specific aims from general aims, and operationalize these through the use of research questions and hypotheses. The last section gives some illustrations of exactly how this can be carried out in a systematic way