New from IFPRI on governance

Assessing the effectiveness of multistakeholder platforms

Indira Yerramareddy — Thu, 11 Apr 2013 00:21:22 -0400

In 2008, the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) established multistakeholder platforms in the agricultural sector known as agricultural and rural management councils (CARGs). The aim of CARGs is achieving a decentralized governance of the agricultural policies and strategies through a large participation of stakeholders of the sector in the design and implementation of agricultural policy processes. Multistakeholder platforms are institutional arrangements intended and used for learning, policy dialogue, and priority setting, but they are rarely evaluated.

Dynamics of structural transformation

The sophistication and diversification of the African agricultural sector

Strengthening innovation capacity of Nigerian agricultural research organizations

Institutional and capacity challenges in agricultural policy process

PDF file:

ifpridp01258.pdf(544.7KB)

Opportunities and challenges for community involvement in public service provision in rural Guatemala

Indira Yerramareddy — Wed, 13 Mar 2013 12:25:40 -0400

The purpose of the research summarized in this paper is to provide policy-relevant knowledge on the governance of rural services in Guatemala and thus to contribute to improving the provision of services that are essential for agricultural and rural development. Almost 10 years ago, the Guatemalan government decided to strengthen decentralization and community participation to improve the quality of public services, as well as access to these services for the poor, especially in rural areas.

A regional computable general equilibrium model for Guatemala

Household preferences and governance of water services

PDF file:

ifpridp01250.pdf(353.1KB)

The comprehensive Africa agriculture program as a collective institution

Indira Yerramareddy — Fri, 04 Jan 2013 17:13:54 -0400

The Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Program (CAADP), an initiative of the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD), was developed in response to the neglect of the agricultural sector by African governments as well as donors. The program is also a response to concerns about the ineffectiveness of development aid due to absence of ownership and fragmented development interventions.

Do CAADP processes make a difference to country commitments to develop agriculture?

Using a spatial growth model to provide evidence of agricultural spillovers between countries in the NEPAD CAADP Framework

Emerging policies and partnerships under CAADP

PDF file:

ifpridp01238.pdf(421.4KB)

Foreign aid allocation, governance, and economic growth

admin — Fri, 16 Nov 2012 16:42:49 -0400

Foreign aid to developing countries is a subject of heated debate among politicians, economists, and development specialists. Does aid promote economic growth and reduce poverty? Some argue that foreign aid has no effect on growth and may sometimes even undermine growth in aid recipient countries. Others suggest that foreign aid positively influences economic growth. Still others suggest that foreign aid has a positive impact on growth but this impact is conditional on a good institutional and policy environment.

Foreign aid allocation, governance, and economic growth

Foreign aid to agriculture

PDF file:

ib72.pdf(507.8KB)

What determines public expenditure allocations?

Indira Yerramareddy — Thu, 18 Oct 2012 11:32:01 -0400

This paper addresses the determinants of public expenditure policies, by reviewing theories and empirical investigations of what features explain the budget process and how the various attributes of actors—including politicians, bureaucrats, interest groups, and donors—and of institutions and political and economic governance environments affect the prioritization of public investments. It draws conclusions with regard to the determinants of agricultural public investments.

The wealth and gender distribution of rural services in Ethiopia

Government expenditures, social outcomes, and marginal productivity of agricultural inputs

Impacts of IFPRI’s “Priorities for Pro-poor Public Investment” Global Research Program

Institutional and public expenditure review of Ghana’s Ministry of Food and Agriculture

PDF file:

ifpridp01216.pdf(533.5KB)

Farmer groups, input access, and intragroup dynamics

Indira Yerramareddy — Wed, 25 Jul 2012 11:46:48 -0400

Farmer groups are considered potentially effective mechanisms to increase farmer livelihood by reducing information asymmetries and transaction costs. In many countries, farmers are coordinated in groups for participation in poverty reduction programs. This is common practice in many input voucher programs in Sub-Saharan Africa. While the effect of farmer groups on certain outcomes such as price received and marketing has been studied, few studies, if any, have examined the effect of intragroup dynamics on farmer experience of input voucher programs.

PDF file:

ifpridp01197.pdf(1.4MB)

Mineral resources and conflicts in the Democratic Republic of the Congo

Indira Yerramareddy — Mon, 16 Jul 2012 16:18:29 -0400

Civil wars inflict considerable costs on countries which may be trapped in vicious cycles of violence. To avoid these adverse events, scholars have attempted to identify the roots of civil wars. Valuable minerals have been listed among the main drivers of civil conflicts. Yet, despite the large body of literature, the evidence remains mixed. This paper provides a spatially nuanced view of the role of mineral resources in civil wars in the particular case of the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

PDF file:

ifpridp01193.pdf(1.4MB)

Addressing institutional challenges to large-scale implementation

admin — Fri, 22 Jun 2012 14:47:59 -0400

Imagine scaling up an agricultural project whose goal is to improve rural incomes by increasing rice yields. It has three components. The first is the introduction of a new high-yield strain of rice developed and delivered by the national Ministry of Agriculture (MOA). The second consists of organizing rice farmer associations to buy inputs and sell outputs as part of a value chain approach. This component is outsourced to local NGOs.

Scaling up in agriculture, rural development, and nutrition

PDF file:

focus19_12.pdf(352.3KB)

Foreign aid allocation, governance, and economic growth

admin — Tue, 22 May 2012 15:52:20 -0400

How important is foreign aid in fostering economic growth in developing countries? Does it help recipient countries, hurt them, or have little effect either way? Foreign Aid Allocation, Governance, and Economic Growth investigates this issue by looking at foreign aid by sector rather than treating it as an aggregate amount. Aid can be allocated to a recipient’s production sectors (such as agriculture, manufacturing, or mining), economic infrastructure (such as transport, storage, or communications networks or power generation facilities), or social sectors (such as education or healthcare).

Foreign aid allocation, governance, and economic growth

Reforming the public administration for food security and agricultural development

Indira Yerramareddy — Mon, 30 Apr 2012 10:45:29 -0400

Strategies to reform rural service provision in India have focused on improving people‘s capacity to demand better services from government agencies. However, efforts to reform the public-sector agencies that provide essential rural services have been limited. Moreover, major knowledge gaps exist on how incentive problems and governance challenges vary across the agencies that provide the services and how they can be addressed. This paper aims to contribute to this knowledge gap.

The political economy of agricultural policy reform in India

How to overcome the governance challenges of implementing NREGA

The effects of political reservations for women on local governance and rural service provision

PDF file:

ifpridp01175.pdf(801.9KB)

Household preferences and governance of water services

Indira Yerramareddy — Fri, 06 Jan 2012 16:20:15 -0400

This paper estimates hedonic models of rental prices to investigate household preferences regarding water services in rural Guatemala. Estimated values for water services are compared across municipal, private, and community-managed water utilities. Findings indicate that rural households value municipal water services but are indifferent between not having piped water and being connected to a private system. Moreover, the estimated value of community-managed services is negative, which suggests that rural households have an aversion to services managed at the community level.

A regional computable general equilibrium model for Guatemala

PDF file:

ifpridp01152.pdf(449.2KB)

Common-pool resources, livelihoods, and resilience

Indira Yerramareddy — Fri, 30 Dec 2011 16:22:33 -0400

Common-pool resource management is a critical element in the interlocked challenges of food security, nutrition, poverty reduction, and environmental sustainability. This paper examines strategic policy choices and governance challenges facing Cambodia‘s forests and fisheries, the most economically important subsectors of agriculture that rely on common-pool resources. It then outlines policy priorities for institutional development to achieve improvements in implementing these goals.

Common-pool resources-a challenge for local governance

PDF file:

ifpridp01149.pdf(283.4KB)

The political economy of agricultural policy reform in India

admin — Mon, 15 Aug 2011 15:59:04 -0400

Agricultural policy reform is one of the major challenges facing India today. Such reform is required in order to reduce poverty through faster agricultural growth and to promote more sustainable use of natural resources while ensuring food security. Subsidy policies that promote the use of fertilizer and of electricity for groundwater irrigation are in particular need of reform.

PDF file:

rr174.pdf(1.2MB)

In pursuit of votes

Aashana Arora — Mon, 20 Dec 2010 15:24:07 -0400

Decentralization reforms have been the overwhelming response to failures in the targeting of public resources by the central state in developing countries. The policy debate on decentralization typically revolves around several a priori hypotheses on how the design of formal institutions of local government, such as electoral rules, affects accountability in the provision and targeting of public goods. Yet a growing body of research suggests that many rules that structure political incentives and policy outcomes are informal.

PDF file:

ifpridp01039.pdf(829.6KB)

Examining relationships between customary and state institutions in Ghana’s decentralized system

Aashana Arora — Tue, 02 Nov 2010 09:54:55 -0400

Traditional authorities are powerful leaders alongside the state in Ghana. The chieftaincy has been resilient to “modernization”—maintaining land rights, allegiance from citizens, and influence in rural communities. Nonetheless, there are few rules defining their official role in the local government structure. It is empirically acknowledged that chiefs seriously impact the development of their communities. Hence, this study looks for factors that might explain the state’s deficiency in policy regarding chiefs.

PDF file:

ifpridp01030.pdf(1.3MB)

Old Ghosts Resurface in New Subsidies

Ayala Wineman — Fri, 06 Aug 2010 11:13:05 -0400

Historically, many Sub-Saharan African countries have seen their fertilizer subsidy programs waylaid by administrative weaknesses and corruption. Donors and development partners now promote a simpler subsidy process that works through the private sector, and in 2008 Ghana launched a fertilizer subsidy program designed to reflect this approach.

A review of collective action in rural Ghana

Indira Yerramareddy — Tue, 13 Jul 2010 10:48:57 -0400

With the beginning of the new millennium and the increasing concerns with regard to wild privatization reforms, African governments, international donors and development scholars have been showing renewed interest in collective action. As a result, farmer-based organization (FBOs) and agricultural cooperatives (agri–coops) are back on the policy agenda for Africa as a preferential means to achieve a more equitable, inclusive and community-driven development of rural areas.

PDF file:

ifpridp00998.pdf(580.7KB)

Food Security from Every Angle

Ayala Wineman — Fri, 09 Jul 2010 13:56:19 -0400

Global crises, such as the 2007- 2008 spike in food prices, tend to impact each location in a unique way. In Yemen, the triple global crisis in food, fuel, and financial markets has underscored its precarious food supply from abroad and its trade imbalance characterized by declining oil exports and rapidly increasing food imports.

Mountains, global food prices, and food security in the developing world

Indira Yerramareddy — Wed, 23 Jun 2010 11:59:47 -0400

This study explores the differences between mountain and non-mountain countries in food security and its determinants. Econometric analysis shows that mountain regions are likely to have lower food security. The findings suggest that people in mountain countries are especially affected by external shocks such as surges in global food prices.

PDF file:

ifpridp00989.pdf(640.9KB)

Ghana Looks Towards Its Own Green Revolution

Ayala Wineman — Fri, 04 Jun 2010 15:52:58 -0400

In the past five years, Ghana has experienced fairly high levels of poverty-reducing growth, and the country has set 2015 as a target date to achieve middle-income status. The Ghana Strategy Support Program (GSSP) at IFPRI works to supply information and knowledge that can be used to shape Ghana’s agricultural and rural development strategies.