SOME THOUHGTS IN THE SOCIO-ECONOMC
ENGINEERING OF FRAGILE STATES IN
Abstract
Even
when the aims of development programmes are obvious,
clear, and enjoy wide and popular support in society as a whole, their cost
effectiveness and institutional framework require a definition of the ultimate
goals, careful synthesis of the current position and the process and procedures
of implementation.
The
following observations, garnered in the course of poverty study in seven
districts of
Given its natural
resources including ease of social and economic access to land, good climate,
network of roads, a reasonably high level of education,
Towards this end, policy
analysts need to disentangle the economic, political, social and cultural roots
of existing institutions and mould them to nurture and sustain policies and
instruments chosen by society. In doing so, such institutions need to be
socio-culturally comprehensible but also sufficiently reformist and modernist;
inclusive of all stakeholders but attuned to the task environment; endowed with
predictable behavior without being inflexible; durable but also adaptable in
process and finally transparent and accountable enough to justify their
autonomy from undue political interference in their operations.
SOME THOUHGTS IN THE SOCIO-ECONOMC
ENGINEERING OF FRAGILE STATES IN
Traditional institutions must be understood
as the diverse mechanisms by which Africans regulated social and economic
affairs, exercised and controlled political power. They included, for example,
village councils which promulgated and enforced access rules that regulated the
balance between livestock, water, and
forage, assuring that overgrazing was minimized; local councils which required
livestock owners to regulate their animals, protect crops and complex rules of
access and use that assured young men over most of Africa access to fallow land,
rules of organization, financial obligation ad authority which were used to organize vast markets which sustained trade
over thousands of miles…….(Wunsch, 1990, p62)
1.0 GENERAL CONTEXT*
Among
late developing regions, the sedenterization of the
populace in
Since democratization in the 80s,
* Originally prepared for the
National Workshop on the 10th anniversary of the Development Network
of Indigenous Voluntary Associations [DENIVA], while the author was a Senior Research Fellow at the Economic Policy
Research Centre [EPRC],
democratic
grass root based social organizations. Unlike
The
dominant pre-industrial national land-lords in
by
revolutions [
path
to industrial capital in
lord
social class and a formed peasantry established an antagonistic but a
relatively solid social structure both for revolutionary and reformist social
changes.
By
contrast, in pre-colonial sub-Saharan African [SSA] countries, with the
possible exception of Ethiopia and Eritrea, shifting cultivation and nomadic
mode of production precluded the emergence of formed agrarian social classes
and states based on the production, exchange and distribution of agricultural
surplus in the mould of the other two developing regions above. The colonial
state overlaid itself on mostly loosely inter-connected social structures and
states. In the post-independence period, the fragility of the state has been
manifested in military coup de etats espousing ethnic hegemony, socialism, Marxism,
democracy and other political discourses. However, with the exception of some,
most failed to establish a stable polity for economic development.[1]
The worst expression of the fragility of the modern state and its negative consequences
have been manifested in no other countries than in
When
Backed
by sound macro-economic policies, in 1964-71, before the ascendance of Idi Amin, the economy registered
an annual growth rate of over 5% [GoU: 1998:84]. The
country’s flourishing smallholder agriculture had backward and forward linkages
with industry, including manufacturing – laying the foundation for a home
market paving the way for an auto-centric mode of industrialization. A concomitant vibrant service sector was
expanding rapidly. As foreign exchange earner, tourism ranked third only to
coffee and cotton.
Unlike
In
resource endowments, per capita income and the profile of its exports,
Hence,
for over twenty years, with population growing at 3%, per capita income
declined by about 2.2%. - a fate shared by only two countries –
Emerging
from the chaotic years of the rule of Idi Amin when the fragility of the state had attained its
maximum expression,
Historical
and cross-section experiences from other countries suggest that if agricultural
modernization is not carefully managed around clearly delineated political
choices, articulated under defined policy objectives, instruments and
institutions,
the end result could actually aggravate rural poverty. If education,
particularly primary and secondary education, are not interfaced with the demands
of economic development, the prevailing socioeconomic reality and institutional
arrangements on the ground, the return from investment in education will be
much less than optimal. Equity and gender policies could also be endangered.
Even
when the aims of development programmes are obvious,
clear, and enjoy wide and popular support in society as a whole, their cost
effectiveness and institutional framework require a careful synthesis of the
current position, the process and procedures of implementation and ultimate
goals. In other words, as much as the state puts in place reforms and/or builds
institutions, it must not shy away to learn from the existing socio-economic
base and the insti tuitions thereof. When and where
this is not the case, the history of development programmes
is littered with many perverse outcomes.
This
paper attempts to bring into focus some of the operating institutions in the process
of the social reconstruction of the country and derive implications for policy.
It interfaces the observed institutional realities with the demands of
sustainable economic development with far reaching implications for institution
building.
The
field observations on which this paper has built on were garnered in the course
of poverty study in seven districts of
The
mainly anecdotal observations are discussed around five main themes -Access to Land and Livelihoods, UPE & Poor Households, Poverty & Life Cycles, Three Hours as a Working Day and A
2.0 INSTITUTIONS AND ECONOMIC
DEVELOPMENT
The
role of institutions in the development process has varied according to the
prevailing paradigm(s) of the period. In the tradition of classical political
economy, the organization of society in terms of its structures and functions,
the distribution of power, the formation and dynamics of the social/cultural values
and their political & economic relations with nations beyond its shores[4]
were important components of economic discourse. In such analytical frameworks,
the nature of the state, the social foundations on which it was erected, in
summary its institutions and their policy were of paramount importance.
The
ascendance of Neo-classical economic first as a competing paradigm, albeit as a
dominate one, in the post war period and as a singular orthodoxy in the last
decade has shifted the terrain of the focus of the development debate from
state to market institutions. In the latter’s analytical domain, since the
social/institutional framework is given under its ceteris paribus assumption, physical and in its latest version also
human capital & technology are binding constraints on the path of growth.
Given
the rightly overriding concern of Neo-classical economics with efficiency and
the dismal record of states in this regard, it is no wonder that the current
orthodoxy of development has quite often dismissed the state as a rent seeking,
price distorting, protectionist, inherently corrupt and therefore an
inefficient enterprise. According to this perception, in the state’s
counterproductive intervention, its otherwise critical, potentially useful and
pro-poor development functions - the provision of privately under supplied
goods and services infrastructure, health, education etc. have been impaired. The
catalogue of the failure of governments in economic management under varying
political systems blurred the need to appraise the opportunities and
constraints of the state in the context of its specificity. The baby might have
been thrown away with the bath water.
More
recently, there has been a resurgence of interest in institutions, including
the state, in the context of their critical roles in the development process. This
has arisen from the apparent weaknesses of earlier theories to explain the
empirical evidence from late industrializing countries. The variable(s)
explaining the poverty or otherwise of nations has successively moved from that
held for a very long time - access to natural resources to physical capital[5],
the acquisition and sustainability of
technology, the development of human capital, generation of sound policies and
more recently to institutions.
When
examined in the light of this perception, compared to others, the most
successful economies in
The
trend towards “bringing back”[6]
the state to lay down the basic institutional framework in development process
is now articulated by none other than the World Bank. According to its annual
report on the bill of health of the
global economy, the Bank observes that interest in the state as a partner
institution in the development of policy and implementation has been promoted
both by negative and positives experiences to its role across differing
economic systems inter alia;
4.The
collapse of states[7]
and the explosion of human emergencies
In
such a historical conjecture, it is essential that the construction of novel/reformed
institutional/governance systems in
Consciously
or unconsciously, most future elite of the developing countries assimilated these values in their education. Among
those who made it to the saddle of power in the post colonial state, with few
exceptions of creative innovations, the state has been used as an instrument
for disorganizing the institutions of the popular social classes. This has been
largely forged through the medium of ethnicization
and the wholesale import of foreign, mostly European institutions.
Irrespective
of the political color of imported ideological dispositions, post-colonial
governance systems effectively disabled the population
from reclaiming their centuries old legitimated traditional governance systems.
Instead of patiently and delicately building a stable interface between
tradition on the one hand and institutions associated with hard and soft modern
technology on the path towards economic development, the post-colonial
governing elite in Africa wasted opportunities for development seized by many countries
in other continents.
As
the recent experience of East Asian countries has brought to the fore, the
construction of such an interface and a negotiating space between traditional
institutions and modernization are the prerequisites for any sustainable growth
and development. It could be cogently argued that socially
comprehensible, functional, durable, and predictable but also adaptable
institutions derived from such as interface are the sine quo non requirements of the process of development.
It
is against this background that this article invites a discussion of the
options for institutional reform in the context of the issues raise along the
following observations in rural
3. ACESS TO LAND AND LIVELIHOODS
Our
study group was holding participatory Rural Appraisal [PRA) with a group of
villagers in
In
front of us, about 2 kms away, was a majestic
mountain. Recognizing that in most traditional African societies such lands are
communal, we asked the group about using the mountain which appeared to be
uncultivated and uninhabited. They pointed to a three years old girl in front of
us whose grand father they said owned it. That happened about 29 years ago when
the said person was a “Big man” in government. How that land came to be
individually owned is anybody’s guess. Although agricultural undertaking by the
landlord was not apparent, since use by the villagers will symbolize its traditional
communal ownership, the new owner did not allow its use. In the circumstance,
the peasants suggested that the heifer project be changed to one based on the rearing
of chicken.
If
the above village is a proto-type of many areas in rural
The
issue raises the pros and cons of the institutional frame of structuring
agricultural development via small holder agriculture versus large holdings
resulting from land concentration. The above observation is at the heart of the
genesis of the commoditization of land and labour, their
transfer to those who are able and willing to introduce modern technology, the
organization of agrarian development via large holdings, economies of scale, ease
of the mechanism of resource transfer, enhancement of the size and utilization
of the marketed surplus - in short the acceleration of agricultural development
and with it the basis for industrialization.
This
has had its antecedents in the closing years of the nineteen century when large
holdings in
In
the context of developing countries and the so-called green Revolution Technology
in
In
The
relative rise in the price of food purchased by the rural and urban low-income
groups raised the terms of trade against the poor. The fragmentation and
dispersal of the agricultural labour class meant that they were at a
disadvantage to organize unions and obtain better conditions from their
employers. On the production side, comparative studies of factor use and
productivity have shown that at best gains from economy of scale from large farms
was spurious. In other cases, the results demonstrated the inverse rel ation between farm size and
factor productivity. This was partly because both the biological and chemical
component of the technology are divisible and therefore scale neutral while
large scale farming required high supervision cost.
Given
profitability and ensuing adoption, the agricultural technology packages can
increase productivity in equal measures irrespective of size. While there might
be a positive scale effect with respect to the mechanical components of
agricultural technology, small holders can organize hiring of such services or
rent them from efficiently run enterprises such as ones currently run by
private firm in some parts of rural
A
small holder strategy begins by using abundant factors at disposal. It
distributes income more equitably alleviating rural poverty in the process.
More importantly, by providing a massive market for less sophisticated inputs
and consumer goods, small holders become the bedrock for the demand of
industrial goods especially in the early stages of development. By increasing
employment and reducing unemployment and underemployment, such a strategy
assists the retention of agricultural labour force before industry is able to
absorb it.
In
the special conditions of rural
serving
as a livelihood of final resort. In this period of structural adjustment,
thousands have gone with skill to their villages becoming agents of change. A
quick visit to some of the rich villages of
Unlike
other land constrained Asian countries such as today’s
However,
in the context of a bi-modal strategy, careful thinking will be required to
retain the customary right of the peasantry and structuring policies and
institutions such that the trade offs between rapid growth and some level of
inequity are at a minimum. Furthermore, such a strategy should enable the local
people to directly and indirectly benefit from the modernization of agriculture
by investors. The contours of agrarian transition of today’s
4 UPE, POOR HOUSEHOLDS, ALLOCATIVE
EFFICIENCY & EQUITABLE
DISTRIBUTION OF PRIMARY EDUCATION
A
casual observation of most primary schools in rural
The
team came across two educated rural Ugandans, male and female, using their
education in two different ways. The female, a young teacher in lower secondary
is married to a farmer cum shopkeeper in a rich village. As the team had met
her before, her first question upon our second arrival was “where is the new
bean seed? We hit a conversation with the young male rural dweller, who had completed
S6 a few years earlier, in a poor village, through his role as a commission
agent negotiating with our driver who was buying a chicken. Judging from the
similarity of their ages, both ex-students must have been contemporaries.
The
educated female was combining the role of mother, farmer, teacher and shop
manager. If Uganda is going to industrialize in the coming few decades, unlike
the early industrializers, where the proletariat
concentrated in large urban centers, engagement in multiple jobs while residing
in semi-urban areas is bound to be one of the defining characteristics of the development
process. This is bound to have profound implications for many aspects of life. The
role being played by the young lady, the nature of her jobs as ‘peasantariat’ cum rural intellegentsia
is akin to what is taking place in today’s
The
enthusiasm for the new bean seed is one of the positive externalities from the
young lady’s education. If complementary policies are right and she becomes a
successful farmer, other peasants are bound to follow her in adopting this
income enhancing technology. Her empowerment in the process will go some way in
closing the gender gap. Where more than 95% of the households interviewed had
no extension contact, the teacher’s request for new seed was a path breaking
demand led agricultural technology dissemination strategy. This is
bound to be less expensive and more effective than the current supply led
extension system.
By
contrast, one cannot help wondering about the value of the resources spent on
the S6 graduate. If he is to remain a commission agent in the village, this
brings some food for thought as to the allocation of investment in education
between primary and secondary education on the one hand and the nature of the
curricula in both. Such issues are of immediate relevance in the context of the
current Universal Primary Education (UPE) programme.
UPE
is one of the great educational landmarks in contemporary
countries
by educational attainment, the further casting of the educational net to
enclose more children in the primary school system has dramatically increased
attendance. Part of the implication is that many were forced to stay outside
before the abolition of fees under UPE from among rural youth benefiting from
UPE, the country is bound to gain scientists, future etc.
When
one considers the total cost of education and allocations within, the competing
demand for the same resources from other sectors of the economy and the nature
or work in the years to come, it could be argued that subsidized primary
education be sequenced by a succession of demand driven secondary education. One really does
not need advanced secondary education to be a village chicken commission agent.
This
implies that among its other roles, primary education be integrated with the
needs of adult life of the current children while simultaneously laying the
foundation for life long demand driven learning. This brings us to the issues
of what is taught, how much of it and how. As it stands now, primary education
appears to have been structured as the first step in a long and torturous
academic road for admission to
But
today, for those who are about there but not quite as the A Level graduate, and will have to subsist from
village jobs like many other millions, it could be contended that a lot of what
was spent on him at the secondary level could have been better reallocated by
expanding and improving the quality of primary education. Beyond primary, such
ones as him could have navigated further through an adult education programme which provided skills and liberal education dictated
by the nature of ones job and the inclination of the potential learner
respectively. On the other hand, there is not much evidence to suggest that the
primary or even secondary education had prepared him to become a better
fisherman, farmer or other trades undertaken in the village.
What
about the content of the current of primary education? A lot of primary school?
A lot of primary school curriculum, at least from the empirical evidence of
delivery at the grassroots, is academic. When about only 30% of P1 entrants
proceed to secondary and less than 1% to university, one wonders about the
value of a shilling spent on academic lessons in primary education vis-à-vis
the return to the individual and the society at large now and in the future.
One could suggest that it might be more appropriate to scale down the academic
content (such as sophisticated algebra and geometry in P6] and introduce practical
agriculture, home economics, forestry, environmental management etc. If more
than 80% of today’s rural youth are going to operate in the rural economy,
should not the curriculum reflect this fact and structure itself accordingly?
Or continue with the demands of middle class children for urban types of jobs?
Children
at all levels are important source of labour in the
rural households. The vast majority of them will operate in similar areas as
their centres of education but hopefully at higher
levels of income and development in the years to come. In contrast to middle
class households, where the necessities of life are purchased, those in the
rural areas produce them within the village and
the
household. Children’s contribution in this process is vital[13].
With the usual 8a.m-5p.m lesson delivery, those with few children or not yet in
the life cycle to have many, are confronted with the choice of losing their
children altogether for education.
If
parents take out their children from school, thereby raising the dropout rate,
it is because they are faced with a win or lose situation[14].
The scaling down of what goes into the primary school curriculum may be
considered in conjunction with reduced contact hours. This way, the same
resources can provide access to education, practical experience and children
could avail themselves for a continued support of the household economy. Could
the school calendar be adjusted to that of agricultural and domestic tasks?
Reducing
direct contact hours could save classroom space. Given the current poor state
of schools and the shortage of instructional materials, might it not be better to
rehabilitate and re-equip the current schools rather than their lateral expansion
through the construction of more of less equipped classrooms? When there are
many vital social services and infrastructure
required for development, it is surely pertinent to revisit the strategy of
delivery so that it becomes more cost effective and attract sustained
attendance from the poorer segments of society. The structural difference in
the system of production and consumption between urban and rural areas, poor
and better off households and regions where education is not yet ‘felt need’
imply varied modes of delivery and institutional arrangements. The case for
national homogeneity in educational institution building needs to be balanced
by varying felt needs and current capacities and capabilities.
5 POVETY AND LIFE CYCLES: THE LIVES
OF TWO WAZEES
[Plural of elderly Persons in Swahili]
This
observation revolves around the lives two Wazee. One was a subject of our
case study series. We first glanced through a poorly dressed elderly person of
about 70, chopping wood near his shamba [farm near the homestead] surrounded by coffee trees,
banana, fruit trees and an assortment of livestock foraging around. On the side
nearby, a brick walled corrugated iron house, one of the status symbols of
today’s rural
Having
recognized us, acknowledged our presence and listened the objectives of our
visit, the MZee
disappeared into the house, changed his clothes in the manner befitting when
meeting urban people and sat with us. The discussion was later joined by the only
wife, the older of the two described above. It transpired that he had P4
education and had for a long time combined the position of school cook with
farming in his village. He has put his hands in a variety of crops around the
homestead and virtually all types of livestock from the area.
He
had four daughters who all married ‘outside’. Two had died recently. Their kids
are being looked after by the grandparents (rendering the social security function
shouldered by the state in late capitalist countries!]. The marriage of the couple
was further cemented by an unfortunate event. The wife had looked after and
waited for the Mzee
when he was in jail for 7 years following his accident killing of a burglar at
his home.
The
husband drank occasionally and even then only in moderation. This was smilingly
attested to by the wife. The rapport between the two was such that it seemed
that they were newly wedded sweethearts. He appeared to not only enjoy his old
age, the brick house under construction was his. Upon its completion, the
couple were to enact their marriage vows in a church ceremony. One of the main
ingredient of success of these lives appears to be a sustained and loving
marriage [more a function of luck?], disciplined management of resources and a
sense of belonging/having root in the village.
By
contrast, the second Mzee
lived (or rather wandered) in a poor fishing village. Although he was in his
early sixties, he looked like he was in his seventies. He was dressed in rags
and walked on his own on the periphery of the village for the duration of our
stay. He appeared so alienated that one needed tact even talk to him about his
life, a problem compounded from my not knowing the local language. One
informant mentioned that the old man had been a fisherman all his life ad was
now unable to go out in the waters to earn a living. He is said to depend on
the goodwill of the villagers and other alms. He never married and withstands
the nighttime cold by sleeping close to the fish smoking stove. As was the case
with most fishermen, he had come
from
a broken family, could not access land ad had lost touch wit his kin and kith.
Towards
the bustling end of the village, young fishermen appeared well dressed and
happy. Most had dropped out of school because of their inability to pay school
fees and lack of interest and motivation. The local shopkeeper informed us that
in some days their fish catch could earn them as much as Ush60,000/day[15].
Most of this is spent on booze preferring beer to waragi (strong alcoholic local
Ugandan brew) on such occasions. They drank beyond mid-night and like the old Mzee, they obtained
their warmth by the fish smoking stove. Having seen the ‘retired’ fisherman
without anything to fall on in old age, one begins to feel for the fate of the apprentice
fisherman who come from similar family backgrounds and spending habits.
It
appears that in contrast to the first, the second Mzee is a victim of his early
life which pushed him into rootlessness and a
reckless management of his cash flow as could be inferred from h is successor
fishermen. The cook cum farmer on the other hand is a beneficiary of plantation
crops like coffee, which do not require much investment in later life, a
judicious management of resources and a network of social relations based on
the family and the community at large providing social confidence and support.
The
situation of the two Wazee
brings to the fore the adverse consequences of alienation both from land and
social relations. The contrast in social conditions of the two pensioners
suggests the centrality of the family as an institution and the need to nurture
its flourishing in the context of building a modern society. The trend towards
the privatization and concentration of land mentioned under 3 above, could
among others deprive the livelihood of the likes of the relatively comfortable
pensioner, leading towards the production and reproduction of the problems of
the second Mzee.
Among
fishermen, more than the constraints of absolute levels, what is lacking is a
proper management of incomes and confidence in the future. Such groups could
benefit from a compulsory social security y system.
Even
if the pension payment from such a venture may not be adequate, in the rural
setting, where some of the needs of old age could be met locally, its
compounded collection may not be a insignificant supplementation. In the social
context of rural
6. THREE
HOURS AS A WORKING DAY
We were discussing the loss of oxen
power during the civil strife of the 1980s. A question was then raised about
the cost of the complementary input with oxen power, labor. The common daily
wage rate was said to be Esh900/day. The logical question following it was the
length of the working day. It was reported that hired labor usually began
working at 7a.m and put down tools at about
Given the low productivity of the above
arrangement, in another district, certain agricultural tasks are contracted out
on a piece rate basis. However, when a given piece rate was completed, there
was not a second piece of work undertaken in order to obtain more income. It
reminds one the contrast with the renting of a bed by three Asian students in
Agricultural tasks under tropical
conditions are laborious, back breaking and 'dirty.' Hence in manly parts of
the world, they are usually undertaken by migrants (national or international)
who are pushed by circumstances and/or attracted by opportunities and therefore
have to work harder and longer. Those living in relative abundance with limited
needs and aspirations my not be the prime movers of agricultural productivity.
The slave trade, transmigration of indentured labour were historical cases in
point. Even today, Mexican and other immigrants are the main sources of
agricultural labour in the
The current low input and productivity
of labour compared to wages is one of the major reasons which makes Ugandan
agricultural products, for example maize, the most expensive in the region. It
seems paradoxical that countries in the region where such factors as good
soils, land and favorable climatic conditions are in short supply produce most
agricultural products at lower costs. This phenomenon calls for a strategy of
the introduction and diffusion of adaptive labour using technologies which can
alleviate the drudgery of labour without having to make massive substitution of
labour by capital.
The adaptation of such tools as hand
tillers used in the diminutive and mountainous plots of
7.
A very
We were in one of the richest districts
in the country. This was once a labour exporting
region which changed it land constraint into an opportunity by becoming now one
of the most important suppliers of matooke [banana
processed into staple food], milk and coffee.
The management of the banana trees,
the numerousness exotic and cross bred cows and the heavy traffic to and fro
attest to the emergence of as one of the major agricultural areas of the
country.
Where the rich village is located in
this district, there was even tapped water [uneconomically give out free] from
a collection centre nearby. The primary school was one of the very few with
concrete floor, proper windows, office facilities and well maintained school
compound with free access to water. The thriving village has even attracted [or
welcomed them after the inevitable] its retrenched sons and daughters for
gainful employment in farming.
Depending on the route one takes based
on the penetrative power of ones vehicle, the poorest village was about 40-50 kms from the district capital. Despite being located in one
of the rich districts of the country, it turned out that our 4-wheel was the
first vehicle to have ever arrived in the village! When they saw the 'monster'
some of the little kids cried while others were excited touching and feeling
it. Located on the edge of the Rift Valley facing