World Development Perspectives最新文献

The balance between environment and economic stability is key to sustainable rural development. This is particularly true in the agricultural frontier areas along the Transamazon Highway and Southern Pará in the Brazilian Amazon, where thousands of migrant families have settled in the forests over the past 50 years in search of a better life. To better understand the extent to which sustainable development is possible in such a context, this study examined the standard of living that smallholders who grow cocoa can achieve compared to those who raise cattle, and what this means for forest conservation. An analysis of 95 households revealed that both livelihood strategies may generate an acceptable standard of living despite significant logistical and environmental challenges. This was observed even more so for families who combined both production systems. The availability of technology and the size of landholdings had the greatest impact on the standard of living expressed in income and housing conditions. The majority of the analyzed households, especially those involved in cattle ranching, converted their forests for economic success. The pure cocoa farmers behaved differently, but also cleared large areas of forest and may continue to do so. The findings suggest that achieving sustainable local development in Amazonian agricultural frontiers requires large and well-coordinated investments by competent public and private actors not only in building and optimizing sustainable production systems such as cocoa agroforestry but also in significantly improving social rural infrastructure.

While agriculture is the life-wire for many African economies, the sector has been exposed to multiple shocks, leading to food insecurity concerns. COVID-19′s seemingly perennial nature suggests the need for African agrarian systems to explore pathways to achieve food security in the midst of pandemics. However, existing knowledge on the effects of COVID-19 agriculture and food security remains fragmented. This article reviews preliminary documented and projected effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on agriculture and food security in Africa, combining an inter-rater reliability (IRR) – based systematic review with meta-analysis on 74 rigorously selected published items, including 157 case studies. Our analysis hitches on the sustainable livelihoods framework and a novel systematic review and meta-analysis protocol (Tadesse, 2020). An IRR score of 0.93 suggests overwhelming convergence of contemporary COVID-19 scholarship on the negative economic effects of COVID-19 on agricultural supply and demand across Africa, which, in combination with other factors, culminates in increasing, multi-dimensional food insecurity, hitting hard on the poor and vulnerable. The meta-analysis suggests that agriculture is more exposed to COVID-19 effects than other (non-agricultural) sectors, with an overall pooled association effect size (RR) for the COVID-19 pandemic and farming occupation of 1.25 (95% CI, 0.72–0.96; P = 0.01), and significant heterogeneity between studies (Ι² = 100%, P < 0.00). Future reviews and meta analyses increasingly focusing on methodological details are recommended, to provide insights on COVID-19 effects on African agriculture and food security. Policy implications of prolonged COVID-19 effects on agriculture and food security in Africa are then contemplated.

The livestock sector is one of the main pillars of Ethiopia’s economy. Despite its importance, several constraints related to livestock production such as low productivity, remain a major barrier to the development of the livestock sector in Ethiopia. Improving animal feed resources and breeds can have impacts on both household income and nutrition. Small scale irrigation (SSI) technologies are used to grow and improve yields of fodder with the purpose to feed animals, generate income and improve human nutrition through the consumption of animal products. A farm level economic and nutrition simulation model (FARMSIM) is used to evaluate the potential nutritional and economic impacts of the SSI technologies on households in southern Ethiopia, Lemo district. In the baseline scenario, fodder is grown on limited land with minimal input while in alternative scenarios, more land and input are allocated to fodder during the dry season due to irrigation. Results show that the annual average profit under alternative scenarios is almost twice that of the baseline. However, the distribution results highlight the risk associated with high production costs from SSI technologies investments. The nutrition results show that the quantities of products consumed by families in alternative scenarios meet the minimum daily requirements for calories, proteins, iron, and vitamin A but were insufficient for calcium and fat. A large deficit in vitamin A is observed under the baseline scenario, in addition to calcium and fat. However, forgoing some income to increase the quantity of animal products consumed at home led to nutrition improvement in Lemo district.

During the last decades disasters have severely stricken Mexico in terms of economic and human losses. This article aims to measure the impact of hydro-meteorological phenomena and the response policies on the agricultural sector in Mexico following a production function approach that uses panel data models and spatial analysis. As a salient feature, we use an unbalanced panel dataset for 107 crops across 2,430 municipalities from 2003 to 2018. As expected, we find that a disaster declaration is related to a decrease in agricultural productivity, but when a municipality is stricken by one or two disasters over the same period, productivity can be recovered and even increased within the following agricultural year. This result is explained by the policies implemented by the federal government. Likewise, institutional variables like risk atlases are proven to be effective for farmers to plan the cropping season. In addition, we also provide evidence that disaster declarations in neighboring municipalities also diminish local yields.

This paper compares the early experience of Uzbekistan with transitioning its banking system to market principles with the experience of former transition economies. To that effect, it uses novel data on Uzbekistan’s banking sector, data on former transition economies, and evidence from the literature. We find that the 2017 financial liberalization triggered a larger credit boom than former transition countries experienced. The Covid-19 pandemic helped tame the boom and secure a soft landing. Good capitalization of the largest state banks serves as a backstop against a systemic banking crisis. However, structural reform gaps need to be closed for financial deepening to continue sustainably. The state banks enjoy privileged access to longer-term financing, larger economies of scale, and bailout capital injections that inhibit banking competition. The human capital in banking appears lower than what the former transition countries started with and could deter FDI into banking. The small private sector, lacking commercialization, and slow privatization of state enterprises—as well as the state enterprise-state bank nexus—are other factors inhibiting fair banking competition. Financial sector institutions such as risk-based supervision, accounting and auditing, bank resolution, and deposit insurance still fall behind good international practices. The broader governance of state banks is one political economy factor hindering faster transformation of the banking sector in Uzbekistan.

The use of solid fuels for cooking is a major contributor to mortality, disease burden, and environmental harm in many countries. To tackle the problem, India expanded access to a cleaner and often subsidized alternative, liquefied petroleum gas (LPG), but solid fuels reliance has persisted. Aiming to inform LPG subsidy policy, we conducted a field experiment with low-income households in rural India to examine how LPG prices affect demand. Households (n = 580) were randomized to four groups: a control group that received no discount beyond the existing subsidy and three treatment groups that received discount vouchers worth US$1.7, US$3.4, and US$5.1 per cylinder refill. Purchases of LPG cylinders increased significantly with the size of the discounts. The findings indicate that higher LPG subsidy amounts will be necessary to achieve near exclusive use of this cleaner cooking fuel among low-income Indian households, in support of health and environmental goals.

Despite near universal access to elementary education in India, children’s foundational literacy and numeracy skills remain low, particularly for disadvantaged groups. In this context, we examine how the early foundational skills (i.e., reading and math scores) is differently associated with the education continuation of SC/ST (i.e., Scheduled Castes/Tribes) and non-SC/ST children, and its variation by gender and location. Using India Human Development Survey panel (2005 & 2011–12) data, we find that children from disadvantaged groups (such as SCs and STs) have significantly lesser chances of education continuation, post enrolment. The level of early reading and math scores are positively and significantly associated with the likelihood of students’ education continuation. In addition, using the interaction analysis, we find that the marginal effect of reading and math scores is significantly higher for SC/ST female and urban children than their non-SC/ST counterparts. The results of the study suggest that the increase in the level of children’s foundational literacy and numeracy skills will significantly reduce school dropout, particularly for disadvantaged groups.

Rapid urbanisation in developing countries has engendered unregulated slum development to provide residences for economic migrants who travel to cities to pursue hopes of a secure future. The development of new financial approaches could play a critical role in unravelling the issues associated with slum development, particularly in emerging economies such as Ghana. Hence, this study investigates slum emergence in Ghana and assesses traditional and innovative financing mechanisms to drive the country’s re-development. Specifically, the study assessed critical indicators of city-urban slums, established critical city-urban slums infrastructure requirements, and examined the traditional and innovative tools of financing city-urban slums to develop more socially equitable and inclusive infrastructure. This research adopted a quantitative research strategy couched within a positivist paradigm and deductive reasoning. Surveys were used to solicit responses from selected stakeholders using purposive sampling. Data was analysed using mean score ranking, one sample t-test and relative importance index (RII). Emergent findings revealed that ‘housing quality’ was the most critical measure of city-urban slum conditions, followed by ‘access to improved sanitation’. Additionally, the findings also asserted ‘virtuous sanitation’ was the most important infrastructure requirement, followed by ‘appropriate disposal of waste facilities’. Cumulatively, the findings suggest that the most prevalent and effective traditional financing tool was to incorporate a slums infrastructure development fund and use taxes and empower urban local bodies (ULB) with increased municipal budgets. Finally, in relation to innovative forms for financing, public–private partnership (PPP) was found to be most effective, followed by municipal bond. In conclusion, the study recommends the participation of industry professionals and governing agencies in the pursuance of these financing options to drive the re-development of slums to meet the UN’s sustainable development goals (SDGs) of ensuring sustainable cities by 2030.

Migrant workers are vulnerable to exploitation by recruiters, particularly if they lack control of official documents, incur recruitment-related debt, and are deceived about working and living conditions prior to the decision to migrate. Efforts to improve conditions for migrant workers include promoting fair recruitment. Fair recruitment implies that migrants are not charged recruitment fees, retain control of official documents, and are fully informed about employment terms before making the decision to migrate. We present findings from an impact evaluation of a recruitment intervention (2017–2020) designed to improve the recruitment process from the sending community to arrival in the destination country along the Bangladesh-Qatar corridor in the construction sector (n = 598). Following an intervention with the recruitment agency, migrants paid less money in recruitment fees and reported feeling less obligation to migrate as compared to conventionally recruited migrants. They also reported working fewer hours, better employment interactions with supervisors, better mental health, less organizational tolerance for abuse at work, and greater interest in migrating again. However, job satisfaction and trust in the employer were higher among conventionally recruited migrants, indicating that conventional recruitment practices may induce post-decision dissonance. Our findings provide evidence that recruitment practices are instrumental in outcomes for prospective migrants and can be improved with a recruiter intervention. We further identify aspects of conventional recruiting practices that entrap migrants. Eliminating recruitment fees and concern with debt, clearly explaining contract terms and pay calculations, and ensuring that migrants control the migration decision diminish the sunk cost effect and post-decision dissonance.