Commodity markets

Globalization and restructuring of African commodity flows

Medarbetare:	Fold, Niels | Nylandsted Larsen, Marianne
Utgivare:	Uppsala : Nordiska Afrikainstitutet
År:	2008
Ämnesord:	Economic performance, international trade, Commodities, Commodity markets, Capital movements, Marginality, Globalization, Economic analysis, case studies, Africa, Business and economics, Ekonomi

African countries have been incorporated into present processes of economic globalization in a more nuanced way than is usually claimed. Obviously, structural changes and economic growth have not been on the scale seen in other developing country regions, Southeast Asia in particular. However, the increasing global interaction between functionally integrated foci of production and services has also affected Africa in ways that are changing the material foundations of economic and social life on the continent. These processes are not uniform throughout Africa, but affect local, national and regional actors and institutions in diverse and complex ways. In short, globalization in Africa is an uneven process, integrating or re-integrating some localities and communities in global flows of goods, finance and information, while marginalizing or excluding others. The aim of this book is to grasp the diversity of these globalization processes in a systematic way by adopting a common analytical framework, the Global Value Chain approach. Commodity-specific data in two or more countries are taken as a point of departure and the variations and similarities in linkages between local, national, regional and global chain segments are examined. The book is based on original quantitative and qualitative data, collected during fieldwork by the authors.

African Agriculture and The World Bank : Development or Impoverishment?

Upphovspersoner:	Havnevik, Kjell | Bryceson, Deborah | Birgegård, Lars-Erik | Matondi, Prosper | Beyene, Atakilte
Utgivare:	Nordiska Afrikainstitutet | Uppsala : Nordiska Afrikainstitutet
År:	2007
Ämnesord:	Agriculture, Rural development, Sustainable agriculture, Farming, Smallholders, Land tenure, Commodity markets, Poverty alleviation, Structural adjustment, Development strategy, Africa, Business and economics, Ekonomi

African smallholder family farming, the backbone of the continental economy throughout the colonial and early post-colonial period, has been destabilized and eroded over the past thirty years. Despite the World Bank’s poverty alleviation concerns, agrarian livelihoods continue to unravel under the impact of economic liberalization and global value chains. Can African smallholders bounce back and compete? The World Development Report 2008 argues they can and must. How realistic is this given the history of World Bank conditionality in Africa? This essay explores the productivity and welfare concerns of Africa’s smallholder farming population in the shadow of the World Bank.