2,375 research outputs found
Incentive policies and agricultural performance in sub-Saharan Africa
No full textExports in general, and agricultural exports in particular, are more responsive to price incentives in Sub-Saharan Africa than in developing countries.. These are the results of an econometric investigation on the effects of real exchange rates on exports. It further appears that in Sub-Saharan Africa the impact of real exchange rates is greater on agricultural exports than on the exports of goods and services. Within Sub-Saharan Africa, market-oriented countries generally gained export market shares while interventionist countries lost shares. This occurred when market-oriented, not interventionist countries, maintained realistic exchange rates and did not bias incentives against exports. For example, Kenya and the Ivory Coast exemplify market-oriented, and Tanzania and Ghana interventionist, countries. Pairwise comparisons between the Ivory Coast and Ghana have indicated the superiority of the market-oriented approach in promoting exports and agricultural production.Economic Theory&Research,TF054105-DONOR FUNDED OPERATION ADMINISTRATION FEE INCOME AND EXPENSE ACCOUNT,Export Competitiveness,Environmental Economics&Policies,Access to Markets
Family planning programs in sub-Saharan Africa
No full textIn the 1980s, signs that sub-Saharan Africans would welcome family planning in numbers sufficient to make a difference in fertility rates were scattered and weak. Pessimists cited formidable cultural and socioeconomic barriers; optimists provided resources for pilot projects, coupled with research to document results and to guide expansion and replication. Among projects with measurable achievements in acceptance of family planning in settings that were less than promising were the Ghana Registered Midwives Project, the Ruhengeri Project in Rwanda, and the Sudan Community-Based Family Health Project. All were associated with the Operations Research Program of Columbia University's Center for Population and Family Health. In Ghana, midwives in private practice were trained and given other support to initiate family planning services. In Rwanda, rural community development volunteers added family planning to their educational activities. In the Sudan, rural catchment areas and work assignments of rural primary health care personnel were changed to introduce family planning and strengthen other child survival services. Positive results were evident from quantitative measures of service delivery and, in Rwanda and the Sudan, from an increase in contraceptive prevalence in the project areas. Other criteria for success included improved management skills, motivation for replicating successful programmatic elements, and potential for continuity. Questions remain as to why attitudes changed, when contraceptive use for family limitation will be practiced widely, and how applicable the experiences reported here are to other locations. These projects do not provide the answers. They do, nonetheless, support an optimistic view for the future offamily planning in sub-Saharan Africa.Health Monitoring&Evaluation,Adolescent Health,ICT Policy and Strategies,Agricultural Knowledge&Information Systems,Early Child and Children's Health
The reform of mechanisms for foreign exchange allocation : theory and lessons from sub-Saharan Africa
No full textAdministrative exchange allocation has been common in developing countries, especially in sub-Saharan Africa. Steps to dismantle or modify these control mechanisms have been carried out through traditional schemes. The authors draw lessons from sub-Saharan Africa's historical experience useful both to African former socialist economies. Exchange regime reform should be given highest priority for its role in reducing anti-export bias. Although many sub-Saharan countries have attempted to reform their allocation mechanisms, only a few have made the transition to market allocation (virtually convertible currency, at least on the current account.) Failure to do so is the major shortcoming of most adjustment packages. Both gradual and rapid approaches have succeeded. On purely economic grounds (given the problems of such intermediate steps as auctions), speed is preferable but it is not always politically or institutionally feasible. The transition must be accompanied by a coherent set of fiscal and monetary policies and a willingness to allow the exchange rate to seek a true market-clearing level. Some lessons regarding the specific mechanisms, discussed in approximate order of their proximity to convertibility, are as follows. The most rudimentary transition mechanism is the own-funds scheme, which is no more than a beginning of reform. Own-funds schemes should be accompanied by liberalization of the rules governing exports, or illegal exports and the black market premium may increase. Export retention schemes can minimize the adverse effects on exporters of foreign exchange shortages, reduce the implicit export tax, and fund a legal private exchange market. But the retained funds must be saleable, the retention rates substantial, and traditional exports must be included to adequately fund the legal private exchange market. Open general licensing (OGL) and similar schemes can be a useful intermediate step in liberalizing import and exchange allocation regimes. But in practice the benefits are limited by two features. First, consumer goods competing with local production, whose imports were restricted the most, have usually been excluded, at least initially. Moreover, OGL has no endogenous price-setting mechanism for the exchange rate. The OGL rate should generally be connected to, but lower than, the parallel rate. An auction incorporates a pricing mechanism, which is an important advantage. But the pricing mechanism must be allowed to work, which has not always been the case. Auction rules should be clear (should not allow discretionary disqualification of bids, for example), should minimize participation costs, and allow wide participation. Marginal, rather than the more common Dutch, pricing system is preferred. The use of a reservation price may reduce volatility but may also impede the full disbursement of funds. The shortcomings of transitional schemes to dismantle or modify foreign exchange controls become more important the longer they are in place. A strong case can be made for avoiding delay in moving to full currency convertibility.Environmental Economics&Policies,Economic Theory&Research,Economic Stabilization,Access to Markets,Markets and Market Access
World Bank adjustment lending and economic performance in sub-Saharan Africa in the 1980s : a comparison of early adjusters, late adjusters, and nonadjusters
No full textUsing a methodology that allows for endogenizing decisions to participate in World Bank adjustment lending programs, and for testing the validity of assumptions about program participation, the author studies the effectiveness of these programs in sub - Saharan Africa. He shows that adjustment programs in sub - Saharan Africa had no statistically significant effect on growth in the second half of the 1980s, compared with the first half, but they have had a significant and deleterious effect on investment. Adjustment lending has significantly improved export performance in sub - Saharan Africa, at least compared with nonadjusting African countries. The perceived increases in export competitiveness and in the efficiency of investment (supposed to be generated by reform programs) has not been sufficient to counterbalance the ensuing decline in investment and hence to restore economic growth in sub - Saharan Africa. These findings must be qualified: the methodology for classifying countries as adjusting or nonadjusting does not allow for different degrees of implementation - so, strictly speaking, the findings reflect an assessment of the effectiveness of a proxy (adjustment lending) for the adjustment programs.Economic Theory&Research,Environmental Economics&Policies,Achieving Shared Growth,Economic Stabilization,Economic Conditions and Volatility
Stakeholder-driven transformative adaptation is needed for climate-smart nutrition security in sub-Saharan Africa - author correction
No full textImproving nutrition security in sub-Saharan Africa under increasing climate risks and population growth requires a strong and contextualized evidence base. Yet, to date, few studies have assessed climate-smart agriculture and
nutrition security simultaneously. Here we use an integrated assessment framework (iFEED) to explore stakeholder-driven scenarios of food system transformation towards climate-smart nutrition security in Malawi, South Africa, Tanzania and Zambia. iFEED translates climate–food–emissions
modelling into policy-relevant information using model output implication statements. Results show that diversifying agricultural production towards more micronutrient-rich foods is necessary to achieve an adequate population-level nutrient supply by mid-century. Agricultural areas must expand unless unprecedented rapid yield improvements are achieved. While these transformations are challenging to accomplish and often
associated with increased greenhouse gas emissions, the alternative for a nutrition-secure future is to rely increasingly on imports, which would outsource emissions and be economically and politically challenging given the large import increases required
Real overvaluation, terms of trade shocks, and the cost to agriculture in sub-Saharan Africa
No full textStarting from the premise that agriculture should be pivotal in the structural transformation and economic development of sub - Saharan Africa, the author addresses two related issues. First, the extent to which policy induced distortions influence the structure of incentives for agriculture (with direct distortions induced by policies aimed directly at agriculture distinguished from indirect policies aimed at the economy's macroeconomic management). The second issue is how these distortions affect agriculture's growth, given other growth fundamentals. Preliminary analysis of evidence in sub - Saharan Africa links the observed declines in agriculture and the general worsening of economic conditions to economic distortions. A more rigorous analysis, using data from the Sudan, an African country with a sizable agricultural economy, strongly supports the predictions of an endogenous growth model, which states the deleterious effects of economic distortions on growth.Environmental Economics&Policies,Economic Stabilization,Achieving Shared Growth,Macroeconomic Management,Economic Theory&Research
The childbearing family in sub-Saharan Africa : structure, fertility, and the future
No full textsub-Saharan Africa is lagging behind the rest of the world in what otherwise seems to be a global - encompassing even the giant, China - demographic transition to fertility decline. The author analyzes the present types of family structure and divisions of responsibility and forecasts four scenarios, what she calls the feminist, impoverishment, Americas, and Caldwellian scenarios. She also discusses the importance ofgender roles and fertility regulating behavior in sub-Saharan Africa - particularly the importance in the African family structure of child fostering. Finally, she addresses the methodological difficulties of conducting research on family structure and fertility in Africa, and outlines an agenda for research.Population&Development,Agricultural Knowledge&Information Systems,Anthropology,Health Monitoring&Evaluation,Primary Education
A framework for the analysis of mineral tax policy in sub-Saharan Africa
No full textGiven the dual role played by the Government as resource owner and tax collector in many sub - Saharan economies, it is important to separate"resource factor payments"from taxes through the use of different instruments. The instruments to be considered are: (1) a factor payment system that includes"ad rem"or"ad valorem"royalties. Production sharing, resource rent schemes, and fixed fees could also be used, but some form of unit payment is necessary and justified, because natural resources in the ground are inputs into the production process; (2) a cash flow and withholding tax system initially for the mineral sectors and eventually for other sectors of the economy. The cash flow tax would capture a share of the"economic rent"from each sector and be neutral across sectors; and (3) a depletion account to preserve the nations capital stock. Natural resources are part of an economy's capital stock, which will fall unless"replacement investment"is made as the resource is depleted.Economic Theory&Research,Environmental Economics&Policies,Banks&Banking Reform,Public Sector Economics&Finance,Health Economics&Finance
Financing health services in Africa : an assessment of alternative approaches
No full textThis paper outlines a strategy for financing health services in sub-Saharan Africa. The individual components of the strategy are as follows: general tax revenues, international finance, a system of user charges, community finance, health insurance, and contributions from nongovernmental organizations, including the private sector. The author states that financial positions of public health care systems in sub-Saharan Africa would be greatly enhanced if governments in the region were to adopt policies that would use each of the above sources of finance. Since a strong financial base is a prerequisite for an effective health care system, such policies would considerably improve the health status of the population. It is important that for each country different policies be pursued at various levels of society, and in different sectors of the economy.Health Systems Development&Reform,Health Monitoring&Evaluation,Housing&Human Habitats,Health Economics&Finance,Pharmaceuticals&Pharmacoeconomics
Black market premia, exchange rate unification, and inflation in sub-Saharan Africa
No full textIn countries where the black market premium on foreign exchange is exceptionally high, often more than 100 percent, lowering the black market rate to a level close to the market determined official rate will improve the balance of payments and increase exports. Floating the currency to depreciate the real exchange rate and make exports more competitive can raise inflation substantially, however, as governments replace the lost revenue from exports. Inflation will occur even if real government spending remains constant unless there are new taxes or spending cuts to compensate for the loss of implicit tax revenues. To avoid costly surges in inflation, exchange rate reform may have to proceed slowly, otherwise the depreciation is likely to meet with considerable political and social opposition as inflation rises. Once the government closes the spread between the official and black market rates, it faces a decision on whether to continue with a float permanently. Evidence from developing countries over the next few years should give some insights into this issue.Economic Stabilization,Environmental Economics&Policies,Markets and Market Access,Access to Markets,Economic Theory&Research
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