What Africa has to Learn from India, or is it Vice-versa?

Richard Palmer-JonesSchool of Development Studies,

University of East Anglia,South Asian Development,

Spring 2007

Comparisons across continents• India and China

– Famines, poverty and growth– Sex ratios

• Female empowerment• India and Africa

– South Asian pessimism and Sub-Saharan African optimism– South Asian success and Sub-Saharan nightmares – Malnutrition in SSA less than in South Asia

• Learning from Asia - Agricultural growth and semi-arid regions– Famine and public action

• Entitlement approach to famine and poverty• employment guarantees• What role for local politics – administration, politicians and civil society

– Maharashtra, West Bengal, Rajasthan ???

– Agricultural growth, green revolutions, initial conditions and public action• state support, infrastructure and agricultural research• Irrigation• agro-ecological conditions, Green Revolution, poverty and well-being

– Public action and economic growth• Irrigation (and water resources) management (including climate change)

Entitlement approach to famines

• Food Availability Decline (FAD) or Entitlement failures?• Entitlements and Capabilities

– Extended entitlements• Famines

– Natural disasters– Malevolent states– Conflict – Unusual and hidden famines

• Sanctions and Iraq

• Complex (political) emergencies– Natural triggers and political culpabilities

• Regional, national, global• Rise of the international global humanitarianism

ENDOWMENTS

GOODS

exchangedirect

common

property/

open access

resources

landlabour

CHARACTERISTICS

CAPABILITIESs

SATISFACTIONS

infactor and

product markets

processing,

preparation,

andcooking

INTAKE

intra-

household

distribition

work,

climate,

shelter,

clothing,

etc.

fuel,

timberwater,

knowledge,

education

healthservices,

sanitation,

clean water

transfers

direct andexchange

ENTITLEMENTS

pe

rso

na

lc

ha

rac

teri

sti

cs

E X T E N D E D E N T I T L E M E N T S

tax andtransfers

FUNCTIONINGS

fee

AGENCY

Endowments

Production Exchange

Goods

Characteristics/commodities

Intra-household allocation

Goods are transformed into commodities/characteristics by combiningthem with time, household assets, utilities, knowledge

The division of commodities/characteristics among household members depends on:Household characteristicspersonal characteristics - desert, need, and culture

The transformation of commodities/characteristics into capabilities depends on:household characteristics (assets)personal characteristicsenvironment - climate, health (infectivity)agency

Capabilities

Functionings

Common and open accessresources (environmental entitlements)

Labour, land, capital, human capital

Endowments and common or open access resources are transformed intogoods that the household is entitled to directly by home production, and indirectly through labour markets and goods markets (e.g. for goods the householdproduces, such as agricultural products and consumer goodsthat it purchases)

The transformation of capabilities into functionings depends onpersonal characteristicschoices and agency

F1

F2

F3

F4

Figure 1: The Entitlements and Capabilities Framework

Utilities

Psychological characteristics

Note: 1. F1, F2, and F3 make up the “household technology” that transforms goods into capabilities 2. This is a particular interpretation of the entitlements and capabilities frameworks.

Entitlements

ASSETS

Investments Stores Claims

PRODUCTION CONSUMPTION

EXCHANGE-Wage labour-craft, non-farm, gatheredproducts incomes-agricultural and livestock product markets-food markets

After Swift

PRE INTRA POST

rehabilitation

coping

migration

FAMINE CHRONOLOGY

causes disasterfailure

social disorder

causes Description

strategies

publicpolicy

Increasedvulnerability

Unsafepreconditions

Hazardtrigger

Investment and asset accumulation Asset

preservationSelectivephased asset depletion

Disaster response and management

Asset preservationand rebuilding

Economic andsocial planningin different sectors

Earlywarning

PreparednessReliefemploymentandfood distribution

PRECONDITIONS

EXTERNAL SHOCK VIOLENCE

Impoverishment Destitut ion

Health Crises

DISASTER

COPING

Loss of entitlements

Loss of assetsFailure of

coping

Social Disorder

Famine mortality

EGS in Maharashtra, West Bengal and elsewhere

• Political and administrative contexts of MEGS– Development Innovartion and Political Support– Rational processes - technical organisations– Conflictual processes - elite capture– Organisational environment – complex politics

• EGS provide incentives to organise to access resources– Decline over time

• Political shifts and bureaucratic undermining• West Bengal – local participation

– Panchayats– Lack technical expertise– Small scale projects with limited productivity impact (jurisdictional

boundaries)– Local middle peasant capture

• Kerala?• NREGA – can it repeat MEGS/NREA?

EGS in India• What made it politically possible?• How did politics determine outcomes

– “success”– Trajectory – origins, rise and decline

• Bureaucratic and political feasibilities• Changing bureaucratic, economic and political

circumstances

• Was WB NREP better?– Panchayats in command – but limitations

• Assessing well-being in West Bengal

• What prospects for NREGA?

Comparing Well-being in Sub-Saharan Africa & South Asia

• How to assess Well-being?– Under-nutrition

• Food Balances• Anthropometric Measures

– Populations and sex ratios• Does SSA have the political and administrative

characteristics for public action?• Does South Asia need growth or public action

over famine and or chronic poverty/under nutrition?– Agricultural growth, agro-ecological conditions and

poverty reduction

02

04

06

0m

ean

of v

alue

POU (FAO)

h/a<

2sd

w/h<2s

d

BMI<

18.5

source: Svedberg, 2002

FAO Prevalence and Anthropometric Measures of Undernutrition by Region

East & South East Asia Latin America & CaribbeanNear East & North Africa South Asia

Sub-Saharan Africa

Female to Male Ratios in Various Regions

Europe

North America

Sub-Saharan Africa

South-East Asia

Latin America

North Africa West Asia

China

Bangladesh

India

Pakistan

0.8 0.85 0.9 0.95 1 1.05 1.1

Female to Male Ratio

Sex Ratios in India, 1901-91

910

920

930

940

950

960

970

980

990

1000

1901 1911 1921 1931 1941 1951 1961 1971 1981 1991 2001

Census Year

FM

R (

fem

ales

per

'000

mal

es

Whole Population

Scheduled Castes

Scheduled Tribes

General Category

South Asian Green Revolution• State driven

– Development of food commodity chains

• Market mediated– Markets for farm inputs and outputs

• Output price support• State credit

• Small farmer oriented– not large mechanised farms

• Geo-political context– national food security

Context

Geopolitics

National context

State interventionsin agriculture

Mechanism Intervening variablesand conditions

Outcomes

Markets foragricultural inputsand outputs

Small farmeragrarian structure

Food staplesproduction percapita

Sex ratio < 15 yrs

Blue - more females, red – more males, white intermediate