IPPG News: June 2010
Highlights of recent activities from IPPG - the Research Programme Consortium on Improving Institutions for Pro-Poor Growth
New Publications
"Leaving farmers as orphans": Agricultural privatisation and reform of farmer organisations in Mali
Isaie Dougnon, Bakary Coulibaly, Abdoul Karim Diamoutene, all Universite de Bamako, Mali; Siaka Sanogo, Direction Nationale de la Planification, Mali; John Morton, Natural Resources Institute, University of Greenwich, UK
This case study explores how farmers' organisations in Mali have responded to sharp changes in their institutional environment. It shows how institutional reform needs to be carefully sequenced and based on a comprehensive understanding of existing economic, political and social arrangements and the interrelations between institutional levels. Otherwise, it runs the risk of disrupting economic activity, provoking political reaction and resistance, and compromising the purpose of reform. This study of the institutional reforms of Mali's Office du Niger and the Compagnie Malienne pour le Developpement des Fibres Textiles (CMDT) dramatically illustrates these dangers.
Read: Agricultural privatisation and reform of farmer organisations in Mali
Formal-informal institutional linkages in the Nigerian agribusiness sector and implications for pro-poor growth
Aderibigbe S. Olomola, Director, Agriculture and Rural Development Department, Nigerian Institute of Social and Economic Research (NISER), Ibadan
High transaction costs and restricted market access by smallholders have had an adverse effect on Nigeria's agribusiness sector. Focussing on five commodities (cotton, ginger, soybean, rice and tobacco) this study examines the nature of institutional linkages between small-scale farmers and firms, analyses the impact of such institutional linkages and determines the factors influencing the performance of contractual relationships in the sector.
Access to Public Infrastructure, Institutional Thickness and Pro-Poor Growth in Rural Peru
Javier Escobal and Carmen Ponce, Group for the Analysis for Development (GRADE), Lima, Peru
Using panel data from rural Peru, the study investigates institutional characteristics that further the effects of key infrastructure investments on pro-poor growth. It shows that institutionally sound environments contribute to amplifying the effects of public infrastructure on income growth for the poor, allowing poverty to be more responsive to growth.
Read: Access to Public Infrastructure, Institutional Thickness and Pro-Poor Growth in Rural Peru
The Impact of Regulatory and Institutional Arrangements on Agricultural Markets and Poverty: a case study of Tanzania's Coffee Market
Shireen Mahdi
IPPG PhD student Shireen Mahdi created a stir with her policy note on the role of institutions in Tanzania's coffee market in 2009. Originally prepared as a technical document for the World Bank and based on research supported by IPPG, the full study is now available in its full version for the first time.
Read: Mahdi's case study of Tanzania's coffee market
How did the Indian Forest Rights Act, 2006, emerge?
Indranil Bose, St. Xavier's College, Kolkata.
This paper looks at the fierce struggle to pass the Indian Forest Rights Act and the use of collective pressure in paving the way to the new institutional settlement. The case of the Forest Rights Act throws light on the importance both of 'protest' or 'campaign' politics in India, and role of activists in forming effective coalitions of individuals and groups in order to influence the course of legislation.
Read: How did the Indian Forest Rights Act, 2006, emerge?
All IPPG publications are available to download free.
New IPPG blogs on R4D
Why does the World Cup work?This month, footballers from 32 countries converge on South Africa for the 2010 FIFA World Cup. Participants from Algeria to the USA, from Korea DPR to New Zealand, divided by language, religion, culture and politics, some rich, some poor - so how can it all possibly work?
In a blog for Research for Development (R4D) Research Dialogue, IPPG's Adrian Leftwich considers the role of institutions and a different approach to the roles of the game.
See: Why does the World Cup Work
The bluffer's guide to state business relations
Understanding state business relations has become an increasingly important element in analysing the politics of economic growth and development. But what are state-business relations? R4D hosts IPPG's two-minute guide.
Coming up
A special issue of the Journal of South Asian Development is in planning, comprising papers from a conference held jointly with IPPG at the Institute of Economic Growth (IEG) New Delhi in Delhi in July 2009.
The multi-disciplinary Journal, a refereed publication, publishes articles, reviews and scholarly comment relating to all facets of development in South Asia. A special issue of the Indian Journal of Labour Economics, comprising the remaining papers from the IEG conference, is also in the pipeline. Look out for alerts to publication of both journals on IPPG's website.
See the IEG conference programme: The Informal Sector in South Asia: Organisational Dynamics, Institutional Determinants, Interlinkages and Development
IPPG Researchers - News
Sengupta Report
Deepita Chakravarty of the Centre for Economics and Social Sciences, Hyderabad, was called to participate in a major international consultation on the Arjun Sengupta Commission Report held in Delhi last month.
The Sengupta Report, on employment issues in the unorganised sector, has been one of the most influential government reports in the Indian policy scene in recent years. The invitation to Deepita Chakravarty came as a result of her IPPG State-Business Relations work, including her joint paper with Indranil Bose, Industrialising West Bengal? : The case of institutional stickiness.
Find out more about the work of the National Commission for Enterprises in the Unorganized Sector
Asia-Pacific Productivity Conference (APPC 2010)
A paper that emerged from an IPPG-sponsored study has been accepted for APPC 2010 in Taipei, Taiwan (21-23 July). The paper, Organised versus Unorganised Manufacturing Performance in India in the Post-Reform Period, by Vinish Kathuria, Rajesh Raj S N and Kunal Sen, will be available via the conference website in the coming weeks.
APPC 2010 is the seventh international conference on efficiency and productivity growth in the Asia-Pacific region. The conference is organised and sponsored jointly by the Institute of Economics, Academia Sinica (IEAS) and several universities in Taiwan.
Access the preliminary programme
Award for IPPG PhD scholar
IPPG PhD scholar and University of Manchester student, Purnima Purohit, has been awarded the best project award for a PhD project in the early stages in the 2010 European School on New Institutional Economics. ESNIE is a sister concern of ISNIE, the International Society for New Institutional Economics, the leading learned society for the study of institutional economics in the world, and is focussed on PhDs and Post-doctorate training.
Kunal Sen says: "Purnima's PhD looks at the political and economic determinants of agricultural marketing laws in India, and how these legal institutions may have contributed to agricultural growth and poverty reduction in India. The award to Purnima from ESNEI is testimony to the high quality of early career Southern researchers that are part of the IPPG fold."
The school was held from 31 May 2010 to 4 June 2010 in Corsica.
See: http://esnie.u-paris10.fr
IPPG Researchers - News
State Business Relations Workshops - India
20 May, 2010 - Hyderabad
IPPG co-hosted SBR workshops in Andhra Pradesh and West Bengal in May: State Business Relations and Performance of Manufacturing Sector in Andhra PradeshThis SBR workshop was co-hosted with the Centre for Economic and Social Studies (CESS). The event, on 20 May, was covered in the state's Telugu-language papers, Varta and Sakshi.
State Business Relations in West Bengal
24 May, 2010 - KolkataThis SBR workshop was co-hosted with CUTS (CUTS Centre for International Trade, Economics & Environment). Read agenda and background paper: http://cuts-citee.org/Event-State_Business_Relations_in_West_Bengal.htm
IPPG is the shorthand name for the inter-disciplinary Research Programme Consortium on Improving Institutions for Pro-Poor Growth. IPPG supports innovative scholarly research, and seeks to influence development policy and practice that contributes to the UN Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).
IPPG will end its work later this year and our next newsletter, in September 2010, will be the final edition.
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