Publications

This research examines the current processes of land rights registration in Ethiopia, Ghana and Mozambique and assesses their outcomes for vulnerable groups. It shows that land registration is not inherently anti-poor. The distributional consequences of land registration depend on the design of the registration process and of the institutions responsible for its management. It is important to design land registration systems that secure the land rights of marginalised groups in specific geographic and historical contexts, rather than adopting blueprint solutions based on Western models.

“The good Latin-American citizen, a friend of freedom,” enthused President George W. Bush on a state visit to Chile, November 21st, 2004 (El Mercurio, 22-11-2004). “Chile is an incredible country – the Chileans are a people of good heart that treasure freedom and democracy and understand the importance of economic freedom.” Bush’s message was remarkably similar to that of his father, George H.W. Bush, who fourteen years earlier, also on visit to Chile as President of the United States, had called Chile “an economic model for countries of the region and in the world” and “an example of how the transition to democracy ought to take place” (El Mercurio, 7-12-1990).

Where farm record-keeping exists to calculate farm-household income, it commonly considers only financial accounts. Awareness of resource degradation or improvement calls urgently for a better understanding of the interrelations between environmental and socio-economic aspects in decision-making. Integrating calculations on resources deterioration/restitution in the financial accounts will help to determine differentiated productivity and efficiency of farming activities according to the applied technologies. Extended production cost and benefit calculations permit the formulation of technical recommendations that integrate economic and environmental factors in a clear and simple way for use by decision-makers and agricultural producers. Such recommendations should provide insights to farmers on how to improve, or at least to maintain resource availability and capability, making their livelihoods sustainable.

Agri-food systems in developing and transitional countries are restructuring rapidly. Increasingly supermarkets have emerged in developing countries as important retailers, particularly for the high-value products meeting specific consumer demands related to production process and quality (Orden et al., 2004). In Latin America, supermarkets buy 2.5 times more produce from local farmers than the region exports to the rest of the world (Reardon and Berdegue, 2002). Supermarkets have also become a strong growth retail segment in Asia (Hu et al., 2004; Zhang, 2001) and Africa (Neven and Reardon, 2004; Weatherspoon and Reardon, 2003) and Central and Eastern Europe (Dries et al., 2004). The determinants, dynamics and outcomes of retail restructuring in developing and transitional countries are being discussed in detail in the first issue of the Global Issue Paper series of the Regoverning Markets Project (Vorley and Fox, 2004).

La décentralisation est effective au Bénin depuis les élections communales suivi par l’installation des maires en 2003. Les attentes exprimées concernant cette réforme institutionnelle sont considérables et vont bien au-delà d’une simple réorganisation administrative du territoire. La décentralisation vise la promotion de la démocratie locale, son renforcement et son approfondissement. La participation des citoyens à la gestion des affaires publiques devrait favoriser le développement à la base et son adaptation aux réalités du terrain. Enfin, la décentralisation offre la possibilité de répondre au profond besoin de la population en matière de justice sociale et d’équité et de réduire la pauvreté par le partage des fruits de la croissance.

Improving public sector performance in service delivery is an absolute necessity for alleviating poverty and improving welfare in Africa. Basic services and infrastructure for providing health care, education, water, sanitation etc. often fail the poor because they are either unavailable, inaccessible, unaffordable, or of poor technical quality or dysfunctional. Poor service delivery may result from inefficiencies or poor decision making by central government, for example a failure to spend budgets for essential services, or not supporting frontline health providers. Governments may have inadequate or poorly trained staff, particularly when budgets are tight or salaries are poor. Moreover, demand for services by poor people may be weak because of travelling distance and logistical constraints, levels of formal education and literacy, cost (direct costs, and transaction costs), cultural factors including restrictions placed on movement, or beliefs restricting the use of western health and maternity care. A weak demand for services like health care will not contribute towards a redesign of service delivery or more investment.

The World Health Organization International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health defines participation as involvement in a life situation. Participation restrictions may occur in any life situation across nine areas of activity and participation. These are learning and applying knowledge, general tasks and demands, communication, mobility, self-care, domestic life, inter-personal interactions and relationships, major life areas and community, social and civic life. In the context of leprosy, participation restrictions are recognised as the outworking of the stigmatizing attitudes with which the disease has been associated for generations and the felt stigma or self-stigmatization with which those affected respond.

Leprosy is known for the neuropathy it causes. Different methods have been used to detect leprosy-related nerve function impairment (NFI).More sophisticated methods for assessing nerve function such as vibrometry, laser Doppler flowmetry and thermal threshold testing have been shown to detect different modalities of leprous neuropathy. However, it is not known which of these testing methods would detect the neuropathy earliest. To determine this, the methods needed to be compared in a carefully planned prospective study.

In 2001 UNAIDS initiated the development of a toolkit with techniques and practices for AIDS competence in consultation with the UNAIDS Secretariat, with the UN Theme Groups in different countries and members of the UNAIDS Technical Network on Local Responses to HIV/AIDS. The toolkit aims to further strengthen the capacity and competence of different actors to address HIV/AIDS at local level. Experiences worldwide contributed to the identification and selection of practices and techniques for the toolkit and they meant for all with an interest in furthering local responses to HIV/AIDS. The Royal Tropical Institute (KIT) in the Netherlands manages the project for UNAIDS.

Dans plusieurs pays d’Afrique de l’Ouest, les gouvernements ont pris l’engagement politique de lancer ou d’approfondir le processus de décentralisation afin, notamment, d’accroître la démocratie locale, de rapprocher les services publics des populations et de promouvoir le développement local. La décentralisation est un processus complexe et de longue haleine qui va bien au-delà d’un réaménagement du territoire. L’Etat doit assurer un transfert effectif des compétences et des ressources financières et soutenir le renforcement des capacités locales de gouvernance et de gestion. La réussite de la décentralisation dépend d’une part de la volonté politique de redéfinir les relations entre l’Etat central et les collectivités territoriales, d’autre part de l’adhésion de la population. Bien que légales, les nouvelles collectivités, surtout les communes, doivent encore acquérir une légitimité auprès de la population