Initiating and sustaining developmental regimes in Africa
New research
Led by: David Booth, Ton Dietz, David Henley, Tim Kelsall and André Leliveld
Comparisons between Southeast Asia and Africa highlight the continuing failure of African leaders to adopt a ‘three-legged' policy approach critical to success in Asia:
- macro-stability plus
- economic freedom for smallholders plus
- strong rural bias in public investment.
Developmental Regimes in Africa aims to address a set of unresolved issues concerning the likely instruments, sustainability and origins of developmental regimes in Africa, and the changes in the global environment that would be more supportive of such regimes.
DRA's four research streams:
- Islands of state effectiveness and African agriculture: led by Professor Ton Dietz and Dr André Leliveld, African Studies Centre, Leiden
- Leadership succession and sustainability of developmental regimes: led by Dr Tim Kelsall, APPP Senior Researcher
- Sources of developmental ambition: led by Professor David Henley, Leiden University
- The international environment for developmental regimes: led by Dr David Booth, APPP/ODI Research Fellow.
Countries
DRA builds on the evidence-base of Tracking Development's four cross-regional paired comparisons:
- Kenya/Malaysia
- Nigeria/Indonesia
- Tanzania/Vietnam
- Uganda/Cambodia,
and draws on APPP's comparative studies of investment climates and public goods provision under different African regimes, extending the scope of the project to, among other countries, Ethiopia, Ghana, Malawi, Mali, Niger, Rwanda and Senegal.
Research aims:
The new research, to be carried out during 2012 and 2013 under DRA's four research streams, aims to address four key issues:
- What kinds of public-sector organisations are needed to deliver successful rural development, and how can they be encouraged and supported?
- How can developmental leadership become institutionalised, so that it outlives the original figurehead?
- How are developmental regimes likely to get started under African conditions?
- What action can be taken to create a more favourable global environment for developmental regimes?
