Browsing by Author "Shiferaw, Bekele"

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Community Watershed Management in Semi-Arid India: The State of Collective Action and its Effects on Natural Resources and Rural Livelihoods
(2008) Shiferaw, Bekele; Kebede, Tewodros; Reddy, V. Ratna
"Spatial and temporal attributes of watersheds and the associated market failures that accelerate degradation of agricultural and environmental resources require innovative institutional arrangements for coordinating use and management of resources. Effective collective action (CA) allows smallholder farmers to jointly invest in management practices that provide collective benefits in terms of economic and sustainability gains. The Government of India takes integrated watershed management (IWM) as a key strategy for improving productivity and livelihoods in the rain-fed and drought-prone regions. This study investigates the institutional and policy issues that limit effective participation of people in community watershed programs and identifies key determinants for the degree of CA and its effectiveness in achieving economic and environmental outcomes. We use empirical data from a survey of 87 watershed communities in semi-arid Indian villages to identify a set of indicators of CA and its performance in attaining desired outcomes. Factor analysis is used to develop aggregate indices of CA and its effectiveness. Regression methods are then employed to test the effects of certain policy relevant variables and to determine the potential effects of CA in achieving desired poverty reduction and resource improvement outcomes. We find a positive and highly significant effect of CA on natural resource investments, but no evidence of its effects on household assets and poverty reduction outcomes. This may be attributable to longer gestation periods for realizing indirect effects from collective natural resource investments and the lack of institutional mechanisms to ensure equitable distribution of such gains across the community, including the landless and marginal farmers."
Rural Institutions and Producer Organizations in Imperfect Markets: Experiences from Producer Marketing Groups in Semi-Arid Eastern Kenya
(2006) Shiferaw, Bekele; Obare, Gideon; Muricho, Geoffrey
Many countries in sub-Saharan Africa have liberalized markets to improve efficiency and enhance market linkages for smallholder farmers. The expected positive response by the private sector in areas with limited market infrastructure has however been disappointing. The functioning of markets is constrained by high transaction costs and coordination problems along the production-to-consumption value chain. New kinds of institutional arrangements are needed to reduce these costs and fill the vacuum left when governments withdrew from markets in the era of structural adjustments. One of these institutional innovations has been the strengthening of producer organizations and formation of collective marketing groups as instruments to remedy pervasive market failures in rural economies. The analysis presented here with a case study from eastern Kenya has shown that while collective action Â-- embodied in Producer Marketing Groups (PMGs) Â-- is feasible and useful, external shocks and structural constraints that limit the volume of trade and access to capital and information require investments in complementary institutions and coordination mechanisms to exploit scale economies. The effectiveness of PMGs was determined by the level of collective action in the form of increased participatory decision making, member contributions and initial start-up capital. Failure to pay on delivery, resulting from lack of capital credit, is a major constraint that stifles PMG competitiveness relative to other buyers. These findings call for interventions that improve governance and participation; mechanisms for improving access to operating capital; and effective strategies for risk management and enhancing the business skills of the PMGs.
Water and Livelihoods: Role of Collective Action and Property Rights (A Case of Surface and Groundwater Management in India)
(2008) Reddy, V. Ratna; Shiferaw, Bekele
"Property rights over natural resources are fundamental in shaping the livelihoods of rural poor. Rural poor are often found to possess the weakest property rights over resources, such as land, water, forests, etc. By re-contracting rights in different ways, disadvantaged actors may create opportunities to amend their initial disadvantages into a more beneficial arrangement for them. Most of the poor find themselves in poverty not due to the absence of property rights, but due to their inability to assert or change them through collective action. In most of the cases the existing property rights that are embedded in political-economy systems are biased against poor. Hence, collective action or social mobilisation is an important channel for asserting the rights of the poor. "The effectiveness of collective action in overcoming the socio-economic and political dynamics depends on the relative strength of the collective group in changing the political fortunes. In the absence of such strengths collective action may not necessarily guarantee success with respect to poverty alleviation. As long as socioeconomic inequities and 'elite capture' are dominant phenomena in the system, institutional changes (including property rights) may not result in poverty alleviation. Though, water and livelihoods are closely associated the linkages weaken in the absence property rights. Collective action could help reworking the rights but their linkages under divergent conditions are less understood. This paper is an attempt to understand the intricacies in the relations between property rights, collective action and livelihoods. Water management, surface as well as ground water, in Andhra Pradesh, India forms the backdrop for understanding the complexities. "This paper argues that the importance and strengths of property rights and collective action depends on the nature and type of property rights regime the resource is operating under. Existing property rights are often found to be biased against the poor. This is mainly due to the absence of equity concerns in the existing property rights. As a result these property rights are not effective in addressing the issues of poverty. While collective action could initiate changes in property rights regimes, incorporating the equity issues in to property rights involves transaction costs. On the other hand, equity based property rights facilitate collective action strategies. Equity appears to be the critical factor in determining the effectiveness of collective action and property rights in addressing poverty."