International Food and Renewable Energy Programs in the Sahel: The Effect on Implementation of Local Institutional Structures

Abstract

"I propose to investigate the part local governments ought to play in implementation of internationally-organized attempts to increase production of food and renewable energy resources in the drought-stricken West African Sahel. Scholars and practitioners agree that four critical public good problems must be resolved if food and energy production goals are to be achieved. They are: (1) forest conservation, (2) range management, (3) bottom land improvement and (4) associated land tenure issues. My prior research in a Hausa-speaking area of central Niger persuades me that effective management of international efforts to solve these problems hinges upon the capacity of local communities to mount and maintain various forms of collective action. Without such local institutional capability, incentives necessary to encourage individual and group efforts at the rural grass roots are lacking. Absent those incentives, international programs designed to enhance production of food and energy resources and involving the expenditure of literally billions of dollars will be critically, perhaps fatally, undermined."