The Nordic Africa Institute – Publications

This is one of the first comprehensive books on the crisis of the Tanzanian economy and society during the 1980s, including the manifestations of the problems and the responses to them at different levels. It frankly examines the long-term causes of the crisis and endeavours to map ways ahead.

With the end of the Cold War, the world seemed to move from a bipolar to a unipolar system, with the neoliberal West globally imposing its laws. However, it has been acknowledged that other actors, such as China, India and Brazil, have become increasingly influential, helping to lead to a new multipolarity at the global level. The question of what this emerging multipolarity means for Africa is important. Will Africa become crushed in a mounting struggle over raw materials and political hegemony between superpowers and fall victim to a new scramble for Africa? Or does this new historic juncture offer African countries and groups greater room for negotiation and manoeuvring, eventually leading to stronger democracy and enhanced growth? The chapters in this volume offer food for thought on how Africa’s engagements with the world are currently being reshaped and revalued, and, importantly—on whose terms?

The people of Tanzania have been subjected to a development from above, often implemented by force by the colonial and post-colonial state and advocated by external donor agencies, the IMF and the World Bank. This has resulted in a state-dominated, externally dependent and undemocratic society. This book aims at documenting peasant's response to state intervention, built on a case study of Rufiji district in Tanzania.

Lecture by Professor Kjell Havnevik. Filmed 14 December 2011 at the Nordic Africa Institute (60 min).

Most Sub-Saharan African countries have, during the 1980s, implemented a program of structural adjustment in conjunction with the IMF and the World Bank. These international institutions have thus had a decisive role in the formulation of economic policies in these countries.

In early 1987, a conference on the "IMF and the World Bank in Africa" was arranged by the Scandinavian Institute of African Studies in Uppsala. In the conference the character of the conditionality requirements attached to these programs were investigated by a group of international experts and their impacts were analysed on a macro-level and through specific studies of Nigeria, the Sudan, Tanzania, Zambia, Mozambique, South Africa, the Ivory Coast and India for comparative purposes. The conference also aimed at suggesting alternative and improved conditionality in the African context.

African smallholder family farming, the backbone of the continental economy throughout the colonial and early post-colonial period, has been destabilized and eroded over the past thirty years. Despite the World Bank’s poverty alleviation concerns, agrarian livelihoods continue to unravel under the impact of economic liberalization and global value chains. Can African smallholders bounce back and compete? The World Development Report 2008 argues they can and must. How realistic is this given the history of World Bank conditionality in Africa? This essay explores the productivity and welfare concerns of Africa’s smallholder farming population in the shadow of the World Bank.

With the end of the Cold War, the world seemed to move from a bipolar to a unipolar system, with the neoliberal West globally imposing its laws. However, it has been acknowledged that other actors, such as China, India and Brazil, have become increasingly influential, helping to lead to a new multipolarity at the global level. The question of what this emerging multipolarity means for Africa is important. Will Africa become crushed in a mounting struggle over raw materials and political hegemony between superpowers and fall victim to a new scramble for Africa? Or does this new historic juncture offer African countries and groups greater room for negotiation and manoeuvring, eventually leading to stronger democracy and enhanced growth? The chapters in this volume offer food for thought on how Africa’s engagements with the world are currently being reshaped and revalued, and, importantly—on whose terms?

Kjell Havnevik, Stig Holmqvist and Walter Bgoya talk about their recent published books.

This book is the first comprehensive contribution to understanding the character of important societal transitions in Tanzania during Benjamin Mkapa's presidency (1995 - 2005). The analyses of the trajectory of these transitions are conducted against the background of the development model of Tanzanian's first president, Julius Nyerere (1961 - 1985), a model with lasting influence on the country. This approach enables an understanding of continuities and discontinuities in Tanzania over time in areas such as development strategy an ideology, agrarian-land, gender and forestry issues, economic liberalization, development assistance, corruption and political change.

The period of Mkapa's presidency is particularly important because it represents the first phase of Tanzania's multi-party political system. Mkapa's government initially faced a gloomy economic situation. Although Mkapa's crusade against corruption lost direction, his presidency was characterised by relatively high growth rates and a stable macro-economy. Rural and agrarian transitions were dominated by diversification rather than productivity growth and transformation. Rural attitudes in favour of land markets emerged only slowly but formal land disputes showed more respect for women's rights. Some space emerged for widening local participation in forest management, but rural dynamics was mainly found in trading settlements feeding on economic liberalization and artisanal mining.

The transitions documented and analysed of Mkapa's presidency, however, indicate only limited transformational change. Rural poverty is therefore likely to remain deep and the sustainability of economic development to be at risk in the future. Mkapa was, however, able to protect the legacy of peace and political stability of Nyerere, but there were nevertheless important challenges to the first multiparty elections and governance, and particularly in Zanzibar. The post- script (covering 2005 2010), indicates that the incumbent president, Jakaya Kikwete, has yet to prove that he can change this legacy of Mkapa.

The contributions to the eleven chapters of this book are evenly shared between Tanzanian, Nordic and other European researchers with a long-term commitment to Tanzanian development research. The book is dedicated to the youth of Tanzania.

Energy crisis and climate change have generated global demands for alternative non-fossil fuel sources. This has led to a rapid increase of investments in production of liquid biofuels based on agricultural feed stocks such as sugar cane. Most African governments see biofuels as a potential for increasing agricultural productivity and export incomes and thus strengthening their national economies, improving energy balances and rural employment. At the same time climate change may be addressed through reduction of green house gas emissions.

There are, however, a number of uncertainties mounting that challenge this scenario. Using in-depth African case studies this book addresses this knowledge gap by examining the impacts of large-scale biofuel production on African agriculture in regard to vital land outsourcing and food security issues. The surge for African biofuels has also opened space for private investors both domestic and external to multiply and network 'independently' of the state. The biofuel expansion thus generates new economic alliances and production relations, resulting in new forms of inclusions and exclusions within the rural population.

An essential book for anyone wishing to understand the startling impact of biofuels and land outsourcing on Africa.

This volume presents papers focusing on politico-economic reforms in Africa and their impact on different groups of rural poor; and on the role that access to assets can play in addressing poverty issues. The volume also covers IFAD's twenty years of experience, new challenges and opportunities in smallholder development in East and southern Africa, and knowledge creation and dissemination in the context of strategic partnerships and alliances.

Beskrivning In a bid to contribute to a deeper understanding in the Nordic countries of the dynamics of development cooperation in Africa, the Nordic Africa Institute convened a conference in Uppsala, Sweden, in October 1995. This publication presents the papers and the discussions of the seminar, discussing the origins, achievements and problems as well as the prospects for sustainable development cooperation in Africa.

This insightful book deals with major issues related to hand- and ox-drawn farm implements for different farming systems and ecological areas in Tanzania. The study is concerned about ways and means to assist and improve critical activities of peasant farming in Tanzania.