World Development Perspectives最新文献

{"title":"Beyond growth? Understanding the grassroots entrepreneurship of women fish processors in Ghana","authors":"Antonio Allegretti ,&nbsp;Raymond K. Ayilu ,&nbsp;Ifesinachi M. Okafor-Yarwood ,&nbsp;Sophie Standen ,&nbsp;Christina C. Hicks","doi":"10.1016/j.wdp.2025.100687","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.wdp.2025.100687","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Fish processing is crucial for women and households for its economic and food-related benefits in Sub-Saharan Africa. In Ghana, entrepreneurial women involved in fish processing operate at the intersection of different growth agendas and interventions that will directly or indirectly determine the future of the sector. Blue Economy investments in Ghana are disconnected from the small-scale fisheries sector, focusing on large-scale development projects. Concurrently, interest in the post-harvest, women-led, fish processing sector is growing on the side of NGOs and international agencies that invest on the premise of an untapped potential of the sector. This paper aims to problematize what growth is for small-scale women fish processing entrepreneurs within this diverse and rapidly changing landscape of investments and priorities for the growth of the broad ocean-based sector. Drawing on insights from anthropology of entrepreneurship, innovation, skill and learning, we look at organization of space, management and utilization of resources, and application of skills and technology needed for the enterprises to operate; we show entrepreneurship as an assemblage of practices, visions and aspirations (for growth) that hinge on spatial, relational, and temporal contextual dimensions, between smaller fishing communities and larger urban centres along the coast. Accounting for the complex and diverse nature of post-harvest relations in the fish processing sector is critical for policies and interventions that are tailored to the needs and aspirations of women in different contexts. As growth takes centre stage in all dominant development agendas in Africa, this paper responds to the necessity for new tools to apprehend how African players position themselves on the global stage.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":37831,"journal":{"name":"World Development Perspectives","volume":"38 ","pages":"Article 100687"},"PeriodicalIF":2.2,"publicationDate":"2025-05-16","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144071756","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"‘Please don’t kill us; this is our ancestral land, we are not foreigners’: Green grabbing, (in)voluntary resettlement and Maasai ethnic minority’s land rights in Tanzania","authors":"Gabriel Kanuti Ndimbo ,&nbsp;Evaristo Haulle","doi":"10.1016/j.wdp.2025.100688","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.wdp.2025.100688","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>The Maasai ethnic minority has lived in the Loliondo Game Controlled Area (NGCA) and Ngorongoro Conservation Area (NCA) for over six decades. They were evicted to these areas in 1959 from the area currently known as Serengeti National Park by the British colonial power, which claimed that the Maasai population overburdened the Serengeti ecosystem. Nevertheless, in the newly resettled areas of LGCA and NCA, the Maasai ethnic minority has been facing continuous eviction by the state using degradation and conservation narratives. In 2017, for example, the government issued eviction notices for villages in Loliondo, saying it wanted to protect 1,500 sq km from human activity, and the official demarcation of this land was carried out in 2022. Efforts by the Maasai people to protect their land ended in confrontation with the police officers, with one police officer killed and some wounded. In contrast, many of the Maasai people were injured, and several of them were arrested. In August 2024, the government issued a decree to delist several villages in Loliondo. The Maasai ethnic minority uses the ‘nature guardianship’ narrative as a way for them to assert their land rights and align their struggle with powerful international allies. The study advocates for more participatory approaches that include the voices of the Maasai people, government, and other stakeholders, ensuring that conservation strategies do not undermine their rights and livelihoods.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":37831,"journal":{"name":"World Development Perspectives","volume":"38 ","pages":"Article 100688"},"PeriodicalIF":2.2,"publicationDate":"2025-05-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144068901","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Perspectives from historical analyses of agri-food system transformations: A case study of Odisha, India","authors":"Anindita Sarkar ,&nbsp;Aditi Mukherji","doi":"10.1016/j.wdp.2025.100686","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.wdp.2025.100686","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Rural society in Odisha, India, has been associated with widespread poverty and low purchasing power since the British colonial times. Odisha has consistently reported lower yields of crops and input use in agriculture compared to the national Indian average since India’s independence in 1947. Poor agricultural growth and rural poverty could be traced to colonial, extractive land revenue administration and poor land management practices. Post-independence scholarship has ascribed the continuation of rural poverty and distress to high exposure to natural hazards and high societal vulnerability due to development deficits. By analysing the historical evolution of policies since the 1850s, the study finds that even though the political and economic contexts have changed, low investment in agriculture remains the primary challenge even today. The cycle of low capital investment in agriculture, lack of adoption of better farm technologies, and overall public sector neglect of the agriculture sector has perpetuated, leading to low productivity. Therefore, it is time for the present policies to break away from these historical path dependencies to create a just and sustainable future for Odisha’s agri-food system.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":37831,"journal":{"name":"World Development Perspectives","volume":"38 ","pages":"Article 100686"},"PeriodicalIF":2.2,"publicationDate":"2025-05-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144068902","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Transboundary water cooperation and joint river basin management are pivotal for climate resilient development in South Asia","authors":"Md. Arfanuzzaman","doi":"10.1016/j.wdp.2025.100681","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.wdp.2025.100681","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Transboundary water cooperation and joint river basin management are critical for achieving climate-resilient development in South Asia. Home to major river systems such as the Indus, Ganges, and Brahmaputra, the region’s water resources support nearly 1.9 billion people. However, climate change is altering monsoon patterns, increasing floods and droughts, and accelerating glacial melt, which affects water availability and threatens water-energy-food-environmental (WEFE) security, ecosystems, biodiversity, and livelihoods. This study underscores the importance of transboundary cooperation to address these risks, highlighting successful models of collaboration. Despite some initiatives, substantial gaps remain in integrated governance, climate-adaptive policy frameworks, equitable water sharing, basin-wide vulnerability reduction, empowering regional institutions, and data sharing among the South Asian basins. Barriers, such as geopolitical tensions, inadequate trust and confidence, unsustainable hydropower development, limited funding and stakeholder engagement hinder effective water resource management. Addressing these challenges requires coordinated climate-resilient strategies and basin wide approaches including flexible water-sharing agreements, improved disaster risk reduction systems, joint resource mobilization, capacity building, and enhanced community involvement. By fostering transboundary collaboration, South Asian nations can build resilience, reduce water conflicts, enhance WEFE security and well-being of millions who rely on these precious water resources, and promote sustainable development across shared river basins.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":37831,"journal":{"name":"World Development Perspectives","volume":"38 ","pages":"Article 100681"},"PeriodicalIF":2.2,"publicationDate":"2025-05-13","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143941961","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"A study of Local Non-Governmental organisations (NGOs) as humanitarian Responders in Bakassi internally displaced Persons’ Camp, Borno State, Nigeria","authors":"Babatope Matthew Ajiboye","doi":"10.1016/j.wdp.2025.100685","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.wdp.2025.100685","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Nigeria has had to deal with a series of challenges ranging from insurgency, herdsmen-farmers clashes, banditry, and other issues that have persistently been Nigeria’s weakness ever since the country returned to democratic dispensation in 1999. The most profound among them all happens to be the Boko Haram insurgency campaign in the northeastern region of the nation. As a result, Nigeria has assumed the headquarters of internally displaced persons camps in the southern hemisphere (Africa). Predictably, the number of non-governmental organizations’ (NGOs) offering interventions continues to rise due to the dire condition of persons affected by the ongoing Boko Haram insurgency campaign, most especially in Borno State. By situating it within the framework of humanitarian intervention, this article studies the NGOs humanitarian efforts in assisting displaced persons at the Bakassi IDP camp to navigate the rigors of the unanticipated hardship created by the Boko Haram insurgency. This article utilizes a combination of qualitative research methods (semi-in-depth ethnographic observation and interview) to explore how NGOs operated in terms of humanitarian intervention for internally displaced persons at the Bakassi IDP camp. Findings from this study indicate that international donors’ efforts at providing succor for IDPs were undermined as a large chunk of the fund has been mismanaged or diverted to satisfy the rent-seeking desires of the many local NGOs scheme’s handlers. This article concludes that NGOs’ IDP interventions have not been dissimilar to a bizarre advanced fee fraud, as the schemes remain a conduit for scamming international donors by pretending to render humanitarian services for IDPs. It, however, recommends that state, federal, and international donors have crucial roles to play in order to curb local NGOs from deviating from the humanitarian aid they are to offer IDPs.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":37831,"journal":{"name":"World Development Perspectives","volume":"38 ","pages":"Article 100685"},"PeriodicalIF":2.2,"publicationDate":"2025-05-09","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143923377","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Tropical deforestation and the state: Settlement schemes in the Mau forest of Kenya (1991–2001)","authors":"Stefania Albertazzi,&nbsp;Valerio Bini","doi":"10.1016/j.wdp.2025.100675","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.wdp.2025.100675","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Combining interpretive perspectives from political ecology and political science, the article aims to explore the connection between tropical deforestation and the state in sub-Saharan Africa, based on the case study of the Mau forest in Kenya during 1991–2001.</div><div>With a high level of detail and resorting to data from documentary analysis, interviews, archives and remote sensing, the article will explain how the loss of forest in the Mau protected area originated in a foreign environmental conservation program, which was later embedded into the political dynamics of the ruling government, through the clientelist distribution of land in settlement schemes.</div><div>Questioning the assumptions that see deforestation in the sub-Saharan African region peculiarly driven by small-scale livelihood activities (agriculture, logging), the case study explores state leadership in deforestation, as implemented in close connection with the private sector. The article shows the specific political logic of this type of deforestation, which could be immediately translated into electoral advantages for the ruling government.</div><div>The conclusions reached are relevant since the region has seen net growth of forest loss in the past decades and as they offer a contribution to the debate around the ramifications between the state and private entities in deforestation.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":37831,"journal":{"name":"World Development Perspectives","volume":"38 ","pages":"Article 100675"},"PeriodicalIF":2.2,"publicationDate":"2025-05-09","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143923376","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Are women more or less likely to vote than men? Evidence from rural Bangladesh","authors":"Rubaiya Murshed","doi":"10.1016/j.wdp.2025.100683","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.wdp.2025.100683","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>The established notion that men and women vote differently is well-documented, yet it remains unclear whether women are less likely to vote than men or, potentially, the reverse. Evidence on this topic is particularly scarce in Global South contexts. This paper addresses this gap by examining gender differences in voting behavior within rural Bangladesh. It also investigates the factors motivating women’s electoral participation, offering insights into the underlying reasons for any observed gender disparities. Rural Bangladesh remains understudied with regard to gendered electoral participation, despite significant structural transformations in its economy that may have reshaped gender dynamics across economic, social, and political spheres. Given its potential relevance as a model for similar contexts, this research provides a timely exploration of electoral gender dynamics in a setting of democratic fragility. Using nationally (rurally) representative Bangladesh Integrated Household Survey (BIHS) data and employing logit, Poisson, and propensity score matching models, the findings reveal a counterintuitive trend: women are more likely to vote than men and this is observed regardless of whether individuals are formal-educated or have never pursued formal education, and this trend is also more pronounced among younger cohorts. Additionally, married women exhibit a higher likelihood of voting, while formally educated women are less likely to participate. We contextualize these results within rural Bangladesh and propose several hypotheses to explain the observed gender differences in voting behavior.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":37831,"journal":{"name":"World Development Perspectives","volume":"38 ","pages":"Article 100683"},"PeriodicalIF":2.2,"publicationDate":"2025-05-08","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143918106","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Trade openness and women’s empowerment in Sub-Saharan Africa: the role of governance","authors":"Thierry Messie Pondie ,&nbsp;Emmanuel Juakaly Wayisovia ,&nbsp;Augustin Mumbere Sibayirwandeke","doi":"10.1016/j.wdp.2025.100684","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.wdp.2025.100684","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Despite numerous studies on women’s empowerment, there are still gaps regarding certain determinants in Sub-Saharan Africa. This study fills this gap by focusing on trade openness and women’s empowerment, with governance as a moderating variable. We analyse our model on a panel of 41 Sub-Saharan African countries over the period 2000 to 2022 using World Development Indicator. Using estimation techniques such as OLS, GLS, Lewbel 2SLS and Kinky Least Square to control for endogeneity and heterogeneity, we find a positive and significant effect of trade openness on women’s empowerment. In addition, governance positively moderates the effect of trade opening on women’s empowerment. In view of these results, it would be important for governments to involve women more in the entrepreneurial system through trade between countries in order to empower them.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":37831,"journal":{"name":"World Development Perspectives","volume":"38 ","pages":"Article 100684"},"PeriodicalIF":2.2,"publicationDate":"2025-05-07","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143918105","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Impact of environmental practices on productive efficiency of industrial firms in Cameroon","authors":"Evrard Arnaud Ekani Bidzanga ,&nbsp;Sophie Michelle Eke Balla","doi":"10.1016/j.wdp.2025.100680","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.wdp.2025.100680","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>This study assesses the impact of the adoption of environmental practices on the productive efficiency of industrial firms in Cameroon. It uses the stochastic frontier model and propensity score matching to analyze data from 169 Cameroonian industrial firms from the 2015 Research Center for International Development (RCID) survey.</div><div>Our results analysis shows that; the level of productive efficiency of industrial firms is low. In addition, the adoption of environmental practices has a negative and significant impact on the productive efficiency of firms. Given these insights, our analysis suggests that the government must put in place informational, technical, and financial support mechanisms to reduce the costs facing businesses and redefine the «Win-Win» logic of these practices.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":37831,"journal":{"name":"World Development Perspectives","volume":"38 ","pages":"Article 100680"},"PeriodicalIF":2.2,"publicationDate":"2025-05-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143896161","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"When closure fails: Uncovering the environmental impact of gold rewashing on abandoned mine sites in Southwestern Nigeria","authors":"Olushola Daniel Eniowo","doi":"10.1016/j.wdp.2025.100682","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.wdp.2025.100682","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Gold “Rewashers” are groups of illegal miners who infiltrate closed alluvial gold mine sites to scoop out and wash chunks of mud with the hope of extracting any residual gold deposits in the site. This paper examines the implications of the rewashing operations by these miners on the environment. To achieve this, soil and water samples were collected from selected sites where the operations were being conducted. Physicochemical analyses were then conducted on the samples to determine the level of contamination from the operations. For the soil samples, ordinary (control) samples were collected about 50 m away from the washing sites while samples of the washed soil were also collected to examine the impact of the operations on the soil samples. There is a significant increase of the presence of cyanide and some heavy metals (Cr and Pb) in the washed soils compared with the ordinary soils across all sites investigated. The concentrations of cyanide (mg/kg) in washed soils are significantly higher than in ordinary soils across all sites: site 1 (from 0.7533 to 1.1160), site 2 (from 0.7033 to 1.5188), site 3 (from 1.0363 to 2.0000). The difference in concentration levels between washed and ordinary soils for the two soil samples collected in each site for Cr (mg/kg) are Site 1 (+0.29/+0.1305); Site 2 (+1.321/+0.891); Site 3 (+1.617/+1.541) and for Pb (mg/kg) Site 1 (+0.229/+0.1645); Site 2 (+0.7505/+0.7065); Site 3 (+0.7315/+0.696). There was a general drop in the average pH values of the washed soils as compared with the ordinary soils across all sites: site 1 (from 6.150 to 5.885); site 2 (from 6.455 to 5.518); and at site 3 (from 5.890 soil to 5.010). Such reductions suggest increased soil acidity, potentially due to the leaching of alkaline minerals during the washing process. The findings of the water tests also revealed elevated turbidity in the water samples from the sites with potential health risks and ecological stress. Similarly, the water samples show low level of dissolved oxygen (DO) with potential stress on aquatic life. Qualitative data were also collected from the sites through interviews conducted with the miners and direct observation of the mining methods to identify how the operations pose danger to the environment. Lessons were drawn from these occurrences to examine how mine planners can better protect the environment by efficiently planning for mine closure and reclamation. The paper also justifies the need for effective formalisation effort that capture the needs of the impoverished locals who take succor in this occupation.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":37831,"journal":{"name":"World Development Perspectives","volume":"38 ","pages":"Article 100682"},"PeriodicalIF":2.2,"publicationDate":"2025-04-29","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143883184","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}