{"title":"Road connectivity and contraceptive choices: Empirical evidence from rural India","authors":"Reshmi Sengupta , Debasis Rooj","doi":"10.1016/j.wdp.2025.100690","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.wdp.2025.100690","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>In this study, we examine the role of rural roads construction in India in influencing women’s use of modern contraceptives. We show that improved road access at the district level leads to increased use of modern contraceptive methods among women living in rural areas. Furthermore, the study reveals a shift in family planning practices from short-acting reversible methods to long-acting reversible methods following infrastructure improvements. Additionally, the results indicate a significant increase in female sterilization due to enhanced accessibility. We observe distinct variations in the use of modern contraceptives among women with higher education, those in high-wealth households, and across different religious and caste groups. Moreover, our study identifies several channels through which rural roads influence these family planning practices. We show that local road improvements enhance women’s year-round employment opportunities, financial autonomy, and decision-making power within households, enabling more informed contraceptive choices. Moreover, last-mile road connectivity reduces the concern about distance as a barrier to accessing healthcare. Additionally, improved local roads increase access to modern contraceptives through private health facilities. Our findings suggest that rural road infrastructure can significantly influence family planning practices among women, shaping their reproductive health choices.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":37831,"journal":{"name":"World Development Perspectives","volume":"38 ","pages":"Article 100690"},"PeriodicalIF":2.2,"publicationDate":"2025-05-28","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144147054","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}
Anirudh Krishna , Daimon Kambewa , Frank Tchuwa , Frank Kasonga , Patrick Higdon
{"title":"What do communities feel about community-driven development? Learning from investigations in rural Malawi","authors":"Anirudh Krishna , Daimon Kambewa , Frank Tchuwa , Frank Kasonga , Patrick Higdon","doi":"10.1016/j.wdp.2025.100692","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.wdp.2025.100692","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Calls for bottom-up or community-driven development initiatives have been justified on the grounds that, compared to outsiders, rural communities are in better positions to determine their own priorities, utilize resources effectively, and underwrite benefits sustainably. But are communities in poorer parts of the world able and willing to take on these responsibilities? Or is the project an outsider’s aspiration? We, a mixed team of scholars and practitioners, inquire about these questions within nine rural Malawi communities, finding that community leaders share sophisticated understandings of what community-led development entails, and they consider it the only viable mode of local development – “orphan projects” result when outsiders manage local development. Communities aspire to become self-developing communities by building stronger local institutions and gaining technical and managerial capacities. Commonly, community groups asked for outside assistance to help with capacity building, including the capacity for evaluation and self-assessment.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":37831,"journal":{"name":"World Development Perspectives","volume":"38 ","pages":"Article 100692"},"PeriodicalIF":2.2,"publicationDate":"2025-05-23","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144116354","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}
Duc Thanh Tran , My Thi Dieu Duong , Hung Gia Hoang
{"title":"Perception and factors affecting farmers’ adoption of smart agriculture in Vietnam: Implications for extension strategies","authors":"Duc Thanh Tran , My Thi Dieu Duong , Hung Gia Hoang","doi":"10.1016/j.wdp.2025.100691","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.wdp.2025.100691","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>This research is designed to look at vegetable and crop farmers’ perception of smart agriculture and factors that influence farmers’ decision to adopt smart agriculture in Vietnam. The questionnaire was developed to randomly survey 211 vegetable and crop households from a total population of 477 vegetable and crop farming households. Data collected were analysed using descriptive and inferential statistics. It was found that vegetable and crop farmers who frequently communicate with agronomists/researchers were in a better position to adopt smart agricultural technologies including soil georeferenced sampling, auto pilot spraying, management software and application of variable-rate fertilizers and correctives than those who did not communicate with these people. Vegetable and crop farmers who often communicate with extension workers tend to be users of auto pilot spraying and application of variable-rate fertilizers and correctives. Younger vegetable and crop farmers who had higher levels of education are in a greater position to adopt soil georeferenced sampling, auto pilot spraying, management software and application of variable-rate fertilizers and correctives than older vegetable and crop farmers who had lower levels of education. Vegetable and crop farmers who engaged in rural credit/training programmes are better soil georeferenced sampling users than those who did not engage in these development programmes. Developing and promoting a new agricultural extension model that bases on high-quality farmer and scientist interaction and considers demographic and socio-economic characteristics of farmers is a suitable agricultural education and extension strategy, which can facilitate farmers’ adoption of smart agriculture.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":37831,"journal":{"name":"World Development Perspectives","volume":"38 ","pages":"Article 100691"},"PeriodicalIF":2.2,"publicationDate":"2025-05-19","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144090163","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}
Antonio Allegretti , Raymond K. Ayilu , Ifesinachi M. Okafor-Yarwood , Sophie Standen , Christina C. Hicks
{"title":"Beyond growth? Understanding the grassroots entrepreneurship of women fish processors in Ghana","authors":"Antonio Allegretti , Raymond K. Ayilu , Ifesinachi M. Okafor-Yarwood , Sophie Standen , 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 , 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 , 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, 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}