What Africa has to Learn from India, or is it Vice-versa? Richard Palmer-Jones School of Development Studies, University of East Anglia, South Asian Development, Spring 2007

Comparisons across continents India and China –Famines, poverty and growth –Sex ratios Female empowerment India and Africa –South Asian pessimism and Sub-Saharan African optimism –South Asian success and Sub-Saharan nightmares –Malnutrition in SSA less than in South Asia Learning from Asia - Agricultural growth and semi-arid regions –Famine and public action Entitlement approach to famine and poverty employment guarantees What role for local politics – administration, politicians and civil society –Maharashtra, West Bengal, Rajasthan ??? –Agricultural growth, green revolutions, initial conditions and public action state support, infrastructure and agricultural research Irrigation agro-ecological conditions, Green Revolution, poverty and well-being –Public action and economic growth Irrigation (and water resources) management (including climate change)

Entitlement approach to famines Food Availability Decline (FAD) or Entitlement failures? Entitlements and Capabilities –Extended entitlements Famines –Natural disasters –Malevolent states –Conflict –Unusual and hidden famines Sanctions and Iraq Complex (political) emergencies –Natural triggers and political culpabilities Regional, national, global Rise of the international global humanitarianism

EGS in Maharashtra, West Bengal and elsewhere Political and administrative contexts of MEGS –Development Innovartion and Political Support –Rational processes - technical organisations –Conflictual processes - elite capture –Organisational environment – complex politics EGS provide incentives to organise to access resources –Decline over time Political shifts and bureaucratic undermining West Bengal – local participation –Panchayats –Lack technical expertise –Small scale projects with limited productivity impact (jurisdictional boundaries) –Local middle peasant capture Kerala? NREGA – can it repeat MEGS/NREA?

EGS in India What made it politically possible? How did politics determine outcomes –success –Trajectory – origins, rise and decline Bureaucratic and political feasibilities Changing bureaucratic, economic and political circumstances Was WB NREP better? –Panchayats in command – but limitations Assessing well-being in West Bengal What prospects for NREGA?

Comparing Well-being in Sub- Saharan Africa & South Asia How to assess Well-being? –Under-nutrition Food Balances Anthropometric Measures –Populations and sex ratios Does SSA have the political and administrative characteristics for public action? Does South Asia need growth or public action over famine and or chronic poverty/under nutrition? –Agricultural growth, agro-ecological conditions and poverty reduction

South Asian Green Revolution State driven –Development of food commodity chains Market mediated –Markets for farm inputs and outputs Output price support State credit Small farmer oriented –not large mechanised farms Geo-political context –national food security

Sex ratio < 15 yrs Blue - more females, red – more males, white intermediate