This paper reviews the use of co-production — with state and citizens working together — as a grassroots strategy to secure political influence and access resources and services. To date, the literature on social movements has concentrated on more explicitly political strategies used by such movements to contest for power and influence. Co-production, when considered, is viewed as a strategy used by citizens and the state to extend access to basic services with relatively little consideration given to its wider political ramifications. However, co-production is used increasingly by grassroots organizations and federations as part of an explicit political strategy. This paper examines the use of co-productive strategies by citizen groups and social movement organizations to enable individual members and their associations to secure effective relations with state institutions that address both immediate basic needs and enable them to negotiate for greater benefits.

https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/0956247808096117

With and beyond the state — co-production as a route to political influence, power and transformation for grassroots organizations

Farmer organization, collective action and market access in Meso-America

While large private water companies grab the headlines, it is more often small private vendors that bring water to the urban poor in Africa, Asia and Latin America. This working paper looks at how water-vending systems operate, how effective they are in meeting the needs of the urban poor, and how this effectiveness might be improved. The paper concentrates on the small-scale and informal vendors, most of whom work independently with very little capital. Nevertheless, they display enormous diversity and flexibility, and are adept at responding to the needs of all but the very poorest households.

Informal Water Vendors and the Urban Poor

A survey was conducted in Bure district, North West Ethiopia, from 2007 to 2008 to assess the existing village chicken production system. A participatory rural appraisal and a formal survey were used to collect all the relevant data, using a multi-stage sampling technique. Seven farmer administrative kebeles (two from high land, three from mid altitude and two from low land agro-ecologies) and a total of 280 village chicken owner households were considered for the study. The result revealed that the dominant (83%) chicken production system was an extensive/traditional type of production, using a majority (97%) of local chicken ecotypes, managed mainly on scavenging with seasonal supplementation of home grown grains and household food leftovers. The purposes of chicken production were sale for income (51.4%), egg hatching for replacement (45%), consumption (44.3%), use of birds for cultural and/or religious ceremonies (36.4%) and egg production (40.7%). The average flock size per household was 13 (ranged 1 - 57), with a hen to cock ratio of 3.7:1. Only 22.1% of chicken owners prepared a separate overnight house for birds and the rest (77.9%) kept birds in various night sheltering places. The result revealed that 97.5% of interviewed chicken owners experienced chicken disease problems, mainly Newcastle disease (98.2%). The result indicated that 95% of village chicken owners used only traditional means to treat sick birds. The average age of cockerels at first mating and pullets at first egg were 24.6 weeks and 27.5 weeks, respectively. The average number of eggs laid/clutch was 16 (ranged 8 - 28) and the number of total clutch periods/hen/year was 4 (ranged 2 - 6). The annual egg production performance of local hens, under farmer’s management condition, was 60 eggs/hen (ranged 24 -112). The average number of eggs incubated/hen was 13 and 11 chicks, on average, were hatched from them. The average hatchability performance of local hens was 81.7%. However, survivability of young chicks was only 60.5% (ranged 0 -100%). High hatchability performance of local hens (81.7%) and high mortality of young chicks (39.5%) were the two contradictory features for the existing village chicken production system of the district. Seasonal diseases outbreaks (84.3%) and predation (11.4%) were the major causes of chicken loss in the district. Women were the major responsible members of the household involved in various chicken husbandry activities like cleaning bird’s house (38.6%), feeding birds (81.7%), selling birds (83%) and selling eggs (54.6%). Only 37.5% of interviewed chicken owners got appropriate extension services related to modern chicken management practices. The result of the study revealed that there is a great interest to boost up the existing village chicken production and productivity. This should be considered as an opportunity and potential to design and implement interventions, aimed at improving production and productivity of village chicken in the district.  

	 

	Key words: Ethiopia, local chicken ecotypes, village chicken production system.

/pdf/assessment-of-village-chicken-production-system-and-345yq8vbnn.pdf

Assessment of village chicken production system and evaluation of the productive and reproductive performance of local chicken ecotype in Bure district, North west Ethiopia

The following sections are included:Markets and the Poor: Opportunities and ExperiencesLessons from the poorDimensions of Poverty and the Institutional Foundations of the Market: An Integrating FrameworkTransactions cost economics, social capital, and powerTransactions cost economicsEmbeddedness, trust, and social capitalMarket powerThe Sustainable Livelihoods Framework and the Many Dimensions of PovertyMapping Poverty and Market OutcomesAsset ownership, including access to informationVulnerability and riskSocial marginalization and lack of powerPolicy ImplicationsImproving access to market information systems and infrastructureSupporting collective actionSupporting alternative institutional schemesAddressing risk and vulnerabilityAddressing discrimination and social barriersBuilding the asset base of the poorConclusionsReferences

Making Markets Work for the Poor

Within policy, research and development agendas, there has been a re-emergence of interest in agriculture and pro-poor growth in rural areas. A number of multilateral and bilateral aid agencies, for example, Department for International Development, Asian Development Bank and Swedish International Development Agency, have developed ‘making markets work for the poor’ conceptual frameworks and integrated them into their development assistance agenda at the country level. The Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR), a strategic alliance of members, partners and international agricultural centres that mobilizes science to benefit the poor, now recognises that smallholder farmers’ livelihoods depend on much more than the production of food staples. The CGIAR is now conducting research on how farmers can better access markets. Many NGOs that have traditionally focused on working with farmers to improve agricultural production and productivity are also broadening their activities to include production, processing and marketing.

/pdf/mapping-the-market-market-literacy-for-agricultural-research-7mieyqun3f.pdf

Mapping the market: market-literacy for agricultural research and policy to tackle rural poverty in Africa

Market mapping is an approach to describe the market systems involving small-scale producers: the value chain, together with support services and the business environment affecting the chain. This article describes a participatory approach to market-chain development that has evolved around market mapping processes,with the example given of the market map for aloe in Kenya. Practical Action has found a number of processes are effective in ensuring positive engagaement and outcomes. For example, ‘market opportunity groups’ are formed to represent and empower producers, enabling them to negotiate with other market chain actors with greater confidence. Interest forums, on the other hand, include decision-makers with influence at local, national and sometimes international levels. Four short case studies of market-chain development work in Zimbabwe, Kenya, Peru and Sudan are presented, which demonstrate how these elements can assist in participatory market-chain analysis, making the move from analysis to action more effective.

Mapping the market: participatory market-chain development in practice

For centuries, Small Water Enterprises (SWEs) have supplied a large share of the water market in the urban centres of most low-income countries. Such SWEs have proved themselves economically viable, and often operate in competitive conditions. They extend water services to informal settlements that have little prospect of being supplied with piped water from the local utility. Unfortunately, they attract comparatively little investment, and even less support from governments. The incremental but critically important improvements they can provide tend to be overlooked by governments and international agencies. In international statistics any household that gets its water from vendors is defined as lacking access to improved water supplies. This book is one of the outputs from a project designed to identify and test out ways of improving the water services delivered to the urban poor through SWEs. As such, it will prove an invaluable resource for water utility managers and policymakers. The book includes accounts of fieldwork undertaken in a number of African cities: Dar es Salaam (Tanzania); Nairobi (Kenya); Khartoum (Sudan) and Accra (Ghana). Even in these cities, where dependence on SWEs is high, the services provided by these SWEs have been poorly documented until now.

How Small Water Enterprises can contribute to the Millennium Development Goals: Evidence from Dar es Salaam, Nairobi, Khartoum and Accra.

In many cities of the developing world, the water supply distribution network does not extend to the informal settlements of the poor, and these inhabitants rely on small water-providing enterprises (SWEs) to bring their water to them. This article arises out of ongoing research into SWEs and describes how SWEs operate in Khartoum, Sudan. Water customers there pay a considerable portion of their income to SWEs, but the rates charged by SWEs are reasonable considering the costs involved and seem to be competitive. The research aims to identify and test strategies that could enable SWEs to deliver a more acceptable water service to poor urban consumers by building partnerships between SWEs and water utilities, based on mutual benefits.

Improving access to water through support to small water-providing enterprises

Most people who live in cities and large towns throughout much of the developing world occupy neighbourhoods and informal settlements that do not have adequate water services. In fact, evidence suggests that more than 75 per cent of the urban poor obtain domestic water from sources other than a direct-piped mains supply. Is it time we looked at the positive alternative role which independent small-scale water providers play in meeting these people's needs?

/pdf/the-role-of-small-scale-independent-water-providers-in-urban-298ojfrdnh.pdf

Mike Albu

Papers

Mapping the market: market-literacy for agricultural research and policy to tackle rural poverty in Africa

Mapping the market: participatory market-chain development in practice

How Small Water Enterprises can contribute to the Millennium Development Goals: Evidence from Dar es Salaam, Nairobi, Khartoum and Accra.

Improving access to water through support to small water-providing enterprises

The role of small-scale independent water providers in urban areas