A Framework for the Strategic Design of Science and Technology Policy for African Development*

Abstract: The key role of science and technology and the ways in which it can be developed and deployed to achieve the identified goals of development in Africa are articulated in this paper. Notable projects, programmes, declarations etc. addressing issues of development of Africa are: the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), aimed at poverty reduction over a stipulated period of time with globally defined measurable indicators of progress; the World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD); the Blair Commission Report for Africa; and the New Partnership for African Development (NEPAD) targeted at repositioning Africa in the world economy. During the WSSD Summit process, the Johannesburg Plan of Implementation (JPOI) identified the three pillars of sustainable development as the economic, environmental and social pillars, and emphasized the fact that ‘science and technology must be placed at the heart of policies to promote sustainable development’.     

A new institutional approach to pro-poor agricultural development: Lessons from Asia

Dr. Naya has been one of only two instructors of a course unique to the University of Hawaii called, “The Economics of Cooperation.” He was an early observer of deliberation councils and other institutions whereby the investment coordination problem was partly solved by extra-market cooperation in the East Asian “miracle” countries. These insights contributed to The Economics of Cooperation (1992), which featured the role of government as facilitator—a theme of Hawaii State Development Planning when Dr. Naya served on the Governor’s cabinet.Reconsidering government as a facilitator, and not as a replacement for markets, is one of the primary contributions of the New Institutional Economics (NIE). This paper extends and applies the facilitation perspective to the problem of agricultural development. Policy failures are detailed and sourced to the fallacy of misplaced exogeneity. In contrast, the method of fundamental explanation, inherent in NIE, acts as a corrective to misguided interventionism that has prevented pro-poor rural development from taking place.     

The metamorphosis of development economics

The scientific paradigm of Development Economics is not dead nor is it declining in importance. Instead, it has desynthesized into more than 30 analytical and specialized subparadigms which deal with the complex economic phenomena in LDCs. The great number of sub-disciplines of Development Economics is a verification of the dynamic evolution of the discipline and shows its trend towards increased specialization which seems to be the true index of the scientific progress of the subject. For those who complain that “the current output of new development theories…is smaller” (W. A. Lewis), we remind them that Development Economics is a discipline which has more of a praxeological-concrete orientation than a theoretical-abstract one. It seems that the world today needs more the exercise of development praxeology by the activist than the abstract theorizing of the purists. However, the study and empirical research of development phenomena in the context of the 30 or more specialized sub-disciplines offers an opportunity for improving the quality of our knowledge on these phenomena by the recurrent validation and consolidation of development theories.     

On the unimportance of machinery

Economists and economic historians tend to use the terms capital and machinery interchangeably, even though machinery rarely consitutes one-fifth and sometimes is as little as one-tenth of a nation's reproducible tangible assets. This habit can distort the way economists think and talk about important issues. In economic history, disproportionate attention to machinery helps explain why the “Habakkuk” debate, which has now spanned several decades, has been premised on the need to rationalize empirical regularities the opposite of those in need of explanation. In manufacturing and, indeed, in the economy in the aggregate, the United States was less, not more capital intensive than Britain in 1860.     

Women and political participation in Africa: Broadening the scope of research

The article argues for a more flexible and inclusive approach to research on women and the state in Africa and, in particular, women's political participation. Inter alia it suggests moving away from restricted Western definitions of politics, from overly aggregated notions both of “the state” and of “women,” and from too centralized a focus on government; and moving to include a greater appreciation of informal organizations, unusual modes of participation, uneven tradeoffs and even manipulated politics. Its concern is to ensure that we do not overlook or close off those narrow spaces of participation which may, by default, have been allowed to women, or which women may have fashioned for themselves.     

Adjustment with a human face: A UNICEF record and perspective on the 1980s

In the early 1980s UNICEF became increasingly concerned with the setbacks in health, education and child nutrition arising in many developing countries. This article records the developments of UNICEF's concerns with international and national policy to offset these setbacks, the development of its policy of “adjustment with a human face” and the major steps taken to encourage the IMF and the World Bank to give more attention to poverty and human concerns in the making of adjustment policy.     

The “flying geese” model of Asian economic development: origin, theoretical extensions, and regional policy implications

This paper presents a comprehensive review of the “flying geese” (FG) model, which recently has become well known as a way of explaining rapid economic growth in East Asia. Kaname Akamatsu’s 1930s work introduced the concept. Through statistical analysis of industrial development in pre-war Japan, this author followed Akamatsu in developing a theoretical model called Kojima Model I. Subsequent works produced Kojima Models II and III.The regional transmission of FG industrialization has been noted as an engine of Asian economic growth, due in part to Saburo Okita’s forceful presentation of the theme of the FG model in a 1985 lecture. It is hoped that this paper will help to advance a better understanding of the FG model, its historical origin, its theoretical extensions, and its relevancy, as well as its incompleteness as a model of economic development.     

Adjustment with a human face: Still relevant or overtaken by events?

This paper describes the extent to which the policy recommendations of “Adjustment with a Human Face” have been accepted. The concept has been accepted in principle, but large gaps remain in actual implementation. Some policy recommendations, such as the need for compensatory programs, have been more fully accepted and implemented than others, such as the need to stimulate productivity by poor households and to involve different social groups in policy making. The paper concludes that adjustment policies should be part of a long-term development strategy which emphasizes structural changes for countries to grow out of structural poverty. As such, the policy recommendations of “Adjustment with a Human Face” still remain valid, albeit with changes in emphasis on their various components.     

An East Asian paradigm?

The World Bank's 1993 East Asian Miracle report proposed two models of East Asian Development, one based on the Japanese economy, the other on the more recent miracle economies of Southeast Asia. The latter pursued open-market and investment policies compatible with Anglo-American economic norms, while Japan and its coterie (South Korea and Taiwan) forged industrial policy regimes with high levels of government intervention and protection. Japan takes a different view of Southeast Asian success—as a combination of conscious emulation of Japan and concentrated Japanese foreign direct investment, aid, and regional industrial strategy. This article explores the tension between the World Bank thesis and the Japanese view, embodied in a growth metaphor called flying geese. The author concludes that Japan has been far more reactive and opportunistic than the flying geese metaphor suggests, but that this paradigm has a profound influence on Japanese government and corporate strategy in Asia.     

Neo-Corporatism and Territorial Economic Development: The Ecuadorian Indigenous Movement in Local Government

This article argues that the democratization of local governments that has been led by indigenous movements in Ecuador can best be described as “neocorporatist”. The article, based on the evidence from two cases of indigenous local governments in the Andes, argues that the forms of “neo-corporatism” created by the Ecuadorian indigenous movement on its entry into government are designed as participatory institutional frameworks that also serve as channels for the expression of social movements’ demands. The neocorporatist practices deployed by indigenous movements in these areas have had mixed results, both in terms of their implementation and of their capacity to foster viable income-generating activities for poor rural areas. On balance, while the forms of neocorporatist government fostered by the indigenous movement can have positive impacts on economic development, there are still two broad limitations. First, it continues to be difficult to foster a process of territorial economic development that effectively addresses the distinct interests that exist among different community organizations. Second, the negative effects of the wider economic context in which local territories find themselves remain beyond the control of the local government.     

Informational Standards in Development Agency Management

How well do international development agencies support development in poor countries? Idealist, legal-bureaucratic, and populist views insist that they often do a good job, and documentary evidence suggests that aid generally works (Cassen and Associates, 1994, Does Aid Work? Report to an Intergovernmental Task Force, second edition. Oxford University Press, New York). Realist, neomarxist and neoliberal critiques, however, suggest that documents may not be reliable. This paper presents evidence of informational standards and development impacts from four US Agency for International Development (USAID) and four World Bank projects in Africa. We find significant positive bias in project documents; promotional and analytical purposes often collide. Weak informational standards undermine incentives to manage for impact and reduce the prospects for bureaucratic learning.     

Struggling with Sustainability—A Comparative Framework for Evaluating Sustainable Development Programs

“Sustainability” is an inherently dynamic, indefinite and contested concept. “Sustainable development” must, therefore, be seen as an unending process—defined not by fixed goals or the specific means of achieving them, but by an approach to creating change through continuous learning and adaptation. How, then, do we evaluate a development program’s contribution to such a process? This paper constructs a framework for evaluating sustainable rural development programs using both process- and outcome-oriented criteria, and demonstrates its application. The SANREM CRSP/SEA research and development program in The Philippines—including ICRAFs efforts to organize communities around agroforestry and environmental conservation—is assessed.     

Digital divide: determinants and policies with special reference to Asia

Access to the new information and communication technologies (ICT) remains extremely unequally distributed across and within societies. While there have been a good deal of popular discussions about this “digital divide”, not much is known about the quantitative significance of its various determinants. By undertaking a set of cross-country regressions, the paper finds that income, education, and infrastructure play a critical role in shaping the divide. Based on this analysis, the paper also offers some policy suggestions as to how to promote a wider diffusion of ICT in poorer societies.     

Accounting History in Australia: A Survey of Published Works, 1975–99

Research in accounting history has expanded significantly in recent years. This paper reviews the recent development of accounting history in Australia through an examination of the relevant literature while recognizing the wider influence of Australian scholars in the international community of accounting historians. The survey is confined to works on Australian accounting history published in the period of 25 years between 1975 and 1999. These works are discussed using the literature classification framework provided by Carnegie and Napier (1996). Reviewing the literature in this way is expected to be of benefit to historians in general, particularly economic and business historians, and also accounting historians, while future directions for accounting history research in Australia are outlined following a brief critique of the literature examined.     

Time for a Nordic business history initiative?

The current state of Nordic business history is by certain estimates better than ever. Nordic business historians publish extensively in leading international journals and have a strong presence at international business history conferences. Still, in this discussion article we raise a yellow flag of warning for the future of Nordic business history. We argue that the subject field is challenged along three important dimensions: (i) lack of relevant teaching, (ii) continued reliance on commissioned history and (iii) limited recruitment. The article discusses these challenges and seeks to place them in a historical perspective. For each challenge, we develop a set of concrete proposals to address the problems identified. A common theme in our proposed solutions is to intensify Nordic collaboration, particularly through the establishment of common, externally funded Nordic research projects. To create meeting grounds for the development of such projects, The Scandinavian Society for Economic and Social History – the formal collaborative body for Nordic economic historians and the owner of Scandinavian Economic History Review – should be reinvigorated.     

The “hidden” side of the “flying-geese” catch-up model: Japan’s dirigiste institutional setup and a deepening financial morass

Akamatsu’s original “flying geese” (FG) growth model is often used as a frame of reference for both further conceptual elaborations and empirical explorations. So far, only the positive results of FG development have been focused on and emphasized in connection with Asia’s phenomenal growth in the precrisis period. The Japanese economy, supposedly Asia’s lead goose, is in the eleventh consecutive year of stagnation. How has such a once successful lead goose come to be stricken by financial woes? This paper points out that Japan’s once miraculous FG growth was made possible because it established an effective dirigiste catch-up regime in the early postwar period but that Japan’s present financial predicament is paradoxically a path-dependent outcome of this FG strategy. The institutional, especially financial, dimension of FG strategy needs to be taken into account to explain why such a strategy once proved effective but later culminated in a deepening financial morass. The FG model should encompass not only the industrial dimension of catch-up but also its institutional, particularly financial, dimension.     

China trade: Busting gravity's bounds

Since China's accession to the World Trade Organization in 2001, annual growth rates of its imports and exports have increased, and raised tensions between China and some of its major trading partners. Using a gravity model of trade, we find that China's orientation toward foreign trade is much greater than expected for an economy of its size and level of development. Our analysis shows that China's excessive orientation toward foreign trade (“over-trading”) varies substantially across countries and we consider various explanations for the over-trading. A comparison of China's export boom with the earlier export booms of more market-based East and Southeast Asian economies shows that China's export boom has exceeded earlier booms in magnitude but not in duration. We conclude with a discussion of the likely scale of future export and import flows from and to China.     

Capital markets and legal development: The China case

Recent research establishes a significant positive correlation between law and finance (and hence economic growth), restarting a debate on the “law matters” thesis. However, which way the causality goes is still not clear. The purpose of this paper is to use the ongoing reform experience of China, especially its capital market experience, to examine the direction of causality. First, we show that China's recent experience is largely consistent with Coffee's [Yale Law Journal 111 (2001, October)] “crash-then-law” interpretation of this correlation. Indeed, it is the large and clearly defined constituency of investors that has been a key driving force behind much of the recent legal progress. The rights and economic interests of this constituency have fundamentally challenged the traditional emphasis of the Chinese legal culture on administrative and criminal sanctions, but not on civil litigation law. Second, we compare the different contributions to legal change made by the stock market and the consumer product markets. We argue that capital markets are perhaps the most conducive to the formation of a politically powerful constituency and hence more aggressive legal change, because of (1) the higher degree of commonality among interested parties and (2) immediately measurable and tangible damages. These two characteristics not only allow investors to identify with each other more easily, but also create an ideal basis for more debate in the media, which in turn promotes the development of a legal culture.