Paper long abstract:

The legacies of the apartheid era are unfortunately still all too evident on South African farms, whilst the marginalisation of workers is continually reinforced by the mechanics of global supply chains. Meanwhile, international development agencies are increasingly promoting private sector solutions as a conduit for poverty alleviation and sustainable resource usage.

South African rural areas are proving to be something of a 'hotbed’ for the emergence of various forms of ethical production systems, which operate via direct linkages with international firms. One such example is the Wine Industry Ethical Trade Association (Wieta), originating from a pilot project enacted by the UK’s Ethical Trade Initiative. Using an auditing system, Wieta inspects its members, who now include fruit and flower producers, to ensure that minimum social standards are being attained.

This paper firstly, illustrates the ways in which various ethical production schemes have evolved in South Africa and secondly, evaluates the ways in which multi-scalar forces are interacting to construct ethical dimensions within specific agri-supply chains. The experiences of one Wieta member, the Flower Valley farm in Western Cape Province, whose commercial success relies upon the construction of specific ethical identities, will be interrogated in order to elucidate the roles played by different institutional actors in both developing and applying different forms of ethical code. The paper concludes by considering the role that international firms can play in facilitating socio-economic development in South Africa.

Paper long abstract:

Author: Paul-Henri Bischoff (Rhodes)

Despite a multitude of international institutions on the African continent, worldwide Africa’s multilateralism has generally received little attention. Yet, with the emergence of the African Union and its institutions, questions arise about its character. Will rhetoric and state symbolism take the place of substance or will the space opened up for democracy and civil society participation allow for greater democratically informed sustainability? With this in mind, the article addresses the issue of to what extent the character of African multilateralism continues to display features of disconnectedness as opposed to those of transformation.

It is argued that overall, African multilateralism can be typified as containing these four elements: That of being - <em>extractive</em> – using limited trade arrangements sustain a flow of tariff revenue to the state or are used by regional institutions as a means to obtain greater amounts of foreign aid or status; <em>symbolic</em> – employing institutions for the purposes of political symbolism, rhetoric and declaration; <em>responsive</em> – anticipating global trends of regional economic protectionism and (re)-creating sub-regional bodies to preempt this drift towards it in the early 1990s or <em>receptive</em> – embracing foreign donor regimes. However, African multilateralism has not, as yet, demonstrated its <em>transformative side</em>, able to make multilateralism more meaningful so that regionalism overcomes its own statism, have regional institutions address issues of uneven development, be open to civil society concerns and responsive to regional parliamentary oversight. Such change could have Africa credibly participate to leverage concessions from the international community. In the interim, amidst state-centred interpretations of sovereignty there remains the persistence of imposed conditionality regimes. As such, the rhetorical or only partial empowerment of civil society cannot fully shore up Africa’s new multilateralism in ways that would make it more connected with African society or to give Africa as a whole, a greater presence within global multilateralism.

Paper long abstract:

This paper takes it as given that the most important evidence and method, in terms of influence in the literature discussing economic performance, is GDP growth explained by cross country regressions. The paper first presents a succinct and critical review of the standard regression model frameworks that have been applied in explaining the growth shortfall in Africa.

Most analysis of economic performance accepts the growth evidence at face value and the scholarly debate is focused on different methodological preferences. The research in this paper differs in this respect because it questions the evidence. The general doubt about the quality of growth data in Africa stands in a glaring contrast with the lack of detailed work establishing exactly how poor the evidence is.

In a comparative case study the national accounting methods through history in Botswana, Kenya, Tanzania and Zambia are analysed. These official data are compared to the data available through Penn World Tables, World Development Indicators and the Maddison data. The statistical basis and methodology for the official data is studied with a special view to display the elements of statistical growth, and discerning which parts of the national accounts are economic evidence as opposed to statistical artefacts.

Paper long abstract:

Tanzania and Vietnam are very different countries and one cannot compare the socialist past in both countries as such. However, in both countries there was the expectation that the incentives of the market would lead to a supply response in the economy that would revitalize the economy. That has happened spectacularly in rural Vietnam: it became a major force on the rice and coffee markets in a short time. The Tanzanian economy displayed strong growth sectors after liberalization in mining and tourism, but not in small scale agriculture. The paper will argue that the Vietnamese supply response was besides liberalization also the result of investment in infrastructure, credit for green revolution packages and supported by government intervention in markets. This was absent in Tanzania and there was instead a strong reliance on the private sector to revive the traditional export sectors and food production.