We cannot do better than Marcello Cecco's (1984: 1) concise definition of an international gold standard: it exists ‘when gold is the effective numeraire in most countries, and/or when the other means of payment used as monetary numeraire in those countries are readily redeemable in gold at their bearers' request’. Such a standard existed from the mid-1890s to 1914, even though Britain went on the gold standard much earlier than that, in 1816, and Germany a little over a half century later, in 1871. The Latin Union in Europe (France, Belgium, Switzerland and Italy) did not join effectively until 1900 (Mertens 1994). Many claims were, and are still made for the system: that it facilitated international trade by providing a uniform standard of value; and as an automatic adjustment system, it freed markets from the (nationalistic) interference of public authorities while it created price equalisation in traded goods and ensured, over a protracted period, price stability.

The ‘Gold Standard’ in the title of this talk refers to the ‘academic gold standard’ invoked by Lord Ashby (1964; see also Austin 1980), one time Master of Clare College, Cambridge, a British educationist who was deeply involved with the development of universities in the later years of colonial rule in British West Africa. Although the University of the Witwatersrand and the city of Johannesburg owe a great deal to the gold industry, my talk is not about money or the metal's place in it. It is about the metaphorical ‘academic gold standard’.

The failure of successive generations of imported, Western development strategies and projects to deliver meaningful reductions in poverty and achieve basic needs in Africa, has provoked a deep questioning of Western concepts and methodologies of development. Non-governmental organisations and development practitioners are increasingly focusing their attention on strategies which build upon local knowledge, skills and resources. The concepts of ‘self- reliance’ and local economic development are examined in the context of development challenges which face Africa. This is followed by a detailed case study of local economic development in the rural Mpofu District of the former Ciskei Homeland, which was incorporated into the Eastern Cape province of South Africa with the demise of apartheid in 1994.

The end of the Cold War freed donors' aid policies from the co-ordinate system of East/West competition around the world. As a result, it was no longer necessary for the United States and its allies to continue providing aid on ideological grounds and/or geo-strategic needs. In the post-Cold War era, it became necessary for donor countries to evolve new rationales to convince their sceptical publics of the continued necessity for aid. One such new rationale was the imperative of promoting democracy and good governance as a way of guaranteeing international peace and security. This article examines the Japanese response to this development by identifying the factors that led to the inauguration of the ODA Charter. Thereafter, the content and intent of the Charter is examined and its application in Sub-Saharan Africa is analysed to highlight the changing objectives of Japanese aid policy in the continent.

For the best part of seven years, an increasing number of warring factions fought a vicious civil war for control of the West African state of Liberia. In August 1996, the fourteenth peace accord led to presidential and parliamentary elections in July of the following year. Charles Taylor and his National Patriotic Party (NPP), formed out of the original invasion force, emerged victorious with a landslide 75 per cent of the vote. Given the international reputation of Taylor as a brutal warlord whose sole aim had never wavered from the capture of power in Monrovia, Taylor's across-the-board victory appears difficult to explain. Having concluded that, despite problems and allegations, the election did seem more free and fair than not, the article examines the factors that probably influenced the electorate's choices. The results of this research show an election heavily dependent on an uncertain security situation. However, it suggests that, although a former ‘warlord’ has been rewarded, the voting was a reasoned ploy by the electorate to maximise the possibility of improved living conditions.

Population politics in Tanzania reflect multiple understandings of the ‘problem’ of population. While Tanzania has a long history of family planning service provision through its childspacing programmes, a national population policy was not adopted until 1992. This work explores the ambiguity and ambivalence reflected in the discourse surrounding the Tanzanian National Population Policy. Although an international consensus on questions of population and family planning may have been reached at the 1994 International Conference on Population and Development in Cairo, when we look at actual cases of policy formulation and implementation, the discourse reflects ambiguity and conflict rather than consensus. The Tanzanian case suggests that this ambiguity may be strategic. Competing ‘positive’ and ‘negative’ approaches have been articulated from the level of national policy negotiations to that of local implementation. This enables the Tanzanian government, promoting a ‘positive’ view of population, to ally itself with proponents of an expanded reproductive health agenda without alienating the elements of the population establishment that pushed for a population policy and fund its implementation.

This article first explores the manner in which the colonial and postcolonial state in Côte d'Ivoire has sought to develop and animate rural cooperatives as a means of effecting change in the countryside. It then examines the local realities that the state has encountered in its attempt to organise and control rural cooperatives. In particular, the article shows how ethnicity, age, and contrasting economic interests have undermined state efforts to create sustainable and effective rural cooperatives at the village level. Finally, the article looks at how structural adjustment has led to the retreat of the state and the emergence of a more pluralistic environment in which different rural associations are now competing to represent the interests of rural producers.