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Building an Ideational and Institutional Architecture for Africa’s Agricultural Transformation

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 April 2022

William Munro Open the ORCID record for William Munro [Opens in a new window]  and
Rachel Schurman
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Abstract

Over the past two decades, transnationally networked actors have promoted a vision of transforming African agriculture from an object of poverty-alleviating development assistance to a motor of economic growth by integrating smallholders into markets and promoting agribusiness through multi-stakeholder initiatives. Munro and Schurman analyze the networking and communicative labor that key policy actors have performed to advance this vision. An institutional and ideational architecture for this project is created by defining agricultural challenges in specific ways, imbuing particular ideas with authority and establishing strategic institutional connections. This architecture constitutes an emerging governance regime for African agriculture, but its long-term prospects remain uncertain.

Résumé

Résumé

Au cours des deux dernières décennies, des sociétaires en réseau transnational ont promu une vision de la transformation de l’agriculture africaine, d’un objet d’aide au développement visant à réduire la pauvreté à un moteur de croissance économique, en intégrant les petits exploitants aux marchés et en stimulant l’agrobusiness par le biais d’initiatives multipartites. Munro et Schurman analysent le travail de mise en réseau et de communication que les principaux sociétaires politiques ont effectué pour faire avancer cette vision. Une architecture institutionnelle et idéelle pour ce projet est créée en définissant les défis agricoles de manière spécifique, en imprégnant des idées particulières d’autorité et en établissant des connexions institutionnelles stratégiques. Cette architecture constitue un régime de gouvernance émergent pour l’agriculture africaine, mais ses perspectives à long terme restent incertaines.

Resumo

Resumo

Nas duas últimas décadas, vários atores transnacionais com fortes redes sociais promoveram uma visão transformadora da agricultura africana, no sentido de a transformar de objeto de programas de ajuda ao desenvolvimento, para aliviar a pobreza, em motor de crescimento económico, através da integração dos pequenos proprietários nos mercados e da promoção do agronegócio por via de iniciativas envolvendo múltiplas partes interessadas. Munro e Schurman analisam os esforços de networking e de comunicação que foram empreendidos por vários atores políticos-chave com o objetivo de concretizar esta visão. A arquitetura das instituições e das ideias deste projeto é criada através da definição de desafios agrícolas muito concretos, veiculando ideias específicas com autoridade e estabelecendo ligações institucionais estratégicas. Esta arquitetura constitui um regime emergente de governação para a agricultura africana, mas as suas perspetivas de longo prazo permanecem incertas.

Keywords

African Green Revolutiontransnational policy networksAfrican agricultureAfrica development
Type
Forum: Lost in Translation: Pro-Poor Development in the Green Revolution for Africa
Information
African Studies Review , Volume 65 , Issue 1 , March 2022 , pp. 16 - 40
Copyright
© The Author(s), 2022. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of the African Studies Association

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