Political Economy of Agricultural Policy in Africa

18-20 March 2013, Pretoria, South Africa. This Future Agricultures conference brought together key figures from research, politics, donor organisations and civil society to ask:

• What motivates African governments to invest in different kinds of agricultural development?
• What influence do domestic politics, external donors and pan-African networks have?
• How successful can civil society and social movements be in pushing for more pro-poor agricultural policy in Africa?

The programme contains links to Conference Papers where they are available for particular panels.

For an overview of the papers, grouped by panel, see the main Conference Papers list



Keynote address by Adebayo Olukoshi (African Institute for Economic Development and Planning). The chair was Blessings Chinsinga (Future Agricultures, Malawi).



Speakers: Arilson Favareto (Cebrap/UFABC, Brazil), Sachin Chaturvedi (RIS, India), Li Xiaoyun (CAU, China), Ruth Hall (PLAAS, South Africa). Chair: Ian Scoones (Future Agricultures, UK)


Speakers: Mandivamba Rukuni (Mandi Rukuni Seminar Group), Ousmane Djibo (CAADP/NEPAD), Buba Khan (ActionAid International), Colin Poulton (Future Agricultures, Ghana). Chair: Samuel Asuming-Brempong (Future Agricultures, Ghana)


Speakers: Fatima Shabodien (ActionAid International), Tamani Nkhono Mvula (CISANET, Malawi), Augustin Loada (Future Agricultures, Burkina Faso), Arilson Favareto (Cebrap/UFABC, Brazil). Chair: Blessings Chinsinga (Future Agricultures, Malawi)

 

Panellists: Lindiwe Sibanda (FANRPAN), Kojo Amanor (Institute of African Studies, Ghana), Per Pinstrup-Andersen (UNU-WIDER / Cornell University), Ruth K. Oniang'o (Rural Outreach Program Africa). Chair: Colin Poulton

Related: 
IDS 20/03/2013 "Donors go home!" Money and politics in African agriculture

About the organisers
The conference is co-hosted by the Future Agricultures Consortium (FAC) and the Institute of Poverty, Land and Agrarian Studies (PLAAS).

FAC is a multidisciplinary and independent learning alliance of academic researchers and practitioners involved in African agriculture. With a network of over 90 researchers in Africa and beyond, it aims to encourage dialogue and the sharing of good practice by policy makers and opinion formers in Africa on the role of agriculture in broad based growth.

With funding from the UK’s Department for International Development the consortium is active in fourteen countries across East, South and West Africa, as well as Europe, Brazil and China.


PLAAS was founded in 1995 as a specialist unit in the School of Government, Economic and Management Sciences Faculty at the University of the Western Cape (UWC), Cape Town. Since then, PLAAS has developed a proven track record of undertaking high-quality research on land and agrarian reform, poverty, and natural resource management in South Africa and the southern African region. Besides research and postgraduate teaching,

PLAAS undertakes training, provides advisory, facilitation and evaluation services and is active in the field of national policy development. Through these activities, and by seeking to apply the tools of critical scholarship to questions of policy and practice, it seeks to develop new knowledge and fresh approaches to the transformation of society in southern Africa.