Of cattle, farmers, veterinarians and the World Bank: The political economy of veterinary services privatization in Cameroun
| Date | 02 November 2006 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1002/pad.4230140103 |
| Published date | 02 November 2006 |
| Author | Jean‐Germain Gros |
PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION AND DEVELOPMENT, VOL. 14,37-51 (1994)
Of cattle, farmers, veterinarians and the World Bank: the
political economy of veterinary services privatization in
Cameroun
JEAN-GERMAIN GROS
Massachusetts Institute
of
Technology (MIT)
SUMMARY
This article relates how the World Bank makes reform decisions in a particular economic
sector and country. It highlights some of the key issues pertaining to the privatization of
livestock veterinary services in sub-Saharan Africa, with a particular focus on Cameroun.
Relating to the economics literature, it argues that veterinary services have both public and
private good attributes. Therefore, any policy aimed at privatizing the entire spectrum of
services without regard to their public good character is likely to result in significant market
failures. With empirical evidence provided by Cameroun, the article also demonstrates that
the ‘privatization project’ advocated most strongly
by
key international lending institutions
does not enjoy much support among African policy makers. It also raises issues of implemen-
tation
in
policy environments fraught with bureaucratic indifference and resistance,
as
well
as divisions
within
the lending community over policy directions.
INTRODUCTION
In the past five years, as the world has watched with bewilderment the rapid disinte-
gration of regimes in the former Soviet Union and eastern Europe, as well as the
abandonment of state-led economic policies elsewhere in the world, one thing has
become clear to many: the state has
so
far not succeeded in its attempt to replace
markets and private initiatives as the major force in economic development. As
a
consequence, in various countries attempts are being made to ‘bring markets back
in’. (Skocpol, 1986)
Africa has not escaped the trend towards giving the private sector the leading
role in development efforts. Indeed, the dominant view among regional specialists
seems to be that, if Africa
is
to stop the economic haemorrhage from which it has
suffered for the past two decades, the state, which has played
a
leading role in
development efforts, must exit certain key areas of economic activity and allow the
private sector to take over (Ake, 1981; Bates, 1986).
If
there is
a
role for the African
state at all in the ‘new’ political economy of the 1990s, it should be, as conventional
wisdom would have it, one of trying to strengthen the market through the creation
of
a
truly entrepreneurial class whose members are willing to defend market interests
against the disruptive effects of the so-called economy of affection and tribalism
(Hyden, 1983).
Dr Jean-Germain
Gros
is
in the Department
of
Political Science at the Massachusetts Institute
of
Techno-
logy, Building E53-470,30 Wadsworth Street, Cambridge, MA 02142-1320
USA.
CCC 0271-2075/94/010037-15
0
1994 by
John
Wiley
&
Sons, Ltd.
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