Recurrent costs and agricultural development. Edited by J. Howell Overseas Development Institute, 1985, 223 pp.

DOIhttp://doi.org/10.1002/pad.4230060211
Date01 April 1986
Published date01 April 1986
206
Book
Reviews
The second essay on the African security agenda is said to make the case for a ‘pluralistic
community in Africa as a precondition for regional economic cooperation’, the meaning of
which is as obscure as the link of an otherwise important topic to the theme of the book.
The final essay on African women and development, after discussing the roots of
exploitation of women in Africa, reviews the rather modest achievements made since the late
1970s.
In concludes with
a
comment on the flawed analysis of the Lagos Plan of the issues
involved: that the Plan advocates only
improved access
of women to education and
employment opportunities and conditions, whilst failing to come to grips with the gender-
based division of labour. This very valid conclusion is hardly surprising in view of the
authorship of the Lagos Plan.
The remaining one-third of the book is devoted to appendices containing selections from
the Lagos Plan, an ECA paper on Africa’s Development
1983-2008
and the World Bank’s
Progress Report on Development Prospects and Programmes in sub-Saharan Africa.
PAUL
COLLINS
Department
of
Political Science
Texas Technical University,
USA
RECURRENT COSTS AND AGRICULTURAL DEVELOPMENT
Edited
by
J.
Howell
Overseas Development Institute,
1985, 223
pp.
Throughout sub-Saharan Africa and some other parts of the developing world, a crisis in
recurrent funding of publicly provided agricultural services has broken, being both
a
symptom of economic recession and also a contributory factor to it as faltering agricultural
services have undercut agricultural production. Governments have reacted by spreading their
resources thinly
so
that all services are under-funded, and have made particularly hefty cuts to
non-staff costs. The result is large numbers of staff, many
of
them badly paid as public sector
wages have been held down, bereft
of
materials, especially fuel, with which to work. Services
falter and agriculture suffers. In turn
so
does the economy, thus further exacerbating the
problem of raising government revenue.
The Introduction and first two chapters, by Howell, Heller and Aghevli, and Carruthers
respectively, provide an excellent overview of the problem. Rarnakrishnan’s later chapter
supplements their outlines with examples of the problem from Kenya, a country with
a
much
better record than most in Africa for managing its development, but which still faces
a
severe
recurrent funds problem. The countries which have suffered most are not necessarily the
poorest, but include those with high ratios of capital to recurrent spending, heavy dependence
on many donors, poor planning and control of budgets, and with weak tax effort. Countries
which have been fiscally conservative-e.g. Nepal, Botswana and Jordan,
or
which have tied
planning and budgeting together-e.g. Papua New Guinea and Swaziland-have fared much
better.
Of particular concern to those of us who work with donor aid agencies and/or are involved
in project planning is the blame which these contributions lay at the door
of
donors and their
econocrats. Donors have added to the mess by concentrating on capital aid for new projects,
leading to
a
profusion of projects, apparently gift horses not to be looked in the mouth.
Moreover, the vogue for looking at projects individually and the use of cost-benefit analysis
to appraise projects have aggravated the problem by heavy discounting of the future where
recurrent costs occur, and by replacing cash-flow estimates vital to budgeting with shadow
values expressed in non-inflated real terms.
Improvement lies in two areas.
On
the one hand public sector finance has to be better
planned and managed. On the other hand the demand for recurrent funds needs to be
examined to see whether economies can be made. The two chapters by Stevens and Jones
stress the need for better house-keeping of expenditure and more management of finances-
financial planning; delegation of budget planning to line Ministry heads of department; and

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