The emergence of two‐tier welfare in Africa: Marginalization or an opportunity for reform?
| Date | 01 May 1992 |
| Published date | 01 May 1992 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1002/pad.4230120203 |
| Author | Mark Duffield |
PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION AND DEVELOPMENT, VOL. 12,139-154 (1992)
The emergence of two-tier welfare in Africa: marginalization
or
an opportunity for reform?
MARK DUFFIELD
University
of
Birmingham
SUMMARY
The emergence of two-tier welfare in Africa has been defined by two interconnected develop-
ments. Firstly, a growing understanding that ‘African famine’ is
a
complex and deep-seated
problem, a problem which, in many cases, combines political, environmental-economic and
conflict factors. Secondly, in response to this situation
a
world historic internationalization
of
public welfare has occurred. Whilst some
of
the financial
aspects
of
this intervention,
in the shape of World Bank, International Monetary Fund and bilateral programmes, have
received attention, the simultaneous spread of donorlnon-government organization relief-
based safety nets has been relatively neglected. During the
1990s,
however, policy debate
will increasingly centre upon the adequacy
or
appropriateness of the latter in relation to
the modalities
of
the African crisis. This paper, by first sketching the nature of this crisis,
seeks to contribute to this debate by drawing attention to the contradictions and limitations
within the emerging safety net system.
THE
SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC BACKGROUND
The
specificity
of
African
famine
It is increasingly recognized that contemporary famine in Africa is a symptom
of
wider and long-term economic and political difficulties (Duffield, 1990). In particular,
environmental-economic and conflict factors have increasingly combined to produce
the appearance of countries plagued by economic decline, political fragmentation
and growing food insecurity. Until recently, the contribution of conflict to this scen-
ario has either been ignored or its effects minimized (Green, 1987). In order to
develop a better understanding of what could be called the specificity of African
famine, a useful starting point is a consideration of de Waal’s (1990) recent work.
Briefly, de Waal has argued that African definitions of famine allow for a far
wider range of meaning than the term usually denotes in English usage. These mean-
ings can range from poverty, through dearth to increased mortality and frank starva-
tion. African people normally deal with famine by recourse to coping strategies.
These strategies include a range of practices such as labour migration
or
the collection
of wild foodstuffs. They also involve the management of assets, e.g. livestock or
craft skills (Swift, 1989). Coping strategies are the single most important means
by which African peoples deal with famine and in recent famines, e.g. in North
Sudan in the mid-l980s, they were much more effective than food aid in keeping
Dr
Duffield
is
in the Centre
for
Urban and Regional Studies in the University
of
Birmingham, Edgbaston,
Birmingham,
UK.
0271-20751921020139-16$08.00
0
1992
by John Wiley
&
Sons,
Ltd.
140
M.
Dufield
people alive (de Waal, 1987). Because coping strategies involve a variety
of
decisions,
including that of going hungry in order to preserve assets, the epidemiology of envir-
onmental-economic famines is complex, and rather than frank starvation it usually
takes the form of disease crises. In Africa, however, there is also a close connection
between famine and conflict. Violence disrupts people’s coping strategies or even
prevents them operating at all. In these circumstances, especially when such actions
are deliberate, frank starvation is often the result.
This paper seeks to add to de Waal’s (1990) model of African famine in two
respects. Firstly, by arguing that the importance of coping strategies is underscored
by the growing instability of semi-subsistence as a way of life. Secondly, by analysing
the logic of internal conflict in Africa, which makes semi-subsistence and coping
systems necessary targets, it attempts to make an organic connection between instabi-
lity, conflict and food insecurity. This complex of relations and outcomes has been
a defining characteristic of the period in which the internationalization of public
welfare has occurred.
The intensification
of
production
Although there has been a widespread decline in economic performance in Africa
since the 1970s, this factor should not hide the crucially important fact that, in
attempting to achieve growth, there have been significant attempts to intensify the
production of primary products, including food. Whilst these efforts have fallen
short of their goal, their importance from the point of view of this paper lies in
their connection with the environment, vulnerability and conflict.
The method of intensification in the market economies has usually taken the form
of an increased capitalization
of
agriculture. In Sudan, for example, the large-scale
mechanization of agricultural production has emerged. Such developments have
usually involved various forms of state subsidy. In the planned economies, e.g. Ethio-
pia, the technical emphasis has been less, with more store being placed upon the
provision of basic tools, seeds and, more than anything else, major attempts at social
reorganization involving such things as resettlement, the formation of communal
villages and the promotion of village-based cooperatives.
Few systematic studies have been attempted of the social effect
of
these, what
could be called ‘core’ developments, upon the groups living at the ‘periphery’ of
the countries concerned (see IIfle, 1987). From the fragmented evidence an argument
can be made that core developments have indeed had a considerable impact. The
specificity of the African situation is that they have occurred in areas characterized
by groups living in various, and often complex, forms of semi-subsistence. Moreover,
they have often been directed by politicians or planners who were unaware of or
uninterested in this condition. In some countries, e.g. Chad and Sudan, either inher-
ited regional differences have been accentuated or new ones have been established.
The result has been the widespread marginalization of peripheral groups and the
transformation of social and family relations.
Patterns
of
social
transformation
The transformation of subsistence economies is a complex issue. The diversity of
such economies, together with differences in local conditions, means that no single
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