A new online tool which aims to improve information about European donor support for agricultural development in Sub-Saharan Africa has been launched by Imperial College London.

Created by Professor Sir Gordon Conway’s team at the Centre for Environmental Policy, the online database is an initial attempt to map the activities, political and financial commitments of fourteen different European donors.

The content draws on open access material available online, and OECD-DAC data on donor commitments and disbursements in this sector.

It is part of a wider project funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to explore the potential for new or improved European support for agricultural development in sub-Saharan Africa.

The research team are particularly keen to obtain feedback and advice to improve the information and keep it up to date. Contact This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it  or This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it with comments, information and suggestions.

About the Machakos study

The Machakos study was carried out 1990-93 by scientists at the Overseas Development Institute, London, and the University of Nairobi. Its findings were published in a series of ODI Working Papers and then in the book, More People, Less Erosion: Environmental Recovery in Kenya, Mary Tiffen, Michael Mortimore and Francis Gichuki, John Wiley & Sons, 1994, with a special Kenyan edition by the ACTS Press, Nairobi.

An interdisciplinary team examined change in population and environment over a period of 60 years, from 1930 to 1990, and the accompanying social and economic changes as people responded to new opportunities and new constraints. It utilised a great variety of historical information and current investigations to come to the then surprising conclusion that very rapid population growth had been much surpassed by increases in resource productivity and per capita incomes. New investments of work and capital, combined with new technologies, had transformed and conserved the landscape. Many of these changes had required extra population, to provide labour, markets and means, as well as a relatively favourable government policy which had provided security of tenure, new transport and other infrastructure, and encouraged the spread of education. New technologies and farming systems had been adopted, responding to better contacts with markets and more sources of information.

The study was copiously illustrated with photographs taken in the 1930s, the 1950s and 60s, and 1990, which showed the striking changes in landscapes as eroded slopes became terraced and planted with coffee, fruit and timber-producing trees, and gullies were healed. Oral history was utilised to illustrate people's consciousness of change in their institutions and technologies.The study has had a lasting influence, being frequently cited, and used as teaching material. It has also led to other research studies designed to test and challenge it, or to extend its findings to new areas. It was funded by the World Bank, the UK's Overseas Development Administration (now DFID) and the

Rockefeller Foundation. The book is now out of print but has been digitised by the Overseas Development Institute and is available for download at www.odi.org (link). As this process has reduced the quality of the photographs, pages with high quality photographs have been reconstructed using the original artwork, and can be downloaded here.

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The Centre for Social Protection (CSP) at IDS has been working with partners at the Overseas Development Institute (ODI), the School of International Development at the University of East Anglia (UEA-DEV), and the Regional Hunger and Vulnerability Programme (RHVP), to produce a joint statement on the future of social protection in sub-Saharan Africa, which is released today.

Read the Joint Statement, Social Protection in Africa: Where next?

The paper challenges current practices within the research and donor community. It notes that social protection is an extremely important policy agenda for Africa, and that remarkable progress has been made in a very short time. In recent years, donors and other external actors have invested heavily in financing social protection projects, strengthening capacity among implementing agencies, and building the evidence base to demonstrate the powerful positive impacts of social protection programmes. Nonetheless, many governments remain resistant to social protection, as advocated by donors and international NGOs.

A fundamental rethinking is required. All too often, social protection initiatives are imported from elsewhere and introduced with inadequate understanding of domestic political priorities and policy processes. As a result, pilot projects rarely scale up to national programmes, and 'blueprint' approaches rarely gain political traction. Where governments express a preference for different models, these are often neglected or dismissed, while 'beneficiaries' themselves are hardly ever consulted.

The paper concludes by proposing ten principles for future engagement by development partners with social protection policy processes in Africa. These include: support national policy priorities and minimise policy intrusion; limit pilot project 'experiments'; and involve programme participants at all stages, starting with vulnerability assessments and project selection. 

Related Publications

• Devereux, S. and Cipryk, R. (2009) 'Social Protection in Sub-Saharan Africa: A Regional Review'
• Cook, S. and Kabeer, N. (2009) 'A Global Review of Social Protection'
• Ellis, F., Devereux, S. and White, P. (2006) Social Protection in Africa, Cheltenham: Edward Elgar Publishing
• Devereux, S. (2010) 'Seasonal Food Crises and Social Protection in Africa', Abingdon: Routledge