The Elusive Promise of NGOs in Africa : Lessons From Uganda

## Tables 1.1 NGO typology 3.1 Gross domestic product growth rate as a percentage of annual change in Uganda: 1986-97 3.2 Total external debt in Uganda (US$ millions at current prices and exchange rates) 5.1 NGO operations in Uganda by district 5.2 NGO case studies basic data Many individuals have been instrumental in helping me to complete this manuscript. I would like to thank those NGOs in Uganda that gave me access to their data and allowed me to accompany them on their field trips, especially ACFODE, FHRI, UHRA, FAD, KAF and the URDF. Also, the people at the Makerere Institute for Social Research (MISR) opened their offices and their homes to me. I will be forever indebted to them for that. On the home front, I would like to thank Richard Sandbrook, Judith Teichman, Jonathan Barker and Cranford Pratt for useful comments. Rosalind Boyd was a wealth of information and inspiration. The Farm War of the early 1980s caused subsequent disruptions in world markets, conflicts among major governments and disagreements in international organizations. The Uruguay Round of GATT negotiations, ostensibly devoted to the new issues of globalization, dragged on from 1986 to 1993 in an attempt to end farm-subsidy battles. Wolfe shows how and why battles over agricultural protectionism were largely resolved through the Round, demonstrating that the global economy is not self-regulating; it needs institutions if it is to be stable. The Green Box, a core provision of The Agreement on Agriculture, shows how states can decide that certain types of policies should be immune from international regulation by the new World Trade Organization, an elegant compromise between the imperatives of responding to global change and maintaining democratic accountability. Wolfe's analysis will be helpful for planners of the next set of farm trade talks, due to begin in 1999, while the annotated text of The Agreement on Agriculture will be especially useful in introducing students to the complexities of trade policy Dicklitch challenges the dominant now-liberal discourse on democratization and development in Africa that views NGOs and civil society as the panacea for underdevelopment and authoritarianism. Focusing on NGOs and civil society, this should argues that the democratizing and empowerment potential of NGOs and civil society is severely constrained not only by state- imposed bottlenecks, structural and historical impediments and internal NGO limitations, but also by the dominant development paradigm of neo-liberalism which views NGOs as fulfilling a gap-filling role for the shrinking African state. The case study of Uganda offers ample evidence to discount the automatic association often made between liberalization and democratization. NGOs, important actors within civil society, are allowed to function as long as the `fit' within the liberalization agenda, fulfilling an gap-filling rather than empowerment or advocacy role List Of Tables And Figure -- Acknowledgements -- List Of Abbreviations -- Introduction: The Intersection Of Risk And Trade -- Science In The Regulation Of Risk : A Transatlantic Divide? -- Informal Trade Conflict -- Mad Cows And Transatlantic Trade Conflict -- Resolving Differences Over Stinky Cheese And Bothersome Beetles -- Formal Trade Conflict -- The Dispute Over Hormonal Cattle : The Lead Up To Ec-hormones -- Fearing Frankenfoods : Emergence Of Ec-biotech -- Disputing Chlorinated Chickens : The Politics Underpinning Ec-poultry -- Science And The Politics Of Transatlantic Trade Conflict -- Conclusions: Lessons For Trade Conflict -- Moving Forward -- Conclusions -- Notes -- Bibliography. David J. Hornsby, Senior Lecturer In International Relations, University Of Witwatersrand, South Africa. Includes Bibliographical References. Internationally the trade union movement is finding itself peripheralized by a series of mutually reinforcing processes - the ongoing world economic crisis; the uneven transition from an industrial to an information and service capitalism; the aggressive policies of neoliberalism; the collapse of communism and radical nationalism; the decline of the social-democratic or labour tradition - and by a globalization that undermines the nation-state to which union hopes have long been pinned. The editors argue that this crisis provides an opportunity for labour to recover or reinvent itself. They see this in terms of a labour response to the waves of energy coming from the new global social movements (women, ecology, human rights/democracy, and so on). "Dicklitch challenges the dominant neo-liberal discourse on democratization and development in Africa that views NGOs and civil society as the panacea for underdevelopment and authoritarianism. Focusing on NGOs and civil society, the author argues that the democratizing and empowerment potential of NGOs and civil society is severely constrained not only by state-imposed bottlenecks, structural and historical impediments and internal NGO limitations but also by the dominant development paradigm of neo-liberalism which views NGOs as fulfilling a gap-filling role for the shrinking African state." "The case-study of Uganda offers ample evidence to discount the automatic association often made between liberalization and democratization."--BOOK JACKET Sri Lanka is hailed internationally for its high standards of education despite rather modest levels of economic growth. Much of this achievement has been underpinned by economic revenues generated by the labours of the plantation community whose own achievements in education fell well below the national norm. In recent years, however, educational participation among this community has increased. Why, and how? A day in the life of Vickneswari provides the starting-point for an analysis of educational progress among the Tamil plantation community. The authors examine various aspects of Japanese financial markets. This analysis is interspersed with the relevant institutional/historical background on Japanese financial markets necessary for the non-specialist. Principal chapters include: an institutional overview; a chapter on the comparative costs of capital (both internationally and among Japanese firms); causes and implications of the high degree of financial intermediation in Japan; and an invaluable analysis of the most recent trends in the Japanese/Asian financial markets This book examines the effect of post-Soviet transitions on current problem solving trends with regards to world capitalism. The fall of Soviet communism left liberal capitalism as the dominant blueprint from which to construct economic development policies. Using Central Europe as an example it is shown that the application of the Western liberal-capitalist model has not been without its difficulties. This book endeavours to place the changes to the global political economy, since 1989, in a theoretical and historical context Dicklitch Challenges The Dominant Discourse Of Neo-liberalism Which Places Ngos And Civil Society At The Forefront Of Democratization And Development In Africa. Based On Nine Months Of Field Research In Uganda, The Study Draws On Evidence From The 'successfully' Liberalizing Country And Shows How Ngo Potential For Democratization And Development Has Been Subverted By State Directives, Structural And Historical Conditions, As Well As The Internal Limitations Of Ngos. Front Matter....Pages i-xiv NGOs, Civil Society and Democracy....Pages 1-30 Structural Bottlenecks to Democracy....Pages 31-55 Democratization from Above?....Pages 56-97 State—Civil Society Relations....Pages 98-122 NGOs: Harbingers of Democratization?....Pages 123-168 Whither NGOs and Democracy in Africa?....Pages 169-176 Back Matter....Pages 177-294