New publications

The last few years have seen a huge amount of interest in the hotly contested issue of ‘land grabbing’ - the large-scale acquisition of land in the global South. It is a phenomenon against which locals seem defenceless, and one about which multilateral organizations such as the World Bank as well as civil-society organizations have become increasingly vocal. This in-depth volume edited by ASC researcher Mayke Kaag and Annelies Zoomers of Utrecht University takes a step back from the hype to explore a number of key questions: does the ‘global land grab’ actually exist? And what are the real problems?

This book is the first attempt to understand Boko Haram in a comprehensive and consistent way. It examines the early history of the sect and its transformation into a radical armed group. It analyses the causes of the uprising against the Nigerian state and evaluates the consequences of the on-going conflict from a religious, social and political point of view. The book is a co-publication of the ASC and IFRA-Nigeria (Institut Français de Recherche en Afrique).

Some discomforting conclusions can be drawn from the latest ASC Infosheet. The authors, Nicky Pouw and Kini Janvier, examined the definition of the ‘poor’ and the impact of development interventions on the ‘poor’ and ‘very poor’ in Burkina Faso, using the PADev (Participatory Assessment of Development) methodology. They found that the number of ‘very poor’ people, according to PADev data, is significantly higher than official money-metric figures indicate. Moreover, the rich and very rich appear to benefit most from development interventions over time.

Inhabitants of poor, rural areas in the Global South heavily depend on natural resources in their immediate vicinity. Conflicts over these resources  severely affect their livelihoods. The contributors to this book leave behind the polarised debate that previously surrounded the relationship between natural resources and conflict, preferring a more nuanced approach. The book finds its origin in the research programme CoCooN, steered by The Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research. Among the contributors are Ton Dietz and Marcel Rutten of the African Studies Centre.

The fourth and latest report in the series Agricultural Dynamics and Food Security Trends has just been published: the one about Kenya. As part of the Developmental Regimes in Africa (DRA) project, four case studies were done about the most promising agricultural sectors in Nigeria, Uganda, Tanzania and Kenya. The DRA project is a collaborative venture between the Overseas Development Institute (ODI) in the UK and the ASC in Leiden, and is funded by the Netherlands Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

The ASC has published three new thematic maps: Africa’s economic growth from a labour perspective; Sanitation in Africa; and Drinking water in Africa. The three maps visualize themes that are high on the development agenda. They can be viewed in Open Access on our website.