<title>Abstract</title> Research into the governance of public goods provision in Africa suggests that, on their own, bottom--up pressures from voters and service users are only a weak factor in improving performance. It confirms the importance of working with politicians and service providers as well as...

PRSPs have achieved a useful mainstreaming of anti-poverty efforts in national policy processes in Africa. However, the seven country experiences synthesised in this article reveal differences as well as commonalities. Whether or not vicious circles of patrimonial politics, state weakness and...

Book reviewed: Our Common Interest: The Report of the Africa Commission. By the Commission for Africa. London: Commission for Africa, 2005. 462pp. £10.00 pb. (forthcoming in June 2005 from Penguin Books Ltd, Our Common Interest: An Argument. 192pp. £5.00 pb.). Copyright Overseas Development...

A collection on the past and future of social-development analysis provides an opportunity to reflect and connect. This article reflects on a ten-year-old book called Rethinking Social Development and connects it with a recent study of Poverty Reduction Strategy processes in Africa. It argues...

type="main" <p>In Africa as in Asia, will successful agricultural transformation happen first in countries whose rulers are driven by concerns to avert fundamental rural-based political threats? This article explores this question with reference to Rwanda, where the political incentives are found...</p>