The cultural construction of environmental policy: Paradigms and politics in Ethiopia

Ecologist

Volumn 27, Issue 2, 1997, Pages 55-63

  Hoben, Allan ^a  

^a Boston University   (United States)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

DEVELOPING COUNTRIES; ENVIRONMENTAL DEGRADATION; ENVIRONMENTAL POLICY; FAMINE; FOOD FOR WORK PROGRAMME; FOOD-FOR-WORK PROGRAMME; MAN-ENVIRONMENT RELATIONS; POLICY FAILURE;

ETHIOPIA;

EID: 0031474913     PISSN: 02613131     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: None     Document Type: Article

References (27)

1. Herweg, K., "Major constraints to effective soil conservation: Experiences in Ethiopia", paper presented to the Seventh International Soil Conservation Conference, "People Protecting Their Soil", 27-30 September 1992, ISCO, Sydney.
2. A.O. Hirschman argued in 1968 that effective development policies and programmes (that is, ones that mobilize funds, institutions and technology) rest on a set of more or less naive, unproven, simplifying and optimistic assumptions about the problem to be addressed and the approach to be taken. Without such a cultural script for action, it is difficult for donors and aid recipients to mobilize and coordinate concerted action in the face of the many uncertainties that characterize processes of economic, political and institutional change. More recently, E. Roe observed that these optimistic "enabling assumptions" are generally encoded in what he calls "development narratives". The power of these narratives is enhanced through the incorporation of dominant symbols, ideologies and real or imagined historical experience of their adherents. In this sense, they are culturally constructed and reflect the hegemony of Western development discourse. To the extent that a particular development narrative becomes influential in donor community development discourse, it becomes actualized in specific development programmes, projects, packages and methodologies of data collection and analysis. All of these constitute the "cultural paradigm" associated with the narrative. The cultural policy paradigm is thus based on concrete exemplars as well as on a set of ideas. It is not merely a set of beliefs or a theory but a blueprint for action as well. See Hirschman, A.O., Development Projects Observed, Brookings Institute, Washington, DC, 1968; Roe, E., "'Development narratives' or making the best of blueprint development", World Development Vol. 19, No. 4, 1991, pp.287-300; Hoben, A., "Agricultural decision making in foreign assistance: an anthropological analysis" in Barlett, P., (ed.) Agricultural Decision Making: Anthropological Contributions to Rural Development, Academic Press, Orlando, FL, 1980, pp.337-69; Hoben, A., "USAID: Organizational and institutional issues and effectiveness" in Berg, R.J. and Gordon, D.F., (eds.) Cooperation for International Development: The United States and the Third World in the 1990s, Lynne Reinner, Boulder, CO, 1989, pp.253-78; and Hoben, A., "The cultural and political construction of environmental policy in Africa: Some theoretical considerations", paper presented at the SSRC Workshop on the Dynamics of Production and Transmission of Development Ideas, 13-15 May 1994, University of Michigan , Ann Arbor, MI.
3. A.O. Hirschman argued in 1968 that effective development policies and programmes (that is, ones that mobilize funds, institutions and technology) rest on a set of more or less naive, unproven, simplifying and optimistic assumptions about the problem to be addressed and the approach to be taken. Without such a cultural script for action, it is difficult for donors and aid recipients to mobilize and coordinate concerted action in the face of the many uncertainties that characterize processes of economic, political and institutional change. More recently, E. Roe observed that these optimistic "enabling assumptions" are generally encoded in what he calls "development narratives". The power of these narratives is enhanced through the incorporation of dominant symbols, ideologies and real or imagined historical experience of their adherents. In this sense, they are culturally constructed and reflect the hegemony of Western development discourse. To the extent that a particular development narrative becomes influential in donor community development discourse, it becomes actualized in specific development programmes, projects, packages and methodologies of data collection and analysis. All of these constitute the "cultural paradigm" associated with the narrative. The cultural policy paradigm is thus based on concrete exemplars as well as on a set of ideas. It is not merely a set of beliefs or a theory but a blueprint for action as well. See Hirschman, A.O., Development Projects Observed, Brookings Institute, Washington, DC, 1968; Roe, E., "'Development narratives' or making the best of blueprint development", World Development Vol. 19, No. 4, 1991, pp.287-300; Hoben, A., "Agricultural decision making in foreign assistance: an anthropological analysis" in Barlett, P., (ed.) Agricultural Decision Making: Anthropological Contributions to Rural Development, Academic Press, Orlando, FL, 1980, pp.337-69; Hoben, A., "USAID: Organizational and institutional issues and effectiveness" in Berg, R.J. and Gordon, D.F., (eds.) Cooperation for International Development: The United States and the Third World in the 1990s, Lynne Reinner, Boulder, CO, 1989, pp.253-78; and Hoben, A., "The cultural and political construction of environmental policy in Africa: Some theoretical considerations", paper presented at the SSRC Workshop on the Dynamics of Production and Transmission of Development Ideas, 13-15 May 1994, University of Michigan , Ann Arbor, MI.
4. A.O. Hirschman argued in 1968 that effective development policies and programmes (that is, ones that mobilize funds, institutions and technology) rest on a set of more or less naive, unproven, simplifying and optimistic assumptions about the problem to be addressed and the approach to be taken. Without such a cultural script for action, it is difficult for donors and aid recipients to mobilize and coordinate concerted action in the face of the many uncertainties that characterize processes of economic, political and institutional change. More recently, E. Roe observed that these optimistic "enabling assumptions" are generally encoded in what he calls "development narratives". The power of these narratives is enhanced through the incorporation of dominant symbols, ideologies and real or imagined historical experience of their adherents. In this sense, they are culturally constructed and reflect the hegemony of Western development discourse. To the extent that a particular development narrative becomes influential in donor community development discourse, it becomes actualized in specific development programmes, projects, packages and methodologies of data collection and analysis. All of these constitute the "cultural paradigm" associated with the narrative. The cultural policy paradigm is thus based on concrete exemplars as well as on a set of ideas. It is not merely a set of beliefs or a theory but a blueprint for action as well. See Hirschman, A.O., Development Projects Observed, Brookings Institute, Washington, DC, 1968; Roe, E., "'Development narratives' or making the best of blueprint development", World Development Vol. 19, No. 4, 1991, pp.287-300; Hoben, A., "Agricultural decision making in foreign assistance: an anthropological analysis" in Barlett, P., (ed.) Agricultural Decision Making: Anthropological Contributions to Rural Development, Academic Press, Orlando, FL, 1980, pp.337-69; Hoben, A., "USAID: Organizational and institutional issues and effectiveness" in Berg, R.J. and Gordon, D.F., (eds.) Cooperation for International Development: The United States and the Third World in the 1990s, Lynne Reinner, Boulder, CO, 1989, pp.253-78; and Hoben, A., "The cultural and political construction of environmental policy in Africa: Some theoretical considerations", paper presented at the SSRC Workshop on the Dynamics of Production and Transmission of Development Ideas, 13-15 May 1994, University of Michigan , Ann Arbor, MI.
5. A.O. Hirschman argued in 1968 that effective development policies and programmes (that is, ones that mobilize funds, institutions and technology) rest on a set of more or less naive, unproven, simplifying and optimistic assumptions about the problem to be addressed and the approach to be taken. Without such a cultural script for action, it is difficult for donors and aid recipients to mobilize and coordinate concerted action in the face of the many uncertainties that characterize processes of economic, political and institutional change. More recently, E. Roe observed that these optimistic "enabling assumptions" are generally encoded in what he calls "development narratives". The power of these narratives is enhanced through the incorporation of dominant symbols, ideologies and real or imagined historical experience of their adherents. In this sense, they are culturally constructed and reflect the hegemony of Western development discourse. To the extent that a particular development narrative becomes influential in donor community development discourse, it becomes actualized in specific development programmes, projects, packages and methodologies of data collection and analysis. All of these constitute the "cultural paradigm" associated with the narrative. The cultural policy paradigm is thus based on concrete exemplars as well as on a set of ideas. It is not merely a set of beliefs or a theory but a blueprint for action as well. See Hirschman, A.O., Development Projects Observed, Brookings Institute, Washington, DC, 1968; Roe, E., "'Development narratives' or making the best of blueprint development", World Development Vol. 19, No. 4, 1991, pp.287-300; Hoben, A., "Agricultural decision making in foreign assistance: an anthropological analysis" in Barlett, P., (ed.) Agricultural Decision Making: Anthropological Contributions to Rural Development, Academic Press, Orlando, FL, 1980, pp.337-69; Hoben, A., "USAID: Organizational and institutional issues and effectiveness" in Berg, R.J. and Gordon, D.F., (eds.) Cooperation for International Development: The United States and the Third World in the 1990s, Lynne Reinner, Boulder, CO, 1989, pp.253-78; and Hoben, A., "The cultural and political construction of environmental policy in Africa: Some theoretical considerations", paper presented at the SSRC Workshop on the Dynamics of Production and Transmission of Development Ideas, 13-15 May 1994, University of Michigan , Ann Arbor, MI.
6. A.O. Hirschman argued in 1968 that effective development policies and programmes (that is, ones that mobilize funds, institutions and technology) rest on a set of more or less naive, unproven, simplifying and optimistic assumptions about the problem to be addressed and the approach to be taken. Without such a cultural script for action, it is difficult for donors and aid recipients to mobilize and coordinate concerted action in the face of the many uncertainties that characterize processes of economic, political and institutional change. More recently, E. Roe observed that these optimistic "enabling assumptions" are generally encoded in what he calls "development narratives". The power of these narratives is enhanced through the incorporation of dominant symbols, ideologies and real or imagined historical experience of their adherents. In this sense, they are culturally constructed and reflect the hegemony of Western development discourse. To the extent that a particular development narrative becomes influential in donor community development discourse, it becomes actualized in specific development programmes, projects, packages and methodologies of data collection and analysis. All of these constitute the "cultural paradigm" associated with the narrative. The cultural policy paradigm is thus based on concrete exemplars as well as on a set of ideas. It is not merely a set of beliefs or a theory but a blueprint for action as well. See Hirschman, A.O., Development Projects Observed, Brookings Institute, Washington, DC, 1968; Roe, E., "'Development narratives' or making the best of blueprint development", World Development Vol. 19, No. 4, 1991, pp.287-300; Hoben, A., "Agricultural decision making in foreign assistance: an anthropological analysis" in Barlett, P., (ed.) Agricultural Decision Making: Anthropological Contributions to Rural Development, Academic Press, Orlando, FL, 1980, pp.337-69; Hoben, A., "USAID: Organizational and institutional issues and effectiveness" in Berg, R.J. and Gordon, D.F., (eds.) Cooperation for International Development: The United States and the Third World in the 1990s, Lynne Reinner, Boulder, CO, 1989, pp.253-78; and Hoben, A., "The cultural and political construction of environmental policy in Africa: Some theoretical considerations", paper presented at the SSRC Workshop on the Dynamics of Production and Transmission of Development Ideas, 13-15 May 1994, University of Michigan , Ann Arbor, MI.
7. This narrative is not new; it was current in Ethiopia before the famine and fitted well with traditional Ethiopian elite attitudes towards the peasantry. Nor is it peculiar to Ethiopia. In the 1930s, it came to play a central role in East African soil conservation and forestry policy. It has been re-enunciated, reinforced and Africanized in the wake of the environmental movement in the West, as it fits well with the movement's interests, understandings, sentiments and with the deeply-rooted Western image of Africa as a spoiled Eden. See Anderson, D.M., "Depression, dust bowl, demography and drought: the colonial state and soil conservation in East Africa during the 1930s", African Affairs, Vol 83, No. 332, 1984, pp.321-43.
8. Although the data supporting all these assertions are admittedly thin and circumstantial, powerful conclusions have been made about the rate, magnitude and direction of agro-environmental decline in Ethiopia. A 1984 Ministry of Agriculture and FAO study concluded that in the densely-settled regions of Wallo, Gondar and northern Shoa on the "frontier" of serious degradation, soil erosion and a decline in organic matter were reducing crop yields at an estimated rate of two per cent per year. See Ministry of Agriculture and FAO, 1984, cited in Stahl, M., "Constraints to environmental rehabilitation through people's participation in the northern Ethiopian highlands", United Nations Research Institute for Social Development, Geneva, Discussion Paper 13, 1990, p.3.
9. For a discussion of the reasons for fragmentation, see Bruce, J.W., Hoben, A. and Rahmato, D., "After the Derg: An assessment of rural land tenure issues in Ethiopia", mimeo, Land Tenure Center, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI, 1994, pp.28-29.
10. See Ministry of Agriculture and FAO, 1984, cited in Ståhl, M., op. cit. 4, p.3.
11. Personal communication with Peter Sutcliffe, former Senior Technical Advisor to the National Conservation Secretariat in Ethiopia. Over-estimation of losses in production due to soil erosion are commonplace in Africa, due in part to methodological problems
12. See McCann, J., People of the Plow: An Agricultural History of Ethiopia 1800-1990, University of Wisconsin Press, Madison, WI, 1995.
13. In the past two decades, an imported species of juniper and bamboo have also been extensively planted around house sites in Dega Damot, Gojjam where I conducted research in the early 1960s. Indeed, when I went back to the district after almost two decades, what struck me most vividly was the increase in tree cover on the farmed high plateau. The increase of tree cover with population pressure is not surprising and has been observed in Kenya. See Shipton, P., "Land and the limits of individualism: population growth and tenure reform south of the Sahara", HIID Development Discussion Paper 320, Harvard Institute of International Development Cambridge, MA, 1989.
14. Ironically, the surge in concern with fuelwood as a national issue can be traced back to the mid-1970s, when peri-urgan plantations of eucalyptus declined sharply shortly after they were nationalized by the Derg. A great increase in tree planting on individually controlled land was noted by NGO workers in central and southern Ethiopia in 1990-1, immediately after the Derg abandoned key features of the agrarian reform programme and relaxed control over the private sector.
15. For an analysis of the linkages between changing government policy, environmental management, food and population movement in the first half of the twentieth century, see McCann, J, From Poverty to Famine in Northeast Ethiopia: A Rural History 1900-1935, University of Pennsylvania Press, Philadelphia, PA, 1987.
16. Ståhl, M., op. cit. 4, p.5.
17. Yeraswork, A., "Impact and sustainability of activities of rehabilitation of forest, grazing and agricultural lands supported by World Food Programme Project 2488", report to WFP and to the Natural Resources Main Department, Ministry of Agriculture, Addis Ababa, 1988.
18. The Soil Conservation Research Project was carried out with Swiss funding and technical support from the University of Berne. See Herweg, K. and Grander, M., "Soil conservation research project, 9, Eighth Project report, Year 1988, Soil Conservation Research Project, Berne, 1991.
19. Herweg, K., op. cit. 1.
20. Herweg, K., "Problems of acceptance and adaptation of soil conservation in Ethiopia", unpublished paper, Soil Conservation Research Project, Addis Ababa, pp.11-12.
21. Yeraswork, A., op. cit. 13.
22. Fruhling, P., Utveckling Bättre än Nödhjälp: Om Röda Korsets Katastrofförebyggande arbete i Wollo, Röda Korset, Stockholm, 1988; Hultin, J., Farmers' Participation in the Wollo Program, Swedish International Development Authority, Stockholm, 1988.
23. Fruhling, P., Utveckling Bättre än Nödhjälp: Om Röda Korsets Katastrofförebyggande arbete i Wollo, Röda Korset, Stockholm, 1988; Hultin, J., Farmers' Participation in the Wollo Program, Swedish International Development Authority, Stockholm, 1988.
24. Christian Relief and Development Association, Proceedings of the Community Forestry Development Workshop, Addis Ababa, 4-5 April 1990, p.6.
25. The information was gathered through field trips and interviews with researchers from Addis Ababa University, representatives of the Ministry of Agriculture, NGOs and major donor organization active in environmental rehabilitation programmes.
26. CRDA 1990a; Proceedings of the Workshop on Environment Impact Assessment, Addis Ababa, 15-16 October 1990. Rebels from Tigray toppled the Derg in May 1991, occupied Addis Ababa and formed a new Transitional Government of Ethiopia (TGE). Yet key elements of the neo-Malthusian environmental policy narrative survived the fall of the Derg and the establishment of a new regime. They still inform thinking and planning in Ethiopia and are likely to shape the way Ethiopian environmental problems are addressed in the future. The new government espoused a policy of ethnic self-determination and decentralization. It introduced formal changes in administration and governance to implement these policies, but these have largely been countered by the re-emergence of a one-party state under the stewardship of the Tigrean-dominated Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF). The new regime remains committed to addressing environmental problems. While it is considered propeasant and stresses the importance of local people's "participation" in all its programmes, it is not clear to what extent it has escaped old orthodoxies. In its home area, Tigray, where it enjoys great popular support, it has actively promoted terracing and reforestation projects by mobilizing local peasant associations. In the rest of the country, where governance has been weak, the reclamation programme has stagnated. The regime has not been eager to pursue unpopular programmes, not even the collection of rural taxes. The regime also maintained the previous government's commitment to preparing a National Conservation Strategy (NCS) with the assistance of the International Union for the Conservation of Nature. Yet despite a conscious effort to obtain peasant knowledge, the environmental policy narrative still exerts a strong influence over thinking about environmental management. Negative views of peasant agriculture held by local task force members filtered out much information about the strengths of indigenous resource management practices. There is, for example, virtually no mention of indigenous soil amelioration. There is little discussion or even acknowledgement of indigenous terracing or of indigenous run-off ponds, or irrigation. Densely settled areas in the south-west are said to be at environmental risk because of population pressure with no investigation of the distinctive farming systems that appear until recently to have sustained such densities for centuries. Similar gaps in regard to the strength of indigenous practice are embedded in some of the reports done by experts for the Ethiopian Forestry Action Plan (EFAP), an ambitious and, in many ways, excellent planning effort incorporated into the NCS. Perhaps the most striking example of this is the EFAP is the estimation of a woodfuel deficit based on estimates that do not include the major source of peasants' woodfuel: on-farm agro-forestry. In sum, ideas and "facts" from the old narrative were used uncritically, while new information and alternative understandings were screened out. See IUCN, Ethiopia National Conservation Strategy, Phase 1 Report, prepared for the Government of the People's Democratic Republic of Ethiopia with the assistance of IUCN, Addis Ababa. 1990
27. CRDA 1990a; Proceedings of the Workshop on Environment Impact Assessment, Addis Ababa, 15-16 October 1990. Rebels from Tigray toppled the Derg in May 1991, occupied Addis Ababa and formed a new Transitional Government of Ethiopia (TGE). Yet key elements of the neo-Malthusian environmental policy narrative survived the fall of the Derg and the establishment of a new regime. They still inform thinking and planning in Ethiopia and are likely to shape the way Ethiopian environmental problems are addressed in the future. The new government espoused a policy of ethnic self-determination and decentralization. It introduced formal changes in administration and governance to implement these policies, but these have largely been countered by the re-emergence of a one-party state under the stewardship of the Tigrean-dominated Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF). The new regime remains committed to addressing environmental problems. While it is considered propeasant and stresses the importance of local people's "participation" in all its programmes, it is not clear to what extent it has escaped old orthodoxies. In its home area, Tigray, where it enjoys great popular support, it has actively promoted terracing and reforestation projects by mobilizing local peasant associations. In the rest of the country, where governance has been weak, the reclamation programme has stagnated. The regime has not been eager to pursue unpopular programmes, not even the collection of rural taxes. The regime also maintained the previous government's commitment to preparing a National Conservation Strategy (NCS) with the assistance of the International Union for the Conservation of Nature. Yet despite a conscious effort to obtain peasant knowledge, the environmental policy narrative still exerts a strong influence over thinking about environmental management. Negative views of peasant agriculture held by local task force members filtered out much information about the strengths of indigenous resource management practices. There is, for example, virtually no mention of indigenous soil amelioration. There is little discussion or even acknowledgement of indigenous terracing or of indigenous run-off ponds, or irrigation. Densely settled areas in the south-west are said to be at environmental risk because of population pressure with no investigation of the distinctive farming systems that appear until recently to have sustained such densities for centuries. Similar gaps in regard to the strength of indigenous practice are embedded in some of the reports done by experts for the Ethiopian Forestry Action Plan (EFAP), an ambitious and, in many ways, excellent planning effort incorporated into the NCS. Perhaps the most striking example of this is the EFAP is the estimation of a woodfuel deficit based on estimates that do not include the major source of peasants' woodfuel: on-farm agro-forestry. In sum, ideas and "facts" from the old narrative were used uncritically, while new information and alternative understandings were screened out. See IUCN, Ethiopia National Conservation Strategy, Phase 1 Report, prepared for the Government of the People's Democratic Republic of Ethiopia with the assistance of IUCN, Addis Ababa. 1990