Livelihoods, institutions and the small farmer - Institutional Constraints to Small Farmer Development in Southern Africa - page 288

of these cross-border relationships in southern Africa, as in other parts of Africa (Brown
and McLeman, 2009; Cilliers, 2009). Among the actions prescribed by Conservation
Development Centre-International Institute for Sustainable Development-Saferworld
(2009) to avoid or minimize these, the strengthening of customary governance institutions
rank high. And it is not only in the resource-based conflicts
When the poor is in the developing country, especially one in Africa, the matter becomes
even more complicated because in many cases the institutions are either non-existent or
are poorly developed and therefore ineffective. From concern over the possibility (and
indeed, reality) of market failures which became ready justification for launching the
structural adjustment programmes (SAPs) in the 1980s, many of these countries began to
experience missing markets. The situation described by Stiglitz (2002) in relation to reform
era Russia, in which the lack of the necessary 'institutional infrastructure' compromised the
effectiveness of existing institutions, is also true of contemporary Africa; calling something
an 'institution' does not automatically imbue it with the capabilities that similarly named
arrangements in the developed world have. Whether or not the 'institutional infrastructure'
exists makes all the difference. These and other obstacles remain palpable in Africa, and
more so in parts of the continent such as Southern Africa where remote and recent history
combine to complicate the picture even more.
Expectedly for post-apartheid South Africa, dissatisfaction is growing as the populace
confronts a different reality from the lofty expectations at the dawn of democracy in
1994. The problem has become so large that even the Government has acknowledged the
emergence of a '… second economy characterized by poverty, inadequate shelter, uncertain
incomes and the despair of joblessness…' in which many South Africans are 'trapped'
(Government of South Africa, 2004). The service delivery protests that rocked South
Africa in recent years bear testimony to loss of patience among the people. In the former
'independent homelands' where services had been rather basic in the best of times, things
have become worse in the face of a clear lack of capacity to deliver the simplest development
outcomes to a people that have suffered deprivations for too long.
The new administration that came into power in 2009 in South Africa has gone a step
further than its predecessors in recognizing the role of institutional innovations in addressing
this undoubtedly potentially explosive situation. New government departments that more
explicitly focus on human settlements, rural development, land reform, and governance have
been created as more immediate and innovative approaches to capacitate the local population,
create jobs, expand income-earning opportunities, and generally stimulate the local economy.
Given these clear indications of the diversity and multi-disciplinary nature of the problems of
the Southern African agricultural scene, the focus of this topic was deliberately expanded to
capture the multiplicity of the concerns of a diverse stakeholder community seeking deeper
understanding of the complexities involved and how best to address them.