Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) is known primarily for the region's daunting poverty, diseases, and unstable governments. However, the biggest threats are recurring famines, unreliable food supplies, and the enduring stagnation and neglect of most of the region's rural communities. Farm Concern International (FCI) is a pro-poor agri-business development agency. This case study explores the transformative role of FCI in harnessing resources from governments, philanthropy, and businesses to support sustainable agriculture and rural community development in SSA. Founded in Kenya eleven years ago, this hybrid development agency has been one of the fastest growing in the region, with programs in 10 countries that serve over 2.5 million smallholder farmers and influence over $3 billion in trade annually. FCI's goal has been involvement of governments, donors, and the local communities in addressing food insecurity through improved agri-business programs. These are organized and run through local farmer cooperatives called Commercial Villages. Due to its innovative approaches and documented successes, FCI has attracted growing international recognition and support from governments and philanthropy including the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), United States International Aid (USAID), and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, among others. This case study examines how the Commercial Village Model (CVM) developed by FCI was applied to support rural smallholder farmers with the goal of community development in SSA. How can FCI overcome the challenge of making these programs commonplace and also sustainable?

"This book provides research, analytical methods, techniques, and development policies in ICT adoption and diffusion in Africa and around the globe, highlighting the major trends in ICT applications and rural development"--Provided by publisher.

This publication is an outcome from a seminar in Abidjan in 1997 with the aim to explore the problems and prospects for the establishment of a new partnership between Sweden and Africa. The seminar was attended by scholars, development bankers, government officials and civil society activists from all parts of sub-Saharan Africa, and development cooperation officials and academics from Sweden and the other Nordic countries.

Expectations are high regarding the potential benefits of public-private partnerships (PPPs) for infrastructure development in low-income countries. The development community, led by the G20, the United Nations, and others, expects these partnerships between goverments and private companies in infrastructure service provision to aid "transformational" mega-projects, as well as efforts to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals. Yet PPPs have been widely used only since the 1990s, and discussion of their efficacy is still dominated by best-practice guidance, academic studies that focus on developed countries, or ideological criticism. Meanwhile, practitioners have quietly accumulated a large body of empirical evidence on the actual performance of PPPs. The purpose of this book is to summarize and consolidate what this critical mass of evidence-based research indicates about PPPs in low-income countries, and thereby develop a more realistic perspective on the practical value of these mechanisms. With a primary focus on Sub-Saharan Africa, though drawing on critical insights from other regions, it demonstrates that the benefits of such partnerships will only be realised if expectations remain modest and projects are subject to transparent evaluation and competition.

This volume picks up from where a previously edited title in this book series - Rural-Urban Linkages and Sustainable Development in Africa (2018) left off, by presenting nine new case studies from various parts of the African continent. These cases illustrate the complex and multifaceted interactions between cities and rural areas, through the flow of resources, people, capital, information, and goods which directly impact the sustainable development of these concerned areas. Contributions are drawn from young faculty and graduates from the three master’s programmes in Sustainable Urban Development, Sustainable Integrated Rural Development and Mining and Mineral Resources, coordinated by the eight partner African universities who make up the Education for Sustainable Development in Africa (ESDA) initiative. The volume is part of the ESDA book series that serves primarily as undergraduate and graduate instruction materials for courses on sustainable development in Africa. It also aims to inform policy initiatives on development issues on the continent.

The discussion on the role of the state and non-state actors in the improvement of livelihoods in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), where economic and social development is slowest, has been characterized by a disjoint between theory and empirical research. This volume sets out to revisit this question by examining the place of the two types of actors in the development process, and the increasing influence of public-private partnerships in livelihood outcomes. The book combines theoretical reflections and empirical studies on a wide variety of initiatives in several domains that seek to improve wellbeing and livelihoods, with a focus on the Sub-Saharan country of Cameroon. The book will provide insights on an area which has been both neglected with the rise of neo-liberalism, and also revived by the recent introduction of the global development goals.

Poverty has long been a developmental challenge in the Global South in general and in sub-Saharan Africa in particular. With a fifth, mainly from the rural areas of the world, living below the poverty datum line, the world has a huge challenge to reduce poverty, worse still to eradicate it from the face of the earth. A target was set through the 2000-2015 United Nations (UN) Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and subsequently through the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), to reduce poverty by at least half by the years 2015 and 2030 respectively. In pursuing this goal, livelihoods of poor people though meeting with serious challenges, especially in rural areas, play a major role. This book explores the role played by people-centred Public Works Programmes in the fight against poverty and the development of rural communities in Africa. Whereas a number of countries in Africa have been approaching the issue of poverty through several interventions including Public Works Schemes, it is sad to note that poverty still tops the rankings among numerous economic and social challenges facing the continent. One wonders whether the public works strategy is misguided, misconstrued or mismanaged considering that its main objective is to make the unemployed more employable through the provision of temporary employment and training opportunities. The book concludes that Public Works Programmes, if well managed and people-centred, are one of the best ways to alleviate and even eradicate poverty in rural Africa, as it allows governments to make partnership with people, and facilitates implementation while giving space for economic self-sustenance, growth and development.