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Periodical article | Leiden University catalogue | WorldCat |
Title: | The Present and Future of Public Sector Extension in Africa: Contracting Out or Contracting in? |
Authors: | Anderson, Jon Crowder, L. van |
Year: | 2000 |
Periodical: | Public Administration and Development |
Volume: | 20 |
Issue: | 5 |
Period: | December |
Pages: | 373-384 |
Language: | English |
Geographic terms: | Uganda Mozambique |
Subjects: | financing agriculture research centres Politics and Government Development and Technology Economics and Trade |
External link: | https://doi.org/10.1002/pad.149 |
Abstract: | Public sector extension has come under increasing pressure to downsize and reform. Contracting out - the use of public sector funds to contract nongovernmental and private service providers - of agricultural services is often held up as a potential tool in reform efforts and is being encouraged by numerous international organizations. However, a look at field experience in Africa shows that contracting out is relatively infrequent, especially compared with the reverse - contracting in - where private sector and nongovernmental organizations finance public sector extension delivery. Case studies from Uganda and Mozambique indicate that on the ground attempts to come up with solutions to providing services to farmers are resulting in innovative contracting approaches and combined public and private institutional arrangements. Contracting in and public-private coalition approaches, in contrast to purely public sector extension (characterized by ineffectiveness and inefficiencies) and purely private for profit extension (which may ignore public goods and concerns), may help achieve extension services which are both demand led and which internalize public concerns such as environmental protection, food security and socioeconomic equity. Bibliogr., note, sum. |