6 - Globalisation, Institutional Arrangemen Poverty in Rural Cameroon

Abstract

This paper posits that the institutional environment, which is constantly modi fied by the forces of globalisation, significantly influences access to and returns on primary assets that determine poverty outcomes in rural societies. Within the framework of institutional economics related to globalisation, rural institutions and poverty, the paper ( 1 ) identifies monetary and exchange rate arrangements, public debt burden, democratic culture and rent-seeking, openness and obsta cles to international trade, economic and structural reforms, and NGO activities as the main channels by which the forces of globalisation permeate down to the rural poor and (2) considers changes in land tenure arrangements, rural financial markets and marketing of agricultural products as important within the institu tional environment that determines the capacity of rural dwellers to build on and derive returns from their primary asset endowments. Good governance is viewed as crucial in curbing socio-economic difficulties and poverty in rural Cameroon.

Structure of Sectoral Decomposition of Aggregate Poverty Changes in Cameroon

“…The SAP measures designed to achieve macroeconomic stability also compounded the effects of the crises on the welfare of households. As noted by Baye et al . (2002), Cameroonian authorities tried to cope with the budget deficits engendered by the crisis by down‐sizing public expenditures through: (1) restructuring of public and semi‐public enterprises in the early 1990s, which led to staff redundancies and increased unemployment, (2) slashing public expenditures on education, road infrastructure, extension services, rural water and electricity supply, and healthcare services, (3) freezing recruitment in the public service, and (4) public sector salary cuts amounting to an average of about 60 per cent in 1993.…”

Changing Land Tenure Arrangements and Access to Primary Assets under Globalization: A Case Study of Two Villages in Anglophone Cameroon

“…6 The questionnaire captured demographic information, road infrastructure and distance to markets, ethnic composition, institutional arrangements related to land tenure, gender relations, migration, etc. (see Baye et al, 2002). The limited resources (time and financial) did not allow for a sampling framework such that the observations would be representative of all the villages in Cameroon.…”

“…These interactions are mediated through a wide range of both formal and informal institutions including land tenure arrangements. For example, while the law governing the control and use of land in Cameroon is defined formally by an Act of Parliament and promulgated to law by the President of the Republic in a judicial sense, how the rights over the use of land and related assets, as well as over the returns on them are determined and interpreted in practice depends largely on the socioeconomic and cultural implementation context (Baye, 2003). In this regard both formal and informal institutions tend to affect and determine -by interaction -security levels of access to and returns on primary assets.…”

Crossing Boundaries: Internal, Regional and International Migration in Cameroon

“…However, a drastic decline in world oil and agricultural prices combined with a sharp appreciation of the Cameroonian currency, the CFA franc, against the dollar precipitated a national income collapse and a devastating recession from 1986 onwards. The country’s terms of trade declined by 65 per cent from 1985 to 1987 (Baye et al, 2002; Pongou et al, 2006). This immiseration was aggravated by a 50 per cent cut in the purchase price of cocoa and coffee, the leading agricultural exporter commodities in the country, by the government.…”

“…Beginning in 1988, the government implemented a series of measures within the framework of the structural adjustment programme advised by the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund, to restore macroeconomic stability through the reduction of public expenditure (Baye et al, 2002; World Bank, 1995). These measures included reductions in the numbers of public‐sector employees, privatization of public enterprises and a salary cut of about 60 per cent for public‐sector workers in 1993.…”