Frugality and cross-sectoral policymaking for food security

Abstract

The growing concerns about food security, especially in the disadvantaged regions of the world, often point out the inadequacies of strictly sectoral approaches to addressing the problems of agriculture. Such policy approaches coincided with the rise of a global, top-down, formal, science-driven development of agriculture. Over time, such interventions have drawn criticism from multiple corners as inadequately addressing the need for local variation in institutional contexts. The objective of this paper is to adopt a bottom-up perspective to address the need for cross-sectorality in food security policies. Sustainable Rural Livelihood (SRL) and Grassroots Innovation (GI) are two well recognized schools of thought which emphasize the cross-sectoral approaches to livelihood and local level problem-solving. By embracing a frugality lens, we can offer a conceptual regularity in the patterns of behaviour and decision-making highlighted by the SRL and GI schools of thought. Taking a step further, the frugality lens, by focusing on the usefulness of a decision in the actual environment, emphasizes the need to diagnose local institutions better. Note, however, that the contention of the current paper is not to posit 'top-down' and 'bottom-up' as two competing paradigms. It only argues that a frugality lens helps us to better appreciate the strengths of a bottom-up approach for effective policy formulation, an appreciation of which would promote a dignified marriage between the two perspectives.

Adapting Urban Light-Rail Transport to the African Context: A Process Conducted by Transport Authorities and Chinese Rail Corporations in Addis-Ababa, Abuja, and Lagos

“…This research departs from the theories of contextual factors [4,5], poly-contextualization [23], and context-specific decision-making processes [10]. This research correlates with the statement that all factors that emerged in time and space have defined the reasons why a context is specifically the way it is presently [5].…”

“…Non-technological innovation is a significant component within organizations' infrastructure adoption actions, which together adds more value, complementing technological innovation. Non-technological innovation is mainly related to marketing and organizational innovation, which has been defined as the introduction of fresh organizational techniques or the incorporation of new marketing procedures [22], and the bottom-up effects provided by context-specific decision-making processes [10] conducted by city transport authorities and rail corporation experts, which foster frugality in time, expenses, and human resources.…”

“…Furthermore, it is pertinent to state that these city transport authorities value their long term goals and the sustainable operation of the LRT, meaning the use of a context-specific decision making process is crucial, involving the exchange of practical city context knowledge from the RRAs and light-rail expert knowledge from the RPC [10]. This context-specific knowledge fosters a bottom-up approach implementation of the LRT, providing necessary knowledge support from the RRAs to the RPCs during all stages of the implementation.…”

“…Furthermore, from the insights of this research and observations during fieldwork in both countries, it can be argued that an effective contextual approach to implementing a sustainable LRT depends more on the LRT receiving city authorities' political will, related to political systems in the literature [5]; the level of technology transferred, i.e., the technological environment [4], from the Chinese to the two countries on operations and maintenance of LRTs; and thirdly on the combination of a context-specific decision-making process of the RRA and expert light-rail knowledge from the RPC [10]. Nigeria, Ethiopia, and China have demonstrated adequate context-specific decision-making processes during the implementation of light-rail systems, which serves as a benefit to both the RPC and RRA.…”

‘Zero-error’ versus ‘good-enough’: towards a ‘frugality’ narrative for defence procurement policy

“…As opposed to optimisation, the frugal approaches emphasise upon 'economizing' the resources needed for decision-making. Its prescriptions, on the other hand, require an in-depth knowledge of institutions and relations operating in a given context, under resource constraints and uncertainty (Bhaduri et al 2017). In several decision settings, information failures are widespread, and the 'fast and frugal' heuristic decisions, based on intuition, experience, learning, and gut feeling can be highly efficient (Gigerenzer 2008a(Gigerenzer , b, 1999.…”