Food safety attributes are mostly unobservable during market transactions and thus tend to be undersupplied in unregulated markets. Providing information to consumers to enable them to identify safe foods can increase the demand for safe food, and incentivize the market actors to supply safe food. If food safety attributes are correlated with easily observable food attributes, then this information can be shared with consumers to help them identify unsafe foods at a minimal cost. A negative correlation exists between aflatoxin contamination in maize, an unobservable hazard, and the quality of the outer layer of the maize kernels, an easily observable attribute. The main aim of this project will be to test whether providing this information to consumers, through an intensive information campaign, will result in a market for high-quality maize, and indirectly a market for safe food, in the form of a price premium for maize with higher kernel quality

The horticultural industry around Naivasha in Kenya is promoted as an example of a successful economic growth path to be copied by other African countries. Export of flowers sustains an economy that previously suffered from low employment and low income. However, the environmental price of fast economic growth is substantial: rapidly growing populations, large water abstractions for irrigation, changing land use, and inflow from agrochemicals lead to water shortage and pollution, putting pressure on the ecosystem and society. The problem is likely to worsen in the near future as current policies do not address this issue of water resource shortage and degradation in an integrated way. Consequently, the management of water is the key issue in the Naivasha basin. In this Programme we aim at developing a sustainable integrated common vision for the basin. We focus on how Earth Observation (EO) and derivative geo-information may help to overcome socio-economic inequity in a collaborative stakeholder setting. The innovation we apply is to couple EO via individual models to Integrated Assessment. EO provides such detailed information that, in connection with standard secondary data, we are able to perform the physical and social analyses necessary to allow stakeholders to deliberate about their common future. The benefit for developing countries is a cost-effective and timely method of data collection and processing. The scientific tool we apply is a system description based on an Integrated Assessment (IA). IA aims to integrate knowledge over a range of relevant disciplines, and to provide new information about how complex real-world systems might behave, thus enabling sound decision-making. Cross-sectoral implications that might be missed in more traditional assessments can be explicitly explored in ways that are meaningful to stakeholders. Key decision variables output by this system analysis are: 1) gender-differentiated livelihood and employment as description of efficiency and equity characteristics of the socio-economic structure upstream and downstream; 2), water quality and quantity flowing into the lake, 3) the lake volume, transparency and fish density and their effect on the fish eagle population and 4) the measures that characterize the biodiversity in the riparian ecosystem. These final decision variables feed into a stakeholder process. In line with ?Vision-2030? developed by the Government of Kenya our planning horizon is 2030. We use multi-criteria analysis (MCA) to rank ?futures?, discuss results with stakeholders. This iterative process of interaction between the IA/MCA and stakeholders will lead to a final ?common vision?.

The nature of the relationship between multinational businesses and their host and home governments influences the character of such companies. Mistrusts, around the divergent interests of the stakeholders sometimes lead to relationship tensions. This research, using Kenya as its main case study and Nigeria as a comparative, will explore how the above stakeholders can reduce institutional and operational tensions that affect multinational business operations in Africa. Creating the enabling environment for policies that can lead to enhanced skills transfer and integrating local businesses into multinational business supply chain may be critical. Home government support can also help facilitate the above goals. In summary, the research aims to document and critique the policies of all the above stakeholders since independence, deepen our understanding of the dynamics in the relationships of the stakeholders, and facilitate the establishment of problem solving networks all aimed at enhancing the utility value of multinationals in Africa.

The fresh produce sector in Africa is a promising and dynamic sector driving growth. Also, or even because of this, there is an increasing segmentation in this sector, locally but also globally, between a modern and innovative programmed world and a more traditional non-programmed world. It is not clear, however, how this shift from a non-programmed to a programmed world affects the level and nature of employment in the fresh produce sector, including for smallholders, women and youth. The main objectives of this proposal are (i) to address the impact of this structural transformation within the dynamic Kenyan fresh produce sector on productive employment, with a focus on the avocado production sector, and (ii) to test, in close partnership with the main local stakeholders, the impact of proposed policies in the National Avocado Commodity Business Plan on segmentation and productive employment.

Social protection is increasingly considered as relevant instrument for inclusive growth. This reflects a substantial change of perspective. Good health is an important component of inclusive growth. Cash transfers and social health protection share similar objectives in this regard, but the relationship between both has not been thoroughly addressed yet. The research aims at developing new strategic knowledge on the effectiveness of cash transfer programs and social health protection policies in Ghana and Kenya with respect to the accumulation of health- related human capital and its spill-over effects on further intermediate inclusive growth objectives, including labour participation, asset accumulation and equality. It seeks to understand if and under which conditions these policies are mutually complementary. It further extends existing research by combining cost-effectiveness with political-economic considerations. This will be achieved by engaging in a multi-level and interactive process of co-production of knowledge between strategic actors in the process (i.e. researchers, ministries, practitioners). The project will build- up strategic knowledge on the integration of inclusive growth objectives into design and implementation of social protection interventions with a focus on instrument choice and the interaction between different policies integrating technical, financial and political considerations. The research employs a within-country comparison across time using existing household level data. The research addresses in particular poor women and children as these groups are among the most vulnerable population groups. A political economy perspective combining a process-tracing and institutional approach assesses factors hindering or facilitating policy change at national or local level. Results are compared across countries.