Donors and domestic policy makers: Two worlds in agricultural policy-making?
This article in the Food Policy journal argues that policy beliefs are neglected in the literature on agricultural policy-making. The authors use two case studies to investigate how policy beliefs influence decision-making on whether the agricultural sector is taxed or subsidized. In-depth interviews with policy actors from Ghana and Uganda were used to execute a discourse analysis. The authors found that donors and domestic policy makers have fundamentally different policy beliefs regarding the question: What does it actually take to develop small-holder agriculture? These differences obstruct a fruitful dialogue on more effective policy instruments. The evidence from this analysis highlights the role that divergent policy beliefs can play in influencing agricultural policy choices. The authors therefore argue that efforts are needed to bridge the belief systems of the “donor world” and the “domestic world”.