Browsing by Author "Kahamba Judith S."

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A review of decolonial praxis in development studies [review of the book challenging global development: towards decoloniality and justice
(Sokoine University of Agriculture, 2026-05-21) Salanga Raymond J.; Kahamba Judith S.; Ngowi Edwin E.
This review critically assesses Challenging Global Development: Towards Decoloniality and Justice, edited by Henning Melber, Uma Kothari, Laura Camfield, and Kees Biekart (Palgrave Macmillan, 2024), as a timely and provocative contribution to the decolonisation of development studies. The review employs a threefold analytical framework examining: (i) theoretical contributions to post-development and decolonial thought, (ii) epistemological innovations in research methodology and knowledge production, and (iii) practical implications for pedagogy, research ethics, and development practice. The edited volume brings together scholars from the Global South and North to challenge essentialist ontological assumptions underpinning mainstream development, particularly those embedded in the Sustainable Development Goals framework. Key strengths include the volume’s grounding in grounded alternatives, such as India’s Vikalp Sangam process, Zapatista self-rule in Mexico, and Indigenous resistance to extractivism in Latin America, and its attention to relational accountability, refusal, and Indigenous Data Sovereignty in research ethics. However, the review identifies limitations, including an underdeveloped engagement with degrowth and South-South cooperation’s contradictory relationship with decoloniality, as well as challenges in translating decolonial pedagogy within career-oriented university programmes. While the volume successfully deconstructs development’s coloniality, it leaves unresolved whether “development” itself remains a viable category after decolonisation. This review concludes that the book is an essential resource for scholars and practitioners committed to epistemic justice, though future work must more concretely address material reparations, redistributive justice, and the tensions between local autonomy and large-scale systemic transformation in an era of polycrisis.
Agricultural strategic partnerships and farmers’ capabilities in Tanzania: what has (not) worked and why?
(Elsevier, 2025) Kahamba Judith S.; Xu Xiuli
Agricultural Public-Private Partnerships (PPPs) are increasingly promoted as new institutional frameworks to introduce agricultural value chain technologies, transform subsistence farmers into independent commercial producers, and connect them to the global market. Using the case of Tanzania’s Southern Agricultural Growth Corridor (SAGCOT) agricultural strategic partnerships, this study questions the role of agricultural PPPs in integrating smallholder farmers into global value chains. It explicitly evaluates the partnership interventions and their contributions to the capabilities of smallholder farmers along the soybean and potato value chains. Through in-depth interviews and focus group discussions with partnership actors, the study found that partnership efforts mainly targeted the production and marketing nodes to boost farm productivity and market access. The partnerships partly improved farmers’ capabilities by increasing knowledge and good agronomic practices. However, they had a limited impact on access to and use of quality inputs, modern farming technologies, value addition, and marketing capabilities. The effect on production capabilities was constrained by the unsustainable supply of improved seeds and limited access to fertilizers and pesticides, resulting from the absence of arrangements for aggregating input acquisition. The findings also reveal that the partnerships created new markets; however, most farmers were unable to benefit from them due to a lack of market contracts and collective bargaining power among farmers. The study concludes that for agricultural PPP to transform subsistence farmers into commercial ones, it requires inclusive infrastructure development and strong institutions that promote interactions, facilitate technology flow, and address exploitative market structures.
Implications of non-governmental organizations’ roles in the success of agricultural public-private partnerships: a case study of Tanzania’s Southern agricultural growth corridor partnership initiative
(Elsevier, 2026) Kahamba Judith S.; Xu Xiuli
Non-governmental organizations (NGOs) are increasingly involved in public–private partnerships (PPPs) as key players in delivering services and goods. This paper explores a unique scenario in the Southern Agricultural Growth Corridor of Tanzania (SAGCOT) PPP initiative, in which NGOs serve as secondary partners. These NGOs augment an already established PPP as the partnerships revolve around the NGOs’ donor-funded projects. Drawing on the institutional logics perspective, the paper examines how NGOs’ roles within the context of PPPs influence the success and sustainability of a soybean strategic partnership. Based on interviews with actors involved in the partnership, focus-group discussions with smallholder farmers, and key informant interviews with leaders of farmers’ groups and SAGCOT Center Limited staff, the paper identifies two key roles NGOs play in the partnership. First, building farmers’ capacity through training in soybean production and processing to foster inclusiveness; second, mediating between companies and smallholder farmers by linking them to input suppliers and soybean buyers. The paper highlights the partnership’s vulnerability, stemming from NGOs’ roles shaped by competing logics within the partnership and the nature of their donor-funded projects. Also, the phasing out of NGO projects has weakened the soybean strategic partnership. The study argues that the NGO’s role in promoting inclusiveness depends on aligning partnership interventions with the NGOs’ institutional logics. It recommends expanding NGOs’ roles to include strengthening farmers’ associations and institutionalizing sustainable farmer-private-sector linkages to ensure long-term inclusiveness and resilience within agricultural PPPs.