Over the years I have produced quite a few papers which have never been fully revised for publication. Some of these papers have been lightly peer-reviewed before being issued in discussion paper series, and others have not been peer-reviewed but have been through several stages of revision before moving on to the next piece of writing.
This personal website gives an opportunity to make some of these papers more widely available – and in some cases they were either issued as part of a discussion paper series which is no longer available through the internet, or were never available on any website. Of course, my career runs from times when papers were drafted in handwriting before being committed to a typewritten form right through to the current ready availability of word-processed material on the internet. These papers will appear, broadly, in reverse consecutive order, starting with the most recent.
On Monday 15th October 2018 I made a presentation in the John Forster Memorial Lecture series for the Aberdeen University Centre for Global Development / Aberdeen for a Fairer World Aberdeen One World Week. The title of the presentation was ‘The Future of Aid: The Impact of the Trump Administration and of the Brexit Prospect’. The slides for the presentation can be accessed through the link below:
The Future of Aid – Michael Tribe – Aberdeen – October 2018
In 2017 I prepared a draft conference paper which was associated with a panel session at the annual conference of the Development Studies Association, held in the University of Bradford. The paper has not been developed into a formal discussion paper, but it is the basis for a proposal to develop an edited book which is currently being considered (October 2018) by a publisher. The paper can be accessed through the link below:
Tribe Conference Paper DSA 2017 – Preliminary Draft
One of the papers with which I have been associated and which was never developed into a formal discussion paper or circulated widely was a collaborative effort by myself, Stephen Kendie (University of Cape Coast) and Kwadwo Tutu (University of Ghana) which reviewed Ghanaian environmental issues. A paper, which is still essentially in its 2001 draft form, can be accessed through the link below:
During my years in the University of Bradford a particularly valued activity was the Ghana-Bradford Development Studies Link which associated the Development and Project Planning Centre (which was its name for much of the time) with the Centre for Development Studies (CDS) in the University of Cape Coast and the Bureau of Integrated Rural Development (BIRD) in the University of Science and Technology, Kumasi (1990 to 2011) and the Institute of Statistical, Social and Economic Research (ISSER) in the University of Ghana, Legon (1993 to 2011). One of the early discussion papers outlined the potential development of the doctoral studies of Sampson Edusah (BIRD) who focussed on the socio-economic development of rural small-scale industries. This paper can be downloaded from here:
Edusah and Tribe Discussion Paper No 26 1992
During a large part of my academic career I have been associated with two African countries in particular – Uganda and Ghana. In the 1990s, when I was making regular visits to both countries, their economies were going through a process of recovery from a period of decline, and were subjected to the rigours and opportunities of ‘Economic Reform’ or ‘Structural Adjustment’. Having the privilege of access to a wide range of government statistical and economic publications in Uganda and Ghana it seemed sensible to put together a comparison of economic performance. Unfortunately there was no opportunity to publish this comparison, but several seminar presentations were based on the work reported in the next paper – ‘A Comparison of Ghanaian and Uganda Economic Performance After Structural Adjustment’.
ghana-uganda-paper-of-1998-michael-tribe
During the two years (July 1982-July 1984) that I spent as part of the University of Strathclyde team of three at what was then the Centre for Development Studies in the University of Cape Coast, Ghana I worked on two particular research papers. The first related to the Komenda Sugar factory, which features below. The second was focused on the approach of the National Investment Bank to the appraisal of applications for loans in support of productive investment, paying particular attention to the choice of technology. The paper relating to this second piece of research can be downloaded from the link below:
Michael Tribe – Ghana National Investment Bank Paper of 1983
During the period at the University of Cape Coast referred to above I wrote a paper which tracked experience with the Komenda Sugar Scheme in the Central Region of Ghana. I first visited this sugar factory and estate in 1978 as the first stop in a ten country / nineteen ‘factory’ data collection trip for the David Livingstone Institute, University of Strathclyde. One of the papers which can be accessed from the links which appear below focussed on this sugar project – relating to technology choice issues and to an evaluative assessment of a troublesome ‘project’ – was slightly revised after my return to the University of Strathclyde. The second paper extracted parts of the material and added more relating to economic appraisal methods in the context of ‘Being Wise After the Event’ after I moved to the University of Bradford in 1985.
Tribe – DLI Version of Cape Coast Komenda Discussion Paper 1984
Tribe – PPC Discussion Paper 114 – Komenda – 1985
In 1987-1988 I wrote a paper focussing on a number of key issues associated with the rehabilitation of the Ghana economy at the end of the 1980s. The paper was never published or widely circulated because Ghana Government officials felt that a significant number of the sources which I had used were ‘privileged’. I did not wish to contest this issue. I make it available here because some parts are cited in the new edition of Mozammel Huq’s 1989 book “The Economy of Ghana” which I am co-authoring and which was published in September 2018.
Tribe – Ghana Rehabilitation Paper of 1987-88
As part of the Ghana Development Studies Link Programme (which ran from 1991 until 2001) a conference was held at the University of Science and Technology, Kumasi, Ghana in 1997. My own paper was on “Sustainable Rural Economic Development in sub-Saharan Africa: Reflections on Ghana and Uganda” and it was revised for the University of Bradford (Development and Project Planning Centre) Discussion Paper series and can be downloaded from the link which appears below.
Discussion Paper Series 2 No. 7
In 1998-99 I undertook a consultancy assignment through the University of Bradford which involved reviewing the operations of the Development Committee in the Ugandan Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning. This Committee was responsible for handling the inclusion of projects and programmes within the Uganda Government’s Public Investment Plan – and by extension into the Medium Term Expenditure Framework. The assignment was undertaken jointly with Nelson Wanambi, a Ministry of Finance economist. Subsequently a joint paper was written with the intention that it would be included in a book edited by Potts, Ryan and Toner (which appears in my CV). The initial joint paper was too long for inclusion and so it was edited the reduce the length – but the editing process ‘went wrong’ (I was not properly consulted) and the version published in the book has significant shortcomings. The version which is downloadable from below is the complete joint paper as submitted to the editors of the book.
Michael Tribe 