Orievulu, Kingsley Stephen2022-03-242022-03-242018https://hdl.handle.net/10539/32823A Dissertation Submitted to the Faculty of Humanities, University of Witwatersrand (Johannesburg), in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Development Studies and International RelationsThis dissertation lies at the intersection of global governance scholarship and the emerging paradigms of development partnership and development ownership as experimental modalities. It mounts a solid critique of the various implications, for African agency, of the conceptual, institutional and policy dimensions of these paradigms both in their reproduction of common mechanisms of economic and political dependency and disciplining, and their actualization of a number of new normativities through the implementation of ever-changing development frameworks. In this sense, this study contributes and further extends scholarship on the nature of governance from a supranational perspective especially as it pertains to the dynamics of power relations as they persist in donor-led development interventions in Africa- whether aimed at food security, poverty reduction and or grassroots empowerment. The dissertation uses a case study approach to examine important power relations underlying development interventions and the dynamics of 'partnership' that frame external intervention in the area of food security in developing countries in general and Africa in particular. It applies a neo-Gramscian world order hegemonic approach and a neo-Foucauldian governmentality approach to interrogate the nature of institutional power dynamics between multilateral donors such as the World Bank and African aid-dependent countries such as Nigeria. This relates to the conceptualisation and implementation of the National Fadama Development Programme (NFDP) in Nigeria. The dissertation also critiques the adoption of participatory development models in the implementation of the Fadama project at two levels. Firstly, as it pertains to the extent to which local targets of this project were integrated into the conceptualisation and implementation; and secondly the philosophy behind the adoption of these models and discourses - which is the entrenchment of the mainstream neo-liberal economic rationality within the local/rural economy. The findings in this dissertation draw on qualitative data from policy documents from government and external institutions, newspaper articles, nonparticipant observation and in-depth and semi-structured interviews with representatives of the World Bank, the Fadama project and local beneficiaries of the Fadama project in Rivers state. The findings point to entrenched institutional or macro-level power imbalance between multilateral donors and African aid-dependent countries. Beyond institutional level, the study's findings also suggest a flawed implementation of the Fadama project relative to the stated principles of inclusive development, especially when weighed against theories of participation.enFood Security--NigeriaCommunity development -- NigeriaAgricultural Development--Rivers state--NigeriaFadama III--NigeriaThesis