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John Farrington
With over 30 years of professional experience and over 100 publications, John is a rural development specialist focusing on policy design for livelihood protection and promotion. His earlier work includes livelihood diversification, institutional reform and the organisation and management of technical change with and for low-income farmers. Current interests include the interface between social protection and productive sectors, the role of cash transfers in social assistance and policy support for livelihood diversification.
John Farrington is also editor of the Natural Resource Perspectives series of ODI publications.
Jump to: | Opinion Papers | Briefing Papers | Working Papers | Background Notes | Journal articles | Books | Others | Current Projects | Completed Projects
| Opinion Papers | ||
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Cash Transfers: Just giving them the money? ODI Opinions 55 |
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| 'The notion of making cash payments to those unable to afford life's basic necessities is gaining ground rapidly. It seems such an obvious idea that one wonders why it had never been thought of before.' | ||
| John Farrington, Paul Harvey and Rachel Slater | September 2005 | |
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Rural India learns new ways to earn its living ODI Opinion 18 |
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| 'Playing a word association game with ‘rural India' typically generates images of ‘tradition', ‘poverty', ‘caste hierarchy' and ‘stagnation'. Such associations remain partly valid, but things are changing.' | ||
| John Farrington and Priya Deshingkar | July 2004 | |
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Protecting and promoting livelihoods in rural India: what role for pensions? ODI Opinions 12 |
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| 'Specific protection measures are essential for the many who are unable to engage fully with the productive economy (because of old age, disability, ill-health or large numbers of dependents)' | ||
| John Farrington and Priya Deshingkar | February 2004 | |
| Briefing Papers and Natural Resource Perspectives | ||
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Linking social protection and the productive sectors ODI Briefing Paper 28 |
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Agricultural productivity can be supported by well-designed social protection programmes
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| John Farrington, Rachel Slater and Rebecca Holmes | October 2007 | |
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How can the rural poor participate in global economic processes? ODI Natural Resource Perspectives 103 |
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| This paper asks how the rural poor might benefit more fully from global economic processes. It argues that, whilst the scope for the more entrepreneurial to link into value chains associated with either agriculture or the non-farm rural economy is present, its relevance for many of the rural poor is questionable. | ||
| John Farrington and Jonathan Mitchell | November 2006 | |
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The Millennium Villages Project – a new approach to ending rural poverty in Africa? ODI Natural Resource Perspectives 101 |
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| Proponents of the Millennium Villages Project argue that the complex problems facing rural development in Africa require a ‘big push’ if substantive progress towards the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) is to be made – and propose the simultaneous introduction of improvements in agriculture, health, transport, energy, technology, telecommunications and internet connectivity, costing US$110 per person per year over 5 years, and funded mainly from aid flows. This paper examines the challenges this initiative faces, and the questions it raises, in its search for ‘quick wins’ to reach the MDGs. | ||
| Lidia Cabral, John Farrington and Eva Ludi | August 2006 | |
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Cash transfers – Mere ‘Gadaffi Syndrome’, or serious potential for rural rehabilitation and development? ODI Natural Resource Perspectives 97 |
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| There has been a stark dichotomy between development approaches concerned with the productive sectors, usually focusing on enhancing the ‘supply side’, and those concerned with social protection, which have been widely regarded as a drain on public resources. This paper argues that the two are complementary and that social protection is less of a ‘drain’ than previously thought. | ||
| Paul Harvey, Rachel Slater and John Farrington | March 2005 | |
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Social Protection and Pro-Poor Agricultural Growth: What Scope for Synergies? ODI Natural Resource Perspectives 91 |
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| Social protection (SP) and livelihood promotion have conventionally been handled by different departments within governments and donor organisations. Taking the example of agriculture, this paper argues that the scope for synergy between them (when narrowly defined as ‘making the whole bigger than the sum of its parts’) is limited. However, there is substantial unexploited scope for introducing the perspectives of the one into the design and implementation of the other, i.e. for giving aspects of SP more of a growth-promoting dimension, and for designing agriculture initiatives in ways aiming to reduce risk and vulnerability. | ||
| John Farrington, Rachel Slater and Rebecca Holmes | January 2004 | |
| Working Papers | ||
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Growth and Poverty in Asia: Where next? ODI Working Paper 267 |
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| Background paper to the Asia 2015: promoting growth, ending poverty conference, held in March 2006. | ||
| John Farrington | June 2006 | |
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The Search for Synergies between Social Protection and the Productive Sectors: the Agriculture Case ODI Working Paper 232 |
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| The study looks at the scope within which positive interaction between social protection and livelihoods can be maximised. | ||
| John Farrington, Rachel Slater and Rebecca Holmes | April 2004 | |
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Food Security and the Millennium Development Goal on Hunger in Asia ODI Working Paper 231 |
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| A rapid overview of food security issues in relation to the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) in 7 Asian countries | ||
| Gerard J. Gill, John Farrington, Edward Anderson, Cecilia Luttrell, Tim Conway, N.C. Saxena and Rachel Slater | December 2003 | |
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Institutional Alternatives and Options for Decentralised Natural Resource Management in India ODI Working Paper 230 |
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| This paper considers the influence of political economy factors on decentralised natural resource management in India. | ||
| Pari Baumann, Rajesh Ramakrishnan, Manish Dubey, Rajiv K. Raman, and John Farrington | October 2003 | |
| Background Notes | ||
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Rural Labour Markets and Migration in South Asia: Evidence from India and Bangladesh Background paper for the World Development Report 2008 |
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| Priya Deshingkar and John Farrington | 2006 | |
| Journal articles | ||
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Growth and Poverty in Asia: Prospects for achieving the MDGs Poverty in Focus |
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| See pages 20-21: Asia has grown rapidly over the past ten years, making good progress towards the MDGs. Further rapid progress is likely but by no means assured. It is threatened by a wide range of factors. Asian countries face serious challenges to sustaining both growth and poverty reduction. Concerted policy action in response to these challenges will be required to realize the dream of eradicating poverty within a generation. Also see IDS Bulletin, Vol 37, No. 3, below. | ||
| John Farrington and Mark Robinson | UNDP IPC Journal: March 2007 | |
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Cash Transfers Joint Theme Issue of Development Policy Review and Disasters |
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| Emerging evidence on the role of cash transfers in poverty reduction means that they are on the agenda in emergency and developmental contexts across the developing world. In a unique initiative Development Policy Review and Disasters have published simultaneous theme issues on cash transfers. | ||
| John Farrington and Rachel Slater | September 2006 | |
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Introduction: sustaining growth and ending poverty in Asia IDS Bulletin |
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| Asia has witnessed an unprecedented period of growth and poverty reduction over the past decade. By 2015 absolute poverty in Asia could be halved and eradicated altogether a decade later. But while there are strong prospects for continued progress these are by no means assured. Growth alone cannot eradicate poverty without public action by governments in the region to tackle problems of exclusion, marginalisation and the threat of rising inequality. Also see Poverty in Focus, UNDP IPC Journal: March 2007, above. | ||
| Mark Robinson and John Farrington | IDS Bulletin, Volume 37 Number 3 May 2006 | |
| Books | ||
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| Development as Process: Concepts and Methods for Working with Complexity | ||
| This book constitutes the first attempt to bring together empirical material from a wide range of contexts on the strengths and weaknesses of process approaches to economic and social development. | ||
| David Mosse, Alan Rew and John Farrington | 2006 | |
| Policy Windows and Livelihood Futures: Prospects for Poverty Reduction in Rural India | ||
| Drawing together the results of village studies conducted over two years in two Indian states - Andhra Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh - the book examines to what extent people have sought to diversify out of traditional low-productivity occupations, such as small-scale farming, farm-labouring and traditional caste occupations; the advantages and disadvantages such diversification brings; and what scope it offers for future livelihood enhancement. | ||
| John Farrington, Priya Deshingkar, Craig Johnson and Daniel Start | December 2005 | |
| Poverty, vulnerability, and agricultural extension: Policy reforms in a globalizing world | ||
| This book analyses the relevance of agricultural extension to poverty and how far the system facilitates economic and social development among small and marginal farmers. The analytical framework is supported by empirical material - primary data in Bolivia, Colombia, Nicaragua, Uganda; secondary data in a range of countries including India. This makes for authoritative conclusions on the scope for action by governments and donors and will be of interest to policy-makers, technocrats, and NGOs concerned with the design and delivery of assistance programmes, researchers, agricultural universities, and students concerned with extension issues. | ||
| Ian Christoplos and John Farrington (eds) | 2004 | |
| Coalitions of Interest: Partnerships for Processes of Agricultural Change | ||
| Recent years have witnessed a number of policy reforms in Indian agriculture, both at the national and state levels. However, it is being realised that large sections of the agricultural population have not benefited from these development initiatives. This book documents the agricultural scenario in the semi-arid region of Rajasthan, and establishes the need for what the authors call process monitoring (PM), or the interaction and collaboration between different stakeholders: various levels of government, NGOS and farmers' groups. | ||
| John Farrington and Ruth Alsop | 2000 | |
| Participating Watershed Development Challenges for the Twenty-First Century | ||
| Efforts have long been made in India to improve the management of major watersheds for ecological reasons - such as reducing the siltation of reservoirs. The key question addressed in this book is how far the approaches developed by NGOs to watershed management can be adopted (or adapted) by the public sector and applied on a wide scale, for, without such approaches, neither the ecological nor the livelihood benefits of watershed rehabilitation will be achieved. | ||
| John Farrington, Cathryn Turton and A. J. James | 2000 | |
| Others | ||
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Targeting approaches to cash transfers: comparisons across Cambodia, India and Ethiopia Project report |
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| This paper is one of a series of outputs from ODI’s research study (2006–09) “Cash Transfers and their Role in Social Protection”. This paper provides a conceptual review of targeting in relation to poverty-focused interventions, together with empirical evidence from case studies in Cambodia, Ethiopia and India. | ||
| John Farrington, Kay Sharp and Disa Sjoblom | June 2007 | |
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Recognising and tackling risk and vulnerability constraints to pro-poor agricultural growth Book Chapter |
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| This chapter argues that, far from ‘draining' public funds and so reducing public investment in the productive sectors, initiatives to reduce risk and vulnerability, if managed well, can enhance the engagement of the poor in markets, and so stimulate productive activity. Also, certain types of public investment (e.g. in infrastructure) as well as reducing risk, can stimulate private investment, (and so potentially employment creation) by the better off. | ||
| John Farrington | Feburary 2005 | |
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Social Protection and Livelihood Promotion in Agriculture: Towards Operational Guidelines Book Chapter |
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Chapter in OECD Povnet Paper: This paper argues that questions of how to operationalise the principles contained in the (modified) World Bank Social Risk Management approach are of crucial importance, but pose considerable challenges. Whilst “Rural Worlds 1, 2 and 3” provide a basis for this, a nuanced classification of rural space, people and institutions is needed if these challenges are to be met. Such nuancing is needed in order to identify, for instance, how to treat the chronically vulnerable (who cannot fully engage in productive activity), or how to treat those engaged in, for instance, labour markets which link across different Rural Worlds. The paper concludes by proposing a number of recommendations for donors, including recommendations on how the principles underpinning a modified SRM approach can be operationalised. |
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| John Farrington | Feburary 2005 | |
| Current projects | ||
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| Scoping study on the contribution of circular migration to poverty reduction in India and Vietnam | ||
| This project, carried out with the Vietnam Asia-Pacific Economic Center (VAPEC), aims to assess how much we know about the potential of circular migration to reduce poverty in agriculturally marginal areas, and what we need to know for more effective policy design. | ||
| Dr Dang Anh, Priya Deshingkar and John Farrington | 2007 | |
| Linking Growth and Social Protection: The Agriculture Case | ||
| How and how far complementarities can be achieved between policies designed to promote agriculture and those providing social protection, so that more desirable combinations of growth and poverty reduction can be achieved more efficiently? | ||
| Rachel Slater, John Farrington | ||
| Cash Transfers | ||
| Evidence on how cash transfers can reduce poverty has made them the new hot topic in both development and relief circles. Some development agencies have gone so far as to make them the central plank of their social protection strategies. | ||
| Rachel Slater, John Farrington, Rebecca Holmes | ||
| Completed projects | ||
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| Livelihood Options | ||
| Rural people in South Asia are moving out of natural resource-based occupations. This study aimed to identify how policies can be changed to support positive exits via diversification, and how to reduce negative impacts. | ||
| John Farrington, Rachel Slater | 2003 | |
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