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In recent years, there has been a consensus among development practitioners and academics that improving market access for smallholders will lead to improvement in income and food security. This notwithstanding, market failures often limit smallholders’ ability to be linked to markets. To address these challenges, market interventions such as collective action is often proposed as a strategy to reduce the risks of market participation. This review synthesizes the key lessons learned from the use of collective action as institutional arrangement to improve market access for smallholder producers of agroforestry products with insights from an experience in Cameroon. Some key lessons learned for the success of collective action include farmers’ own motivation, favorable environment and the inclusion of social activities in the implementation of group activities

Emerging issues from the Bui hydropower project suggest that the experiences of two earlier hydropower projects in Ghana failed to prevent challenges related to resource access and livelihoods. This article examines the nature of the challenges, their causes, why they were not avoided and the role of the Chinese builders. We conducted 43 interviews and 11 focus group discussions and analyzed qualitative data by themes using narrative analysis. Our findings show that the livelihoods of the resettled communities are, on balance, negatively impacted by the construction of the dam. While Chinese dam‐builders played a major role in financing and enabling the dam's construction, the Ghanaian governance arrangements were found to be more important in addressing the livelihood challenges.

The construction of the Bui Dam was expected to boost socio-economic development in Ghana. This article examines the impacts of the project on the livelihoods of the local people. Data were collected using a mixed-research approach and a case-study design. The study finds that, while there have been significant improvements with respect to resettlement and compensation issues as compared to the earlier dam projects in Ghana, there are still some shortfalls. It is recommended that agriculture be improved by providing extension services and inputs to improve food security and the economic status of the local people.