The Canadian government has been holding an inconsistent position in the agricultural trade negotiations of both the Uruguay and Doha rounds. It has been advocating for freer agricultural trade while defending its supply management system, a protectionist policy that governs dairy, poultry and eggs in the country. The thesis attempts to answer the question: What domestic factors explain the inconsistent position, advocating for both liberalization and protectionism, that Canada has been advocating in the Uruguay and Doha rounds of negotiations on agriculture since 1985? The thesis starts with the assumption that the Canadian government has had a preference for free trade and market-based economic policies since the 1980s. The question is therefore less about explaining Canada???s dual position, but rather about explaining why Canada continues to defend supply management, a system that appears to be in contradiction with its policy preferences. The thesis explores two arguments. First, it analyses the lobbying power of the farmers??? organizations from the supply-managed sectors and from the export-dependent sectors. Second, the thesis evaluates the impact of the concentration of supply-managed farms in Quebec and Ontario. It looks at the effect of support by these two provincial governments, at electoral motivations behind the maintenance of supply management as well as at Quebec separatism and nationalism. Finally, the thesis presents the importance of corporatism in the continued governmental support to supply management.

abstract: ABSTRACT Intermediating between farmers and development projects, farmers’ organizations (FOs) have the potential to improve rural market access and promote equitable growth by reducing transaction costs, strengthening producer bargaining power, and enabling collective action. Capacity building of FOs is a cornerstone of rural development policies and programs, such as the United Nations World Food Programme’s Purchase for Progress (P4P) project, which partnered with 830 FOs representing 1.7 million farmers from 2008 through 2014. Despite significant donor investment, a unifying framework defining the concept and measurement of capacity building has eluded development practitioners. The core challenge originates from the paradigm shift away from top-down development toward participatory capacity building. Motivated by the practical difficulties encountered in ceding control to beneficiaries to enable their empowerment and self-determination, this study seeks to clarify conceptualizations of FO capacity and FO capacity building, to refine monitoring and evaluation of capacity building initiatives, and to develop and validate indicators and indices of organizational maturity and capacity. Drawing on a critical review of the capacity building literature, this study develops an integrated, multi-level, capacity building framework and elaborates different levels of FO participation at each stage of the capacity building process. Through this lens, the research analyzes 11 organizational capacity assessment (OCA) tools and methodologies, and constructs 33 indicators of functional organizational capital to address OCA content gaps in conflict resolution, member participation, adaptive capacity, and the drivers of organizational change and collective action. The research further proposes methodological changes for increasing member participation in OCA to reduce reporting bias, to build knowledge and planning capacities, and to engender empowerment. The indicators developed are tested on primary data gathered from P4P (treatment) and non-P4P (control) FOs in Ghana and Malawi. Results show that P4P has positively impacted the organizational capacity of participating groups, although there are regional differences. The statistical analysis validates most of the indicators and indices developed from this study’s participatory capacity building framework. Overall, this research contributes to the understanding of what FO capacity building means and how to measure it. / Dissertation/Thesis / Doctoral Dissertation Sustainability 2016

Les dynamiques socio-économiques déterminent les rapports de genre et l’accès aux ressources productives. L’essor des cultures vivrières et maraîchères a forgé un nouveau contexte agricole que nous voulons examiner dans ce travail. Il s’est produit une transformation de l’identité des acteurs impliqués, de l’usage de l’espace, des relations de genre et du rapport aux ressources. Cette recherche voudrait identifier les principales dynamiques qui ont accompagné cette transition agricole, montrer que la reconversion agraire ne s’est pas produite de la même manière pour les femmes et les hommes et débusquer les spécificités de leurs nouvelles activités économiques. Le développement des activités féminines et l’évolution des asymétries de genre, l’égalité de statuts et des droits entre les sexes n’aboutissent pas à l’égalité des pouvoirs entre les femmes et les hommes et à un accès équitable aux ressources productives puisque plusieurs facettes de la socioculture Bamoun (spécialisation des cultures, division du travail etc.) entretiennent une hiérarchisation en faveur des hommes et renforcent la supériorité de leurs statuts, de leurs fonctions et de leurs activités. / The socio-economic dynamics determine gender relations and the allocation of productive resources. In this area, the development of foodstuff and vegetable cultivation has forged a new agricultural context that we want to study in this work. There was a transformation of actors involved, of the spatial changes, of gender relations and the access to resources. This research is to identify the significant dynamics that accompanied this agricultural transition, to show that agricultural reconversion does not occur in the same way for women and men and to review the specificities of their new economic activities. The development of gender asymmetries, of the women activities, equal status and rights between the sexes do not lead to equality of power between men and women and equitable access to productive resources since many aspects of Bamun culture (crop specialization, division of labor) maintains a hierarchy in favor of men and reinforce the superiority of their status, their functions and activities.

L’émergence des organisations paysannes en milieu périurbain et rural en République du Congo en particulier à Brazzaville et dans les Plateaux, s’inscrit dans une dualité de logiques : des logiques paysannes propres aux paysans eux-mêmes et, en même temps, des logiques institutionnelles sous l’impulsion des acteurs extérieurs, l’Etat, les ONG, les agences de coopération bilatérales et multilatérales. On voit donc apparaître de nouvelles dynamiques organisationnelles, ouvrant de nouveaux espaces à l’éruption d’acteurs sociaux qui, à travers des stratégies de positionnement et de promotion s’improvisent comme intermédiaires entre les flux financiers circulant dans ces milieux. Ces nouveaux acteurs se distinguent par leurs charisme, leurs compétences, leur connaissance endogène du milieu, leur appartenance sociale, et leur position dans l’arène locale. Elite, jeune, femme, religieuse, notable du village, etc., acquièrent ainsi une légitimité dans leur milieu, deviennent de véritables courtiers contrôlant les canaux de communication entre les donateurs et les paysans. Positionnement ou promotion, ces nouveaux acteurs jouent un rôle central dans l’arène des possibles. Quelles que soient leur origine, ces dynamiques n’enrayent pas les clivages qui ont existé et apparaissent actuellement sous des nouvelles formes, responsables de conflits entre les acteurs. Par ailleurs, l’aide au développement dont bénéficient les paysans et leurs groupements n’est assurément pas neutre. Elle véhicule l’idéologie des donateurs, et créée inévitablement des comportements d’adaptation des paysans aux exigences des structures d’appui et peut entraîner une perte au moins partielle de leur autonomie. / The emergence of peasant organizations in peri-urban and rural areas in Republic of Congo in particular with Brazzaville and in the Plateau, has a dual logical understanding; peasant farmers view and at the same time, institutional view influenced by external actors, the state, NGOs, bilateral and multilateral cooperation agencies. We see the emergence of new organizational dynamics, which lead to the creation of new spaces and the coming in of social actors who position themselves as intermediaries between financial flows circulating in these environments. These new players are distinguished by their charisma, their skills, their endogenous knowledge of the environment, social affiliation, and their position in the local arena. Elite, young, woman, religious, village elder, etc., they acquire legitimacy in their communities, become real brokers controlling the communication channels between donors and farmers. Whether self imposed or promoted, these new actors play a central role in the arena of possibilities. Whatever their origin, these dynamics do not wipe out the cleavages that have existed and still appear in new forms, the cause of conflicts between actors. In addition, development aid enjoyed by farmers and their associations is certainly not neutral. It conveys the ideology of donors, and influences the behavior of farmers to cope with the requirements of support structures and may result in different degrees of loss of their autonomy.