Policy books on specific issues with specific cases tend to have a shorter shelf life of relevance. Keeley and Scoones wrote "Understanding Environmental Policy Processes: Cases from Africa" in 2003, and it largely falls in this category. The book has three cases as chapters (Ethiopia, Mali, Zimbabwe) and some general chapters on knowledge, power and politics; environmental policy processes; international policy processes; and a concluding chapter on engagement spaces. The Ethiopia case study brought out the naive and idealistic views, such as those pitched by Sasakawa Global 2000, suggesting that the addition of fertilizer would triple yields and "off the shelf" packages would increase maize yields tenfold. SG2000 was integrated in, and was the primary driver of, the expanded agricultural extension program of the then new Zenawi government. The influence was exerted by foreign consultants, often with World Bank and CG ties, to put SG2000 in this unique position of influencing power. The book offers some interesting historical notes of Zenawi visiting farms with Jimmy Carter and Norman Borlaug (in 1994). The authors suggest - in 2003 - a lot of money wasted and little progress. This book is interesting in that is looks at the role of networks in influencing or setting policy. One lengthy note in the Conclusion of the Ethiopia case:
"... the policy process - linked to agriculture, natural resources and environment in Ethiopia - is undoubtedly complex. Policy conflicts are not resolved, it seems, as a result of simple technical and rational choices between different alternatives. Policy is the stuff of politics and people, and of knowledge and power. The rise or fall of different policy emphases depends upon the successful (or otherwise) enrolment of actors - scientists, donors, politicians, NGO staff, farmers and others - and the creation of networks that are able to make use of a policy space, emerging as a result of particular contexts, circumstances and timings. Policies can be seen to be embedded in local settings - in the political histories of different regions, in the cultures of regional bureaucracies and administrations, and dependent upon the histories of educational advantage and disadvantage, as well as rooted in ideologies and practices of governance and participation. Policies, it seems, often have a certain inertia: particular ideas and practices stick, despite concerted challenges to basic concepts and ways of working. If actor networks are tightly formed and impenetrable, and contexts and circumstances are not conducive to change, no amount of rational argument will budge a policy from its pedestal. However, as we have noted, things do change once distinct and well-guarded policy positions begin to fall apart, and other arguments become incorporated, softening the stance and, through this process, enlarging the associated actor network. Key events may allow this to happen, creating new policy spaces and new opportunities for challenge and open debate. The result is often the partial unravelling of old actor networks and the creation of new ones around alternative policy discourses, which, previously, featured only on the fringes of mainstream policy discussion." (p. 97)