Category Archives: PAPERS and REPORTS
The Linguistic Situation in Zimbabwe
This 21 page e-paper is available through GRIN, a self publishing website.
Download the paper for 7.99 Eur from the site
Humboldt Universität zu Berlin, Institut für Anglistik / Amerikanistik
HS: Southern Hemisphere English
Wintersemester 2001/2002
The Linguistic Situation in Zimbabwe by Franziska Böttcher
1 Introduction 3
2 The History of Zimbabwe – Colonial Background 5
3 Linguistic Situation and Language Policy 7
3.1 Languages 7
3.2 Status, Functions and Attitudes 8
3.3 Language Policy and the 1997 Harare Conference on Language Policies in Africa 10
4 Zimbabwean English 13
4.1 The Influence of Shona 13
4.1.1 Phonological Variation 14
4.1.2 Lexico-Semantic Variation 14
4.1.3 Grammar and Syntax 15
4.2 Sociolects 15
5 Zimbabwean Literature 17
6 Conclusion 18
7 Bibliography 20
8 Internet Sources 21
Africa Development Indicators 2008/9
Development data
Potential of Traditional Medicine should be Fostered
Fostering potential
A recent press release from the UN Economic and Social Council 2009 Organizational Session Panel Discussion reports on the discussion about fostering the potential of traditional medicine in developing countries. Several issues were raised, particularly the integration of traditional medicine into main stream medicine and the legal protection and mainstreaming of traditional medicines. The development of a ‘traditional knowledge digital library’ in India which is ‘a database containing 30 million pages of scientific formulas derived from traditional medicinal substances’ was of particular interest.
The library’s creator further believed that traditional medicines would be prone to misappropriation by third parties if they were not properly codified, Mr. Rao said. Moreover, he believed that a central database would engender wider use of the medicines contained within it, while helping to preserve the attendant knowledge and skills associated with producing those medicines. The scientific formulas contained in the digital library were comparable to modern medical formulations, and were based on information gleaned from old texts. The library was the product of several hundred scientists. He said the digital library was now being used to facilitate international trade negotiations between India and other countries. So far, the Indian Government had reached an agreement with the European Patent Office so that herbal medicines originating from India could not be patented in Europe without first referring to the database. Negotiations on a similar arrangement with the United States Trademark and Patent Office were currently ongoing. He also said that access to information from the digital library was helping to lower the cost of producing medicines — for example, medicine to treat psoriasis was being produced at a cost of $50 per patient per year, as compared to $20,000 per patient through conventional means. The concept of a digital library for traditional knowledge was currently under consideration by authorities in South Africa, Tanzania, Thailand, Nigeria, Malaysia as well as countries of the Middle East.
Small and medium forest enterprises in Mozambique
Forestry in Mozambique
(IIED, January 2009) Small and medium forest enterprises (SMFEs) in Mozambique account for 95.8% of the formally registered enterprises in the forest sector. Despite their significance to the economy SMFEs are poorly catered for by national policies. At present, the two formal channels for commercial timber production are inaccessible to community-based SMFEs that might bring about greater sustainability and poverty reduction. Legislation still views community based natural resource management as a process of subservient partnership between external forest enterprises and community management committees. Despite these challenges, there are a wide range of Mozambican programmes spanning government, civil society and private sector initiatives that support SMFEs. This report argues that a more coordinated effort is urgently needed between these programmes to develop business skills and capacity among SMFEs.
http://www.iied.org/pubs/display.php?o=13546IIED
Public Participation and Oil Exploitation in Uganda
The oil production sector
Public Participation and Oil Exploitation in Uganda
(IIED, December 2008)
This paper first analyses the adequacy of the existing legal framework on access to information and participation. Its findings show that although law and policy in Uganda indicate certain efforts to open up environmental decision-making processes to public influence, this is not the case in the oil production sector. The culture of secrecy within government bodies, weak civil society structures as well as the politics of patronage remain substantive challenges for the fair and equitable management of natural resources in Uganda.
http://www.iied.org/pubs/display.php?o=14574IIED
Malawi green gold: Challenges and opportunities for SMFE in reducing poverty
Challenges for the governance of forests in Malawi
Malawi’s green gold: Challenges and opportunities for small and medium forest enterprises in reducing poverty
(IIED, December 2008)
This study surveys a thriving, albeit largely informal, SMFE sector in Malawi. It looks in detail at four promising subsectors: timber, cane furniture, tree fruit juices and woodcarving. It describes both the challenges and opportunities for the governance of forest services in regards to SMFE, and ways of organising SMFEs to better meet market demand while sustaining the resource.
http://www.iied.org/pubs/display.php?o=13545IIED
Adaptation in Africa – the global failure to deliver funding
African climate change
Will Africa be steamrollered by climate change? The continent harbours 33 of the Least Developed Countries, is heavily reliant on agriculture and has limited economic resources to finance adaptation. Its geographic position and high sensitivity to climatic variability make it vulnerable. Large swathes of Africa already see more frequent and severe flooding and droughts, shrinking agricultural production, the spread of diseases and the rise of conflict over scarce resources. meanwhile, African governments are poorly equipped to respond. Overcoming these challenges demands concerted international effort – yet a huge gap yawns between the global promises, and timely action on them.
http://www.iied.org/pubs/display.php?o=17047IIED
International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED) publications can be downloaded along with over 4,000 other resources, from thewebsite www.iied.org/pubs
(IIED, December 2008)
Poverty data : A supplement to World Development Indicators 2008
Country-level estimates of poverty
This booklet looks like it could be very useful.
This booklet, published by the World Bank, provides the country-level estimates of poverty that were first released in October 2008. Using the international poverty line of $1.25 a day, estimates of the extent and depth of poverty are presented for 115 developing countries, along with poverty measurements based on their national poverty lines. The report includes explanatory text and tables on national poverty estimates, international poverty estimates, and purchasing power parities (PPPs).
Download the supplement to the World Development Indicators 2008 booklet
Suggested Books
- World Development Indicators 2008
- World Development Indicators 2009
- World Development Indicators 2010
World Development Report 2009: Reshaping Economic Geography
Transformations along the dimensions of economic geography
Report available from: http://go.worldbank.org/RBDWKOYC90
Places do well when they promote transformations along the dimensions of economic geography: higher densities as cities grow; shorter distances as workers and businesses migrate closer to density; and fewer divisions as nations lower their economic borders and enter world markets to take advantage of scale and trade in specialized products. The World Bank’s World Development Report 2009 concludes that the transformations along these three dimensions–density, distance, and division–are essential for development and should be encouraged.
The conclusion is controversial. Slum-dwellers now number a billion, but the rush to cities continues. A billion people live in lagging areas of developing nations, remote from globalization’s many benefits. And poverty and high mortality persist among the world’s “bottom billion,” trapped without access to global markets, even as others grow more prosperous and live ever longer lives. Concern for these three intersecting billions often comes with the prescription that growth must be spatially balanced.
This report has a different message: economic growth will be unbalanced. To try to spread it out is to discourage it–to fight prosperity, not poverty. But development can still be inclusive, even for people who start their lives distant from dense economic activity. For growth to be rapid and shared, governments must promote economic integration, the pivotal concept, as this report argues, in the policy debates on urbanization, territorial development, and regional integration. Instead, all three debates overemphasize place-based interventions.
Reshaping Economic Geography reframes these debates to include all the instruments of integration–spatially blind institutions, spatially connective infrastructure, and spatially targeted interventions. By calibrating the blend of these instruments, today’s developers can reshape their economic geography. If they do this well, their growth will still be unbalanced, but their development will be inclusive.
Go here for more information: http://go.worldbank.org/RBDWKOYC90
A literature review of district health systems in East and Southern Africa
Participation in health in Southern Africa
A literature review of district health systems in East and Southern Africa: facilitators and barriers to participation in health byL. L. Levers; F. I. Magweva; E. Mpofu, EQUINET: Network for Equity in Health in Southern Africa, 2007
This Equinet paper reviews evidence on community voice, roles and participation in primary health care and district health systems in sub-Saharan Africa, and examines facilitators and barriers to participation. The paper finds that governments developed policies for dealing with community participation in local health care, but there was little, if any, implementation of these policies. Both national and international efforts to implement public health strategies often ignore local input and the delivery of ‘decentralised’ health care has often lost touch with local communities.
Download a pdf of the Literature of District Health Systems in East and Southern Africa
Impact of World Bank education assistance in Mali from 1990-2005
An evaluation of World Bank education assistance
This case study examines the impact of World Bank assistance to the education sector in Mali from 1990 to 2005. It also examines the ways in which government, donors, NGOs, and civil society have responded to the enormous challenges in the sector. It also suggests a variety of ways in which the support from all actors, and particularly the Bank, can be improved.
Malian children are among the poorest in the world. In 2001, 239 children per 1,000 died before reaching age five; 83 percent of children had anemia. Those children who make it to school are confronted with a system ill suited to their needs. There are not enough chairs, books, pencils, or teachers, let alone more modern teaching materials. For most children, most instruction is in a language they do not understand. Not surprisingly, a very high percentage of children in the Malian school system fail. Repetition rates averaged 19 percent per year in 2002. The pass rate for the sixth-grade primary school exam is about 50 percent; sixth-grade students are frequently incapable of decoding single sentences in their textbooks.
Source:Â World Bank
Wealth distribution, poverty and timber governance in Uganda
Public investment in Ugandan forestry
Wealth distribution, poverty and timber governance in Uganda
Authors: Muhumuza,F.; Kutegeka,S.; Wolimbwa,A.
Produced by: Advocates Coalition for Development and Environment, Uganda (2008)
With the increased economic value of its natural resources, Uganda has recently increased public investment in its forestry sector. For instance, both the Poverty Eradication Action Plan (PEAP) and the Environment and Natural Resources Sector Investment Plan (ENR SIP) include increased budgetary allocations on forests. But does this approach necessarily improve economic outcomes for poor resource users? Examining the Budongo Forest Reserve, a new report brought out by the Advocates Coalition for Development and Environment (ACODE) applies the Nature, Wealth and Power (NWP) analytical framework and the Commodity Chain Analysis (CCA) methodology to analyse distributional outcomes in Uganda’s timber industry.
Download a pdf copy of http://www.acode-u.org/documents/Timber.pdf
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- Analysis: Rocky start for UgandaÂ’s oil sector (IRINnews.org)
