Category Archives: PAPERS and REPORTS
Africa Environment Report : Cultivating success, the need to climate-proof Tanzanian agriculture
Cultivating success: the need to climate-proof Tanzanian agriculture
All farming is a gamble with nature. The impacts of climate change, however, can pit farmers against impossible odds – particularly in poor, geographically vulnerable nations with largely agrarian economies. Tanzania is one such country. Some 80 per cent of its workforce is in agriculture and, with climate change set to lower yields in key crops, the implications for its economy are serious. Where, how and when climate impacts will hit is key – as is an action plan for averting the highest costs. Policy needs to focus immediately on helping farmers adapt to climate impacts by addressing both food production and marketing efficiencies. This is crucial: Tanzania is a test case for economic impacts predicted throughout sub-Saharan Africa. Replicating this policy approach in other low-income countries is essential if low-carbon growth and other development priorities are to become realities
How to get a copy
To Download:Â Â http://www.iied.org/pubs/display.php?o=17073IIED
Related articles
- Rich Country Climate Plans Threaten Economic Growth in Developing Countries (prnewswire.com)
- Climate-smart agriculture should be livelihood-smart too (eurekalert.org)
Africa Environment : Biofuels in Africa, growing small-scale opportunities
Biofuels in Africa: growing small-scale opportunities
Global demand for climate-friendly transport fuels is driving vast commercial biofuels projects in developing countries. At the opposite end of the spectrum is small-scale bioenergy production. This offers a way for the poor to meet their energy needs and diversify their livelihoods without compromising food security or environmental integrity. Governments hope that it will be possible to combine the advantages of both large- and small-scale production of biofuels to generate energy security and GDP at the national level, while opening up local opportunities. In Africa, most governments are keen to attract foreign direct investment, and see big business as a strategic means of scaling up rural development. But there is a middle way. By encouraging business models that bridge large and small enterprise, African governments could show that commercial competition can go hand in hand with a range of real local benefits.
How to get a copy
To Download:Â Â http://www.iied.org/pubs/display.php?o=17059IIED
Suggested Books
- Biofuels (Energy and the Environment)
- Biofuels (Wiley Series in Renewable Resource)
- Other Africa Environment books
Related articles
- Can biofuels save Africa? (arstechnica.com)
- Global Biofuel Enzymes Market to Exceed US$900 Million by 2017, According to a New Report by Global Industry Analysts, Inc. (prweb.com)
Africa Environment Report : Biofuels, land access and rural livelihoods in Tanzania
Ngorogoro crater, Tanzania
[Photo credit: ianduffy]
Biofuels, land access and rural livelihoods in Tanzania
During the past several years, biofuels in rich countries have come to be regarded as an important option for reducing consumption of petroleum, which is a main policy goal as a result of recent high oil prices, energy security concerns, and global climate change. The use and development of alternative sources of energy are increasingly encouraged in western countries, and private and public sources of financial support for biofuels development have increased greatly.  For African countries, this is leading to growing interest from western and Asian private investors in biofuels projects, as well as growing support from development partners for incorporating biofuels into government policies and development plans.  For African countries which are non-oil producers, biofuel production has the potential to provide a substitute for costly oil imports which are one of the major uses of foreign exchange and sources of inflation in African economies, and to provide a new source of agricultural income in rural areas. Tanzania is one of the African countries which have seen a rapid increase in biofuel production and investment proposals during the past several years.  The purpose of this report is to describe existing patterns of biofuel development and crop cultivation in Tanzanian rural areas in order to improve the understanding of how these various potential threats and opportunities from biofuels expansion are playing out in reality.
How to get a copy
To Download:Â Â http://www.iied.org/pubs/display.php?o=12560IIED
Suggested Books
- Custodians of the Land: Ecology and Culture in the History of Tanzania (Eastern African Studies)
- Biofuels (Energy and the Environment)
- Tanzania – Culture Smart!: the essential guide to customs & culture
- Other Africa Environment books
Related articles
- Imminent Land Grab Threatens More Than 162,000 People in Tanzania (alethonews.wordpress.com)
- Welcome to Tanzania, the Land of Kilimanjaro, Safaris, Zanzibar, and Dwindling Water Resources! (modealanix.com)
- Can biofuels save Africa? (arstechnica.com)
Africa Report : Community Radio in Liberia and Sierra Leone
An Assessment of the Role of Community Radio in Peacebuilding and Development: Case Studies in Liberia and Sierra Leone
Search for Common Ground
Publication Date
July 1, 2009
Summary
This five-page report details the results of an evaluation of four community radio stations in rural Sierra Leone and Liberia. The evaluation focused on areas still struggling to achieve meaningful development in a post-conflict setting and was designed to assess the relationships between drivers of development and community radio stations. The study found that community radios are significantly impacting development in their communities via relationships with local and international non-governmental organisations (NGOs).
The study included an analysis of current radio programming for its impact on local development processes, while an audience survey and focus groups were used to better understand audience perceptions and uses of local radio. Stations were also evaluated on their capacity as independent development agents with an eye towards ongoing peacebuilding functions.
According to the report, the impact of community radios falls into two categories: support for programme implementation leading to improved efficacy, broader reach, accountability, and community feedback; and regular airing of education and awareness programming – yielding results in changing attitudes and behaviours. The study found that the community stations had a positive and engaged relationship with local government as well as civil society organisations. Overall, the study found that community radio plays a central role in disseminating information related to development and in improving development outcomes through partnerships at all levels.
The study found that sensitisation and awareness programmes were often cited as audiences’ favourites, as was interactive, public forum programming. A majority of listeners credited community radio stations with improving basic living conditions and encouraging an attitude of community responsibility and pride. Audiences also expressed a desire for expanded broadcast times. Station leadership was found to be the single overriding factor determining a station’s impact and effectiveness.
According to the report, the stations also positively contributed to peacebuilding in their communities. Listeners reported a high impact from programmes that address peace and nonviolent conflict resolution. Community stations in all locations were also described as active participants in diffusing potential violent crises. It was found that radio helps marginalised people without access to other means of communications and was universally cited as vital in facilitating peaceful election processes.
The report concludes that community radio does play a strong role in local peacebuilding, and that radio stations’ promotion of inclusive development processes has a broad impact in promoting sustainable peace. However, it also found that radio’s impact is often reliant on the cooperation of government, and that community radio stations are making limited use of their power as media outlets to compel government participation in media.
How to get a copy
Click to download An Assessment of the Role of Community Radio in Peacebuilding and Development: Case Studies in Liberia and Sierra Leone in PDF format.
Contact
Shaya Gregory
Search for Common Ground – Africa Programme
1601 Connecticut Ave. NW
Washington, D.C.
20009
United States
Search for Common Ground website
sgregory@sfcg.org
Ransford Wright
Associate Coordinator
Independent Radio Network
159 Circular Road
Freetown
Sierra Leone
Independent Radio Network website
irnsalone@yahoo.com
Source
Search for Common Ground website on February 15 2010.
Africa Linguistics : Adoption of a Policy Guide for Successful Integration of African Languages and Cultures into Education
The Conference on the Integration of African Languages and Cultures into Education (Ouagadougou, 20 – 22 January 2010) adopted a policy guide aimed at affirming the vision of multilingual and multicultural education as the general education system in African countries, with a view to the transformation of their societies. They recommended to implement the policy guidelines and to mobilize the regional economic commissions, through the African Academy of Languages (ACALAN), to “develop a strategy for the promotion of cross-border languages”.
According to the guide, the policy of multilingual and multicultural education requires the following: the establishment of policy and legislative frameworks; the development of monitoring and evaluation strategies; general awareness-raising and advocacy and the development of regional networks; institutional strengthening and capacity building; evaluation of learning outcomes and monitoring; curriculum development and training; and research.
The conference, jointly organized by the Association for the Development of Education in Africa (ADEA), the UNESCO Institute for Lifelong Learning (UIL) and the Burkina Faso Ministry of Basic Education and Literacy, recognized that the promotion of African languages and cultures is, on one hand, a factor of national social cohesion and of regional and continental integration, and on the other, an essential means of transforming African societies with a view to balanced, sustainable economic and social development.
Web site: www.ADEAnet.org
E-mail: adeacommunication@afdb.org
Source: alcinou@orange.fr
Suggested Books (US)
- Language Policy in West Africa: Focus on Ghana and Burkina Faso
- Language and Exclusion: The Consequences of Language Policies in Africa (Contributions to Studies on African Languages and Literatures) (Volume 12)
- Linguistic Human Rights and Language Policy in the Kenyan Education System
Africa paper : Decisions and Deadlines, A Critical Year for Sudan
Analytical Report
Sudan will hold potentially transformative elections in April 2010 and its complex peace processes require the organisation of three referendums in the coming year, including one in which Southern Sudanese voters will decide on unity or independence. Sudan is therefore entering a crucial period in its history and the country’s powerful elites are under pressure to reach agreement on a wide range of complex processes.
This report analyses these critical events and their potential outcomes and recommends how best key actors can engage to affect as smooth processes as possible.
How to get a copy
Download a PDF copy of  Decisions and deadlines: a critical year for Sudan
Further Resources
Against the Gathering Storm: Securing Sudan’s Comprehensive Peace Agreement
Chatham House Report
Edward Thomas, January 2009
Suggested Books
- The Benefits of Famine: A Political Economy of Famine & Relief in Southwestern Sudan, 1983-9 (Eastern African Studies)
- Contested Sudan: The Political Economy of War and Reconstruction (Durham Modern Middle East and Islamic World Series)
- Sudan, 2nd (Bradt Travel Guide)
Related articles
- China Tries to Mediate Sudan Oil Impasse (abcnews.go.com)
- SUDAN-SOUTH SUDAN: What the analysts are saying post-secession (IRINnews.org)
Report : Traditional Knowledge and Indigenous Peoples
Social and historical identity
This bilingual (Russian and English) publication covers a number of important areas.
Traditional knowledge is an important element of the intellectual and cultural heritage of indigenous peoples. It reflects their social and historical identity and significantly contributes to the future well-being and sustainable development of these peoples. In 2007, the L’auravetl’an Information & Education Network of Indigenous Peoples (LIENIP) organized a series of educational conferences, aimed at fostering greater understanding on the nature and evolution of this phenomenon and encouraging mutually beneficial relationships among representatives of indigenous communities, academia, professional entities and international organizations. This publication is comprised of several articles written for and speeches made at these events, and also includes a glossary of related concepts.
How to get a copy
Download a PDF of Traditional Knowledge and Indigenous Peoples
Suggested BooksÂ
- Original Instructions: Indigenous Teachings for a Sustainable Future
- Decolonizing Methodologies: Research and Indigenous Peoples
- Research Is Ceremony: Indigenous Research Methods
- The Paradox of Africa’s Poverty: The Role of Indigenous Knowledge, Traditional Practices and Local Institutions – The Case of Ethiopia
Related articles
- Promoting the language rights of indigenous peoples (jummacommunity.wordpress.com)
- International Indigenous Forum on Biodiversity: Opening Statement (jummacommunity.wordpress.com)
Africa Economics Malawi : Much to Lose, Little to gain – Assessing EPAs
Much to lose, little to gain Assessing EPAs from the perspective of Malawi, TearFund 2007
Economic Partnership Agreements (EPAs) between the European Union (EU) and African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) countries pose a major threat to development and poverty reduction. The ACP countries include some of the poorest countries in the world – 39 of the world’s 50 Least Developed Countries (LDCs). Yet EPAs will require the ACP to liberalise substantially all of their trade with the EU. The EU is also using EPAs to push its agenda on the so-called ‘Singapore issues’ that developing countries have refused to negotiate at the World Trade Organisation (WTO) for years.
This report shows that an EPA threatens to, inter alia:
- reinforce Malawi’s position as an exporter of low-value, unprocessed commodities, undermining the Malawian government’s development strategy to ‘add value’ to agricultural goods and to develop a manufacturing sector
- undermine regional integration between Malawi and its neighbours
- lead to a significant loss of fiscal revenue and induce other major adjustment costs.
Given the threat that EPAs pose to development and poverty reduction and considering the concerns being raised by stakeholders across the ACP, we make a number of recommendations outlined overleaf.
Produced by: Malawi Economic Justice Network (2007) together with TearFund
How to get a copy
Download paper online at: http://tilz.tearfund.org/webdocs/Website/Campaigning/Policy%20and%20research/much_to_lose_little_to_gain.pdf
Suggested Books
- IT transforms Malawi’s economy: as Malawi’s economy picks up, the emergence of modern technology is transforming the financial sector right across the … African Review of Business and Technology
- Enhancing Investment in West Africa: The Role of Investment Instruments in Economic Partnership Agreement Negotiations (Economic Paper Series)
Africa Agriculture Ethiopia : Agricultural Water Management
Arba minch is a small town in the south of Ethiopia with – ca. 79’000 inhabitants – water supply fed by Arba Minch springs – distribution network: 25 public taps and 3000 private connections – no facilities for wastewater collection and treatment. – 85% use pit latrines The ROSA project promotes resource oriented sanitation concepts as a route to sustainable and ecologically sound sanitation in order to meet target 10 of the MDG. Different resource oriented sanitation systems have been built in Arba Minch town that include 15 urine-diversion dry toilets(UDDT), 23 Fossa alternas, 10 Arborloos, 8 greywater towers, 1 biogas unit and more than 4 cocomposting schemes and researches have been made to evaluate these units. The first two or three units were built for demonstration purposes. These units were considered as first testing units and the construction cost was covered fully form ROSA project budget. The remaining units were built with cost sharing as a strategic subsidy, (MoH, 2006), whereby about 75% of the total construction cost was covered by the households and the remaining 25% was covered from ROSA project budget.
For more information please read http://rosa.boku.ac.at/images/stories/Public%20Docs/34th_wedc_2009_ayele_shewa_et_al_2.pdf
Training Manual
Authors: Awulachew,S.B.; Lemperiere,P.; Tulu,T.
Produced by: International Livestock Research Institute (2009)
This training manual on agricultural water management has been prepared with the aim of providing reference and guidance materials on smallholders’ agricultural management, primarily for Ethiopian farmers, with support of development agents and technical personnel. The documents use existing knowledge in the form of texts, figures, demonstration materials derived from various sources such as books, grey literature such as web material, reports, manuals, etc.
The aim is to cover useful elements of agricultural water management from estimating runoff at micro and small watershed level up to irrigated field water management. In addition, the modules aim to cover water availability estimation, water control and management, soil-water-plant relationships, water lifting and conveyancing and irrigation methods. Each module chapter is illustrated with figures, tables, charts and examples.
The manual covers the following key areas:
- watershed hydrology for improved agricultural water management
- water harvesting and development for improving productivity
- soil water plant relationship
- pumps for small irrigation
- irrigation methods and options for smallholders: surface irrigation and drip irrigation
The modules make for a useful reference and field guide as well as teaching materials at technical, vocational, educational, and training centres.
Available online at: http://mahider.ilri.org/bitstream/10568/80/1/Modules1_5.pdf
Suggested Books
- THE STATE OF SUBSISTENCE AGRICULTURE IN ETHIOPIA: SOURCES OF OUTPUT GROWTH AND AGRICULTURAL INEFFICIENCY
- Ethiopia, 5th (Bradt Travel Guide Ethiopia)
Politics Africa, a new African blog
A new blog on politics in Africa has been launched to highlight political and social issues in Africa. PoliticsAfrica, is a refreshing blog of
politics and news concerning Africa and is requesting submissions for its op-ed section. Students, professors, and professionals are encouraged to send papers for consideration.
Please visit www.politicsafrica.com for more information and guidelines for submission.
Water and Sanitation Resources
Issues surrounding water sanitation are really important in developing countries where water sources may be contaminated or of poor quality. Here are a number of papers which you may find interesting.
Sanitation and cleanliness for a healthy environment
Beyond the source: keeping water clean in developing countries
Authors: Jim Wright; Stephen Gundry; Ronan Conroy; University of Bristol, UK
Publisher: id21 Development Research Reporting Service, 2003
Diseases caused by drinking dirty water are major causes of health problems in developing countries. Approximately four billion cases of diarrhoea in the year 2000 represent more than 5% of all disease globally for that year. The problem is not only water containing bacteria at its source, but often clean water that becomes contaminated between its source and the point at which it is drunk. This is a serious problem which can undermine government health campaigns to provide every home with clean water.
Water Alternatives (WaA)
Water Alternatives is an interdisciplinary free journal addressing the full range of issues that water raises in contemporary societies.
Subject coverage includes issues relate to:
- water policy at global and national levels
- water governance and water reforms
- the politics of everyday water management (irrigation, watershed, etc.)
- water knowledge systems, concepts and discourses
- water and economics
- the politics of water provision and use
- water, environment and society
- water, technology and society
- water, globalization and geopolitics
- water, power and social divisions: gender, class, ethnicity
Website: http://www.water-alternatives.org/ Email: meinzen-dick@water-alternatives.org
UN-Water
UN-Water was endorsed as the new official United Nations mechanism to follow-up the water-related decisions reached at the 2002 World Summit on Sustainable Development and the Millennium Development Goals.
UN-Water is made up of the UN agencies, programmes and funds, including major non-UN partners that have a significant role in tackling global water concerns. It supports Member States in their efforts to achieve water and sanitation goals and targets. It is also responsible for the United Nations Decade on Water   2005 – 2015.
The website provides sections on water policies, information resources, events and UN members and partners.
Website: http://www.unwater.org Email: unwater@un.org
Africa IMF Report : Somalia 2009
IMF report for Somalia 2009
IMF Policy Paper: Review of the IMF’s Strategy on Overdue Financial Obligations
Summary: This paper reviews progress under the IMF’s strengthened cooperative strategy on overdue financial obligations. Total arrears to the Fund declined by SDR 11 million, to SDR 1,327 million, since the last review. While Sudan’s payments in excess of its new obligations falling due to the Fund accounted for the decline, arrears by Somalia and Zimbabwe increased further. The majority of the arrears to the Fund (85 percent) were to the General Resources Account (GRA).
http://www.imf.org/external/pp/longres.aspx?id=4360
All information from http://www.imf.org
To view and print pdf files you need the free Adobe Acrobat Reader which is available at http://www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/readstep.html
Suggested Books
- Somalia: Economy without State (African Issues)
- Modern History Of The Somali: Revised/Fourth Edition (Eastern African Studies)
