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
Podcast : Africa Past and Present Episode 21 available
A new perspective on Islam in Senegal
A while ago no-one had heard of podcasts, but now they are frequently being used as a teaching tool. Episode 21 of Africa Past and Present – the podcast about history, culture, and politics in Africa – is now available at: http://afripod.aodl.org
In this episode, anthropologist Mara Leichtman (Michigan State University) unveils her new book  New Perspectives on Islam in Senegal (co-edited with Mamadou Diouf). She then discusses transnational Shi?a Islam in Dakar among Lebanese migrants and Senegalese converts, and in London at the Al-Khoei Foundation. A fine example of why we cannot properly analyze ?globalization? without including Africa.
******
Africa Past and Present is hosted by Michigan State University historians Peter Alegi and Peter Limb. It is produced by Matrix — the Center for Humane Arts, Letters, and Social Sciences Online (http://matrix.msu.edu).
Liberia : New Literacy Initiative in Partnership with US Organisation
An interesting press release came my way:
Pro-literacy Detroit and Liberian Literacy Foundation Partner to Bring Hope and Literacy to Liberia
Literacy Organizations Use Volunteer Tutor Program and Technology to Overcome Illiteracy Rates of More than 70 Percent in Liberia
DETROIT—February 9, 2009—After 24 years of building hope through literacy in the Motor City, Pro-Literacy Detroit, is bringing this same hope for a better future to the country of Liberia, providing its successful technology and volunteer tutor program to support the Liberian Literacy Foundation’s initiative to rapidly increase literacy rates in a country rebuilding after 14 years of civil conflict.
In a close and unique partnership with the Liberian Ministry of Education, the two organizations plan on training more than 1,200 tutors who will fan out across the countryside bringing the programs and skills Liberians desperately need to read and write. According to Oxfam International, in 2003, 75 percent of men and 90 percent of women in Liberia were unable to read even the simplest documents. Using laptops from the UN Millennial project, learners will use a comprehensive remediation-based software program designed specifically for this initiative by Aztec Software.
“Building on our long history of cooperation with the United States, our partnerships with Pro-Literacy Detroit and the Liberian Literacy Foundation are opening doors for everyone in our country,†said Edwin Sele, Deputy Ambassador of Liberia to the United States. “We know literacy is one of the key foundation blocks for improving our citizens’ way of life and our country’s path to success and stability.â€
“We are very excited to work with the Liberian Literacy Foundation because we understand that teaching people to read is one of the most important skills for building a better community and country,†Margaret Williamson, executive director of Pro-Literacy Detroit stated. “Using our powerful combination of technology and volunteer tutor program, we can expand our successful program to improve literacy rates worldwide and support international efforts to help everyone read for life.â€
Pro-Literacy Detroit is the largest literacy organization in the state of Michigan. An accredited affiliate of Pro-Literacy America, it provides free literacy services to those living in the greater Detroit area. The program has assisted more than 11,000 learners over the years and trained more than 6,000 volunteer tutors since their inception in 1984. The success of the program flows from the combination of its tutors and the Aztec Software technology forming the foundation that helps learners read and write.
“Working with the Liberian government demonstrates how the combined power of technology and tutors can rapidly improve literacy rates, regardless of geography or reading levels,†said Dr. Phyllis Schwartz, co-founder of Aztec Software. “Pro-Literacy Detroit and Liberian Literacy Foundation’s involvement in this project has been vital, as the tutors they are training provide a crucial link between our software and the Liberian people,†said Geraldine Kaplan, co-founder of Aztec Software.
Liberia was founded in 1822 by freed slaves from the United States. America and Liberia have a long history of cooperation and support as the Liberian government, flag, motto and seal are all reflective of the founders’ American background. The country has been through two civil wars lasting 14 years, destroying the economy and land, leaving illiteracy as one of the many serious problems facing the nation. Liberians have made great progress over the past several years, including the implementation of the Poverty Reduction Strategy program, increased school enrollment and improved health services. However, continued support is vital as Liberia fully emerges from this tumultuous period and moves towards a self-sustaining nation.
About Liberian Literacy Foundation
The Liberian Literacy Foundation is a Detroit, Michigan-based nonprofit organization with the singular mission of supporting literacy in Liberia.
About Pro-Literacy Detroit
Pro-Literacy Detroit is a nonprofit organization that has served Michigan residents for more than twenty years, making basic literacy services more accessible by utilizing print, electronic media and the Internet. Trained tutors are available to tutor learners at community centers, churches, libraries, schools and in the workplace. Throughout the course of their existence, the organization has trained over 6,000 volunteer tutors, and assisted over 11,000 learners. In the metro Detroit area, more than 400 volunteers provide 56,000 hours of service each year.
Suggested Books
Africa and the Americas, Interconnections during the Slave Trade
A collection of essays
Jose C. Curto, Renee Soulodre-La France, eds.  Africa and the Americas: Interconnections during the Slave Trade.  Trenton  Africa World Press, 2004.  312 pp.  $29.95 (paper), ISBN 978-1-59221-272-9.
Reviewed by Andrea Allen
The Black Atlantic Revisited Africa and the Americas: Interconnections during the Slave Trade, edited by José C Curto and Renée Soulodre-La France, is a collection of essays that redefines and analyzes the Atlantic world between 1600 and 1850. At the heart of this volume is an emphasis on the multidirectional relationships and dialogues that occurred during the slave trade. Early in the introduction, Curto and Soulodre-La France refer to the seminal works of John Thornton and Paul Gilroy–_Africa and Africans in the Making of the Atlantic World, 1400-1800_ (1998) and _The Black Atlantic: Modernity and Double-Consciousness_ (1993), respectively–as much-needed departures from Eurocentric analyses that render Africans, on both sides of the Atlantic, as humans without agency and power; they specifically point to the work of Bernard Bailyn as an example of this form of Eurocentrism.
However, the editors also critique Thornton and Gilroy as well: they contend that Thornton’s work is unidirectional and
primarily focuses on Africans in the New World; and they assert that Gilroy’s analysis is not only Anglo-centric but also based upon
evidence beginning after the slave trade (post-1850). Thus, Curto and Soulodre-La France argue that Thornton and Gilroy, like the others, do not privilege the continuous and multifaceted interconnections among Africans across the Atlantic and that they focus their attention on what Curto and Soulodre-La France call “the northern Diasporic perspective,” i.e., the relationship between the United States or Britain and Africa.
Citation: Andrea Allen. Review of Curto, Jose C.; Soulodre-La France, Renee, eds., Africa and the Americas: Interconnections during the Slave Trade. H-AfrArts, H-Net Reviews. February, 2009.
URL: http://www.h-net.org/reviews/showrev.php?id=23032
Via H-Net
MALI: Students left behind in race for education MDG
Universal primary education has a knock-on effect
An article about education in Mali on IRIN NEWS shows that the push for universal primary education has a knock-on effect on secondary education. Some countries that succeed in increasing primary school enrolment are being overwhelmed at the secondary and higher levels
BAMAKO, 6 February 2009 (IRIN) – As Mali’s government makes strides toward the Millennium Development Goal of primary education for all by 2015, increased school enrolment and the resulting shortage of teachers and classroom space have blocked a growing number of students from secondary education.
In 2008, some 17,000 students out of more than 80,000 who passed their secondary school exams, known as the diplôme d’étude fondamentale (DEF), were not admitted to secondary schools, according to the Ministry of Education.
About 40 percent of the group is female.
African writer, Nigeria : Niyi Osundare
A great resource
The African Books Collective is a great source of books by African authors in 56 subject disciplines, mainly in English. One of the things I like about the site is that they don’t just list books for sale but they have short biographies of the writers. When I look at the book lists and biographies I am struck by the breadth of the authors. For example, University professor Niyi Osundare has just published his tenth book of poems ‘Days’, but he’s written four plays, and a book of essays as well as numerous articles.
Read his biography here: Niyi Osundare
African Books Collective (ABC) is a non-profit Oxford-based, worldwide marketing and distribution outlet for over 1,000 titles from Africa – scholarly, literature and children’s books. It is founded, owned and governed by a group of African publishers, and its participants are 116 independent and autonomous African publishers from 19 countries.
You can sign up to receive emails about new books published. Their new titles catalogue 2008 is now available for download off the ABC homepage or you can request to receive a copy in the post. You can also stay up-to-date with new title releases by subscribing to their RSS feed.
feed://www.africanbookscollective.com/aggregator/RSS
Related articles
- Niyi Osundare at forum, says good governance grows book culture (vanguardngr.com)
Transcultural Dialogues and Antiterrorism in Morocco
A symbolic tour of contemporary Morocco
Stephen William Foster. Cosmopolitan Desire: Transcultural Dialogues and Antiterrorism in Morocco. Lanham: Altamira Press, 2006. 248 pp. $31.95 (paper), ISBN 978-0-7591-1024-3.
Reviewed by Leland Barrows (General Studies Division, Voorhees College)
Published on H-Africa (February, 2009)
Commissioned by Mark L. Lilleleht
Toward an Ethics of Difference Via a Symbolic Tour of Contemporary Morocco
This book is by no means a work of history, even though its author, Stephen William Foster, evokes the contemporary history of Morocco from the 1970s to the months immediately following the accession of King Mohammed VI to the Moroccan throne, with flashbacks to the colonial and precolonial periods. It is structured as a travel journal describing places and people, but its extensive scholarly commentary and anecdotal approach, reflecting its author’s training as an anthropologist, pushes it in the direction of works like Laurence Wylie’s study of French rural life, Village in the Vaucluse (3rd ed., 1974), and Colin Turnbull’s study of the Ik of Northeastern Uganda, The Mountain People (1972), in which pithy anecdotes are structured and presented to reveal perceived anthropological and sociological realities.
Via H-Net
Mothers in Niger care for their own health
Free pre-natal checkups
Niger has one of the highest maternal and neo-natal mortality rate in the world. The following article shows how free pre-natal checkups and encouraging mothers to be to seek for expert help with deliveries are helping to address this. These pre-natal clinics also give each mother ‘an insecticide-treated bed net, essential medicine and vaccines to prevent malaria and tetanus, and vitamins and micronutrients to promote a healthy and risk-free pregnancy’.
