Agenda In Africa Research Articles

The chivalric tomb in fifteenth-century Portugal

The fifteenth-century Portuguese nobility was a proud and image-conscious social group that transformed tombs into opportunities for self-promotion. Manifesting changing conceptualizations of history and agency, the nobility’s elaborately sculpted sepulchres also reveal the means of successful social advancement in this society. The ruling dynasty of Avís encouraged the chivalric ethos of the long fifteenth century to exert control over the powerful nobility and validate their expansionist agenda in Africa. This profoundly shaped the visual idiom of funerary sculpture, resulting in the emergence of the ‘chivalric tomb’ in Portugal. Taking advantage of the blurred lines between chivalry and politics and between history and propaganda, Portuguese aristocrats began to manipulate their posthumous images to construct enduring, positive legacies in the public imagination. Aristocratic Portuguese tombs remain virtually untapped sources of social-historical information, particularly through their display of consistent commemorative strategies ranging from genealogical epitaphs to figural portrayals of Africans. Drawing on extensive fieldwork and archival research and offering a close examination of these monuments through visual, literary and historical evidence, this article explores the artistic intersection of death and memory in late medieval Portuguese society and elucidates how aristocratic funerary monuments performed a persuasive, as well as memorial, function.

On the Roles of World-Class Universities and the Sustainability Agenda in Africa: A Case Study of Two Universities in South Africa and Egypt

In the past decade, the World Class University discussion has become rampant due to the integral role that higher education plays in any economy's aspiration to compete globally while still pursuing sustainability. This article reports on a study that explored the roles played by world-class universities (WCUs) in fostering sustainability initiatives and practices in the African context. The article harnesses a document review approach that facilitates in-depth document analysis using two world-class institutions in Africa: The University of Cape Town in South Africa and American University in Cairo in Egypt as case studies. This study finds that world-class institutions in the two countries have rigorous, comprehensive sustainability organisations, synthesised and adopted from international agreements and concepts. The sustainability organisation is characterised by a less hierarchical approach to its management and leadership. Sustainability in research is fostered through environmental research and other key research areas such as food and medicine. Sustainable teaching is fostered through living-learning labs, redesigned curriculums, targeted degree programs and lecturer development through training and awards as incentives. Tangible, sustainable technology and innovation initiatives are also evident. This article comprehensively establishes the links and roles played by WCUs in fostering sustainability. It aids potential WCUs in Africa to understand and adopt sustainable initiatives within different and dynamic institutional contexts.

‘Education for Sustainable Development in the Postcolonial World: Towards a Transformative Agenda for Africa’ by Leon Tikly

‘Education for Sustainable Development in the Postcolonial World: Towards a Transformative Agenda for Africa’ by Leon Tikly

An action agenda for Africa's electricity sector.

Modernization and expansion require heightened efforts

Reasserting (middle) power by looking southwards: Italy’s policy towards Africa

ABSTRACT In 2015, the Prime Minister Matteo Renzi launched a new Italian agenda for Africa. Until then Italian involvement in African affairs had been almost exclusively restricted to multilateral initiatives. Through its new pro-active approach, Italy has engaged with the African countries through a dynamic and multi-layered partnership aimed at fostering peace, stability, economic growth and human development on the continent. Within this framework, Italy intended to go beyond the traditional ‘donor-beneficiary’ relationship to build a new partnership model centred around the concept of sharing. The article argues that the need to preserve or at least reinforce its international status as a middle-ranking power has been one of the factors that led Italy to relaunch its involvement in Africa. Nevertheless, statements of intent aside, Italian foreign policy is lagging behind other extra-regional players operating on the continent. Indeed, despite Italy’s natural geographical projection towards the South, its many structural weaknesses and lack of a coherent foreign policy make it a declining middle-ranking power in the international arena, able to operate in Africa, even now, only within the framework of multilateral initiatives.

The Energy Crisis and Environmental Concerns in Sub-Saharan Africa (Nigeria): A Perspective on Public Governance for Climate Action

The inextricable relationship between environment and development is unarguable, and the literature is replete with scientific evidence of the interdependence between the two phenomena. However, as the interaction between man and nature proceeded from the condition of conviviality to that of belligerence, there has been a marked decline in the resilience of nature to accommodate human avarice. It is nature’s reactions to this unfair transaction that is today called climate change. In Sub-Saharan Africa, climate change remains an intractable problem, or to borrow the words of Pollitt (2016), “a very wicked issue” that challenges state capacity to contain its scourge. Finding a way around this wicked issue has been the preoccupation of public policy scholars and practitioners. Incidentally, combating climate change is a cross cutting issue in the 2030 global agenda for sustainable development which inevitably touches on access to affordable and sustainable energy, protection of the ecosystem to halt biodiversity loss. Consistent with this global agenda is the Africa agenda 2063 with the overarching aspiration of “a prosperous Africa based on inclusive growth and sustainable development”. These multinational initiatives suggest a growing consensus on environmental sustainability as the desideratum of development. In Nigeria, the energy crisis and its attendant consequences on the environment has made the country one of the most vulnerable to climate change in the region. This paper seeks to offer a perspective on public governance for climate action. It argues that lack of state capacity to address the energy requirement of the economy has had grave consequences on environmental resourcefulness. While consensus on multinational agenda is given, the point at issues is for national governments to domesticate this agenda and mobilize the requisite resources to translate them into measurable achievements. The paper observes that apart from the huge deficit in furnishing the energy need of the real sector, the energy crisis poses existential threats such as food insecurity, environmental pollution/degradation through deforestation, flooding and pollution. The paper recommends, among others, that the Nigeria-Germany bilateral cooperation on the power sector should be implemented to its logical conclusion, and that a program of public enlightenment is urgently required to arrest traditional practices that are harmful to environmental sustainability.

Decolonisation of the Zimbabwean linguistic landscape through renaming: a quantitative and linguistic landscaping analysis

ABSTRACT The language question is topical in Africa because of colonial hegemonies by colonial and languages of global communication such as English, French, and Portuguese. English hegemony in dominant domains fosters the coloniality of language in liberated territories such as Zimbabwe. Part of the decolonising agenda in Africa was to rename the public space so that it reflected the character and heritage of the liberated Africans. This paper establishes the coloniality of culture as expressed through language and heritage displayed in toponyms. The research argues that the renaming process in Zimbabwe did not produce equality or African bias on names used to name and re-name towns, suburbs, and airports. While some elements of the Zimbabwean linguistic landscape were renamed as a decolonising process most of the new names still bear colonial forms as colonialism affected even African identities that are used in the renaming. Renaming in Zimbabwe was biased towards correcting names than changing them, and this process has concentrated on Shona names at the exclusion of other languages and cultures. Conclusions from the paper are important for policymakers as they seek to decolonise names through re-naming. The nexus between toponyms and identity opens up opportunities for further research.

Energy for food, livelihoods, and resilience: An integrated development agenda for Africa

This article explores the real-time interactions between agriculture, energy, economy, trade, climate resilience, and livelihoods across sub-Saharan Africa and the implications for 2050. It explains the opportunities for an intersectional approach to interventions at the food-energy nexus and provides recommendations for near-term actions urgently needed to safeguard Africa's future.

Assessment of Applying Global Instruments in Nongovernmental Organizations for Environmental Security and Sustainable Development in Developing Countries

Background. Environmental challenges are overwhelming the global communities. Thus, the purpose of the study is to explore how instruments used by the nongovernmental organizations are applied for environmental security and sustainable development in Ethiopia. It addresses issues of how environmental education in context is working to instill the knowledge, skills, awareness, and attitudes of the stakeholders. Recent discussions of the African Union Summit 2020, Africa Agenda 2063, Davos 2020 World Economic Forum, United Nations Agenda 2030, and the Green Economy Strategy in Ethiopia have strongly sought to strengthen environmental education as an instrument of global and local sustainability of the environment and development. Here, the study collected pieces of evidence from environmental programs of a nongovernmental organization in Ethiopia. The study focused on a nonformal environmental education, based on the frameworks of the agreements and declarations where Ethiopia is a contracting party. The frameworks are guiding concepts to investigate the phenomenon. Methods. The study used a thematic analysis based on empirical studies. Specifically, empirical studies from primary and secondary sources on the implementation of environment and forest development programs of the organization are crucial to providing a concrete presentation. Results. Empirical pieces of evidence show that the organization plans, projects, and performance reports were found inconsistent with the frameworks of international agreements and national policy. The empirical study also shows that environmental education is not well considered and institutionalized in the organization's project planning. Environmental education strategies are not explicitly visible while planning the projects. Moreover, in some implementation strategies of the organization, there was inconsistency in using environmental education as a strategic instrument to improve environmental security and quality. Conclusion. The organization's environmental performance was deep-rooted to improve the status quo in the living community. However, the utilization of environmental education was discovered to be minimal. Thus, stakeholders and the organization take the advice to integrate into the entire cycle of the project.

Future history is an entry point for achieving the goals of the Africa Agenda 2063

The current paper reviews what history is and how it relates to the Temporal dimension of the present, the past, and the future, where the past is observed, and its effects are retrieved to study the present, and take that starting point to study the future by tracking the course of the phenomenon in the present, The possibility of dating the future for certain issues if the historian has sufficient knowledge of their sources, and the historian has a visionary and great ability to understand, analyses, interpret, criticize and consciously understand the relationships that bind different phenomena The paper deals with the starting points on which to look ahead and there is no future inevitability, but there are different images and forms of the future, each future study should put some controls, humans can make the future because it is based on the idea of the will capable of change and achievement, the future, the future It's not imposed on communities, With the clarification of the methods used in future studies such as scenario method, brainstorming, Delphi method, projection methods, the current paper also reviews the development agenda of the strategic vision of the African continent 2063 and the role of the methods of history in achieving its goals, and a set of Recommendations include: Empowering young people to form a future and conscious leadership of the African continent, the need to pay attention to the qualitative development of the history curriculum in order to develop awareness of contemporary issues and resigned problems.

Adherence of healthcare providers to WHO management guidelines for malaria in Ijebu Ode, Nigeria

Introduction: Adherence to malaria treatment guidelines is pivotal to the management and control, and ultimately the actualisation of the eradication agenda in Africa. This study assessed malaria management practices among health care givers in Ijebu Ode community in Ogun State, Nigeria.Methodology: Structured questionnaires measuring treatment practices were administered to consenting health care givers in the study area. Responses were scored and compared to national and WHO guidelines for malaria management to measure practice.Results: A total of 46 health care givers made up of mostly doctors (54.3%) were enrolled into the study. Presumptive diagnosis (90.5%) was the most reported form of diagnosis while Arthemether-Lumefantrine (91.0%) was the most prescribed drug for treating uncomplicated malaria. Sulphadoxine-Pyrimethamine (85.0%) was mostly recommended to pregnant women for intermittent preventive therapy (IPT). Standard dose of SP is given at least twice during the pregnancy. The lack of necessary equipment was reported by 70% respondents as the reason for current management practices. Mean practice score in the study was 5.28±1.8 out of a total obtainable score of 8. Only 59% of study respondents had good practice based on our set threshold of 6 practice points.Conclusion: This study has shown fair practice among healthcare officers in the study area but also reveals that 41% of the healthcare providers are yet to meet up with the minimum standard practice for the management of malaria. This therefore necessitates the need for renewed efforts such as education of health care givers to ensure better compliance with guidelines.Key Words: Malaria, Malaria Management & Control, Malaria Treatment, World Health Organisation.

COVID-19 and food security in Africa: Building more resilient food systems.

The COVID-19 pandemic has exposed the fragility of our food systems. Despite increased efficiencies in producing and supplying large volumes of food, our current food systems have generated multiple adverse outcomes comprising high greenhouse gas emissions, persistent hunger, and livelihood stress for farmers around the world. Nowhere else than in Africa have large numbers of people experienced more acutely these adverse shocks emanating from our food systems. Thus, building more resilient African food systems, which take a radical change of direction, is fundamentally a matter of survival. While there is broad consensus around a need for transformational change in food systems, what that entails is not always clear, and there are divergent views amongst experts on how to re-orient research priorities and agricultural solutions in ways that effectively address hunger and inequality while also protecting agrobiodiversity and the environment more broadly. This article engages with this debate and proposes an agricultural research for development agenda in Africa that balances technology transfer with realigning societal values, institutional arrangements, and policy decision-making towards the realization of greater sustainability and inclusive outcomes.

TRANSDISCIPLINARY DEVELOPMENT AND ADOPTION OF IRRIGATION INNOVATIONS IN AFRICA. LINKAGES TO PRINCIPLES OF CAADP: A COMMENTARY

AbstractExpanding arable land under irrigation is cardinal in the quest to attain Africa's aspiration of transforming agriculture and realizing its true value and positive impact on wealth creation, economic growth, food security and nutrition for all. Over the last three to four decades, many initiatives have been designed to harness both small‐ and large‐scale irrigation technologies towards increasing agricultural production and productivity. The EAU4Food (European Union and African Union cooperative research to increase food production in irrigated farming systems in Africa) project was a collaborative project under the EU–African Union Scientific Partnership aimed at enabling the successful adoption and upscaling of appropriate irrigation support innovations. The project applied a transdisciplinary approach to design, test and disseminate innovations across the continent. The project was designed to gain better insights vis‐à‐vis how the innovation process can be enhanced, and to share insights for supporting the implementation of national agricultural development programmes and strategies conceived within the context of the Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme (CAADP) framework. This note highlights linkages between the CAADP framework and the EAU4Food project and suggests some future areas of attention on Africa's agenda for enhanced agricultural production, facilitated under the auspices of CAADP. © 2020 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Corporate Social Responsibility and Economic Globalization: Mainstreaming Sustainable Development Goals into the AfCFTA Discourse

There is a widely held belief that a borderless global economy brings numerous advantages including economic growth, development and welfare maximization. Globalization equally drives (and is driven by the activities of) large corporations involved in cross border operations. While corporate social responsibility (CSR) is a tool with which integrated developed economies ensure corporate behaviours remain within public interest confines, the regional integration agenda in Africa appears focused on liberalization of trade and investment at all costs. This article examines CSR in regional integration discourse, especially within the European Union, extracting important lessons for the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA). It unifies the ultimate agenda of both CSR and African regionalism in achieving sustainable development. Advising against misconstruing CSR as an unnecessary trade barrier, the article demonstrates why and how CSR values can be mainstreamed into AfCFTA discourse towards ensuring inclusive growth in Africa and improving the global competitiveness of domestic businesses. AfCFTA, Africa, CSR, Corporate Responsibility, Regional Integration, Sustainable Development Goals, Trade Liberalization.

Corporate Strategy for Medium Scale Manufacturing Enterprises in Kenya

Sustainable Development Goals and Africa Agenda 2063 acknowledges Small and Medium Enterprises as critical in promoting sustainable global economic development. However, most studies on corporate strategy in Kenya have mainly examined micro, small and large enterprises creating a missing middle with inadequate empirical data on medium scale enterprises, including those in the manufacturing sector. Moreover, Kenya’s big four agenda proposes support to the manufacturing sector so as to raise its GDP share to 15 percent by 2022 in support of the realization of Vision 2030. Unfortunately, growth in the manufacturing sector has stagnated at about USD 5 billion for over a decade and continues to lose market share and competitiveness internationally. This study therefore investigated corporate strategy and competitiveness of medium scale manufacturing enterprises in Kenya. Data was collected from 56 senior management staff. Mean responses received in a Likert scale of 1 – 5 for each of the tested item was calculated by summing up all the codes and getting the average of the 56 respondents. This study established MSMEs which are within the SME sector are on average performing below par on issues to do with business strategy. The results show that in 56.1% of the MSMEs, there is a clearly written business unit mission statement (mean response of 4.3). In 54.5% of the firms, the business unit strategy is not adequate in light of competitive pressure (mean response 2.5) and the business unit strategy is not appropriate for exploiting opportunities in the future. In 48.5% of the firms, the business unit strategy is not formulated carefully by all levels of management (mean response 2.7) and there is no clearly developed long term business unit strategy (mean response 2.9). In 39.4% of these firms, the business unit strategy does not adequately reflect the strengths of the business unit (mean response 2.8). The study concluded that lack of an effective business strategy to direct the efforts of human resources in the desired direction would result in inability to realize the set organizational objectives. This means these MSMEs are struggling to operate, manage and improve their businesses efficiency and effectiveness in order to deliver quality products and services consistently and on time. This has a negative effect on MSMEs performance as it implies internal inefficiencies, ineffectiveness and negative bottom line, reduced job opportunities and low contribution to the gross domestic product (GDP) in Kenya. The study recommended that the MSMEs should organise strategic focus workshops and use a combination of Porter’s five force model components to plan, organise and formulate their business strategy mechanism after a comprehensive SWOT analysis. The MSMEs should periodically review their strategy in line with the prevailing competitive pressures using the following criteria to identify crucial strategic issues: (a) The impact they could have on their enterprises, (b) the likelihood that the identified issues would materialize, and (c) the time frame over which they could develop. The number of these issues needs to be limited to a manageable number (three to nine) to enhance the chances of securing the commitment and resources necessary to effectively act on them. The expected study output would be enhanced competitiveness of MSME and realization of Kenya’s vision 2030.

Ideology and Oladele Balogun’s perspective on parenthood and the ‘educated person’

Enormous but undue accentuation has been given to the acquisition of certificates and degrees over competence in Africa. Not only does this expand the gulf between thought and praxis, it also implies the compromised course of knowledge production and reproduction in Africa. As a result of the vegetative and epileptic nature of the development agenda in Africa, there has been as many theories as there are scholars who are seeking theoretical solutions but with almost nothing tangible. Oladele Balogun has shown intellectual concerns over this too but with a plausible panacea. Taking traditional Yoruba culture as his cue, Balogun sees a connection between ‘parenthood’ and traditional Yoruba perception of the ‘educated person’ as crucial elements for human development drive in Africa. While I concede that these in themselves are necessary, I contest their sufficiency. Hence, I add a third category – Ideology.Keywords: Oladele Balogun, Parenthood, Pedagogy, Yoruba, Ideology

Reducing carbon emissions: The role of renewable energy and democracy

Abstract The global economy continues to witness a consistent increase in carbon emissions, making it difficult to achieve the Paris agreement on climate change. To inform policies to mitigate carbon emissions, it is crucial to understand the factors that influence it. While there is a vast literature on the impact of economic growth on carbon emissions, empirical research on the impact of democracy and renewable energy on environmental quality in developing countries remains limited. Therefore, the goal of this paper was to examine the impact of democracy and renewable energy on carbon emissions for 46 sub-Saharan African countries using unbalanced data for the period of 1980–2015. Using an instrumental variable generalised-method of the moment, the study found that democracy and renewable energy reduce carbon emissions. Additionally, foreign direct investment, trade openness, population, and economic growth were the forces behind carbon emissions in sub-Saharan Africa. However, when democracy is accounted for, economic growth turns to reduce carbon emissions. No evidence of Environmental Kuznets curve was found. The results further indicated that the impact of urbanization on carbon emissions is indeterminate. These results are robust when alternative econometric estimation techniques were used. The study further demonstrated that the level of economic development matters when assessing the impact of these variables on carbon emissions. The study, therefore, recommends that democracy and investment in renewable energy should be given priority on Africa agenda to mitigate climate change.

Challenges of local governance institutions on peace building in Africa: empirical insights from southwestern Nigeria

This paper analyses the challenges confronting local governance institutions on peace building strategies using Southwestern Nigeria as a reference point. It puts the challenges of peace building strageies in institutional perspectives and intervening tendencies of foreign agencies in Africa. It examines Lederach’s structural framework under the theoretical discourse as an underlying assumption for peace building challenges. However, primary data were collected and analysed for the empirical insight using Relative Impact Index and content analysis methods. This paper reveals that lack of shared vision (RII = 3.49), finances (RII = 3.34), poor information communication network (RII = 3.26), and deficiency of institutional arrangement (RII = 3.24) are the foremost challenges facing local governance institutions on peace building in South western Nigeria; with greater emphasis on poor value system and non-compliance with traditional customs. It therefore concludes that the peace building strategies are susceptible to unfavourable conditions by activities of governance institutions at the local level. It thus recommends that formal and informal institutions at the local level should share a common vision which will serve as a driving force for the pursuit of peace building agenda in Africa. Keywords: Local Governance, Conflict Resolution, Peace Building, Local Institutions, Peace building Strategies, and Local Governance Institutions

The Current Status of Facilitators in Mobilizing Community Towards Functional Adult Literacy the Case of Oromiya Region West Harerghe Zone Selected Woredas

The overall objective of present proposal is to assess The Role of Facilitators in Community Mobilization Toward Integrated Functional Adult Education The Case of Oromiya Region West Harerghe Zone of MiessoWoreda selected Kebele. The issue of Community Mobilization Toward Integrated Functional Adult Education is the top agenda in Africa. In Ethiopia more recently, the Ministry has placed more emphasis on community mobilization and has undertaken a number of initiatives to better coordinate. There are also strategies and political will which are conducive to mobilize the community toward IFAL program, but still it is not being implemented accordingly. Moreover, Colleges and Universities which are engaged in community mobilization are not working in collaboration with concerned bureaus. In order to accomplish the research project participants were selected from Gorbo and Kayookebele training center of MiessoWoreda. Adult trainers will be selected by simple random sampling techniques. Whereas facilitators will be selected by purposive sampling. After collecting relevant data and analysis and interpretation, the researcher believe that, The research results will provide the essence and more understanding to the responsible bodies so that it contributes its own part on mobilizing the nearby community towards IFALP and achieving the Growth and Transformation Plan. More importantly study will be used as an input for interested researchers in the field to understand how facilitators are play a role in mobilizing community toward IFAL program in MiessoWoreda Keywords: Adult Education Boards and Technical Committee, Community Facilitators, Functional Adult Literacy, Mobilization, Status….. DOI : 10.7176/JCSD/48-03 Publication date :May 31 st 2019

Mass-Mediated Feminist Scholarship failure in Africa: Normalised Body-Objectification as Artificial Intelligence (AI)

Mass media culture and its role in defining, inculcating and shaping sexual orientation of a society cannot be gainsaid. In this paper, the mass-mediated western feminist scholarship failure in Africa is interrogated in the wake of Sex Robots such as ‘Samantha.’ The argument is that these sex robots function to normalise woman body objectification. The study aims to anchor on Pan African project perspective and the ontological formulation of the African woman as human-being deserving her voice concerning her experiences with patriarchal social structures. The mass media, in its romanticisation of western feminist scholarship denies African woman this voice. There are four fundamental questions central to this paper: 1) what are the epistemological foundations of western feminist scholarship in patriarchal Africa? 2) What is the political economy of western feminist scholarship in sex robotics in Africa? 3) Can sex robots fill the western-feminist-scholarship-born inorganic sexist relation in Africa? And 4) what alternative framework is fit for African woman transformation and emancipation project? The study analyses the feminist scholarship from the past, present and future to give possible solutions to challenges and failures of the strategy toward woman emancipation and transformative agenda in Africa and the developing world.