Development In West Africa Research Articles

Urbanisation and development in West Africa: Challenges and policy implications.

The West African sub-region is experiencing a sprout in urbanisation. Although it is adjudged the second slowest growing region in Africa, its rate of urban growth is still quite high by world standards. In 1960, the urban component of the region was estimated to be only 19.6 percent, but in 2000 it had grown to 40.7 percent (UNCHS, 1996). Is this fast pace of urban growth synonymous with socio-economic development in the region as is seen elsewhere? Unfortunately, this is not so. Rather, urban conditions and infrastructure remain parlous with abject poverty, illegal and ghetto settlements, poor communication and accessibility; ineffectual electricity water and sanitation refuse disposal and housing services. There are peculiarities and factors that drive the urbanisation process. This contribution tries to find meaning for the seemingly intractable developmental nexus vis-à-vis rapid urbanisation within the sub region. Some policy options are proffered as sustainable alternatives to obviate this anomalous state of affairs. LWATI: A Journal of Contemporary Research Vol.3 () 2006: pp.265-283

Corporate Legitimacy and Advertising: British Companies and the Rhetoric of Development in West Africa, 1950–1970

Development, modernity, and industrialization became dominant themes in corporate advertising in Africa in the 1950s and remained prevalent through the following two decades while many African nations were gaining independence. British businesses operating there created a publicity strategy that couched their presence in less developed countries in terms of a commitment and a positive contribution to the progress of the new states. Eventually, British companies tried to “Africanize” their corporate image through these campaigns.

The British and curriculum development in West Africa: A historical discourse

THE BRITISH AND CURRICULUM DEVELOPMENT IN WEST AFRICA: A HISTORICAL STUDY – Only recently have African nations begun to make their way towards establishing genuinely autonomous education systems incorporating elements of indigenous culture. The present study examines the historical development of curriculum in British West Africa in its links with the educational activities of the early Christian missionaries and the imposition of British colonial rule. For over 300 years, the curriculum content was essentially European in nature. African interests and cultural practices were largely excluded, as “bookwork” was favored over “handwork”. The colonial curriculum also helped introduce a new social order to West Africa, leading to the rise of new local elites reading, writing, and speaking foreign European languages. This study explores how the idea of a “civilized” person, promoted through the colonial school curriculum, developed new local elites with different sets of values and expectations that often made them strangers in their own societies. It also describes the connection between this curriculum and the repeated failure of education-reform efforts.

An introduction to this special section—West Africa

In November 2002, THE LEADING EDGE published a special issue on exploration and development in West Africa. The articles spanned a wide array of topics including regional studies ranging from discussion on structural styles and depositional environments, to field specific interpretations emphasizing seismic analysis and expounding the value of high-quality seismic data as a result of high-resolution acquisition and processing.

Designing an Anglophone University Undergraduate Library Collection for a Francophone West African Environment

SUMMARY In 1997, the Office of West Africa Programs at Georgia State University in Atlanta, Georgia, USA, and the Ministry of Education of Cote d'Ivoire embarked on a venture called Project Link to develop an English-speaking international university in Grand Bassam, Cote d'Ivoire. The mission of the proposed International University for Development in West Africa in Cote d'Ivoire is to offer educational opportunities based on the American Higher Education Model presented in English to Ivorians and other West African students within the West Africa region. The proposed undergraduate university curriculum is designed to offer life-long educational opportunities that appeal to the whole West African region as well as to the prospective students living in and near Grand Bassam, Abidjan, and Yammousoukro. In January 2002, the Agency for Education and Development of Abidjan, one of the sponsors of the international university, invited a group of six specialists from Georgia State University (GSU) to visit the proposed site and work with an Ivorian team of technology and curriculum experts to produce a work plan for the renovation of an existing campus in the scenic coastal town of Grand Bassam about 50 miles east of Abidjan. In addition to recommending physical and technical upgrades to the campus site, the American and Ivorian specialists were to advise AED on the administrative organization of the proposed institution, develop a curriculum model and suggest resources for the university library. This paper will highlight the role of the GSU Collection Development Specialist during the 10-day site visit in January 2002 and provide an update since the 2002 site visit.

Editorial introduction: migration, return and development in West Africa

AbstractThis introductory paper sets the scene for the special issue on transnational migration, return and development in West Africa. It first briefly describes the research programme that gave rise to the papers presented here. Then it sets out the basic parameters of the debate on the relationship between migration, return and development in the West African context, highlighting the crucial role of remittances and the neglected topic of return migration. Although officially recorded remittance flows are not as high in West Africa as they are in some other parts of the world, nevertheless they are seen as a critical input to the development process. Moreover, much remittance income escapes formal banking channels and so is unrecorded. The relevance of the West African case also rests on the high levels of educated, skilled migration from the region, and the potential that such migrants could have for development if they could be persuaded either to return or to invest in development‐related initiatives from abroad. The final section of the paper introduces the papers which make up the theme issue. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Toward a dis-aggregated view of crop–livestock integration in Western Africa

This paper presents a framework for conceptualising crop–livestock integration along four dimensions: space, time, management and ownership. The framework highlights the fact that benefits from crop–livestock interactions can be gained by integration along one, some or all of these dimensions, although the space dimension is particularly important. The implications of four factors—the ‘sustainability imperative’; the human, livestock density relationship; the ‘livestock revolution’; and large-scale tsetse clearance—are then explored in relation to the claim that greater crop–livestock integration should be the basis of agricultural development in West Africa. The conclusion of this analysis is that greater crop–livestock integration is likely to be of interest primarily in ‘middle’ countryside areas with relatively good natural resources.

Action research on leadership for community development in West Africa and North America: A joining of liberation theology and community psychology

AbstractOur purpose is to enhance the field's understanding of the nature of community leadership, the psychological sense of community, and the spiritual dimensions of community life. We describe an action research community development project conducted in a low‐income Catholic parish in Lagos, Nigeria, in Western Africa. After describing the community development process that resulted in the establishment of 40 small/street basic communities (SBCs), we report an evaluation study in which 70 SBC leaders were surveyed regarding (1) SBC background characteristics (socioeconomic and environmental conditions and statistical information), (2) the state of community life in the SBCs (spirit/sense of community, participation in activities, benefits of community life), and (3) challenges for the future (what SBC members and leaders can do to improve the community, problems influencing community development). We then reflect on the Lagos findings in light of leadership‐for‐community and spirituality frameworks developed in an action research project conducted in a Catholic parish in the United States. © 2003 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Briefing: The Chad‐Cameroon petroleum and pipeline development project

THE CHAD-CAMEROON PROJECT is currently the largest single private-sector investment in Africa. Neither its size nor its technical features, however, account for its originality nor for the enormous interest it has aroused. Within the energy industry, the Chad-Cameroon project could be seen as a conventional mid-scale project, part of the current rapid expansion of oil and gas development in West Africa, which stretches from Mauritania to Angola. The plan consists of the following components: In Chad: Three oil fields near to Doba in southern Chad (Kome, Miandoum and Bolobo) Approximately 315 oil wells, with electric pumps (all pipes and lines buried) Two collecting stations and one pumping station Central treatment centre (Kome), producing up to 225,000 barrels p/d of crude

ABSTRACT: Application of Paleogeographic Maps for New Play Development in West Africa

ABSTRACT: Application of Paleogeographic Maps for New Play Development in West Africa

R. Omotayo Olaniyan. Foreign Aid, Self‐Reliance, and Economic Development in West Africa. Westport, Conn.: Praeger, 1996. Pp. xiv+204. $59.95 (cloth).

Previous articleNext article No AccessReviewR. Omotayo Olaniyan. Foreign Aid, Self‐Reliance, and Economic Development in West Africa. Westport, Conn.: Praeger, 1996. Pp. xiv+204. $59.95 (cloth).Heidi WillerHeidi WillerUniversity of Bayreuth Search for more articles by this author University of BayreuthPDFPDF PLUSFull Text Add to favoritesDownload CitationTrack CitationsPermissionsReprints Share onFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditEmail SectionsMoreDetailsFiguresReferencesCited by Economic Development and Cultural Change Volume 50, Number 2January 2002 Article DOIhttps://doi.org/10.1086/322887 Views: 32Total views on this site Permission to reprint a book review printed in this section may be obtained only from the author.PDF download Crossref reports no articles citing this article.

Cultural Issues in Secondary Education Development in West Africa: away from colonial survivals, towards neocolonial influences?

The urban areas of Ghana and Côte d'Ivoire (Ivory Coast) have become sites for cultural and educational convergence, as well as the reproduction of the élite as a class, far more than the rural areas. The urban secondary schools in cities such as Accra and Cape Coast in Ghana, and the lycées in Abidjan, Côte d'Ivoire, serve as sites for the realization of these goals. Here, the cultural pull and push factors arising from West Africa's 'triple cultural heritage' that is African, EuroChristian and Islamic have placed considerable strain and stress on secondary school students and secondary education as a whole. This situation has been further complicated in recent years by the interplay of cultural pull and push factors emanating from the West, especially Britain, France and the United States. This complicated postcolonial condition with its implications for nation-building and development in Ghana and Côte d'Ivoire constitutes the subject of analysis in this article. It is argued that the cultural pull and push factors and the forces of globalization emerging from the West tend to move secondary education and secondary school students in both countries towards neocolonial influences.

Cultural Issues in Secondary Education Development in West Africa: Away from colonial survivals, towards neocolonial influences?

The urban areas of Ghana and Côte d'Ivoire (Ivory Coast) have become sites for cultural and educational convergence, as well as the reproduction of the élite as a class, far more than the rural areas. The urban secondary schools in cities such as Accra and Cape Coast in Ghana, and the lycées in Abidjan, Côte d'Ivoire, serve as sites for the realization of these goals. Here, the cultural pull and push factors arising from West Africa's 'triple cultural heritage' that is African, EuroChristian and Islamic have placed considerable strain and stress on secondary school students and secondary education as a whole. This situation has been further complicated in recent years by the interplay of cultural pull and push factors emanating from the West, especially Britain, France and the United States. This complicated postcolonial condition with its implications for nation-building and development in Ghana and Côte d'Ivoire constitutes the subject of analysis in this article. It is argued that the cultural pull and push factors and the forces of globalization emerging from the West tend to move secondary education and secondary school students in both countries towards neocolonial influences.

Cocoa Development in West Africa: The Early Period with Particular Reference to Ghana

Cocoa Development in West Africa: The Early Period with Particular Reference to Ghana

The Politics of Educational Borrowing: Reopening the Case of Achimota in British Ghana

Reflexion theorique sur Achimota, symbole du transfert pedagogique effectue entre les Etats-Unis, l'education industrielle des africains americains et le continent africain. Les auteurs reflechissent a la raison de ce transfert et aussi au mode d'implementation et de realisation du transfert en fonction des contextes economiques, geographiques et historiques.

Quaternary climate and landscape development in West Africa: evidence from satellite images

Quaternary climate and landscape development in West Africa: evidence from satellite images

Contraintes structurelles, politiques nationales et coopération régionale: déterminants des échanges entre les pays d'Afrique de l'Ouest?

ABSTRACT Since 1993, the prospects of intraregional trade in West Africa have been the subject of much debate. On the one hand, Foroutan and Pritchett (1993) explain the low level of trade between sub-Saharan African countries by structural factors; on the other hand, Naudet (1993) shows that trade growth potential is important between West African countries. This debate is even more important because the seven countries that form the UEMOA have reasserted their willingness to strengthen their economic relationship in January 1994. This article tries through highlights of the different determinants of intraregional trade to show that effective regional cooperation is an important factor to promote trade between developing countries, and to determine why and how the UEMOA could be the cornerstone of sustainable development in West Africa.

Foreign Aid, Self-Reliance, and Economic Development in West Africa

Foreign Aid, Self-Reliance, and Economic Development in West Africa

SAPs and development in west Africa

SAPs and development in west Africa

Book Review: Foreign aid, Self-Reliance and Economic Development in West Africa

Book Review: Foreign aid, Self-Reliance and Economic Development in West Africa