East African Context Research Articles

Cell phone usage among adolescents in Uganda: acceptability for relaying health information

The increase in cell phone use has manifested a growing interest in using this technology for health promotion. The portability and 'always on' features of the cell phone, along with increasing capability for the devices to carry and transfer data suggest that they will reach more people than computers and the Internet in coming years. Self-reported quantitative survey data from 1503 secondary school students in Mbarara, Uganda collected in 2008-2009 suggest that 27% currently have cell phones and about half (51%) of all students and 61% of those who owned a cell phone believe that they would access a text messaging-based HIV prevention program if it were available. Other forms of program delivery modality (e.g. Internet, religious organizations, schools) were preferred to text messaging however. We are in need of effective HIV prevention programs that can reach large audiences at low cost and are culturally relevant for the East African context. Researchers are encouraged to consider translation of effective HIV prevention programs for cell phone delivery in Africa.

Advancing the Structural Use of Earth-based Bricks: Addressing Key Challenges in the East African Context

The research discussed in this paper is a subset of a bigger, NSF funded research project that is directed at investigating the use of sustainable building materials. The deployment context for the research is the hot and humid climate using selected cases from the East African region. The overarching goal for the research is advancing the structural use of earth-based technologies. Significant strides can be made through developing strategies for countering the adverse factors that affect the structural performance of the resulting wall, especially ones related to moisture dynamics. The research was executed in two phases. The first phase was a two-day NSF supported workshop which was held in Tanzania in July 2009. It provided a forum for sharing best practices in earth-based building technologies and developing a research and development roadmap. The priority research areas were broadly classified as optimizing the physio-mechanical properties of earth as a building material and managing socio-cultural impediments. In the second phase of the research, the authors collaborated with researchers from East Africa to conduct experimental work on the optimization of physio-mechanical properties. The specific research issues that have been addressed are: (1) characterizing the chemical reactions that can be linked to deterioration triggered by hygrothermal loads based on the hot and humid context, and; (2) developing a prototype for a simpler, portable, affordable and viable compressed brick production machine. The paper discusses the results from the characterization work that ultimately will be used to design bricks that have specific properties based on an understanding of how different stabilizers affect the hydration process. It also describes a cheaper, portable and more efficient prototype machine that has been developed as part of the follow-up research activities.

The role of international environmental instruments in enhancing transboundary marine protected areas: An approach in East Africa

Abstract The increasing degradation of marine ecosystems has led to multiple calls for greater protection through the establishment of marine protected areas (MPAs). If created at the ecosystem or ecoregion level, MPAs will likely straddle maritime boundaries and therefore necessitate international cooperation. International environmental law and international law of the sea may facilitate cooperation between States in creating transboundary MPAs. The extent to which this body of law is actually or potentially useful for the establishment of transboundary MPAs is examined in the context of the East African Marine Ecoregion, focusing on Mozambique, South Africa, and Tanzania. A general survey and assessment of the applicable global, regional, and bilateral instruments in relation to the three States is conducted. Although some global instruments are relevant in the East African context, regional and bilateral instruments are more conducive to the establishment of transboundary MPAs. The article concludes that although a trilateral agreement between Mozambique, South Africa, and Tanzania would be an ideal vehicle for the establishment of a transboundary network of MPAs addressing both national and ecoregional conservation interests, a separate solution at each border will be the first step towards this goal.

Validation Process for a Social Entrepreneurial Telemedicine Venture in East Africa

Mashavu (“chubby-cheeked” in Swahili) is a telemedicine system that connects medical professionals around the world with people in developing communities in East Africa. Mashavu kiosks are computer-based systems that collect medical information including weight, body temperature, lung capacity, pulse rate, blood pressure, stethoscope rhythms, photographs and basic hygiene and nutrition information. Mashavu kiosks transmit this information over a cell-phone link to a secure Internet website. Medical professionals and public health officials can view the patient’s information and respond to the person/operator and the nearest doctor(s) with recommendations. An imperative part of complex product design, especially when working in international contexts, is to gain validation. Validation ensures that the product being designed accurately fits the needs of the population for which it is being designed. The Mashavu team used methodologies from the world of engineering, business, and the social sciences to validate the concept, business plan, technology and usability of the system. This paper discusses the Mashavu venture and the methodologies employed for getting validation and uncovering the "sticky" information related to the East African context that is critical to the design and commercialization of the Mashavu telemedicine system.

Re-inventing the Future: Linkages between Human Rights, Foreign Policy and Regional Integration:

This paper raises questions concerning the emerging trends of regional and international relations. In this endeavour, it examines new insights from traditional perspectives. The paper explores the outer contours of the conceptual linkages between human rights, foreign policy and regional integration in the East African context. Its central argument is that the major debates in the discipline of international relations a re ultimatelycontroversies about its theoretical basis. Key Words: international relations, human rights, foreign policy, regional integration, East Africa.

Establishing a transboundary network of marine protected areas: Diplomatic and management options for the east African context

Abstract International conservation efforts and cooperation are increasingly necessary, particularly at an ecoregion level, for the achievement of international targets for protecting biodiversity and degradation of ecosystems. Whereas more than 11 percent of land is protected, less than 1 percent of marine space is similarly protected. Transboundary networks of marine protected areas and transboundary marine protected areas (TBMPAs) are an essential form of cooperation for meeting these international targets. This paper explores the diplomatic and political options for regional and sub-regional cooperation between Tanzania, Mozambique, and South Africa, for the establishment of transboundary conservation mechanisms in the Eastern African Marine Ecoregion (EAME). Five options for the establishment and management of these mechanisms are presented, together with actions to be taken to facilitate cooperation. The paper deal with a proposed strategy for the implementation of transboundary conservation mechanisms, focusing on TBMPAs, between the three countries at a biogeographical/sub-regional level, supported by lessons learnt in other transboundary marine conservation experiences. The paper concludes that although political will may exist among States sharing borders to establish TBMPAs, the complexity of dealing with sub-regional realities is a difficult obstacle to overcome in a single step. The situation at each border must be taken into account in order that different multi-scale and multivariate solutions, supported by a common baseline will ultimately converge in a common trilateral framework. Finally, a two-step approach seems to be in course with the declaration (October 2009) of a TBMPA linking Ponta do Ouro in Mozambique to iSimangaliso Wetland Park in South Africa, following one of the options formerly presented.

Between journalism universals and cultural particulars: challenges facing the development of a journalism programme in an East African context

One of the main dilemmas facing journalism education across Africa is whether one can argue for a universal set of journalistic standards while at the same time maintaining a culturally sensitive journalism practice. Underlying the dilemma is the question of whether there is a need to identify an African journalism philosophy that is normatively different from its Western counterpart. In light of a newly started MA programme in journalism at Addis Ababa University, Ethiopia, this article argues that rather than seeing journalistic practices as a negotiation between journalism universals and cultural particulars they ought to be seen as the interplay between the two. Following this argument, the article calls for a rethinking and distinction of the roles of conventional news media and alternative media.

Between journalism universals and cultural particulars: challenges facing the development of a journalism programme in an East African context

Between journalism universals and cultural particulars: challenges facing the development of a journalism programme in an East African context

Hominin Environments in the East African Pliocene: An Assessment of the Faunal Evidence

This volume grew out of two workshops (Tempe, Ariz., in 2003, and Washington, D.C., in 2004) that brought together scientists who have explored the East African environmental context during the millions of years in which hominins—including our ancestors—evolved. The community of people doing this kind of work is relatively small, in part because it requires long intervals of walking under a tropical Sun looking for outcrops that contain suitable numbers of fossils.Few sites are excavated because the density of fossil remains in undisturbed sedimentary rock is usually too low to make such an effort worthwhile. Nature comes to the fossil hunter's aid by concentrating bones in sites favored by erosion. The most promising of these sites are then explored by surface grid surveys that carefully document the overall context in which the fossils occur, in order to determine the physical (sedimentary), geochemical, and biotic processes that left the deposits. In the end, this meticulous work yields vital clues to critical questions: When and where did our species evolve? And how?

Building enabling conditions for integrated coastal management at the national scale in Tanzania

Applying the orders of outcome framework introduced by Olsen et al. (Crafting Coastal Governance in a Changing World, The Coastal Resources Center, Narragansett, 2003, 376pp.), this article describes how the Tanzania Coastal Management Partnership (TCMP) built the enabling conditions necessary to establish a national integrated coastal management (ICM) program in Tanzania. The article shows how the TCMP created a nested governance system that features partnering with national and district government agencies, local ICM programs, scientists and non-governmental organizations (NGOs). The article introduces the regional East African context and local Tanzanian context for coastal management—contexts that have provided strong roots for ICM in Tanzania, and a body of experience on which to construct a national ICM program. The article outlines the key management strategies used by the TCMP to create enabling conditions for a national ICM program, describes how the national ICM Strategy was approved, and finally presents the key outcomes seen by the Partnership by early 2004.

South Asian Nationalism in an East African Context: The Case of Tanganyika, 1914–1956

South Asian Nationalism in an East African Context: The Case of Tanganyika, 1914–1956

Exporting accounting education to East Africa - squaring the circle

A number of issues associated with exporting accounting education to East Africa are explored. There are four main themes, all of which relate to proper identification of needs. It is argued that the East African context is all-important and that programmes must be designed in the light of that context. However, programmes will be successful only if three other factors are in place. It is essential that those delivering a programme learn from their experiences since the nature of the needs are such that issues will arise which could not have been foreseen. It is necessary-whatever the original intention-for programmes to be more than simply training programmes: there must be a distinct educational dimension to them. It is very important that those delivering a programme avoid imposing values on the participants in circumstances which are very different to those encountered in the 'developed' countries.

Resource utilization, property rights and welfare—Wildlife and the local people

The paper analyses the conflict between wildlife conservation and the costs and benefits obtained from it in an East African context. In the model there are two agents: a park agency managing a national park of fixed size and a group of agropastoralists living in the vicinity of the park. The park authority produces tourism services and sells hunting licences, whereas the agropastoralists produce livestock products. Wildlife and livestock interact with each other and wildlife is a nuisance for livestock production. The conflict is analysed under different market solutions as the agropastoralists, to various degrees, are given profit shares from the park activities. It is demonstrated that a market solution where they are given property rights in the form of a fixed share of the harvesting profit, will increase the nuisance on their production and therefore generally give no clear welfare gain for the local people. On the other hand, if they also receive a profit share from the tourist activity above that of the hunting benefit, the nuisance from the roaming wildlife will decrease as this scheme gives incentives for the park manager to increase the offtake and thereby decrease the wildlife stock in the long term. There will therefore be more livestock and a clear welfare gain for the agropastoralists compared to the situation where they have no property rights. Under certain conditions, the stock sizes will also be closer to what is optimal from an overall point of view.

Wildlife management, land-use and conflicts

ABSTRACTThe paper analyses the conflict between wildlife conservation and its accompanying land-use in an East African context. In the model there are two agents. First, there is an agency managing the wildlife and the habitat of the wildlife, which is referred to as parkland. On the other hand, there is the group of agro-pastoralists living in the vicinity of the wildlife habitat, whose land-use is referred to as rangelands. The parkland is used for tourism production and hunting, while the rangelands are used for agro-pastoral production. Both agents will find it beneficial to expand their land-use, so there is a land-use conflict. This is analysed in two steps. First, social optimality is studied; then we study the utilization of the wildlife and its accompanying land-use when there is no unified resource policy and the park agency follows its self-interest. The effects on the two different management schemes of changing economic conditions, such as the recommendations of the CITES convention and a programme subsidizing agro-pastoral production, are discussed.

Wildlife management, illegal hunting and conflicts. A bioeconomic analysis

ABSTRACTThe paper analyzes the conflict between illegal and legal exploitation of wildlife species in an East African context. In the model there are two agents, an agency managing a national park of fixed area and a group of local people living in the vicinity of the park. The park agency has the legal right to exploit the wildlife, while the local people hunt illegally. Because of the property rights, the park agency has incentives to invest in the stock of wildlife, while the behaviour of the local people is steered by short-term considerations. The model is analyzed in two steps. Firstly, the market solution is studied. Next, the model is examined when user and property rights are given to the local people.

On the conflicts of wildlife management in Africa

SUMMARY The paper analyses the conflict between wildlife conservation and the costs and benefits obtained from it in an East African context. A well defined agency is managing a national park of fixed area. Wildlife is also assumed to be ‘owned’ by the park authority. The park owner has therefore economic incentives to conserve the wildlife. The management policy, however, does not take into account the damage caused to the production of the agropastoralists living in the proximity of the park by the wildlife roaming freely in and out of the park. The conflict is first analysed in a one-species framework. Next, the model is extented to a two-species framework where the species compete for grazing lands.

Dominant Languages in a Plural Society: English and Kiswahili in Post-Colonial East Africa

Within the regional constellation of languages in East Africa English and Kiswahili have been the most influential trans-ethnic languages. The sociopolitical dynamics of these languages, however, have varied from one country to another along three interrelated parameters: (1) the confluence of indigenous, Islamic and Western traditions; (2) the divide, in power relations, between imperial, hegemonic and preponderant languages; and (3) the difference in the sociolinguistic values of sentiment and instrumentality. In this interaction of social forces the languages have played complementary and competitive roles and have acquired both convergent and divergent functions. As the East African multilingual context continues to favor a state of polylingualism, English and Kiswahili have been struggling for greater legitimacy, the former by getting increas ingly localized and the latter by seeking universalist credentials.

Government and Rural Development in East Africa: Essays on Political Penetration

I. Introduction 'Penetration' and the East African Context.- The Concept of Political Penetration.- 'Penetration' and Rural Development in the East African Context.- II. The Colonial Legacy and the Dynamics of Political Control.- Teso in Transformation: colonial penetration in Teso District, Eastern Uganda, and its contemporary significance.- Local Participation in National Politics: Ugugo, Tanzania.- The Legitimacy of the Uganda Government in Buganda.- III. Institutions and Strategies for Rural Development.- Creating and Expanding Organizations for Rural Development.- Economics, Incentives and Development Penetration.- Leadership and Institutions for Rural Development: a case study of Nzega District.- IV. District Politics and Rural Transformation.- Promoting Agrarian Change: penetration and response in Murang'a, Kenya.- Political Engineering and Social Change: a case study of Bukoba District, Tanzania.- Improving Nutrition in Bukedi District, Uganda.- V. The Dynamics of Rural Societies.- Staff Kulaks and Peasants: a study of a political field.- The Social Structure of the Agricultural Extension Services in the Western Province of Kenya.- Legitimacy and Coercion in Bena Politics and Development.- A Low Status Group in Centre-Periphery Relations: Mbai Sya Eitu.- VI. Conclusion.- Recurring Penetration Strategies in East Africa.

Fuel and power in Tanzania

Tanzania is a typical, poor African country, having barely developed commercial resources of fuel and power. This article outlines, in an East African context, what is known of these resources and the plans which exist for their development.