Mechanisms In Africa Research Articles

Overcoming ambiguities in war on terror mechanisms in Africa: Acknowledging Africa is not a country

Overcoming ambiguities in war on terror mechanisms in Africa: Acknowledging Africa is not a country

The genome and transcriptome of the snail Biomphalaria sudanica s.l.: immune gene diversification and highly polymorphic genomic regions in an important African vector of Schistosoma mansoni.

Control and elimination of schistosomiasis is an arduous task, with current strategies proving inadequate to break transmission. Exploration of genetic approaches to interrupt Schistosoma mansoni transmission, the causative agent for human intestinal schistosomiasis in sub-Saharan Africa and South America, has led to genomic research of the snail vector hosts of the genus Biomphalaria. Few complete genomic resources exist, with African Biomphalaria species being particularly underrepresented despite this being where the majority of S. mansoni infections occur. Here we generate and annotate the first genome assembly of Biomphalaria sudanica sensu lato, a species responsible for S. mansoni transmission in lake and marsh habitats of the African Rift Valley. Supported by whole-genome diversity data among five inbred lines, we describe orthologs of immune-relevant gene regions in the South American vector B. glabrata and present a bioinformatic pipeline to identify candidate novel pathogen recognition receptors (PRRs). De novo genome and transcriptome assembly of inbred B. sudanica originating from the shoreline of Lake Victoria (Kisumu, Kenya) resulted in a haploid genome size of ~ 944.2Mb (6,728 fragments, N50 = 1.067Mb), comprising 23,598 genes (BUSCO = 93.6% complete). The B. sudanica genome contains orthologues to all described immune genes/regions tied to protection against S. mansoni in B. glabrata, including the polymorphic transmembrane clusters (PTC1 and PTC2), RADres, and other loci. The B. sudanica PTC2 candidate immune genomic region contained many PRR-like genes across a much wider genomic region than has been shown in B. glabrata, as well as a large inversion between species. High levels of intra-species nucleotide diversity were seen in PTC2, as well as in regions linked to PTC1 and RADres orthologues. Immune related and putative PRR gene families were significantly over-represented in the sub-set of B. sudanica genes determined as hyperdiverse, including high extracellular diversity in transmembrane genes, which could be under pathogen-mediated balancing selection. However, no overall expansion in immunity related genes was seen in African compared to South American lineages. The B. sudanica genome and analyses presented here will facilitate future research in vector immune defense mechanisms against pathogens. This genomic/transcriptomic resource provides necessary data for the future development of molecular snail vector control/surveillance tools, facilitating schistosome transmission interruption mechanisms in Africa.

Animal traction, two-wheel tractors, or four-wheel tractors? A best-fit approach to guide farm mechanization in Africa

Summary Farm mechanization promises to help raise labor productivity and reduce the heavy toil of farming on the world’s millions of smallholder farms, hence contributing to socioeconomic development in the Global South, in particular in Africa. While mechanization is therefore high on the African development agenda, there are heavy – at times dogmatic – debates on which technological pathway toward farm mechanization – animal traction, two-wheel tractors, and four-wheel tractors – should be supported by African governments and development partners. One discussion area relates to the future of animal traction. Proponents see a continued scope for the use of draught animals, whereas opponents see animal traction as old-fashioned and see a potential to leapfrog this mechanization stage. There are also debates on the potential of two-wheel tractors, with proponents arguing that such walk-behind tractors are more affordable and suitable for smallholder farmers, and opponents believing that such tractors lack efficiency and power and still come with a high drudgery. This paper argues that there are no blueprint answers on which technological pathway is ‘best’ but only answers on which one ‘best fits’ the respective conditions. Based on this premise, this paper introduces a ‘best-fit’ framework that allows for assessing the comparative advantages and disadvantages of the three technological pathways in different agroecological and socioeconomic conditions. The results suggest that all three forms of mechanization are associated with areas where they ‘best fit’. All three farm mechanization pathways hinge on public policies and investments to create an enabling environment for private markets, as, ultimately, innovation processes should be market driven. The ‘best-fit’ framework enables governments and development partners to focus efforts to support farm mechanization on solutions that ‘best fit’ their country’s farming systems and not on those that are politically most attractive, thereby contributing to sustainable agricultural mechanization and development.

AGRICULTURAL MECHANIZATION STATUS IN AFRICA: AN OVERVIEW

One of the key aspirations of Agenda 2063 on the Africa we want is to consolidate the modernization of African agriculture and agro-businesses. Use of mechanical technologies which are both labour saving and directly increase yields and production is the most appropriate way of sustaining increased food production. It is therefore important that an appropriate technology, technology that is socially acceptable, economically viable and technically feasible, is selected for specific prevailing condition. Sub-Saharan Africa remains the region in the world with the lowest power usage (manual, animal and mechanical) and the lowest level of farm mechanization. In SSA the general average number of tractors is about 28 tractors per 1 000 ha whereas it is about 241 tractors in other regions. In order to enhance mechanization in Africa, governments have to place more emphasis on the development of small-scale farmers, support and encourage the existing advanced and successful commercial farming sector, provide in-service training for extension officers, artisans and other entrepreneurs to improve their understanding of the different power and mechanization options available to farmers and to expose them to new technologies and opportunities as well as strengthening input supply networks and promote the manufacturing base on agricultural operations and processing technologies.

Classification of flood-generating processes in Africa

River flooding has large societal and economic impacts across Africa. Despite the importance of this topic, little is known about the main flood generating mechanisms in Africa. This study is based on 13,815 flood events that occurred between 1981 and 2018 in 529 catchments. These flood events are classified to identify the different flood drivers: excess rains, long rains and short rains. Out of them, excess rains on saturated soils in Western Africa, and long rains for catchments in Northern and Southern Africa, are the two dominant mechanisms, contributing to more than 75% of all flood events. The aridity index is strongly related to the spatial repartition of the different flood generating processes showing the climatic controls on floods. Few significant changes were detected in the relative importance of these drivers over time, but the rather short time series available prevent a robust assessment of flood driver changes in most catchments. The major implication of these results is to underline the importance of soil moisture dynamics, in addition to rainfall, to analyze the evolution of flood hazards in Africa.

The quest for influence: Examining Russia’s public diplomacy mechanisms in Africa

ABSTRACT This article examines Russian public diplomacy mechanisms in Africa. These include the intentional use of historical ties, various aid programmes in education and health, the targeted use of international broadcasting and digital media, and the exploitation of anti-Western sentiments on the continent. Russia employs these to win the hearts and minds of African publics for its national interest. The article first explores Moscow’s public diplomacy in general and analyses the challenges Russia faces in Africa, which has become a ‘dumping ground’ for public diplomacy campaigns by the US, the EU and its members, the UK, and China. The article argues that Russia’s public diplomacy in Africa is state-centric with little or no civil society involvement. This makes its message appear incredible. The article concludes that Russian public diplomacy efforts in Africa have intensified anti-Western sentiments in African countries where Moscow’s presence is strong.

Animal traction, two-wheel tractors, or four-wheel tractors? A best-fit approach to guide farm mechanization in Africa

Animal traction, two-wheel tractors, or four-wheel tractors? A best-fit approach to guide farm mechanization in Africa

Challenges of accreditation in an African university: reflections from the Eduardo Mondlane University, in Mozambique

ABSTRACT As elsewhere in Africa, Mozambique established, during the 2000s, a national higher education quality assurance system to cope with the country’s rapid expansion of higher education. In 2014, the national quality assurance agency began the accreditation process. From 2015 to 2020, the Eduardo Mondlane University (UEM), the country’s oldest and largest public university, has accredited about 30 academic programmes. Based on UEM’s case and on reflection-in-action and reflection-on-action, this article examines the challenges of accreditation in Mozambique and in Africa. The reflection focuses on challenges related to the process and instruments, organisational setting, resources and policy and impact of accreditation. These challenges suggest that, alongside establishing quality assurance mechanisms in Africa, attention should also be paid to identifying and dealing with challenges constraining or facilitating implementation of these mechanisms, particularly if quality assurance systems are intended to improve the quality of institutions and make them accountable.

Introduction to the Special Issue: A Human Security Perspective to the 2018 Revitalized ARCSS and Beyond

Introduction to the Special Issue: A Human Security Perspective to the 2018 Revitalized ARCSS and Beyond Francis Onditi (bio) INTRODUCTION This special issue is dedicated to a departed colleague and an eminent scholar: Prof. Samson Wassara. Samson sadly passed away on December 29, 2020. It was difficult to believe that Samson had left us. When a friend, colleague, or relative departs from this world, a vacuum is created, and those left behind seek to answer the “why now” question. However, certain situations will inevitably elude us. In any case, humans are not obliged to know everything that happens in the universe. A year earlier, we had finalized a High-Level Experts’ Seminar in Juba organized by the Government of South Sudan and the UNDP, November 5–6, 2019. Samson was the lead expert on this seminar. The purpose of the seminar was to review the six sections of the 2018 revitalized agreement and recommend possible policy options to the government of South Sudan and other key stakeholders.1 The idea to develop a special issue emerged out of that seminar. When I mentioned to Samson my intent to put together a special issue focused on the outcome of the seminar, he was supportive of the idea and flagged it off immediately after the seminar. This special issue focuses on human [End Page 1] security and institutionalism within the context of the 2018 revitalized ARCSS (Agreement on the Resolution of the Conflict in the Republic of South Sudan) and beyond. Samson was particularly passionate about institutionalism as a branch of political science. On this note, I fully agree with Samson’s refutation of power-sharing as an institutional prescription to Africa’s conflict problems. But what he offers as an alternative presents yet another puzzle. For he constructs a strategy for equitable distribution of resources among those he calls “civilian groups who did not take up arms” (Wassara 2019, 113). Thus, this prescription is obviously inclined to disfavor the military and political elites. As such, his analysis presents certain conceptual and practical difficulties in resolving conflict, particularly in complex environments such as South Sudan. He views conflict resolution from a political system perspective. In fact, he equates political systems with state-building. This is understandable, as it comes from a political scientist of his stature. However, political systems are all pervasive and tend to be misconstrued as power-sharing and territorial entitlements. In this special issue, I submit that state-building and sustainable peace should be viewed from a human security perspective—as an all-inclusive phenomenon—because what we see as separate processes of peacebuilding (economic reforms, safety and security, security sector reforms, political arrangement, humanitarian assistance, mediation, and realignment of territorial boundaries) are in fact interrelated aspects of the process of conflict transformation and state-building. The notion of state-building for South Sudan preoccupied Samson’s mind and spirit.2 He was generous and a good steward and left us far too soon. The South Sudanese scientific community is grateful for his legacy and contribution to the field of political science and to the people of South Sudan. I first came to know Samson Wassara in 2016, when he was transitioning from the Bahr el-Ghazal University in Wau, South Sudan, where he had held the position of Vice Chancellor from 2014. Later on, we both participated in the 2019 African Unity for Renaissance Conference organized by the Human Sciences Research Council (HSRC) in South Africa. Samson and I published together in different scholarly platforms and on multiple occasions; he was generous in sharing his time to peer review and write prologues. In 2019, he was kind enough to write a foreword for my book, Conflictology: Systems, Institutions and Mechanisms in Africa. As a tribute, I would like to dedicate this special issue to a topic Samson Wassara wrote about in his final days: “Why conflict in South Sudan and Somalia is beyond prevention and management” (Wassara 2019). I and Prof. Cheryl Hendricks formerly of the HSRC, Pretoria, [End Page 2] edited this volume. In the article he contributed, Samson calls for an interdisciplinary approach in addressing institutional weaknesses in conflict-protracted countries. He opines that many times...

Survival of the Richest, not the Fittest: How attempts to improve governance impact African small-scale marine fisheries

The sustainable use of fisheries resources is a priority of the African Union in developing the Blue Economy (BE). Growing global demand for seafood has attracted diverse actors to African waters, including Distant Water Fishing Nations (DWFNs) fleets. Complex fisheries governance challenges, unsustainable rates of fishing and rising fisheries-related crimes have ensued. To reverse these impacts, some African states are deploying various fisheries governance mechanisms. Drawing on extensive expert experiences, the review of literature, fisheries databases, international and regional agency reports, NGO and government reports and case studies from West and East Africa, we demonstrate two critical findings. First, fisheries governance mechanisms in Africa act largely to constrain small-scale fisheries (SSF) while failing to contain the industrial fisheries sector, resulting in the marginalisation of the SSF. Secondly, despite a higher incidence of Illegal, Unreported and Unregulated (IUU) fishing in industrial fisheries than the SSF, fisheries governance mechanisms continue to advance the 'Survival of the Richest' – the industrial sector, to the detriment of the 'Fittest' – the SSF. The SSF supports millions of jobs and is better adapted to meet the continents' nutrition and socio-economic security. For the fisheries sector to contribute to the sustainable development of Africans, states must redirect governance towards regulating the industrial sector, emphasising equitable access for the SSF whilst prioritising ecological sustainability.

Climate change and small-scale agriculture in Africa: Does indigenous knowledge matter? Insights from Kenya and South Africa

Africa is highly vulnerable to changes in global climatic conditions due to its low adaptive capacity and sensitivity to changes in climatic variables, particularly in the agricultural sector. A key attribute of studies on climate change coping strategies and adaptation mechanisms in Africa is that they lack local specificity. Within a discourse dominated by large-scale attempts to measure the extent of climate change and its impacts with methods drawn from physical and biological sciences, there is little focus on how locally-specific knowledge and practices help communities to cope with effects of adverse environmental conditions on their agriculture at the farm level. From a sample of 115 respondents drawn from South Africa and Kenya and through interviews, discussions and interactions, this paper demonstrates that local residents deploy their indigenous knowledge in predicting seasonal weather and rainfall patterns, determining wind speed and direction, preserving grains for planting purposes and various traditional farming support systems to lessen the impacts of climate change on their agricultural activities. The paper concludes that merging local knowledge with modern science in Africa could help develop a syncretic agronomical knowledge amongst farmers in handling climate change.

An Analysis of the Execution of Judgments and Follow-up Mechanism Under the African Court on Human and Peoples’ Rights: Lessons from the European Human Rights System

The African Court is a critical forum under the African human rights system. Under the Protocol which establishes the African Court, member states have an obligation to comply with the court’s judgments and must guarantee their execution. However, states rarely comply with the judgments of this court. In contrast, judgments under the European human rights system are largely complied with. This article analyses and evaluates the monitoring and supervision of the execution of judgments of the African Court and the European Court. It analyses the supervision mechanisms employed by the African Union’s organs such as the Assembly of Heads of State and Government, the Executive Council and the African Court. These monitoring and enforcement mechanisms are compared to the European mechanisms employed by the Committee of Ministers, the European Court, and other bodies like the Parliamentary Assembly. The article contends that the monitoring and supervision mechanisms under the European human rights system are detailed, coherent, well established, specialised and effective as compared to the mechanisms in Africa. In that regard, the article proposes lessons that can be adopted to strengthen the African human rights system.

The Impact of Financial Factors on the After-Sales Service of Agricultural Machinery: A Case Study of Chinese Agricultural Machinery in South Africa

Compared to other countries, the level of agricultural mechanization in Africa and South Africa is relatively low. Among the factors that influence agricultural mechanization, after-sales service of agricultural machinery is among the most significant. On the other hand, financial resources primarily impact on improvement and enhancement of after-sales service of farm equipment. In this paper, a questionnaire was employed as the method of quantitative data collection to assist in the analysis of data from 739 respondents in the Chinese context. Due to the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020 (Mmbengwa & Qin, 2020), no questionnaires were collected from South Africa for the purposes of this paper. A standard multiple regression analysis (MRA) was utilized to analyze the data collected from the structured questionnaires. Evidence from this study suggests that combining these financial resource factors has a major effect (F2 = 0.802) on the after-sales service of farm equipment. The high scores obtained for economic factors and analyzed in this study mean that, to a large extent, these have a major impact on China’s after-sales service for agricultural machinery in South Africa.

Using Community Feedback to Guide the COVID-19 Response in Sub-Saharan Africa: Red Cross and Red Crescent Approach and Lessons Learned from Ebola.

Risk communication and community engagement are critical elements of epidemic response. Despite progress made in this area, few examples of regional feedback mechanisms in Africa provide information on community concerns and perceptions in real time. To enable humanitarian responders to move beyond disseminating messages, work in partnership with communities, listen to their ideas, identify community-led solutions, and support implementation of solutions systems need to be in place for documenting, analyzing, and acting on community feedback. This article describes how the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies and its national societies in sub-Saharan Africa have worked to establish and strengthen systems to ensure local intelligence and community insights inform operational decision making. As part of the COVID-19 response, a system was set up to collect, compile, and analyze unstructured community feedback from across the region. We describe how this system was set up based on a system piloted in the response to Ebola in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, which tools were adapted and shared across the region, and how the information gathered was used to shape and adapt the response of the Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies and the broader humanitarian response.

Does Federalism Matter in Africa?

The academic study of federalism is somewhat unfashionable in Africa, where formal institutions are often regarded as superficial, ephemeral and ineffective, while informal norms, networks, processes and practices are considered to be the real bedrock and substance of politics. Indeed, for decades, a “neo-patrimonial theoretical framework” or “institution-less school” has been the prevailing paradigm for analyzing African governance and politics (Cheeseman 2018, 10-12). As a concept, neo-patrimonialism focuses on the pathologies of personal, “big man” rule, corruption, predation, patron-client networks and other informal ruling mechanisms in Africa. African structures of personalist rule and relations, in this neo-patrimonial conceptual framework, have little or no place for formal federalist institutions of self-rule, shared rule, and limited rule. Consequently, federalism is often regarded as irrelevant, unviable, or invariably doomed to degradation, extinction, and administrative, fiscal, and political recentralization in Africa’s neo-patrimonial governance eco-system. “In short,” in the words of a leading scholar of decentralization in Africa, “federalism can hardly matter where [formal] institutions themselves have little import” (Dickovick 2012, 3).

Can small farms benefit from big companies’ initiatives to promote mechanization in Africa? A case study from Zambia

After years of neglect, there is a renewed interest in agricultural mechanization in Africa. Since government initiatives to promote mechanization are confronted with major governance challenges, private-sector initiatives may offer a promising alternative. However, given limited scientific studies on such private-sector options such approaches are often viewed skeptically. One concern is that multi-national agribusiness companies take advantage of smallholder farmers. Another concern is that mechanization causes rural unemployment. To shed light on these concerns, this paper analyzes an initiative of the agricultural machinery manufacturer John Deere to promote smallholder mechanization in Zambia through a contractor model. The analysis focuses on the impact of this initiative on farmers who receive tractor services using Propensity Score Matching. The results indicate that farmers can almost double their income by cultivating a much larger share of their land. The analysis suggests that the increased income is used for children’s education and more food, but does not result in increased food diversity. The demand for hired labor increases due to land expansion and due to a shift from family labor, including that of children, to hired labor. Questions that require further investigation are identified, including strategies to incentivize tractor owners to provide services, to also increase land productivity, and to avoid new forms of dependency of agricultural laborers that may result from a shift in the timing of the labor demand.

The African Human Rights Architecture: Reflections on the Instruments and Mechanisms within the African Human Rights System

This article examines and summarizes the normative and institutional mechanisms within the African human rights system. The article identifies some of the challenges facing the young human rights system in Africa such as lack of proper coordination, avoidable overlaps and duplication of functions, as well as limited capacity of, and limited access to, the various human rights protecting institutions. Against the backdrop of proliferation of human rights treaties and bodies on the African continent under the guise of creating binding instruments and judicial human rights bodies, the article argues that international human rights law has grown beyond the “hard law” versus “soft law” debate where only legally binding treaties and judgments of judicial tribunals alone create legal obligations for states; and that the solution to the protection of human rights in Africa has little to do with the number or nomenclature of the protection mechanisms but rather their effectiveness. This article is significant in view of the proliferation of human rights instruments and protection mechanisms in Africa and the challenge posed to the effectiveness of the mechanisms as a result of poor coordination and overlap of functions.

The Agricultural Mechanization in Africa: Micro-Level Analysis of State Drivers and Effects

This paper examines the state, drivers and, consequently, the impacts of agricultural mechanization in eleven countries in Africa. Using representative multistage stratified household survey data and robust analytical approaches, findings show light hand-held tools and equipment remain the main type of machinery in most countries – about 48% of the sampled households have access to light machinery compared to 35% that have access to animal-powered machinery, and only about 18% that use tractor-powered machinery. Significant drivers of agricultural mechanization include the size of the household, gender of the household head, participation in off-farm economic activities, distance to the input and output markets, farm size, land tenure, type of farming system, access to extension services, and use of fertilizer and pesticides. This study finds that after controlling for socio-economic, demographic, and regional determinants, agricultural mechanization, significantly increases the amount of cropland cultivated (extensification) and is also accompanied by input intensification especially in countries where land expansion is limited. We further find significant but mixed impact of agricultural mechanization on use of household and hired labor. Finally, agricultural mechanization significantly raises the productivity of maize and rice in all cases. These findings point to the importance of developing favorable arrangements that would avail mechanization to small and medium scale farmers. This would involve providing incentives for private sector to scale agricultural mechanization initiatives and targeting and engaging women farmers and the youth by investing in supportive infrastructure and training.

Implementation of Traditional Knowledge Protection Mechanisms in Africa: The Challenge of Trans-boundary Traditional Knowledge

Implementation of Traditional Knowledge Protection Mechanisms in Africa: The Challenge of Trans-boundary Traditional Knowledge

Can Big Companiess Initiatives to Promote Mechanization Benefit Small Farms in Africa? A Case Study from Zambia

After many years of neglect, there is a renewed interest in agricultural mechanization in Africa. Since government initiatives to promote mechanization, e.g., by importing and subsidizing tractors, are confronted with major governance challenges, private-sector initiatives offer a promising alternative. This paper analyzes an initiative of the agricultural machinery manufacturer John Deere and its dealership partner AFGRI to promote smallholder mechanization in Zambia through a contractor model. The analysis focuses on the impact of this initiative on smallholder farmers who receive tractor services and on the demand for hired labor. The analysis is based on a survey of 250 smallholders and focus group discussions using Participatory Impact Diagrams. The results of a Propensity Score Matching (PSM) analysis indicate that farmers who access tractor services for land preparation can almost double their income by cultivating a much larger share of the land that they own. The analysis also suggests that the increased income is used for children’s education and for purchasing more food, but does not result in increased food diversity. The findings indicate that the demand for hired labor increases due to the expansion of the cultivated area and due to a shift from family labor, including that of children, to hired labor. Questions that require further investigation are identified, including policies and strategies to increase the incentives of tractor owners to provide services to smallholders, to use mechanization more effectively to increase land productivity, and to avoid new forms of dependency of agricultural laborers that may result.