Participation In Africa Research Articles

Gwyneth H. McClendon and Rachel Beatty Riedl, From Pews to Politics: Religious Sermons and Political Participation in Africa

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Participation of Ghanaian pregnant women in an antimalarial drug trial: willingness, experiences and perceptions.

With increasing orientation towards including pregnant women in clinical trials, investigators must conduct culturally acceptable research to aid recruitment and retention. There is limited information on experiences and meanings that pregnant women make of trial participation in Africa. This study reports experiences and perceptions of Ghanaian pregnant women regarding their participation in a clinical trial. From October to December 2012, 45 in-depth interviews were conducted among pregnant women and their male partners regarding their experiences and perceptions of clinical trial processes as part of an antimalarial drug safety and efficacy trial in pregnant women in the Ashanti region of Ghana. Analysis was by predetermined themes and inductive analysis. Familiarity with the disease studied in the trial and trust in health workers favoured participation with the latter underlying acceptance of study drugs in the absence of symptoms. Adverse drug events were perceived as intrinsic sickness exhibited on the path to wellness. There were no cultural barriers to blood sampling during home visits but hospital-based sampling was preferred. Home visits were linked to participants having HIV infection. This study contributes knowledge on sociocultural matters underpinning pregnant women's decisions regarding trial participation in an era of increasing drug trials involving pregnant women.

The SickleGenAfrica Network

In 2012, the US National Institutes of Health and the UK-based Wellcome Trust funded a US$76 million initiative called Human Heredity and Health in Africa (H3Africa), in partnership with the African Society of Human Genetics. Grants were awarded directly to African institutions to support their faculties in directing their own research, fostering collaborations, and building infrastructure in bioinformatics and genomics.1 H3Africa was founded on the belief that researchers and research participants in Africa are best positioned to work together to study diseases that exact a heavy burden on the continent.

Crime and Political Participation in Africa: The Role of Insecurity

AbstractResearch finds that personal exposure to violence or crime increases political participation. The effects of fear, however, have not been studied. Since the number of victims is much smaller than those who are afraid of becoming a victim, this suggests an important but unexplored channel from crime to political participation. Moreover, if people who experience violence or crime are also afraid of future exposure, existing estimates conflate the effects of past experience with those of fear of future exposure. We focus on Africa, which has been disproportionately affected by homicides and other forms of serious crimes. We find that fear of crime accounts for 10%–23% of the effect previously attributed to direct exposure. We further find important differences between the effects of fear and victimisation on political attitudes. Whereas victims of crimes have more authoritarian political attitudes, people who are fearful of crime are more supportive of democracy and equality and hold other attitudes that are normally associated with rule of law and democracy. Victimisation is associated with greater focus on in-group (ethnic) identity at the expense of the broader nation.

Major Constraints of the Sino-African Relations in the Nigerian Construction Industry

Over the years, China has become an integral part of Africa’s development both in infrastructure and economy. This fit was attained through unrelenting investment in the continent. However, as the relationship between the continent and China grew, numerous challenges hindered the effective participation in Africa’s infrastructure development and construction. This study, therefore, assesses the challenges hindering effective Chinese participation in the Nigerian construction industry. The study followed a descriptive nature and a quantitative model was adopted. Data for the study was gathered from core construction professionals within Nigeria by a means of a questionnaire survey. Out of 150 targeted respondents, only 139 responses were retrieved and used as the basis of the research. The collected data were analyzed using factor analysis in conjunction with descriptive analysis and presented. Also, the data collected was subjected to a normality test and a non-parametric test. The result of the analysis grouped the variables under factors which were subsequently named challenges posed by system inefficiencies, challenges posed by demographic differences, challenges posed by Chinese firms operating style, challenges posed by unethical operations, and challenges posed by the host national government. The study concluded that all stakeholders of the Sino-African relations must play their part to ensure the efficient and effective operation of Chinese firms and professionals in Africa and especially in the construction industry.

The Melting Pot: Trends About Youth Leadership and Political Participation in Africa

This paper is an effort to highlight trends in Africa that are focusing on including youth in leadership and political participation. It banks on the premise that Africa has had its share of good leaders. In fact, leaders in the corporate and non-governmental sectors in Africa have been recognized across the region for exemplary performance and sound governance. Some numerous women and men continue to exercise outstanding leadership in various fields from board chairpersons to community-mobilizers, these Kenyans show and cherish shared values, a common vision, and principles for their country. The departure manifests when it comes to elected leaders and by extension some appointed and nominated leaders. This has further been displayed in the level at which the young leaders are engaged in influencing decisions in their countries. Over the decades Africa has maintained a leadership system that continues to strangle the very energy, initiative, and creativity among young people in the public sector. Accordingly, many young people have been locked on the grounds of their insufficient political networks, inexperience despite their massive skills and acquired knowledge. Regrettably, looking youthful has further been confused with being youth by age especially in the public sector with those between 35 and 45 years old still being considered youth. Whereas at the regional level young people have been offered platforms to influence certain policies and directions such as Agenda 2063 and Sustainable Development Goals including some countries having made some notable feat in youth inclusion, much is yet to be done in securing meaningful engagements in political, social, cultural and economic spheres of life. The paper discusses the good, the bad and sometimes ugly trends about youth inclusion in leadership and their political participation. This is discussed in the context of young women political participation, youth affirmative action normative frameworks and constitutional provisions protecting youth participation in Africa, youth representation in public offices and clarion calls from the youth regionally. The paper then proposes key recommendations by youth, governments and other stakeholders on critical actions that must be taken while appreciating the existence of other recommendations made by other contributors. The author argues that no level of youth development or engagement is effective without African commitment to investing in its youth and that generating disaggregated data necessary to inform decisions moving forward. It concludes that the eventual change expected in Africa by harnessing the potential of youth is, without doubt, the spark needed to brighten the prospects of Africa towards achieving her vision Agenda 2063 and the global Sustainable Development Goals. Keywords: Youth, Gender, Women, Empowerment, Sustainable Development Goals, Africa, UN Women, Policy. DOI: 10.7176/JCSD/57-04 Publication date: March 31 st 2020

Agriculture for All; Constraints to Youth Participation in Africa

Agriculture remains fundamental to poverty reduction and economic growth in the 21st Century (World Bank, 2008). However, 75% of the world’s poor are from rural areas and most are involved in farming, an activity which requires sustenance especially by the youth who are the leaders of tomorrow

Katie Cannon's Encounter with Africa

Katie Cannon's Encounter With Africa Peter J. Paris (bio) The Womanist Approaches to Religion and Society Unit invitation I received to speak about our beloved Katie Cannon proposed that I address the topic, "Cross-Cultural Service as a Source for Intellectual Bridge-Building: Katie Cannon as Pan-Africanist." The topic is most apt. In fact, the first part of the title recommended for my talk is the actual title of an essay Katie wrote for a special issue of Review of Faith and International Affairs (in which I also have an essay).1 More about that momentarily. Katie's cross-cultural experience began with her birth as the fourth child in a black family in Kannapolis, North Carolina, a racially segregated community surrounded by a hostile, white, racist society. The first essay in her indelible book, Katie's Canon, is entitled, "Surviving the Blight." In this piece, she opened her autobiographical reflections by mentioning her enslaved forbears, beginning with her great-grandparents who were born and raised in the cauldron of chattel slavery. She wrote that during thunderstorms, her mother would turn off the electricity, gather the children round her in the dark, and tell stories about the family's lineage of pain and suffering. Yet, within the environs of anguish, they learned how to create another world: a counterculture that comprised folklore, spirituals, and religious practices. Katie frequently reminded all of us that "those ancestors never lost sight of the vision of freedom and justice as they created a culture saturated with their own values and heavily laden with their dreams."2 In the 1950s, the Reverend James Robinson, an African American Presbyterian minister who founded the Church of the Master in Harlem, launched what he called "Operation Crossroads Africa" with the mission of sending interracial teams [End Page 121] of young American men and women to Africa for volunteer work and cultural interaction. Make a difference for others; See the difference in yourself, has been the organization's motto since its founding. As the only Canadian, I was privileged to join that enterprise on its first journey in 1958 and went to Ghana and Nigeria. Katie joined the group in 1971 after receiving a BA in education, magna cum laude, from Barber Scotia College. She later wrote the following: "Dr. Robinson offered me the opportunity to make my first international trek, traveling to Senegal, Ghana, Liberia, and Cote d'Ivoire. I was forever changed by that journey to the motherland in 1971."3 In later years, she and I often took pride in discovering that we had had that common experience of traveling to Africa for the first time with the Crossroads Africa program. While it is easy for African Americans to romanticize about such an experience, Katie described a rude awakening when her group arrived in Cote d'Ivoire on their return route and heard very critical comments from African students about the United States and the danger of its power to manipulate the newly emerging vulnerable African nations. Similarly, I had my own wake-up call when I first arrived in Ghana with uncritical appreciation for its first newly elected president, Kwame Nkrumah, widely known as the father of African independence from British colonialism. Much to my shock and amazement, I discovered Ghanaian students virtually united in their criticisms of his political philosophy and leadership style. A quarter of a century later, when I began thinking about the prospect of launching a Pan-African travel seminar for religion scholars selected from Nigeria, Ghana, Kenya, Malawi, South Africa, Jamaica, Brazil and North America, Katie was most eager to assist. Accordingly, she volunteered to accompany me on a visit to the Ford Foundation in search for a planning grant with which to conceptualize a five-year study project by sixteen scholars on the subject, Religion and Poverty: Pan-African Perspectives, which later resulted in a book written by the group and published by Duke University Press in 2009.4 Katie authored the first essay in that book, "An Ethical Mapping of the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade." In it, she wrote, "I look at the religious, economic and moral issues concerning West Africa's participation in the buying...

China’s Military Diplomacy towards Arab Countries in Africa’s Peace and Security

China’s security concept is evolving, and its participation in Africa’s Arab countries’ peacekeeping is transforming itself from aloof bystander to active player, and from multilateralism to both multi- and unilateralism. The establishment of China’s logistics base in Djibouti does not signify a sudden change in China’s African foreign policy; instead, change has been gradual and tangible and began with the evolution of China’s participation in United Nations peacekeeping operations, and engagement in Africa’s infrastructure projects, in parallel with China’s increasing global presence. The base serves as a logistics and support facility for Chinese peacekeepers, as well as a naval facility to support anti-piracy missions off the coast of Somalia as part of an international anti-piracy operation. Moreover, the base helps China to ensure its maritime and commercial interests and safeguard Chinese nationals in West Asia and the African continent. However, the United States and the West are concerned with the geopolitical and geoeconomic implications of China’s logistics base in Djibouti. The geography of Djibouti has led to the rising of geopolitical rivalries between the great powers, which may intensify in the coming years.

Media exposure and political participation in a transitional African context

Abstract Legal changes in the 1990s resulted in greater pluralism in African media, particularly FM radio. Theorists have long argued that media freedoms are necessary for democratic development, but effects on individual-level orientations and behaviors have not been fully explored. Specifically, there has been limited work on the effects of radio exposure on political participation in Africa, and individuals’ self-selection of the media they consume complicates the measurement of causal effects. However, the fact that access to FM radio signals is largely exogenously determined provides a possible identification strategy. Here, data on station technicalities and local topography are used to predict FM propagation in Uganda soon after the implementation of media liberalization. Analyses of results from an Afrobarometer survey demonstrate that radio exposure is significantly associated with higher self-reported political participation. With regard to mechanisms, there is no evidence that exposure is associated with significantly greater efficacy, interest in politics, attitudinal extremism, or perceptions about distributional politics or violence, but those who listened to the radio with greater frequency were more knowledgeable about politics.

Gender and participation in Africa’s electoral regimes: an analysis of variation in the gender gap

ABSTRACT Across Africa, it has been found that women participate in politics less than men, undermining prospects for gender equality and shared development. Despite theoretical and practical reasons for concern over the “gender gap”, we lack insight into its variation across countries, particularly in Africa, where studies accept women’s lower rate of participation as a uniform background condition. I address this lacuna using four rounds of Afrobarometer data from 31 countries to identify predictors of country-level variation in the gender gap. Drawing from literature on gender gaps elsewhere, I identify institutional and structural variables thought to influence women’s political engagement relative to men’s and evaluate these hypotheses quantitatively at the cross-national level, finding that country-level gaps vary predictably based on the percentage of female legislative representatives, the duration of democracy, and French colonial history. Finally, I use the least-likely case of Senegal to explore how the process to increase women’s legislative representation coincided with a dramatic increase in women’s participation.

Rebuffing Royals? Afrikaners and the Royal Visit to South Africa in 1947

ABSTRACTThis article traces the responses of Afrikaners to the symbolism and political purposes of the 1947 royal visit to Southern Africa, the first post-war royal tour and the first visit of a reigning sovereign to the Union of South Africa. Taking place in the aftermath of a war that had caused bitter political divisions within Afrikaner ranks and stimulated radical populist nationalism, a royal tour intended to express the crown's gratitude for South Africa's participation in that war was bound to be contentious. Drawing on press accounts, biographies, autobiographies and archival sources, this article argues that the layered reactions of Afrikaners demonstrate that, even on the eve of the National Party's electoral victory on a republican and apartheid platform, attitudes towards monarchy and the British connection were more fluid and ambiguous than either contemporary propaganda or recent accounts have allowed. The diverse meanings attributed to this iconic royal tour reveal a process of intense contestation and reflection about South Africa's place in an empire that was in the throes of post-war redefinition and transformation, and confirm recent characterisations of the 1940s as one of manifold possibilities such that outcomes, like the electoral victory of the National Party in the following year, was far from predetermined.

Africapitalism and Corporate Governance

Corporate governance is contextual (Adegbite and Nakajima, 2011), and context matters to Africapitalism (Amaeshi and Idemudia, 2015). The existence of different national institutions means that increased global competition, as well as the integration of financial markets, will not express themselves in the same ways in different national governance systems. As different systems of capitalism typically produce different responses to similar pressures, a one-size-fits-all approach to the firm’s governance is unattractive (Aguilera and Jackson, 2003). Following this position, the Africapitalist corporate governance model articulated in this chapter presents itself as an important structure for conceptualising, understanding and committing to the private sector’s participation in Africa’s socio-economic development. Therefore, defining and articulating the principles of this Africapitalist corporate governance model represents the main objective and contribution of this chapter. Drawing insights from Africa’s leading economies (South Africa and Nigeria), our discussions facilitate the emergence of a workable, practical and useful corporate governance model, which in turn promotes the Africapitalism project.

Benefits derived from recreation and sport leisure that motivate participation

Using the constraints-effects mitigation model, this study explored the benefits of recreation and sport leisure activities that motivate women’s participation. While there are numerous studies that have investigated factors that motivate women’s leisure participation and leisure constraints in Europe and the United States, there are less empirical studies conducted in sub-Saharan Africa. A lack of comparable studies limits our understanding of leisure participation in Africa, but more importantly mandates further investigations within an African context. Applying a phenomenological qualitative approach, nineteen women were studied. The findings showed that Nigerian women are motivated to participate in recreation and sport leisure activities by health-related and social interaction benefits.Keywords: Recreation, Sport, Leisure, Activities, Women, Nigeria

Schools of democracy: how trade union membership impacts political participation in Africa’s emerging democracies

ABSTRACT Trade unions in Africa have become increasingly vocal in calling attention to the widening socio-economic inequalities that have accompanied global market integration across the continent. This article argues that, in their quest to challenge neoliberal policies, labour movements have contributed to processes of democratization in Africa by acting as instruments of political socialization for their members. Using survey data from respondents in 18 African countries, this article demonstrates an empirical relationship between trade union membership and political participation. The article finds that membership in a labour organization increases one’s propensity to participate in a range of political activities. Specifically, labour movements encourage participation by forging “participatory spillover effects”, which mobilize unionists across different arenas of the political landscape. Finally, the article finds that the effect of union membership on political participation is stronger in countries where unions maintain independence from ruling parties. This research contributes to literature on political participation across Africa and furthers our understanding of the role of labour movements in bottom-up processes of democratization on the continent.

Recall and decay of consent information among parents of infants participating in a randomized controlled clinical trial using an audio-visual tool in The Gambia

ABSTRACTCommunicating essential research information to low literacy research participants in Africa is highly challenging, since this population is vulnerable to poor comprehension of consent information. Several supportive materials have been developed to aid participant comprehension in these settings. Within the framework of a pneumococcal vaccine trial in The Gambia, we evaluated the recall and decay of consent information during the trial which used an audio-visual tool called ‘Speaking Book’, to foster comprehension among parents of participating infants. The Speaking Book was developed in the 2 most widely spoken local languages.Four-hundred and 9 parents of trial infants gave consent to participate in this nested study and were included in the baseline assessment of their knowledge about trial participation. An additional assessment was conducted approximately 90 d later, following completion of the clinical trial protocol.All parents received a Speaking Book at the start of the trial. Trial knowledge was already high at the baseline assessment with no differences related to socio-economic status or education. Knowledge of key trial information was retained at the completion of the study follow-up. The Speaking Book (SB) was well received by the study participants. We hypothesize that the SB may have contributed to the retention of information over the trial follow-up. Further studies evaluating the impact of this innovative tool are thus warranted.

An analysis of the applicability of the OECD Model Tax Convention to non-OECD member countries: The South African case

Most tax treaties (including South Africa's) are based on the OECD Model Tax Convention on Income and Capital and the related Commentary (the 'OECD Model'). Notwithstanding the uncertainty surrounding its legal status, the courts in many countries use the OECD Model in the interpretation of their tax treaties. The OECD launched an action plan on Base Erosion and Profit Shifting ('BEPS') in 2013, which is aimed at improving international tax cooperation between governments. In South Africa, the importance of combating BEPS is highlighted by the fact that the Davis Tax Committee has appointed a sub-committee specifically to address concerns pertaining to BEPS. South Africa's participation in the BEPS project and its tax treaty negotiations with other countries, especially OECD member states, are of the utmost importance to South Africa's National Treasury. Consequently, it is the primary objective of this article to analyse the applicability of the OECD Model to non-OECD member countries, with particular emphasis on South Africa. It will be argued that, if the treaties of non-member countries are in conformity with the OECD Model and no specific position has been taken, the non-members also accept the provisions of the Model and the Commentary as an interpretative aid.

Economic, trade and development relations between South Africa and the European Union: The end of a strategic partnership? A South African perspective

ABSTRACTThe relationship between democratic South Africa and the European Union (EU) has been in existence for over 20 years, with its roots tracing back to anti-apartheid support measures. In its earlier form, it was anchored in the Reconstruction and Development Programme. Currently, it is guided by the National Development Plan of the National Planning Commission. This relationship has been tested over time, especially as a result of negotiations over the Economic Partnership Agreement with the EU. In the meantime, the euphoria that marked new South Africa's participation in the global system, with trade and development cooperation with the EU as one of the cornerstones, has waned considerably. The cancellation of several bilateral investment treaties with EU member states has further strained the relationship. While there are notable successes in the EU–South Africa Strategic Partnership, these may not be reflective of the actual strategic value of the partnership in the context of global shifts and the rising influence of emerging powers with which South Africa is integrating.

Trade Openness and Labor Force Participation in Africa: The Role of Political Institutions*

Trade liberalization is usually expected to lead to greater economic activity including higher labor force participation rates. Using data from forty‐eight Sub‐Saharan African countries over the period 1985–2012, we explore the impact of trade openness on labor force participation rates (LFPR), and examine how political institutions such as democracy, political rights, and civil liberties can play a role in driving this relationship in the above group of low‐income countries. The estimated marginal impact of openness on LFPR shows that LFPR is increasing with the level of institutional quality. In particular, political institutions are critical in enhancing the benefit from openness. Our conclusions are similar for male and female participation rates although the magnitudes of the former are higher, thus confirming that improving institutions can generate greater labor market benefits from trade in poor countries.

DEVELOPMENT AND EVALUATION OF A MULTIMEDIA TOOL FOR OBTAINING INFORMED CONSENT IN THE GAMBIA: A MIXED METHOD STUDY

BackgroundCommunicating crucial research information to low-literacy research participants in Africa is highly challenging in the context of several factors which make the participants vulnerable to poor comprehension of consent information....