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131. The Challenges Of Groundwater In Southern Africa

Author:
Anthony Turton
Publication Date:
01-2007
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
The Wilson Center
Abstract:
It is impossible to understand the developmental constraints of Africa without grasping the significance of water resources, particularly groundwater. Southern Africa faces potentially severe groundwater shortages, which not only imperil the lives of those directly dependent on it, but also the continued development of the economic engines of the region—South Africa, Botswana, Namibia, and Zimbabwe—all of which face significant constraints on their future economic growth due to the insecurity of water supply. In addition, groundwater resources are the foundation of rural water supplies, which sustain livelihoods for the poorest of the poor communities.
Topic:
Conflict Resolution, Security, Development, and Environment
Political Geography:
Africa, South Africa, Namibia, and Botswana

132. Environmental Change and Security Report: Issue 12

Author:
Patricia Kameri-Mbote, Wangari Maathai, Marc Ravalomanana, John Katunga, Milline J. Mbonile, Nana K. Poku, Anthony Nyong, Kenneth Omeje, Richard P. and Elizabeth Leahy Cincotta, Alexander Carius, and Gib Clarke
Publication Date:
06-2007
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
The Wilson Center
Abstract:
While the world focuses on war, authors in ECSP Report 12 argue that we should not miss the quiet—yet often more lethal—conflicts for shrinking resources, which are increasingly depleted by population growth, environmental degradation, poverty, and over-consumption. Eight African leaders and scholars—including Nobel Peace Prize-winner Wangari Maathai—describe their continent's struggle with resource conflict. Population and health are also linked to conflict and fragile states, say Report authors. But efforts to promote sustainability—and use natural resources as peacebuilding tools—could help turn deadly environments into safe, sustainable neighborhoods.
Topic:
Conflict Resolution, Security, Development, and Environment
Political Geography:
Africa

133. Poor People in Environmental Management in Uganda and Tanzania

Author:
Kim Raben, Michael Kidoido, Dositeus Lopa, Zarupa Akello, and Jannik Boesen
Publication Date:
08-2006
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Danish Institute for International Studies (DIIS)
Abstract:
This is a paper on analysing the Participatory Environmental Management (PEMA) programme's impact on poverty, livelihoods, and the knowledge-attitudes-practices syndrome in the Kasyoha- Kitomi forest landscape in Uganda and the South Nguru forest landscape in Tanzania. The objectives of the Participatory Environmental Management (PEMA) programme are to improve the livelihood security of poor, natural resource dependent households [...] and enhance the capacity of civil society and government institutions to design and implement effective ICD programmes The principal purpose is to analyse the poverty situation in each landscape in terms of the level and composition of poverty and the factors causing the poverty of different groups of the population. A secondary purpose is, during the first phase, to be able to indicate the effects of forest management on poor people's livelihoods, to register their relationships with the forest, and not least to analyse the involvement of the poor and marginalised in new initiatives of landscape planning and environmental management. DIIS has developed a methodology for monitoring the poverty impacts of agricultural interventions at household level, which is now being used for this purpose.
Topic:
Development, Environment, and Poverty
Political Geography:
Uganda, Africa, and Tanzania

134. Botswana’s Enabling Environment for Economic Diversification: Plugging the Holes

Author:
Victoria Ndzinge-Anderson
Publication Date:
12-2006
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
Botswana Institute for Development Policy Analysis
Abstract:
It is widely recognized that economies endowed with natural resources and highly dependent on one or two primary commodities for exports are susceptible to exogenous shocks that can lead to fl uctuations in export earnings. The unpredictable nature of export earnings from primary products, especially when a narrow range of such products is exported, makes it diffi cult for countries to plan and allocate their resources effi ciently, thereby hindering sustainable economic growth and development. This is particularly evident in countries where backward and forward linkages are limited or non-existent within and between resource-based sectors and the rest of the economy. The uncertainty over the stability of future output growth that often characterizes resource-abundant economies can be countered to some extent by economic diversi fi cation, which calls for the broadening of the range of products and services produced for export. This may include broadening the range of primary products exported, so as to reduce dependence on a narrow range of primary export products and avoid the associated vulnerabilities. Diversi fi cation may include increasing the degree of processing of primary products prior to export, which can lead to additional local value added and reduced dependence on primary product markets. More generally, diversi fi cation is usually understood to include the production of a range of industrial and service exports. Depending on the nature of the products, this can be a skilled labourintensive and technology-driven process that transfers growth-enhancing spillover bene fi ts to the rest of the economy and promotes sustainable economic growth. It is generally accepted that the private sector, de fi ned as all economic activities not produced by the public sector, is the most powerful tool for achieving economic diversi fi cation. It induces a spiral effect on foreign and domestic investment, growth, employment, productivity and poverty alleviation. Stimulating economic diversi fi cation through broadening the range of export products requires new investment in a range of activities, which is itself dependent upon the nature of the enabling environment for both domestic and foreign investment. Botswana’s enabling environment for investment was assessed in a Report prepared by BIDPA and World Bank entitled “Diversifying Botswana’s Exports: An Overview” (2005). This Policy Brief presents the main fi ndings of that assessment. It focuses on the achievements, challenges and the way forward for Botswana in providing a business environment conducive for economic diversifi cation. To this end, the Policy Brief also provides a critical overview of what has been achieved so far, and identifi es what remains to be done.
Topic:
Economics, Environment, Natural Resources, and Diversification
Political Geography:
Africa and Botswana

135. South Africa's War against Malaria: Lessons for the Developing World

Author:
Roger Bate and Richard Tren
Publication Date:
03-2004
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
The Cato Institute
Abstract:
Malaria imposes enormous human suffering and economic costs on many poor countries. For South Africa, which has a relatively minor malaria problem for a developing country, from 2000 to 2002 the economic cost ranged between US$15 million and US$41 million, excluding estimates of the human suffering and estimates of lost investment in malarial areas..
Topic:
Economics, Environment, and Human Welfare
Political Geography:
Africa and United States

136. Africa's Discontent: Coping with Human and Natural Disasters

Author:
Robert I. Rotberg
Publication Date:
04-2003
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, Harvard University
Abstract:
The inhabitants of tropical Africa in 2003 demand higher levels of performance from their governments than they could, or dared to do, in the 1970s and 1980s, a decade or two after independence from colonial rule. Nowadays they suffer despots reluctantly, as in Zimbabwe, deny them unconstitutional third terms, as in Malawi and Zambia (but not in Togo), gleefully vote for more promising rulers, as in Ghana and Kenya, or insist al- most everywhere on improved governing and government.
Topic:
Civil War, Environment, and Ethnic Conflict
Political Geography:
Kenya, Africa, Zambia, and Ghana

137. Conflict: A Cause and Effect of Hunger

Author:
Marc J. Cohen, Ellen Messer, and Thomas Marchione
Publication Date:
01-2001
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
The Wilson Center
Abstract:
Ensuring food security—especially in Africa—depends on breaking cycles of hunger and conflict. Whether one believes that (a) environmental scarcities (including food insecurity) can cause conflict, or (b) that conflict is primarily caused by political factors, it is indisputable that access to food is always disrupted by conflict. Much has been written about the linkages between environmental scarcities, hunger, and conflict. This article (a) highlights certain gaps in the information about the steps that lead from hunger to conflict, and then (b) suggests policies and actions to break these connections.
Topic:
Security, Development, Environment, and Science and Technology
Political Geography:
Africa

138. Reviewing U.S.-Nigeria Relations: New Links to Reinforce Democracy

Author:
Princeton Lyman and Linda Cotton
Publication Date:
03-2000
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
Overseas Development Council
Abstract:
Emerging from 15 years of military rule, the Republic of Nigeria is struggling to build a stable, peaceful democratic nation from its 200 ethnic groups divided among 36 states. In May 1999, retired General Olusegun Obasanjo was elected President-a repeat performance of his earlier role as catalyst for democratic change. In 1979, Obasanjo presided over the only transition to civilian rule until now. His democratic instincts won him three years in jail under former President Sani Abacha's brutally repressive military regime.
Topic:
Environment, International Organization, and International Trade and Finance
Political Geography:
Africa, United States, and Nigeria

139. The Dynamics Of Negotiation Processes On International Water Disputes — The Case Of The Nile Basin

Author:
Ariel Dinar and Senai Alemu
Publication Date:
11-1998
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Columbia International Affairs Online
Abstract:
Treaty-making, or negotiation/consultation processes on international water are guided usually by formal and informal rules, including international law, and accumulated experience, and are also affected by domestic politics. Generating a base-line agreement is a difficult task, which combines scientific uncertainty with political, economic, cultural and ideological issues.
Topic:
Environment and International Cooperation
Political Geography:
Africa