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Privatising services as if people matter : Solid waste management in Abuja, Nigeria
No full textThere is an overwhelming focus on the state and the private sector in the language and practice of privatisation, even though it calls for a tripartite arrangement that includes the people. A major consequence is the failure to comprehend and assess fully the important role of the people. While the people have a major part in supporting privatisation through payment of user charges, they are not often seen as key partners by city governments in Africa. Public participation has important implications for finance and cost recovery. Thus a people-centred approach to privatisation in which the users of services are consulted and involved in decision-making processes is crucial to the emergence of sustainable solid waste management systems in African cities. This study provides useful insights into the complexity of public participation in the context of privatisation of solid waste services and offers policy guidelines relevant to the major stakeholders
When the State Fails : Studies on Intervention in the Sierra Leone Civil War
No full textCompared with Iraq, Afghanistan and Kosovo, the recent western intervention in Sierra Leone has been largely forgotten. This book provides a comprehensive and critical overview of what happened, and examines its ongoing consequences. Sierra Leone’s civil war began in 1991 and was officially declared over in 2002 after UK, UN and regional African military intervention. The contributors provide an informed analysis of the impact of the intervention on democracy, development and society in Sierra Leone. They take a particularly critical view of the imposition of neoliberalism after the conflict.Contents: PART I. Introduction: Background to War and Post-Conflict Peacebuilding -- 1. Multilateral Intervention in Sierra Leone’s Civil War: Some Structural Explanations / Tunde Zack-Williams -- 2. International Actors and Democracy Promotion in Post-Conflict Sierra Leone: Time for Stock-Taking / Marcella Macauley -- 3. International Peacebuilding in Sierra Leone: The Case of the United Kingdom / Michael Kargbo -- 4. Intervention and Peacebuilding in Sierra Leone: A Critical Perspective / Jimmy D. Kandeh -- PART II. -- 5. The Role of External Actors in Sierra Leone’s Security Reform / Osman Gbla -- 6. Gender, Conflict and Peacebuilding in Africa: The Sierra Leone Experience / Sylvia Macauley -- 7. Youth Marginalization in Post-War Sierra Leone: Mapping out the Challenges for Peace / J. D. Ekundayo-Thompson -- 8. Conflict and Peacebuilding in Sierra Leone: The Role of the Sierra Leone Diasporas / Zubairu Wai</p
Electoral Violence in Africa
No full textIn the time period 2012–2013, over 20 national elections and two constitutional referendums are scheduled in Africa. In several of these elections, violence is anticipated to play a prominent role. There is great urgency to support the establishment of effective and legitimate electoral institutions and electoral frameworks; institute reforms aimed at lowering the stakes of elections; encourage the devolution of powers; improve the socio-economic standing of the populace; and devise strategies to prevent and manage electoral violence
'Legal Empowerment of the Poor' versus 'Right to the City' : Implications for access to housing in urban Africa
No full textThe challenge of urban deprivation and exclusion in the urban South has given rise to varied and shifting policies and ideas. Two sets of ideas have gained great currency in recent years in international policy and academic circles. The Legal Empowerment of the Poor approach, rooted in neoliberal thinking, focuses on the legal rights of the urban poor as the means to secure access to basic services and needs. The Right to the City perspective, on the other hand, stresses issues of citizenship and the appropriation and uses of urban space. This Policy Dialogue analyses the different ideological and normative foundations of the two perspectives and discusses how they lead to different policy formulations. It then takes a closer look at how the two perspectives find expression in contemporary discussions on and approaches to access to housing in urban Africa. To this end, it compares what each approach identifies as the source of the problem and recommends as the policy solution
When everything depends on the rain : Drought, rain-fed agriculture and food security
No full textIn sub-Saharan Africa, 95 per cent of agriculture is rain-fed. Climatechange represents an increased vulnerability for farmers, who face poverty, hunger and famine when the erratic rain fails. The only thing that matters in the end is whether the rain comes
Zimbabwe's fast-track land reform
No full textThe Fast-Track Land Reform Programme in Zimbabwe has emerged as a highly contested reform process both nationally and internationally. The image of it has all too often been that of the widespread displacement and subsequent replacement of various people, agricultural-related production systems, facets and processes. The reality, however, is altogether more complex. Providing new, in-depth and much-needed empirical research, and based on a broader geographical scope than any previous study carried out on the subject, Zimbabwe’s Fast-Track Land Reform examines how processes such as land acquisition, allocation, transitional production outcomes, social life, gender and tenure, have influenced and been influenced by the forces driving the programme. It also explores the ways in which the land-reform programme has created a new agrarian structure based on small- to medium-scale farmers. In attempting to resolve the problematic issues the reforms have raised, the authors argue that it is this new agrarian formation which provides the greatest scope for improving Zimbabwe’s agriculture and development. A landmark work on a subject of considerable controversy.Contents: 1. Understanding Fast Track Land Reforms in Zimbabwe -- 2. Land Occupations as the Trigger for Compulsory Land Acquisition -- 3. Interrogating Land Allocation -- 4. Juggling Land Ownership Rights in Uncertain Times -- 5. The Complexities of Production Outcomes -- 6. Accessing Services and Farm Level Investments -- 7. 'Revolutionary Progress' without Change in Women's Land Right -- 8. Social Organisation and the Reconstruction of Communities -- Conclusion: From a 'Crisis' to a 'Prosperous' Future?</p
Sudan : North in the shadow of the South
No full textReport from four seminars on challenges and opportunities for peacebuilding in Sudan, held in March and April 2012 in Uppsala and Stockholm, Sweden. Each of the seminars focused on a special theme, namely: Environment, climate and the Sudanese conflict; The border between the North and the South – current status and challenges from a peacebuilding perspective; The role of civil society in peacebuilding in Sudan today; The Nordic countries as peacebuilders in Sudan? Speakers at the seminars were Sudanese experts and representatives of civil society and academia, as well as Nordic experts with rich experience from Sudan. High level policy-makers, practitioners and experts were in the panel in the discussion at the concluding seminar, held in the First Chamber Hall of the Swedish Parliament. The seminars were jointly organised by the Life & Peace Institute and the Nordic Africa Institute. The seminar series and the publication of this report were financially supported by the Folke Bernadotte Academy
