The Nordic Africa Institute
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Labour migration : a child and youth issue
No full textConsiderable policy effort has been made to eliminate child labour and is currently being directed towards job-creation for youth. Most programmatic solutions are premised on education being a key component of childhood and education deficits a major impediment to youth employment. Long-term difficulties of finding work at the end of schooling or vocational training are addressed only as ill-suited curricula and economic barriers preventing youth’s entrepreneurship. Children’s work (below 18 years) is contentious per se, whilst youth’s labour migration receive no attention in the most recent Swedish and Danish Africa strategies.By bringing together policy discussions on child labour and your unemployment – usually separated and dealt with by different organisations – this Policy Notes highlights a series of questions for consideration in contextualised policy-making. It argues that- The strong focus on formal education makes working children and the skills they learn outside school invisible.- The focus on technical/vocational training as a means to bring youth into work ignores rural-urban inequalities, as well as how African labour markets work
Liberia Beyond the Blueprints : Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers, Big Men and Informal Networks
No full textThe Lecture Series on African Security is a joint collaboration between the Swedish Defence Research Agency (FOI) and the Nordic Africa Institute (NAI). The first round of lectures was conducted in 2008. The lectures revolve around core themes in African security studies and case studies from contemporary Africa, and they are presented by highly renowned international and national experts on Africa.</p
DDR of Youth in Africa : theory, standards and practice
No full textThe Lecture Series on African Security is a joint collaboration between the Swedish Defence Research Agency (FOI) and the Nordic Africa Institute (NAI). The first round of lectures was conducted in 2008. The lectures revolve around core themes in African security studies and case studies from contemporary Africa, and they are presented by highly renowned international and national experts on Africa.</p
Armed Groups and Militias in Eastern DR Congo
No full textThe Lecture Series on African Security is a joint collaboration between the Swedish Defence Research Agency (FOI) and the Nordic Africa Institute (NAI). The first round of lectures was conducted in 2008. The lectures revolve around core themes in African security studies and case studies from contemporary Africa, and they are presented by highly renowned international and national experts on Africa.</p
African Conflicts and Conflicts Drivers : Uganda, Congo and the Mano River
No full textThe Lecture Series on African Security is a joint collaboration between the Swedish Defence Research Agency (FOI) and the Nordic Africa Institute (NAI). The first round of lectures was conducted in 2008. The lectures revolve around core themes in African security studies and case studies from contemporary Africa, and they are presented by highly renowned international and national experts on Africa.</p
Afro-regions : the dynamics of cross-border micro-regionalism in Africa
No full textThis collection focuses on the making and unmaking of cross-border micro-regions in Africa. Its main emphasis is that micro-regions are not givens, but are constructed and reconstructed through social practice, political economy and, in discourse, by a variety of states, corporations and non-state actors. The region-builders are the focus -- that is, those actors that build and make micro-regions and their associated region-building strategies. Key research questions are: for whom, for what purpose and with what consequences are micro-regions being made and unmade? There is also special emphasis on how people on the ground and local communities create their own region-building strategies and how they respond to the region-building strategies of others. The case studies -- by leading scholars of African studies and the result of extensive fieldwork -- include a wide selection of micro-regions all over Africa, such as the Maputo Development Corridor, the Zambezi Valley region, the Zambia-Malawi-Mozambique Growth Triangle, Walvis Bay, the Sierra Leone-Liberia border zone, cross-border micro-regions on the Horn of Africa, the Great Lakes region, North Africa, and so forth.CONTENTS -- INTRODUCTION -- Considering Micro-Regionalism in Africa in the Twenty-first Century/Fredrik Söderbaum and Ian Taylor -- PART ONE: INFORMALISING THE FORMAL — OR VICE VERSA? -- Competing Region-building in the Maputo Development Corridor/Fredrik Söderbaum and Ian Taylor -- Walvis Bay-Swakopmund: Desert Micro-region and Aspiring Regional Gateway/David Simon and Muriel Samé Ekobo -- Region-building in Central Mozambique: The Case of the Zambezi Valley Spatial Development Initiative/Milissão Nuvunga -- The Zambia-Malawi-Mozambique Growth-Triangle (ZMM-GT): Discursive Region-Building in Africa and Consequences for Development/Nikki Slocum-Bradley -- PART TWO: THE INFORMALITY OF MICRO-REGIONALISM IN AFRICA -- Informal Cross-Border Micro-Regionalism in West Africa: The Case of the Parrot’s Beak/J. Andrew Grant -- “At the Gates of El Dorado”: Micro-Dynamics in the Transnational Border Area between Northern Morocco and Europe/Terhi Lehtinen -- The Road to the Sea: The Regional Politics of Ethiopia’s Trade/Christopher Clapham -- War in the Great Lakes Region and Ugandan Conflict Zones: Micro-regionalisms and Meta-narratives/Morten Bøås and Kathleen M. Jennings -- CONCLUSION -- Beyond Parochialism: Cross-border Micro-Regionalism as a Gateway/Daniel Bac
Globalization and restructuring of African commodity flows
No full textAfrican countries have been incorporated into present processes of economic globalization in a more nuanced way than is usually claimed. Obviously, structural changes and economic growth have not been on the scale seen in other developing country regions, Southeast Asia in particular. However, the increasing global interaction between functionally integrated foci of production and services has also affected Africa in ways that are changing the material foundations of economic and social life on the continent. These processes are not uniform throughout Africa, but affect local, national and regional actors and institutions in diverse and complex ways. In short, globalization in Africa is an uneven process, integrating or re-integrating some localities and communities in global flows of goods, finance and information, while marginalizing or excluding others. The aim of this book is to grasp the diversity of these globalization processes in a systematic way by adopting a common analytical framework, the Global Value Chain approach. Commodity-specific data in two or more countries are taken as a point of departure and the variations and similarities in linkages between local, national, regional and global chain segments are examined. The book is based on original quantitative and qualitative data, collected during fieldwork by the authors.CONTENTS -- Globalization as a Marginalization of African Economies?/Marianne Nylandsted Larsen and Niels Fold -- Key Concepts and Core Issues in Global Value Chain Analysis/Niels Fold and Marianne Nylandsted Larsen -- The Historical Integration of Africa in the International Food Trade/Benoit Daviron -- The Structural and Spatial Implications of Changes in the Regulation of South Africa’s Citrus Export Chain/Charles Mather -- Changing Food Safety Requirements and the Export of Frech Horticultural Products by Kenyan Smallholders/Michael Friis Jensen -- Are(Market)Stimulants Injurious to Quality? Liberalization, Quality Changes and the Reputation of African Coffee and Cocoa Exports/Niels Fold and Stefano Ponte -- The Global Cotton Market and Cotton Sector Reforms in sub-Saharan Africa/Marianne Nylandsted Larsen -- Segmentation, Governance and Upgrading in Global Clothing Chains: A Mauritian Case Study/Peter Gibbon -- The Logistical Revolution and the Changing Structure of Agriculturally based Commodity Chains in Africa/Poul Ove Pedersen -- Singing in the dark? World Music and Issues of Power and Agency/Tuulikki Pietil
Natural resources in sub-Saharan Africa : assets and vulnerabilities
No full textAfrica is rich in oil and mineral resources, but has severe shortages of water and suffers from an accelerating pressure on its arable land and forests. Climate change is expected to cause major problems for African populations with increase of water stress and severely compromised agricultural production. Local food supplies will be negatively affected and, towards the end of the 21st century, sea-level rise will affect low-lying coastal areas. The report argues that the poorest countries are most vulnerable to climate change and that Africa is particularly exposed. Sweden should consider full integration of climate change adaptation strategies in its development cooperation with African partners. This will likely mean that some existing priorities will be further accentuated, such as needs to provide water and sanitation services to the poor, raising agricultural productivity, and curbing deforestation.CONTENTS -- Climate change: impacts and vulnerabilities -- Four dimensions of natural resource development -- Agriculture and employment -- Vulnerability and adaptation strategies -- Principal actors and Sweden's role</p
A short note on Kenya and early warning signals
No full textThe Kenya crisis came largely as a surprise, at least to outsiders. Was it possible to see it coming? Is Kenya a special case, or are there reasons to expect similar crises in other ”stable” African nations with politics, ethnicity and inequality forming an explosive blend? This short exploratory note will approach these questions by taking a look at opinion poll datafrom the Afrobarometer 2005 and 2003. Were any signals of what was coming already there,before our eyes
The quest for sustainable development and peace : the 2007 Sierra Leone elections
No full textPost-conflict African states such as Sierra Leone, face critical challenges as they embark on the complex tasks of reconciliation, peace and the rebuilding of war-torn societies. Conflict transformation ultimately depends on the democratisation of society, in ways that promote equitable inclusiveness in the political process, social justice and the promotion of citizenship rights. This collection of three essays explores the significance of Sierra Leone's 2007 elections in the light of the quest of the people for a democracy that is responsive to social demands, welfare and popular aspirations. It provides first-hand information and analysis of the struggles of the Sierra Leonean citizens to overcome the legacy of a traumatic past, by using their vote to sanction bad governance, and choose a path to a good life and sustainable democracy as the most viable guarantee for peace and development.International Intervention and the Struggle for Democracy -- The Role of Youths and the Sierra Leone Diaspora in Democratic Awakening -- The Conduct of the Elections: Challenges of Peacebuilding and Democratisation</p