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Fertility Decline and Family Changes in Sub-Saharan Africa
Get PDFSub-Saharan Africa has until recently been considered a continent of steady high fertility levels. However, a consistent effort in new statistical surveys has produced a substantial body of data indicating that the continent is now entering the fertility transition stage at various paths depending on the countries, and that the transition is occurring more rapidly among the urban than rural population in each country. This paper examines the impact of these changes on nuptiality patterns, intergenerational relations, gender relations and empowerment of women. It reveals certain trends in the African family: Traditional family norms are challenged, and new types of families are emerging; age at entry in union is being postponed; the ideal number of children is decreasing; requested solidarity towards the elderly, in some cases, are being abandoned; new families are emerging, often more consensual than before but also more fragile; due to migration or to polygyny, women heads of household become a common residential arrangement
The Future of Monetary Integration in Southern Africa: Lessons from the European Union?
Get PDFThe 14-member Southern African Development Community (SADC) has a long-term goal of becoming a full common market. A major component of fuller integration would be a common currency arrangement. The states of southern Africa, however, face a dilemma: While the region already sustains a successful and long-running monetary union, the Common Monetary Area (CMA, known as the Rand Zone ), the region\u27s leading economic integration organization, the SADC, is opposed to joining the union.
The Common Market for East and Southern Africa (COMESA)—a less successful, but rival economic organization—favors, for its part, a monetary union. Is the SADC ready for monetary integration, whether in the CMA or through a new arrangement? The conclusion of this paper is twofold. First the necessary convergence criteria for a viable monetary union appear to be lacking. Until and unless there is more convergence, the chances for a successful monetary union are low. Equally important, until SADC countries produce a more diverse set of goods and services that will allow increased trade with each other, reaching the goal of a monetary union remains unlikely, and even unnecessary. Second, in the light of what has been done in the Euro Zone, political aspects of economic integration should be strengthened. Europe built itself through economic convergence and monetary stability. But it also achieved ambitious political projects, like the Common Agricultural Policy, that supported increased economic integration. It is in the interest of Southern Africa to devote more time and resources in building a more unified political entity
Information, Public Policy Analysis and Sustainable Development in Nigeria
Get PDFInformation and public policy analysis are critical factors in adequate public policy formulation, implementation and evaluation if the public good is to be achieved in Nigeria. This paper has carried out a critical examination of the interface between information and the public policy process and the effect on public policy analysis and has found that there is a crucial interrelationship among them in order to promote sustainable development. The paper found that the interrelationship is however, seriously interfered with or obstructed by a variety of dominant constraints. The constraints include inadequate human capital, financial resources, large-scale secrecy in government business, inadequate incentives to statisticians and grand corruption in many, if not all, public organizations in Nigeria. They promote negative effects, including unreliable data and information, inadequate public policy analysis by analysts, and more importantly inad.equate public policy outcome or impact. The paper also found a rather self-imposed constraint by some public policy analysts who obviously color their analysis by getting involved in prescriptive public policies. The paper proffers recommendations such as provision of adequate training and retaining for statisticians, formation of a virile statistical association for statisticians, provision of incentives for statisticians, honesty in the application of information by analysts and reduction in the level of secrecy imposed on governmental information. Finally, it is recommended that policy analysts should restrict themselves to objective description and explanatory analysis of public policy rather than prescription
National Population Policy and Fertility Decline in Senegal
Get PDFThis study reviews the relationship between population policy and fertility decline in Senegal. In 1988, Senegal officially announced a national population policy, the first such population policy declaration among Francophone sub-Saharan African countries. Shortly thereafter, in the early 1990s, Senegal\u27s total fertility rate did in fact start to decline. The establishment of the national population policy, however, did not directly influence the current fertility decline. Rather, effective population policies in the areas of education, reproductive health, and family planning services together are likely to determine the pace of overall fertility decline in Senegal. In this study, current fertility trends are analyzed, and then population policy implications are considered, with emphasis on the reduction of rural-urban differentials in fertility, proximate determinants of fertility, and socioeconomic development
RAGRET to Riches: An Examination of the Resort Area Gross Receipt Tax in Ohio and Why More Towns Should Resort to the Resort Area Gross Receipt Tax
Get PDFPigs Get Fat, Hogs Get Slaughtered: Why the Court Over-Indulged with the \u3cem\u3ePike \u3c/em\u3eBalancing Test and How Shedding the Excess Can Save the Dormant Commerce Clause
Get PDFWomen and the Policy Process: Minimum Marriageable Age Policy Adoption in Nigeria
Get PDFNigeria has the eleventh highest incidence of early marriage – marriage before the age of 18 – in the world. This is problematic because early marriage has been shown to have significant health and socioeconomic disadvantages for girls. In 2003, the Child Rights Act (CRA) was adopted by the federal government of Nigeria. One of its provisions was a prohibition of early marriage. As of 2022, 25 of Nigeria’s 36 states had adopted the CRA. However, only 23 have adopted its minimum marriageable age provision without exception. This paper discusses the factors affecting the adoption of the CRA’s minimum marriageable age policy, arguing that although religion provides a legitimate perspective on adoption decisions, women policy actors have also played a significant role. This paper therefore both presents a more comprehensive approach to understanding this policy process and provides support for the presence and participation of women in policymaking as an effective approach to the problem of early marriage
Living in Paradise? Cameroonian Women in the American Diaspora
Get PDFFor decades after independence, African migration was a phenomenon that could be attributed to a patriarchal culture that encouraged male domination. Later, that traditional mindset was reinforced by a colonial system that often marginalized the role of women in many African societies. Indeed, because young men were more likely to be educated than their female counterparts under the colonial system, they were advantaged after independence to attend institutions of higher learning abroad when it became necessary to train young Africans to occupy important government and other decision-making positions in the newly independent states. Recently, however, women have become important players, both in their statistical representation and as important players in Africa’s migration narrative. Takougang examines the contributory factors to contemporary migration of Cameroonian women to the United States, as well as the opportunities and challenges they face in America
175th Commencement, Spring
Get PDFCommencement program (graduate and undergraduate exercises) for Spring 202
