scholarly journals From Jomtien to Dakar: A quality assessment of Malawian Education for All policy, 1990-2010

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ryan Ruff
Keyword(s):  
Quality Assessment ◽  
Primary Education ◽  
Educational System ◽  
Unintended Consequences ◽  
Sub Saharan Africa ◽  
Education For All ◽  
System Quality ◽  
Social Barriers ◽  
Sub Saharan ◽  
Negative Impacts

The Jomtien World Conference and the Dakar World Education Forum declared Education for All (EFA) as a primary policy goal of countries in sub-Saharan Africa. Malawi, a participant of both Jomtien and Dakar, first achieved EFA through its Free Primary Education policy of 1994. However, this early effort resulted in a number of unintended consequences typical of EFA, including negative impacts on educational system quality. In this paper, a quality assessment framework is used to evaluate whether Malawian EFA policies were designed with the necessary support for an effective universal primary educational system as defined by planning, social barriers, budgetary limitations, and educational quality. Two policy phases were evaluated, each a ten year period following Jomtien (1990-2000) and Dakar (2000-2010). Results indicate that EFA polices in the Jomtien phase often failed to consider social and structural considerations necessary to improve the educational experience, which belied a quantitative achievement of universal primary education. While policies in the Dakar phase addressed many of the quality deficiencies of the previous era, lingering issues such as enrollment and retention remained.

Social, Political, and Environmental Impacts in Sub-Saharan Africa

2018 ◽  
pp. 183-219
Author(s):  
Rhys Jenkins
Keyword(s):  
Environmental Impacts ◽  
Working Conditions ◽  
Sub Saharan Africa ◽  
Systematic Research ◽  
Political Issues ◽  
Positive Effects ◽  
The Social ◽  
Sub Saharan ◽  
Negative Impacts ◽  
Ssa Countries

Some of the most controversial aspects of China’s economic presence in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) relate to the social, political, and environmental impacts. Many of the claims that are made are based on anecdotal evidence, and there is a need for more systematic research on these aspects. In terms of social impacts, the chapter discusses employment, wages, working conditions, and labour rights. Political issues addressed include claims that China’s involvement supports authoritarian regimes, encourages corruption, and leads to conflict and political instability. These claims are not generally supported, and SSA countries have benefitted from the increased policy space that Chinese involvement gives them. The environmental effects of both increased exports to China and the activities of Chinese firms in SSA are analyzed. Contrasting case studies illustrate the negative impacts of China on forestry, and the positive effects of Chinese support for wind and solar power.

Land and poverty: the role of soil fertility and vegetation quality in poverty reduction

2020 ◽  
Vol 25 (4) ◽  
pp. 315-333
Author(s):  
Martin Philipp Heger ◽  
Gregor Zens ◽  
Mook Bangalore
Keyword(s):  
Soil Fertility ◽  
Rural Areas ◽  
Poverty Reduction ◽  
Past Research ◽  
Sub Saharan Africa ◽  
Vegetation Growth ◽  
Variable Approach ◽  
Quasi Experimental ◽  
Sub Saharan ◽  
Negative Impacts

AbstractThe debate on the land–poverty nexus is inconclusive, with past research unable to identify the causal dynamics. We use a unique global panel dataset that links survey and census derived poverty data with measures of land ecosystems at the subnational level. Rainfall is used to overcome the endogeneity in the land–poverty relationship in an instrumental variable approach. This is the first global study using quasi-experimental methods to uncover the degree to which land improvements matter for poverty reduction. We draw three main conclusions. First, land improvements are important for poverty reduction in rural areas and particularly so for Sub-Saharan Africa. Second, land improvements are pro-poor: poorer areas see larger poverty alleviation effects due to improvements in land. Finally, irrigation plays a major role in breaking the link between bad weather and negative impacts on the poor through reduced vegetation growth and soil fertility.

Economics of Farm Input Subsidies in Africa

2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 501-522 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stein T. Holden
Keyword(s):  
Sub Saharan Africa ◽  
Agricultural Policies ◽  
Exit Strategy ◽  
African Countries ◽  
Design And Implementation ◽  
Subsidy Program ◽  
Sub Saharan ◽  
Negative Impacts ◽  
The 1960S ◽  
Subsidy Programs

Fertilizer and other input subsidies have been prominent components of agricultural policies in many Asian and African countries since the 1960s. Their economic and political rationale is scrutinized with emphasis on the second generation of targeted input subsidy programs that were scaled up in Sub-Saharan Africa after 2005. The extent to which they fulfill the goal of being market smart is assessed after inspecting the potential for such subsidies in Sub-Saharan Africa. The new fertilizer subsidy programs do not live up to the market-smart principles and suffer from severe design and implementation failures. While a clear exit strategy was one of the key principles, this has been neglected, with the result that most current programs are more sticky than smart. They have only partially achieved the intended impacts and have resulted in a number of unintended negative impacts. Subsidy program redesign should start from a pilot stage testing basic mechanisms.

scholarly journals Local responses to a forest park in western Uganda: alternate narratives on fortress conservation

Oryx ◽  
2010 ◽  
Vol 45 (1) ◽  
pp. 60-68 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joel Hartter ◽  
Abraham Goldman
Keyword(s):  
Sub Saharan Africa ◽  
Large Majority ◽  
External Control ◽  
Economic Returns ◽  
Forest Park ◽  
Local Responses ◽  
Sub Saharan ◽  
Negative Impacts ◽  
Forest Parks ◽  
Western Uganda

AbstractMost research on attitudes to parks in sub-Saharan Africa has been in savannah regions and areas of low population density. Expulsion, exclusion and the imposition of external control are dominant themes, resulting in negative responses to parks, particularly those that represent hard-edged so-called fortress conservation. Our research in the densely populated area around a mid altitude forest park in western Uganda found an alternate narrative in which, despite its hard-edged fortress features, most people view Kibale National Park favourably. Based on a geographically random sample in two agricultural areas neighbouring the Park, our results indicate that most households felt they benefit from the Park and only a small proportion cited negative impacts. Rather than direct economic returns, the benefits most commonly noted by respondents can be characterized as ecosystem services. Most individual respondents and a large majority of the local political leaders said that the Park should continue to exist. Crop raiding by animals from the Park is a problem in some locations but resource restrictions and expulsion were not widely cited by our respondents. The fact that the large majority of residents migrated to the area after the Park was established may be an important explanatory factor for these responses, and this is also likely to be the case for many other mid altitude tropical forest parks, the demographic and land-use histories of which differ from those around many savannah parks.

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