A Disconnect in Stakeholders' Perceptions from Emerging Realities of Teledensity Growth in Africa's Least Developed Countries

2008 ◽  
pp. 2948-2962
Author(s):  
Victor W. Mbarika ◽  
Peter N. Meso ◽  
Philip F. Musa
Keyword(s):  
Developed Countries ◽  
Sub Saharan Africa ◽  
Least Developed Countries ◽  
Geographical Factors ◽  
The World ◽  
Sub Saharan ◽  
Research Show

With the dynamic and meteoric rise in teledensity diffusion across Sub Saharan Africa, one would expect a departure in the perceptions of stakeholders as they relate to the Bernt and Weiss framework that identifies organizational, financial, technological, and geographical factors as the key impediments to teledensity growth. The findings of this research show that there is disconnect between current happenings and perception of stakeholders. Specifically, there is no change in stakeholders’ perceptions with respect to the framework mentioned above. However, historical and recent teledensity data from Africa’s Least Developed Countries illustrate that the model is inconsistent with the emerging realities in these countries, and that it may be getting obsolete. This leads us to conjecture that in this new dispensation, there may be some emerging factors, issues, constraints, and opportunities that may be of greater importance to understanding telecommunications capabilities in these countries and the world at large.

A Disconnect in Stakeholders' Perceptions from Emerging Realities of Teledensity Growth in Africa's Least Developed Countries

2006 ◽  
pp. 263-282
Author(s):  
Victor W. Mbarika ◽  
Peter N. Meso ◽  
Philip F. Musa
Keyword(s):  
Developed Countries ◽  
Sub Saharan Africa ◽  
Least Developed Countries ◽  
Geographical Factors ◽  
The World ◽  
Sub Saharan ◽  
Research Show

With the dynamic and meteoric rise in teledensity diffusion across Sub Saharan Africa, one would expect a departure in the perceptions of stakeholders as they relate to the Bernt and Weiss framework that identifies organizational, financial, technological, and geographical factors as the key impediments to teledensity growth. The findings of this research show that there is disconnect between current happenings and perception of stakeholders. Specifically, there is no change in stakeholders’ perceptions with respect to the framework mentioned above. However, historical and recent teledensity data from Africa’s Least Developed Countries illustrate that the model is inconsistent with the emerging realities in these countries, and that it may be getting obsolete. This leads us to conjecture that in this new dispensation, there may be some emerging factors, issues, constraints, and opportunities that may be of greater importance to understanding telecommunications capabilities in these countries and the world at large.

scholarly journals Malavika Karlekar (ed.). Paradigms of Learning: The Total Literacy Campaign in India. New Delhi: Sage Publications. 2004. 356 pages. Paperback. Indian Rupees 375.00.

2003 ◽  
Vol 42 (2) ◽  
pp. 167-169
Author(s):  
Samina Nazli
Keyword(s):  
World War Ii ◽  
Human Development ◽  
Adult Literacy ◽  
Developed Countries ◽  
Sub Saharan Africa ◽  
New Delhi ◽  
Least Developed Countries ◽  
Literacy Campaign ◽  
The Pacific ◽  
Sub Saharan

Raising the standards of literacy in the developing world has been a major goal of the less developed countries since most of them became independent in the process of decolonisation that followed World War II. The Human Development Report 2004, brought out by the United Nations Development Programme lists some major improvements in increasing literacy levels of a number of countries between the year 1990 and 2002. For example, low human development countries like Togo increased their adult literacy rates from 44.2 percent in 1990 to 59.6 percent in 2002. Congo saw an increase in its literacy rate for the same period from 67.1 percent to 82.8 percent. The rates for Uganda, Kenya, Yemen, and Nigeria are 56.1 percent and 68.9 percent, 70.8 percent and 84.3 percent, 32.7 percent and 49.0 percent, and 48.7 percent and 68.8 percent respectively. If one examines the breakdown by region, the least developed countries as a group saw an increase in their adult literacy rates from 43.0 percent to 52.5 percent, the Arab states from 50.8 percent to 63.3 percent, South Asia from 47.0 percent to 57.6 percent, Sub-Saharan Africa from 50.8 percent to 63.2 percent and East Asia and the Pacific from 79.8 percent to 90.3 percent. If we look at the increase in the levels of literacy from the perspective of medium human development and low human development, the figures are 71.8 percent and 80.4 percent, and 42.5 percent and 54.3 percent, respectively.

A Comparative Analysis of South Africa as a Semi-Industrialised Developing Country

1988 ◽  
Vol 26 (3) ◽  
pp. 473-493 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. B. Knight
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Developing Economies ◽  
Developed Countries ◽  
Sub Saharan Africa ◽  
Middle Income ◽  
The World Bank ◽  
The World ◽  
Per Capita ◽  
Sub Saharan ◽  
Industrialised Countries

South Africa has neither a developed nor a typical underdeveloped economy. Too often it has been wrongly classified, along with, say, Australia and New Zealand, as one of the peripheral developed countries, because only a part of the economy and population have the characteristics we associate with that group. Yet its economy is distinctly different from others in sub-Saharan Africa. South Africa falls squarely into the category which the World Bank classifies as ‘upper middle-income’ developing economies, with G.N.P. per capita in 1982 ranging from $2,000 to $7,000 and averaging $2,500, thereby including South Africa, with $2,700.1 (By contrast, Kenya's G.N.P. per capita was $400 and Britain's $10,000). The World Bank's group includes Algeria, Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Mexico, South Korea, Venezuela, and Yugoslavia. South Africa shares many structural economic characteristics with these semi-industrialised countries.

Job Creation and Wages in Least Developed Countries: Evidence from Sub-Saharan Africa

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Juan Pablo Rud ◽  
Ija Trapeznikova
Keyword(s):  
Job Creation ◽  
Developed Countries ◽  
Labour Markets ◽  
Sub Saharan Africa ◽  
High Wage ◽  
Micro Data ◽  
Least Developed Countries ◽  
Developed Economies ◽  
Sector Model ◽  
Sub Saharan

Abstract Least developed economies are characterised by poorly functioning labour markets: only a small fraction of workers is in paid employment, where productivity and wages are low. We incorporate a standard search framework into a two-sector model of development to assess the importance of different obstacles to job creation and productivity. The model provides new insights in the characterisation of poorly developed labour markets that are observed in the data, such as high wage dispersion. We estimate the model using micro data for six countries in Sub-Saharan Africa and highlight the empirical relevance of labour market frictions, entry costs and skills.

Future Fertility in High Fertility Countries

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Regina Fuchs ◽  
Anne Goujon
Keyword(s):  
Latin America ◽  
East Asia ◽  
Fertility Transition ◽  
General Rule ◽  
Developed Countries ◽  
Reproductive Behaviour ◽  
Sub Saharan Africa ◽  
High Fertility ◽  
The World ◽  
Sub Saharan

Beginning in 1960, a phenomenon occurred that John Caldwell named the ‘global fertility transition’ (Caldwell, 1997), in which fertility declines have become the general rule throughout the world, including in the majority of the less developed countries. This is important partly because fertility is in many circumstances negatively associated with socio-economic development (Bryant, 2007). From 1970–75 to 2005–10, the average total fertility rate (TFR) for the developing world fell by half, from 5.4 to 2.7 births per woman on average (United Nations, 2011). However, global figures hide important differences in fertility levels among the different regions. In Asia and Latin America, the reproductive behaviour of women reflected the pattern of change noted by Caldwell, halving the TFR in the last 35 years. In Africa, on the contrary, fertility stagnated at 6.2–6.4 from 1950 to 1985, and then began a decline that was much slower than in other developing regions. As a whole, the TFR of sub-Saharan Africa has, for decades, been higher than the fertility levels elsewhere. This was the case in 1950 and 1975, and remains so today. Fertility differences among countries are now larger than ever because transitions to replacement fertility have not yet started in some subpopulations of Western and Middle Africa, but have already been completed in others (e.g. in the economically most advanced countries of Asia, especially East Asia, as well as in many countries in Latin America and the Caribbean). As a result, the observed TFRs of (former) developing countries in 2005–10 range from a high of 7.1 in Niger to a low of 1.0 in Hong Kong. All regions of the world experience wide variations in their TFRs. For instance, East Asia has experienced a faster fertility decline than countries like Pakistan in south-central Asia. Moreover, fertility levels can show significant variations within a single country. This is the case in India, where Northern and Southern patterns of fertility are very different. Overall, regional variations are most apparent in sub-Saharan Africa.

Information communication technologies for gender and development in Africa

2012 ◽  
Vol 74 (3) ◽  
pp. 240-257 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christobel Asiedu
Keyword(s):  
New Technologies ◽  
Communication Technologies ◽  
Developed Countries ◽  
Sub Saharan Africa ◽  
Information Communication Technologies ◽  
Communication Tool ◽  
Information Communication ◽  
Least Developed Countries ◽  
Sub Saharan ◽  
Development Literature

The information communication technologies for development literature (ICT4D) has identified information communication technologies (ICTs) as a significant tool for economic and social development of least developed countries. The discourse has marginalized radio and promoted ICTs. However, there are numerous challenges to using ICTs as a communication tool in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). Although investment in technology could create a much more effective use of ICTs, local appropriation should be at the center of any communication tool for development. This article discusses the widespread exposure to radio in SSA, and emphasizes the effectiveness of using radio to create indigenous knowledge, and in the process empower local women to actively frame their own messages and be active participants in development agendas. Combining radio and ICTs, also known as technological blending, would make certain that rural, poor and non-literate women are not only given meaningful access to new technologies, but also ‘brought into’ the development discourse, as active agents of social change.

Extending the Social Identity of Information Systems

2010 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
pp. 18-33
Author(s):  
Pratim Datta ◽  
Victor W. Mbarika ◽  
Chitu Okoli
Keyword(s):  
Information Systems ◽  
Social Identity ◽  
Social Presence ◽  
Developing World ◽  
Developed Countries ◽  
Sub Saharan Africa ◽  
Least Developed Countries ◽  
Systems Research ◽  
The Social ◽  
Sub Saharan

Although Benbasat and Zmud’s (2003) pronouncement of an “identity crisis” within the information systems (IS) discipline has been mitigated in the industrialized world, the authors are concerned that the crisis still looms large in the developing world. The author’s objective is to theoretically underpin how the discipline can extend its social presence in developing countries to help sustain life. These arguments are contextualized with an in-depth examination of an area for which information systems research has much to offer: telemedicine. Telemedicine is an information systems intensive method concerning the remote delivery of healthcare. Telemedicine is fundamental to any healthcare solution in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA)— a capital-starved society, home to 33 of the 48 least developed countries of the world, and suffering from a dire shortage of medical professionals. The social, political, and economic idiosyncrasies of SSA require a different lens to investigate telemedicine to induce social development. This paper proposes a research framework for telemedicine transfer in the context of SSA with propositions pertinent to the developing world. The authors draw on thorough implications of this research agenda as a stepping stone to recreate a social identity in developing nations plagued with more immediate concerns surrounding basic human sustenance.

Poverty and malnutrition in Africa: a conceptual analysis

2017 ◽  
Vol 47 (6) ◽  
pp. 754-764 ◽  
Author(s):  
Samuel Ayofemi Olalekan Adeyeye ◽  
Abiodun Omowonuola Adebayo-Oyetoro ◽  
Hussaina Kehinde Tiamiyu
Keyword(s):  
Human Development ◽  
World Bank ◽  
Developed Countries ◽  
Sub Saharan Africa ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Recent Estimate ◽  
The World ◽  
Per Capita ◽  
Sub Saharan ◽  
The Way

Purpose This paper aims to examine the concept of poverty and malnutrition in Africa, implications and the way out. Design/methodology/approach Several literatures were reviewed on the causes, modes, implications and solutions to the contemporary challenges of poverty and malnutrition in Africa. Findings Poverty and malnutrition are two sides of a coin that are ravaging the African continent. These were as a result of underdevelopment, maladministration and lack of focus and vision by the generations of leaders saddled with administration in different African countries. Poverty in Africa embraces lack of basic human needs faced by people in African society. Many African nations are very poor, and their income per capita or gross domestic product per capita fall toward the bottom of list of nations of the world, despite a wealth of natural resources. In 2009, according to United Nations (UN), 22 of 24 nations identified as having “Low Human Development” on the UN’s Human Development Index were in sub-Saharan Africa and 34 of the 50 nations on the UN list of least developed countries are in Africa. The UN Food and Agriculture Organization estimates that 233 million people in sub-Saharan Africa were hungry/undernourished in 2014-2016 (its most recent estimate). In total, 795 million people were hungry worldwide. According to the World Bank, sub-Saharan Africa was the area with the second largest number of hungry people, as Asia had 512 million, mainly due to the much larger population of Asia when compared to sub-Saharan Africa. World Bank also reported in 2012 that sub-Saharan Africa Poverty and Equity Data was 501 million people, or 47 per cent Poverty has also been reported as the principal cause of hunger in Africa and the principal causes of poverty have been found to be harmful economic systems, conflict, environmental factors such as drought and climate change and population growth. Originality/value This study examined the concept of poverty and malnutrition in Africa, the implications and the way out.

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