The New Development Context in Morocco and Communication for Development

If development can be compared to the weaving of a cloth by millions of human beings, the thread of communication can weave the fabric in a sustainable way. And as long as the populations concerned by community development projects do not become the true actors of their own development management, no management or technology contribution alone will be able to improve their living standards in a sustainable manner. The contribution of communication to a development project is considerable: identification and prioritization of development priorities, search for collective solutions and reinforcement of the feeling of belonging to the said projects that they have decided to undertake. However, since the launch of the national incentive for human development in 2005, by His Majesty Mohamed VI, a multiplication of community development projects has emerged, aiming at the appropriation of communication strategies for development. However, due to a lack of professionalism, most LDAs are locked into rigid management logics exacerbated by the reference frameworks of international institutions. As a result, LDAs neglect the communication dimension of the development project to focus solely on its technical aspects.

Ambient Air Pollution and Mortality Rate in Nigeria: An ARDL Approach

The study on ambient air pollution and mortality rate in Nigeria is an attempt to evaluate the effect of ambient air pollution proxied by carbon dioxide on non-accidental, cardiovascular and respiratory disease related mortality in Nigeria from 1970-2019. Time series data adopted from World Development Indicators were analyzed using Auto Regressive Distributed Lag Model. Results suggest a positive relationship between CO2 and crude death rate in Nigeria. Thus, the result of ARDL for lnCruder as the dependent variable showed that carbon dioxide emission was positively related to the crude death rate. Consequently, one unit increase in the quantity of carbon dioxide emission increased the death rate by 19% at lag 1, all things being equal. A similar result was obtained for CO2 and life expectancy where carbon dioxide emission was found to have a negative effect on life expectancy. The study concludes that carbon dioxide emission has a negative effect on human health and causes death in human beings. Therefore, further study is recommended on ways of abating carbon dioxide emissions through the use of technologies that generate less carbon dioxide and the adoption of domestic practices that reduce the quantity of CO2 produced in the environment.

COVID-19 Contact Tracing: Ghana’s Efforts in the Application of Geospatial Technology in Minimizing the Impact of the Pandemic

COVID-19 has presented unusual challenges for individuals, governments and societies across the globe. Several non-medical and non-pharmaceutical interventions have demonstrated to be critical in addressing the resultant impacts. One notable tool among these interventions is the application of technology in identifying infected persons or individuals coming into contact with those infected. Policy think-tanks have invested in geospatial technology and information systems to help resolve contact tracing inefficiencies to curtail the fast spread of the disease. This study highlights the extent of the application of geospatial technology in COVID-19 contact tracing in Ghana. Here, it was demonstrated that majority of young adults that form the greater part of Ghana’s population have access to digital devices which serve as primary catalysts in facilitating effective and efficient contact tracing. Case count of the pandemic continues to surge sharply from one month to the other since the first recorded case on March 12, 2020. A huge number of cases were recorded in the southern part of the country, as against cases recorded in the north. Mobility patterns depicted the migration of more people from regions with a high number of case count to regions with lower counts. We recommend a holistic and proactive approach to the use of smart mobile devices and applications in enhancing contact tracing. Privacy and data protection laws must be prioritized and supported by effective legislative and policy frameworks that serve as the legal basis for the management of personal information.

Guidance Implications of Dipo Rite and It’s Initiation among Manya Krobo Groups in Ghana

Dipo rite is a puberty initiation practiced by the Krobo Groups in Ghana. The study describes the practice and process of Dipo rite, and its guidance implications associated with Dipo rite. This was a qualitative study underpinned by interpretative philosophical thought. The study employed case study design and data was collected using unstructured interview guide. Snowball sampling technique was used to sample the view of four (4) Dipo rite initiators and purposive sampling for the selected key informant from the Manya Krobo Chief Palace. The data were analysed using thematic analysis. The study highlighted the process and practice of Dipo rite. These included the policy, stages, benefit, and those are capable for being initiated. The study revealed that premarital education, courageous, career path, career opportunities were the guidance implications for the practice of Dipo rite. Finally, the study unveiled that age bracket should be introduced for the initiation not depending on one firsts menstruation and follow up should be done to check if the "Dipo yo "are practicing the teaching given to them.

Indexes of Natural Selection, Migration and Reproductive Characteristics in Lutsk Population, West Ukraine

In human populations natural selection is shifting to the side of prenatal development and appears as negative outcomes of pregnancies such as spontaneous abortions, ectopic pregnancies and stillbirths. Therefore, it is important to study dynamics of changes in reproductive characteristics and selection indexes of the populations in order to predict possible problems and numbers of genetic burden in the populations. Ukraine is poorly studied in this area. The aim of the study was to investigate indicators which characterize the population structure of Lutsk city, the intensity of natural selection, migration and their dynamics in two generations. 583 post-reproductive age females were anonymously questioned. Age, places of birth of the couple, the number of pregnancies and their outcomes were considered. Results show that natural selection indexes (Crow’s indexes) are decreasing from the first generation (0,26) to the second (0,20). Migration coefficients in the population of Lutsk decreased from 0.89 to 0.82 per generation and show intensive urbanization of the city for the studied time. The efficiency of the migration is low, since the biggest number of migrants come from the villages of the Volyn region (45% for first generations and 64% for the second one), or adjacent regions of Ukraine (35% and 27%, respectively). The population of Lutsk has a narrowed type of reproduction, where average number of offspring per female equal 1,86 for the first generation and 1,73 for the second generation.

Development of Organic Agriculture in the Mekong Delta – Opportunities and Challenges

The model of organic rice production in the Mekong Delta, which started from 2015 until now (2020), has had good results. Organic agriculture still faces many difficulties and challenges at the beginning but many of them have been solved out. First of all, that is the success of organic rice production in the shrimp-rice area with the potential of hundreds of thousands of hectares. Then, the replication of organic rice production in the intensive practice areas and the replication of organic production for other crops have high economic value. The SWOT research and analysis showed that the development of organic agriculture still has many weaknesses and threats compared to strengths and opportunities. The biggest weaknesses and threats are the difficulties in changing social awareness and in changing farming practices of farmers. Farmers who are accustomed to traditional production which highly application of chemical fertilizers and chemical pesticides, it is not easy work to change their traditional practices to organic practices. At the same time, there are some cases that farmers are dishonest, they do not follow the process or arbitrarily apply forbidden chemical inputs leading to failure of the model which affects the whole project and harms the invested businesses. The next challenge is weed management in organic rice production, especially in intensive rice cultivation areas in which paddy grows 2-3 crops for a year. That is because in organic production no chemical herbicides are allowed. Weaknesses and threats lead to many risks, making businesses and stakeholders afraid to invest in organic production. For strengths and opportunities, the Vietnam government has made new policies to encourage the development of organic agriculture for the Mekong Delta and the whole country. Besides that, due to the demand for organic products, organic product consumption becomes a hot trend in the world and the country now a day, opening up a great opportunity for the production and trading of organic products. To overcome weaknesses and threats to take advantage of opportunities for organic agriculture, the authors have proposed recommendations to create solutions for organic agriculture in Mekong Delta to develop.

Political Parties, Violent and Culture of Electioneering Protest in South-Western Nigeria: The 1983 Experience

This paper is an examination of the political parties and culture of violent during the electioneering process in southwest Nigeria. It focuses majorly on the circumstances that led to the 1983 political crisis in Nigeria most especially how it affected southwest. The papar also focuses of the activities of the two dominant political parties i.e UPN and NPN and how their activities have created tautness in southwest Nigeria. It explains the main reasons why violence engulfed the street of Oyo and Ondo; this is ranging from the slow and ineffective way the courts dealt with political matters and the patrician way security agencies went along with political violence. The reaction of Yoruba to show their displeasure and grievances to how shoddy the election of 1983and the injustice also contributed to this evil of political violence in southwest. The paper concludes that the 1983 political crisis occurred as a result of inability of government and court of justice to do the right thing. The paper however derived its data from both primary and secondary sources.

Hunger by Choice? Rethinking Food Security Strategies

Food insecurity is a global threat with devastating effects, particularly in ‘developing’ countries. This threat is worsened by a parochial perspective in most of southern Africa that associates food security with the major staple crop maize. This bias is witnessed in the amount of land, investments, research, and marketing allocated to maize, in comparison to traditional crops such as millet, rapoko and sorghum. However, increased investments in agriculture, particularly maize production has failed to translate to increased production of the crop, particularly in Zimbabwe. The vagaries of climate-change manifested through droughts, coupled with man-made policy disasters are evidence enough to factor diversified production systems to include traditional crops into the food security basket. Since independence in 1980, Zimbabwe has experienced more than a dozen drought periods, which translates into multi-million dollar food imports. To feed the growing number of food insecure people, the solution could be in the shunned small grains, whose resilience in harsh conditions compared to maize, calls for urgent transformation and orchestration of the food security basket. Through renewed focus on traditional crops, Zimbabwe and other countries in east and southern African could attain food secure status and ensure that food as a human right is available to all.

Impact of Farm and Non-Farm Micro-Enterprise Diversifications on Household Dietary Diversity in Malawi

Micro-enterprising is crucial for improving rural households’ food and nutrition status in subsistence agrarian economy like Malawi. There are no studies that have concurrently analyzed the roles of farm and non-farm micro-enterprise diversity on household dietary diversity (proxy measure of household food access) in Malawi. With the following objectives, the study jointly (1) analyzed the effects of farm and non-farm micro-enterprises diversifications on rural household food access, and (2) analyzed relevant socio-economic and institutional factors on household dietary diversity in selected districts of Malawi. Data were collected from 1827 households; whereby 779 households were engaged in some kind of farm and non-farm micro-enterprises in six districts with high concentration of micro-businesses and population densities. Both parametric and parametric descriptive statistics, Poisson and Negative Binomial regressions were used for estimations. Of all the factors associated with household dietary diversity, farm and non-farm enterprise diversity, as well as expenditure on food items had played major roles in influencing household dietary diversity. Increasing farm and non-farm micro-enterprise diversity by one micro-business group is associated with the possibility of consuming or having access to all 12 groups of food by the households. Holding other things constant, it is surprisingly found that nutrition education (34.2%, ρ=0.000<0.001) influenced household food dietary diversity more than household heads with formal education (average 5 years of schooling); suggesting that nutrition education, if directly delivered to the household heads regardless of their formal education level, is one of the major factors that can positively and significantly affect household dietary diversity in Malawi. These results also resonate to the Government of Malawi’s overarching policy goal of furthering income-generating social and economic activities in order to become less reliant on hand-outs and donors at large. Besides increasing only starchy staple food or monotonous cereal-based diet through various agricultural subsidy programmes, such micro-enterprising programs are also needed to enhance by targeting energy and nutritious food supply that are essential if the country is aiming to expand its industry and service sector with healthy population.

A Yaounde – Kigali Experience Sharing for Harmonious City Biking Culture in Sub-Saharan Africa

Salvaging motorbike calamities and urban chaos would not only safeguard lives but achieve urban tranquility in Yaounde and Cameroon. The disorder in this transport sector observed in Yaounde can be uncurled and riders called to order as solution to the chaos accrued. This article exposes the shortcomings of biking transport as inadequate training and reckless riding have led to the urban chaos and calamities observed. If it does not occur from high speed, perhaps it would be a mentality problem. Some 140 questionnaires were administered to motor bike riders, clients, and transport authorities in Yaounde. Field observation and interview sessions were organized to have first-hand information on calamities in the city. Hotbed neighbourhoods of accidents were captured through a GPS and transformed into maps and tables. An in-depth documentary research at the Ministry of Transport and its delegations as well as the national institute of statistics was done to have data for analysis. Findings adhere to the fact that total identification of riders, mandatory use of helmets for rider and passenger as well as stringent speed limits with unadorned sanctions can be used to address the situation. This paper advocates that the Kigali experience in the management and control of motor bike transport be shared in Yaounde so as to reduce, if not curb urban mayhem and wanton accidents.