Sökformulär

Uppsala : Nordiska Afrikainstitutet

The impact of common agricultural policy (CAP) reform on Africa-EU trade in food and agricultural products

Upphovsperson: Goodison, Paul
Utgivare: Nordiska Afrikainstitutet, Globalization, Trade and Regional Integration | Uppsala : Nordiska Afrikainstitutet
År: 2009
Ämnesord: Agricultural policy, Agricultural products, Trade policy, Foreign trade, Agrarian reform, Economic implications, Africa, European Union, Business and economics, Ekonomi
This paper seeks to look at certain fundamental features of the EU food and agricultural sector adjustment process as it manifests itself through the reform of the CAP. It highlights the shift in policy tools, from price support for agricultural products to income support for EU farmers and the shift in policy emphasis from the quantity of agricultural products to the quality of food and agriculturalproducts. It reviews the implications of this policy shift for the EU’s diminishing tolerance of the use of trade policy tools as part of agricultural development policies in third countries. It highlights in passing the implications of these developments for the African food and agriculturalsectors, before drawing out some broad conclusions and recommendations.

Les causes et les remèdes des conflits pétroliers du Delta du Niger

Upphovsperson: Ukiwo, Ukoha
Utgivare: Nordiska Afrikainstitutet, Conflict, Displacement and Transformation | Uppsala : Nordiska Afrikainstitutet
År: 2009
Ämnesord: Ressources énergétiques, Ressources pétrolières, Sociétés transnationales, Conflits, Geopolitiques, Macroeconomie, Nigeria, Niger Delta, Peace and conflict research, Freds- och konfliktforskning
Les fortunes économique et politique du Nigéria, et la capacité du pays à jouer un rôle stabilisant dans la région africaine, dépendent de la résolution du conflit qui persiste dans la zone du delta du Niger. Le delta couvre neuf états, sur un total de 36, et 185 des 774 gouvernements locaux de la fédération nigériane. Il occupe une étendue totale de 75,000 mètres carrés et constitue la troisième plus grande zone humide de la terre. Le recensement Nigérien de 2006 montreque 30 million d’habitants, sur une population total de 185 million, résident dans la région du delta du Niger. La quasi-totalité des réseaux de gaz et de pétrole du Nigéria sont situés dans la région. Depuis 1990, le pétrole et le gaz représentent environ 40% du produit intérieur brut (PIB). Entre 2000 et 2004, ces deux industries ont engendré 75% des revenus totales du gouvernement, et ont généré 97% des échanges commerciaux. En plus d´être essentiel à la viabilité financière du Nigéria, le delta du Niger est important pour la sécurité énergétique mondiale.

African feminist politics of knowledge : Tensions, challenges, possibilities

Medarbetare: Arnfred, Signe | Adomako Ampofo, Akosua
Utgivare: Uppsala : Nordiska Afrikainstitutet
År: 2010
Ämnesord: Gender studies, feminism, Women’s rights, Academic freedom, Higher education, research, research workers, Women in development, Empowerment, Africa South of Sahara, Sociology, Sociologi
AFRICAN FEMINIST POLITICS OF KNOWLEDGE is a book that aims at exposing the dilemmas and conflicts that feminist researchers and practitioners living and working in the Global South have to deal with on a daily basis. The book attempts to disentangle some of the dilemmas, tensions, challenges and possibilities of feminist research and activism in the minefields of the cultures, practices and expectations of university bureaucracies, donor agencies and North-South collaboration. The authors, living and working in Nigeria, South Africa, Ghana and Mozambique, are all researchers. They theorise from their experiences as persons based in Africa, highlighting the dilemmas and conflicts posed by identities as academics and researchers on the one hand, and dependence on donor funding on the other.

Migrant remittances. An overview of global and Swedish flows

Upphovsperson: Engdahl, Mattias
Utgivare: Nordiska Afrikainstitutet, Globalization, Trade and Regional Integration | Uppsala : Nordiska Afrikainstitutet
År: 2009
Ämnesord: Migrant workers, Remittances, Capital movements, Developing countries, Sweden, Foreign aid, Development policy, economics, Nationalekonomi
Migrant remittances – money and gifts sent to relatives back home – have attracted increasing international attention. The flow of remittances has become a major source of revenue for developing countries, exceeding the volume of aid. Three recent studies at Uppsala University bring this issue to light in the context of Sweden’s Policy for Global Development. Very little has so far been known about the flow of remittances from Sweden; official data indicate an amount exceeding 4 billion kronor in 2006. The real flows are most likely higher; Swedish and international studies estimate that real remittances are 30-50 per cent above the officially recorded amounts. Statistics Sweden (SCB) is recommended to enhance its records of remittances in terms of desirable scope and reliability, for instance regarding specification of the amounts remitted to different countries. Remittance flows from Sweden are linked to the remitters’ incomes and, hence, vary with the business cycle. Experience suggests that the ongoing world economic crisis will have a negative impact on remittance flows also from Sweden. It is suggested that enhanced knowledge in Sweden about available remittance services and their costs and measures to promote a better functioning remittance market could increase the net value of these money.

The African Union and the challenges of implementing the “responsibility to protect”

Upphovsperson: Kuwali, Daniel
Utgivare: Nordiska Afrikainstitutet | Uppsala : Nordiska Afrikainstitutet
År: 2009
Ämnesord: United Nations, African Union, Regional security, African organizations, Regional cooperation, International relations, Foreign intervention, Dispute settlement, Peacekeeping, Defence policy, Crime prevention, Human rights, SOCIAL SCIENCES, SAMHÄLLSVETENSKAP
The concept of the “responsibility to protect” (“R2P”) was endorsed by the world’s leaders sitting at the 2005 World Summit level in the UN General Assembly. The World Summit Outcome Document affirmed that every sovereign government has a responsibility to protect its citizens and those within its jurisdiction from genocide, war crimes, “ethnic cleansing” and crimes against humanity (UN 2005 paras. 138–139). The concept of R2P is cast in the three core pillars: first, an affirmation of the primary and continuing obligation of individual states to protect its population from genocide, war crimes, ethnic cleansing, and crimes against humanity, as well as incitement thereof; second, a commitment by the international community to assist states in meeting these obligations; and third, acceptance by UN member states of their responsibility to respond in a timely and decisive manner through the UN Security Council, if national authorities are manifestly failing to protect their populations from these mass atrocity crimes. R2P is a restatement of positive binding obligations of states to protect their citizens from mass atrocity crimes; and the collective responsibility to the international community to prevent mass atrocity crimes. R2P is about taking effective action at the earliest possible stage (Evans 2008). These obligations are particularly relevant to Africa in the face of crises such as those in Sudan (Darfur), parts of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and Somalia. It is, however, rather early to pass definitive judgement on the relatively young notion of R2P without addressing some of the challenges confronting its implementation in Africa.

Towards More Informed Responses to Gender Violence and HIV/AIDS in Post-Conflict West African Settings

Upphovsperson: Ahonsi, Babatunde A.
Utgivare: Nordiska Afrikainstitutet, Conflict, Displacement and Transformation | Uppsala : Nordiska Afrikainstitutet
År: 2010
Ämnesord: Violence against women, sexual abuse, Sexually transmitted diseases, Hiv, aids prevention, Women’s health, gender relations, Post-conflict reconstruction, West Africa, Liberia, Sierra Leone, Peace and conflict research, Freds- och konfliktforskning
The evidence is incontrovertible that Liberia (with its two civil wars, 1989-97 and 2000-03) and Sierra Leone (with its 1991-2001 war) have emerged from two of the most inhuman, ferocious and cruel conflicts in the post-Cold war era. The scale of destruction, rape, mayhem, arson and torture perpetrated during these wars was among the greatest in Africa’s postcolonial history. Women, especially adolescents and young adults, were exposed to extreme sexual brutality at a time when a growing heterosexually-driven HIV pandemic was occurring in the West African sub-region. Both countries also experienced an economic and social collapse that resulted in human development indicators on employment, income, health, education, women’s status and child well-being that are among the lowest in the world. Protracted armed conflicts, as witnessed in Liberia and Sierra Leone and beyond, expose women and girls to unprecedented levels and forms of sexual violence. Moreover, the expectation that the transition from war to peace will lead to significantly reduced sexual violence against women (SVAW) is often disappointed. Instead, post-conflict transitions tend to produce a change in the predominant forms of sexual violence and the profile of its perpetrators. The extended and interlinked conflicts in these neighbouring countries relate at a fundamental level to the persistent denial of citizenship rights to particular population sub-groups over several decades. Within such landscapes of severe social, economic and political marginalization and deprivation, women and girls were bound to suffer more than men and boys during and after the wars as a result of long-established and deeply entrenched patriarchal structures and ideologies in both countries. The persistence of SVAW during post-conflict transitions tends to increase the risk of HIV infection among younger women relative to the phase of armed conflict. A key causal factor is men’s highly exploitative, transactional and cross-generational multiple sexual activities. Thus far, the dominant responses to this complex of issues in post-conflict West Africa have lacked a nuanced understanding of the underlying drivers of sexual violence and its intersections with women’s higher risk of HIV infection.The policy responses to the challenges of post-conflict reconstruction and peace-building in West Africa have generally focused more on traditional security, physical infrastructurere building and economic revitalization issues than on such highly gendered human security concerns as sexual violence and violations of reproductive rights. Left unaddressed, these persisting or worsening human security challenges, affecting at least half their populations, make sustainable peace and development in post-conflict Liberia and Sierra Leone nearly impossible.

Sexual exploitation and abuse by peacekeeping operations in contemporary Africa

Upphovspersoner: Rudén, Fanny | Utas, Mats
Utgivare: Nordiska Afrikainstitutet, Urban Dynamics | Uppsala : Nordiska Afrikainstitutet
År: 2009
Ämnesord: Africa, United Nations, Peacekeeping, Peace corps, minitary personnel, Hiv, Social implications, sexual abuse, Human rights violations, SOCIAL SCIENCES, SAMHÄLLSVETENSKAP
In international peacekeeping operations (PKOs) some individuals are involved in sexual exploitation and abuse of the host country’s population, buying of sexual services and trafficking of prostitutes. Far from being a new phenomenon it goes back a long time, and reports on the issue have increased over the years. All too frequently we read about peacekeepers visiting prostitutes, committing rape, or in other ways sexually exploiting host populations. Some peacekeepers are taking advantage of the power their work gives them, and becoming abusers rather than protectors in situations where the host population is powerless and in dire need of protection. Peacekeepers’ abuse of their mandate is inflicting severe damage on host societies and often results in a number of unintended consequences such as human rights violations, rapid spread of HIV, decreased trust in the UN as well as other international aid agencies, and harmful changes to gender patterns. Women and children, both girls and boys, are especially exposed. Having already suffered from war and instability they risk becoming even more physically and mentally wounded. Peacekeeping operations risk doing more harm than good in African war zones, and if they cannot learn from previous mistakes maybe they ought to stay at home. We do not argue for the latter; rather, we point towards the urgent need to change explicit and implicit patterns and habits in international peacekeeping operations in relation to sexual exploitation and abuse (SEA) in Africa. In this Policy Note we focus predominantly on military staff, but acknowledge that the civilian staff of PKOs, and international aid workers, are also implicated. On the other hand it should initially be pointed out that most PKO staff are not sexual exploiters and abusers.

Sidor