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Measuring democracy and human rights in Southern Africa

Upphovspersoner: Davids, Yul Derek | Melber, Henning
Utgivare: Nordiska Afrikainstitutet | Uppsala : Nordiska Afrikainstitutet
År: 2002
Ämnesord: Democratisation, Liberation, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa, Southern Africa, SOCIAL SCIENCES, SAMHÄLLSVETENSKAP
Are there ways and means of measuring democracy and “good governance”? The contributions to this Discussion Paper present attempts to do this by means of surveys on democratic attitudes in Mozambique and Namibia respectively as well as by exploring the degree of commitment to and violation of human rights in a comparative perspective in Namibia and South Africa. They illustrate attitudes by offering empirical evidence of the preferences and views of local people, as well as by examining the track record of a human rights culture. In doing so, by going beyond a level of theoretical analysis, they offer concrete evidence of attitudes prevalent among both individuals and state agencies in societies of Southern Africa.

AU, NEPAD and the APRM : democratisation efforts explored

Upphovspersoner: Fombad, Charles Manga | Kebonang, Zein | Melber, Henning
Utgivare: Nordiska Afrikainstitutet | Uppsala : Nordiska Afrikainstitutet
År: 2006
Ämnesord: Institutional framework, African organizations, African Union, NEPAD, Democratization, Governance, Government policy, Development strategy, Legal aspects, Political science, Statsvetenskap
The African Union (AU) and the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD) represent an unprecedented collective political effort by African governments at the beginning of the 21st century to address issues of democracy and good governance on a continental scale within an emerging framework of institutions and instruments designed to assist in this effort. The visible commitments to jointly tackle political and socioeconomic challenges in order to overcome the structural legacies that hamper national and social development are reflected in the adoption of a variety of programmatic blueprints and a series of newly created or recently strengthened institutions. The most visible of these since the integration of NEPAD into the AU is the African Peer Review Mechanism (APRM), a process- aimed at addressing some of the challenges on the basis of a voluntary assessment of African government policies. The contributions to this publication trace these recent developments from a policy perspective and explore the scope and limitations of current democratisation efforts. Going beyond the rhetoric surrounding the emergence of the new initiatives, the authors provide an interim and realistic prognosis of the prospects for these new dynamics to achieve the declared goals of sustainable and meaningful change.

War and peace in the Democratic Republic of the Congo

Upphovsperson: Weiss, Herbert F.
Utgivare: Nordiska Afrikainstitutet | Uppsala : Nordiska Afrikainstitutet
År: 2000
Ämnesord: Congo DR, Zaire, Central Africa, War, Conflict Resolution, Peace Agreement, History, Post war, Political science, Statsvetenskap
A report on the last years' events in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, which have transformed the country into an arena of international and internal violence and conflict involving so many participants that it can be described as the first African continental war. The study also contains a historical background to the recent events in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

How to be a 'proper' woman in the time of AIDS

Upphovspersoner: Jassey, Katja | Nyanzi, Stella
Utgivare: Nordiska Afrikainstitutet | Uppsala : Nordiska Afrikainstitutet
År: 2007
Ämnesord: womens role, gender relations, feminism, sexuality, Hiv, aids, Social change, attitudes, information campaigns, behavioural sciences, South Africa, Uganda, Gambia, Sociology, Sociologi
How to Be a ‘Proper’ Women in the Time of AIDS is written as a piece of music for multiple voices. The voices of Katja Jassey and Stella Nyanzi – both professional women, both mothers, both anthropologists, one European, one African – are intertwined with the voices of other women (and men) telling about their lives coping with AIDS and/or struggling against the epidemic.  Personal storylines and interviews are interspersed with analytical reflections and a string of amazing photographs of African HIV/AIDS billboard posters, captured by Suzy Bernstein. Unconventional questions are posed: What kind of sexuality is portrayed in the anti-HIV/AIDS campaigns? Why is there such an absence of messages that would include or make sense to those living with HIV? What does it mean to be a ‘proper’ woman in the time of AIDS? The authors decided that instead of producing yet another publication citing the number of people infected, they would reflect on their own stories and professional experience, how they had come to think and react to HIV, and how their different positions influenced their understandings. By doing so they manage to create new insights and open new perspectives. They don’t say what is right and wrong. They say stop! Stop awhile and think about yourselves. Stop and think for yourselves.

Armed struggle and democracy : the case of South Africa

Upphovsperson: Legassick, Martin
Utgivare: Nordiska Afrikainstitutet | Uppsala : Nordiska Afrikainstitutet
År: 2002
Ämnesord: Armed struggle, democracy, Liberation, ANC, Historical analysis, Political culture, South Africa, SOCIAL SCIENCES, SAMHÄLLSVETENSKAP
The impact of the concept(s) of armed struggle for the notion(s) of democracy in South(ern) Africa is the focus of this paper. Originally submitted to a conference on '(Re-) Conceptualising Democracy and Liberation in Southern Africa', held in Windhoek/Namibia during July 2002, it argues from the point of departure of the personal involvement of the author in the issues raised. The author was part of a group which criticised the strategy of armed struggle in the ANC. For the articulation of this dissenting view they were suspended from the movement in 1979 and finally expelled in 1985. With this paper he inspires a debate, which can claim relevance for current issues of democracy in South Africa and the Southern African region more generally. Given the degree of personal involvement of its author, this analysis is contemporary history based on personal insights, and provides arguments for a necessary discussion.

Africa, regional cooperation and the world market : socio-economic strategies in times of global trade regimes

Upphovspersoner: Brüntrup, Michael | Melber, Henning | Taylor, Ian
Utgivare: Nordiska Afrikainstitutet | Uppsala : Nordiska Afrikainstitutet
År: 2006
Ämnesord: Regional cooperation, international trade, Trade liberalization, Globalization, international economic relations, regional integration, agricultural markets, European Union, NEPAD, Senegal, Africa, Business and economics, Ekonomi
Under the regime of the World Trade Organisation (WTO), local and regional policies are increasingly determined by global factors. One example is the New Partnership for Africa's Development (NEPAD). It stresses an earlier notion of African Renaissance, which includes the emphasis on collective self-reliance, but at the same time seeks closer cooperation with the global trade system and its international agencies. Bi- and multilateral trade relations between external actors and individual African states or regional blocs are becoming ever more decisive. This is also true of the more recently negotiated Economic Partnership Agreements (EPAs) in the post-Lomé era of EU-African relations. In light of such trends the question of coherence between trade as aid and other areas of development strategy and cooperation remains to be answered. The contributions to this Discussion Paper reflect upon related matters of socio-economically viable strategies seeking to reconcile the global and the regional in an African perspective. They were originally presented to the Panel 'Regional Cooperation in Sub-Saharan Africa: Between Collective Self-Reliance and Global Trade Regimes'” organised by the Nordic Africa Institute within the 11th General Conference of the European Association of Development Research and Training Institutes (EADI) in September 2005 in Bonn.

Foreign aid, debt and growth in Zambia

Upphovspersoner: Andersson, Per-Åke | Bigsten, Arne | Persson, Håkan
Utgivare: Nordiska Afrikainstitutet | Uppsala : Nordiska Afrikainstitutet
År: 2000
Ämnesord: Zambia, Southern Africa, Development aid, external debt, economic development, investment, economic conditions, Business and economics, Ekonomi
This study first discusses the structural problems of Zambia and the policies of adjustment that have been tried. It then uses a computable general equilibrium model to analyse the impact of various strategies with regard to external resource transfers. It compares the impacts of foreign loans or grants to the private and the public sectors, as well as the impact of a turnaround of the country's fortunes with regard to its external terms of trade. The results of the policy analysis show that the scope for growth is highly dependent on the tightness of the external resource constraint.

Conflict as integration : youth aspiration to personhood in the teleology of Sierra Leone's 'senseless war'

Upphovsperson: King, Nathaniel
Utgivare: Nordiska Afrikainstitutet | Nordiska Afrikainstitutet, Conflict, Displacement and Transformation | Uppsala : Nordiska Afrikainstitutet
År: 2007
Ämnesord: Civil war, conflicts, attitudes, public opinion polls, social surveys, youth, child soldiers, Sierra Leone, Peace and conflict research, Freds- och konfliktforskning
The rebel war in Sierra Leone has been given various characterisations. One of the most commonplace of them brands it a ‘senseless war’. In this study the author examines the views of the Sierra Leoneans themselves on this notion, and through a sociological lens he explores the “youthscape“ of the war. The study also revisits some of the central works on the Sierra Leonean war by authors such as Paul Richards, Ibrahim Adbdullah and Yusuf Bangura.

The New Partnership for Africa's Development (NEPAD) : African perspectives

Upphovsperson: Melber, Henning
Utgivare: Nordiska Afrikainstitutet | Uppsala : Nordiska Afrikainstitutet
År: 2002
Ämnesord: International cooperation, Partnership, Capacity building, SOCIAL SCIENCES, SAMHÄLLSVETENSKAP
At the end of February 2002 the GermannHanns Seidel Foundation held its annual consultative meeting with African counterparts from projects in nine different countries on the continent. The subject oriented workshop discussed "The New Partnership for African Development" (NEPAD) and its implications from the point of view of the participants. This Discussion Paper publishes some of the presentations to the workshop in an effort to document the current debate just initiated from different positions. It thereby aims to contribute to a process of taking the latest programmatic document from the African heads of state serious in its possible implications for the future development of the continent.

Guerrilla government : political changes in the southern Sudan during the 1990s

Upphovsperson: Rolandsen, Øystein H.
Utgivare: Nordiska Afrikainstitutet | Uppsala : Nordiska Afrikainstitutet
År: 2005
Ämnesord: Sudan, southern Sudan, sudan people´s liberation, movement, army, government, Civil war, conventions, political development, political reform, Political science, Statsvetenskap
Although it suffered a serious setback when, in 1991, three senior commanders tried to wrestle control from its leader, John Garang, the SPLM/A has remained the main rebel organisation in the southern Sudan since the start of the second civil war in 1983. At a national level the SPLM/As influence over political development in the south has been matched only by the government in Khartoum and its armed forces, and at a local level only by chiefs, who derive their power from the old system of indirect rule, established by the British during the colonial period. An understanding of the changes and processes within the SPLM/A is, therefore, essential to an analysis of the Sudans contemporary history and current events, which includes continuing peace negotiations, and the planning of post-war southern Sudan. This volume analyses the main events leading up to the SPLM/As current position of supremacy and follows the process of internal reform that has brought about a nascent state structure amidst a devastating civil war and continuous humanitarian crisis.The book consists of three chronologically ordered, integrated parts, where the first part discusses the effect of the split in 1991 and the movements political and administrative structures prior to its National Convention in 1994. The activities of southern rebels, traditional structures and humanitarian agencies are described, and the study shows how the interaction between these institutions constituted a unique political system.The 1994 Convention is discussed in the second part. The Convention was, and to some extent still is, regarded by most members of the SPLM/A as one of the Movement’s greatest achievements. Here the processes leading up to the National Convention is recaptured; preparations and the event itself are discussed thoroughly.Finally, the book analyses the significance of the Convention and its reforms in the light of later attempts at implementation when, in the last part of the 1990s, political paralysis set in as the Movement experienced unprecedented military success. The discussion is brought to a conclusion with a brief summary of events during the period 2000–2004 and presents some thoughts on the future government of the south Sudan. Guerrilla Government is of interest to academics, humanitarian workers and diplomats concerned with the Sudan’s contemporary history, civil wars and humanitarian operations in a war-zone. The book contributes towards documenting the experience of the southern Sudanese and the pretext for the current peace process, and provides ample case material for students of insurgencies and internal conflicts. Explaining the political and military background to today’s complex situation in the South, Guerrilla Government should be studied by everyone who wishes to contribute to the rebuilding of a war-torn Sudan.

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