African Studies Commons^™

Editorial Note, Sisay Asefa

International Journal of African Development

No abstract provided.

International Journal Of African Development, Vol. 1, Issue 1

International Journal of African Development

Complete issue of International Journal of African Development, Volume 1, Issue 1.

Expanding Collaborations And Institutional Linkages Between U.S. And Ethiopian Universities, Admasu Tsegaye

Distinguished Lectures on Africa

Dr. Admasu Tsegaye, president and associate professor of Addis Ababa University since March 2011, is currently serving as a Fulbright Scholar at Oklahoma State University. His research and journal articles focus on various aspects of biodiversity, genetic diversity and physiology of indigenous crops.

The Potential Of Youth Savings Accounts In Three East African Countries: Kenya, Tanzania, And Uganda, Njeri Kagotho, Proscovia Nabunya, Fred Ssewamala, Vilma Ilic

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

This paper explores the potential of expanding a youth-focused asset-based intervention program for poor communities heavily affected by HIV and AIDS-currently underway in one East African country, Uganda-into similar communities in the other two East African countries: Kenya and Tanzania. This concept paper is informed by prior work on youth-focused asset-based programs first proposed in the United States of America and now successfully implemented in Uganda (Ssewamala, 2008; Ssewamala, Alicea, Bannon, & Ismayilova, 2008; Ssewamala & Ismayilova, 2008, 2009) and grounded in an asset-based development theoretical framework, which denotes an integrated approach to human, social, and economic capital development (Sherraden, …

Sustainable Chemistry And Business In The United States And Africa, Mo Hunsen

Distinguished Lectures on Africa

Dr. Mo Hunsen is chair of the Department of Chemistry at Kenyon College in Gambier, Ohio. His research interests focus on green chemical and enzymatic catalysis in carbohydrate and polymer chemistry. His research also involves the use of natural product based prevention of cancer and Alzheimer’s disease.

Hunsen has a passion for exploring how green and sustainable chemistry and technology could serve as a platform for green businesses that transform cheap and abundant natural resources to value-added products. He is currently associate editor of Green and Sustainable Chemistry and on the editorial board of Organic Chemistry Current Research, and …

From Building Evaluation Capacity To Supporting Evaluation Capacity Development: The Cases Of Democratic Republic Of Congo, Niger, And South Africa, Michele Tarsilla

Dissertations

Building on both the current thinking among international development practitioners and the on-going scholarly debate on evaluation capacity development (ECD), this study aims to identify strategies that might help to strengthen national evaluation capacity in a variety of countries in a more inclusive and sustainable fashion in the future. Based on a case study design featuring an extensive literature review of specialized literature (both within and outside the evaluation field), a series of semi-structured interviews and three rounds of online validation sessions held with ECD researchers, funders and implementers; this study aims at three main objectives. First, in an attempt …

Africa And The Perversities Of International Capital Flows, Howard Stein

Distinguished Lectures on Africa

Dr. Howard Stein is a professor in the University of Michigan’s Department of Afro-American and African Studies and he also teaches in the Department of Epidemiology in the School of Public Health.

A development economist educated in Canada, the United States and the United Kingdom, Dr. Stein has taught in both Asia and Africa. His research has focused on foreign aid, finance and development, structural adjustment, health and development and industrial policy.

Complementary And Adversarial Stances In State-Civil Society Relationships And Their Implications For Democratization And Development: The Case Of Ethiopia, Teshome Tadesse

International Conference on African Development Archives

State-society relations in Ethiopia have throughout history been one of cooperation rather than competition and destruction at least when it comes to the defense of the motherland. This short paper, attempts to examine the place of civil society vis-a-vis the all-powerful position of the state in Ethiopia and its behaviors in times of national danger or war where both complement each other and defeat the enemy. The states , during these times of national threats, go to a point where it literally begs national communities through traditional associations or civil societal groups and successfully repulses the aggressor. But once the …

Africa After 9/11: Rethinking U.S. Definitions And Policies, David Wiley

Distinguished Lectures on Africa

David Wiley (Ph.D. Princeton) is a professor of sociology and African studies at Michigan State University. He served as director of the African Studies Centers at Michigan State University (1978-08) and University of Wisconsin-Madison (1972-77). His research has focused on Zambia (urban housing and development); Zimbabwe (race relations, religious movements); Kenya (participatory fisheries management); South Africa (urban environment) as a Fulbright-Hays Senior Fellow at the University of KwaZulu-Natal, as well as internationalization and less commonly taught languages in the U.S. and, currently, militarization in Africa. His most recent publication is “International and Language Education for a Global Future: Fifty Years …

Distinguished Lectures On Africa-Spring 2012, Center For African Development Policy Research

Distinguished Lectures on Africa

Poster for Distinguished Lectures on Africa

Dr. Bilinda Straight, Associate Professor of Anthropology, Western Michigan University

Dr. Theodore Vestal, Professor Emeritus of Political Science, Oklahoma State University

Dr. David Wiley, Professor of Sociology, Former Director of African Studies Center, Michigan State University

Ethiopian-American Relations During The Reign Of Emperor Haile Selassie, 1930-1974, Theodore Vestal

Distinguished Lectures on Africa

Theodore M. “Ted” Vestal, (Ph.D., Stanford) is professor emeritus of political science at Oklahoma State University and author of “The Lion of Judah in the New World: Emperor Haile Selassie of Ethiopia and the Shaping of Americans’ Attitudes toward Africa” (Preager Publishing, 2011). In 1964-66 he served as a Peace Corps executive in Ethiopia and has maintained an academic interest in the country and its people ever since. His book, “Ethiopia: A Post-Cold War African State,” was published in 1999” (Preager Publishing). Vestal has served as an expert witness in over 115 political asylum cases of Ethiopians and Eritreans since …

Health Outcomes Of Inter-Community Violence In Three Northern Kenyan Pastoralist Communities, Bilinda Straight

Distinguished Lectures on Africa

Bilinda Straight (Ph.D., University of Michigan, 1997) is associate professor of Anthropology at Western Michigan University. She works with Samburu pastoralists in northern Kenya on consciousness, cosmology, material culture, gender, health, and violence. She has published scholarly articles in a variety of journals and edited volumes. She is the editor of “Women on the Verge of Home” (SUNY, 2005), and author of “Miracles and Extraordinary Experience in Northern Kenya” (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2007). She has been the recipient of numerous grants and awards, including Fulbright and National Science Foundation.

Authoritarianism And Economic Development: Ethiopia's Investment Gamble, Chuck Schaefer

Distinguished Lectures on Africa

Prior to his positions at Valparaiso University, Dr. Schaefer taught at Addis Ababa University in Ethiopia as a Fulbright Lecturer and has since focused his research in Ethiopia. As an economic historian, Dr. Schaefer analyzes Ethiopia’s integration into the world economy in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, looking strictly at economic indices such as trade, capital creation, money supply and credit and lending in order to partially answer the question: Why is Ethiopia poor? His research has since shifted to answer the question: Why is there conflict in Ethiopia and what can be done about it? This research …

Partners For Progress And Modernization: American—Ethiopian Relations, Assefa Mehretu

Distinguished Lectures on Africa

Flyer for public lecture includes biographical information about the speaker.

U.S. Policy Towards The Horn Of Africa, David Shinn

Distinguished Lectures on Africa

Ambassador David Shinn served for 37 years in the U.S. Foreign Service, with assignments at embassies in Lebanon, Kenya and Tanzania; deputy chief of mission in Mauritania, Cameroon and Sudan; and ambassador to Burkina Faso and Ethiopia. His State Department assignments included assistant desk officer for Ethiopia, desk officer for Somalia, Djibouti, Uganda and Tanzania; coordinator for Somalia during the international intervention in the early 1990s; and director of East African, Horn of Africa and Indian Ocean Island affairs. He writes extensively in academic and policy journals on the Horn of Africa and China-Africa relations and speaks around the world …

The 6th International Conference On The State Of Africa: Challenges And Opportunities For Sustainable Development And Peace In Africa In The 21st Century, Sisay Asefa

International Conference on African Development Archives

No abstract provided.

African Water: An Experience With Project Management In Bulima, Tanzania, Robert Sharp

Honors Theses

Details the author's experiences researching, designing, and implementing a water system for a boarding school in Africa.

Improving Higher Education In Africa: Lessons From Universities In Ethiopia And Egypt, Frank H. Witt

Distinguished Lectures on Africa

Flyer for public lecture includes biographical information about the speaker.

The Perceived Impacts Of The 14-Year (1989-2003) Civil War On Higher Education In Liberia: An Analysis Of The Case For The University Of Liberia And Cuttington University, Manjerngie Cecelia Ndebe

Dissertations

Civil wars affect the social systems of a nation, including higher education. The purpose of this study was to do an in-depth concurrent mixed method analysis of the perceived impacts of the 14-year (1989–2003) civil war on higher education institutions in Liberia during the civil war years and from the end of the civil war in 2003 to the point of data collection in 2007. The literature is replete with expert opinions on the impacts of the Liberian civil war, but only limited evidence for quantitative and qualitative studies on war impacts in general exists.

No study on the context …

A Multidisciplinary Conference On The Challenges & Opportunities For Sustainable Development In Ethiopia & The Greater Horn Of Africa

International Conference on African Development Archives

No abstract provided.

Ethnosymbolism And The Dismemberment Of The State In The Horn Of Africa: The Ethiopian Case Of Ethnic Federalism, Assefa Mehretu

International Conference on African Development Archives

The paper has three major objectives. The first is to do a critical review of the current largely antagonistic narratives of ethnic instrumentalism in Ethiopia and the Horn of Africa that have ultimately led to the balkanization of the state and caused serious political instability and fratricidal conflicts with traumatic and costly consequences in the region. The second is to do a critical review of the policy of the current Ethiopian government to implement ethno-territorial formations under the rubric of killils (Amharic for territorial enclosures), and to demonstrate how this may seriously vitiate national integration along compatible cultural and economic …

A Mixed Methods Analysis Of Social Capital Of Liberian Refugee Women In Ghana, Alice Boateng

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

This article reports on a mixed methods study of Liberian refugee women at the Buduburam refugee camp in Ghana. The study examined the role and impact of social capital on the women's well-being. Three types of social capital - bonding, bridging, and linking - were examined. The study's findings revealed that although the women had some bonding social capital, they possessed very little bridging social capital, and linking social capital was non-existent. These findings suggest that the refugee women may benefit from national and internationalp olicies andp rograms that seek to both strengthen existing and create new sources of social …

Degrees Of Institutionalization: Family Planning Policies And Programs In Senegal, 1980-2005, Yazmine Michelle Watts

Dissertations

Senegal's population growth rate of 2.7% is greater than double that of the world average of 1.16%. The Government of Senegal acknowledges the population problem and has made efforts to address this issue. For over the past two decades the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) has served as the predominant donor in Senegal's health sector and has been a strong supporter of Senegal's family planning program. The evolution of family planning in Senegal cannot be understood without considering the roles of culture, religion, decentralization and funding in the institutionalization process. This research addresses important questions concerning factors that …

Science Education Policy For Emergency, Conflict, And Post-Conflict: An Analysis Of Trends And Implications For The Science Education Program In Uganda, Betty Pacutho Udongo

Dissertations

This study analyzes the impact of armed conflicts on the development of education policy and particularly science education program in Uganda. Since independence from the British colonial rule, Uganda has experienced a series of armed conflicts, with the most devastating being the 21 years of conflict in Northern Uganda.

The research study was guided by the following questions: (1) What is the level of government funding towards improving science education program in Uganda? (2) Have recent initiatives, such as free Primary and Secondary education, compulsory science, and 75% sponsorship for science-based courses, had a measurable impact on the proportion of …

Maternal Education And Child Nutrition: Evidence From The 2000 And 2005 Ethiopian Demographic And Health Surveys, Alemayehu Azeze Ambel

International Conference on African Development Archives

I used the 2000 and 2005 Ethiopian Demographic and Health Surveys to analyze the effect of maternal education and its pathways on chronic and acute malnutrition in Ethiopia. The pathways examined in this study are socioeconomic status, maternal health-seeking behavior, maternal knowledge of health and family planning and reproductive behavior. I find that maternal education works through all except health-seeking behavior. I also find that maternal education and its pathways are more relevant and robust in explaining chronic than acute malnutrition. Socioeconomic status is the most important factor linking maternal education and child nutritional status. Although girls’ education is a …

Challenges Of Regional Peace After The Comprehensive Peace Agreement In Sudan, Elke Grawert

International Conference on African Development Archives

The Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA), concluded between the Government of Sudan and the leadership of the Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA) in January 2005, ended a 22 years lasting civil war. The core of the CPA document is the agreement on power and wealth sharing, tackling the main causes of the conflict: unfair distribution of power and marginalization of the majority of the population. The conclusion of the CPA is not only the merit of the two warring parties but also an outcome of the commitment of the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD), the special envoy of the Kenyan government, …

A Problem Of Social Capital And Cultural Norms?, Salaam Yitbarek

International Conference on African Development Archives

This paper asserts that in Ethiopian society, there exist certain cultural norms or ‘dysfunctional behaviours’ that inhibit effective communication, lead to intra-group conflict, and make conflict resolution difficult. This has resulted in a diminished capacity for cooperation and a dearth of social capital and civil society, which does not bode well for development and democracy. It is imperative that research is expanded in the neglected area of cultural norms and social capital in Ethiopian society, and that intervention strategies are designed to increase social capital by addressing cultural norms directly through social marketing, awareness raising, and other mechanisms.

What Role Should Civil Society Organizations Play To Address Ethnic Conflicts In Ethiopia?, Sisay Gebre-Egziabher

International Conference on African Development Archives

The Ethiopian people are ethnically heterogeneous, speaking multiplicity languages comprising of more than 100 groups. Hence, the country presents a mosaic of nationalities, each speaking a dialect of one of more than 70 languages and has a long history of rich culture and strong social values. Although there were some ethnic-conflicts, that go back a long way, among few of the ethnic groups (mainly for control over resources, such as grazing land, water points, cultivable land), people solved such conflicts using their own conflict resolution mechanism; for instance elders meeting and community tribunal system. The indigenous civil society groups have …

Party Politics, Political Polarization And The Future Of Ethiopian Democracy, Merera Gudina

International Conference on African Development Archives

A closer glance at the source of what appears to be a curse of history can be explained largely by the political polarization and fragmentation between and among Ethiopian political parties, which time and again failed to set a common agenda and mobilize millions for a common good.

Determinants Of Institutional Quality In Sub-Saharan African Countries, Eyerusalem G. Siba

International Conference on African Development Archives

In this study, a number of factors have been considered as potential determinants of institutional quality in sub-Saharan African countries. The empirical analysis has shown that historical factors such as state legitimacy determine the quality of current institutions in the region. Foreign aid dependence is found to erode quality of governance as measured by rule of law, government effectiveness and control of corruption. Variability of aid is found to counterbalance the destructive nature of high level of aid dependence. However, the last result is not retained in the robust regression analysis performed. Countries with strong political constraints on the ruling …