Search

There is increasing evidence that nutrient differences observed among crop varieties or animal breeds belonging to the same species are sometimes greater than differences between species. Parkia biglobosa is an important tree species that provides edible products and income to rural households in West Africa. To better understand intra-species nutrient variability of P. biglobosa edible products, a review on the nutrient content of its pulp and seeds (raw and fermented) was conducted. Google scholar and the keywords "P. biglobosa" AND "nutrition" were used to screen the available literature from 1980 onwards, and the Zotero software was used to manage references. A step-wise assessment of titles, abstracts and full papers, led to a selection of 69 papers from which data were retrieved following FAO INFOODS guidelines. After data harmonization and quality checks, 42 papers were retained and used to extract data to populate a nutrient database. Despite an apparent abundance of nutrient analyses focused on P. biglobosa's edible products, the quality of data available was poor and very few authors presented additional information, such as soil characteristics, climate, maturity at harvest, etc. that could influence the nutritional content of the products. Many data gaps remain. The present study will stimulate further investigations into nutrient composition of P. biglobosa products and ultimately will contribute to selecting nutritionally "+" trees for multiplication and/or domestication of the species. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper argues for generation to be incorporated into the analysis of social reproduction to open new ways of thinking about the significance of children's unpaid work in and for their families. This paper situates its argument in relation to social reproduction theory and the conceptualization of generation in childhood studies and development studies. It draws on a longitudinal study of girls growing up in contemporary Benin and Togo conducted by Plan Benin and Plan Togo. This paper shows how the work of social reproduction is distributed across the household with children, especially girls, playing a large part in these activities. Trading and farming are the main economic activities of women, and girls gradually extend their knowledge of how to farm and trade as they get older. This paper concludes that placing generation into the centre of social reproduction theory will not only make visible the work that children do in subsistence economies but is also important for answering the perennial question of social reproduction theory in capitalist economies: who pays for that 'strange commodity', 'living labour' to be reproduced. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As a process, containerization in Africa is still on-going. In the last decades, a number of new port projects have emerged in parallel with the reorganization of services by shipping companies. To reflect these changes, this paper studies several questions on the geographic differentiation of maritime connectivities across the continent as well as on the longitudinal trends in maritime connectivities in relation to evolving economic, trade and logistical contexts. To this end, we propose a synthetic visualization of the country-level containerized links using the Liner Shipping Bilateral Connectivity Indicator (LSBCI). The resulting graph, obtained through Multidimensional Scaling (MDS), shows that West Africa and East Africa appear as relatively separated subsystems, mediated by several countries in the Northern and the Southern parts of Africa. Between 2006 and 2016, West Africa, initially tied to Europe and America, is increasingly tied to Asia. Our results show major improvements in the maritime connectivity of Morocco, Djibouti and several West African ports. Conversely, most of mainland East African countries stagnate or decline. Connectivities have not converged across the continent. In some cases changes in maritime connectivity mostly result from variations in vessel size. We explore a method to identify these situations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyses the engagement of non-state actors (NSAs) in regional migration policy processes in the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS). It identifies four categories of NSAs – non-governmental organisations (NGOs), civil society organisations (CSOs), academia and the media – as the key actors engaged in regional migration governance processes in West Africa. The paper adopts a social constructivist approach and a multilevel perspective, drawing on interviews, surveys and an extensive analysis of ECOWAS policy documents. The paper argues that invented, invited and instrumentalised spaces for engagement between state and non-state actors in ECOWAS manifest in a complex web of regional and national interests contributing to regional migration governance from 'below'. Regional migration governance from below consists of transnational societal networks characterised by the interactions of NSAs across borders to influence policies and practices at the regional level. The analysis reveals that NSA engagement results in reinforcing regional policies, policy diffusion through regional processes and circumventing restrictive national agendas through adopting innovative regional approaches. These results contribute to strengthening the institutional framework for regional migration governance in West Africa. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper situates Morocco's invasion of the West African Songhai Empire in 1591 within the global histories of race, slavery, and capitalism. Morocco's invasion, which took place during the height of the Sàdi dynasty (1554–1659), provided Morocco with an influx of capital through Black West African slave labour on Morocco's sugar plantations and its newfound control over the lucrative gold and salt mines of West Africa. Such wealth and power bolstered Morocco's regional and global position in the vital node where Africa, Europe, the Mediterranean, and Atlantic all converge. This paper will address the following questions: how did Morocco's shift from enslaving non-Muslims to enslaving Muslim West Africans from the Songhai based on their race lay down the foundations for centuries of anti-Black violence in North Africa? (2) how did Black slave labour from the Songhai allow Morocco to become England's primary source of sugar imports prior to the rise of sugar plantations in the Americas and the Caribbean? (3) how can we move beyond normative taxonomies that view North and West Africa as separate spaces instead of as regions whose conditions were shaped by one another? Ultimately, my paper will demonstrate how the Sàdi dynasty was an active player in the rise of racialized forms of slavery that eventually dominated the Atlantic for centuries and whose afterlives continue to endure on both sides of the Atlantic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This issue of African Security is dedicated to the memory of Professor Russell C. Smandych, a respected academic and mentor. Russell passed away in May 2023 after battling cancer. He was known for his dedication to mentoring international students and conducting globally relevant research. The issue includes papers on topics such as media reform in Nigeria, national identity construction in the face of counter-terrorism measures, farmer-herder conflicts in Ghana, and the relationship between population density and political violence in North and West Africa. The authors pay tribute to Russell's impact and express their gratitude for his friendship and guidance. [Extracted from the article]

Objectives: Persons with disabilities (PWD) often experience risks associated with HIV/AIDS including unmet needs and overlooked stigmatization. This could be attributed to certain misconceptions such as PWDs are asexual, and cannot enjoy sexual pleasure, among others. Therefore, this paper sought to investigate the extent of disability inclusion in recent National Strategic Plans (NSPs) for HIV/AIDS in West African countries. Methods: This study was a policy review of NSPs in 13 African countries. Relevant indicators in the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and the UNAIDS International Guidelines on HIV and Human Rights were used. Six indicators (identification of people living with disability (PLWD) as a key population, the inclusion of principles related to PWD within the NSPs on HIV/AIDS, protecting the rights of PWD, recognition of PWD as a vulnerable population at higher risk of HIV and in need of special protection, providing HIV-related support services for PWD and monitoring and evaluating the impact of HIV on PWD). Results: Findings from this study revealed that only 30% of West African countries recognized disability as an issue of concern. Also, 38.5% of these countries recognize the vulnerability of people with disabilities to HIV. However, only a few (7.6%) provided support in the context of special needs, monitoring, and surveillance specifically for persons with disabilities. Conclusion: Most of the West African NSPs are outdated and due for renewal. Therefore, it is necessary to integrate the needs of persons with disabilities within the context of HIV/AIDS in the NSPs. More importantly, support and services should also be prioritized among the vulnerable groups to optimize inclusion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper shows how coastal and island peoples of Guinea-Bissau continue to prefer staying put over migrating when faced with manifestations of climate change and environmental disrepair. This reaction contradicts widely held interpretations of climate migration, which emphasize anti-immigrant sentiments and border regimes. We examine how historically marginalized Bissau-Guineans respond to slow-onset climate and environmental events in the face of political jeopardy and inadequate governance. We find that while their most pressing livelihood challenges remain politically unaddressed, they mobilize collectively in the absence of state support. While seasonal and temporary migration improves households' conditions, communal togetherness and bonding reinforce a vital sense of security, allowing them to stay put. Coping with present and future climate and environmental changes depends on whether or not people's lives continue to be undermined through the creation and reproduction of vulnerability. To overcome the long-standing socio-economic and political dysfunctions overwhelming Bissau-Guineans, we highlight the urgency for an overturn of the state's attitudes and actions; of the dependency and cultural asymmetries by Western practices; and of the unjust support of civil society. Failure to provide basic requirements of good governance, self-reliance and communal support may no longer enable people to stay where they wish to. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since the proposal of the Belt and Road initiative in March 2015, the Chinese government has continued to increase its investment in transportation infrastructure construction in West African countries. To realize the scientific decision-making process for large-scale investment, this paper establishes a shipping network design–infrastructure investment joint optimization model. The abovementioned model aims to find the minimum generalized transportation cost in the study area and jointly optimizes the construction scheme of the regional inland transportation network (i.e., railway network), the expansion scheme of the port (i.e., container port) throughput capacity, and the operation scheme of the shipping network (i.e., container shipping network) given a limited budget. Based on the framework of the active set algorithm, an algorithm that can explore the local optimal solution of the abovementioned model is designed. Taking China–West Africa transportation as the research object, numerical experiments are carried out to verify the effectiveness of the model and algorithm. Two types of sensitivity analyses for different investment scales and origin-destination demand are designed. The results show that the proposed model and algorithm can effectively solve the abovementioned problem and can provide decision-making support for the Chinese government in formulating reasonable investment schemes for West Africa. This paper is a revised and expanded version of a paper entitled, 'Shipping network design–infrastructure investment joint optimization model' presented at the 3rd International Conference of the Yangtze River Research and Innovation Belt, Ningbo, China; 5–7 November 2020. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Edward Banfield was one of the first scholars clearly to describe the condition of peasant isolate social ordering, problematically terming it 'amoral familism'. James Scott offered a more positive framing by referring to the potential of 'escape agriculture' to sustain political autonomy. The present paper returns to these debates about peasant moral economy. Norms concerning production and distribution are not exogenous givens but products of communal organization and social context. Banfield's mistake was to refer to peasant autonomy as 'amoral'. Here, isolate ordering has a positive moral valency, and that public authority in zones of war or disaster recovery should seek to accommodate it. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This research paper investigates interactions of human capital, capital goods import and economic growth with a panel of 13 West African countries comprises of 7 low income and 6 low-middle income countries over the period of 1980–2018. The study adopts the Panel Auto-Regressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) cointegration techniques to establish a short and long-run relationship existing among the variables. Panel ARDL (Fixed effect) result revealed that the returns to equipment investment are moderately high on the average. Findings do not support the hypothesis that human capital makes production inputs more effective and helps countries gain from equipment investment and other imported investment for all the countries. This is due to inadequate knowhow and skill arising from the low levels of human capital in these countries. Determining the threshold of human capital development at which countries benefit from equipment investment, findings indicates that countries of the low-middle Income that exhibit a comparatively higher human capital (1.45 on the average) benefited more from imported capital stock and other importations than countries of the low income with very low human capital (1.27 on the average). Thus, we conclude that investment in human capital, innovation, and knowledge are significant contributors to economic growth and should be the priority of developing economies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper aims to initiate a discourse that connects allomothers, endemic to African culture, with collective manymothering attachments from a psychoanalytic perspective. This paper illuminates the process by which, beginning with West Africa, Black mothers adapted and carried the process of mothering with them to provide consistent nurturing, responsiveness, and attunement to their infants' and children's needs. This process of extending caregiving responsibilities to the community at large, which I have labeled manymothering, has created generations of resistance and resilience that have supported Black people to the present. The psychoanalytic lens of othermothers serves as an adaptive familial structure that has been sustained through intergenerational resilient transmission. The linkage between culture and spirituality as a means of ameliorating trauma and promoting resilience was examined. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The flood of the Senegal River is a resource for the populations of the Senegal valley, who practise agriculture, fishing and livestock farming in the annually flooded areas. The objective of this paper is to investigate the hydrological evolution of the Senegal River flood since the drought of the 1970s and the construction and management of the Manantali Dam. To this purpose, the paper analyses the evolution of several parameters of the flood hydrograph and defines the factors that determine the intensity of the flood. Also, a follow-up of the flooded areas in the valley is carried out using remote sensing. The results show that the flood hydrograph has been similar since the 1970s drought, due to the reduction in contributions from the Bafing after the construction of the Manantali Dam. As a result, the high floods depend now on the rainfall pattern in the Sudano-Sahelian zone of the watershed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The archaeology of the immediate coastline of West Africa remains surprisingly little understood, and what research has been undertaken has often focused on questions relating to sea-based interactions and the precolonial polities lying slightly inland. This paper reports the results of excavations on Ohlinhoué, a small lagoonal island in the western Republic of Bénin. A locally manufactured ceramic assemblage was recovered, together with a small suite of artifacts, including glass, metal, shell, and smoking pipes. These archaeological data provide insights into a small-scale, likely fishing and salt-producing community in this area between sea and river. As such, they provide an alternative to historical readings relating to well-known precolonial polities and trade entrepôts that feed popular historical narratives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper studies the association between caregiver–child interactions and early childhood development in literacy and numeracy in West and Central Africa. Data comes from Multiple Cluster Indicator Surveys (MICS) conducted in Central African Republic, Chad, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea-Bissau, Sierra Leone, and Togo between 2017 and 2020. A multilevel logistic regression is used to estimate the likelihood of being developmentally on track for 35,752 children aged 3–4 years. The results indicate that cognitively stimulating interactions with caregivers such as reading and telling stories are correlated with a higher likelihood of being developmentally on track. Interactions with mothers are associated with significantly higher odds of being developmentally on track but not interactions with fathers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While the location of violent events and their propensity to cluster together in space is increasingly well known, a deeper exploration of their spatiality and spatial evolution over time remains an emerging frontier in "Big Data"-driven conflict studies. The new Spatial Conflict Dynamics indicator (SCDi) introduced in this article contributes to fill this gap, by measuring both the intensity and spatial concentration of political violence at the subnational level. Articulating between point pattern and areal spatial analyses, the SCDi allows conflict researchers and analysts to not just map which regions experience the most violence but to track how the geography of conflict evolves over time. The SCDi identifies four spatial typologies of violence and can leverage political event data from most datasets with locational information and can be used for analyses across large multi-state regions, within a single state, or in more localized contexts. In this paper, we illustrate the SCDi with an application to the case of North and West Africa, analyzing over 30,000 discrete events through a twenty-two-year time span and across a twenty-two-state geographical area. We perform a longitudinal analysis of the SCDi typologies to show how the indicator can inform a theory of the spatial lifecycle of violence in the region. The indicator, therefore, has potential as both an analytic tool and a window on conflict episodes, showing how they can change from conflict initiation through resolution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper assesses the relationship between population density and political violence within North and West Africa. We find that while most violence currently occurs in rural areas, it also exhibits a classic distance-decay effect, commonly occurring near urbanized places. Regional differences are evident as Jihadist-led violence is increasingly rural in West Africa while urban violence was more common in North Africa. Important difference in states with major conflict are also present, exemplified by urbanized violence in Nigeria and rural violence in Mali. Our findings therefore provide mixed evidence for the typical "urbanization of conflict" discourse in the literature. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explains the Islamic expansion in Greater Senegambia in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries from an Atlantic perspective. It discusses the spread of the Islamic faith in West Africa and its diasporic continuities in Portugal and the New Kingdom of Granada (present-day Colombia) based on African oral traditions, scholarship from Africa and the Americas, chronicles, letters, and reports by European missionaries, travelers, traders, bureaucrats, and Inquisitorial and canonical prosecutions. The Islamic concept of da'wa, I argue, enabled Islamic preachers to reach out to a wide range of Senegambians before the Muslim revolutions. This expansion can be seen in the diaspora, primarily Wolof, and in the restraints imposed by African Muslims on Christian missionaries in Africa and the Americas. The knowledge produced in qur'anic schools was essential to Islamic social expansion, the preservation of Islamic belief in the diaspora, and the political orchestration that led to the jihads. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the linkage between the expansion of commercial shark-fishing markets and the extension of migratory cycles of fishers in the West African Sub–region. The paper shows the societal deconstruction that occurred following the massive expansion of shark fishing over previous decades. It also points out that the approach of public decision makers and fisheries managers has contributed to the depletion of shark stocks, at the same time as contributing to a better appreciation of the current public fisheries policies' limitations. Therefore, this paper aims to highlight the lack of efficiency during the emergence of this fishery in delivering a sound management framework to ensure long term sustainable exploitation of shark stocks. Sustainable exploitation through efficient management is yet to be achieved, in part due to the failure of current fisheries management models around the world, and despite the variety of legal instruments and management tools available. Finally, this contribution brings to the fore – a paradoxical reality – the fact that public policies for access regulation have led in many cases to the intensification of social conflicts for access to fishing grounds in West Africa. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Child servitude is a form of economic exploitation of children around the world. We examine this phenomenon with local specificity, in Liberia, where it represents a perennial failure of the government to protect children, who are among its most vulnerable citizens. Despite its persistence and high prevalence, child servitude has not been the focus of academic research on Liberia. This paper explores the interplay of transmuted American chattel slavery and indigenous specific Liberian cultural practices of human subjugation against a backdrop of socio-economic inequalities, and their linkages to contemporary child servitude in postwar Liberia. We discuss the impacts of child servitude on victims and recommend policy measures to protect the rights of Liberian children. If postwar Liberia is to achieve its pro-poor developmental agenda, policies must be formulated that address child servitude and other forms of exploitation against Liberian children. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Previous philosophical work on distrust in science has argued that understanding public distrust in science and scientific interventions requires that we pay careful attention not only to epistemic considerations (that is, beliefs about science), but also to values, and the emotional contexts in which assessments of scientific credibility are made. This is likely to be a truncated list of relevant factors for understanding trust/distrust, but these are certainly key areas of concern. The aim of this paper is not to further innumerate the list of relevant factors. Rather, it is to map the ways that these key areas (beliefs, values, and emotions) are related to each other. These are not distinct categories, but rather they interact, making our picture of distrust more complicated than we might otherwise imagine. This discussion will take place in the context of resistance to medical interventions. Notably, Ebola interventions in West Africa, HIV/AIDS testing in South Africa, and vaccines across the world. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Humanitarian agencies and military forces are increasingly interacting on the ground during humanitarian crises. These evolving relationships are often complicated and bring forward many implementation challenges. This paper repurposes this debate by describing three non-conflict humanitarian case studies and using them to reflect on the problematic history and applicability of formal frameworks and guidelines. Recommendations to improve the structures and processes for implementation of relief strategies are offered. If the delivery of humanitarian assistance during non-conflict humanitarian crises is to be efficient, civil–military interactions should receive greater systematic attention. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Poaching represents one of the most important issues in wildlife management and biodiversity conservation. In this paper, we analyzed effects of socioeconomic, institutional, and locational characteristics of villages in the periphery of the W Reserve in West Africa on poaching. We used a reduced form model and unique data from 93 villages. Our empirical results showed that population size and distance of the villages to the reserve were related to poaching in the reserve. Villages with larger populations and in closer proximity to the reserve were associated with greater poaching in the reserve. Overall, these results suggest that policies to reduce poaching in the reserve must be considered in a comprehensive framework and include migration incentives for villages with larger populations and are closer to the reserve. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The issue of increased renewable energy consumption has been widely debated, and this has become a central energy policy concern for developing and developed countries. The existing literature provides evidence that there is a positive relationship between energy consumption and economic growth in developed economies. However, findings in respect of developing/emerging economies remain inconclusive. Thus, this paper aims to investigate the impact on renewable energy consumption on economic growth by controlling other macroeconomic variables for regions of Sub-Saharan Africa (East, Central and West) covering the 1990–2018 sample period. For this purpose, common correlated effects mean group estimator (CCEMG) and Dumitrescu-Hurlin Granger causality test approach are used to consider both cross-sectional dependency and cross-country heterogeneity across countries. The CCEMG result indicates that an increase in renewable energy consumption led to reduction in economic growth even when the sample is analyzed based on geographical locations as East, West, and Central Africa. Granger causality results validate the feedback hypothesis for only Central Africa; the growth hypothesis is supported for East and West Africa. The empirical results suggest that energy planners, governments, and policy makers must act together to increase the renewable energy consumption share in her energy mix to promote economic growth for regions of Sub-Saharan Africa. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As entering the twenty-first century, the degradation of Africa’s marine environment has become increasingly severe due to rapid population growth, urbanisation, natural disasters, the pressures of overfishing and economic development. Therefore, protecting and restoring Africa’s marine ecosystems is essential to realize the benefits of these resources at the global and regional levels. This paper drew on ecological indicators such as catch data, mean trophic level (TLm), relative primary production required (%PPR), and loss in secondary production index (L index) to measure and assess the impact of marine fisheries on ecosystems. Meanwhile, it constructed a pathway model based on the Environmental Kuznets Curve (EKC) hypothesis to assess ecosystem-level impacts by analysing how economic growth and urbanisation affect the structural diversity of marine ecosystems in West Africa, to study the more complete processes associated with marine resource depletion. Economic growth and urbanisation were found to have both direct and indirect effects on marine trophic structure, and the combined effects suggest that the economic EKC hypothesis does not apply to the marine ecosystem of West Africa, while the urban EKC hypothesis is supported, and that increased levels of urbanisation will benefit diversity of marine fishery catch in West Africa. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates whether de facto and de jure conditions in trade, financial, and information globalization affect CO2 emissions in the West African sub-region using the Method of Moments Quantile Regression (MMQR) with fixed effects. The Stochastic Impact by Regression on Population, Affluence, and Technology (STIRPAT) framework is extended to incorporate renewable energy consumption and globalization for the period 1990-2018. The results highlight the significant environmental deterioration effects of income, population and energy intensity, and the mitigation effect of renewable energy consumption in the West African sub-region. Further evidence shows that: (i) de facto trade globalization increase CO2 emissions though insignificant, while de jure conditions mitigate CO2 emissions and have a strong significant impact across the conditional distribution; (ii) the benign environmental impact of financial globalization in the sub-region is driven by de jure conditions and the impact is significant across the entire distribution; (iii) information globalization reduces CO2 emissions with de jure conditions having the dominant effect. Overall, de jure conditions in trade, financial, and information globalization are essential for mitigating CO2 emissions in the sub-region. Hence, there is need to mainstream environmental issues into the institutional framework for climate change mitigation with emphasis on renewable alternatives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper describes the study of a small collection of Sertularioidea Lamouroux, 1812 (Cnidaria, Hydrozoa) collected along the Guinea Current Large Marine Ecosystem (GCLME) during four oceanographic surveys performed between 2005 and 2008. The samples were collected at 12 stations located at depths between 18 and 359 m using a bottom trawl and a Petersen grab. A total of 112 colonies were identified, belonging to 13 species, nine genera, and three families. The family Sertulariidae showed the highest species richness, with 11 species, whereas the families Thyroscyphidae and Sertularellidae were represented only by one species each. In this manuscript is described the first report of Salacia tetracythara in the Eastern Atlantic, Abietinaria abietina in West Africa, and Salacia desmoides in the GCLME region. One species was only described to the genus level, and material of Dynamena dalmasi from Cape Verde was also examined as comparison material. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The study explores the SBCC training experience in Francophone West Africa and how training programs have been impacted by major pandemics that this region has experienced, COVID-19 particularly. To stay focused, we have selected Côte d'Ivoire as a case study because it is representative of Francophone African countries which faced political instability, pandemics and epidemics in the past two decades. Data were collected through desk review and interviews with key informants. Taking stock of the past to recent experience, both in long-term and academic training, and on-the-job and short-term training on one hand, and examining the influence of COVID-19 crisis on SBCC training in the country and sub-region on the other hand, lessons learned, and challenges ahead are identified. The paper focuses on multidisciplinary, multisectoral and sub-regional responses, e-learning, and professionalizing SBCC, as future directions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The West African Rice Development Association (WARDA), created in 1971 as a regional network of rice research stations and governed by member countries, was unique within the system of international agricultural research centers that emerged in the post-colonial era. This paper reviews the actors, the actors, their motives, and the political and organizational debates involves in establishing WARDA. In particular, it traces the roles and interests of the former colonial powers, especially the French, the newly independent countries of the region, international organizations, and US foreign assistance and philanthropic agencies. Although all agreed that rice research was a priority for regional cooperation, the design of WARDA stimulated debates around centralization, governance, and funding of international research that continue until today. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A new paradigm of emergency R&D has transformed global health. Beginning with the 2014–2016 Ebola virus disease epidemic in West Africa, experimental product development has been propelled to the frontlines of outbreak response, radically compressing timelines and unsettling regulatory standards, biosecurity strategies and humanitarian protocols. This paper examines these emerging epistemic practices and ethical norms as they played out in the creation of rapid diagnostic tests for Ebola, Zika and COVID-19. In each of these viral public health crises, new platforms for quick detection have been the principal load-bearing pillar of outbreak response, and the effort to speed up their development illuminates the fragile set of accommodations between public health needs and commercial interests that obtain under conditions of emergency. The World Health Organization's role in stimulating and coordinating the development of these tools provides our analytical through-line, and reveals, we argue, the limitations of an accelerationist model of global health innovation organized around the concept of 'market failure'. The evolution of this paradigm of 'emergency R&D' into a permanent feature of pandemic preparedness will further narrow our imagination of how global health goods should be construed and provided. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Chromolaena odorata (L.) R.M. King and H. Robinson (Asteraceae) is one of the worst invasive weeds in Africa, Asia, and the Pacific. Cecidochares connexa (Macquart) (Diptera: Tephritiidae) is a biological control agent of C. odorata. It was introduced into Côte d'Ivoire in 2003 and spread across West Africa. This paper reports the establishment, distribution, and density of C. connexa in Nigeria, the seventh country in West Africa with a confirmed report of C. connexa. It is anticipated that the gall fly, recorded in Nigeria, will have similar impacts on C. odorata as in the other six countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

France's power projection in West Africa was perceived as a credible threat to Nigeria's national security and leadership aspiration in the sub-region. In recent times, however, Paris' deepening engagements with the Sahelian states in the context of the counterterrorism fully aligns with Nigeria's national interest. It is against this background that this paper interrogates the importance of counterterrorism operations in enhancing collaborative relationship between Nigeria, France and the Francophone states in Lake Chad region. Drawing on interview data and extant literature, the study makes three arguments. First, the earlier rivalry between Nigeria and its Francophone states was critical to the Boko Haram resilience, especially in its formative years. Second, the trans-border insurgency of the sect, particularly following the declaration of the caliphate in the region, was central to the renewed security partnership among the affected states, culminating in the re-invigoration of the MNJTF. Finally, the study argues that the cooperation against terrorism by France and Nigeria is positively redefining relations between the two powers. Despite the cooperation, security crisis ignited by the group remains pervasive in the region, and hence the suggestion for the rejigging of MNJTF to incorporate socio-economic anti-terrorist dimensions to address the worsening developmental condition in the region. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The dependence of rainfed agriculture on weather shocks means that managing risk is an important preoccupation of smallholders in Niger. In the absence of objective probabilities that can be attached to rainfall conditions, farmers formulate their own beliefs about uncertain outcomes. The role that these beliefs play in household decision making, and thus the potential gains associated with more skilled forecasts, is not yet well understood. In the current paper, we aim to fill this gap in the literature. In what follows we lay out an inter-temporal model of farm household decision making and apply this to recent survey data of rural households in Niger to shed light on whether and to what extent household behavior regarding investments in risky inputs is affected by expected rainfall conditions. We find that a farmer's belief that rainfall conditions are favorable is associated with more spending on risky inputs and that returns to input use are higher when we control for the bias induced by omitting household decision-making on input use from the production process. Our results suggest that there is potential for weather information to induce profit-maximizing behavior of risk-averse farmers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Most species of lizard are either diurnal or nocturnal, and it is extremely rare to find species that operate both diurnally and nocturnally, or that may shift from diurnality to partial nocturnality when conditions allow. However, niche expansion from diurnal to nocturnal habits (often referred to as the night-light niche) has rarely been reported in lizards (mainly in Anoles), and mostly through anecdotal reports. In West Africa, the rainbow lizard Agama agama is a conspicuous species across the region but also lives in suburban areas of towns and villages. It is a diurnal sun-basker operating at relatively high body temperatures of 36 °C and higher. In this paper, we describe a night-light niche expansion, i.e. nocturnal foraging and thermoregulation, in a small number of A. agama populations living in suburban areas. These lizards utilised radiant heat from incandescent light bulbs situated on the walls of buildings to mostly achieve target body temperatures and forage for and fed on five different groups of invertebrates. Foraging lizards had significantly higher body temperatures than inactive lizards. However, variance in body temperature was significantly greater in foraging lizards than in inactive lizards probably due to the necessity to shuttle between the incandescent night lights and cooler foraging areas during activity, a known cost of thermoregulation. Regression analysis of body temperatures against time of night in foraging lizards supported the notion that the lizards were maintaining body temperatures by actively thermoregulating whilst in inactive non-basking resting lizards during the same time period body temperatures declined. Although our results indicate a potential thermoregulatory benefit from using the night-light shift, we cannot be certain that this benefit is the direct cause of the shift, rather than an additional advantage when foraging. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Throughout 2020, according to the Spanish Ministry of Home Office, 23,023 irregular migrants reached the coasts of the Canary Islands in Spain, 757% more than the previous year. The migrants left from the coasts of West Africa, mainly from Senegal, trying to reach the nearest European Union (EU) territory. Apart from the migrants who arrived in the Canary Islands, nearly 1,500 stayed on the way, and 594 of them died drowned or of dehydration. Behind this migratory tragedy, there is a combination of factors, with three essential ones operating synergistically: climate change, which is affecting agriculture, fishing and exacerbating coastal erosion; overfishing, which is depleting regional fisheries; and the COVID-19 pandemic, which, in addition to the victims caused, has left the region without tourism, and with an economy in recession. This paper reviews these causal factors, highlighting his influence on migration and the responsibility of migrants receiving countries – especially those in the EU – for the causes of migration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Studies of the black middle class in South Africa, particularly imaginations and performances of class or 'classing', can be enriched by other disciplines outside social science. Cultural products that evince self-expressions of black middle classness are a fertile source. To that end, this article uses an intersectional approach to explore middle-class masculinity in the personal humorous essays of Ndumiso Ngcobo and Fred Khumalo. While the two authors celebrate hybridity occasioned by the intersections of race, class and Zuluness, they nonetheless betray a sense of anxiety regarding their masculinity. The unease points to the constant change in masculinities, in the same way that humour itself is deployed to handle difficult situations with a view to suggest change or other possibilities of living. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This review presents a preliminary account of the Lithium exploration sector in the Paleoproterozoic rocks of West Africa, a relatively new field of research, and assesses its future prospects in light of the green transition-driven demand for the metal. The deposits in Ghana, Mali, Burkina Faso, Côte d'Ivoire, Senegal, and Niger form the basis of this study. The WAC predominantly possesses LCT pegmatites while a few with hybrid LCT + NYF characteristics have been reported, such as the Mangodara pegmatite district in southeastern Burkina Faso. The terrane'sanalysed pegmatite deposits contain 1.11--2.0% Li2O. The pegmatites may form as a swarm of dykes in peraluminous granites of varied composition formed from Eburnean continent -- continent collision. They typically contain spodumene, quartz, feldspar, muscovite, lepidolite, beryl, tourmaline, and fluorite. Spodumene is the most prevalent lithium-bearing mineral in the deposits, with the occurence of rare secondary lepidolite and zinnwaldite. Dyke thickness, ranging from 10 to 80 metres, may affect the pegmatites' lithium-bearing potential. Hydrothermal alteration albitizes and greisenizes pegmatitic structures. Despite the pegmatites' varied genetic features, the Goulamina and Issia deposits in La Cote d'Ivoire have an inferred genetic link with their host granites. The WAC's Paleoproterozoic lithium-bearing pegmatites share certain traits that make them easier to extract. Lithium exploration in West Africa depends on geological investigations, technological improvements, investor funding, and environmental concerns. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although recent interest in commercial teak plantation establishment has soared, knowledge of intensive silvicultural management of residual stands is limited in most parts of West Africa. This study evaluated the effects of thinning regimes on the growth responses and pruning requirements of teak plantations, two years after thinning, in the transition zone of Ghana. The thinning trial was conducted on a 4-year-old stand with initial stocking of 1 111 trees ha−1 in the Tain II Forest Reserve, Ghana. The treatments were four thinning regimes: 50%, 30%, 0% thinning intensities and 50% decrowning, arranged in a completely randomised design with four replicates. Two years after thinning, the treatments were significantly different in diameter at breast height (DBH) (p < 0.00029), total height (p = 0.017) and stem density (p < 0.0002). The 50% thinning intensity had the highest mean tree DBH, volume, height and basal area of 15.57 cm, 0.13 m3, 11.94 m and 0.02 m2 respectively. The lowest was found in the control (no thinning) except height which was least in decrowned plots. Maximum mean annual increment of DBH, total height and volume were respectively 2.00 cm, 1.34 m and 9.9 m3 ha−1 for the heavily thinned stand. The number of epicormic shoots per tree increased with the thinning intensity/regime, hence increasing the pruning requirement. It is concluded that 50% thinning intensity promotes positive growth of residual stand but increases the pruning requirements and possibly the pruning costs. Long-term evaluation of this trial is essential to validate the recommendations from this study. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The last two decades in West Africa have witnessed the emergence and persistence of diverse forms of insecurity – in particular, the recession of democracy and the rise of terrorism and transnational organised crime. This article explores the effectiveness of the region's security architecture with a focus on the peace and security framework of the Economic Community of West African States, the Multinational Joint Task Force and the G5 Sahel, a framework formulated in response to the above threats. The article identifies and examines specific institutional lapses, including gaps in regime security, insufficient efforts to build state relations and ineffective implementation of the security policies that do exist. This article argues that these institutional lapses drive the persistence of identified insecurity in the region. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Fossil pollen and spores are a vital source of information on the geological history of tropical vegetation including reconstructions of vegetation diversity and composition. However, such work relies on a sound taxonomic framework, and this is challenging to achieve because of the large number of pollen and spore morphotypes that are encountered in palynological preparations from tropical sediments. In tropical West Africa, for example, extensive taxonomic work on Cretaceous–Paleogene pollen and spores was undertaken in the later part of the twentieth century, but more recent palynological work has focussed on stratigraphy and basin evolution, and there is a need for additional taxonomic work on the pollen and spores of this region. We have undertaken a descriptive systematic study of pollen and spores (sporomorphs) from 15 sediment samples spanning the Upper Palaeocene–Lower Eocene of south-eastern Nigeria. A palynoflora consisting of 29 spores, two gymnosperm pollen grains, and 138 angiosperm pollen grains is described. Two new spore species are proposed, and one new genus and 18 new species of angiosperm pollen are proposed. The general vegetation type represented by the palynoflora consists of palm-dominated swamps, perhaps with mangroves. The richness of each sample ranges from 29 to 76 sporomorph taxa, and rarefaction analysis suggests an increase in diversity from the Palaeocene to the Eocene in this region. Samples from the Palaeocene Upper Nsukka Formation are dominated by pollen with botanical affinities to the Arecaceae (palms) and Araceae (arums), and this assemblage is very similar to the Palaeocene in the Neotropics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

French colonial expansion across North and West Africa brought contact with varied political and religious groups, particularly along the Saharan rim and in the western Sahel. Numerous French metropolitan politicians and colonial administrators alike saw the Sahara as a great connecting medium, a new-age mare nostrum that would serve as the centerpiece of an expansive overseas empire. Beginning in the late nineteenth century, Xavier Coppolani and Robert Arnaud (or Randau) served as the leaders working across this seemingly impassable divide to invent a political, demographic, religious, and vividly Romantic homogeneity for the area and its people, one based almost entirely in the power of Sufi Islam. Such unifying concepts built on older Saharan traditions of politico-religious linkage while thriving in a moment of changing French metropolitan colonial theory. Ultimately beset on all sides by local, metropolitan, and imperial resistance, these attempts failed over time as they hardened stereotypes and overlooked important realities of human connection throughout the region. The complex and contradictory forces involved in the joining of disparate social and political entities in the Sahara offer substantial insight into the reality of colonial expansion and political formation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

West Africa's Moratorium on Importation, Exportation, and Manufacture of Light Weapons was adopted in 1998, and the Convention on Small Arms and Light Weapons, their Ammunition, and Other Related Materials was adopted in 2006. The Moratorium and the Convention are more than two decades old, respectively. However, there is little knowledge of their effectiveness in reducing arms flow. This research evaluates how ECOWAS members implemented the Moratorium and Convention to determine compliance trends. It uses a theoretical framework of domestic political legitimacy as a crucial mechanism to explain compliance variations. Political legitimacy is imperative for states' and domestic groups' behavior, and its dearth can lead to obtaining arms illegally, which the Moratorium and Convention seek to prevent. The empirics use case studies about Ghana and Côte d'Ivoire to infer how political legitimacy variations influence compliance with the agreement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Agricultural productivity remains pivotal to the sustenance of the economies and livelihoods of Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) countries. Given the emerging threat of energy and environmental uncertainties globally, this study makes a foray into understanding the link among energy poverty, environmental degradation and agricultural productivity in 35 SSA nations in particular, and the nature of their impacts across the sub-region constituents namely; the Central, Eastern, Western and Southern sub-regional blocs in general. To begin, our identified variables comprised of the following: Energy Poverty Index, derived using the principal component analysis, agricultural value added as a share of GDP served as a measure of agricultural productivity and ecological footprint to represent environmental degradation. Subsequently, the instrumental variable generalized method of moment (IV‐GMM) technique was implemented for the aggregate SSA model, while the IV-two stage least square technique was adopted for the sub-regional estimations for the Central, East, West and South African blocs respectively. Major findings from the SSA model revealed that whereas the index of energy poverty has a significant positive influence, ecological footprint exhibited an inverse and significant impact on agricultural productivity, while the Central, East, West and South African models yielded mixed results given regional disparities in economic development, regional variations in agricultural productivity and an imbalance of available resources. Policy recommendations were suggested to, among other things, transform the energy, environmental and agricultural fortunes of the region. Aggregate energy poverty index has a significant positive influence on agricultural productivity in SSA. Components of energy poverty influences agricultural productivity in SSA as follows: rural electrification (positive and significant), access to clean fuels, RE consumption, and RE output (significant negative), national electricity access and urban electrification (EP2) (no significant influence). Rise in pollution (Ecological footprint) hampers the productivity of the agricultural sector in SSA. Energy poverty index and agricultural productivity have the following relationship in the sub-regional SSA blocs: Central Africa (no significant impact), East Africa (positive and significant), Southern Africa (negative but insignificant) and West Africa (positive but insignificant). Ecological footprint and agricultural productivity have the following relationship in the sub-regional SSA blocs: significantly reduces the productivity of agriculture in the Central African region, significantly stimulates agricultural productivity in the Eastern African region, Southern Africa reveals a mixed result, pollution via environmental degradation hampers the productivity of the agricultural sector in West Africa. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The unprecedented character of the 2013–2016 epidemic of Ebola in West Africa paved the way for a wave of investigations into the reservoir of the disease. A novel economy of health projects arose, which employed Guinean professionals to sample animals and fortify a hypothesis: that the disease spilled over from a bat. Through exploring virology research and its dangers in post-Ebola Guinea, I argue that the hypothesis of a bat reservoir has taken on a heuristic role that can be compared to the way that a fetish polarizes relations between the people who manipulate and fear this idea. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While recent years have seen the rapid growth of off-grid solar power, ten per cent of the world's population, the majority in sub-Saharan Africa, still lack access to electricity. Meanwhile, standalone solar home systems using pay as you go (PAYGO) mobile money have been proposed as a key solution to meeting the target of universal access to energy under Sustainable Development Goal 7. These systems are being deployed in various regions of the global South, including East Africa and to a lesser extent West Africa. I investigate how through PAYGO, off-grid solar electricity in sub-Saharan Africa is being transformed into a cash flow, a financial asset and a conduit for consumer debt. In so doing I analyse evolving relationships between some of the key actors and institutions involved in this process, including mobile banking platforms such as M-Pesa, 'next generation utilities' such as M-KOPA and BBOXX, and powerful mobile network operators such as Safaricom and MTN. Theoretically I conceptualise energy access as a new frontier of 'electricity capital', a developing field from political economy and energy geography, which is concerned with the way in which technological developments in the electricity sector are reconfiguring relationships between different institutions of the state, industry, finance, and users. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

One of the critical items in the environmental agenda is managing and controlling regional haze and air pollution. These haze, emissions and air pollution are emitted into the environment, causing dangerous harm and imposing threats to public health, human wellbeing, and fertility issues, which sometimes lead to death. The researcher aims investigates broad effects of environmental pollution, socio-economic factors on total fertility rate in MENA, ECOWAS and ASEAN regions from 1970 to 2019. The Middle East and North Africa (MENA) regions consist of 21 countries, and the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) comprises 15 countries. While 10 viable countries constitute the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN). A longitudinal/panel dataset covering the regions is sourced mainly from the 2019 World Development Indicators (WDI) to examine the study objectives. In the methodology, a panel fixed-effect (FE) model are employed in estimating the objective after ascertaining the FE suitability using the Hausman Test. The results show that (i) environmental pollution (as proxied by CO2 emissions) has a negative and statistically significant effect on total fertility rate in MENA and ECOWAS but has a significantly positive effect on TFR in ASEAN. Based on the findings, many robust policies are recommended to manage/control environmental pollution to drive down fertility and other public health threats. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The rapid development of the intermodal system has led to the intensification of the hinterland competition within the port group, and the spatial pattern of the hinterland has become discontinuous. Based on geographic information system technology, a spatial interaction model, in which the intermodal cost distance is computed by integrating the raster analysis method and network method, is developed to facilitate the examination of the spatial evolution process of the port group intermodal hinterland. Considering the example of the Gulf of Guinea port group in West Africa, the spatial evolution process of its five ports is simulated in three scenarios. The results indicate that intermodal transport drives the hinterland's discontinuous development, and the direction and layout of the intermodal corridors significantly impact the hinterland competition of the port group. In most cases, the intermodal corridors can help realize connected ports to enhance the hinterland's competitive advantage within the port group. However, adjacent ports may also benefit from this aspect under certain conditions, which implies the importance of port cooperation in planning collection and distribution corridors. The model and findings can theoretically support the decision-making of port investors and operators. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Contemporary peasant movements in West Africa have their roots in local, national, and international activism dating back to the 1970s. Born in the context of structural adjustment and democratic transitions, today's organizations are critical actors in representing the interests of the region's peasants. Yet, today, they face numerous challenges, including the region's security meltdown, the persistence of kleptocratic states and elites, and the lasting impacts of colonialism. In this interview, Ibrahima Coulibaly sheds light on these issues through the situation in Mali and the whole West African region. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 2021, Ghana was Africa's largest gold producer and sixth largest producer worldwide. However, mining wrecks tremendous environmental havoc and poses significant human health risks. Efforts to mitigate these impacts have focused exclusively on regularizing mining, with little recognition of the crucial role farmers play in mining, particularly as agents that lease their land for the same. Ghana's new tree tenure policy allows cocoa farmers to acquire individualized, allodial rights to commercial timber species on their farms, which permits famers to capture forestry sector payments. We examine farmers' impressions of tree tenure reform as a potential counter to mining in eleven communities in Western and Western North regions, using focus group and individual interviews. While the concept of tree tenure is enthusiastically embraced, practical difficulties encountered by smallholders attempting to navigate the bureaucratic registration system limit the sway of tree registration and ownership as a means of limiting mining proliferation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]