Unprecedented pressures on land and its governance have been created. As evident around the globe, where land governance is deficient, high levels of corruption often flourish. Under such a system, land distribution is unequal, tenure is insecure, and natural resources are poorly managed.
The last decade has witnessed a raft of political and legal reforms in Kenya and the efforts have paid dividends. Kenya is experiencing an unprecedented surge in foreign direct investments in varied infrastructure projects. In most cases the projects are situate in rural areas creating a buzz of excitement and igniting opportunities for poverty reduction initiatives directly or indirectly.
In north-western Kenya, significant oil reserves have been discovered and the first oil trucks have left Turkana County in June 2018. On the east side of Lake Turkana, the largest wind power project on the African continent was completed in mid-2017. This article applies a local to global perspective to explore the benefits and externalities for the local communities living in close proximity to the oil and wind exploitation sites. A particular focus is placed on governance of energy resources, water and employment opportunities and its impacts on new and existing conflict dynamics.
In sub-Saharan Africa, commercial bioenergy production has been hailed as a new form of ‘green capitalism’ that will deliver ‘win-win’ outcomes and ‘pro poor’ development. Yet in an era of global economic recession and soaring food prices, biofuel ‘sustainability’ has been at the centre of controversy. This paper focuses on the case of post-war Sierra Leone, a country that has over the last decade been consistently ranked as one of the poorest in the world, facing food insecurity, high unemployment and entrenched poverty.
The chapter describes some of the political challenges involved in managing the transition from emergency activities to longer-term 'developmental' policies in Rwanda and Burundi. In post-genocide Rwanda, uncompensated expropriation and a nationwide settlement policy may have reduced short-term problems over secondary occupation of property, but have created lingering grievances. International agencies have underplayed the role of state agency in their analysis of these problems.
Sierra Leone's conflict has often been characterized as a 'crisis of youth'. For some, the post-war resurgence of grassroots associational life represents the unleashing of long-suppressed youth egalitarianism, yet this analysis tends to ignore the role of international aid in providing an economic incentive for impoverished Sierra Leoneans to embrace formal association. Case study evidence also shows that politics of 'community' identification and moral economies of patronage continue to affect postwar aid.
Through a review of recent writings in political ecology and agrarian studies, this paper appraises the potential for emerging forms of ‘green economy’ initiatives to catalyze new forms of internal displacement in West Africa, with specific emphasis on the postwar contexts of Liberia and Sierra Leone.
‘Voices from the mine’ is a new 33-minute documentary film by University of Bath researcher, Dr Roy Maconachie. It focuses on resource governance in Sierra Leone's artisanal diamond mining sector, tracing the pathway of diamonds from pit to market, and documenting the stories of different stakeholders along the way. In doing so, the film depicts the challenges of local level governance in the sector, shows why benefits do not accrue to those working at the bottom of the chain, and sheds light on why it is so difficult to formalize artisanal mining.
Ecological restoration is a suitable tool to revert land degradation in semiarid areas. Social participation is increasingly considered as a guarantee for the long-term success and sustainability of restoration projects. In rural areas of North African countries, experiences of participatory restoration are still not frequent, and poverty and illiteracy with top-down approaches boost land-use conflicts and raise skepticism toward restoration programs.
An Ordinance to provide for the regulation and control of ports and inland waters, for the levying of dues and for other matters connected with navigation.
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