Land-use and climatic changes are ofmajor concerns in the Himalayan region because oftheir potential impacts on a predominantlyagriculture-based economy and a regional hydrologydominated by the monsoons. Such concerns are notlimited to... more
Land-use and climatic changes are ofmajor concerns in the Himalayan region because oftheir potential impacts on a predominantlyagriculture-based economy and a regional hydrologydominated by the monsoons. Such concerns are notlimited to any particular basin but exist throughoutthe region including the downstream plains. As arepresentative basin of the Himalayas, the Kosi Basin(54,000 km2) located in the mountainous area ofthe central Himalayan region was selected as a studyarea. We used water balance and distributeddeterministic modeling approaches to analyze thehydrologic sensitivity of the basin to projectedland-use, and potential climate change scenarios.Runoff increase was higher than precipitation increasein all the potential precipitation change scenariosapplying contemporary temperature. The scenario ofcontemporary precipitation and a rise in temperatureof 4 °C caused a decrease in runoff bytwo to eight percent depending upon the areasconsidered and models used. In the absence of climaticchange, the results from a distributed water balancemodel applied in the humid south of the basinindicated a reduction in runoff by 1.3% in thescenario of maximum increase in forest areas below4,000 m.
... There are many obvious parallels between O'Neill's and Lewis' novels, however. In Pere-landra, three parallels are particularly striking: the insect-monsters, the attempt at mental take-over, and the... more
... There are many obvious parallels between O'Neill's and Lewis' novels, however. In Pere-landra, three parallels are particularly striking: the insect-monsters, the attempt at mental take-over, and the dehumanized pursuer who was formerly someone known to the protagonist. ...
Different Energy options have been the driving force for the world economy with an evolution in types and sources. Decades ago choosing what energy option to use did not call for much debate as issues of sustainability, pressure on our... more
Different Energy options have been the driving force for the world economy with an evolution in types and sources. Decades ago choosing what energy option to use did not call for much debate as issues of sustainability, pressure on our environment, and our climate were not a major concern. However today, humans have to grapple with these current global challenges especially those exacerbated by our current sources of energy. The review article argues that science and sustainability thinking should be the basis for making the choice about what energy option is suitable for our era. It proposes that a more fruitful discourse should follow from a dialogue that puts in place the set of sustainability indicators and evaluating the suitability of the options for our era in that context. Focusing on two energy options; conventional and nuclear energy; the review compares them based on a set of sustainability indicators including, but not limited to, the environment, economics, ethics, expertise requirements, technical information, health, safety, uncertainty and government funding. In trying to answer the question Unsustainable conventional energy sources, is nuclear energy similar?, the review concludes that despite the demerits of nuclear energy, it is the solution to meet the world’s growing energy needs and to reverse the impending threat posed by climate change if research and development efforts in the sector are accelerated.
Climate change affects agricultural production leading to serious environmental, socio-economic and health impacts. The situation may be more severe in the case of small-scale farmers whose livelihood depends on the use of available... more
Climate change affects agricultural production leading to serious environmental, socio-economic and health impacts. The situation may be more severe in the case of small-scale farmers whose livelihood depends on the use of available natural resources, especially in developing countries like Cameroon. This preliminary survey reports on the perceptions and knowledge of small-scale women farmers in Bome village, Momo division on climate change in relations to their traditional farming practices. Structured questionnaires and focus group discussions were used to collect data. Responses from 27 farmers revealed diversified educational background (primary school: 37% and higher and/or professional education: 21%). Sixty-three percent farmers had heard about climate change. ”Slash” (26%) and “bury-and-burn” (26%) were the most dominant farming practices as oppose to shifting cultivation (14%) and mixed farming (11%). Ironically, farmers (70%) revealed their speculations that “slash” and “bury-and-burn” may contribute to the changing climatic situation, but however hold-on to it to increase yield as indigenous approach to fighting food insecurity. The farmers (85%) agreed to the need of routine awareness and sensitization of small-scale farmers, and indicated interest (54%) in participating in climate change related seminar and/or training programs. The study revealed that farming practices in the study area are still local with farmers depending on indigenous knowledge to interpret and adapt to the changing climate situation. The studied farmers depend on indigenous knowledge to adapt to the changing climatic conditions. As such, there is need for routine capacity building programs for small-scale women farmers in Bome village, Momo division on climate change in relations to agricultural, food security, and health with an aim of identifying various climate change perpetrating activities as well as climate smart strategies/practices to mitigate effects of climate change in that locality. Keywords: Climate change, small-scale farmers, farming practices, agricultural productivity, food security, Cameroon
Comments by the former Secretary-General of the United Nations, Kofi Annan, reflect a growing consensus that ‘good governance is perhaps the single most important factor in eradicating poverty and promoting development’. The twin... more
Comments by the former Secretary-General of the United Nations, Kofi
Annan, reflect a growing consensus that ‘good governance is perhaps the single
most important factor in eradicating poverty and promoting development’.
The twin concepts of democracy and governance feature regularly in
development discourse today and have been linked to many issues of global
concern including aid effectiveness, climate change, and the attainment of the
Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). At the local level these concepts
are frequently linked to issues such as access to and delivery of essential services.
The phrase ‘projectisation of governance’, coined by the author and used in the
title of this paper, refers to donor-driven or prescriptive approaches to promoting
governance at community level. Using practical examples from communitybased
activities in North West Cameroon, this paper highlights how valuebased
governance-oriented project approaches can be tailored to address the
governance concerns at community level.
This chapter consists of three sections. The first section introduces the
concept of governance ‘zones’. The second section gives a short background to
the traditional role of civil society in Cameroon vis-a-vis the state of governance
in the country. In particular it explores the current approach to governance in
the different ‘zones’ (national space, organisational and community) and its
consequences. In part three, the author presents a ‘desired model’ to promote
good governance at community level and looks at the roles of different stakeholders
in this process. The paper concludes with some recommendations to
enhance the promotion of participatory governance in Cameroon as a shared
value among stakeholders in the development process.
23
The Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), a common set of development targets that have influenced the priorities of many governments, donor, development agencies and other development stakeholders were adopted by 189 world leaders from... more
The Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), a common set of development targets that have influenced the priorities of many governments, donor, development agencies and other development stakeholders were adopted by 189 world leaders from rich and poor countries, as part of the Millennium Declaration which was signed in 2000. There is a flurry of stakeholder discussions and consultations towards establishing a new set of goals to replace the MDGS as the 15 years period set for this global development vision elapses by the close of 2015. There is significant global disparity in the achievement of these goals with countries in Sub Saharan countries recording low in most evaluations and surveys. This has been partly due to the fact that these broad international policy agendas have not been fully translated into concrete actions tied to regional and national realities in the different target sectors that are drivers of global development including environmental sustainability. In most of the discussions geared towards arriving at proposals that would inform the post-2015 agenda, there have been calls for more obligations on rich countries in areas such as climate change and resource consumption. In this investigative paper, the water sector is considered given that its importance to the ecosystem and human health cannot be over emphasized. It is observed that six out of the eight MDGs are directly or indirectly hinged on the availability of water and the factors that affect its availability including climate change and population growth as depicted in table 1 below, adapted from a UN 2006 report. However, at eave of the deadline of the MDGs, renowned global reports on the evaluation of targets in this sector have been overly stated, given that access to the resources continues to fall especially in Sub Saharan Africa.
The importance of water to the ecosystem and human health cannot be over emphasized. Survival of living organisms partly depends on their ability to adapt to the threats pose by water once in excess and/or in scarcity as well as its... more
The importance of water to the ecosystem and human health cannot be over emphasized. Survival of living organisms partly depends on their ability to adapt to the threats pose by water once in excess and/or in scarcity as well as its quality. Despite the importance attributed to water, global inaccessibility to safe drinking water continues to increase. The water-associated threats to humans have been exacerbated by the changing climate and exponential growth in the world’s population. Most development discourse on water supplies has been limited to technical and comparative analysis of the successes and failures of various management approaches and the institutions responsible for providing the water. This paper has examined the trend in policy framework and operational atmosphere in the water sector in the North West Region of Cameroon which has evolved since the 1950s. Significant advances have been made in the development of state infrastructures and institutions responsible for provision of water in Cameroon. Nevertheless, with the steady growing population coupled to climate change, accessibility of good drinking water to the populations has continuously declined especially in populous cities of Cameroon. Thus, to meet the water needs of the populations, self-help community water management schemes which employ participatory and sustainable management approaches cannot be overemphasized.
Climate change is a defining issue of our era, with its impacts reaching global, regional and local scales. The exponential growth in the world’s population accompanied by the rising demand for non-renewable energy fossil fuels and... more
Climate change is a defining issue of our era, with its impacts reaching global, regional and local scales. The exponential growth in the world’s population accompanied by the rising demand for non-renewable energy fossil fuels and destruction of carbon stocks especially in forests to create space for agriculture and other land use practices have significantly contributed to raising the concentration of atmospheric greenhouse gases (GHG). As a consequence, global warming with its associated impacts on climatic factors including temperature, rainfall and relative humidity, air and wind patterns changing, resulting in sea level rise, storm surges, floods, droughts and heat waves in different contexts have been recorded. The current magnitude and variability have critical implications for agriculture, fisheries, forestry, life histories, community composition, social fabric and ecosystem function and stability across the globe. Forests have been given particular attention because they constitute a major carbon sink and thus a key factor in the climate change equation. This paper highlights this function played by forest and how forest communities can take advantage of these opportunities.
Although there are many actors involved in the production of research that is central to decision making, linkages between these actors is currently low. Thus the Cameroon Evidence Informed Decision Making (EIDM) landscape can be... more
Although there are many actors involved in the production of research that is central to decision making, linkages between these actors is currently low. Thus the Cameroon Evidence Informed Decision Making (EIDM) landscape can be described as being embryonic with an overall EIDM system made up of a flurry of uncoordinated and isolated evidence actors - both local and international. This overview seeks to identify the major players in the EIDM landscape in Cameroon, the existing and potential linkages. The overview concludes that there is a clear need for the reinforcement of engagement between these actors, thus generating lessons learnt that can be capitalised upon and up scaled in the decision making process.
As northern organisations become less visible in the development sector of the global South, West African communities and civil society organisations (CSOs) are playing a more active role in pooling local resources (knowledge, expertise,... more
As northern organisations become less visible in the development sector of the global South, West African communities and civil society organisations (CSOs) are playing a more active role in pooling local resources (knowledge, expertise, material and financial) to bridge the capacity gaps and address rising challenges in their different constituencies. However, many players in the sector insist that northern development actors should continue to focus on building the capacity of local organisations as a key to sustainable development. It is observed that although huge potentials already exist amongst these local actors to bring about desired social changes, they have failed to harness and value these potentials. Rather, they have continuously placed a premium on external capacity development resources, which are top-down, prescriptive and sideline local contextual realities. It is apparent that local capacity development needs are changing, thus calling for innovative ways to constantly update the knowledge and skills bases of local development actors to enable them to keep pace with new development exigencies. In this process, African CSOs and communities need to be supported to gain new capacities, harness those they have acquired and value the skills and knowledge inherent to them. This will contribute to breaking the status quo of dependency on external capacity development and resource mobilisation. This has been re-echoed by the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD) in its 2009 Capacity Development Strategic Framework, which calls for a paradigm shift in capacity development to capitalise on African resourcefulness. This paper emphasises the need for greater subscription to bottom-up approaches, which offer opportunities for African CSOs and communities to be active contributors to their own learning, since it is key to their sustainability. For this to work, the paper asserts that projects that link local capacity development and civil society sustainability should be implemented based on regional or community considerations. The case study of the North West Association of Development Organisations (NWADO), Cameroon is presented as one successful case; perhaps similar approaches will deliver satisfactory results if they are implemented in regions or communities that share similar social dynamics and challenges with Cameroon.
Climate change is a defining issue of our era, with its impacts reaching global and regional scales. The current magnitude and rate of change is already altering species distributions, life histories, community composition, livelihoods... more
Climate change is a defining issue of our era, with its impacts reaching global and regional scales. The current magnitude and rate of change is already altering species distributions, life histories, community composition, livelihoods and ecosystem function. Unfortunately, indigenous and grass root communities in the global south, whose contributions to exacerbate this situation is negligible, bear the greatest brunt. How serious the repercussions will be, depends on how fast measures and strategies are adopted to facilitate coping with the extreme and inevitable conditions posed by climate change especially for these communities. The South West Region of Cameroon is an oil producing region is one of the fastest growing commercial regions in Cameroon and home to the second highest peak in West Africa. This area with its rich volcanic soils produces food and cash crops, non timber forest products, for internal consumption and exports. It is equally part of the Western Highlands of Cameroon, and is an ecologically fragile area characterized by high savannah and mountain forest. It falls within the biodiversity hotspot in West Africa and serves as major water shed in the Western Highland area serving the South Eastern part of Nigeria and Western part of Cameroon. The region in general is experiencing a rapid population growth with a high density. Over 70% of the population in this region depends on the natural environment for their livelihood, practicing semi primitive subsistence agriculture and pastoral livestock rearing. Analysis of meteorological data over a period of thirty years (1972-2002) from five meteorological stations in the region and complementing my findings with interviews of the residents of the region working in different sectors of society. This research revealed an increasingly poor environmental management trend directly linked to a growth in population and rapidly changing climate. Projection of the potential changes in the weather factors including rainfall, temperatures for the next decade (2010-2013) by analysing the meteorological data using multi-linear regression equations. The research concludes with recommendations and proposed proactive actions to be taken in order to minimize the envisaged threats as result of the changes in the climate.
Internet, Social Media and Apps accessibility as a basic right. What are the socio-economic impacts of the shutdown of these tools that are key to leapfrogging the economy of nations at all levels? One of the impactful research I... more
Internet, Social Media and Apps accessibility as a basic right. What are the socio-economic impacts of the shutdown of these tools that are key to leapfrogging the economy of nations at all levels? One of the impactful research I conducted in the past weeks which I consider the most up-to-date that addresses this issue. Current laws are obsolete and have not evolve to take care into consideration new innovations such as the internet, social media etc etc and states are finding it hard to know what should be criminalised. However, there is need for collective responsibility from both duty bearers and rights holders with respect to this important tool, which is at its embryonic stage of growth especially for developing economies. the 60 paged looks at the antecedents in the telecommunications and ICT sector and zooms down to the socio-economic impact of the cuts in the two regions that contribute 20% to the national GDP with a plethora of informal operators, using the Collaboration on International ICT Policy for East and Southern Africa (CIPESA) Framework for Estimating the Economic Impact of Internet Disruptions (Internet, Social Media and App Shutdown) in Sub-Saharan Africa and how this compare to community perspectives on the socio-economic impacts of the cuts, considering a population approximated at 3,381,980 whose daily activities depend directly or indirectly on the internet.
Cholera is a major public health concern. Outbreaks are associated to poor access to water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) knowledge and practices. In addition, the outbreak of the disease is linked to overcrowding and movement of... more
Cholera is a major public health concern. Outbreaks are associated to poor access to water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) knowledge and practices. In addition, the outbreak of the disease is linked to overcrowding and movement of infected persons from points of contamination to others. Areas that were non-endemic are becoming a hotspot for the disease. For example, in the city of Yaounde in Cameroon cases were recorded in 2018 and many others in the last decade. This recurrence has been linked to the sprawling population without a corresponding improvement of access to basic services and needs including clean water, hygiene, and sanitation. This situation in Yaounde like many other cities in the country is compounded by the fact that the country in general is not making significant inroads towards localising SDG6 which seeks to "Ensure availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all". In this study statistical analysis of the data from a stratified sample of 210 households in 07 slum dwelling neighbourhoods in the city of Yaounde revealed that respondents were unaware and lacked adequate public health information related to cholera. 40, 96% were aware of 02 causes of cholera among the 05 major causes identified in the study. While most households were aware of potential spread of cholera through actions such as eating without washing hands, 50, 96 % were not aware of other threats including poor handling of their faecal waste and body fluids especially of suspected cases in the community. Furthermore, using computational analysis of scores from interviews of households on their knowledge and applicability of cholera-related hygiene and precaution measures, a global vulnerability index for the neighbourhoods was generated. The findings reveal that more than 88% of indices from the 7 seven neighbourhoods ranged between 2.5 and 4.5 above the 0-1.5 scale for low vulnerability. In addition, bacteriological analysis of the boreholes and open well water samples from the neighbourhoods revealed the presence of numerous faecal polluting bacteria above the 110UFC/100mL limit recommended by WHO. The combined bacteriological analysis and the vulnerability index indicate that the slum neighbourhoods of Yaounde were highly susceptible to cholera outbreaks. Based on these findings a cholera vulnerability map was drawn for the city of Yaounde. This was followed by some recommendations including a multi-stakeholder approach for engagement to contribute towards cholera outbreak preparedness and sustainable case management in the identified hotspots. Keywords
This map is part of a series of maps on the evidence-informed decision-making (EIDM) landscapes in different countries in Africa. The series comprises 25 maps and is available from the Africa Evidence Network. This is map 21 in the... more
This map is part of a series of maps on the evidence-informed decision-making (EIDM) landscapes in different countries in Africa. The series comprises 25 maps and is available from the Africa Evidence Network. This is map 21 in the series. Maps were produced as part of the bursary conditions for attendance at Evidence 2016 (http://evidenceconference.org.za/). Bursaries were provided as part of the UJ-BCURE programme, funded by the UK's Department for International Development (DFID).
The University of Birmingham ESRC Impact Acceleration Account (ESRC IAA) post-doctoral fellowship is designed to support recent graduates to apply their social science research outcomes to real-life challenges through an approved plan of... more
The University of Birmingham ESRC Impact Acceleration Account (ESRC IAA) post-doctoral fellowship is designed to support recent graduates to apply their social science research outcomes to real-life challenges through an approved plan of activities. In addition, it enables researchers to take the findings of their PhD work and apply them to real-world scenarios. This report presents the activities, outcomes, and impacts of the ESRC project titled ‘Using Local Indigenous Knowledge and Practices (LIKPs) on Climate Change to engineer policy implementation of the Kenya National Farmer’s Federation’s 2021-2030 Farm Forestry and Afforestation Programme (KENAFF FF & AP)’. This impact project draws on the findings of the researcher’s PhD titled ‘Climate Change and Local Indigenous Knowledge and Practices in Kenya: An Analysis of Agrarian Community Responses and their Role in Formal Law and Decision-Making in Kenya,’ completed in September 2022 at Birmingham Law School.
