The environmental challenges in Sub-Saharan Africa.

PIP: Countries in sub-Saharan Africa are doing some rethinking, after decades of development that have resulted in continued poverty, international indebtedness, environmental degradation, and inappropriate Western models. Technological innovations, institutional developments, and family planning are key inputs. Development should shift to a focus on elimination of widespread poverty. Past development strategies in an African context of ample resources have harmed the environment without improving the average person's standard of living. Knowledge about Africa's environment and environmental degradation is inadequate. Recent studies have found, contrary to popular belief, that small shareholders made considerable investments in resource-based capital, which protected their farms from major environmental deterioration and negative impacts of intensification. In Nigeria field studies found that rising demand for fuelwood did not lead to greater deforestation or desertification. Severe degradation has occurred in places where density of population is greater than 500 persons per sq. km, where the land is physically or biologically vulnerable, and where socioeconomic conditions interfere with application of conservation measures. Reduced well-being and reduced food capacity is attributed to land tenure arrangements, misguided macroeconomic policies, and inadequate infrastructure. The issues of development, environment, and population are complex. Sustainable development is possible with appropriate investment priorities that will provide needed infrastructure, services, and education. Urban areas need safe water, solid waste disposal, and spatial planning to relieve congested spaces. Rural areas should focus on health education and basic sanitation. Regulatory measures and conservation measures are also important. Institutional development that promotes democracy, expands individual property rights, and increases the knowledge base offers the most hope for alleviating poverty and protecting the environment.^ieng

Migrants and innovation in African societies: definition of a research field.

PIP: Discussion focuses on the position, role, and importance of migrants in African societies. Specifically, it directs attention to the role of migrants both as innovators and as agents for the spatial diffusion of innovations. In this respect it seeks to identify those factors predisposing migrants to innovate and those that induce both their host community and their home community to be receptive to their innovativeness. The 4 sections of the discussion cover the following: a conceptual framework to explain the migrant's predisposition to innovate and the nature of the innovation carried out; empirical evidence, largely from West Africa, of some innovative activities of migrants; research implications of this phenomenon; and the significance of this type of study for current attempts at economic development in Africa. All forms of migrations need not have innovative implications. A simple change of residence from 1 city to another need not encourage innovativeness. It is not so much the distance factor as the intensity of contrast which predisposes to innovativeness. In Africa such intensity of contrasts is found between the social organizations, the behavior and activity patterns, and the norms and thought habits of various ethnic groups. A 2nd element is deprivation of essentials, as referred to by Barnett who regards essentials as an entirely relative term having significance only for a particular group. Migration often creates a sense of deprivation and stimulates innovative cultural readjustments if a people are to survive. Adjustments, at the very least, must be made to accommodate for the absence of essentials that were relied upon in the old habitat. The 3rd dimension is the home area of the migrants, an area to which they can return whenever they like if their migration has been free and voluntary. In this situation their innovative impact can be considerable. Usually, the fact of their having migrated enhances their social. Return migrants can come to be important local opinion leaders, fostering social change and development in their areas. Possibly 1 of the most important areas of migrants' innovative activities in West Africa is in the spread of new agricultural crops. Institutional innovations due to the activities of migrants also abound in West Africa. Migrants in West Africa also have been known to influence social norms, attitudes, and behavior patterns in some of the areas to which they had migrated. Regarding research implications, it is argued that a more fruitful and insightful understanding of social change comes from the detailed examination of the role of migrants as innovators. An increasing number of studies on migrants in African countries can serve as a means of assessing the vital role of migrants in the development of different parts of a country.^ieng

Institutional radicalization, the state, and the development process in Africa.

The concept of "institutional radicalization" or "the changing of institutions from their roots" is put forward as critical for understanding the manner in which civil societies in most African countries have been grappling with the challenges of development. Given the well embedded precapitalist social formation in most African countries, various institutions have been radicalized around such critical identities as age, gender, land, occupation, credit, community, and rituals of solidarity to promote development. However, until the state intervenes to legitimize these initiatives of civil societies, their full impact on the development process is bound to be moot. The enormous tasks entailed in such legitimization through identifying, registering, realigning, providing incentives, directing, and monitoring these radicalized institutions remain critical and imperative for African countries if they are to accelerate and deepen the extent of their integration into the global free market economy and democratic governance.