POPULATION GROWTH, EMPLOYMENT, AND LIVELIHOODS: THE TRIPLE CHALLENGE

2017 ◽  
Vol 83 (1) ◽  
pp. 51-61
Author(s):  
John Cleland

AbstractOver the next 35 years, the total population of sub-Saharan Africa is projected to increase by 118%, with a greater rise of of 156% of people in the prime working ages. To cope with population growth and exploit the slowly unfolding, favorable change in age structure, countries face a triple challenge. Agricultural productivity has to improve. Prospects are good, though climate change remains a threat. Manufacturing jobs need to be created on a far larger scale than hitherto. Success is uncertain because much depends on foreign investors and the actions of competing low-wage countries in Asia. The third challenge concerns the non-agricultural informal sector, which, even under optimistic assumptions about manufacturing, will continue to provide livelihoods for a large segment of the population. Entrepreneurship needs to be encouraged so that an increasing proportion of family enterprises evolve into larger businesses. There is no blueprint to achieve this evolution and much will depend on the hard work and ingenuity of individuals.

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Wolfgang Knorr ◽  
Leiwen Jiang ◽  
Frank Dentener ◽  
Almut Arneth

Abstract. Wildfires pose a significant risk to human livelihoods and are a substantial health hazard due to emissions of toxic smoke. It is widely believed that climate change, through increasing the frequency of hot weather conditions, will also lead to an increase in wildfire activity. More recently, however, new research has shown that trends in population growth and urbanisation can be as important for fire prediction as changes in climate and atmospheric CO2, and that under certain scenarios, fire activity may continue to decline through most of the 21st century. The present study re-examines these results from the perspective of air pollution risk, focussing on emissions of airborne particulate matter (PM2.5). We combine an existing ensemble of simulations using a coupled fire-dynamic vegetation model with current observation-based estimates of wildfire emissions to predict future trends. Currently, wildfires PM2.5 emissions exceed those from anthropogenic sources in large parts of the world, while emissions from deforestation or peat fires constitute minor sources. We find that for Sub-Saharan Africa and southern China predictions of wildfire pollution risks depend almost entirely on population dynamics, whereas for North Australia and South America, it is mainly determined by climate change, with Southeast Asia lying somewhere in-between. Under a scenario of current legislation of anthropogenic emissions, global high population growth and slow urbanisation, wildfires may seize to be the dominant source in large parts of Sub-Saharan Africa. However, if anthropogenic emissions are strongly reduced, wildfires may both become the dominant source and lie above critical levels for health impacts in large parts of Australia, Africa, Latin America and Russia, and parts of southern China and southern Europe. This implies that controlling anthropogenic emissions will not suffice for attaining the World Health Organization air quality targets.


Author(s):  
Dalal Aassouli ◽  
Mehmet Asutay ◽  
Mahmoud Mohieldin ◽  
Tochukwu Chiara Nwokike

2014 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Shuaib Lwasa

Africa’s urbanization rate has increased steadily over the past three decades and is reported to be faster than in any other region in the world . It is estimated that by 2030, over half of the African population will be living in urban areas . But the nature of Africa’s urbanization and subsequent form of cities is yet to be critically analyzed in the context of city authorities’ readiness to address the challenges . Evidence is also suggesting that urbanization in African countries is increasingly associated with the high economic growth that has been observed in the last two decades . Both underlying and proximate drivers are responsible for the urbanization, and these include population dynamics, economic growth, legislative designation, increasing densities in rural centers, as well as the growth of mega cities such as Lagos, Cairo and Kinshasa, that are extending to form urban corridors . With the opportunities of urbanization in Sub–Saharan Africa, there are also challenges in the development and management of these cities . Those challenges include provision of social services, sustainable economic development, housing development, urban governance, spatial development guidance and environmental management, climate change adaptation, mitigation and disaster risk reduction . The challenge involves dealing with the development and infrastructure deficit, in addition to required adaption to and mitigation of climate change . This paper examines the current state of urban management in Africa .


2020 ◽  
pp. 000276422097506
Author(s):  
Oscar Mateos ◽  
Carlos Bajo Erro

Sub-Saharan Africa has been the scene of a sizeable wave of social and political protests in recent years. These protests have many aspects in common, while at the same time there is a certain historic continuity connecting them to previous protests, with which they also have much in common. What makes them new, however, is a hybrid nature that combines street protest and online action, making them similar to protests occurring in other parts of the world during the same period. Based on a literature review and field work on three countries, Senegal, Burkina Faso, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, this article addresses some of the main features of what some authors have called the “third wave of African protests.” The study points out how the digital environment is galvanizing a new process of popular opposition and enabling both greater autonomy for actors promoting the protests and greater interaction at the regional level. With the sociopolitical impact in the short and medium term still uncertain, the third wave of African protests is giving birth to a new political and democratic culture in the region as a whole.


2020 ◽  
Vol 18 (1) ◽  
pp. 42-60
Author(s):  
Andrew McKinnon

AbstractThere is an emerging debate about the growth of Anglicanism in sub-Saharan Africa. With this debate in mind, this paper uses four statistically representative surveys of sub-Saharan Africa to estimate the relative and absolute number who identify as Anglican in five countries: Kenya, Nigeria, South Africa, Tanzania and Uganda. The results for Kenya, South Africa and Tanzania are broadly consistent with previous scholarly assessments. The findings on Nigeria and Uganda, the two largest provinces, are likely to be more controversial. The evidence from statistically representative surveys finds that the claims often made of the Church of Nigeria consisting of ‘over 18 million’ exceedingly unlikely; the best statistical estimate is that under 8 million Nigerians identify as Anglican. The evidence presented here shows that Uganda (rather than Nigeria) has the strongest claim to being the largest province in Africa in terms of those who identify as Anglican, and is larger than is usually assumed. Evidence from the Ugandan Census of Populations and Households, however, also suggests the proportion of Ugandans that identify as Anglican is in decline, even if absolute numbers have been growing, driven by population growth.


2017 ◽  
Vol 1 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Martin Brandt ◽  
Kjeld Rasmussen ◽  
Josep Peñuelas ◽  
Feng Tian ◽  
Guy Schurgers ◽  
...  

2016 ◽  
Vol 17 (6) ◽  
pp. 1585-1600 ◽  
Author(s):  
Olivia Serdeczny ◽  
Sophie Adams ◽  
Florent Baarsch ◽  
Dim Coumou ◽  
Alexander Robinson ◽  
...  

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