Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'African studies|Peace studies|Sub Saharan Africa studies'

Pastoralists (nomadic herders) live throughout the arid and semi-arid areas of Kenya, where they have historically been marginalized, with little development and security. Continuing traditions of cattle rustling and ethnic violence present significant barriers to development, and external peacebuilding efforts achieve limited results in such conflicts. A uniquely pastoralist grassroots peacebuilding process emerged to address pastoralist conflict, which generated sustainable peace in Laikipia yet was never studied. A review of extant literature conducted for this dissertation led to the conclusion that the peacebuilding field does not sufficiently study such grassroots volunteer peacebuilding, and support for such efforts is hampered by Western teleological approaches that have limited capacity to deal with emergence and complexity. This dissertation addresses these deficiencies by enhancing understanding and utilization of emergent peacebuilding in Kenya?s pastoralist cultures. In this study, Kenya Pastoralist Network and Mediators Beyond Borders?Kenya Initiative co-researchers collaboratively developed a participatory action research (PAR) project focused on a 2009 peacebuilding effort known as the Laikipia Peace Caravan (LPC). The dissertation explored how effective and sustainable grassroots peacebuilding emerges in pastoralist cultures. The PAR approach was utilized to support pastoralists in empowering themselves regarding the ways in which their neotraditional peacebuilding works, and how it can become more sustainable. Multi-ethnic co-researchers engaged in study design, data collection, inquiry and qualitative analysis, conducting semistructured multilingual interviews with 49 diverse Laikipia community members, officials and LPC professionals. Archival research was collected from a range of sources. This study found that effective and sustainable pastoralist peacebuilding emerged from expansive utilization of diverse pastoralist social networks, cycles of learning and adaptation, integration of practical wisdom and cultural sensitivities, and systemic transformation of transactional, attitudinal and structural societal domains through dialogue processes, modeling and grassroots self-organization. The dissertation outlines and provides evidence for a novel conceptual framework, emergent peacebuilding design, which involves a multidimensional systemic approach to peacebuilding that emerges from social networks, embraces diversity and complexity, is inclusive of traditional methods, and adapts as necessary to meet changes in context and process.

This case study explores wellbeing and sustainable development in rural sub-Saharan Africa – a culturally and ecologically diverse and vibrant region devastated by colonial and postcolonial injustices that have created persistent and pervasive social, economic, and ecological crises. The growth-oriented capitalist economic model that has shaped the operative understanding of wellbeing and perpetuated the invented reality of underdevelopment also guides large-scale sustainable development efforts that persistently fail to significantly improve wellbeing among rural communities. Ecological economics may provide a paradigm for sustainable development that is culturally, ecologically, and economically more appropriate – and more effective – for both assessing and improving wellbeing. Twenty-seven participants from two rural, forest-dependent communities in Cameroon’s Southwest Province were surveyed to assess perceptions of wellbeing and social-ecological resilience. These communities are heavily invested in a sustainable agriculture initiative that reflects an ecological economics worldview and key dimensions of community resilience. Results indicate that perceptions of wellbeing are influenced by both gender and occupation, and that the sustainable agriculture initiative positively impacts perceptions of wellbeing for farmers more than non-farmers, and female farmers more than male farmers. This suggests that participation in the program may positively influence perceptions of subjective and community wellbeing. Further study in these communities, and across similar communities may shed light on how ecological economics might provide a practical basis for broadening an understanding of wellbeing and for informing the approach, design, and implementation of sustainable development initiatives.

The purpose of this qualitative, grounded theory study was to explore and describe the perceptions and experiences of African-born and educated nurses (ABEN) in order to understand how the nurses influenced systems of professional practice in healthcare systems of Maricopa County of Arizona. The overarching research question for the study directly reflected the purpose statement. Four sub-questions were also used in the study. These centered on was how care experiences shaped ABEN perceptions of the healthcare delivery system, how ABEN informed and shaped their social interactions when caring for patients and residents, the barriers to providing care and to fulfilling work practices and processes that ABEN described and the components of a model to adjust or remove experienced barriers. The sample consisted of 17 registered nurses, 16 females and one male, from five African countries, who participated in individual interviews. Lee's push-pull theory formed the theoretical framework of the study. Responses from interviews and researcher field notes were coded and thematically analyzed to determine answers to research questions. Six categories emerged from conceptual data analysis: optimism, self-development, confronting barriers, discovering, assimilation drive, and adaptability. A four-stage model of acclimation was developed from these six components. Results have implications for healthcare policy changes such that ABEN become fully assimilated and accepted as contributors to healthcare delivery in Maricopa County.

This praxis develops a comprehensive performance measuring model to help government policy makers in Sub-Saharan African (SSA) countries identify and evaluate their performance in online outsourcing (OO). After assessing different efficiency measurement methods, data envelopment analysis (DEA) was selected for this study.

Metrics from the World Bank’s proposed framework for assessing countries’ competitiveness in OO are used to develop the DEA model in this research. Due to the presence of missing values in some of the variables in the dataset, a technique called multiple imputation by chained equations (MICE) is used to estimate these missing values. The DEA model is applied to 23 OO input variables and a single output variable called Information and Communication Technology (ICT) service exports. ICT service exports revenues are used by the World Bank to measure a country’s performance in OO.

Empirical results from the eight SSA countries studied validate that there is a meaningful relationship between ICT service exports revenue and DEA technical efficiency scores. Further analysis indicates that six out of the eight SSA countries are efficient in OO, while two are inefficient in OO. In addition to the efficiency scores, the DEA model produces benchmark information in the form of an efficiency reference set (ERS). The ERS for an inefficient country consists of an efficient country with which it shares similar levels of input and output factors. Thus, through peer comparison, policy makers in inefficient countries will be able to identify factors that may contribute to improving their performance.

The results from the proposed DEA model demonstrate the actual possibilities of determining the technical efficiencies of countries participating in OO; the use of this model is therefore not limited to SSA countries but can be applied to various world regions identified by the World Bank.

Military interventions continue to be pervasive in Africa. Thirty out of forty-eight sub-Saharan states have experienced at least one successful coup. Nor have these numbers abated. In the 21st century alone, thirteen coups have been successfully staged in Africa, thus far. At the same time, several African countries – such as Ghana, Uganda, Burkina Faso and Benin – have managed to escape from seemingly insurmountable coup-traps. Yet, we understand little about what drives countries into a coup-trap and even less about how countries can extricate themselves from one. What explains this divergence? To address these contradictory trends, I focus initially on Ghana and Cote d'Ivoire, neighboring states, with comparable populations, topographies, and economies that have experienced contrasting trajectories. While Ghana suffered five consecutive coups from the 1966 to 1981, Cote d'Ivoire was an oasis of stability and prosperity. However, by the end of the 20th century, Ghana had emerged as one of the few stable two-party democracies on the continent, as Cote d'Ivoire slid into civil war. Why was Cote d'Ivoire so much more stable and prosperous than Ghana in the `60s and `70s? And what explains their dramatic reversal of fortunes?

I answer these puzzles by examining the political strategies of regimes in both countries, with a particular focus on rural alliances. I find that the leaders who followed a rural political strategy were better able to preserve stability, while those who followed an urban political strategy were more likely to suffer coups. In contrast to the prevalent urban-bias thesis, I contend that traditional elites and producers in rural areas – not the organized urban sectors – are most critical to political stability. To show the wider applicability of my thesis, I extend my argument beyond these two countries. In a systematic review of fifty-eight regimes over eighteen sub-Saharan countries, I demonstrate that the rural/urban dichotomy is pervasive and predictive of the success/failure of regimes. Using formal modeling, I show a strong and robust correlation between supporting rural areas and the likelihood of being ousted in a coup as well as longevity in power.

Despite the multitude of existing studies of leadership and organizational outcome, there are few empirical studies of these phenomena in Africa. The purpose of this cross-sectional study was to examine the relationship between Nigerian local government administrative leadership and organizational outcome and between perceived leadership effectiveness and transformational leadership factors, based on Bass’s full range leadership theory (FRLT). Data were collected through the Multifactor Leadership Questionnaires administered to a randomly selected sample of 240 department heads in 30 local governments in Osun State, Nigeria. Regression result shows a statistically significant correlation between the local public administrators’ leadership practices and organizational outcome (p < 0.05), but the model only accounted for 10.5% of variance in organizational outcome, suggesting other influential factors on the local government outcome other than leadership. Regression results also showed a significant relationship between local public administrators’ leadership effectiveness and transformational leadership factors (p < 0.05). The model accounted for 28% of the variance in leadership effectiveness, suggesting other factors affecting the public administrators’ leadership effectiveness. The implications for positive social change include the opportunity to move the Nigerian local administrators’ leadership practices towards more effective and ethical leadership as explained by the spectrum of FRLT, through training and transformational leadership development programs. In turn, transformational leadership and organizational practices may discourage corruption and help build a sustainable local government institution that is responsive and accountable to the Nigerian public.

The Republic of Ghana is the legacy of the colonial amalgam of multiple, and previously distinct, ethnic homelands. The Trans-Volta Togoland became the Volta Region of Ghana following a Plebiscite in 1956. The dominant ethnic group in this region; the Ewe, has long maintained a claim of neglect of the Volta Region and the marginalization of its people in this postcolonial state. Protests in the street and at media houses ensued against the State. This qualitative case study explores the undercurrents of this conflict in the context of the Ewe group’s identity and their experiences of neglect and marginalization in the postcolonial state. The main objective of the study was to understand why the Ewe group has not revolted despite the perceptions of deprivation. This study focused on the Ewe group in the Volta Region of Ghana a as sub-colonial construct that has managed its perceptions of deprivation without revolting against the host State.