Experimental and numerical analysis of short sisal fiber-cement composites produced with recycled matrix

"Published online: 02 Jan 2017"The proper use of renewable or recycled source materials can contribute significantly to reducing the environmental impact of construction industry. In this work, cement based composites reinforced with natural fibers were developed and their mechanical behavior was characterized. To ensure the composite sustainability and durability, the ordinary Portland cement matrix was modified by adding metakaolin and the natural aggregate was substituted by 10% and 20% of recycled concrete aggregate. Compression and splitting tensile tests indicated that mechanical strength did not seem to be affected by recycled content. Flat sheets were cast in a self-compacted cement matrix and bending tests were performed to determine the first crack, postpeak strength and cracking behavior of the composites. The use of short sisal fiber as reinforcement of recycled cement matrices results in a composite with multiple cracking and increment of strength after first crack. The modeling of composites using finite element method allowed to determine the tensile stress-strain behavior of material and to design possible applications of this new sustainable material.This research was supported by CAPES (PVE Program: Project 047/2012) and CNPqinfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Displaced Populations Escaping Descent-Based Slavery in Mali, 2020

This data collection was produced based on an individual survey conducted by the SlaFMig project team with displaced populations escaping descent-based slavery in Western Mali in October 2020. Of a population of 1634 displaced persons, we interviewed 204 adults (105 men and 99 women), randomly selected from the village census of displaced people, and statistically representative of the adult displaced population in this village. The data collection surveys the causes of their displacement, the issues they have encountered and the legal and administrative support they may have been given.Descent-based slavery and its legacies continue to prevail in most communities of the west and south of Mali today. Because of the lack of protecting legal framework, populations victims of slavery-related violence often have little choice but to escape to more 'hospitable' areas, having been systematically barred from land access in their home village by the local elite. Those populations with ascribed slave status are the poorest and the most vulnerable populations in the Sahel. In many cases though, those displaced, mostly agricultural populations continue to live in precarious conditions because of continuing marginalization and stigmatization in new host communities, with risks of new forms of servitude strongly overlapping with the legacies of historical slavery. Slavery-related displacements in West Africa have been largely overlooked in the development and humanitarian practice and reporting. This is certainly a major omission in view of the Sustainable Development Goals Our project looks at the most invisibilised historical and contemporary slavery-related internal displacements, those taking place within the rural areas in the Kayes region and which concern in their vast majority women and children because men of those communities are migrants elsewhere in cities and abroad. In such crisis situation as the one prevailing today in Mali, working with populations who are considered of 'slave descent' is thus an urgent equitable development issue. Our research programme aims not only to analyse and map the long history of slavery-related protracted displacements in the Kayes region, but more importantly we propose concrete measures to redress this unacknowledged long-term crisis situation by sensitising the local and national government in Mali at every level to anticipate and efficiently manage those 'fugitive' displacements of people with ascribed slave status. Our project team brings together a unique combination of expertise and methods in African history, comparative literature, law, social anthropology and political sciences, which are less common in development approaches. It aims at constructing a synergistic approach with transformative and catalyst effect by exploring both affordable and upscalable solutions for sustainable livelihoods and proposing directly actionable recommendations for the surveyed communities (and beyond). The transformative aspect of this research relies on bridging the gaps between practitioners and scholars in and with the surveyed communities through a website, policy papers, documentary films, teaching material, trainings, research dissemination and advocacy at appropriate policy-making levels, facilitated by two Malian partner NGOs, Donkosira and TEMEDT.</p

Watigueleya Kèlê Socio-Economic and Climate Resilience Survey in Marginalised Frontier Communities in Guinea, Mali and Senegal, 2021

This data collection was produced based on a household and an individual survey of socio-economic status and climate resilience in ten villages of Guinea, Mali and Senegal conducted by the Watigueleya Kèlê project team in February-March 2021 (except for 1/3 of households in one Guinean village which were surveyed at a later stage in October 2021 due to the Ebola epidemic). The household survey allowed the survey of a total of 933 households, ie 11,228 individuals for the three countries. The individual survey was based on a random sampling of the household survey allowing the survey of a total of 970 individuals for the three countries. The data collection surveys the household and individual socio-economic status, their exposition to ecological risks, their knowledges and abilities to respond to such risks and their participation in the local governance of natural ressources.West Africa is one of the poorest regions of the world, and also subject to different climate change related environmental stresses - such as desertification, flooding, landslides, and unpredictable rains. The majority of the inhabitants of the region rely on climate-sensitive economic activities and depend on natural resources for their livelihoods (UNDP 2011). Frontier communities in Guinea, Mali and Senegal are particularly prone to the effects of long and short-term environmental shocks and stresses, which can have significant negative repercussions for their subsistence activities. However, putting the emphasis on their fragility, precarity and susceptibility to extreme climate events without acknowledging their important and long-standing resilience building strategies in the face of recurrent environmental stresses misses the opportunity to realise their potential to drive transformative adaptation and to open up new pathways for sustainable development. Despite there being ample evidence showing the important role of local repertoires of knowledge in building resilience capacity before and after climate related shocks and stresses, these rich repertoires have often been devalued or ignored in the design of climate change and sustainable development programs and projects. The overall aim therefore, of this project is to help re-centre the resilience thinking and practice in climate change adaptation policy back in local actors and communities themselves and enhance the efforts geared to achieve a more equitable sustainable development in West Africa by de-marginalising frontier communities in Senegal (Casamance), Mali (Kayes) and Guinea (Upper-Guinea). The project will focus on the longue-duree resilience strategies of populations particularly at risk (women and descendants of formerly enslaved populations). It will aim to facilitate their involvement and leadership in community-based resilience action planning and organisational learning, and integrate their experiences and knowledges across multiple scales for long-lasting development gains. Our project team brings together a unique combination of expertise in African history, social anthropology and literary studies, which are less common in development approaches. It aims at constructing a synergistic approach with transformative and catalyst effect by collecting local knowledge that can be harnessed for development activities located at the intersections between poverty, environmental sustainability, governance and vulnerability. The transformative aspect of this research relies on building knowledge networks across borders between frontier communities' stakeholders who otherwise would have little chance to connect and to share and compare their experiences and local knowledge. This cross-border knowledge networks will be facilitated by the organisation in partnership with the organisation Donkosira of training workshops with all stakeholders in each case study country, and the development of a mobile and accompanying website where historical and contemporary local knowledge data will be uploaded and made accessible to a wider local and international audience.</p