Manufacturing urbanism: Improvising the urban–industrial nexus through Chinese economic zones in Africa

The relationship between industrialisation and urban development is subject to assumptions based on experiences in the global North, with little research on how it plays out in countries undergoing urbanisation and industrialisation today. In the context of recent excitement about China’s role in stimulating an ‘industrial revolution’ in Africa, we examine how Chinese zones in Ethiopia and Uganda are influencing the urban–industrial nexus. We argue that Chinese zones are key sites of urban–industrial encounter, but these dynamics are not primarily driven by the government officials that dominate the ‘policy mobilities’ literature, nor by the State-Owned Enterprises usually associated with Chinese activity overseas. Rather, they are emerging through the activities of inexperienced private Chinese actors who do not even operate in the worlds of urban policy. Faced with government histories and capacities that vastly differ from China’s, directly replicating the Chinese experience is virtually impossible; yet the tentative and improvisational relationships between Chinese firms, African government authorities and other local actors are gradually moulding new urbanisms into shape. The piecemeal bargaining and negotiation that unfolds through these relationships bridges some of the gaps between industrialisation and planning, but this cannot compensate for the governance of the urban–industrial nexus at higher scales

Micro Enterprises in Small Town, Amhara Region, Ethiopia: Nature and Performance

It is generally believed that micro enterprises have a significant employment contribution and can operate successfully in places like small towns where large and medium enterprises cannot. This however depends on the nature and performance of micro enterprises. This paper studies micro enterprises in small towns with the view of identifying their nature and performance. The study is carried in six small towns of the Amhara region on randomly selected 332 micro-enterprises belonging to different economic activities. The finding revealed that the enterprises are generally characterized by low productivity and stagnation, low level of employment and capital, limited access to financial services, lack of partnership and networking, absence of technical and business skills. To this is added the limited purchasing power of the local people, limited export and poor business environment. A multivariate analysis revealed that the most critical variables affecting the performance of micro enterprises were capital, access to information, licensing and access to telephone services. In order to promote micro-enterprises in small towns, it is therefore essential to provide them with access to finance, improve information availability, improve local business environment and promote the formalization of businesses. Moreover businesses should be encouraged to form network and associations and tap export market. Local demand should also be enhanced through improved agricultural productivity in the hinterland and increased income of town dwellers.Ethiopian Journal of Economics Vol. 14 (1) 2005: pp. 79-11

Comparison Of Urban Sustainability Using Indicators Approach In The Cities Of Bahir Dar And Hawassa (Ethiopia)

Measuring urban sustainability remains an arena of dispute for long time. The promotion and development of urban sustainability are important to maximize the benefits of urbanization and minimize the negative externalities in urban environment and livelihoods. Each city has its strength and weakness towards sustainable urban development from different perspectives of various indicators. It is understood that assessment of sustainable city is related to identification and selection of sustainable development indicators. Therefore, in this research, we tried to develop a set of indicators, and indices for sustainability assessment in Bahir Dar and Hawassa cities in Ethiopia. The study focuses on the principal indicators, and an indicator framework has developed. The main purposes of sustainability indicators are to understand sustainability, supporting decisions, directing, involving stakeholders and empowerment. Twenty-six indicators with four main dimensions (economic, socio-cultural, environmental and institutional) have been identified. The computation of urban sustainability has to take into account all four dimensions equally. In the calculation of indicators, this study chooses a standard method [0, 1] using the minimum and maximum values for each indicator as an objective indicator. The sustainability indices calculated are 0.53 and 0.52 for Bahir Dar and Hawassa respectively, indicating that both cities have a moderate performance towards the development of a sustainable city. Aggregated data demonstrates that environmental indicators are moving towards sustainability, while economic, socio-cultural and institutional dimensions are performing relatively low in both cities, suggesting that sustainability studies need to work on all of sustainability dimensions that tend to better inform concerned bodies for policy intervention

Inertially aided vector matching for opportunistic navigation in space

In this work, an estimator is developed for the joint estimation of orientation and position from astrophysical signals of opportunity, particularly pulsars. The filter is based on a combination of vector-matching techniques for estimating attitude and time-difference of arrival navigation for estimating position. The filter functions by computing the probability of association for each arriving photon with each signal source of interest, and using the association probabilities to perform the measurement update. The probability of association of a photon with a signal source is derived, as well as the probability of association with background. The estimation techniques proposed are tested using Monte Carlo analysis techniques. The accuracy of the resulting estimates is compared to other pulsar navigation techniques. The results of the simulation studies indicate that the technique proposed here generally outperforms other time difference of arrival estimation techniques

Signal of Opportunity Time Difference of Arrival Estimation Using Adaptive Filtering Techniques

EXACT and SOCRATES are a pair of CubeSats being developed to advance the TRL of a dual-use sensor. It can function either as x-ray detector used for characterization of high energy photons or as a sensor for measuring relative ranges between users in deep space operations. The ranging function of the sensor is described in this paper. After describing the measurements generated by the sensor, the algorithms that make use of this information to generate a position solution are presented. As a validation case study, data from the Japanese spacecraft Suzaku’s observation of the Crab Nebula Pulsar is used to estimate the spacecraft’s change in position along the line-of-sight to the pulsar, using this estimation scheme. Suzaku’s observations are suitable for this application because the spacecraft's Hard X-Ray Detector (HXD) is similar in effective surface area to the prototype X-Ray/gamma-ray detector currently under development for use onboard EXACTand SOCRATES. Thus, validation of this technique using data from Suzaku serves to verify the feasibility of this navigation technique onboard other spacecraft with detectors of similar size

Agricultural knowledge management in dairy production improvement: The case of Bure woreda, West Gojjam Zone, Amhara Region

The Government of Ethiopia concentrates on agricultural and rural development for its economic development. Dairy development is one of the components of agricultural development. To improve dairy production in a certain locality, dairy producers should be able to access and use appropriate knowledge for a particular problem at the right time. This research was conducted to assess the agricultural knowledge management system in Bure district. Primary and secondary data were collected from primary (i.e., dairy producers and experts of different Governmental Organizations (GOs) and Nongovernmental Organizations (NGOs) using a semi-structured questionnaire and checklist) and secondary sources (literature reviews). The survey reveals that maintaining the health of animals, providing green pasture to their milch cows, animal selection and using crossbreed cows are the major mechanisms used by dairy producers to improve milk production in the district. This knowledge/mechanism was obtained from Woreda Agriculture and Rural Development Office (WARDO), their own experience, neighbors, family, by observing the activities on a farm, and listening to radio, and from sharing sessions and on-farm demonstrations. A majority of the dairy producers use the new knowledge with partial modification. They also transfer the knowledge to their neighbors, friends, relatives and children. Therefore, the concerned bodies should promote and strengthen the existing good practices in knowledge management processes