The Comparative Economics of ICT, Environmental Degradation and Inclusive Human Development in Sub-Saharan Africa

This study examines how information and communication technology (ICT) could be employed to dampen the potentially damaging effects of environmental degradation in order to promote inclusive human development in a panel of 44 Sub-Saharan African countries. ICT is captured with internet and mobile phone penetration rates whereas environmental degradation is measured in terms of CO2 emissions per capita and CO2 intensity. The empirical evidence is based on Fixed Effects and Tobit regressions using data from 2000-2012. In order to increase the policy relevance of this study, the dataset is decomposed into fundamental characteristics of inclusive development and environmental degradation based on income levels (Low income versus (vs.) Middle income); legal origins (English Common law vs. French Civil law); religious domination (Christianity vs. Islam); openness to sea (Landlocked vs. Coastal); resource-wealth (Oil-rich vs. Oil-poor) and political stability (Stable vs. Unstable).Baseline findings broadly show that improvement in both of measures of ICT would significantly diminish the possibly harmful effect of CO2 emissions on inclusive human development. When the analysis is extended with the abovementioned fundamental characteristics, we observe that the moderating influence of both our ICT variables on CO2 emissions is higher in the group of English Common law, Middle income and Oil-wealthy countries than in the French Civil law, Low income countries and Oil-poor countries respectively. Theoretical and practical policy implications are discussed

Organic soil amendments and food security: Evidence from Cameroon

Food insecurity remains a persistent policy issue in many developing countries. While socio-political, epidemiological, climatic, and productivity-related factors have received attention regarding food insecurity, a rarely considered factor is the changing quality of the soil, a natural resource base that has the potential of increasing or reducing vulnerability to food insecurity. The use of organic soil amendments may be socioeconomically and environmentally advantageous. This study examines the inherent relationship between the use of organic soil amendments and food security among smallholder farming households. Using the seemingly unrelated bivariate probit model and the recursive bivariate probit model on nationally representative household-level data from Cameroon, we find evidence that the use of organic soil amendments is positively associated with household food security. We also find the use of organic soil amendments to be associated with reduced levels of mild, moderate, and severe food insecurity. Empirical evidence is also suggestive of a positive association between crop diversification and food security. The results further show that households with larger farm sizes tend to use more organic soil amendments than households with smaller farms. Taken together, our findings confirm another pathway of improving food security with implications for the broad path towards achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), particularly SDG 2 of ending hunger