Synthesis of research issues and capacity building in water and land resources management in Ethiopia

This paper presents an overview and synthesis of the key research and capacity building issues arising from the workshop presentations and the papers. Three days of intensive deliberations by professionals from various research, development and governmental organizations, and of diverse disciplines, backgrounds and nationalities have clearly acknowledged that water management issues remain very crucial for poverty alleviation and rural development in Ethiopia – the overwhelming proportion of the population depends on smallholder agricultural production, which is highly constrained by water availability (absence of perennial rivers, high spatial and temporal availability of rainfall, etc.). This situation, over the years, has generated a critical need for efficient water and land management to reduce production risks and hazards, and enhance stable agricultural and livestock production. Recent decades have witnessed various efforts in the area of irrigation and supplementary irrigation (and other development initiatives), employing various water harvesting technologies, construction of micro dams, diversions structures, etc., which were largely combined with traditional yield-enhancing methods to facilitate sustainable smallholder agricultural production.Most of these efforts did not only fall short of their desired objectives of improving smallholder production conditions but also generated a host of other problems which aggravated smallholder production conditions: the large scale irrigation schemes (e.g. Awash Basin and elsewhere) resulted in secondary soil salinization where large tracts of land have gone out of production; the spontaneous construction of micro-dams across the country (especially in Tigray) is associated with human and livestock health hazards that in some cases has resulted into abandonment of the dams; the production potential of extensive watersheds remain largely unexploited or inappropriately utilized, resulting in extensive degradation of fragile lands, and so on. The potential for effectively integrating crops and livestock management in the context of growing water in complementary crop-livestock systems remains largely unexploited, especially from the perspective of efficient water and land utilization. The limited success of most of the technologies in Ethiopia calls attention to a dire need for research and capacity building to understand the complex issues of water and land management, so as to enhance national and local capacity to deal with water and land management issues to enhance food security, poverty alleviation and national economic development.Length: pp.204-216Water resource managementCapacity buildingPovertyLand resourcesIrrigation managementDrainageWater harvestingLivestock

Economic growth dynamics of the East African region

The article is devoted to the description of the dynamics of the economic development of the East African states. The paper gives a description of the current economic situation of the East African countries, lists the states included in the East African region, gives the economic and geographical characteristics of the studied region. The author also analyses the evolution of the sectoral composition of gross domestic product (GDP) of the East African countries, considers the economic factors that influence the economic growth of the states of the region. The study analyses the problem of employment and unemployment in the East African countries. The paper considers the ways of improving the economic development of the region, in particular, economic diversification, inclusive growth and structural transformation, as well as structural and institutional measures that would encourage productive investment in the economy

Challenges and opportunities for agricultural development in West Africa

The article is about the challenges and opportunities for the development of the agricultural sector in West Africa. The aim of the study is to identify ways of improving the efficiency of agricultural production in West Africa, to increase yields. The task is to find, identify, develop and implement the most effective methods and algorithms for realising the above aim, and the challenges and obstacles along the way. The article describes the current state of agriculture in this sub-region. The author considers modern problems of agriculture in this territory, gives examples of agriculture in other regions of the world for comparison with West African. Intensive agriculture of various countries is considered as an option for the development of the West African region. The external factors, affecting the development of West African agriculture, in particular climatic change, increase in the average annual temperature, are considered. Attention is paid to the question of finding a new way of development of agriculture, resistant to climatic change. Possibilities and problems, related to the application of agroecology on the example of the Republic of Senegal, are analysed

Low efficacy of the combination artesunate plus amodiaquine for uncomplicated falciparum malaria among children under 5 years in Kailahun, Sierra Leone.

OBJECTIVE: In 2004, Sierra Leone adopted artesunate plus amodiaquine as first-line antimalarial treatment. We evaluated the efficacy of this combination in Kailahun, where a previous study had shown 70.2% efficacy of amodiaquine in monotherapy. METHODS: Method and outcome classification of the study complied with WHO guidelines. Children 6-59 months with uncomplicated malaria were followed-up for 28 days. PCR genotyping was used to distinguish recrudescence from reinfection. Reinfections were reclassified as cured. RESULTS: Of 172 children who were referred to the study clinic, 126 satisfied inclusion criteria and were enrolled. No early treatment failures were reported. The day 14, efficacy was 98.2% (95% CI: 93.8-99.8). Of 65 recurrent parasitaemias analysed by PCR, 17 were recrudescences. The PCR-adjusted day 28 efficacy was 84.5% (95% CI: 76.4-90.7). All true failures occurred in the last 8 days of follow-up. Of 110 children who completed the 28-day follow-up, 54 (49.1%) experienced a novel infection. CONCLUSION: The efficacy of this combination was disappointing. The high reinfection rate suggested little prophylactic effect. In Kailahun a more efficacious combination might be necessary in the future. The efficacy of AS + AQ needs to be monitored in Kailahun and in the other regions of Sierra Leone

Mid-term and cost-benefit study of smallholder farmers in Striga-Infested maize and cowpea growing areas of Northern Nigeria

The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF) provided a 4-year financial support to the International Institute for Tropical Agriculture (IITA) and other partners in 2011 to adapt and intensively promote proven integrated Striga management strategies in cowpea and maize farming systems in northern Nigeria and western Kenya, with the active participation of farmers, community-based organizations, extension workers, policy makers, and researchers. The objective of the project is to improve the livelihoods of over 25 million smallholder farmers in the immediate impact zones of the project in northern Nigeria (15 million) and western Kenya (10 million) in the long term by developing and implementing a robust “ Striga threat reduction strategy” that identifies and strategically promotes scientifically proven technologies that work on smallholder farmers’ fields and which have direct effects on stopping Striga emergence, reducing the Striga seed bank in the fields, improving soil fertility, and increasing crop yields. The management technologies being promoted in Northern Nigeria range from cultural practices such as crop rotation of maize with soybean which stimulates Striga to germinate but which later dies in the absence of the maize host to latch onto; and using Striga-resistant maize and cowpea varieties. The ISMA project is expected to end in 2015, thus, it is pertinent to carry out a mid-term evaluation of the project with respect to adoption and benefit-cost analysis of the Striga management technologies among farming households in the project areas and make a comparison with non-intervention areas. In Nigeria, the Integrated Striga Management in Africa (ISMA) project was implemented in Kano and Bauchi states, both located in the savanna agroecology of northern Nigeria. The mid-term evaluation will provide the basis to present ISMA’s achievement to policy makers, NARES, private sector partners, the BMGF, and other development partners. The result will also guide the scaling-up and scaling out of the project to other parts of the savanna ecological zones of northern Nigeria. It is within this context that the study was planned. The objectives of the study were to..

Making GDPR Usable: A Model to Support Usability Evaluations of Privacy

We introduce a new model for evaluating privacy that builds on the criteria proposed by the EuroPriSe certification scheme by adding usability criteria. Our model is visually represented through a cube, called Usable Privacy Cube (or UP Cube), where each of its three axes of variability captures, respectively: rights of the data subjects, privacy principles, and usable privacy criteria. We slightly reorganize the criteria of EuroPriSe to fit with the UP Cube model, i.e., we show how EuroPriSe can be viewed as a combination of only rights and principles, forming the two axes at the basis of our UP Cube. In this way we also want to bring out two perspectives on privacy: that of the data subjects and, respectively, that of the controllers/processors. We define usable privacy criteria based on usability goals that we have extracted from the whole text of the General Data Protection Regulation. The criteria are designed to produce measurements of the level of usability with which the goals are reached. Precisely, we measure effectiveness, efficiency, and satisfaction, considering both the objective and the perceived usability outcomes, producing measures of accuracy and completeness, of resource utilization (e.g., time, effort, financial), and measures resulting from satisfaction scales. In the long run, the UP Cube is meant to be the model behind a new certification methodology capable of evaluating the usability of privacy, to the benefit of common users. For industries, considering also the usability of privacy would allow for greater business differentiation, beyond GDPR compliance.Comment: 41 pages, 2 figures, 1 table, and appendixe

The Relation of Mitochondrial DNA Mutation with Mitochondrial Diseaseas in Coding Region

AbstractMitochondrial disorders are recognized in several metabolic and degenerative diseases, aging and cancer. Mitochondrial functional deficiency maybe caused by a decrease in the function of complex respiratory enzymes that can inhibit the oxidative phosphorylation chain (OXPHOS) for synthesis of ATP. Based on data MITOMAP in 2013, there are 211 of 466 mutations that have been reported in coding region. The largest number of mutation located on MT-COI region that have 34mutations. In particular, mutations in a subunit of COX have been described associate with various clinical phenotypes. Deficiency of COX is one of disorder that often leads to mitochondrial disease. Based on the database, the dominant disease on subunit of COI is dominated by prostate cancer. Moreover, the highest probability of mutation to the size of gene located on MT-NDI with 2.83%. OXPHOS deficiency which is caused by DNA mitochondrial mutation, mostly appears on subunit ND1. The dominant phenotype on subunit of NDI is Leber's hereditary optic neuropathy (LHON) diseases. This study has revealed that mutations in mitochondrial DNA were not only associated with predisposition to neuromuscular diseases but also to cancer and optical interference

PROSPECTS FOR THE DEVELOPMENT OF ECONOMIC RELATIONS OF AFRICA AND THE EUROPEAN UNION

In article modern cooperation between the African countries and the EU, the main ways and forms of activization of development of economic euro-African cooperation, a condition and the factors promoting development of the European-African cooperation at the present stage are analyzed. The directions of diversification of forms, methods and mechanisms of the European-African cooperation are considered. The role of strategy of cooperation between the European Union and the international economic organizations in stabilization of economy of the African countries is analyzed. Special attention is paid to the perspective directions of development of economic cooperation of the countries of Africa and the EU. Authors called potential problems on the way of development of the international economic cooperation of the countries of Europe and Africa

PROSPECTS FOR THE DEVELOPMENT OF ECONOMIC RELATIONS OF AFRICA AND THE EUROPEAN UNION

In article modern cooperation between the African countries and the EU, the main ways and forms of activization of development of economic euro-African cooperation, a condition and the factors promoting development of the European-African cooperation at the present stage are analyzed. The directions of diversification of forms, methods and mechanisms of the European-African cooperation are considered. The role of strategy of cooperation between the European Union and the international economic organizations in stabilization of economy of the African countries is analyzed. Special attention is paid to the perspective directions of development of economic cooperation of the countries of Africa and the EU. Authors called potential problems on the way of development of the international economic cooperation of the countries of Europe and Africa