PSYCHOSOCIAL FACTORS OF MARRIAGE STABILITY AND LONGEVITY IN TRADITIONAL RWANDA

This paper from a research using qualitative approach looks at the marriage stability and lastingness in the traditional Rwanda. It explores the conditions and factors of marriage stability and lastingness that could serve as a lesson to prevent the scourge the couples are currently witnessing including destruction of marriages. Six focus group discussions composed of Rwandan elders were conducted in Kigali City, in Southern and Western Provinces. In traditional Rwanda, marriage was not all about the newly married couple. The two families would instead get involved and play a crucial role in the whole process of forming the new household and in shaping the psychosocial life of the new spouses throughout their marital life. Spouses would have a psychosocial responsibility to sustain family ties established between their two families by striving not to break their marriage. Additionally, some situations would even prompt one of the spouses to "sacrifice" him/herself to the extent of accepting to live in conjugal trouble and stress in order to protect the wellbeing of their children. Because of these two reasons among others, the traditional Rwandan spouses would feel such an exceptional commitment to marriage life; and therefore, they would show mutual respect and patience to each other during their marital life. Such important values  are inexistent today. Participants in this study sate that when patience between spouses was exercised, normal relationships would gradually develop. Overall, patience and perseverance were keys to marriage institution’s stability and longevity in traditional Rwanda, what is hard to observe in today's society. Spouses in contemporary Rwanda can learn a lot from the ones in ancient Rwanda

CHALLENGES OF GENDER MAINSTREAMING IN COLLABORATIVE TRANSNATIONAL RESEARCH

This paper addresses some of the challenges of gender mainstreaming in the context of a Rwanda-Canada social research project. The study partnership includes a team of academics from the Social Sciences Department at the University of Rwanda and three Canadian universities which are Calgary, St.Thomas and York. The ultimate goal of the research project is to create knowledge that could be used to train social workers to respond appropriately to the complex social issues of post-genocide Rwanda. The research team started by documenting the current practice of social work by Rwandan social workers; it wanted to be sure to understand the influence of indigenous cultures and values in social work practices. Interviews were conducted with 19 social work practitioners in Huye and Gisagara Districts of the Southern Province of Rwanda. The findings about the above stated goal have been published elsewhere. However, the present paper is focusing on the challenges of gender mainstreaming which arose after the field work. In this transnational social research project, the research team realized that it had not adequately addressed the different socio-cultural values of the researchers, particularly their understanding of gender and gender equality. It was found that when research team members/collaborators have different geopolitical locations, gender equal collaboration can be difficult to achieve. The paper reflects on the importance of research collaborators, either locally or transnational, to practice self-reflexivity as they negotiate the issues of power and privilege to produce non-hierarchical and accountable knowledge. The paper suggests that research team members need to be open to discuss the construction of gender and gender equality in both the local and the global context of the research. This research is a reminder that engaging gender throughout the process of transnational social research is crucial to addressing gender equity in post-conflict contexts

Conducta prosocial, empatía y apoyo emocional en organizaciones de víctimas del conflicto armado: Mesa departamental del Atlántico (2019-2021)

La mayoría de los estudios sobre conducta prosocial grupal se han desarrollado en torno a grupos de voluntariados y enfatizan en la importancia de los procesos de socialización primaria (Coghlan, 2015; Eisenberg, Spinrad, & Knafo-Noam, 2015; Valor-Segura, & Rodríguez-Bailón, 2011; Van Lange, Schippers, & Balliet, 2011). Este trabajo se distanció de esta línea clásica de indagación de la prosocialidad, para analizar tendencias prosociales en líderes de organizaciones sociales que se implican en procesos de reparación y reconciliación social de víctimas de un conflicto violento en un escenario de justicia transicional (Gómez, 2019; Gómez y Marín, 2018; Peltier- Bonneau y Szwarcberg, 2019; Rico y Bolívar, 2014; Rico y Maza, 2017; Vollhardt y Staub, 2011; Weinstein, 2014).1a edició

Functional measurement in the field of ethics in politics

We present, in a synthetic way, some of the main findings from ten studies that were conducted in the field of ethics in politics, using the Functional Measurement framework. These studies were about (a) Angolan and Mozambican people’s views about the legitimacy of military-humanitarian interventions, (b) French people’s perspectives regarding the government’s responsibility for the health of consumers of illicit substances, (c) Togolese people’s views about the acceptability of political amnesties in a time of political transition, (d) the perspective of victims of the genocide of the Tutsis in Rwanda regarding the attribution of guilt by association to offspring of perpetrators, (e) slave descendants’ views about the acceptability of national policies on reparations for slavery, (f) Colombian people’s willingness to forgive perpetrators of violence who harmed family members during the civil war, (g) the attitudes of French and Colombian people about national drug control policies, (h) Indian students’ views about the appropriateness of the death penalty for murder or rape, (i) Colombian people’s perspectives regarding corruption, and finally (j) Venezuelan people’s conceptualization of human rights. The main findings are discussed in reference to six of the foundations of Moral Foundations Theory.Este texto presenta, de forma resumida, algunos de los principales resultados de diez estudios que se realizaron en el campo de la ética y la política, en el marco de la Medición Funcional. Estos estudios trataron de: (a) los puntos de vista de la gente de Angola y Mozambique sobre la legitimidad de las intervenciones militares-humanitaria; (b) las perspectivas de los franceses con respecto a la responsabilidad del gobierno con la salud de los consumidores de sustancias ilícitas; (c) las perspectivas de las personas de Togo acerca de la aceptabilidad de amnistías políticas en un momento de transición política; (d) las perspectivas de las víctimas del genocidio de los Tutsis en Ruanda en cuanto a la atribución de culpabilidad a los descendientes de los perpetradores de violencia; (e) los puntos de vista de los descendientes de esclavos acerca de la aceptabilidad de las políticas nacionales de reparaciones por la esclavitud; (f) la disposición de los colombianos a perdonar autores de la violencia que causaron daño a miembros de la familia durante el conflicto armado interno; (g) las actitudes de los franceses y colombianos acerca de las políticas nacionales de control de drogas; (h) los puntos de vista de los estudiantes indios acerca de la idoneidad de la pena de muerte por asesinato o violación; (i) las perspectivas de los colombianos con respecto a la corrupción, y, finalmente, (j) la conceptualización de los derechos humanos en la población venezolana. Los principales resultados se discuten en relación con seis de los fundamentos de la Teoría de los Fundamentos Morales

Site-specific seeding using multi-sensor and data fusion techniques : a review

Site-specific seeding (SSS) is a precision agricultural (PA) practice aiming at optimizing seeding rate and depth, depending on the within field variability in soil fertility and yield potential. Unlike other site-specific applications, SSS was not adopted sufficiently by farmers due to some technological and practical challenges that need to be overcome. Success of site-specific application strongly depends on the accuracy of measurement of key parameters in the system, modeling and delineation of management zone maps, accurate recommendations and finally the right choice of variable rate (VR) technologies and their integrations. The current study reviews available principles and technologies for both map-based and senor-based SSS. It covers the background of crop and soil quality indicators (SQI), various soil and crop sensor technologies and recommendation approaches of map-based and sensor-based SSS applications. It also discusses the potential of socio-economic benefits of SSS against uniform seeding. The current review proposes prospective future technology synthesis for implementation of SSS in practice. A multi-sensor data fusion system, integrating proper sensor combinations, is suggested as an essential approach for putting SSS into practice

Systèmes d'information géographique participatifs (SIG-P) dans la gestion des ressources naturelles et la sécurité alimentaire en Afrique : ict4d article, mars 2011

Version anglaise disponible dans la Bibliothèque numérique du CRDI : Participatory Geographic Information Systems (P-GIS) for natural resource management and food security in Africa : ict4d article, March 2011L’objectif général de ce programme panafricain est de contribuer à rendre disponibles des systèmes d’information de bonne qualité, fiables et accessibles grâce à l’usage de SIG-P en vue d’améliorer la gestion des ressources naturelles (eau, terres, forêts, etc.) et de promouvoir la sécurité alimentaire. Le programme entend également appuyer les dynamiques de changement social au niveau des pays concernés (Bénin, Kenya, Malawi, Rwanda, Sénégal, Tunisie) en mobilisant les SIG-P comme outils méthodologiques de participation et d’aide à la prise de décisions

Participatory Geographic Information Systems (P-GIS) for natural resource management and food security in Africa : ict4d article, March 2011

French version available in IDRC Digital Library: Systèmes d'information géographique participatifs (SIG-P) dans la gestion des ressources naturelles et la sécurité alimentaire en Afrique : ict4d article, mars 2011This pan-African programme of research contributes to making available good quality, reliable and accessible information systems through P-GIS to improve natural resources management and promote food security. Excessive deforestation of the Gishwati mountainous forest, with subsequent changes in biodiversity, are a result of growth in population density; creating a land cover map is important for evaluating and monitoring the trend of forest and biodiversity losses. Medium resolution imagery detects and monitors visual information, showing land use change of forested areas, and correlates it with other data gradients of biodiversity loss and changes occurring in the area