Shining Sun and Blissful Wind: Access to ICT Solutions in Rural Sub-Saharan Africa Through Access to Renewable Sources

The purpose of this article is to highlight the relationship between ICT solutions and greater sustainable development, discuss the access crisis in rural Sub-Saharan Africa, and recommend integration and implementation methods that governments and non-government actors may pursue within the scope of the 1992 Rio Declaration principles. This article highlights three countries: Kenya, Ghana, and Namibia, and assesses their respective green energy efforts. Lastly, this article will discuss how the Rio+20 conference presents the perfect opportunity to incorporate ICT related provisions into the final conference outcome document

Reconstructing Political Order Among the Somalis: The Historical Record in the South and Centre

The reconstruction of a larger polity in a violence-torn society such as Somalia requires negotiation of a new social contract between the superordinate body and the local units of governance that have provided citizens some degree of order throughout the conflict. In this article we show that the very different trajectories for state-building in the north and south of the country result in good part from different attention to this generalisation. The founding leaders in Somaliland and Puntland consulted extensively with the assemblies of elders and were able to create civilian constitutional orders. Military leaders in the south and central regions did not incorporate their elders into their political systems, even though they controlled similar amounts of territory to their counterparts in the north. Ultimately various Islamic movements did build on community-level governance and used it to successfully challenge the old ‘warlords’ but most of those allied with the Transitional Federal Government remain weak at the community base.European Research Council (ERC

Challenges with collectivistic culture in home care reablement

Master i rehabilitering og habiliteringPurpose : The aim of this study is to investigate the challenges that health professionals face in rehabilitation with Adults' minorities in home care reablement and how these experiences can be understood. Background: The study indicates there has been an increase of immigrant in Norway, due to labour immigration from the EU's new member states east of Europe, and to the many refugees who have found their way to Norway due to war or poverty. Meeting this group of people from different culture with lots of family involvement in clients' rehabilitation, limited knowledge about their health and public information about rehabilitation has and is challenging for health professionals. Method: Qualitative method has been used to answer the study's research questions. Semi- structured interviews were carried out with six health professionals. The sample consisted of 2 physiotherapist (both were Norwegians), 3 were occupational therapist (one Norwegian, one from Bosnia and one from Zimbabwe) and 1 nurse from Somalia. A systematic text condensation that consists of four steps was used to analyse the raw data. Results (analyses and discussion): The health professionals identified several features of the challenges they face in home care reablement that they believed affected the rehabilitation of adults´ minorities. These were diversity culture, interdependence, expectation on recovery, problematic with goal setting and cultural awareness. Conclusion: It appears to be a need for increased multicultural competence and more people with minority backgrounds in health and social services with better prerequisites for understanding the cultural and religious background of adult´ minorities.publishedVersio

Reconstructing Political Order Among the Somalis: The Historical Record in the South and Centre

The reconstruction of a larger polity in a violence?torn society such as Somalia requires negotiation of a new social contract between the superordinate body and the local units of governance that have provided citizens some degree of order throughout the conflict. In this article we show that the very different trajectories for state?building in the north and south of the country result in good part from different attention to this generalisation. The founding leaders in Somaliland and Puntland consulted extensively with the assemblies of elders and were able to create civilian constitutional orders. Military leaders in the south and central regions did not incorporate their elders into their political systems, even though they controlled similar amounts of territory to their counterparts in the north. Ultimately various Islamic movements did build on community?level governance and used it to successfully challenge the old ‘warlords’ but most of those allied with the Transitional Federal Government remain weak at the community base

Effect of Working Capital Management Practices on Financial Performance of Retail Firms in Garowe, Puntland State of Somalia

This study adapts a cross sectional survey method to establish the effect of working capital management practices on the performance of retail firms in Puntland State of Somalia with specific reference to retail firms located in Garowe, the Headquarters of the Puntland State of Somalia. It covers a five-year period 2012-2015. It relies on four theories namely agency theory, and corporate governance theory to help explain how the financial management practices affect financial performance. A descriptive research design is used in the study. The target population of the study are 61 medium to large scale retail firms located in Garowe as at June 2017. Accordingly, purposive sampling based on the firms that prepare financial accounts is used to study a sample of 53 retail firms determined based on Slovin’s formula. Both descriptive and inferential statistics are used in the evaluation. Descriptive findings show that retail firms in Puntland State of Somalia generally have a poor financial performance as indicated by a low mean return on assets. The performance however varies widely across the firms as indicated by a very high coefficient of variation. Inferential statistics indicate that the null hypothesis that working capital management practices have no effect on financial performance is rejected as it is found to have a positive effect on financial performance. The study covered only retail firms in Puntland State hence it is recommended that a similar study be carried out not only for other types of firms like financial institutions, but also adapts a wider geographical scope to cover the whole of Somalia

What Does the Somali Experience Teach Us about the Social Contract and the State?

ABSTRACT Since 1991 the international system has struggled and failed to recreate a state on the territory of the former Somalia. Proto-state systems have been formed by Somalis themselves in Somaliland and Puntland and alternative forms of governance and order exist in other parts of Somalia, but none enjoys international recognition. The polities of Somalia offer important lessons concerning our general theories about social contract, the role that states play in creating wealth, indigenous systems of governance, and the failure of existing international approaches to state reconstruction. Contemporary Somali politics is re-explored here to extract these lessons. The article explores the assumptions embedded in the works of the classic Western social contract theorists in the light of Somali experience in order to show that the underlying conceptual structure of international state reconstruction work needs to be rethought. We conclude that it frequently is better to allow for bottom-up, organic, disjointed negotiation of indigenous governance solutions (even though they probably will not conform to Western ideas of liberal democracy) than for the international system to impose top-down answers. The former more closely tracks the history of state formation in Europe and the latter is troubled by the inconsistent and not necessarily benign interests of the international actors involved. Indigenous, local political systems are changed by the stresses of violent conflict, so prompt action to employ them in a post-conflict situation is indicated

Challenges with collectivistic culture in home care reablement

Purpose : The aim of this study is to investigate the challenges that health professionals face in rehabilitation with Adults' minorities in home care reablement and how these experiences can be understood. Background: The study indicates there has been an increase of immigrant in Norway, due to labour immigration from the EU's new member states east of Europe, and to the many refugees who have found their way to Norway due to war or poverty. Meeting this group of people from different culture with lots of family involvement in clients' rehabilitation, limited knowledge about their health and public information about rehabilitation has and is challenging for health professionals. Method: Qualitative method has been used to answer the study's research questions. Semi- structured interviews were carried out with six health professionals. The sample consisted of 2 physiotherapist (both were Norwegians), 3 were occupational therapist (one Norwegian, one from Bosnia and one from Zimbabwe) and 1 nurse from Somalia. A systematic text condensation that consists of four steps was used to analyse the raw data. Results (analyses and discussion): The health professionals identified several features of the challenges they face in home care reablement that they believed affected the rehabilitation of adults´ minorities. These were diversity culture, interdependence, expectation on recovery, problematic with goal setting and cultural awareness. Conclusion: It appears to be a need for increased multicultural competence and more people with minority backgrounds in health and social services with better prerequisites for understanding the cultural and religious background of adult´ minorities