Building sustainable research management capacity in science granting councils in Sub-Saharan Africa (SRMinSGC) : final technical report

The Southern African Research and Innovation Management Association (SARIMA) in partnership with the Centre for Research on Evaluation, Science and Technology (CREST) and the Association of Commonwealth Universities (ACU), together aimed to implement sustainable research management capacity initiatives in the participating Science Granting Councils (SGCs) in sub-Saharan Africa. The role of SARIMA on the SGCI project was to create a broader and deeper awareness of research management of Science Granting Councils in 15 different sub-Saharan countries. This report reviews the project objectives, activities and outcomes

Rethinking Impact: Applying Altmetrics to Southern African Research

A fundamental concern for institutions around the world is maximising the efectiveness and efficiency of their investment in delivering their mission; this is perhaps most acutely the case for institutions in the developing world that are forced to balance challenging social responsiveness agendas with the rigours of the increasingly competitive global higher education environment. This is often expressed as a concern to maximise the "impact" of funded research, where impact is intended to mean the e!ects of research beyond the research community. This might include influence on policy, improvements in health and living standards, cultural enrichment, or an improved environment. The emphasis on di!erent forms of impact (and the framework by which that impact is assessed and rewarded) should depend on the goals and mission of the institution

A history of southern African research relevant to forensic entomology

Entomological forensic evidence has been used in southern Africa for decades but explicitly forensic research began in southern Africa only 26 years ago. Although applicable local research has accumulated since 1921, it is scattered in a diverse literature or unpublished. Some overseas research has also touched on local species. This review uses a historical approach to synthesize the southern African literature and to illustrate the cross-disciplinary, opportunistic nature of forensic entomology. Distinct phases of research focused on agriculture (1921-1950), medicine (1952- 1965), ecology (1968-1990) and forensics (1980-2005), but systematics spanned the entire period and tended to be ad hoc. Few scientists were involved, situated at geographically distant locations and with widely disparate research interests. The review concludes with an overview of southern African entomologists who have been involved in medico-legal investigations, and a critical evaluation of the past and future of the discipline locally

Opening Access to Southern African Research: Recommendations for University Managers

Open access to research is no longer a fanciful notion promoted by a small group of advocates: it has become a mainstream concept embraced by governments, funders, institutions and researchers. It is an enabler of knowledge societies. UNESCO and the World Bank have endorsed the potential benefits of open access to the whole world. Open access has been shown to increase the impact of research on other sectors, notably the small business, education and health sectors. It improves effciencies in the research process wherever it is undertaken – in academia, in industry and commerce, in the cultural heritage sector and by independent researchers. Research moves more quickly and more effciently if there are no barriers to locating and accessing information. Open access also saves money and this, coupled with effciency gains, means that the future system of scholarly communication will be cheaper and better, with payoffs for producers of research and for those who can – given free access – use it

Migration, Urbanization and Food Security in Cities of the Global South: 26–27 November 2012, Cape Town, South Africa

The disjuncture between food security, migration and urbanization must be overcome. It is an institutional as well as a thematic disconnect on a global scale. Food security is primarily about access to food, not agricultural production. In an increasingly urban world, the locus of food and nutrition security will no longer be rural areas and the global perspective needs to shift appropriately. Hunger is a political as well as economic problem and requires state intervention. Increasing demand for food needs to be met in ecologically sustainable ways while ensuring that the poor have adequate access to food. Migration should be considered a normal process rather than a response to livelihood failure in rural areas. More research is needed on the impact of migrants’ remittances on food security. Urbanization is about much more than the rural poor moving to cities in search of work. In fact, urbanization and migration have the potential to reduce poverty and inequality. Policies that address urban food security need to appreciate the complex relationship between household food security and a range of variables such as income, gender and household size. Climate change is causing increased migration, especially to cities, and bringing about a complex shift in food distribution patterns that includes staple foods being sent to remote rural areas

Migration Governance and Migration Rights in the Southern African Development Community (SADC): Attempts at Harmonization in a Disharmonious Region

This paper examines prospects for enhanced regional migration governance and protection of migrants’ rights in the Southern African Development Community (SADC). Migration in this region is substantial in scale and diverse in nature, incorporating economic, political and mixed migration flows. In addition to movements between countries within the region, migrants also come from across the African continent and even further afield. At its foundation in 1992, SADC as an institution initially embraced a vision of intra-regional free movement, but this has not become a reality. If anything, there has been a hardening of anti-migrant attitudes, not least in the principal destination country of South Africa. There have also been serious violations of migrants’ rights. Attempts at regional coordination and harmonization of migration governance have made limited progress and continue to face formidable challenges, although recent developments at national and regional levels show some promise. In conjunction with the 2003 SADC Charter of Fundamental Social Rights and 2008 Code on Social Security, incorporation of migrants into the SADC 2014 Employment and Labour Protocol could signal a shift towards more rights-based migration governance. The paper concludes by arguing that there can be no robust rights regime, either regionally or in individual countries, without extension of labour and certain other rights to non-citizens, nor a robust regional migration regime unless it is rights-based

No. 01: The Invisible Crisis: Urban Food Security in Southern Africa

Over 1 billion people in the world are now undernourished. The current international food security agenda focuses almost exclusively on the food insecurity of rural populations and ways to increase smallholder production. The plight of the urban poor is marginalised in this agenda leading to neglect of the ‘invisible crisis’ of urban food insecurity. This paper argues that the future of Southern Africa is an urban one and that urban food insecurity is therefore a large and growing challenge. The causes, determinants and solutions for food insecurity are not the same in rural and urban settings. This paper suggests that urban food insecurity needs to be urgently inscribed on the food security agenda of local and national governments, regional organisations and international organisations

Illustrating impact : applying altmetrics to Southern African research; a case study, findings and suggestions

In higher education, altmetrics – “alternative metrics” or article-level metrics – are being used to measure and track scholarship in new ways. A key question is whether institutions in sub-Saharan Africa are in a position to meet demands for the improved measurement and dissemination of research outputs. The Scholarly Communication in Africa Programme (SCAP) explored the state of scholarly communication at four Southern African universities, and probed the alignment between their mission statements, the values of their academic communities, and the reward and incentive frameworks that govern academic careers

The Role of NGOs in Human Security

Human security is fundamentally concerned with helping people to deal with unforeseeable threats and sudden downturns, whether international financial crises, environmental disasters or incapacitating illnesses. In this paper I argue that NGOs, as one of the most visible sets of actors in the related fields of human development and human rights, can play a significant role in helping to achieve human security. NGOs are especially well suited to action for human security because of their size and reach, closeness to local populations, willingness to confront the status quo, and ability to address transnational threats through coalition-building. While NGOs face many obstacles in reorienting their activities explicitly towards human security, including the cyclical nature of the aid monies on which many of them depend and the high costs of networking, I argue that the human security framework will nonetheless attract many NGOs to its approach.This publication is Hauser Center Working Paper No. 12. The Hauser Center Working Paper Series was launched during the summer of 2000. The Series enables the Hauser Center to share with a broad audience important works-in-progress written by Hauser Center scholars and researchers