Every week, RuralReporters.com collate reports on development issues in rural Africa and its environs.
This report includes some of our top picks from recent must-read research, interviews, blogs, and in-depth articles, carefully selected to help you keep up with global issues.
Here are some of the updates you may have missed from the previous week:
SA to host first ever International Rural Crime Conference
A joint statement from the organisers said: “The aim is to allow scholars in rural criminology and practitioners, such as policymakers, police officials, private security officers, lawyers, prosecutors, and trauma counsellors, to interact in an interdisciplinary manner.”
Speakers at the conference include Dr Joseph Donnermeyer, Ohio State University, US; Dr Elaine Barclay, University of New England, Australia; and Emmanuel Bunei, Mount Kenya University, Thika, Kenya.
Researchers are invited to present on the rural crime phenomenon and papers on The Challenges of Rural Crimes Affecting Agriculture.
Are Rural Banks using their first mover advantage?
Rural and community banks in Ghana provide basic banking services to their clients. Rural banks are found in towns, cities and rural areas among others. Rural banks have helped to bridge the gap between the banked and unbanked population in their catchment areas.
According to the Efficiency Monitoring Unit of ARB Apex Bank report for the fourth quarter of 2016, there were over 140 RCBs operating across Ghana.
Rural Banks called upon to support Ghana’s agric sector
As efforts to transform Ghana’s agricultural sector increases by the execution of the ‘Planting for Food and Jobs’ programme, a rural banking expert, Mr. Joseph Akossey, has asked Rural and Community Banks (RCBs) to avail loans to support farmers.
Manny smallholder farmers in the country lacks funds, and it has been an age long challenge bedeviling the growth of the agricultural sector.
Currently, most rural banks prefer to lend to government salaried workers and businesses rather than to farmers because they view the sector to be risky.
MasterCard Foundation opens call for African projects that address rural poor
The MasterCard Foundation Fund for Rural Prosperity (FRP) in Nairobi yesterday launched a new competition to find and support providers of innovative and scalable financial products and services that improve the lives of poor people in rural areas of Africa.
In a press release the fund said the 2017 competition will be open throughout the year with applications submitted and evaluated periodically. The first submission period will close for judging on 10 August.
Unsuccessful applicants will be able to refine and resubmit their applications subsequently, along with new entrants in the competition.
FRP launches new funding opportunity in rural africa
The MasterCard Foundation Fund for Rural Prosperity (FRP) today launched a new competition to find and support providers of innovative and scalable financial products and services that improve the lives of poor people in rural areas of Africa.
The 2017 competition will follow a ‘rolling’ format. It will be open throughout the year with applications submitted and evaluated periodically. The first submission period will close for judging on August 10, 2017. Unsuccessful applicants will be able to refine and resubmit their applications subsequently, along with new entrants in the competition.
WDCD 2017 Events Address Rural Livelihoods and Youth
This year’s World Day to Combat Desertification (WDCD), which is celebrated globally on 17 June, highlighted opportunities to enhance the livelihoods of rural communities and especially young people, under the theme, ‘Our Land. Our Home. Our Future.’ The global observance event in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso, marked the first time that high-ranking officials drawn from Africa’s foreign affairs, environment and interior ministries have met to jointly address Africa’s growing challenge of rural youth unemployment, which is contributing to increased migration and radicalization. In a show of solidarity, the Presidents of Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger participated in the celebrations.
Why Young Women in Rural Parts of Liberia Are Not Involved in Decision Making
Adolescent Girls in the rural areas are being exposed to abuses mostly in our post war country Liberia.
However, in many years, women in our African society specifically Liberian women had been overlooked in decision making.
They were not seen as individuals who could properly head ministries and agencies in the homeland until the advent of Pres. Sirleaf. But, today women are not often abuse due to the mushrooming of advocacy group that are in the vanguard championing their causes.
Rural gogos left stranded by ambulances
Health-e reported on medical neglect in the Eastern Cape nearly two years ago. Rural grandmothers say little has changed.
In South Africa, grandmothers are breadwinners to 1.5 million households. When their children seek work elsewhere these grandmothers are left to raise their grandchildren on their meagre grants.
What does this mean when they need to access healthcare in rural South Africa? The rolling hills of the Eastern Cape often leave these elderly women stranded by the few ambulances the province has. They turn towards private cars to assist them in seeking their arthritis treatment, diabetes medication and general checkups.
What you don’t know can hurt you: Why Africa can no longer ignore these diseases
Life’s unexpected moments of insight can come from anywhere. It could be a chance conversation in an airport, a magazine article that grabs your attention or simply a moment of clarity when you think about something from a different perspective. My own personal insight about tackling neglected tropical diseases (NTDs) wasn’t one of these instant lightning-bolt experiences. Instead, it slowly crystallised into view over a series of months. It began with the Higher Life Foundation’s support for a mass drug administration (MDA) in rural Zimbabwe and culminated in a breakfast at the World Economic Forum sanctioned side event that was organized by private philanthropic initiative, the END Fund.