Rural Policy, Healthcare, and Other Reports
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:
Government To Outdoor New Rural Policy
Government is making preparations for the introduction of a new rural development policy for the country within the first quarter of 2019, Information Minister, Kojo Oppong Nkrumah, has announced.
Mr. Oppong Nkrumah, who made the disclosure during a press briefing on Wednesday, November 7, in Accra, said, “Government, through the Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development (MLGRD), is wrapping up work on a Rural Development Policy for Ghana.”
The focus of the policy is to achieve economic and social development in the rural areas through the provision of opportunities, he added.
Police committee to discuss rural safety this week
The hot button topic of rural safety will be discussed when Parliament’s Portfolio Committee on Police holds a public hearing on the police’s current rural safety strategy on Wednesday.
Some of the organisations that will be invited to give input to the committee include the African Farmers Association of Southern Africa, Agri-SA, SA National Civic Organisation and the Congress of SA Trade Unions.
“The maximum participation of civil society and organised labour is vital to ensure a vibrant and effective rural safety strategy,” said committee chair Francois Beukman.
Mankosi Clinic: The long and winding road to rural healthcare
A mobile government clinic visits Mankosi once a month, but residents say the services provided are not enough.
The Pilani Clinic is 7km back on the winding gravel road. Dyantyi estimated it can take up to three hours to walk there and the closest hospital, Canzibe, is roughly 30km away. The only public transport residents have to these facilities is a bus that leaves at 5am, and most residents then walk back. There are no ambulances that serve Mankosi, and with few residents owning vehicles, accessing these health facilities can be a nightmare.
One resident has taken the community’s plight into his own hands. After a cholera outbreak in 2003, Sibongile Masiso took it upon himself to drive community members to the hospital at low-cost. Dyantyi said that hiring a private vehicle can cost up to R800 one way, while Masiso’s service is significantly more affordable.
Malaria Nets for Rural Namibia
THE JC Flowers Foundation, which is working towards eliminating malaria in southern Africa, has joined forces with German company Badische Anilin und Soda Fabrik (BASF), a leading chemical producer to deliver 26 000 Interceptor® long-lasting, insecticide-treated mosquito nets to rural Namibia.
The community and Anglican faith leaders gathered in the northern town of Ondangwa to mobilise a broad initiative that aims to reduce and ultimately eliminate malaria from the border regions of southern Africa.
“Through an innovative partnership between BASF and the JC Flowers Foundation, and a creative approach that builds on the established relationships that faith leaders have in rural and remote communities, we cannot only help save lives but advance a shared global goal to eliminate malaria from our region,” said Anglican bishop Luke Pato of the Namibian diocese.
Tomorrow’s Rural Home ready for launch in Rwanda
A next generation utility platform, BBOXX, will unveil its vision of a typical 2020s rural dwelling in the developing world at Unlocking Solar Capital Africa 2018 in Kigali.
According to a company statement, Tomorrow’s Rural Home, reflects the needs and desires of rural households in the developing world.
Mansoor Hamayun, CEO and co-founder of BBOXX, said: “Tomorrow’s Rural Home captures the aspiration of off-grid communities, who want affordable utilities to improve their quality of life.
Communities in the Lamin Koto/Passamas Road area have appealed to the regime to prioritise rural Gambia in its development aspirations and empower youth in the Rural Gambia to curb rural urban and irregular migrations.
The appeal was made during the visit of the National Assembly Monitoring Committee to the Lamin Koto/Passamas Road.
At Sami Madina, community members expressed concerns over the gutters, adding that it is hampering the transportation of their farm produce to their homes and has claimed the lives of their small ruminants. Mr. Vincent Paul Atanga, the project Consultant, said the project is a period of 36 months at a tune of US $61 million and is expected to be completed in February 2020.
In 1997, the total road network in Ethiopia was 26,550 kilometres. By 2014 it reached 99,522 km. For the country to reach its ambitious growth targets it’s aiming to double this to over 200,000 km by 2020.
But new roads in Ethiopia and across sub-Saharan Africa often change the landscape, bringing dust, flooding and erosion. The impact is felt most by rural communities. Roads can negatively affect water flows to wetlands, block fish movements and cause landslides, as well as impact the livelihoods of millions of people.
There is a solution: an approach to road building developed by Dutch social enterprise MetaMeta shows that it’s possible to reduce the impact of new roads and support food production by harvesting excess water.
