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:
Water for Rural Africa calls for drastic steps to address SA water crisis
Water for Rural Africa (WRA) has charged South Africa’s Ministry of Water and Sanitation to take “immediate and drastic steps” to avert the water crises enveloping the south-western parts of the country.
The group is also against the directive to self-ration of water, which it describes as a mere short-term measure.
Cape Town has been one of the cities heaviest hit by the crisis.
Botswana: JC results: Urban schools vs rural schools
Against the backdrop of growing concern over the negligence of education by officials, the pass rate has for the past six years in a row remained way below the 50 percent mark. None of the schools in the top 10 bracket reached the 80 percent pass mark.
The results also expose the gap that exist between urban and rural schools, an indication which also shows policy failure in offering customised solutions to learners in different schools based on their needs.
Meanwhile the bottom 10 schools are all from rural areas, the worst performer being Tapologo Junior Secondary School in Werda, Kgalagadi District. The recently released results indicate that 90.8 percent of pupils at Tapologo JSS failed to get a grade of C or better.
Jubilation As Rural Farmers Get ‘Life’ Line From Nigeria Government
It was jubilation all the way in 12 communities in Anambra State when officials of the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development reeled out the government’s programme for the Livelihood Improvement Family Enterprises (LIFE) targeted at rural farmers. Part of the condition to benefit from the programme is that the farmers must belong to cooperative societies.
The 12 communities that would enjoy the programme in Anambra State were drawn from six local government areas of Nnewi North, Awka North, Awka South, Anambra East, Ayamelum and Orumba South.
Remote Nigeria Communities Welcome Child Health Programme
In areas like Etsu Gudu, the pleasures of rural life and close-knit communal living are balanced by subsistence-level incomes and limited, difficult access to health facilities. Arranging for a single sick child visit could mean missing one or more days of work, as well as costing up to one third of the family’s monthly income.
“Since iCCM came to the community, all children are safe,” says Etsu Gudu village chief, Mohammed El Hadj, offering the RAcE support team kola nuts, bananas and woven palm fans. “He who brings the kola nut, brings life,” he continues, referencing the Nigerian tradition of welcoming visitors and offering respect. “This iCCM has brought life.”
Rural Development: World Bank Restates Importance Of National Identity
Mr Rachid Benmessaoud, Country Director, Nigeria, World Bank, said on Wednesday that digital national identification would yield tremendous benefit for the vulnerable people and rural development.
He said this at the “All Stakeholder Workshop on Strategic Road Map for Digital Identity Ecosystem in Nigeria,” organised by the National Management Identity Commission (NIMC), on Wednesday in Abuja. Benmessaoud, who is also one of the World Bank Department for Digital Identification for National Development delegation to Nigeria, stressed the importance of Digital National Identity to all-round development of the country.
Agriculture feeding Africa’s economic transformation
Rural areas are poised to be a significant economic driver in developing countries. According to the latest 2017 State of Food and Agriculture report by the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), the key to achieving the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development are transforming rural communities and promoting agriculture. “Since the 1990s, rural transformations in many countries have led to an increase of more than 750 million in the number of rural people living above the poverty line,” says FAO.
“To achieve the same results in the countries that have been left behind, the report outlines a strategy that would leverage the enormous untapped potential of food systems to drive agro-industrial development, boost small-scale farmers’ productivity and incomes, and create off-farm employment in expanding segments of food supply and value chains.”
Rural girl beats the odds to become South Africa’s spelling bee champ
Magangeni Primary School in the Collins Chabane municipality in Limpopo says that the success of a 13-year-old who won a national competition shows that it is the epitome of educational excellence.
Hlulani Baloyi, 13, of Malamulele Township won the Mzansi Spelling Bee Competition.
Hlulani who is in grade 7 will fly South Africa’s flag at the continental level in Kenya in June and she will fly with a representative of the school and one of the parents.
Transaid researches safe rural transport in Africa
Transaid has begun in-country research to enhance understanding of safe three-wheeler and motorcycle use for rural transport in Ghana, Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda.
The initiative is designed to help improve affordable and safe access for those using three-wheelers, motorcycles and motorcycle taxis. The scheme will continue until 2018 – when
the findings from the research will be shared through media outlets, with the overall goal being that the recommendations are implemented by the government bodies in each of the African countries.