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:
Sudan’s Bashir vows rural development as new protests loom
Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir on Sunday pledged to bolster rural development, as he seeks to face down anti-government demonstrations that have rocked cities and villages.
The veteran leader has been on a charm offensive with rallies across the country in a bid to head off weeks of protests seen as the biggest threat to his 30-year rule.
Addressing hundreds of villagers in North Kordofan State at a televised event he promised to bring clean drinking water to rural areas “across Sudan” and open a new hospital in the region.
Women’s emancipation has yet to reach Ethiopia’s rural areas
As the sun sets back in Addis Ababa, the city offers a whole different picture. A couple of young girls are playing soccer at the main Meskel Square. They tell me that Abiy Ahmed should support the female soccer club too and not just place women in his cabinet.
And women are raising their voices these days. One of these women is Hawi, a young reporter and host of a show called “Women in Focus.” Today’s show is on movements that fight for gender equality. Hawi tells me that the problem in Ethiopia is not just with men. “Most times when you talk about issues of women, we are talking about issues that women suffer because of men but we women (…) do not realize our potential sometimes, and we go along with the status quo.” Hawi believes real and fundamental change in Ethiopia can only happen if the mindset of both women and men changes when it comes to the role of women in society.
https://www.dw.com/en/womens-emancipation-has-yet-to-reach-ethiopias-rural-areas/a-47261799
In Africa, investing in rural development and agriculture will offer rural youth an alternative to migration
Investing in rural areas and agriculture is crucial to achieve prosperity in Africa and to guarantee the continent’s young people an alternative to migration, FAO Director-General José Graziano da Silva said today.
“In Africa, we need to invest in rural development aimed at creating jobs and opportunities for young people to remain in rural areas” he said. “We need youth for modern agriculture.”
He made the remarks at the high level EU-African Alliance in Agriculture event which is part of this week’s Global Forum for Food and Agriculture in Berlin.
First grassroots Positive Peace workshop in rural Africa
In rural north eastern Uganda, Mount Moroto and the rugged Karamoja terrain provided the backdrop for the latest Positive Peace workshop by the Institute for Economics and Peace (IEP). The people of the Karamoja Region are predominately pastoralists with a recent history of conflict involving intercommunity livestock raiding, a problem deepened by the spread of small arms and light weapons in the area. Peace is fragile. The illiteracy rate is at 75 per cent, matched by one of the highest rates of child poverty in the country. In November, IEP went to the Tapac, Lopeei and Rupa counties in Karamoja to share the Positive Peace workshop with grassroots, local communities for the very first time, alongside partners The Danish Refugee Council and The Charitable Foundation. Charlie Allen, Director of Partnerships at IEP, said that while the Positive Peace workshops have been taken to a variety of local communities around the world, never before has IEP worked directly with village communities in this way. “When you look at our history of Positive Peace workshops, generally we have facilitated Positive Peace workshops to emerging leader groups, existing leader groups or people that have the potential for future leadership,” Mr Allen said.
AGCO launches Farm In a Box To Take Mechanized Farming to Rural African Communities
AGCO, one of the global leaders in designing, manufacturing and distribution of agricultural solutions announced its initiative to take mechanized farming into deep rural communities in Africa. The corporation headquartered in Georgia, USA announced that it was set to take its Farm in a Box (FIAB) initiative for Africa.
This initiative is essentially the first of its kind. FIAB has been built to provide essential farm equipment, tractor and other implements as well as added support like parts, workshop tools, training and expertise.
The setup was designed to help make machinery operations sustainable in areas where do otherwise would not. The FIAB concept is exactly what it presents itself to be. Farm and farm-related equipment are shipped in a container which can also be re-purposed into a workshop space.