The need of making arsenic contaminated ground water potable is urgent in parts of Burkina Faso. An implementation of a treatment design using Granular Ferric Hydroxide (GFH) is under development. Water from a tube-well in Lilgomdé, Yatenga province, Burkina Faso, has been treated with the adsorbent GFH through column experiments. The water had an arsenic concentration varying between 99 and 215 μg/L and an average pH of 7.9. The study has shown that arsenic, predominantly in the form of arsenate, can be adsorbed to the material in significant amounts despite a high natural pH and the presence of ions competing with arsenic for adsorption sites on the GFH. When run through the column, the pH of the effluent water drastically decreased in the beginning. However, the low pH was soon followed by a slower readjustment towards the pH of the influent water. The adsorption of phosphates and fluorides was also studied. Both competitors exist in higher molar quantities than arsenic in the ground water. Even though arsenic displays a higher affinity for the GFH, an average 44 % of total phosphate and 64 % of the fluoride were adsorbed, making them a factor affecting the results of the study. Hydrogen carbonate is also believed to affect the adsorption process but this could not be confirmed. The empty bed contact time (EBCT), describing the average time of contact between the adsorbent and the water, has shown to be of importance. Increasing the EBCT resulted in notably more arsenic being adsorbed per volume GFH. When increasing the contact time, the study showed that reducing the speed of the flow was more effective than increasing the volume of the adsorbent. The GFH was also found to have a self-regenerating ability to a certain extent. When interrupting the experiment and leaving the column material in the aqueous solution for several days, the arsenic adsorption capacity after the break was shown to be higher than just before it. A 13 % increased capacity was shown in one experiment. Conclusively, the results of this study suggest no hindrances towards developing larger scale columns and prototypes to be applied at tube-well pump stations. Further investigations on the treatment method with GFH, on arsenic contaminated water, are recommended.

Mémoire numérisé par la Division de la gestion de documents et des archives de l'Université de Montréal.

Thèse numérisée par la Direction des bibliothèques de l'Université de Montréal.

Rural people in the Sahel derive multiple benefits from local ecosystem services on a daily basis. At the same time, a large proportion of the population lives in multidimensional poverty. The global sustainability challenge is thus manifested in its one extreme here, with a strong need to improve human well-being without degrading the landscapes that people depend on. To address this challenge, knowledge on how local people interact with their landscapes, and how this changes over time, must be improved. An ecosystem services approach, focusing on benefits to people from ecosystem processes, is useful in this context. However, methods for assessing ecosystem services that include local knowledge while addressing a scale relevant for development interventions are lacking. In this thesis, such methods are developed to study Sahelian landscapes through an ecosystem services lens. The thesis is focused on village landscapes and is based on in-depth fieldwork in six villages in northern Burkina Faso. In these villages, participatory methods were used to identify social-ecological patches (landscape units that correspond with local descriptions of landscapes, characterized by a combination of land use, land cover and topography), the provisioning ecosystem services generated in each social-ecological patch, and the benefits from ecosystem services to livelihoods (Paper I). In Paper II, change in cover of social-ecological patches mapped on aerial photographs and satellite images from the period 1952-2016 was combined with population data and focus group discussions to evaluate change in generation of ecosystem services over time. In Paper III, up-scaling of the village scale assessment to provincial scale was done through the development of a classification method to identify social-ecological patches on medium-resolution satellite images. Paper IV addresses the whole Sudano-Sahelian climate zone of West Africa, to analyze woody vegetation as a key component for ecosystem services generation in the landscape. It is based on a systematic review of which provisioning and regulating ecosystem services are documented from trees and shrubs on agricultural lands in the region. Social-ecological patches and associated sets of ecosystem services are very similar in all studied villages across the two regions. Most social-ecological patches generate multiple ecosystem services with multiple benefits, illustrating a multifunctional landscape (Paper I). The social-ecological patches and ecosystem services are confirmed at province level in both regions, and the dominant social-ecological patches can be mapped with high accuracy on medium-resolution satellite images (Paper III). The potential generation of cultivated crops has more or less kept up with population growth in the villages, while the potential for other ecosystem services, particularly firewood, has decreased per capita (Paper II). Trees and shrubs contribute with multiple ecosystem services, but their landscape effects, especially on regulating ecosystem services, must be better studied (Paper IV). The thesis provides new insights about the complex and multi-functional landscapes of rural Sahel, nuancing dominating narratives on environmental change in the region. It also provides new methods that include local knowledge in ecosystem services assessments, which can be up-scaled to scales relevant for development interventions, and used to analyze changes in ecosystem services over time. / <p>At the time of the doctoral defense, the following papers were unpublished and had a status as follows: Paper 2: Manuscript. Paper 3: Manuscript.</p><p> </p>

La thèse questionne les facteurs permettant la pratique et l’usage des technologies numériques en soutien à la scolarisation dans le domaine des technologies éducatives au niveau des écoles secondaires. A partir d’un regard croisé entre différents terrains de l’espace francophone et s’appuyant sur les pratiques, le chercheur analyse des éléments comparatifs dans le secteur des technologies de l’information et de la communication (TIC) en éducation entre les pays suivants : le Viêt Nam, la Moldavie, le Burkina-Faso et la République Démocratique du Congo. Un regard croisé permet de comparer les conditions influençant l’usage des TIC au sein de la Francophonie institutionnelle. La recherche s’inscrit dans le cadre d’une thèse de doctorant menée au sein de Laboratoire Éducation et Apprentissage (ea 4071) à l’université Paris René Descartes et présente les résultats de quatre études de cas effectuées de 2010 à 2013 auprès d’élèves (n = 3 236) et des enseignants (n = 467) des pays ciblés membres de l’Organisation internationale de la Francophonie (OIF). Le chercheur décrypte les données collectées en liens aux conditions d’accès, aux pratiques et à l’usage des technologies numériques dans les établissements du niveau secondaire. La recherche a été effectuée par questionnaire pour collecter les données quantitatives. Le chercheur a également eu recours aux groupes d’entretien focalisé pour colliger les données qualitatives. La démarche croise, la territorialité du phénomène d’usage des technologies numériques en soutien à l’apprentissage en milieu éducatif. En Moldavie et au Viêt Nam, la recherche a porté une attention particulière à l’analyse de l’usage des TIC en soutien à l’enseignement et à l’apprentissage du français langue étrangère (FLE). Le champ de la recherche se situe dans l’espace Francophone, dans sa diversité et sa pluralité. Nous analyserons les évolutions et tenterons d’expliquer les raisons des retards pour certains pays ainsi que les nombreux obstacles d’accès aux TIC. Nous chercherons à jeter les voiles de l’usage des TIC dans des contextes qui semblent austères. Les résultats de l’enquête dévoilent que la démarche d’appropriation des TIC par les professeurs de français connaît un processus qui semble s’accroître au Viêt Nam et en Moldavie. Il ressort des pratiques contrastées lorsque l’on croise les résultats des enquêtes. L’analyse de l’accès aux outils informatiques et leur intégration en classe révèlent que les usages sont nettement plus soutenus par les enseignants dans les pays de l’est de l’Europe (Moldavie) et en Asie (Viêt Nam) par rapport aux pratiques observées sur le continent Africain (plus spécifiquement au Burkina-Faso et en République Démocratique du Congo). Enfin, une étude de cas a été menée au sein des espaces publics numériques : Maisons des savoirs de la Francophonie. / The thesis questions the different elements which allows the practice and use og Information and Communication Technologies in educational teaching in secondary schools. From a cross analysis between different fields within the francophone space and by leaning on the educational practices, the rechearcher analyses the comparing elements in the ICT sector in education between the following countries : Vietnam, Moldavia, Burkina-Faso and the Democratic Republic of Congo. A cross analysis allows the comparasion between the different inflencing conditions in the practices and use of the ICTs within the environment composing the diversity of the institutional Francophonie. The research has taken place during a doctorac theses at the Laboratoire Education et Apprentissage (ea 4071) at the Pris René Descartes university and presents the results of four case studies done between 2010 and 2013 with students (n=3236) and teachers (n=467) in target countries within members of the Organisation international de la Francophonie (OIF). The researcher analyze the data that has been collected related to the conditions of access, practises and the use of digital technologies in the secondary school level. The research has be done by questionnaires in order to collect the quantitative data. The researcher has also used focalized group interviews in order to collect quanlitativ data. The compared approach, the territoriality of the phenomenon of the use of digital technology as a support in an educational learning environment. In Moldavia and i Vietnam, the research has paid special attention to the analysis ot het use of ICT as a support in teaching and learning French as a second language, français langue étrangère (FLE). The research fiel is situated within the Francohpone space, with all its diversity and plurality. We analyse the evolution and seek to explain the reasons for the delays of certain countries as well as numerous obstacles to ICT access. We seek to reveal the use of ICT in austere contexts. The results reveal that the CTI appropriation process by French teachers is a growing process in Vietnam and Moldavia. Contrasting practices are standing out when crossing the survey results. The analysys of access to IT tools and the integration in teaching reveals that the user is significantly more sustained by teachers in eastern Europe (Moldavia) and Asia (Vietnam) as to practices on the African continent (specificity Burkina-Faso and the Democratic Republic of Congo). Finally, a study has been done within the public digital space as Multimedia center named : Maisons des savoirs de la Francophonie. / Teza examinează factorii care permit practica și utilizarea tehnologiei digitale pentru susținerea școlarizării, în domeniul tehnologiilor educaționale din școlile de nivel secundar. Plecând de la o nouă perspectivă între diverse teritorii din lumea francofonă și bazându-se pe practicile din mediul educațional, cercetătorul analizează elementele comparative din domeniul tehnologiilor de informație și a comunicațiilor (TIC) în domeniul educației dintre următoarele țări : Vietnam, Moldova, Burkina Faso și Republica Democrată Congo. O nouă perspectivă permite compararea condițiilor care influențează utilizarea TIC în zona care constituie diversitatea Francofoniei instituționale. Cercetarea este parte a unei teze de doctorat din cadrul Laboratorului de Educație și Învățământ (ea 4071) la Universitatea Paris René Descartes și prezintă rezultatul a patru studii de caz efectuate între 2010 și 2013 pe lângă elevii (n=3 236) și profesori (n=467) din țările vizate, membre ale Organizației Internaționale a Francofoniei (OIF). Cercetătorul decriptează informațiile culese cu privire la condițiile de acces, practicile și utilizarea tehnologiei digitale pentru școli la nivel secundar. Cercetarea a fost efectuată printr-un chestionar pentru a culege datele cantitative. Cercetătorul a recurs de asemenea la focus-grupuri pentru a colecta date calitative. Noua abordare combină teritorialitatea fenomenului de utilizare a tehnologiei digitale susținând sistemul educațional. În Moldova și în Vietnam, studiul a acordat o atenție deosebită analizei utilizării TIC pentru susținerea predării și a învățării limbii franceze ca limbă străină (FLE). Domeniul cercetării este în spațiul Francofon, în diversitatea și pluralitatea acestuia. Vom analiza evoluțiile și vor încerca să explicăm motivele întârzierii în anumite țări, precumși numeroasele obstacole de acces la TIC. Vom încerca să influențăm utilizarea TIC în contexte care par a fi austere. Rezultatele cercetării arată că demersul de familiarizare cu TIC a profesorilor de franceză prezintă o creștere în Vietnam și Moldova. Acest lucru reiese din practicile contrastante în momentul în care sunt comparate rezultatele cercetărilor. Analiza accesului la mijloacele informatice și integrarea acestora în clasă arată faptul că utilizările sunt mult mai susținute de către profesorii din țările din estul Europei (Moldova) și Asia (Vietnam) decât din Africa (mai specific în Burkina-Faso și Republica Democratică Congo). În plus, s-a făcut un studiu de caz în cadrul spațiilor publice numerice : Maisons des savoirs de la Francophonie. / Luận văn đặt vấn đề về những nhân tố cho phép thực hành và sử dụng công nghệ số hỗ trợ dạy học trong lĩnh vực công nghệ giáo dục ở khối trung học. Từ một góc nhìn chéo giữa nhiều vùng miền khác nhau của không gian Pháp ngữ và dựa vào thực tiễn trong môi trường giáo dục, người nghiên cứu phân tích các yếu tố so sánh việc ứng dụng công nghệ thông tin (CNTT) trong giáo dục ở những quốc gia sau đây : Việt Nam, Moldavie, Burkina-Faso và Cộng hòa dân chủ Congo. Một góc nhìn chéo cho phép so sánh các điều kiện ảnh hưởng đến việc thực hành và sử dụng CNTT trong một không gian đa dạng của Tổ chức cộng đồng Pháp ngữ. Nghiên cứu thực hiện trong khuôn khổ luận văn tiến sĩ được tiến hành ở Phòng Nghiên cứu Giáo dục và Học tập (ea 4071) ở trường Đại học Paris René Descartes và trình bày kết quả của bốn trường hợp nghiên cứu thực địa từ năm 2010 đến 2013 đối với học sinh (n=3.236) và giáo viên (n=467) các quốc gia nói trên là thành viên của Tổ chức quốc tế Pháp ngữ (OIF). Người nghiên cứu giải mã các dữ liệu thu thập liên quan đến những điều kiện tiếp cận, thực hành và sử dụng các công nghệ số ở trường trung học. Nghiên cứu đã được thực hiện bằng bảng câu hỏi để thu thập dữ liệu định lượng. Người nghiên cứu cũng đã phỏng vấn một nhóm giáo viên và học sinh nhằm thu thập các dữ liệu định tính. Phương pháp tiến hành gặp nhau ở tính lãnh thổ của hiện tượng sử dụng công nghệ số hỗ trợ học tập trong môi trường giáo dục. Ở Moldavie và Viêt Nam, nghiên cứu đã đặc biệt lưu tâm phân tích việc sử dụng CNTT trong dạy và học tiếng Pháp ngoại ngữ (NN). Trường nghiên cứu trong phạm vi không gian Pháp ngữ đa dạng và đa chiều. Chúng tôi sẽ phân tích sự tiến triển và cố gắng giải thích lý do chậm trễ của một số quốc gia cũng như nhiều trở ngại khi tiếp cận CNTT. Chúng tôi cũng tìm hiểu việc sử dụng CNTT trong những bối cảnh tưởng như khó khăn. Kết quả điều tra hé lộ rằng tiến trình chiếm hữu CNTT của các giáo viên tiếng Pháp có gia tăng ở Việt Nam và Moldavie và làm nổi bật thực tế tương phản khi giao hòa các kết quả điều tra. Phân tích việc tiếp cận và đưa công cụ tin học vào lớp học đã tiết lộ rằng việc sử dụng CNTT nhận được sự ủng hộ rõ nét của giáo viên các nước Đông Âu (Moldavie) và châu Á (Việt Nam) so với thực tế quan sát được ở châu Phi (đặc biệt là ở Burkina-Faso và CHDC Congo). Cuối cùng, việc nghiên cứu trường hợp cụ thể đã được tiến hành ở các không gian số công cộng : các Nhà tri thức Pháp ngữ.

Notre thèse porte sur les institutions royales des Mossi de l'actuel Burkina Faso. Elle analyse les dynamiques politiques, sociales, religieuses et culturelles qui expliquent leur pérennité. Notre recherche couvre une période allant de la fin du XVe siècle, moment où apparaissent les premières formes d'organisation étatique dans le Bassin de la Volta Blanche, à 1991, date de l'instauration de l'actuelle IVe République. Notre travail vise à rendre compte de l'imagination politique dont on fait preuve les sociétés mossi et leurs chefs : les naaba. Nous entendons déconstruire le concept de « tradition » trop facilement employé pour caractériser les formes d'organisation socio-politique africaines. Au contraire, l'histoire des Mossi révèle des dynamiques qui ont conduit à la formation puis à l'affirmation de l'idée d'État dans cette partie de l’Afrique. Nous analysons ainsi tour à tour la création des États mossi de la fin du XVe siècle à la fin du XIXe siècle, puis les processus d’hybridation politique et social qui ont été favorisés par la présence coloniale française. Les naaba, de leur côté, ont opéré un « tri » dans les formes de modernité induites par cette dernière. Enfin, nous rendons compte de la formation de l’État-nation qui, mené par les nouvelles élites africaines à partir de 1958, a été engagée soit en réaction contre les chefferies « traditionnelles », soit avec leur concours, mais sans que jamais leur statut ne soit officiellement défini au sein de la République. / Our thesis focuses on the royal mossi institutions of the current Burkina Faso. It analyzes the political, social, religious and cultural changes wich explain their preservation. Our research covers a period wich begin from the late 15th century, when the first forms of state organization was born in the White Volta Basin, to the birth of the current 4th Republic in 1991. Our work aims to report the political imagination of Mossi people and its rulers : the naaba. This study is an opportunity to deconstruct a concept of "tradition" too easily used to characterize the social and political organizations in Africa. On the contrary, the history of the Mossi reveals some dynamics that led to the formation of the idea of state in this part of Africa. We analyze the creation and the strengthening of the royal states from the late 15th century to the late 19th century, then the political hybridization process induced by french colonization. We show that naaba were able to make a selection in the forms of 'modernity' imposed by the colonial rule. A final section focuses on the formation of the nation-state from 1945 to 1991. We show how the new African elite tried to build a community of citizens, sometimes by tackling head on the Mossi chiefs – often considered by them as a dangerous opposition force –, sometimes by trying to reconcile them in order to facilitate the administration of the territory and the mobilization of the people from the political center. However, politicans in power could not resolve the issue of their official status within the Republic.

The notion of environmental migration, and the associated desire to predict the likely scale of the phenomenon in the future, has frequented academic debate since the 1980s. Despite this, current estimates of the numbers of people likely to be displaced by environmental change by 2050 range from 150 million to 1 billion. By developing an agent-based model this research attempts to provide a rigorous means of quantifying the influence of future changes in climate (using rainfall as a proxy) upon migration trends within the context of Burkina Faso. Located in dryland West Africa, the population and economy of Burkina Faso are highly dependent upon rain-fed agriculture, placing them in a position of considerable vulnerability to future changes in rainfall. The conceptual basis behind the Agent Migration Adaptation to Rainfall Change (AMARC) model presented by this thesis is developed using contributions from the fields of climate adaptation and social psychology to focus upon three Theory of Planned Behaviour components of the migration decision: behavioural attitude; subjective norm; and perceived behavioural control. Rules of behaviour defined within the model are developed and parameterised using information gained from both retrospective migration data analysis and the responses of interviewees in focus groups conducted across Burkina Faso. Following a process of stringent model validation and testing the AMARC model is used to investigate the role of changes in rainfall variability upon past and future modelled migration. Although a relatively clear hierarchical impact of (from highest to lowest modelled migration) average, dry and wet rainfall conditions upon total modelled migration is identified, the individual flows of migrants that make up the total show unique and varied relationships with changes in rainfall. Furthermore, modelled internal and international migration flows show both similarities and differences when compared with relationships identified between rainfall and migration within existing literature.

Abstract The focus of this thesis is early attachment among institutionalized infant orphans. Previous research has pointed towards attachment problems in dysfunctional institutions, but did not take a comparative approach to understanding attachment. The present research was conducted in an orphanage in Kaya, a little town located in the Center North Region of Burkina Faso, Africa. The 22 children at the institution were aged four months to five years and were mostly from the Mossi ethnicity. Using mixed psychological and anthropological methods such as behaviors checklist, attachment questionnaires, and participant observation, this research indicates that orphans do not display evident features of unsecure attachment such as avoidant, resistant, or disorganized attachment: 79% of the children would seek proximity with caregivers, 93% would make visual contact, and 79% would often explore their environment. However, a significant number of children in the orphanage showed disinhibited reactive attachment: 36% of the children would seek contact with a stranger; only 21% would be anxious to see a stranger. Using a cross-cultural approach, the study questions the classification of disinhibited reactive attachment as a problematic ailment and suggest that the behavior might not be seen negatively, but can have positive outcome in the transition process from the orphanage to the adoptive family. The research also examines the factors related to orphanhood that can have consequences on the future of children and consecutively on their chances to form secure attachment. The research underlines many other difficulties between caregivers and orphans such as the lack of training, the young age of the caregivers, and the reluctance to get attached to the children in order to avoid difficult separations. This study emphasizes the complexity of the early attachment process of institutionalized orphans.

The rapid economic development of the Asian Tigers in the 1980s, mostly based on export oriented policies, has inspired scholars to study the contribution of Export Processing Zones (EPZs) to economic transformation and countries around the world to implement EPZs with the expectation of duplicating the few success stories. The results in terms of economic and social progress of these policies have however been mixed, if not negative for number of countries, partially due to a non adaptation of the model to the changing domestic and international environment. For a developing country like Burkina Faso which has been for a long time looking for solutions to significant economic growth that impact the living conditions of its citizens, a successful export oriented strategy could pave the way to the development of its current week industrial base. However, although the business environment of Burkina Faso seems to allow the adoption of such a strategy, designing a realistic and realizable EPZ regime is a sine qua non for setting the basis of its success. Moreover, the implementation of the project is subject to a strong commitment and cooperation between the Government and external partners that need to be convinced of the worthiness of their investment.

Au cours des dernières décennies, le Burkina Faso, pays du Sahel, a fait face à un enchaînement d'événements climatiques «extrêmes» d'une ampleur et d'une rapidité sans précédent. On peut penser notamment aux sécheresses récurrentes, à la pluviométrie insuffisante et mal répartie, à la hausse des températures ainsi qu'à l'abaissement ou l'assèchement total des eaux souterraines qui alimentent les sources. Sans contredit, ces événements ont de lourdes conséquences au niveau bio-physique et socio-économique. Au Burkina Faso, la médecine traditionnelle est un héritage millénaire. Tout un chacun a recours à cette médecine locale, fiable et adaptée à un moment ou à un autre. On compte au nombre des impacts des variations climatiques affectant le pays la perte de biodiversité ainsi que la migration vers le sud de certaines espèces végétales. Ces transformations de l'environnement ont des effets sur la pratique de la médecine traditionnelle, ainsi que sur le mode de vie des gens qui la pratiquent et l'utilisent. Dans le cadre d'une étude qualitative, nous avons procédé à une enquête de terrain dans les régions du Centre et du Plateau central au Burkina Faso afin de déterminer les différents impacts des changements et de la variabilité climatiques sur la pratique de la médecine traditionnelle, la vulnérabilité de la population aux impacts ainsi que les stratégies d'adaptation prévilégiées par celle-ci. L'analyse de contenu fut réalisée à partir de 30 entrevues menées auprès de tradipraticiens et d'acteurs impliqués dans le domaine de la médecine traditionnelle et de l'environnement au cours du printemps et de l'été 2005. Ces données furent mises en relation avec les données provenant de la revue de littérature. L'étude a démontré que les changements et la variabilité climatiques ont bel et bien des impacts sur la pratique de la médecine traditionnelle. Par contre, ces impacts sont amplifiés par une panoplie d'autres facteurs de dégradation tant d'ordre bio-physique que social, ce qui rend la population extrêmement vulnérable à ces impacts. La nécessité de traiter cette problématique d'une façon globale, en prenant compte de tous les facteurs d'influence est donc capitale. ______________________________________________________________________________ MOTS-CLÉS DE L’AUTEUR : Changements climatiques, Variabilité climatique, Vulnérabilité, Adaptations, Plantes médicinales, Médecine traditionnelle, Burkina Faso.