This paper considers the situation of Congolese women and their almost complete social, political and economic marginalization in society. The Congolese constitution formulates the principle of gender parity between men and women; however, numerous provisions of the law still actively discriminate against women, relegating them to the status of second-class citizens. The violent conflict that the Congo has experienced and continues to experience has only exacerbated the socio-economic and cultural differences in status between men and women. How are Congolese women responding to these obstacles and have they been able to make any sustainable gains in doing so? The findings of this paper contend that despite the inequities that they experience in the social, political and economic spheres, Congolese women have in fact been able to take steps towards achieving gender equality. The conflict that has so negatively affected them has also provided them with intended and unintended opportunities for improving their situation. One such opportunity is evident in the creation of City of Joy, a women empowerment program established and developed entirely by Congolese women. A refuge for survivors of sexual violence, City of Joy helps rehabilitate these women with the hope that they will have acquired the necessary tools to catalyze social change as they are reintegrated into their respective communities after the six-month program. City of Joy as a case study illustrates both the opportunities for empowerment and change as well as the difficulties of providing women with meaningful agency given the structural obstacles that they are faced with. Although it is difficult to evaluate the long-term success and sustainability of the program, the general observations that can be gleaned from this example demonstrate that war and conflict can create fresh beginnings and new opportunities for women to produce their own social, political and economic realities. City of Joy, although limited in scope, is a socially enhancing program and a pragmatic step toward increasing the probability of a peaceful outcome in the aftermath of a brutal and long-lasting conflict and will ultimately have a positive long-term effect Congolese society.

In the decade from 1998 to 2008, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) was witness to one of the most brutal violent conflicts in recent history. Crimes against humanity and large-scale violations of human rights occurred on a regular basis, resulting in the death and displacement of millions of people. The international community responded to this crisis with humanitarian efforts such as the donation of billions of dollars in aid and engagement in diplomatic mediations. However, despite the increasing viability of humanitarian intervention as a policy option for international actors, as well as the ‘groundbreaking’ formal adoption of the Responsibility to Protect at the 2005 United Nations World Summit, no intervention was undertaken. This produces a puzzle: why, despite acknowledgement of the severity of the crisis, did the international community respond with humanitarianism, but stop short of intervening? The answer can be found in an examination of the international normative environment at the time of the conflict. Using a three-stage normative life-cycle model developed by Martha Finnemore and Kathryn Sikkink, this thesis posits that the reason the international community engaged in humanitarian actions was because the norm of humanitarianism is at stage 2 of its life cycle, making it well-entrenched enough to compel members of the international community to act. However, the norm of humanitarian intervention is only at stage 1 of its life cycle, meaning that it is weak and underdeveloped. Its weakness is exacerbated by the fact that humanitarian intervention often clashes with the highly entrenched stage 3 norms of realpolitik, and specifically the norm of self-interested engagement, which demands that a state only become engaged with another if it is in the first state’s interests to do so. Thus, despite the brutality of the conflict, the norm of humanitarian intervention was not strong enough to provoke an intervention in the Democratic Republic of Congo. / Thesis (Master, Political Studies) -- Queen's University, 2009-09-18 02:05:57.536

Micro-finance institutions are leading a revolution in the financial sector, particularly in banking. This provides a renewed focus on the way financial credit is provided to the marginalised society of the developing countries. In the Democratic Republic of Congo, small and medium enterprises constitute almost 80% of the entrepreneurial population. There is therefore, considerable urgency to advance the performance and competitiveness of these small and medium enterprises. The aim of this study is to establish the effect of micro-finance institutions, on the performance of small and medium enterprises in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Literature reviewed for this study provided insights into the effects of micro-finance institutions on the performance of small and medium enterprises that accessed micro-loans. This study comprises of 77 small and medium entrepreneurs that participated in the empirical research. The performance of small and medium enterprises was assessed through the use of a questionnaire. The questionnaire consisted of statements on socio-demographics, the functioning of micro-finance institutions and the performance of small and medium enterprises. The study revealed that the largest group of respondents were male entrepreneurs, married, in the age group category of 30 to 50 years, have a household size of 1 to 5 people and have 1 to 5 years of experience in business. Entrepreneurs mostly utilized financial services such as saving accounts, money transfers and training and technology. Furthermore consulting services in the areas of leadership finance and operations were mainly received from micro-finance institutions. The study revealed that micro-finance institutions principally play the role of facilitator of growth, tool for social change, provider of banking systems and instrument for empowerment to SMEs. The two sources of financing utilized mostly by small and medium enterprises were loans from micro-finance institutions and from commercial banks. The borrowed finance was used principally to start a new business, expand an existing business and for working capital. The amounts of money borrowed from micro- loans were as follow: 5 000,00 (US $) or less, between 6 000 and 10 000,00 (US $) and 11 000,00 to 15 000, 00 (US $) The interest rates paid were from 11% to 20%, 21% to 30% and 51% and above. The collateral provided was in the form of physical assets such as a car or a house. The results of the mean score factor indicated that on average, responses for questions 14 to 19 were above 2.5 on the scale of 1 to 4. The mean score above 2.5 was the indication that respondents agreed to a larger extend to these statements. This leads to the conclusion that overall, the effect of micro-finance institutions on the performance small and medium enterprises in the Democratic Republic of Congo was positive, as proved by the mean score factor. / MBA, North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2014

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Wisconsin--Madison, 1973. / Typescript. Vita. Description based on print version record. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 600-627).

A la différence des arts rupestres du Sahara ou d’Afrique australe, richement documentés, ceux d’Afrique centrale restent encore aujourd’hui largement méconnus. Cette région se différencie des précédentes par la prégnance d’un art peint et gravé non figuratif. Dans la plupart des cas, leur signification reste obscure. A l’échelle de la sous-région, la République démocratique du Congo est pourtant connue depuis longtemps pour ses sites rupestres.Ma recherche porte sur le Bas-Congo, la région la plus à l’ouest de l’actuelle République démocratique du Congo. / No English summary available.

Magister Legum - LLM / In many countries around the world, approximately 230 million children are living in countries affected by armed conflict. 15 million of them were caught up, in various parts of Africa, in violent conflicts. Some of the African countries where children are involved in armed conflicts include: Central African Republic (CAR), Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Mali, Somalia and South Sudan. In CAR, for example, thirty four children (girls and boys) were abducted by armed groups, some as young as 3 years of age.

Orientador: Alexandre Gori Maia / Texto em inglês / Dissertação (mestrado) - Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Instituto de Economia / Made available in DSpace on 2018-08-21T07:06:48Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Kumbi_NgomaCharles_M.pdf: 1521466 bytes, checksum: a498c9bbb27920b3d22199e9b59d53d0 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2012 / Resumo: Com os atuais desequilíbrios econômicos e a política de instabilidade das instituições financeiras moldando o nosso mundo, os menos afortunados são, sobretudo, aqueles do esquecido exército de reserva da população desempregada. Esta situação é ainda mais graves nos países mais pobres. Nosso foco nesta dissertação é a população classificada como pobre que é deixada de fora do sistema de proteção social e exposta a toda ordem de calamidades socioeconômicos. Ao analisar o sistema de proteção social, nós buscamos, sobretudo, olhar para medidas de alívio imediato à situação atual enfrentada por esse povo desafortunado, altamente concentrado nos países menos desenvolvidos. Nossa atenção vai para a República Democrática do Congo (RDC), país afetado por décadas de guerra civil, instabilidade política e econômica, que contribuíram para deixar a maioria da população em condição de extrema pobreza e desespero. Para alcançar o objetivo proposto em um curto período de tempo, programas de transferências diretas de renda (TDR) são propostos como remédio principal. Como estratégia para conciliar a redução da pobreza com o desenvolvimento do capital humano, os programas de TDR fornecem rendimento às famílias pobres. Condicional ou incondicional, essas TDRs objetivam altenuar o impacto da pobreza no curto prazo, permitindo que os beneficiários usufruam de necessidades básicas de vida, e, em longo prazo, através do investimento em capital humano através da educação, atenção médica à criança e nutrição. A nossa pergunta em relação à RDC é: "esses programas de TDR são viáveis em um país devastado?". Esta questão é examinada através de um estudo comparativo de dois modelos de TDR: um do Brasil e outro da África do Sul. Também apresentamos resultados empíricos de estudos em outros países, quer na América Latina ou na África. A partir deste quadro teórico surge a nossa discussão final, concluindo pela viabilidade de programas de TDR na RDC, independentemente dos desafios políticos e econômicos a serem enfrentados / Abstract: With the current global economic market imbalances and the policy instability of financial institutions patterning our World, the less fortunate are mainly the forgotten reserve army of unemployed population. This situation accentuates the poorer the country is. Our focus in this dissertation is this population classified as the poor who are left out of the Social Safety Nets and exposed to all sorts of socioeconomic calamities. By reforming the social security systems we first look at quick measures to palliate to the current situation faced by this unfortunate people highly concentrated in less developed countries; and our attention goes to the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), a country long savaged by decades of civil war, political and economic instability, leaving the majority of the population into extreme poverty and desperation. To reach such a goal in a shorter time, Cash transfers are found to be the ideal remedy. As a strategy to reconcile poverty reduction with human capital development, Cash Transfer programs (CTPs) provide cash to poor families. Conditional or unconditional, these cash transfers are aimed at smoothing the impact of poverty in a short term by allowing beneficiaries to afford basic living needs, and in a long term by investing in human capital through education, children health care and nutrition. Our question in regard to the DRC is "how feasible can these programs be in such a devastated country?" This question is examined through a comparative study of two CTPs models, one from Brazil and the other from South Africa but also appended with empirical data from similar countries either in Latin America or in Africa. From this theoretical framework emerges our concluding discussion defining the feasibility of Cash Transfers (CTs) in the DRC regardless of political and economic challenges faced. In both cases results have been strikingly positive; and encouraging outcomes from other similar countries used also proved to be a confirming statement as to the feasibility of CTs in the DRC. However it is also noted that political willingness of local authorities and better policies for sustainable economic growth are irreversible and very determinant factors for the success of CTs. Poor people never chose to be poor but are left with no opportunity to overcome this poverty; so we also insist in this dissertation that creating jobs should remain the focus policy for poor countries in order to curve poverty and build a sustainable economic growth by integrating the less fortunate into the labour market / Mestrado / Economia Social e do Trabalho / Mestre em Desenvolvimento Econômico

Magister Legum - LLM / This work deals with the potential impacts of contract review on foreign direct investments in mining resources. The research has cited Tanzania and the Democratic Republic of Congo as the case study because the two countries have experienced the problems generated from mining contracts review programmes. Indeed, there are some variations on the nature of the environments in which the reviews were made. While in the DRC the reviews were done amid civil wars (whose root cause was wealth emanating from mineral resources), in Tanzania the reviews were done without such pressure. However, the situation seems to have not been fully solved neither in Tanzania where the reviews were done under “peaceful” environment nor in the DRC where at least the past experience could have taught them a lesson. The mini thesis is divided into four chapters each covering a distinct topic for discussion. Chapter one serves as an introduction highlighting on the mission and vision of the research. It also spotlights the scope and limitation of the research. Chapter two is a discussion on the mining sector and foreign direct investments in Tanzania and the concept of mining contracts review based on the Bomani Commission report. In fact this chapter together with chapter three are the core of the research. In chapter two facts are laid bare of how the mining operations are done in Tanzania and how the management is undertaken. While in the subsequent chapter to wit chapter three, the same is observed but now targeting the Democratic Republic of Congo. The researcher has used these two chapters to demonstrate how inefficient the African governments are in running and maintaining the mineral resources by which they are endowed plentifully. Chapter four is also formal in the sense that the researcher provides his point of view on how matters could be rectified. It is a firm view of the researcher that if the governments take heed to what is recommended, there will much improvements in the mining sector which can be recorded in shorter span of production.

Magister Legum - LLM / This mini-thesis examines the issue of the implementation of the socio-economic rights provisions of the African Charter on Human and Peoples‘ Rights (ACHPR) at the national level, in a case study of Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). These rights which comprise the right to property, the right to work, the right to health, the right to education and the protection of the family and cultural rights in Articles 14 to 18 of the ACHPR are provided for and guaranteed in the DRC Constitution of 18 February 2006 in Articles 34 to 48 and, accordingly, are legally enforceable under the Constitution. This study was motivated by the fact that despite the enforceability of these rights under the DRC Constitution, the real situation in the DRC remains worrying in that the economic, social and cultural rights (ESCR) of the ACHPR are violated from day to day by the government. The majority of Congolese live in poverty, disease and ignorance; they lack jobs, food and other basic necessities, such as, water and electricity, in spite of DRC‘s abundant natural resources (such as, oil and gas); minerals (such as cobalt, vanadium, manganese, phosphate, and bauxite); iron ore; and precious tropical rain forests. This situation is due to certain reasons, including: bad governance; mismanagement of public finances by political authorities at the expense of the majority; lack or weakness of the institutions or organs of implementation; and the ignorance of the Congolese people about their socio-economic rights even if they are massively violated by their government. Consequently, the marginalisation of socio-economic rights which results in their non-protection and non-realisation in DRC leads to a low expectation of the State and Government by the people, corruption, exclusion, racism, xenophobia, inequality, diseases, poverty, a feeling of betrayal of the people, a crisis of state and governmental legitimacy, popular insurrections and civil war in the country. To prevent the above consequences requires the DRC State to comply with Article 1 of the ACHPR which declares that the Member States of the Organization of African Unity that are parties to the ACHPR shall recognise the rights, duties and freedoms enshrined in it and shall undertake to adopt legislative or other measures to give effect to them. In addition, as the ACHPR complements human rights protection at the domestic level where the rights protected in the Charter should be realised, it is important for DRC to ensure that the ESCR of the ACHPR protected in its Constitution are given full legal effect under domestic law, such that the Charter‘s rights are made justiciable.

Magister Philosophiae - MPhil / This study investigates how female migrants negotiate the tension that arises from being entrepreneurs, being mothers, and having families. It shows how entrepreneurship offers them self-emancipation but limits the time they spend raising their children and time they spend with their families, but puts them in a position to provide financially for themselves, their children, and families. The focus of the study is on Congolese female migrant and also females from few African countries. It is hypothesized that female migration and entrepreneurship negatively impacts the relationships of these females with their children and families. Data was obtained through a survey of fifty-three respondents who were conveniently selected. This took place in the Western Cape Province, taking Cape Town, Bellville, and Parow as the cities to be observed. The statistical package for social sciences was used to analyze data. The results showed that female entrepreneurship has a negative impact on their relationships with their children but to an extent improves their relationships with their families and/or partners.