Master's Thesis: Tobin Hanspal May 18th, 2012 Variability Among Determinants of Education Attainment: The Effect of Natural Resources and Institutional Quality in Sub-Sahara Africa ABSTRACT: This thesis exploits survey data from 21 Sub-Saharan African countries. After constructing a dataset of over 100,000 households to analyze the variability in traditional determinants of schooling attainment across exogenous domains, results indicate strong heterogeneity across countries in the effects of household composition and parental background. Additionally, findings suggest that 1) marginal effects of parental education are on average three times smaller for secondary compared to primary school attainment, 2) countries with lower corruption are correlated with higher levels of educational mobility, 3) dependence on natural resource revenue is associated with increased educational mobility. And finally 4) household wealth becomes a stronger determinant in countries with better institutions. Exogenous factors appears to have a large correlative impact on schooling outcomes, such as individuals belonging to the richest households have almost ten times the chances of completing primary schooling over the poorest quintile in less corrupt states compared to only a marginal advantage in highly corrupt states.

Les sécheresses des années 1970 et 1980 ont occasionné des changements remarquables dans les paysages et écosystèmes sahéliens. Au Niger, les milieux dunaires sont les plus affectés par la dégradation des paysages aux conséquences parfois irréversibles. Cette étude tente de montrer que, malgré les modifications climatiques et les pressions anthropiques, une régénération des sols dunaires serait possible, dans cette dynamique complexe. Cela a été démontré à travers l’analyse micromorphologique des matériaux des parties superficielles des sols (0-20 cm). L’étude des caractéristiques particulières des croûtes (organisations pelliculaires de surface des sols) offre des pistes de recherches pouvant proposer des moyens et méthodes de fixation des dunes dégradées. Elle propose également des alternatives de lutte contre l’érosion éolienne et hydrique dans les écosystèmes sahéliens. Ceci cadre parfaitement avec la situation au Niger, où les phénomènes de désertification et d’ensablement des cuvettes interdunaires constituent une préoccupation majeure en matière de protection de l’environnement. / Die Dürrephasen der 1970er und 1980er Jahre haben in den Landschaften und Ökosystemen des Sahel deutliche Veränderungen verursacht. In Niger waren die Dünenlandschaften am stärksten von Degradation betroffen, teils in irreversiblem Ausmaß. Die vorliegende Studie zeigt, dass in dieser komplexen Dynamik trotz Klimaschwankungen und Nutzungsdruck die Regeneration von Böden dennoch möglich ist. Dies wurde anhand mikromorphologischer Analysen von oberflächigem Bodenmaterial (0-20 cm Tiefe) nachgewiesen. Die Untersuchung insbesondere der Eigenschaften von Oberflächenkrusten (i.S. von filmartiger Organisation der Bodenoberfläche) eröffnet Forschungsperspektiven zu Möglichkeiten und Methoden der Stabilisierung degradierter Dünen. Ebenso zeigt sie Alternativen auf im Kampf gegen äolische und durch Spülprozesse hervorgerufene Abtragung in sahelischen Ökosystemen. Damit lässt sie sich perfekt auf die Situation in Niger anwenden, wo die Phänomene der Desertifikation und der Sandeinwehung in interdunäre Wannen im Rahmen des Umweltschutzes eine wesentliche Herausforderung darstellen.

The African Union (AU) has pledged to create a continent of peace and solidarity. However, dozens of socio-ethnic conflicts occur across the continent despite the AU's best efforts to prevent them. In this thesis, case studies of Darfur and Western Sahara were used to assess the efficacy of the AU in the realm of peacemaking and peacekeeping. Within each of these studies, AU impediments to peacemaking and peacekeeping on financial, political, and socio-cultural fronts were analyzed. The findings suggest that while socio-cultural conflict continues to proliferate, the AU has neither the financial resources nor the political clout to meet peacemaking and peacekeeping milestones. Furthermore, findings from this research suggest that conflict founded upon socio-cultural diversity undermines the very foundation of regionalism solidarity and therefore compromises the overall application of regionalism as a mechanism for peacekeeping. This in turn stymies the AU from becoming internationally respected for making and keeping the peace.

Health is one of the most important components of human capital. It can affect production level of a country through various channels. In this study the causal relationship of health and real GDP per capita income in 5 low income countries of Africa south of the Sahara is analyzed using granger causality test. Unbalanced panel data set during the year 1970 to 2009 is used. Life expectancy and mortality rate are used as a proxy for health. The result revealed that mortality rate has a significant and negative impact on real per capita income. The Granger causality test showed, real GDP per capita and mortality rate have causal or bidirectional relationship. On the other hand, real GDP per capita does not granger cause life expectancy, but life expectancy granger cause real GDP per capita. The comparative descriptive analysis of the health indicators in different income groups of the world also showed that, higher income countries are better off in their health status.

The aim of this study was to investigate how maternity and child care was carried out at Regional Hospital in Morogoro, Tanzania as well as how it was perceived by mothers and children. The study was conducted with a qualitative method through observation and interviews. The results of the study showed that the staff knew what they were doing and how they should treat their patients and that they helped them without thinking about preventive measures. The study concluded that people wanted to seek the care provided at the hospital and some people stated that they had confidence in the staff. The people that came to the hospital sought care for various diseases and conditions and they all got medical attention of some sort. However, this occurred with limited resources and under inadequate circumstances, which in many cases meant that all women and children could not get optimal care.

Imperialism has for a long time been an important concept in international relations. The literature identifies many different types of imperialism. After the great de-colonization scientists stopped discussing “classic” imperialism, i.e. using physical strength in the form of conquest and occupation to subdue weaker states. Instead focus has for decades been on a new form of imperialism using economic measures to suppress weaker states; this is called neo-imperialism. Galtung, one of the leading scholars of imperialism, is among the scholars who have dismissed classic imperialism to be a thing of the past. This study asks whether classical imperialism can explain the situation in Morocco-Western Sahara and China-Tibet. Implementing the theories of classic imperialism and identifying several typical indicators of its existence clearly show the presence of classic imperialism in the case studies of China’s occupation of Tibet and the Moroccan occupation of Western Sahara. Thus, the results tell us that these theories are still of relevance in explaining the relationship between a stronger state and a weaker neighbouring state.

<p>Imperialism has for a long time been an important concept in international relations. The literature identifies many different types of imperialism. After the great de-colonization scientists stopped discussing “classic” imperialism, i.e. using physical strength in the form of conquest and occupation to subdue weaker states. Instead focus has for decades been on a new form of imperialism using economic measures to suppress weaker states; this is called neo-imperialism. Galtung, one of the leading scholars of imperialism, is among the scholars who have dismissed classic imperialism to be a thing of the past.</p><p>This study asks whether classical imperialism can explain the situation in Morocco-Western Sahara and China-Tibet. Implementing the theories of classic imperialism and identifying several typical indicators of its existence clearly show the presence of classic imperialism in the case studies of China’s occupation of Tibet and the Moroccan occupation of Western Sahara. Thus, the results tell us that these theories are still of relevance in explaining the relationship between a stronger state and a weaker neighbouring state.</p>

This dissertation examines the impact of the nineteenth-century discussions about climate change and desiccation on large engineering projects in desert regions between 1870 and 1950. It demonstrates that the debate over the variability of global climatic conditions was a product of both internal academic and transnational political developments, and that the perceived threat of advancing desert conditions found a popular and technocratic expression in climate engineering designs. Against the background of new theories about the earth's geological history, the development of academic geography, the travels of Sahara explorers, and imperialism in North Africa, European geographers and geologists initiated an enduring discussion on the origin of desert environments and the question of large-scale climatic changes in the recent past and present. Using a wide array of evidence ranging from cave paintings found in the interior Sahara and classical travel accounts to modern meteorological data, scientists debated whether North Africa, the entire continent, or even the whole world were undergoing desiccation. While the lack of a widely-accepted causal mechanism behind large climatic changes meant that the academic debate remained unresolved by the beginning of the twentieth century, images of progressing desert conditions had already left the confines of academia, heightening public anxiety over the possibility of future climatic catastrophes on a global scale. From the early stages of the nineteenth-century debate on climate change, fears of desiccation inspired scientists and engineers to come up with solutions to detrimental climatic shifts, whether these were viewed as man-made or natural. The resulting climate engineering projects were an expression of environmental pessimism paired with a powerful technological optimism. This was apparent in French and British schemes in the late nineteenth century that aimed to flood large parts of the Sahara and effect wide-ranging climatic changes; in the plan of a German architect to engineer a geographically and climatically transformed new Euro-African continent in the 1920s; and eventually in Nazi designs to Germanize and green the "desertified" areas of Eastern Europe and Central Asia. / History

No description available.

El treball de tesi ha tingut per objectiu estudiar les pintures rupestres del Zemmur, al Sahara Occidental. El Zemmur és una regió muntanyosa molt rica en abrics, que s'obren a les cingleres dels seus turons de gres baixos, aplanats i allargassats. Aquestes pintures foren descobertes al 1995, quan el personal del ministeri de Cultura de la República Àrab Sahrauí i Democràtica les va mostrar a un equip d'arqueòlegs i antropòlegs de la Universitat de Girona. Les campanyes d'estudi continuades que s'han realitzat en aquests jaciments de pintura rupestre prehistòrica des d'aleshores han proporcionat les dades per aquesta investigació. En total es tracta d'un conjunt de 2734 figures repartides en 130 abrics de 5 jaciments diferents: Uad Ymal, Uadi Kenta, Rekeiz Ajahfun, Rekeiz Lemgasem i Asako.Les hipòtesis a contrastar eren dues. La primera que al Zemmur hi havia diversos estils de pintura rupestre. La segona que la majoria d'aquests estils dataven de la prehistòria. Ambdues han pogut ser verificades i s'han aportat arguments que demostren que eren certes.El treball de tesi ha consistit en fotografiar les pintures, digitalitzar-les, reproduir-les i estudiar-les. Concretament l'estudi ha consistit en descriure-les, classificar-les estilísticament i datar-les. La classificació s'ha realitzat a partir d'una sèrie de criteris morfològics i tècnics. Posteriorment les imatges han estat atribuïdes a diversos estils, que també havien estat definits amb criteris morfotècnics a partir de l'observació de les imatges. La seva existència, i per tant la verificació de la primera hipòtesi, es dedueix de la presència de recurrències morfotècniques en les representacions. Més tard aquests estils han estat ordenats de manera relativa tot estudiant les seves superposicions. La seqüència dels cinc estils identificats, de més antic a més recent és: Balladors, Modelats, Tracejats, Figures Fosques i Linial.Posteriorment s'ha intentat datar cadascun dels estils a partir de les representacions ja que les anàlisis efectuades indicaren que no era possible datar les imatges per tècniques radiomètriques a causa de la manca de matèria orgànica en les pintures. En qualsevol cas, gràcies a les representacions d'armes, d'animals i els textos escrits hem pogut verificar que la majoria d'elles són prehistòriques, tal com apuntàvem en la nostra segona hipòtesi. Finalment s'ha arribat a la conclusió que l'estil dels Balladors data, de manera molt aproximada, d'ara fa entre 3800 i 3200 anys tal com indiquen les representacions d'alabardes. L'estil Linial, el més recent, data d'entre ara fa 2400 i 2000 anys perquè és acompanyat de textos líbico-berbers però no de representacions de camells. Els estils Modelat, Tracejat i Figures Fosques es daten entremig.A part de les conclusions obtingudes, un dels resultats més importants d'aquest treball ha estat la realització del corpus de pintura prehistòrica del Zemmur que consta, com ja hem dit, de milers d'imatges. Per tant aquesta recerca, a més de tractar sobre un material inèdit i d'un gran interès històric, hauria d'ésser útil per a la gestió de tot aquest patrimoni. / The goal of the PhD is to study the rock-paintings of the Zemmur (Western Sahara). The Zemmur is a hilly area with many rock-shelters, which are pierced in the slopes of his sedimentary, low, flat and long hills. These paintigs were discovered in 1995 when the staff of the Ministry of Culture of the Sahrawi Democratic and Arabic Republic show them to a team of archaeologists and antrophologists from the Girona's University. The continued research campaigns have provided the data for this research, that is, 2734 images found in 130 rock-shelters of 5 different sites: Uad Ymal, Wadi Kenta, Rekeiz Ajahfun, Rekeiz Lemgasem and Asako.The hypothesis to contrast along this reserach were two. The first was that in the Zemmur several painting styles existed. The second was that most of these styles belong to prehistoric ages. Both have been verified as true and several arguments have been presented in order to support them.The research developed in making photos to the paintings, scanning, reproduce and study them. The study consisted in describing the paintigs, classify them in styles and dating the styles. The classification has been done in basis a morphological an technical criteria. After that, the images have been assigned to several styles, which had also been defined by morphotechnical criteria. The existence of these styles, and so the verification of the first hypothesis, is deduced from the presence of morphotechnical recorrences in the representations. Later those styles have been arranged in basis to the superpositions of images. The sequence of the five indentified styles, from the most ancient to the most recent, is: Dancers', Shaped, Stroked, Dark Figures, and Linial.At the end an attempt to date those styles has been done. Previous analisis had proven that radiometric datations were not possible due to the lack of organical remains in the paintigs. However the depictions of weapons, animal beings and texts have been useful in proving that most of these images belong to prehistoric ages, as our second hypothesis proposed. Finally we have reached the conclusion that the Dancers' style is dated, in a very aproximate way, between 3800 and 3200 years before us, as the depictions of hallebards prove. The Lineal style, the most recent, dates between 2400 and 2000 years before us because the presence of lybico-berber texts and the absence of camels. The Shaped, Stroked and Dark Figures styles should be between 3200 and 2400.Besides those conclusions, one of the most important results from this research has been the creation of the corpus of prehistorical rock-paintigs of the Zemmur, with thousands of reproduced images. So this research, besides having a great historical interest and bringing new data, should be useful to manage this archeological heritage.