Thesis advisor: Lisa S. Cahill / The dissertation draws upon African and Christian ethics as well as on African women's experiences of resistance to violations of their human dignity and womanhood. It takes a theological approach drawing on resources including African women’s theology, Jon Sobrino, Emmanuel Katongole, and Catholic social teaching. An important lens for diagnosing the problems faced by women in Sub-Saharan Africa is Engelbert Mveng’s concept of “anthropological poverty.” This concept refers to the multiple aspects of the loss of dignity resulting from slavery and colonialism; a basic argument of this dissertation is that anthropological poverty affects women in unique ways, that are exacerbated by religious and cultural histories of oppression of women. To address this situation, I will advocate for an interplay between the sacredness of life of every individual that is a salient principle of Christian ethics and the collective consciousness of solidarity that is distinctive of African cultures. The dissertation uses the narratives of abuse of women from the Democratic Republic of Congo that mirror those of Sub-Saharan African women more generally. It argues that these abuses impoverish women not only economically but also and especially anthropologically. While anthropological poverty is rooted in the history of slavery and colonization of African nations, it continues to be worsened by an intermingling of androcentric Christian views with the cultural patriarchal gender biases which significantly shape women's identity and women’s roles in society. Another factor that worsens women's anthropological poverty is sexual violence, especially rape used as a weapon of war. The dissertation argues that the Catholic social teaching's discourse of the preferential option for the poor overlooks the ways these factors doubly impoverish women and obstruct their political participation in society. The Church's teaching tends to focus on economic over anthropological poverty. The dissertation undertakes the task of moral imagination using narrative criticism as a method of biblical exegesis. It assesses the foundations of the political participation of women in African traditions and Scriptures, using the feminist biblical lens of Elisabeth Schüssler Fiorenza, "discipleship of equals." Through a "sophialogical" hermeneutic, the dissertation identifies the epistemology that arises from women's resistance to anthropological poverty. From the perspectives of Latin American liberation theology and a political theology of hope for Africa, it theorizes that the passion of anger offers a particular epistemology of liberation, and can become a praiseworthy and effective means of women’s social participation when it is solidaristic and resistant. The dissertation concludes by assessing the extent to which Catholic social teaching on the preferential option for the poor lacks an adequate analysis of women's specific poverty. The option for the poor needs to regard women's suffering and responses to suffering as loci theologici. This option needs to consider the "conative interruption" dimension of anger that women's narratives disclose as a sign of the times. The dissertation resolves that the Christian virtues of fortitude and prudence need to be rearticulated in the contexts of grave abuses of womanhood, connecting them to solidaristic and resistant anger through which women's sacredness of life can be significantly ennobled. / Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2020. / Submitted to: Boston College. Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. / Discipline: Theology.

Background: The tobacco industry has globalized and tobacco use continues to increase in low- and middle-income countries. Yet, the data and research to inform policy initiatives for addressing this phenomenon is sparse. This study aims to estimate the prevalence of adult tobacco use in 17 Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) countries, and to identify key factors associated with adult tobacco consumption choices (smoked, smokeless tobacco and dual use) in Madagascar. Methods. We used Demographic Health Survey for estimating tobacco use prevalence among adults in SSA. A multinomial logistic regression model was used to identify key determinants of adult tobacco consumption choices in Madagascar. Results: While differences in tobacco use exist in SSA, Madagascar has exceptionally higher prevalence rates (48.9% of males; 10.3% of females). The regression analyses showed complexity of tobacco use in Madagascar and identified age, education, wealth, employment, marriage, religion and place of residence as factors significantly associated with the choice of tobacco use among males, while age, wealth, and employment were significantly associated with that of females. The effects, however, differ across the three choices of tobacco use compared to non-use. Conclusions: Tobacco use in Madagascar was higher than the other 16 SSA countries. Although the government continues to enact policies to address the problem, there is a need for effective implementation and enforcement. There is also the need for health education to modify social norms and denormalize tobacco use.

Background: The tobacco industry has globalized and tobacco use continues to increase in low- and middle-income countries. Yet, the data and research to inform policy initiatives for addressing this phenomenon is sparse. This study aims to estimate the prevalence of adult tobacco use in 17 Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) countries, and to identify key factors associated with adult tobacco consumption choices (smoked, smokeless tobacco and dual use) in Madagascar. Methods. We used Demographic Health Survey for estimating tobacco use prevalence among adults in SSA. A multinomial logistic regression model was used to identify key determinants of adult tobacco consumption choices in Madagascar. Results: While differences in tobacco use exist in SSA, Madagascar has exceptionally higher prevalence rates (48.9% of males; 10.3% of females). The regression analyses showed complexity of tobacco use in Madagascar and identified age, education, wealth, employment, marriage, religion and place of residence as factors significantly associated with the choice of tobacco use among males, while age, wealth, and employment were significantly associated with that of females. The effects, however, differ across the three choices of tobacco use compared to non-use. Conclusions: Tobacco use in Madagascar was higher than the other 16 SSA countries. Although the government continues to enact policies to address the problem, there is a need for effective implementation and enforcement. There is also the need for health education to modify social norms and denormalize tobacco use.

Philosophiae Doctor - PhD / As a signatory to the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) agreement, a preferential trade agreement (PTA) with the United States, South Africa derives several benefits. PTAs grant access to certain products from developing countries and, while the tariffs are sometimes not completely removed, the tariffs charged are far less than those imposed on countries that are not included in the trade agreement. There is strong evidence that PTAs increase trade and investment between member countries. South African exports of goods and services to the US under AGOA have increased by 104% since 2000. While PTAs seem to benefit developing countries at the aggregate level, not much is known about the winners and losers from preferential trade liberalisation at the level of the firm. This study assessed the PTA benefits of AGOA at the firm level within the South African poultry sector. / 2023

This exploratory and interpretive research analytically examines perceived influence of the Water Supply Database (WSDB) initiative on Uganda's water sector development, particularly the rural sector. The WSDB was deployed by the Ministry of Water and Environment (MWE) to manage country wide water source information submitted by District Water Officers (DWO) and regional Technical Support Units (TCUs). The MWE has integrated the WSDB to support sector governance, planning, budgeting, information sharing, setting measures for performance indicators and data based decision making processes for developing new water supply projects. This research is the first in-depth study exploring the WSDB; hence justifying relevance and my enthusiasm. Instead of focusing on numerical concepts, this research qualitatively investigates and theorises from participant perceptions about the WSDB benefits and positioning as the MWE's primary information and communication technology (ICT) initiative. The perceptions are categorised from WSDB design, implementation, benefits and implicit contribution to recognise development influence. Grounded Theory (GT), specifically Glaserian Classic Grounded Theory (CGT) approach was adopted to inform methodology choice, data collection, data analysis and theory development. Data was collected across two field studies from multiple stakeholder participants working in Uganda's water sector over a total period of six months. Participant perceptions expound the developmental significance of WSDB using benefits, optimism and subtle discontents. As a result of CGT methodology, inductive thinking and interpretive philosophical assumption; I discerned that the main participant perspectives entailed MWE effectively leveraging the WSDB to increase citizen's access to water by managing functionality of water sources, tracking sector performance, governance and data based decisions to develop new water sources. This concept emerged from data analysis, coding and categorization processes which cultivated the conceptual core category Optimizing Perspectives from codes, primary sub-core categories and secondary sub-core categories. Four primary sub-core categories and thirteen secondary sub-core categories cultivated discovery of Optimizing Perspectives. Optimizing Perspectives emerged as a substantive theory whose constructs, processes and categories summarily infer that the MWE is continually engaged in optimisation of WSDB to develop the water sector. Other than the theory contribution, two main implications of adopting CGT methodology emerged from this research. First, findings are useful for understanding consequences of adopting CGT for artefact theorisation studies in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) for which the WSDB is an exemplar. Secondly, findings contribute to IS research which advance using CGT to theorise about the contemporary notion of ICT for Development (ICT4D) or Information Systems in Developing Countries (ISDC) studies that examine developmental significance of ICTs such as e-government systems in SSA. A comparative analysis of Optimizing Perspectives with related theories was undertaken to bring new conceptual meaning, understanding and potential theory generalisation. Optimizing Perspectives makes a case for the construction of guidelines to inform social-technical analysis of development oriented ICT artefacts. Finally, possibilities exist for CGT researchers to enhance studies about ICT artefacts and ICT4D or ISDC by adapting the theory Optimizing Perspectives.

Globalisation has simplified the internationalisation process for companies, and are today not only constrained to multinational companies, as SMEs (small and medium-sized enterprises) are entering global markets in order to attain a sustainable competitive advantage. As a result, more Swedish SMEs are now operating abroad, and SSA (sub-Saharan Africa) is a region that has shown great potential. SSA has a rapid economic growth and greater political stability, and SMEs that enter SSA has many opportunities to gain as it is a fairly unexplored region with a boosting economy. However, working in SSA would entail that Swedish SMEs and its leaders would encounter different cultures and trying to find a way of coping with the differences successfully. The purposes of this study, is, therefore, to explore what cultural challenges Swedish SME leaders face in SSA, and how they adapt to the cultural challenges. The researchers chose a qualitative research strategy with an abductive approach and conducted semi-structured interviews with eight Swedish SMEs leaders that are currently active in SSA. The respondents hold various leading positions within these companies. Our empirical findings suggest that there are several cultural challenges that Swedish SME leaders face in SSA, such as time perception, gender inequality, collectivistic behaviour and trust issues. However, the existing hierarchical system in SSA was seen as the main challenge as the leaders were used to a flat organisations structure in Sweden, whereas the culture in SSA advocate authoritarianism. The leaders that choose to adapt their leadership style become more controlling, which shown improvement on the employees performance. Our findings also indicate that some of the leaders did want to adapt their leadership style but instead sought to transform the current culture in SSA based on a Swedish Model.

In February 2017, Tanzanian President John Magufuli publicly declared a war on drugs, an unexpected change in policy in a country previously leading the way in harm reduction in Sub-Saharan Africa. The war on drugs, a set of policies aimed at reducing drug supply and use through the punishment, forced treatment and criminalization of drug users, is a part of Magufuli’s strategy to ‘clean up’ Tanzanian society. Prior to his election, the Tanzanian government largely ignored treatment and drug policy, and foreign NGOs, in partnership with local activists, funded and implemented harm reduction interventions. This thesis seeks to understand a puzzling reversal from harm reduction to repression, posing the questions: 1) How did the Tanzanian government implement a war on drugs that went against the goals of a number of powerful foreign actors funding services for drug users? 2) What have been the outcomes for drug users in Tanzania as a result of the drug policies and programming implemented since the election of Magufuli? 3) How does Tanzania’s war on drugs shape international and domestic approaches to drug use and drug policy in the country? In the fall of 2018, I interviewed foreign and local NGO workers, officials from major international organizations and former drug users and activists in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. Using interviews and observations during this fieldwork, I explore the realities on the ground underlying both the drug policy changes towards drug users implemented over 2016/17, and the more public crackdown on drug use in 2017. I rely on a constructivist methodology to challenge and interrogate the narratives being produced by the Tanzanian government, which echoed harsh, war on drugs ideology but also boasted about comprehensive harm reduction programming, a contradictory position I also explore in this thesis. In answer to my first research question, I argue that the Tanzanian government evaded donor pressure or interference in pursuing an anti-drug user agenda through strategies of appeasement, intimidation and the exploitation of a neglected policy area. The Tanzanian government touted its harm reduction program at the international level to produce a narrative of continued support for drug users, appeasing donors and foreign agencies while, in reality, narrowing the scope of treatment to the detriment of people who use drugs. The government also used intimidation tactics, threatening the work of foreign NGOs working with vulnerable population, which chose to stay and provide limited services rather than risk being kicked out of the country. The Tanzanian government, with limited resources, took advantage of donors’ focus on HIV/AIDS and lack of commitment to drug users, to maneuver and achieve a repressive policy agenda without interference. I build on this argument using the evidence I gathered during fieldwork to answer to my second research question. I argue that the outcomes of the Tanzanian drug war agenda were increased police harassment, higher drug prices and fear of punishment among drug users which led to riskier drug use, greater difficulty in accessing services and greater economic vulnerability. Drug users had to go farther, spend more money on drugs and face harassment as they tried to avoid dopesickness. Policy changes resulted in the closure of harm reduction centres frequented by drug users, limited access to needle exchange and limited the outreach efforts of local and international NGOs, making life much more difficult for people who use drugs. During my research, I found that, contrary to some of the literature I read which posited the war on drugs as a Western strategy of political control, the Tanzanian government was actually producing war on drugs narratives, and using these narratives to justify its repressive policies. This finding supports the answer to my third research question. I argue that the Tanzanian government produced narratives of drugs hindering development, causing corruption and threatening national unity. I also argue that donors such as the United Kingdom, and foreign agencies working in HIV/AIDS, are reproducing these narratives and are following an agenda, set by the Tanzanian government, that does not meet the needs of drug users and supports the centralization and repression of the Magufuli regime. Foreign agencies shifted from supporting drug users, to instead following an agenda that does not meet their goals in reaching drug users. Donors did not notice or prioritize the increased abuse of drug users’ human rights at all, accepting the provision of methadone as evidence of support for drug users and continuing to provide general budget support to the Tanzanian government and even providing specific funding to limit drug supply in the country. The effectiveness of Tanzania producing such narratives, and enacting the repressive policies war on drugs narratives justify, reveals global antipathy towards actually supporting people who use drugs and advancing the rights of people who use drugs. In upholding old war on drugs narratives and implementing policies that attack people who use drugs, Tanzania is contributing to an international consensus that the war on drugs is justified as long as basic treatment is provided. This thesis, using the voices of activists and advocates on the ground, deconstructs the Tanzanian war on drugs. I argue for the inclusion of those with lived experiences in shaping and changing the repressive drug policies and epistemologies that are being produced by the Tanzanian state and are being accepted by the international community.

No description available.

Scholars agree that there may be no better time for Sub-Saharan African countries to create the conditions for a more peaceful and democratic reality than now. This optimism is driven in part by the possibilities for development unleashed by neoliberal globalization and the current tremendous human and material potential of African countries. Where consensus fails, however, is how to create these peaceful and democratic conditions. As the status quo of transition countries in Sub-Saharan African countries shows, the amalgamation of the distant legacy of the colonial past and the not so promising threats of the deleterious effects of neoliberal globalization are creating a mix of prosaic socio-political delirium that compromises possibilities for democratic participation and peaceful coexistence. Perhaps the new threat yet that is driving this optimism down within the region is the emergence of Islamic radicalism that has unleashed a wave of terror activities in countries such as Nigeria, Mali, Somalia, Kenya and Tanzania. Still, education for democracy has and can significantly mitigate rampant acts of violence and help countries move towards a more peaceful and democratic reality. And this begs the question: In light of the challenges of neoliberal globalization, how can education contribute to building peace and promoting democratic citizenship in Sub-Saharan Africa? Extant research suggests that since the end of the Cold War, many Sub-Saharan African countries have been going through severe crises, most of which involve violent conflicts. Although these violent conflicts have been attracting attention within the international community in general, and the academic circle in particular, violence continues. We are yet to find effective ways to address it and to develop theoretical and practical resources that can help us to work towards more peaceful realities. Using critical theory, in this study I bring the literature on peace and democratic education to the SSA context in order to rethink how education may better contribute to peace efforts. Findings from this study suggest that critical democratic education can help birth a more democratic and peaceful reality in transition countries in Sub-Saharan countries. However, in order to achieve this goal, substantive reforms are needed in the current education systems. Additionally, school stakeholders must receive the training needed about practical ways to employ this vision of education. It is my hope that the results of this study will enhance our understanding of the process of deploying education in support of democracy in post-conflict countries within an era of globalization where the demands upon educational institutions to support economies are serious distractions from the core problems that post-conflict countries face.

Research Background: Climate change poses a core threat to the current and future welfare of society. Sub-Saharan Africa is particularly susceptible to challenges associated with climate change, most of which are bound to have large-scale societal impacts. Fortunately, Grand Challenges (GCs) can also enable opportunities for sustainable entrepreneurship to emerge. As entrepreneurs work in larger interrelated ecosystems, it is noteworthy to explore the utilization of ecosystems to develop sustainable ventures that address GCs. Current research has not addressed the interplay between external enablers and entrepreneurial ecosystems, especially in the Sub-Saharan context. The focus of this study is to explore how sustainable entrepreneurs acted on GCs in the pursuit of venture opportunities, and how ecosystems were utilized to foster the development of entrepreneurial agents and their ventures. Research Purpose: The purpose of this research is to identify how GCs facilitate sustainable entrepreneurship in Sub-Saharan Africa, given the interaction between entrepreneurs, their ecosystems, and climate change-associated GCs. Method: The research paradigm for this study follows critical realism. Meaning, we question the nature of reality as inherently multilayered and align with epistemic relativism. An explorative interview-based study was adopted for our methodology. We sampled our interview candidates purposively through the formation of several criteria. In total, we collected data from 20 semi-structured interviews through online platforms. We analyzed our data by interpreting principles of thematic analysis and the theory- building approach, to connect empirical themes to theoretical constructs. Conclusion: The results for this study show that sustainable entrepreneurs act on a wide variety of GCs. Within ecosystems, we noticed that sustainable development, cultural belief systems, educational infrastructure, governance, and resource accessibility influence the potential for ecosystems to develop. Specifically, we adopted three dimensions in which these pillars have influences: the entrepreneurial, communal, and structural level. The findings indicated that the scope of external enablers is fluid due to ecosystem interactions. Moreover, opacity and agency-intensity of enabling mechanisms can be reduced by developing entrepreneurial ecosystems. We also noted that entrepreneurs themselves can take on the role of ecosystem-builders. Our findings revised current understandings of sustainable entrepreneurship and redefined the concept to create a more inclusive label.