tag:theconversation.com,2011:/us/topics/rural-development-8003/articlesRural development – The Conversation2023-01-17T14:14:46Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1973552023-01-17T14:14:46Z2023-01-17T14:14:46ZTechnology and sustainable development: a hamlet in rural South Africa shows how one can power the other<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/503447/original/file-20230106-18-wafnlx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A family cooking with firewood in Qunu, the rural village where former South African President Nelson Mandela grew up. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Carl De Souza/AFP via Getty Images</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>It’s hard to imagine that the <a href="https://sdgs.un.org/goals">sustainable development goals (SDGs)</a> and the <a href="https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2016/01/the-fourth-industrial-revolution-what-it-means-and-how-to-respond/">fourth industrial revolution</a> can be part of the same conversation. </p>
<p>But, as a briefing paper by the <a href="https://www.weforum.org/">World Economic Forum</a> in collaboration with <a href="https://www.pwc.co.uk/">PricewaterhouseCoopers</a> (PwC) points out: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>Over <a href="https://www3.weforum.org/docs/WEF_Harnessing_Technology_for_the_Global_Goals_2021.pdf">70%</a> of the 136 SDG targets could be enabled by technology applications already in deployment.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>To be achieved, both ideas – sustainable development and the fourth industrial revolution – require innovative thinking and a change of attitude. </p>
<p>The fourth industrial revolution is defined by many as a period of rapid evolution caused by digitalisation, globalisation and technological innovation. It has been happening over the last decade and people are finally starting to take notice, because of its massive global impact. </p>
<p>The United Nations’ development goals present an ambitious roadmap for a sustainable future for everyone on the planet. Some of the 17 goals include ending extreme poverty, ensuring free and quality education, and providing equal universal access to safe drinking water by 2030. </p>
<p>We <a href="https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-030-74693-3_9">argue</a> that achieving the development goals will require a fundamental rethink of how people produce and consume goods and services. We argue that bringing together education, the fourth industrial revolution, innovative thinking, strategic resourcing and partnerships increases the prospects of doing this.</p>
<p>To illustrate our argument we have used the example of a small hamlet in South Africa’s Limpopo province. The changes that have been introduced in the area over the past ten years are remarkable. </p>
<p>In particular they speak to achieving the goals of building resilient infrastructure which includes not only access to electricity but also increasing access to information and communications technology.</p>
<h2>The context</h2>
<p>We argue that advancing sustainable development goals through the fourth industrial revolution starts by prioritising two goals in particular – <a href="https://sdgs.un.org/goals/goal17">SDG17</a> (which is about partnerships) and <a href="https://sdgs.un.org/goals/goal9">SDG9</a> (industry, innovation and infrastructure).</p>
<p>Goal 17 aims to strengthen the means of implementation and revitalise global partnerships for sustainable development. It has five components: finance, capacity building, systemic issues, technology, and trade.</p>
<p>But cross-sector and cross-country collaboration is key. And individuals, non-profit organisations, governments, higher education, and the business sector need to use their resources to jointly solve these global societal challenges and achieve shared goals. </p>
<p>Partnerships must be built on principles and values while placing people at the forefront, especially those in developing countries. </p>
<p>Goal 9 seeks to build resilient infrastructure. It also seeks to promote inclusive and sustainable industrialisation and foster innovation. It’s made up of three important aspects: infrastructure, industrialisation and innovation.</p>
<p>Infrastructure provides the basic physical systems. Industrialisation drives economic growth and creates job opportunities. Innovation advances technological capabilities and prompts the development of new skills. </p>
<p>Increased access to information and communications technology is an important part of the picture. Universal and affordable internet is therefore key. </p>
<p>Access to reliable internet and infrastructure such as electrical power are some of the first and most important components towards realising technologies powered by the fourth industrial revolution. </p>
<h2>First smart rural village</h2>
<p>One real-life example is South Africa’s <a href="https://universityofjohannesburg.us/4ir/beyond-imagining-issue-3/gwakwani-south-africas-first-smart-rural-village/">first smart rural village: Gwakwani</a>.
Populated by about 70 to 100 villagers, Gwakwani is in the northern part of the Limpopo province in South Africa. </p>
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<p>A decade ago, Gwakwani had no running water or electricity. Internet access was non-existent. </p>
<p>In 2014, the <a href="https://www.uj.ac.za/faculties/engineering-the-built-environment/departments-2/department-of-electrical-and-electronic-engineering-science/">University of Johannesburg’s School of Electrical Engineering</a> started working with the village chief and local council. The goal was to introduce critical improvements to the village:</p>
<ul>
<li><p>Diesel borehole pumps were replaced with solar borehole pumps.</p></li>
<li><p>A network of taps and tanks was installed.</p></li>
<li><p>Solar lights were installed in villagers’ homes and solar streetlights were installed.</p></li>
<li><p>A solar bakery was built, where bread and other baked goods are made and sold.</p></li>
<li><p>Large cold storage units were installed.</p></li>
<li><p>A solar-powered crèche was built for the village’s youngest residents.</p></li>
</ul>
<p>Sensors have been put in place all over the village, and data is fed back to a system that can be monitored from the university. This contributes to engineering education. </p>
<p>This remote monitoring system is made possible through the “internet of things” network connection that the university developed in partnership with global communications provider <a href="https://www.sigfox.com/en">Sigfox</a>.</p>
<p>The internet of things allows data collection and exchange between devices and systems. It can include interactions between humans and machines. This data exchange uses identification, data capture and communications technologies. </p>
<p>The internet of things is expected to have a significant impact on the economy and society, with estimates of up to <a href="https://www.mckinsey.com/mgi/overview/in-the-news/by-2025-internet-of-things-applications-could-have-11-trillion-impact">$11.1 trillion</a> per year in economic value by 2025.</p>
<p>We can observe a few things here: </p>
<p>A transdisciplinary partnership between the University of Johannesburg’s School of Electrical Engineering, the village chief, and the local council was established. </p>
<p>A cross-sector partnership between the university, Schneider Electric and Sigfox was also established. Fourth industrial revolution technology was then installed in an area that previously had no access to any form of technology. </p>
<p>The population of Gwakwani is only about 100 people. Imagine what would happen if many other villages like Gwakwani were given the same technological resources to help them improve their lives.</p>
<h2>Future benefits</h2>
<p>The work co-created in Gwakwani shows that by bringing together education, the fourth industrial revolution, innovative thinking, strategic resourcing and partnerships, the prospect of achieving the development goals will improve.</p>
<p>Achieving them will have a positive ripple effect on all aspects of society. This is because they provide an opportunity to address the root causes of many development challenges faced by Africa. </p>
<p>The continent is home to many of the world’s poorest and most vulnerable people, and achieving the SDGs would go a long way in improving their lives. It would also help to ensure that Africa’s natural resources were sustainably managed, and that the continent’s wildlife and ecosystems were protected.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/197355/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Saurabh Sinha is co-sponsored by the U.S. Fulbright Visiting Scholar Program. For this visit, he is hosted by the Integrated Microsystems Research Lab, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, School of Engineering and Applied Science (SEAS), Princeton University. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Mduduzi Mbiza does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The essential ingredients in achieving the development goals are partnerships combined with smart thinking about how to deploy 21st century technologies.Saurabh Sinha, Professor and Executive Dean: Engineering, University of CanterburyMduduzi Mbiza, Research Associate, University of JohannesburgLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1872492022-07-27T16:00:43Z2022-07-27T16:00:43ZWe must rethink the way we build along the St. Lawrence River<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/474705/original/file-20220718-68563-2ywvhn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=17%2C35%2C5838%2C3952&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Riverbanks are reinforced to reduce flood risks, but these techniques reduce biodiversity and limit public accessibility.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The St. Lawrence River is immeasurably rich. <a href="https://wwf.ca/stories/5-amazing-facts-about-the-st-lawrence-river/">Draining a quarter of the planet’s freshwater reserves</a>, it forms one of the largest ecosystems in the world.</p>
<p>Since time <a href="https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/st-lawrence-river">immemorial, its navigation has played a major role</a> in the cultural, economic and social development of the continent. Today it is the main common heritage landmark of Indigenous people, descendants of the first European settlers and the newcomers inhabiting the region.</p>
<p>However, the <a href="https://journals.openedition.org/vertigo/2986?lang=en">privatization of its shoreline for residential, commercial and industrial purposes</a> — the main driver of urbanization in eastern North America — continues to undermine future generations. Centred on a logic of exploitation that is exclusive to the richest, privatization causes significant ecological disturbance and considerable risk-management costs for the Québec government. <a href="https://www.planstlaurent.qc.ca/en/">Public access to the river is clearly inadequate</a>.</p>
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<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/469058/original/file-20220615-9549-jj1phn.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/469058/original/file-20220615-9549-jj1phn.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=398&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/469058/original/file-20220615-9549-jj1phn.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=398&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/469058/original/file-20220615-9549-jj1phn.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=398&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/469058/original/file-20220615-9549-jj1phn.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=500&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/469058/original/file-20220615-9549-jj1phn.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=500&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/469058/original/file-20220615-9549-jj1phn.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=500&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<p><em>This article is part of our series, <a href="https://theconversation.com/ca-fr/topics/fleuve-saint-laurent-116908">The St. Lawrence River: In depth</a>.
Don’t miss new articles on this mythical river of remarkable beauty. Our experts look at its fauna, flora and history, and the issues it faces. This series is brought to you by <a href="https://theconversation.com/ca-fr">La Conversation</a>.</em></p>
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<p>The future of the river is in the hands of all citizens. We need a wide-reaching project that includes all those concerned: national, provincial and municipal governments, the scientific community, civil society, businesses, as well as the local and trans-local communities that live along the river. My colleagues and I have proposed a project, called Fluvialities, that meets the <a href="https://sdgs.un.org/goals/goal15">United Nations Sustainable Development Goals</a>, as well as the principles of human rights and <a href="https://www.un.org/development/desa/indigenouspeoples/declaration-on-the-rights-of-indigenous-peoples.html">Indigenous Peoples’ rights</a>.</p>
<p>Led by a group of researchers and professionals at the Université de Montréal, of which I am a member, the Fluvialities project of the <a href="https://nouvelles.umontreal.ca/en/article/2019/10/25/the-unesco-chair-in-urban-landscape-at-universite-de-montreal-builds-bridges/">UNESCO Chair in Urban Landscape</a> brings together scientific and citizen knowledge to identify and implement concrete actions over the next decade, across the entire St. Lawrence watershed, but focusing more on inhabited areas near the banks of the river.</p>
<p>The project will develop a number of landscape and ecosystem design strategies, which address ecosystem integrity and sustainability. It also aims to re-examine constitutional, legislative and regulatory frameworks, as well as the social norms, that define our collective relationship to this vast expanse of water.</p>
<h2>Flooding and erosion</h2>
<p>In recent years, climate change has increased the risk of flooding along the river and its tributaries, due to rising sea levels and increasing rainfall throughout the river basin. In an effort to reduce flood risks, riverbanks have been reinforced. But the stabilization techniques that protect private land and industrial sites from water level fluctuations reduce biodiversity and limit public accessibility.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A row of houses along a riverbank" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/473652/original/file-20220712-30699-qtvy73.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/473652/original/file-20220712-30699-qtvy73.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/473652/original/file-20220712-30699-qtvy73.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/473652/original/file-20220712-30699-qtvy73.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/473652/original/file-20220712-30699-qtvy73.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/473652/original/file-20220712-30699-qtvy73.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/473652/original/file-20220712-30699-qtvy73.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Riprap stabilization and riverbank protection techniques along the St. Lawrence River reduces the shorlines’ biodiversity.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>If <a href="https://www.ipcc.ch/sr15/">global temperatures continue to increase to 1.5 C or 2 C above pre-industrial levels</a>, sea levels will also rise. Building residential neighbourhoods and industrial sites near shorelines puts many lives at risk from flooding, and <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-018-06827-x">could cause billions of dollars in property damage</a>.</p>
<p>All municipalities along the river will be affected, either directly or indirectly, by rising water levels.</p>
<p>In addition, a phenomenal amount of <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/nova-scotia/ocean-pollution-seafloor-junk-bay-of-fundy-study-1.5360145">debris and chemicals are spread by the flow, polluting not only the river ecosystem</a>, but also the land and the groundwater in the catchment area. This accelerated process of riverbank erosion threatens a growing number of natural riverine habitats, promoting landslides and the release of toxic substances into the environment.</p>
<p>This is now well known among researchers and policymakers. However, despite <a href="https://www.planstlaurent.qc.ca/en/">excellent work</a> to assess the many risks and propose development strategies to mitigate them, there is currently no project that has a long-term development vision for the entire St. Lawrence River.</p>
<p>It therefore essential that current and future knowledge on natural and human risks be implemented quickly. We must radically rethink our relationship with the St. Lawrence River habitat, from the Great Lakes to the Atlantic Ocean.</p>
<h2>A global trend</h2>
<p>The first project of its kind in the world, Fluvialities, initiated in 2021-22, is part of an <a href="https://living-with-rivers.com/en/">overall trend towards worldwide governance of major rivers</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/473651/original/file-20220712-26-jbm29t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/473651/original/file-20220712-26-jbm29t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/473651/original/file-20220712-26-jbm29t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/473651/original/file-20220712-26-jbm29t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/473651/original/file-20220712-26-jbm29t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/473651/original/file-20220712-26-jbm29t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/473651/original/file-20220712-26-jbm29t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">View of Montréal from the South Shore. Like Montrealers, the majority of Québec residents live on the banks of the St. Lawrence River.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>We are inspired by such projects as “<a href="https://archive.arch.ethz.ch/studio-basel/publications/books/switzerland-an-urban-portrait.html">Switzerland: an Urban Portrait</a>”, by Studio Basel, research on the <a href="https://submarinechannel.com/lagos-wide-close/">metropolis of Lagos, Nigeria, led by Dutch architect Rem Koolhaas</a>, the School of the Anthropocene, led by French geographer Michel Lussault, and Italian urban planner Paola Viganò’s <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T2GvZAWwew4">vision for a horizontal metropolis</a>.</p>
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<figcaption><span class="caption">Italian urbanist Paola Viganò’s vision for a horizontal metropolis.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>These approaches echo a growing practice in the field of urban planning and landscape architecture. By tackling societal challenges on several levels, these disciplines are now generating solutions that benefit society and the environment while promoting economic development. Projects drawn from this knowledge are more likely to reach sustainability goals.</p>
<h2>A multidisciplinary network</h2>
<p>Through 2023-24, Fluvialities will be the subject of an initial consolidation phase. We aim to build a network of university researchers, non-profit organizations, representatives of local communities and companies concerned about the future of the river.</p>
<p>We expect to hold an initial public consultation on citizens’ aspirations in 2024-25. This is inspired by interactive democracy exercises on environmental issues recently <a href="https://www.conventioncitoyennepourleclimat.fr/en/">conducted in France</a> and <a href="https://www.climateassembly.uk">the United Kingdom</a>.</p>
<p>At the same time, we are building a digital atlas of the river’s scientific, social and cultural knowledge. These activities will include university and college teaching activities based on a research-creation approach where students participate in the process.</p>
<p>Educational teams of local and international experts will conduct planning and development workshops on different sections of the river as well as on comparable international contexts.</p>
<p>The sustainable and inclusive development of the St. Lawrence River deserves our attention. If its development continues in its current form, it will have a negative consequences for the people and the environment of North America. We must put in place a transnational strategy for the inclusive and sustainable development of the river and our society.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/187249/count.gif" alt="La Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Shin Koseki ne travaille pas, ne conseille pas, ne possède pas de parts, ne reçoit pas de fonds d'une organisation qui pourrait tirer profit de cet article, et n'a déclaré aucune autre affiliation que son organisme de recherche.</span></em></p>The sustainable and inclusive development of the St. Lawrence River is essential. A prolonged laissez-faire attitude will have harmful consequences on people and the environment.Shin Koseki, UNESCO Chair Professor in Urban Landscape, Université de MontréalLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1690072021-10-18T12:13:01Z2021-10-18T12:13:01ZHow ‘managed retreat’ from climate change could revitalize rural America: Revisiting the Homestead Act<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/426300/original/file-20211013-19-lw5pvi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=5%2C0%2C3493%2C2334&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Small inland towns can offer a haven for people escaping coastal climate change.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/fans-walk-down-the-street-to-the-baseball-hall-of-fame-news-photo/53310479">Ezra Shaw/Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Southern Italy’s rural Calabria region announced an <a href="https://portale.regione.calabria.it/website/portaltemplates/view/view.cfm?">innovative project in 2021</a> to breathe new life into its small towns. It plans to offer young professionals thousands of dollars if they move in and commit to launch a business, preferably a business the community needs.</p>
<p><a href="https://findingnwa.com/incentive/">Northwest Arkansas</a> has a <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/04/30/realestate/bentonville-arkansas-moving-incentive.html">similar program</a> to draw new residents to rural towns like Springdale by offering US$10,000 and a mountain bike. <a href="https://www.livelincolncounty.com/free-lots-residential/">Lincoln, Kansas</a>, is offering free land to remote workers who are willing to relocate and build a home there.</p>
<p>These efforts take advantage of the growing work-from-home culture to try to revitalize rural communities that are in decline. </p>
<p>They may also hold a key to coping with anticipated domestic climate migration as storms and wildfires exacerbated by climate change make parts of the country unlivable.</p>
<p>As <a href="https://eeb.utoronto.ca/profile/brooks-daniel-r/">professors and</a> <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?%20user=33XezsEAAAAJ&hl=en">authors focused on sustainability</a>, we see ways in which projects like these might help solve both the challenge of rural population loss and the likely acceleration of migration from climate-insecure cities. While this proposal may not be viable for every community, we believe it would benefit many towns seeking to reverse population loss and rejuvenate their economies. </p>
<h2>Opportunities in climate migration</h2>
<p>Global climate change presents an immediate problem. Millions of people worldwide will be at risk from sea level rise over the next two generations, while others will be driven away from regions of prolonged heat, drought and the threat of wildfires. </p>
<p>With people likely to move from at-risk places into nearby cities, those cities will likely see their public services stressed, their <a href="https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0227436">housing prices rise and their labor markets tighten</a>, potentially displacing lower-income residents.</p>
<p>This presents an opportunity for some rural areas to encourage new residents to move in.</p>
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<p>From 1953 to 2003, the U.S. rural population declined from <a href="http://www.prb.org/Articles/2003/%20FiftyYearsofDemographicChangeinRuralAmerica.aspx">36% of the population to 21%</a>. By 2050, <a href="https://eig.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/EIG-2020-DCI-Report.pdf">fewer than 13%</a> of Americans are likely to live in rural areas based on current trends. The decline of small farms and rural manufacturing has reduced employment opportunities for educated youth, driving many to leave. <a href="https://www.ft.com/content/fa3419a2-d019-11e8-a9f2-7574db66bcd5">Four-fifths of rural counties</a> have fewer businesses today than in 2008.</p>
<p>In some areas this trend has become a downward spiral. Population and business losses reduce tax bases, impoverishing public services, making communities less attractive for new residents and leaving fewer opportunities for local kids who want to stay. This pattern can contribute to feelings of insecurity, political polarization and a <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/ruso.12408">decline of trust in democratic institutions across rural America</a>. </p>
<p>Given the right support, community leaders may be able to reenergize their towns by encouraging people displaced by climate disasters to move in.</p>
<h2>A new homesteading movement</h2>
<p>“Managed retreat” is a proactive concept – it involves rebuilding in safer locations before disasters hit. That includes reinventing, reconfiguring and reconstructing housing and commerce. It could also mean creating networks of reinvigorated small towns, particularly those not far from the amenities and services of a sizable city.</p>
<p>Successful recovery and reinvention start with a community-supported plan for the future, including opportunities for in-town housing space, commercial opportunities and upgraded public services.</p>
<p>One way to encourage interest from investors and future residents is to focus on climate-friendly infrastructure powered by renewable energy. Areas rich in wind, sunlight and forests can update their zoning rules to encourage renewable energy investment, along with nonindustrialized food production, such as organic farms. </p>
<p>Developing high-tech greenhouses, such as those populating farmlands across Europe, for example, could support new jobs and provide fresh produce. The coal country town of Morehead, Kentucky, for instance, is supporting a hydroponic greenhouse that’s now producing <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/06/dining/hydroponic-farming.html">nearly 3 million pounds of beefsteak tomatoes</a> a year.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A young man runs past a county courthouse." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/426302/original/file-20211013-15-1ola72v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/426302/original/file-20211013-15-1ola72v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/426302/original/file-20211013-15-1ola72v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/426302/original/file-20211013-15-1ola72v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/426302/original/file-20211013-15-1ola72v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/426302/original/file-20211013-15-1ola72v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/426302/original/file-20211013-15-1ola72v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The ability to work from home has made small towns an option for more young people.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/young-latino-man-in-blue-sweatshirt-runs-by-small-royalty-free-image/948013420">Patrick Fraser via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>To support revitalization and smooth the transition for new residents, we suggest that the federal government could finance a sequel to America’s 1862 <a href="https://www.archives.gov/education/lessons/homestead-act#background">Homesteading Act</a>, which encouraged people to settle and develop the American West.</p>
<p>This strategy would require new funding or shifting funds from agencies – such as the <a href="https://www.rd.usda.gov">U.S. Department of Agriculture</a>, <a href="https://www.eda.gov">Economic Development Administration</a>, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/08/26/climate/flooding-relocation-managed-retreat.html">Federal Emergency Management Agency</a> and <a href="https://www.hud.gov/program_offices/comm_planning/communitydevelopment">Department of Housing and Urban Development</a> – toward improving public services and incentivizing commerce and industry, along with housing grants.</p>
<p>Federal efforts to <a href="https://theconversation.com/5-ways-biden-can-help-rural-america-thrive-and-bridge-the-rural-urban-divide-150610">expand rural broadband access</a> can lift another barrier to bringing in young workers excited about working from home, as well as entrepreneurs with the expertise necessary to make these projects and other new businesses succeed in sustainable ways.</p>
<p>If government assistance programs support the aspirations of rural towns’ grassroots leadership, these efforts could come to be viewed with trust rather than suspicion. </p>
<p>This is a way for communities that have lost their tax base to recruit new tax-paying citizens. There can be downsides – change can be difficult for some communities, the investment can cause concern and it <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2021/07/moving-incentives-are-overhyped/619543/">might not work as quickly</a> <a href="https://money.howstuffworks.com/does-paying-people-to-move-to-state-no-one-really-knows.htm">or effectively</a> as the community hopes. For rural towns close to cities, there can also be concerns about gentrification if <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2021/08/09/truckee-housing-zoomtown/,%20https://www.rmpbs.org/blogs/news/more-mountain-towns-taking-drastic-measures-to-address-housing-shortage/">remote workers drive up housing prices</a>. But there are many communities, particularly across the rural South and Midwest, that could benefit from the influx of new residents and skills while the people relocating can find safer new homes. </p>
<p>Meanwhile, local incentive programs for relocation expanded dramatically during the pandemic. Small American cities are offering financial incentives to young people with particular expertise and families to relocate. <a href="https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/369763">Some of these</a> include <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2019/08/31/6-us-cities-and-states-that-will-pay-you-to-move-there.html">relocation expenses, housing subsidies and reduction of student loan burdens</a>. </p>
<p>No single rural center can provide all the benefits of larger urban centers, but networks of revitalized towns could start to compensate.</p>
<p>[<em>Understand new developments in science, health and technology, each week.</em> <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters/science-editors-picks-71/?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=science-understand">Subscribe to The Conversation’s science newsletter</a>.]</p>
<h2>Preparing now</h2>
<p>Climate change poses unprecedented challenges for U.S. population mobility. At the same time, America needs to renew and transform declining rural regions.</p>
<p>Waiting until disaster strikes becomes expensive and chaotic. Revitalizing rural communities now could alleviate migration pressures and help restore the cooperative and supportive ways of rural life. It can be a win-win proposal.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/169007/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>If rural communities plan carefully – and some already are – they can reinvent themselves as the perfect homes for people fleeing wildfire and hurricane zones.Hillary A. Brown, Professor of Architecture and Director of the Urban Sustainability Program, City College of New YorkDaniel R. Brooks, Professor Emeritus of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of TorontoLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1534622021-02-23T14:56:04Z2021-02-23T14:56:04ZWhy efforts to clean up charcoal production in sub-Saharan Africa aren’t working<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/385503/original/file-20210222-13-17a4syk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Charcoal is an essential fuel for most parts of sub-Saharan Africa</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Charcoal_before_pick-up.jpg">AnandievanZyl/Wikimedia Commons</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Charcoal is an essential source of domestic fuel in many sub-Saharan African countries. Overall, the region produces 65% of the world’s charcoal, with Nigeria, Ethiopia and Ghana being the <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/19376812.2020.1846133">top three producers</a>. The charcoal sector employs about 40 million people in the region. Smallholders are responsible for most charcoal production, and it’s an important safety net for most producers.</p>
<p>The average person in sub-Saharan Africa consumes 0.69 cubic metres of charcoal per year. That’s 2.5 times more than the amount of wood fuel an average person consumes globally. </p>
<p>Producing charcoal involves burning wood under anaerobic conditions – when too much oxygen is supplied, the wood turns to ash. Typically, the production technique – earth kilns, used by smallholders – cannot properly regulate the oxygen supply, leading to inefficiencies. Simply put, they use more wood to produce little charcoal and emit more emissions compared to emerging carbonisation techniques. </p>
<p>As a result charcoal production is one of the main drivers of savannah and forest degradation in sub-Saharan Africa.</p>
<p>Nevertheless, demand for charcoal is rising. This has led to governments attempting to formalise the sector. One such step has involved enabling investments from large-scale companies. For example, in Ghana, the government leases out forest reserves to private companies to produce wood on plantations for conversion to charcoal. Another step involves introducing punitive policies. For example, in Malawi, the state forbids smallholders from producing charcoal without permits, with noncompliance leading to fines and up to ten years imprisonment. </p>
<p>I conducted <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/19376812.2020.1846133">a review</a> of charcoal production and recent developments in sub-Saharan Africa.</p>
<p>It’s not clear that formalisation tackles challenges at the grassroots. For the charcoal sector to transition towards sustainability, I argue for the adoption of integrated approaches that pay attention to the social needs of actors while tackling environmental concerns. This should preferably be done under the banner of ‘carbon-neutral charcoal’.</p>
<h2>Efforts to formalise the sector</h2>
<p>In recent years, many countries, including Ghana and Malawi, have tried to formalise the charcoal sector.</p>
<p>Their reasons for doing so have varied, and have included the desire to:</p>
<ul>
<li><p>increase revenue from charcoal to state governments through taxes, and </p></li>
<li><p>reduce the perceived environmental impacts of charcoal production. </p></li>
</ul>
<p>The consequences of these endeavours are contested.</p>
<p>For example, in Ghana, in a bid to promote sustainable charcoal production, the government enabled foreign investors to acquire large tracts of fertile land for wood production.</p>
<p>The effect was that many smallholders have been displaced from their lands and means of production. </p>
<p>The idea behind introducing taxes is also unclear. For example, in Ghana the government <a href="https://www.modernghana.com/news/831002/the-woes-of-the-forest-of-northern-ghana-a-nation.html">imposed taxes</a> on smallholder charcoal producers with no clear plan on how these taxes would lead to sanitising the charcoal sector or support the countryside’s development. </p>
<p>Malawi has imposed outright bans on charcoal production without permits. This has removed a crucial safety net for smallholders, forcing them into poverty. </p>
<p>In addition to the fact that many interventions have failed to work, it’s also become clear that smallholders employ several strategies to subvert sanctions instituted by the state government. These include using illegal means to transport charcoal and paying bribes to law enforcement agencies. <a href="http://www.kenyaforestservice.org/documents/redd/Charcoal%20Value%20Chain%20Analysis.pdf">Kenya</a> is one country where this happens.</p>
<p>There is also ample evidence that prohibitions such as banning the production and transport of charcoal don’t work in many countries in the region because of weak institutions. </p>
<p>Given that the current path towards formalisation is failing, what alternatives can governments adopt?</p>
<h2>Cleaning the charcoal sector</h2>
<p>Making the charcoal sector less carbon intensive is desirable. But the current pathways chosen by various governments aren’t sustainable because they deprive many poor farmers of the means of their survival. </p>
<p>I identify a number of steps that could be taken.</p>
<p>First, national governments need to recognise and improve traditional leaders’ current role in allocating trees for charcoal production in the countryside. This approach has been in place for decades in countries, including Ghana.</p>
<p>It has its flaws. For example, there is no proper accountability for how traditional leaders apply revenues raised from allocating wood resources. But it has nevertheless helped sustain the population of valuable tree species in the savannah, including the shea tree (<em>Vitellaria paradoxa</em>) and the African locust bean tree (<em>Parkia biglobosa</em>) in Ghana. </p>
<p>Second, governments need to invest in the countryside, creating awareness and facilitating green charcoal businesses and associations. This way smallholders could produce charcoal from sustainable woodlots that are harvested in rotation. </p>
<p>Efforts also need to be made to address some of the structural challenges along the charcoal commodity chain, including the skewed distribution of profits to traders and merchants. The creation of cooperatives could help by strengthening the bargaining position of smallholder charcoal producers. </p>
<p>Finally, improving charcoal production at the grassroots level will allow governments in the region to tap into the growing global demand for sustainable charcoal in international markets, while contributing to climate change mitigation.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/153462/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Eric Kumeh Mensah does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Attempts to formalise charcoal production have been largely unsuccessful.Eric Kumeh Mensah, Doctoral Researcher, University of HohenheimLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1421522020-08-04T12:17:50Z2020-08-04T12:17:50ZMarijuana fueled Colombian drug trade before cocaine was king<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/350268/original/file-20200729-19-qmd65z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C8%2C5403%2C3580&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A marijuana trafficker practicing his aim in the Guajira, epicenter of Colombia's first drug boom, in 1979.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/colombia-marijuana-dealer-practising-shooting-his-gun-on-news-photo/96345506?adppopup=true">Romano Cagnoni/Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p><em>The <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/topics/research-brief-83231">Research Brief</a> is a short take about interesting academic work.</em></p>
<h2>The big idea</h2>
<p>Long before Pablo Escobar’s Medellín cartel got rich supplying Americans with cocaine in the 1980s, Colombia was already the United States’ main source of illicit drugs – specifically, marijuana. That’s the takeaway of my new book “<a href="https://www.ucpress.edu/book/9780520325470/marijuana-boom">Marijuana Boom</a>.” </p>
<p>This debunks the popular notion of Escobar as the <a href="https://theconversation.com/pablo-escobar-and-the-legacy-of-drug-warfare-in-latin-america-21061">pioneer of Colombian drug trafficking</a>. Rather, it was some of Colombia’s <a href="https://colombiareports.com/la-guajira/">most marginalized people</a> who changed the course of their nation.</p>
<p>Back in the 1970s, peasant farmers from the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta – a remote and mountainous region of Colombia’s Caribbean coast – began shifting from banana, cotton and coffee production to marijuana cultivation. When this population again pivoted to growing <a href="http://oaji.net/articles/2020/2336-1580845587.pdf">coca leaf for processing into cocaine</a> in the 1980s, they set Colombia on a course to become the <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/colombia-top-cocaine-producing-countries-record-production-2017-3">illicit drug capital of the Americas</a>. </p>
<h2>Why it matters</h2>
<p>This research upends other old tropes about the drug trade, including the idea that it’s <a href="https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/drug-dealing-is-a-violent-crime">inherently violent</a>. </p>
<p>Colombia’s marijuana economy operated relatively peacefully until the Colombian and U.S. governments in 1978 launched <a href="https://www.scholars.northwestern.edu/en/publications/a-traffickers-paradise-the-war-on-drugs-and-the-new-cold-war-in-c">a militarized campaign to eradicate marijuana crops and increase drug interdictions</a>. Traffickers retaliated, giving rise to the now familiar “war on drugs”-style dynamic of escalating conflict. </p>
<p>My research also disproves the <a href="https://franciscothoumi.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/Drogas-Ilegales-Econom%C3%ADa-y-Sociedad-en-Los-Andes.-Francisco-E.-Thoumi-2002.pdf">long-held academic consensus</a> that illegal drug markets emerge in remote areas where the state has insufficient presence. </p>
<p>I find Colombia’s marijuana boom was actually an unintended consequence of state-led efforts to economically develop Colombia. Throughout the 20th century, Colombia worked to build its <a href="https://nyupress.org/9780814799345/bananas-and-business/">banana export sector</a>, create <a href="https://archive.org/details/cottonindustryof113port/page/n5/mode/2up">a cotton belt</a> to supply Colombian textile factories and to <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/agrarian-question-and-the-peasant-movement-in-colombia/410CEB610724F8514ED2B1928689A125">redistribute land</a>. By the 1970s, Colombia was expanding international trade, particularly with the U.S.</p>
<p>These changes made some rural Colombians rich but, my research shows, impoverished peasant farmers in the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta. People who’d grown legal commodity crops saw opportunity in exporting an illegal one to the United States: marijuana.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/350275/original/file-20200729-27-mm04gx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Two armed officers search three men with their hands up" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/350275/original/file-20200729-27-mm04gx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/350275/original/file-20200729-27-mm04gx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=411&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/350275/original/file-20200729-27-mm04gx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=411&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/350275/original/file-20200729-27-mm04gx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=411&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/350275/original/file-20200729-27-mm04gx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=517&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/350275/original/file-20200729-27-mm04gx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=517&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/350275/original/file-20200729-27-mm04gx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=517&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Police search suspected marijuana growers in the Guajira, Colombia, 1980.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/armed-police-searching-suspected-marijuana-growers-near-news-photo/3271093?adppopup=true">Timothy Ross/Hulton Archive/Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>What still isn’t known</h2>
<p>My book recounts how and why people in northern Colombia used their farming experience to grow and export marijuana. But it doesn’t detail their next transition, from <a href="https://verdadabierta.com/los-anos-de-hernan-giraldo-en-la-sierra-nevada-de-santa-marta/">marijuana to cocaine</a>. </p>
<p>In southern Colombia, academics have documented how Pablo Escobar’s generation of traffickers <a href="https://www.dukeupress.edu/between-the-guerrillas-and-the-state">financed new settlers to grow coca leaf</a>, the base ingredient in cocaine, in the 1980s. We just don’t know how cocaine simultaneously supplanted marijuana as the staple drug crop of the peasant economy up north. </p>
<h2>How I do my work</h2>
<p>This began as a personal quest to understand the country of my childhood. My father is from the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta area, where marijuana once boomed. </p>
<p>Some of my research was archival, conducted in Colombia and the U.S. But much of it was done on the ground. I began collecting testimonials in northern Colombia in the early 2000s, during Colombia’s <a href="https://theconversation.com/search/result?sg=5ff52dde-56c1-4bd3-94a9-5a94fe3f99e9&sp=1&sr=1&url=%2Fwhy-only-now-after-51-years-war-is-ending-in-colombia-48563">52-year armed conflict</a>. Paramilitary forces controlled the area. The war ended in 2016. But armed groups, including cartels, still operate there.</p>
<p>[<em>Deep knowledge, daily.</em> <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters/the-daily-3?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=deepknowledge">Sign up for The Conversation’s newsletter</a>.]</p>
<p>To stay safe while studying an industry that uses cash and violence to keep its affairs clandestine, I relied on friends and family, who helped me establish contacts and identify information sources. I also kept my questions focused on the defunct marijuana business – not the active cocaine trade. </p>
<p>This focus helped me avoid reproducing what historian Luis Astorga calls “<a href="https://openlibrary.org/books/OL896105M/Mitologi%CC%81a_del_narcotraficante_en_Me%CC%81xico">the mythology of the narcotrafficker</a>.” There are no Pablo Escobars in my book – just everyday Colombians who seized on their country’s growing commercial ties to <a href="https://www.rand.org/pubs/research_reports/RR3140.html">the world’s largest drug market</a> – the United States – to launch a global business.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/142152/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Lina Britto does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Step aside, Pablo Escobar. New research shows it was poor farmers who helped turn Colombia into the world’s largest drug producer when they started growing and exporting pot in the 1970s.Lina Britto, Assistant Professor of History, Northwestern UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1277722019-12-10T13:56:52Z2019-12-10T13:56:52ZUS-Taliban truce begins, feeding hope of a peaceful, more prosperous Afghanistan<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/305944/original/file-20191209-90609-1cb5fgw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=35%2C0%2C4000%2C2664&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A market in the Old City of Kabul, Afghanistan, Sept. 8, 2019. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.apimages.com/metadata/Index/Afghanistan-Daily-Life/a9c73acd22884f5d83b007a534f699b4/9/0">AP Photo/Ebrahim Noroozi</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>If a <a href="https://apnews.com/62c7a74076796c180677d0826a5da506">seven-day truce</a> between the United States and the Taliban holds until Feb. 28, 2020, Afghanistan’s decade-long conflict may finally end. A peace deal could be signed as soon as Feb. 29, according to the State Department. </p>
<p>The draft accord follows months of <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-49729612">stop-and-go</a> <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2019/12/resurrected-taliban-peace-talks-open-qatar-191207105319486.html">negotiations</a> between the United States and the <a href="https://cisac.fsi.stanford.edu/mappingmilitants/profiles/afghan-taliban">Taliban</a>, an armed insurgency promoting an ultra-conservative form of Sunni Islam. </p>
<p>The Taliban has <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/u-s-taliban-talks-resume-raising-prospect-end-war-afghanistan-n1097981">battled the Afghan government</a> for power for three decades. Since the U.S. invasion of 2001 following the 9/11 World Trade Center attacks, it has also fought the United States – an 18-year war that killed <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/2019/investigations/afghanistan-papers/afghanistan-war-confidential-documents/">2,300 American soldiers and more than 43,000 Afghan citizens</a>. </p>
<p>A peace deal with the Taliban would set the terms for a <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/09/02/world/asia/us-withdrawal-afghanistan-taliban.html?module=inline">staged withdrawal</a> of the remaining 14,000 U.S. troops from Afghanistan. In exchange, the Taliban must agree to enter talks with Afghan government officials and <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/u-s-taliban-talks-resume-raising-prospect-end-war-afghanistan-n1097981">cut ties</a> with terrorist groups like al-Qaida. </p>
<p>But peace in Afghanistan will take more than an accord. History shows that <a href="https://www.undp.org/content/dam/undp/library/crisis%20prevention/undp-cpr-post-conflict-economic-recovery-enable-local-ingenuity-report-2008.pdf">economic growth</a> and better job opportunities are necessary to <a href="https://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=GXIGCAAAQBAJ&oi=fnd&pg=PP1&dq=peacebuilding+in+post-conflict+countries+jobs+economic+growth&ots=wUBmA_dxxg&sig=0Td9VUiuEADEdC4iJuBrNghWkLA#v=onepage&q=peacebuilding%20in%20post-conflict%20countries%20jobs%20economic%20growth&f=false">rebuild stability after war</a>. My <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Elizabeth_Hessami">work</a> on armed conflict, the environment and peacebuilding indicates that careful and sustainable use of Afghanistan’s <a href="https://postconflict.unep.ch/publications/UNEP_Afghanistan_NRM_guidance_chart.pdf">abundant natural resources</a> could be one path towards recovery.</p>
<h2>Building a lasting peace</h2>
<p>Insurgent groups recruit people who desperately need an income. As <a href="https://www.wired.com/2010/07/taliban-pays-its-troops-better-than-karzai-pays-his/">Wired magazine reported back in 2007</a>, the Taliban paid its soldiers far better than the Afghan government. Today, salaries for members of ISIS-KP, the Islamic State’s local branch, are reportedly even higher. </p>
<p>Creating well-paid alternatives to extremist groups, then, is a critical piece in solving Afghanistan’s national security puzzle.</p>
<p>And since many fighters for insurgent groups in Afghanistan come from a <a href="https://reliefweb.int/report/afghanistan/turning-former-afghanistan-warlord-fighters-farmers">farming background</a> – and agriculture accounts for <a href="https://www.worldbank.org/en/country/afghanistan/publication/unlocking-potential-of-agriculture-for-afghanistan-growth">40% of total jobs</a> in Afghanistan – rural development will be particularly important for peacebuilding. </p>
<p>“Strengthening natural resource-related livelihoods can [provide] a future for youth who might otherwise join rebel forces,” says Carl Bruch, president of the <a href="https://environmentalpeacebuilding.org/">Environmental Peacebuilding Association</a>, a nonprofit organization that studies the relationship between armed conflict and natural resources. </p>
<p>The United States Agency for International Development, which also funds <a href="https://www.chemonics.com/projects/building-economy-promoting-peace-colombia/">efforts to build the economy of post-conflict countries like Colombia</a> and <a href="https://www.usaid.gov/democratic-republic-congo/fact-sheets/peace-and-security">Democratic Republic of the Congo</a>, sees sustainable economic growth as <a href="https://www.usaid.gov/afghanistan/economic-growth">crucial for a peaceful and prosperous Afghanistan</a>.</p>
<h2>Figs, saffron and pine nuts</h2>
<p>The export market for coveted Afghan agricultural products like cashmere, pine nuts, figs, and saffron is one potentially lucrative sector of the rural economy.</p>
<p>In November 2019, several Chinese importers finalized a deal with Afghan <a href="https://www.avapress.com/en/news/196297/afghanistan-to-export-62-000-tonnes-of-pine-nuts-china-over-next-five-years">companies</a> to buy US$2.2 billion in Afghan pine nuts over the next five years. </p>
<p>Other agricultural exports from Afghanistan are finding their place in the world market, too. <a href="https://oec.world/en/profile/country/afg/">Grape sales</a> brought Afghanistan $143 million in 2017. Tropical fruits earned $101 million. Afghanistan’s economy <a href="https://www.worldbank.org/en/news/press-release/2020/01/22/afghanistan-improves-its-growth-despite-uncertainty">grew 2.9% in 2019</a>, largely driven by agriculture.</p>
<p>The Afghan government recognizes its potential as a global source of fine foods. </p>
<p>Eight months after Afghan president Ashraf Ghani created several <a href="https://tolonews.com/business/afghan-exports-through-air-corridors-total-100m">new air corridors in 2018</a> – safe and direct flight paths created for trade and other purposes – <a href="https://www.themigrantproject.org/afghanistan-opens-air-cargo-corridors/">exports from Afghanistan increased 32%</a>. These air routes connect Afghanistan to India, Turkey, China, Saudi Arabia, Europe, Russia, China, the United Arab Emirates and Uzbekistan – commercial hubs that give Afghan products access to other trade destinations. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/305946/original/file-20191209-90552-pqvmm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/305946/original/file-20191209-90552-pqvmm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/305946/original/file-20191209-90552-pqvmm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/305946/original/file-20191209-90552-pqvmm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/305946/original/file-20191209-90552-pqvmm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/305946/original/file-20191209-90552-pqvmm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=504&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/305946/original/file-20191209-90552-pqvmm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=504&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/305946/original/file-20191209-90552-pqvmm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=504&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Afghan women work in a saffron field in Herat, Afghanistan, Nov. 27, 2013.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.apimages.com/metadata/Index/Afghanistan-US-Spending/8e4d2f9194de4c85809339acf7c6665a/3/0">AP Photo/Hoshang Hashimi, File</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Recently, browsing in a local health food store in Los Angeles, I was surprised to come upon a bright red bag of Kandahar figs. </p>
<p>The distributor, Ziba Foods, told me that 80% of their workforce – both management and staff positions – is female, and that the company provides English lessons and other professional development to staff. </p>
<p>“We are committed to providing our Afghan staff with year-round employment despite the cyclical nature of the agricultural sector,” Ziba partner Raffi Vartanian said. </p>
<h2>Emerald mining</h2>
<p>Emeralds are another Afghan product with the potential to drive economic growth. High up in the Hindu Kush mountains of Panjshir Province are buried vivid green emeralds of <a href="https://www.gia.edu/doc/SP91A2.pdf">noted color and purity</a>. </p>
<p>The inhabitants of Panjshir once sold these famous emeralds <a href="https://www.npr.org/2011/09/09/140333732/in-afghanistan-assessing-a-rebel-leaders-legacy">to finance</a> their <a href="https://www.npr.org/2011/09/09/140333732/in-afghanistan-assessing-a-rebel-leaders-legacy">resistance to Soviet occupation</a>. In a more stable future, these precious stones could provide substantial incomes for people in an area that’s too mountainous for farming or herding.</p>
<p>Afghanistan exported an estimated $100 million in emeralds in 2018, according to <a href="https://www.gemstone.org/publications/incolor">InColor Magazine</a>, a publication of the International Colored Gemstone Association. In 2015, <a href="http://www.lj24magazine.com/article/article_000516/1.aspx">Christie’s</a> auction house sold an Afghan emerald for <a href="https://www.gemstone.org/incolor/40/85/">$2,276,408</a>, a <a href="https://magazine.stregis.com/the-emerald/">record price for Christie’s</a>. </p>
<p>Despite some <a href="https://www.worldbank.org/en/news/feature/2018/01/02/access-to-all-weather-road-allows-afghan-valley-inhabitants-to-flourish">recent road repairs</a>, the mountainous and remote Panjshir region remains <a href="https://www.latimes.com/world/la-xpm-2013-dec-22-la-fg-afghanistan-panjshir-20131222-story.html">extremely difficult to get in and out of</a>. With better access, improved technology and <a href="https://money.cnn.com/2016/08/29/smallbusiness/afghanistan-emeralds-panjshir-aria/">more training for miners</a>, analysts estimate Panjshir could produce <a href="https://www.gemstone.org/incolor/40/86/">$300 to $400 million</a> worth of emeralds each year. </p>
<h2>Good timing</h2>
<p>If signed, the Afghanistan peace deal would come just over 40 years after the <a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/7883532.stm">1979 Soviet Invasion</a> that triggered a cycle of armed conflict that has destabilized this Central Asian nation since. </p>
<p>An estimated <a href="https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2004-dec-26-op-soviet26-story.html">2.5 million Afghans</a> were killed or wounded during the decade-long Soviet occupation. The <a href="https://nsarchive.gwu.edu/briefing-book/afghanistan-russia-programs/2019-02-27/soviet-withdrawal-afghanistan-1989">withdrawal of Soviet troops in 1989</a> left the country in chaos, vulnerable to the <a href="https://www.npr.org/2010/12/07/131884473/Afghanistan-After-The-Soviet-Withdrawal">eventual rise</a> of militant groups like the Taliban, al-Qaida and, eventually, IS-KP.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/305945/original/file-20191209-90603-gyukz0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/305945/original/file-20191209-90603-gyukz0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/305945/original/file-20191209-90603-gyukz0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=395&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/305945/original/file-20191209-90603-gyukz0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=395&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/305945/original/file-20191209-90603-gyukz0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=395&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/305945/original/file-20191209-90603-gyukz0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=497&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/305945/original/file-20191209-90603-gyukz0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=497&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/305945/original/file-20191209-90603-gyukz0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=497&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Afghan rebels on top of knocked out Russian armored vehicle in Afghanistan in February 1980.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.apimages.com/metadata/Index/Watchf-AP-I-AFG-APHS302628-Soviet-Invasion-and-/9b7e7023102b4486998be9caab7ca1df/155/0">AP Photo</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Though the 27.5 million Afghans <a href="https://afghanistan.unfpa.org/en/news/young-people-make-their-voices-heard-through-afghan-youth-parliament">under the age of 25</a> have only known war, the population is hopeful about their country’s prospects for peace. A recent survey by the Asia Foundation of <a href="http://heartofasia.af/peace-talks-instilled-hopes-in-afghans/">18,000 Afghans</a> found that <a href="http://heartofasia.af/peace-talks-instilled-hopes-in-afghans/">90% of those</a> surveyed strongly support efforts towards a deal with the Taliban.</p>
<p>Older Afghans remember happier times. My husband, who left Afghanistan as a young man after the Soviet invasion, has photo albums showing his family grilling kebabs and lounging in the rose-filled Paghman Gardens, just outside the city. Back then, beautiful Kabul was known as “<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/18/weekinreview/18bumiller.html">the Paris of Central Asia</a>.” </p>
<p>Many of <a href="http://www.bakhtarnews.com.af/eng/culture/item/38569-president-ghani-inspects-restoration-process-of-paghman-historic-palaces.html">Paghman’s lawns and palaces</a> are now in the process of careful restoration – a hopeful sign after decades of destruction. </p>
<p>In the 1960s and 1970s, Afghanistan’s spectacular natural landscapes attracted thousands of tourists each year, <a href="https://www.mfa.gov.af/about-afghanistan/tourism.html">according to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Afghanistan</a>. Young travelers who took the famous “Hippie Trail” – a <a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/travel/europe/the-lonely-planet-journey-the-hippie-trail-6257275.html">4,660-mile</a> journey from London to Goa, India – would pass through Afghanistan. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/305943/original/file-20191209-90603-1wtozv5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C13%2C2995%2C1980&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/305943/original/file-20191209-90603-1wtozv5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C13%2C2995%2C1980&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/305943/original/file-20191209-90603-1wtozv5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/305943/original/file-20191209-90603-1wtozv5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/305943/original/file-20191209-90603-1wtozv5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/305943/original/file-20191209-90603-1wtozv5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/305943/original/file-20191209-90603-1wtozv5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/305943/original/file-20191209-90603-1wtozv5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Visitors in 2009 at at a lake in Band-e-Amir, Afghanistan’s first national park.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.apimages.com/metadata/Index/Afghanistan-Bring-On-The-Tourists/ecfab6a615744d3ab911d7a39ac284b2/16/0">AP Photo/Rahmat Gul</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Ecotourism is another industry that could develop in Afghanistan if <a href="https://www.cfr.org/timeline/us-war-afghanistan">armed conflict ceases</a>. </p>
<p>A Taliban accord is necessary to end the Afghanistan war. But creating meaningful jobs and sustainable economic growth will <a href="https://www.usaid.gov/afghanistan/economic-growth">help create a durable peace</a>. </p>
<p><em>This is an updated version of an <a href="https://theconversation.com/taliban-negotiations-resume-feeding-hope-of-a-peaceful-more-prosperous-afghanistan-127772">article</a> originally published Dec. 10, 2019.</em></p>
<p>[<em>You’re smart and curious about the world. So are The Conversation’s authors and editors.</em> <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=youresmart">You can read us daily by subscribing to our newsletter</a>.]</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/127772/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Elizabeth B. Hessami is affiliated with the Environmental Law Institute as a visiting attorney and for the Environmental Peacebuilding Association as a volunteer.</span></em></p>Building a lasting peace in Afghanistan will take much more than an accord with the Taliban. In post-conflict nations, economic development and job creation are critical to national security.Elizabeth B. Hessami, Faculty Lecturer, Johns Hopkins UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1227762019-09-12T12:22:13Z2019-09-12T12:22:13ZWhat can be done to fight rural banditry in northern Nigeria<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/292232/original/file-20190912-190026-5bhnen.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Nigerians rescued from a Boko Haram camp in the north. The terrorist group is just one element of insecurity in the region.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">EPA</span></span></figcaption></figure><p><a href="https://kujenga-amani.ssrc.org/2019/06/13/rural-banditry-in-zamfara-state-northwest-nigeria/">Banditry</a> is on the increase in northern Nigeria. This is a region with many security problems, chief among them Boko Haram’s insurgency. In the north-central region, herdsmen militancy has become a key security concern. Northwest Nigeria, which used to be the bastion of security and stability, has been hit hard by rural banditry.</p>
<p>I have explored this situation and its attendant threat in my <a href="https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/ec2d/cef71844eaf12cc9812773171ca52e2c1149.pdf">research</a>.</p>
<p>Rural banditry refers to armed violence driven principally by the criminal intent to steal and plunder. It is motivated by the quest for economic accumulation. The victims are individuals and communities with material valuables. The most common examples of rural banditry in Nigeria are armed robbery, kidnapping, cattle rustling and village raids. </p>
<p>Rural <a href="http://www.thenewhumanitarian.org/news-feature/2018/09/13/zamfara-nigeria-s-wild-northwest">banditry</a> in the northwestern states of Zamfara, Kaduna and Katsina has reached alarming heights in recent years. Bandits terrorise villages with impunity. They have actually settled in the Zamfara state, setting up fortified enclaves in the hinterland and on the frontiers, from where they plot and carry out their operations.</p>
<h2>What drives rural banditry?</h2>
<p>Crime thrives in contexts where there’s little deterrence. In most of Nigeria’s rural communities, there are many <a href="https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/ec2d/cef71844eaf12cc9812773171ca52e2c1149.pdf">opportunities</a> for criminal activity. For one thing, some of these communities are located in remote areas where there is little or no government presence. More importantly, households are in some cases separated by and interspersed with forest areas. This renders them vulnerable to banditry. </p>
<p>This situation is made worse by the absence of effective community policing mechanisms capable of addressing the hinterlands’ peculiar security challenges. </p>
<p>In effect, the incidence and prevalence of rural banditry in northwest Nigeria raises a fundamental question about the government’s ability to govern effectively. The state security machinery has so far failed to tackle the scourge of banditry. This failure stems from a lack of political will and operational challenges.</p>
<p>Essentially, the prevailing socio-existential conditions in northwestern Nigeria have complicated the security <a href="https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/ec2d/cef71844eaf12cc9812773171ca52e2c1149.pdf">situation</a>. The rural pastoral sector is not well regulated. Illicit artisanal mining and the proliferation of arms in the region are also veritable factors. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/291496/original/file-20190909-109957-1z0gucy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/291496/original/file-20190909-109957-1z0gucy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=300&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/291496/original/file-20190909-109957-1z0gucy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=300&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/291496/original/file-20190909-109957-1z0gucy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=300&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/291496/original/file-20190909-109957-1z0gucy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=377&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/291496/original/file-20190909-109957-1z0gucy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=377&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/291496/original/file-20190909-109957-1z0gucy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=377&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A destroyed bandit camp in Zamfara.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Wikimedia Commons</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Geography plays a role, too. Northwestern Nigeria’s <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/10246029.2017.1369135?journalCode=rasr20">forestlands</a> are vast, rugged and hazardous. They are also grossly under-policed. Some of the forests run alongside the diverse porous borderlines on the region’s frontiers. Borders are poorly delineated, under-policed and thus not well governed. The consequence of this is an abundance of nefarious activity, often facilitated by criminal syndicates. </p>
<p>Rural banditry in northwestern Nigeria also derives impetus from the poorly governed mining and small arms sector. Bandits have been drawn to the region by illicit and artisanal mining in states like Zamfara where bandits have been raiding mining sites for <a href="http://www.thenewhumanitarian.org/news-feature/2018/09/13/zamfara-nigeria-s-wild-northwest">gold and cash</a>. </p>
<p>The federal government has recognised the apparent linkage between rural banditry and illicit mining. It <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-nigeria-security/nigeria-suspends-mining-in-zamfara-state-after-banditry-surges-idUSKCN1RJ0IS">suspended</a> all forms of mining in Zamfara State in early April of 2019.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.ecowas.int/ecowas-and-nigeria-to-spearhead-renewed-efforts-at-tackling-problems-associated-with-transhumance/">Transhumance</a> – the movement of cattle – is poorly regulated. This has seen it being infiltrated by criminals, which has led to the intensification of cattle rustling in the region. In states such as Kaduna, Katsina, Zamfara and Kebbi, there exists a clan of livestock bandits who specialise in mass cattle raids. </p>
<p>While some of these cattle rustling gangs are affiliated to local and transnational syndicates, a number of them are mercenaries of Boko Haram. Cattle rustling constitutes a <a href="https://www.fatf-gafi.org/media/fatf/documents/reports/Terrorist-Financing-West-Central-Africa.pdf">valuable source</a> of funding for the terror group. </p>
<h2>Impacts, implications and solution</h2>
<p>Banditry and other causes of insecurity in northern Nigeria have been allowed to degenerate into a complex national emergency with dire territorial implications. This mirrors exactly what happened with the Boko Haram insurgency. From sporadic incidents, Boko Haram began launching systematic attacks targeted at individuals, communities and, eventually, the state. </p>
<p>There’s no more effective solution than forceful inland and frontier policing. Such policing must deal with the region’s peculiar circumstances of diverse borderlines, forestlands and hinterlands. This requires a tactical synergy between grassroots vigilantes and the state security operatives. </p>
<p>The federal government’s current counter banditry effort, based on military reconnaissance and raids, is good and commendable. But it has failed to bring about the needed respite, owing largely to the operational challenges arising from insufficient knowledge of the terrain. This makes the involvement of local vigilantes and community watch groups, who have a better knowledge of the terrain, more important. </p>
<p>However, to guard against possible excesses and abuse, people in these structures must be properly trained, equipped and supervised. The way forward, then, is the development of grassroots policing, enriched by local personnel and intelligence. </p>
<p>The success of the <a href="https://www.unicef.org/press-releases/civilian-joint-task-force-northeast-nigeria-signs-action-plan-end-recruitment">Civilian Joint Task Force</a>, comprising local vigilantes and volunteer neighbourhood watchers, in combating the Boko Haram insurgency in the lower Lake Chad Basin shows the possible value of this sort of community policing.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/122776/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Chukwuma Al Okoli receives funding from Tertiary Education Trust Fund, Nigeria</span></em></p>Banditry in northern Nigeria is making an already precarious security situation in the region worse.Al Chukwuma Okoli, Senior Lecturer and Consultant-researcher, Department of Political Science, Federal University LafiaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1153952019-04-22T08:42:16Z2019-04-22T08:42:16ZWhat young Zambians have to say about making farming more attractive<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/269588/original/file-20190416-147499-q95twj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Young people view agriculture more positively than often assumed. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Africa has the youngest population of any continent – <a href="https://www.brookings.edu/blog/brookings-now/2019/01/18/charts-of-the-week-africas-changing-demographics/">60% are under age 25</a>. While this has evoked both hope and fear, it is clear that jobs are needed for the <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-africa-agriculture-tech/africa-bets-on-technology-to-lure-youth-to-farming-idUSKCN1MD1Y6">12 million people</a> entering the workforce every year. </p>
<p>Agriculture is <a href="http://blogs.worldbank.org/jobs/energy/africa-more-not-fewer-people-will-work-agriculture">best suited to provide a great many jobs</a> as it can <a href="http://www.fao.org/3/as290e/as290e.pdf">absorb</a> much labour, and because prospering farms trigger employment opportunities in the rest of the economy. But agriculture is <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0305750X14001727">often unattractive for the youth</a>. </p>
<p>To lure young people into farming, policymakers and development actors emphasise the need for modern technology, including <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-africa-agriculture-tech/africa-bets-on-technology-to-lure-youth-to-farming-idUSKCN1MD1Y6">agricultural mechanisation</a>. But surprisingly little is known about the opinion of young people in rural areas. Few have asked them what farming and rural areas need to look like to be more attractive.</p>
<p>I conducted a <a href="https://research4agrinnovation.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/ZEF_WP_171.pdf">study in Zambia</a> and asked people in rural areas aged between 12 and 20 what would make farming attractive for them. I used two research methods to explore their aspirations and perceptions: interviews as well as drawing exercises.</p>
<p>The results show that young people find more positive aspects in agriculture than often assumed and that the attractiveness of farming doesn’t only hinge on modern technologies. While some technologies are needed, having diverse and sustainable farms, a healthy environment and an attractive rural life is equally important. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/269616/original/file-20190416-147518-1x9t9kh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/269616/original/file-20190416-147518-1x9t9kh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=417&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/269616/original/file-20190416-147518-1x9t9kh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=417&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/269616/original/file-20190416-147518-1x9t9kh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=417&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/269616/original/file-20190416-147518-1x9t9kh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=523&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/269616/original/file-20190416-147518-1x9t9kh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=523&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/269616/original/file-20190416-147518-1x9t9kh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=523&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The ideal farm.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Provided by author</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>The findings</h2>
<p>Most of the people interviewed for the study were proud of the fact that they came from farming families that owned land and worked close to the nature. Ruth (15) expanded on this and said: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>We do not pay for maize, land, water and fruits such as mangoes. We have nutritious food. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>The respondents also commented on the attractiveness of the rural space. Asked where they want to live in the future, rural or urban, 53% preferred rural areas, because of their freedom and social networks. </p>
<p>In contrast, urban life was often perceived as bad, characterised by road accidents, pollution, Satanism, thieves and drunkards. According to Talunsa (15) people are “poisoned by alcohol and fight”. </p>
<p>Many also found farming unattractive, citing drudgery and weather dependence as reasons. They said they would rather aim for jobs with a regular salary such as teachers. Lozi (16) said: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>I want to work with the government. Then I’ll get paid monthly. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>Around half of the respondents preferred a future in urban areas rather than in rural areas. These respondents were “pulled” away from rural areas because they were attracted by the perceived positive sides of urban areas. But they were also “pushed” away from rural areas which they associate with a lot of challenges. These included the high labour burden and risks associated with farming. This is what some of the respondents said about these “push” factors:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>In the village, we always eat the same, beans and nshima, and we need to work hard.“ (Elina, 16)</p>
<p>In the village, you can be bewitched over small disputes and the fields are very small. I prefer to live in town.” (Jakob, 15).</p>
</blockquote>
<p>It’s important to note that the decision to reside either in a rural or urban area was rarely perceived as a lifetime decision. Respondents highlighted that one could work in town after harvest or for some years after school to save some money before returning to the village. </p>
<blockquote>
<p>Some of my friends want to go to town but others want to stay. Of the ones who went, many came back after some years. (Alik, 14)</p>
<p>I want to raise some money in town but then I want to move back to my village. I will bring a tractor with me and cultivate a lot of land. (Raimond, 17)</p>
</blockquote>
<h2>Making farming attractive</h2>
<p>So what does farming need to look like to be attractive? </p>
<p>The young people provided some direction on what they thought would make rural spaces more attractive. </p>
<p>The most important factors were:</p>
<ul>
<li><p>Modern technologies such as tractors and digital tools. But these shouldn’t be over emphasised. Low-tech solutions shouldn’t be neglected.</p></li>
<li><p>Non-material factors. Making agriculture attractive requires de-risking agriculture and promoting sustainable and diverse farms. These were clearly depicted in the drawings I’d asked the respondents to sketch of their ideal farm. The drawings typically showed highly diverse farms with trees, vegetables, fruits and animals. </p></li>
<li><p>Ensure healthy landscapes. Having a sustainable, pollution free environment was commonly mentioned as a key advantage of rural over urban life.</p></li>
<li><p>Rural areas must be <a href="http://gfpr.ifpri.info/?fbclid=IwAR3ZsgTg96WShUjLDf5mrTeP6F42-CTlDQdnQMSfaGoaeDLyYpTIIOL90QA">developed</a> in ways that go beyond just infrastructure. Social life and networks, which are still an asset in villages compared to cities, were also cited as important. This included networks of neighbours, relatives and friend and the communal celebration of traditions. </p></li>
</ul>
<h2>What next</h2>
<p>Policymakers often highlight the need for modern technologies – including information, communication and technology – when discussing rural development. </p>
<p>But the young respondents I spoke to emphasised more low-tech solutions such as increasing farm diversity, having water wells and using draught animals, which is already an advantage over manual labour.</p>
<p>This suggests that policymakers and development practitioners need to pay more attention to the actual aspirations of young people in rural areas to avoid well-intended but misguided policies. In addition, the findings suggest that there is a need for several policies to reflect several types of young people in rural areas.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/115395/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Thomas Daum receives funding from the “Program of Accompanying Research for Agricultural Innovation” (PARI), which is funded by the German Federal Ministry of Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ). </span></em></p>Agriculture is well placed to provide employment for millions across the African continent.Thomas Daum, Agricultural Economist, University of HohenheimLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1026182018-09-06T14:09:19Z2018-09-06T14:09:19ZWhy linking rural and urban areas matters for development: a Ghana case study<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/234992/original/file-20180905-45169-gksh4z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A bustling local market in Kumasi, Ghana.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Adam Kohn/Flickr</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/">CC BY-NC-ND</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>There’s rapid urbanisation happening across Africa. But the rural population hasn’t stopped growing. In fact, Africa is considered a rural continent – only 43% of its total population lives in <a href="https://esa.un.org/unpd/wup/Publications/Files/WUP2018-KeyFacts.pdf">cities and towns</a>. </p>
<p>Often policies focus on rural areas, or urban expansion. In fact the key issue for regional development is to take into account the relationships and <a href="https://read.oecd-ilibrary.org/development/urbanisation-dynamics-in-west-africa-1950-2010_9789264252233-en#page68">linkages</a> between the two. This includes the flow of people, information, goods and services between rural and urban areas. Vibrant local economies and regional growth depend on the inter dependency between local production in rural areas, the urban market and enterprises.</p>
<p>In our study we set out <a href="https://d-nb.info/1018127011/34">to discover</a> how these interconnections can promote local businesses in rural areas of the Ejisu-Juaben municipality outside Kumasi, Ghana’s second largest city. </p>
<p>We found that people living in rural areas were attempting to diversify their livelihoods through agro-processing, manufacturing and services. But poor infrastructure limited their ability to link to the urban centre. This in turn held back the area’s economic development.</p>
<p>Our study showed that the limited interaction between urban centres and rural areas was because of poor road conditions and networks, inadequate rural service centres, and poor investment in local markets. </p>
<p>This holds lessons for other countries across the continent. For example, for urbanisation to support regional development, intensive investment in quality transport infrastructure in rural areas is necessary. Diversifying and boosting investment in rural economies is also fundamental. </p>
<h2>Ghana’s development model</h2>
<p>Ghana has a <a href="https://online.liverpooluniversitypress.co.uk/doi/pdf/10.3828/idpr.27.1.4">district capital centred</a> development model. This combines a decentralised system of government with local government structures. </p>
<p>For the most part, the <a href="http://www.clgf.org.uk/default/assets/File/Country_profiles/Ghana.pdf">structure</a> is defined by one or a few urban centres and adjoining rural areas. </p>
<p>The system is anchored on the principle that there’s a symbiotic relationship between the district capital and surrounding rural areas. The two are supposed to reinforce each other to ensure local economic development. </p>
<p>In theory, this model applies to all the 254 metropolitan, municipal, and district assemblies in Ghana, including the Ejisu-Juaben municipality which is just 15km from Kumasi.</p>
<p>Ejisu functions as a major urban centre for other rural areas within the district.</p>
<p>As most of the district is rural, Ejisu is <a href="http://www.fesghana.org/uploads/PDF/DISTRICT%20ASSEMBLY_2nd%20Edition.pdf">expected</a> to stimulate local economic development throughout the surrounding rural areas. This is meant to happen in a number of ways. This includes providing social services, improving access to resources as well as markets, and creating non-farm employment. </p>
<h2>The primacy of economic linkages</h2>
<p>Our study showed that urban and rural communities in the area were connected through economic, social, cultural and political linkages.</p>
<p>Economic ties were established as the strongest and most significant. Nearly half of those living in surrounding rural areas accessed markets for their products in Ejisu’s town centre. Others transported their raw materials for processing and sought trade and investment opportunities in the town.</p>
<p>Social interactions to access social services and amenities such as hospitals and welfare centres were also common. </p>
<p>And several rural micro business owners travelled to Ejisu to interact with peers who were running related enterprises. The purpose of these visits was for peer learning, information on new products, technology and skills improvement. </p>
<p>By comparison, cultural and political interactions were much weaker. </p>
<p>Surprisingly, interactions with the municipal office in Ejisu weren’t considered very important for rural enterprise development. Rural respondents didn’t believe that political institutions would support rural business development. The exception was the decentralised office of the National Board for Small Scale Industries (NBSSI). Rural business owners reported receiving training and business improvement techniques from the institution.</p>
<p>Employees at the local government offices viewed the relationship very differently. They considered their activities as crucial to rural improvement and local economic development. </p>
<h2>Broken links</h2>
<p>Our findings show that the poor condition of roads, and the network with rural areas, dictated the extent of interactions between rural areas and urban centres.</p>
<p>But road transport – the main mode of transport between rural areas and urban centres – was deplorable.</p>
<p>Rural business owners listed high transport costs and accidents caused by the poor condition of the roads as their reasons for not taking up opportunities in Ejisu. </p>
<p>Other issues – such as lack of opportunities to partner with relatively bigger local businesses and limited investment in rural enterprises – also mitigated against effective interactions with the urban centre. </p>
<h2>The Way Forward</h2>
<p>Policy makers need to advance from <a href="http://www.ghanaiandiaspora.com/wp/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/ghana-national-urban-policy-action-plan-2012.pdf">recognition</a> to start planning for the interrelationship between urban and rural areas so that they can come up with practical, workable and locally embedded solutions. </p>
<p>First, intensive investment in quality transport infrastructure is a prerequisite to make sure these ties are strengthened to boost development.</p>
<p>Second, there is a need for investment in rural areas’ local economies. To achieve this, production and processing centres could be established to intensify the manufacturing and service sectors of the rural economy.</p>
<p>Thirdly, revamping the now defunct trade fairs could provide market opportunities for rural enterprises. This could also boost production and open up rural economies for local investment. </p>
<p>The current district capital centred development model should go further. It should invest in areas such as social infrastructure and service centres in small towns and rural areas. This would help to reduce dependency on a few district urban centres. It would also ensure that linkages thrive, and that development happens.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/102618/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Seth Asare Okyere is part of a collaborative research team that receives funding from the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS) for urban socio-spatial studies and action research in Accra, Ghana. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Matthew Abunyewah receives funding for his PhD in Disaster Management from the University of Newcastle International Postgraduate Research Scholarships since 2015. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Anastasia Amoako-Arhen does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Policymakers in Africa approach rural and urban development separately. This needs to change.Seth Asare Okyere, Assistant Professor, Division of Global Architecture, Graduate School of Engineering, Osaka UniversityAnastasia Amoako-Arhen, Graduate Researcher in Regional Planning, Faculty of Built Environment, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST)Matthew Abunyewah, Casual Academics and PhD Candidate, School of Architecture and Built Environment, University of NewcastleLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/975432018-06-17T10:01:39Z2018-06-17T10:01:39ZThe World Bank is finding new ways to understand South Africa’s issues<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/222956/original/file-20180613-32323-lbq8t3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The latest World Bank report on South Africa identifies land reform as critical factor of addressing the country's economic challenges.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">EPA/Kim Ludbrook</span></span></figcaption></figure><p><em>The latest World Bank <a href="http://www.worldbank.org/en/country/southafrica/publication/developing-an-inclusive-equal-south-africa">report on South Africa</a> is not only remarkable for the collaborative method it employed, but also for some of the conclusions it reached on issues like land redistribution.</em></p>
<p><em>The report, which includes contributions from a long list of external consultants including myself, the National Planning Commission
and Statistics South Africa, is the platform for further engagement between the World Bank and South Africa.</em></p>
<p><em>In the 1970s and 1980s, the World Bank earned a justifiably bad reputation for seeking to impose solutions cooked up in Washington DC. Now, the bank takes great care to work in partnership with the country to figure out solutions to economic challenges.</em></p>
<p><em>This approach seeks to identify the underlying systemic constraints and not just the symptoms such as unemployment. The bank set out to get to the root causes of what it calls the twin challenges of poverty and inequality which characterise South Africa as an “incomplete transition”.</em></p>
<p><em>Interestingly, the bank – hardly known for being radical – identifies the skewed distribution of land and productive assets as one of the five key constraints. The other four are skills, low competition and economic integration, limited or expensive spatial connectivity, and climate shocks.
I spoke to Paul Noumba Um, the World Bank’s country director for South Africa, about the report.</em></p>
<p><strong>Your views about land are interesting in coming when populist movements in South Africa are calling for radical solutions. What informed your view?</strong> </p>
<p>We have made a significant effort to understand South Africa’s history. Our report acknowledges that efforts to overcome the legacy of segregation and apartheid was bound to take a long time, even though much progress has been made. </p>
<p>The economic structure that was engineered during the apartheid era remains largely in place even though political power has been democratised. <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-south-africa-needs-fresh-ideas-to-make-land-reform-a-reality-60076">Land reform</a> is part of addressing this legacy and the government has long stated the goal of redistributing 30% of land to the dispossessed communities.</p>
<p>Admittedly, it has been a relatively slow process but this is not surprising given that it can be legally and administratively challenging process, especially when restituting land to South Africans whose families were dispossessed a very long time ago. We do not think that a lack of funds was a major reason for slow progress. </p>
<p>That’s why we argue for strengthening the administrative capacity for land reform, including restitution, redistribution and tenure reform. Our understanding is that tenure reform in the former homelands is particularly important for reducing poverty. Many poor South Africans live in their former homelands where land is still communal.</p>
<p><strong>There are concerns that the noises around the land issue will undermine property rights and investor confidence. What do you think?</strong></p>
<p>Many countries have successfully implemented land reform, in some cases with support from the World Bank.</p>
<p>Whether land reform deters investment depends on the way it is implemented. In our understanding, the South African land reform process has thus far not deterred investment. But policy uncertainty around expropriation without compensation could change this, as it makes it riskier to invest in land.</p>
<p>Our report also draws attention to the property security of poor South Africans. Many poor South Africans are still trapped in informal settlements and there is a huge backlog in issuing title deeds to households who were denied ownership during the apartheid era. Tenure security in the former homelands needs to be addressed. Addressing these tenure issues will unlock economic value for many households as they can make effective use of their assets, be it land for more productive agriculture or their homes for backyard rentals or starting a small business.</p>
<p><strong>The report brings climate shocks back into the mix. Are you concerned that in all the talk about radical economic transformation and rolling back “State Capture” climate change will be neglected?</strong></p>
<p>Not at all. The emphasis on overcoming the legacy of exclusion and rolling back “State Capture” is important. We think that the South African government is strongly committed to tackling climate change and reducing carbon emissions. In fact, the government is a pioneer in the area, of progressing toward introducing a national <a href="https://www.thesouthafrican.com/carbon-tax-sa-budget-speech-2018/">carbon tax</a>.</p>
<p><a href="https://probonomatters.co.za/2018/01/maimane-on-cape-town-drought-a-natural-disaster-of-immense-proportions/">Drought</a> in the southern part of the country has also been a stark reminder that South Africa is a highly water insecure country, particularly vulnerable to climate shocks. Strong efforts are underway, in some areas in partnership with the World Bank, to raise water and climate-resilience in South Africa.</p>
<p>Climate change is certainly an area that is not neglected. Recent developments around renewable energy is inspiring. These include the <a href="https://www.huffingtonpost.co.za/2018/04/04/r56bn-contract-a-milestone-for-renewable-energy-independent-power-producers-in-sa-radebe_a_23403384/">signing</a> of 27 renewable energy independent power producer contracts. And there was the launch of round five of renewable energy independent power producer contracts.</p>
<p><strong>Why is partnership with your host government important to you, and what exactly does that partnership entail?</strong></p>
<p>The World Bank is made up of 189 member states, including South Africa. These member states gave the World Bank Group the <a href="http://www.worldbank.org/en/events/2017/03/21/ending-poverty-the-road-to-2030">mission</a> to eliminate poverty by 2030 and boost shared prosperity. These twin goals cannot be achieved unilaterally. They require a strong partnership between the government, the World Bank and many other stakeholders.</p>
<p>The better we understand the challenges to the twin goals, the more constructive a partner we can be. That’s why we conduct these <a href="https://openknowledge.worldbank.org/handle/10986/23099?locale-attribute=en">Systematic Country Diagnostics</a> before preparing any new country strategies.</p>
<p>The five constraints we identified in our diagnostic have come out of broad consultations. What may surprise South Africans is what we consider to be root causes versus symptoms of poverty and inequality in South Africa. This is a discussion we seek with South Africans, but it is not up to us to decide how South Africa decides to accelerate progress on its <a href="https://nationalplanningcommission.wordpress.com/the-national-development-plan/">National Development Plan</a>. </p>
<p>But depending on where our partnership is sought, we stand ready to support South Africa in this progress through a variety of development solutions: evidence based analytical work, convening power around specific themes and financing.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/97543/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Richard Calland is a Founding Partner of political analysis consultancy, The Paternoster Group, a member of the Advisory Council of the Council for the Advancement of the South African Constitution, a member of the Board of Directors of the Open Democracy Advice Centre and an international associate of Michel International Relations and Services. </span></em></p>The latest World Bank report on South Africa addresses solutions to the country’s economic challenges.Richard Calland, Associate Professor in Public Law, University of Cape TownLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/939582018-04-04T16:25:35Z2018-04-04T16:25:35ZWhy giving South Africa’s chiefs more power adds to land dispossession<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/212153/original/file-20180327-109169-3onbmt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Chief Nyalala Pilane of Bakgatla-ba-Kgafela has been accused of corruption regarding mining royalties.
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">The Star/Simphiwe Mbokaz</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Power over rural land has become more and more concentrated in the hands of local chiefs in <a href="https://www.wits.ac.za/media/newsmigration/files/SWOP%20%20WP%20%20Bakgatla%20%20Mnwana%20and%20Capps.pdf">post-apartheid South Africa</a>. </p>
<p>This is particularly so in areas that are earmarked for mining. </p>
<p>I have spent more than a decade studying the multiple impacts of platinum mining on rural communities in the North West and Limpopo provinces. The <a href="https://www.wits.ac.za/media/news-migration/files/SWOP%20%20WP%20%20Bakgatla%20%20Mnwana%20and%20Capps.pdf">research</a> has revealed widespread grassroots discontent, significant resistance to mining expansion and to local chiefs, and mounting exclusive group claims over the platinum-rich land. </p>
<p>This matters because mining affects the livelihoods of millions of South Africans. That South Africa holds unparalleled reserves of <a href="https://www.projectsiq.co.za/platinum-mining-in-south-africa.htm">platinum group metals reserves</a> is well known. </p>
<p>But platinum hasn’t been an economic saviour for the ordinary residents in the mine villages who face grim living conditions. Most are characterised by extreme poverty, severe inequalities and <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2214790X15000866">high unemployment</a>.</p>
<p>This is even though some of these communities have been recipients of substantial mining revenues. But these are controlled and distributed by local traditional authorities, known as chiefs, who have positioned themselves as custodians of rural land and mineral resources. They have done so in collusion with the state and mining companies.</p>
<p>This is not as it should be. Distributive power over land doesn’t rest exclusively with chiefs. There are multiple layers of power that rests in different social units, families (and individuals within them). Most importantly, chiefs have never had powers to alienate land rights from ordinary residents.</p>
<p>African land rights are acquired through membership to a group – a productive and social unit such as a <a href="http://www.jstor.org/stable/pdf/1160760.pdf?refreqid=excelsior%3A6b37ecef31c5703ee6705db597e074fb">family or clan</a>.</p>
<p>Once allocated, land rights were passed from one generation to the next. It is at the level of this unit that, by and large, decisions about distribution of such rights were taken in <a href="http://www.jstor.org/stable/pdf/1160760.pdf?refreqid=excelsior%3A6b37ecef31c5703ee6705db597e074fb">precolonial times</a>.</p>
<h2>The law and chiefs</h2>
<p>The post-1994 African National Congress (ANC) government at first vacillated about defining and codifying the powers and status of chiefs. But it eventually passed legislation that significantly increased the powers of chiefs in rural local governance. </p>
<p>The main piece of legislation that did this was the Traditional Leadership and Governance Framework <a href="http://www.cogta.gov.za/cgta_2016/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/TLGFA-Traditional-Leadership-and-Governance-Framework-Act-2003-Act-No-41-of-2003.pdf">Act of 2003</a>. It reenacts traditional (“tribal”) authorities to preside over precisely the same geographic areas that were defined by the apartheid government. But there’s ambiguity around what the powers the act actually gives chiefs. It has been interpreted as giving them and their traditional councils powers over the administration and control of communal land and natural resources, economic development, health, and welfare, and to <a href="https://journals.assaf.org.za/sacq/article/view/1204">administer justice</a>.</p>
<p>In fact the law doesn’t directly grant chiefs power and control over communal land and landed resources. But it’s been interpreted that way. </p>
<p>The case of the chiefs’ control over mining revenues on the platinum belt epitomises the contradiction.</p>
<h2>Chiefs gain the upper hand</h2>
<p>Over the last 30 years a new trend began to evolve. Local chiefs began to enter into deals with mining companies on behalf of rural communities on the platinum belt. Chiefs, as assumed custodians of communal resources, became mediators of mineral-led development and mining deals.</p>
<p>This trend can be traced back to the <a href="http://www.bafokeng.com/past/story">Bafokeng</a> community’s momentous court victory over <a href="http://newafricanmagazine.com/bafokeng-africas-richest-ethnic-group/2/">mining royalties</a> in the 1999. The Bafokeng chieftaincy secured enormous mineral royalties – ostensibly on behalf of the entire community. </p>
<p>Such a victory ushered this rural community, which some have labelled <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/0305707032000060598">“the richest tribe in Africa”</a>, into a new era of platinum revenues and corporate assets worth billions of rand. </p>
<p>Several rural communities on platinum rich land in the North West and Limpopo provinces have followed the Bafokeng example.</p>
<p>But these developments haven’t been without problems. The mediation and control of mining revenues by local chiefs has generated significant tensions and conflict in the villages that host vast mining operations. </p>
<p>Lack of transparency and accountability, plus <a href="https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2018-02-01-stealing-the-crust-how-the-baktatla-ba-kgafela-were-robbed-of-their-inheritance/#.WrSPaHVOLIU">serious allegations of corruption</a> have been levelled against chiefs. For instance, Kgosi (chief) Nyalala Pilane of the Bakgatla-ba-Kgafela community – perhaps even more than any other chief in South Africa – has been the subject of a litany of maladministration and <a href="https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2018-02-01-stealing-the-crust-how-the-baktatla-ba-kgafela-were-robbed-of-their-inheritance/#.WrSPaHVOLIU">corruption allegations</a>. </p>
<p>The combined value of the assets of the largely SeTswana-speaking Bakgatla community, who reside in 32 impoverished villages scattered all over the north eastern foothills of the Pilanesburg Mountains, are estimated at <a href="https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2018-02-01-stealing-the-crust-how-the-baktatla-ba-kgafela-were-robbed-of-their-inheritance/#.WrkKuy5ubIU">R25 billion </a>. Yet the members of the community have yet to realise the benefits.</p>
<p>Mining expansion has also produced significant resistance to Kgosi Pilane’s control over land. Groups of villagers have made strong claims over some of the mineral rich farms, where some of the largest mining operations are situated. They assert that these farms were bought by their forefathers as private property and so never should have been designated <a href="https://www.wits.ac.za/media/news-migration/files/SWOP%20%20WP%20%20Bakgatla%20%20Mnwana%20and%20Capps.pdf">“tribal” land</a>. </p>
<p>Many of these land disputes have been fought in the <a href="http://www.saflii.org/za/cases/ZACC/2015/25.html">courts</a>. So far, the chief has been able to hire top lawyers. He has successfully interdicted and pressed charges against activists who have called him to account.</p>
<h2>Resistance</h2>
<p>The assumption that chiefs are custodians of rural land and mineral wealth – and as such can distribute and alienate land rights and sign complex mining deals on behalf of rural residents – has no precolonial precedent. It’s no surprise that ordinary people are resisting chiefly power over their property. </p>
<p>It’s even more crucial to closely examine and understand the character of power over land and landed resources as rural land increasingly becomes a target for large scale resource extraction. What needs attention is how ordinary rural residents articulate what leading land academic Ben Cousins calls the <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/j.1471-0366.2007.00147.x">“socially legitimate”</a> and historical <a href="http://www.jstor.org/stable/pdf/1160760.pdf?refreqid=excelsior:89d030e2faa25%E2%80%8Bhttp://www.jstor.org/stable/pdf/1160760.pdf?refreqid=excelsior:89d030e2faa25e132d6b673c005b6d2de132d6b673c005b6d2d">“processes through which power over land is conferred”</a> to different groups and individuals. </p>
<p>There is an urgent need to examine how Africans historically accessed, shared, controlled, distributed and defended their rights to land. These customary processes must be used to guide the recording of land rights, consultation and compensation before mining can begin. </p>
<p>Any attempt to legally empower the rural poor by securing their land rights should begin with a full understanding of these processes. Centralising this power in the hands of chiefs is another form of dispossession.</p>
<p><em>This article is <a href="https://theconversation.com/africa/topics/africa-land-reform-38700">part of a series</a> on land reform in Africa.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/93958/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Sonwabile Mnwana receives funding from the Open Society Foundation, South Africa and the Ford Foundation. He is affiliated with the Society, Work and Development Institute, University of the Witwatersrand. </span></em></p>Some communities on South Africa’s Platinum Belt have received substantial mining revenues, but these are controlled by chiefs.Sonwabile Mnwana, Associate Professor, Sociology, University of Fort HareLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/930782018-03-08T14:17:27Z2018-03-08T14:17:27ZSouth Africa’s land debate is clouded by misrepresentation and lack of data<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/209506/original/file-20180308-30972-sg1tao.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Harvest season on a wine farm in Stellenbosch, South Africa. The country is struggling with land redistribution.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>South Africa’s parliament has passed a <a href="https://www.news24.com/SouthAfrica/News/breaking-national-assembly-adopts-motion-on-land-expropriation-without-compensation-20180227">resolution</a> to amend the constitution and allow expropriation without compensation. The decision has generated a storm of gigantic proportions as political parties, citizens, white farmers and commentators anticipate either the moment of salvation (‘real land reform at last!’) or disaster (‘the collapse of the market economy!’).</p>
<p>Sadly, few contributions to the public debate are informed by the available evidence. And poorly informed commentators often misrepresent the issues. Compounding this is a serious problem – the absence of reliable national data on many aspects of the land issue.</p>
<p>Land policy, at the centre of the storm, is flailing around in the dark. South Africa’s land policy is based on three main pillars: restitution, redistribution and tenure reform. </p>
<p>Restitution involves people claiming back land taken away from them after June 1913, or compensation for their loss. Land redistribution involves acquiring and transferring land from white farmers to black farmers, for a variety of purposes, including farming and settlement. Tenure reform aims to secure the land rights of those whose rights are insecure as a result of past discrimination. </p>
<p>Land reform has been <a href="https://www.parliament.gov.za/storage/app/media/Pages/2017/october/High_Level_Panel/HLP_Report/HLP_report.pdf">slow</a>, with government reporting that, so far, around 9% of commercial farmland has been transferred through restitution and redistribution. Tenure reform has been remarkably ineffective, with many poor people as insecure as they ever were. </p>
<p>But, in reality, there is only the haziest of understandings of how well or how badly land reform is doing, and why. </p>
<p>The woeful record keeping of national and local government departments is partly to blame. But they are not the sole culprits. The last census of commercial farming conducted in 2007 underestimates the true numbers of farm owners as it only reports on farms that are registered for VAT – currently those with a minimum turnover of R1 million. And StatsSA agricultural reports don’t distinguish farms by size or value of output. Also, official survey data on smallholder farming are also thin and even less useful. </p>
<p>In general, the lack of accurate information on land reform and the rural economy allows much of the public debate to be misinformed, and is a serious constraint on policy making.</p>
<h2>Data deficit</h2>
<p>Nobody knows precisely how much agricultural land has been privately purchased by black farmers and how much has been acquired via land reform.</p>
<p>Consider two national land audits released in recent months, one by the agricultural lobby group <a href="https://www.agrisa.co.za/">AgriSA</a> and the other by government. Both are based on analysis of information derived from title deeds in the national registry. </p>
<p>The <a href="https://www.agrisa.co.za/land-audit-transactions-approach/">AgriSA</a> land audit of 2017 argues that the initial target of transferring 30% of agricultural land via land reform is close to being met. It concludes that the market is much more effective at transferring land than the state.</p>
<p>But the market is not redistributing land to black people to the extent AgriSA claims. Its methodology and most of its conclusions are fundamentally flawed. For example, much of the 4.3 million hectares of land it says were acquired through private purchases by previously disadvantaged individuals includes transfers of land as a result of land reform. In these cases, government has provided funds and served as an intermediary in the transaction. So they were not private transactions. </p>
<p>Government’s latest <a href="http://www.ruraldevelopment.gov.za/publications/land-audit-report/file/6126">land audit</a> is also not particularly useful. It provides some evidence of continuing patterns of racial inequality in land ownership. But it can’t identify the racial, gender and national identity of the 320 000 companies, trust and community based organisations that own 61% of all privately owned land.</p>
<p>Neither of these audits is able to identify zones of need and opportunity for land reform. Information of this kind, crucial for well planned redistribution, simply doesn’t exist.</p>
<p>There is almost zero information on how many people have actually benefited from land reform, patterns of land use after transfer, and levels of production and income. </p>
<p>A few reports on these issues have been published, but they aren’t a substitute for systematic data collection. Similarly, case studies by academics can’t serve the wider purposes of guiding planning for land reform at scale.</p>
<p>In relation to deeds registry data, there are vast discrepancies between official records for black land owners, both rural and urban, and realities on the ground. In our 2017 <a href="http://ukznpress.bookslive.co.za/blog/2017/06/19/book-launch-untitled-securing-land-tenure-in-urban-and-rural-south-africa/">book</a>, ‘Untitled. Securing land tenure in urban and rural South Africa’, we estimate that close to 60% of all South Africans hold land or housing outside the formal system, and the deeds registry can tell us little or nothing about these realities.</p>
<h2>Debunking myths</h2>
<p>Official data, although inadequate, does allow common misrepresentations of land reform to be refuted. For example, one widely held view is that the great majority of land restitution claimants have chosen cash compensation rather than restoration of their land. This is nonsense.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.parliament.gov.za/storage/app/media/Pages/2017/october/High_Level_Panel/HLP_Report/HLP_report.pdf">Around 87%</a> of land claims lodged by the cutoff date in 1998 were to urban properties, and in most cases claimants were offered (and accepted) a standard cash settlement, because restoration was clearly impracticable. But the great majority of rural claims, involving a great many more people since most are group claims, have opted for restoration.</p>
<p>Another misconception is that land reform can involve the redistribution of state owned land. The reality is that most state land in rural areas comprises densely settled communal land which obviously isn’t available for redistribution. The recent government land audit confirms this, and shows that state land comprises only 18% of the total.</p>
<p>In urban areas, however, state owned land can be used for low cost housing if it is in appropriate locations close to economic opportunities. </p>
<p>The single most misleading ‘fact’ endlessly repeated in the media is <a href="http://business.iafrica.com/news/2519343.htmlink">the assertion</a> by former minister Gugile Nkwinti that 90% of land reform projects have failed. This has no foundation in any research evidence – a fact that he himself later admitted. </p>
<p>Empirical evidence suggests that around <a href="http://www.plaas.org.za/sites/default/files/publications-pdf/No4%20Fact%20check%20web.pdf">50% of the projects</a> have improved the livelihoods of beneficiaries to a degree. </p>
<p>This is not to say that these land reform projects have been highly productive. The real potential of rural land reform and agricultural development, as well as urban land reform, to reduce poverty and inequality has not been realised in South Africa to date.</p>
<h2>Solutions</h2>
<p>How to acquire and transfer land, the focus of much current debate, is the least difficult aspect of land reform. It simply requires increasing the tiny budget and paying just and equitable compensation in line with the constitution.</p>
<p>Larger challenges involve targeting beneficiaries, identifying well located land, ensuring that water is reallocated along with land, effective district based planning, and enabling small scale economic activity in both rural and urban spaces. </p>
<p>And new legislation that secures the rights of people in the social tenures found in communal areas, farm dweller communities and informal settlements is also an urgent requirement.</p>
<p>Much of the current commentary on land policy is ill informed and fails to identify these challenges. More important, the lack of robust official data on land and agriculture is a key problem that must surely be high on the agenda of the new president.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/93078/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Ben Cousins holds a DST/NRF Research Chair in Poverty, Land and Agrarian Studies at the University of the Western Cape</span></em></p>South Africa’s land policy is flailing around in the dark, with the haziest of understandings of how well or how badly land reform is doing.Ben Cousins, Professor, Poverty, Land and Agrarian Studies, University of the Western CapeLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/910182018-02-26T13:40:39Z2018-02-26T13:40:39ZHow electricity changes lives: a Rwandan case study<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/207075/original/file-20180220-116343-vuti6v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Men transporting a large bag in the Muvumba river valley in Kigali. A massive Rwandan electrification programme sets out to benefit rural communities.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>More than 1.1 billion people in developing countries lack access to electricity. Some <a href="http://reg.rw/index.php/our-business/generation/465-current-electricity-generation-Status">590 million</a> live in Africa, where the rural electrification rate is particularly low at only 14%.</p>
<p>A lack of access to electricity hampers development. It affects everything from people’s ability to learn to the creation of enterprises and the provision of public services like health care. This lies behind the United Nation’s <a href="http://www.un.org/millenniumgoals/pdf/SEFA.pdf">goal</a> of countries achieving universal access to electricity by 2030.</p>
<p>But the investment requirements to meet this goal are enormous. According to the <a href="https://www.iea.org/publications/freepublications/publication/WEO2011_WEB.pdf">International Energy Agency</a> investments worth $640 billion will be needed if the UN goal is going to be met. About $19 billion is required every year in sub-Saharan Africa alone. </p>
<p>In spite of the importance of electrification, little evaluation has been done on the socioeconomic impact of investments into providing power. We set about plugging this gap in our <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0305750X16304387">paper</a> that focuses on Rwanda. We looked at the effects of electrification on households, firms, health centres and schools in rural areas. </p>
<p>Rwanda has <a href="http://web.worldbank.org/archive/website01542/WEB/IMAGES/IDA_RWAN.PDF">implemented</a> one of the most comprehensive electrification programmes in the world. In 2009 only 6% of Rwandans had access to electricity. The government’s aim is to lift this <a href="https://www.esi-africa.com/rwanda-energy-group-confident-meet-70-electricity-connectivity-target/">to 70%</a> by 2018. </p>
<p>We studied the connection behaviour and electricity consumption patterns of households and looked at socioeconomic outcomes – such as education, income and health. We also explored the effects of electrification on the uptake of appliances as well as on rural firms and on health centres.</p>
<p>We found that electrification had wide-ranging effects on the living conditions of households whose daily lives were made easier on a range of fronts. We also found that the supply of power had some positive effects on certain businesses and clinics. Overall, our research confirms the importance of electrification has for the rural poor. </p>
<p>Yet, in our final analysis we had two major reservations. The first was that the provision of electricity hadn’t significantly improved the economic lives of people – which is often used to justify the massive costs involved in expanding the grid to all areas of the country. </p>
<p>The second insight was that, given people’s very low levels of consumption (households consume on average around 2 kWh per month per person which is less than 6% of the electricity an average US-American consumes per day), it would make much more sense to extend electricity coverage by promoting off-grid solutions such as solar. This would lead to governments and citizens getting much more bang for their buck.</p>
<p>These reservations aside, our research showed how electricity in the home changes lives, sometimes in the most unexpected ways.</p>
<h2>Impact on household level</h2>
<p>Among the households we studied we found that lighting consumption had more than tripled among connected households around two years after connecting to the electricity grid.</p>
<p>We also found that having electric lighting yielded significant benefits for households who have done away with torches, wick and hurricane lamps. For example, kids’ study time at home increased by between 19 and 44 minutes after nightfall, although the total time children study did not increase. The reason is that children shift their study time from daytime to nighttime, which nonetheless is an important indication for increased flexibility. </p>
<p>Electricity also had an impact on access to information. The most frequently bought electrical appliances after connection were TVs, radios and mobile phones.</p>
<p>Another major effect of electrification was that it significantly reduced expenditures on energy. The average amount that connected households spent on grid electricity was 1,500 FRW (about $2) per month after they had replaced traditional energy sources like kerosene and batteries. And they no longer needed to spend money on charging their mobile phones outside their homes. In total, they reduced expenditures on energy by around $2.50, which is an equivalent of about 4% of their total monthly expenditure.</p>
<h2>Impacts on enterprises and health centres</h2>
<p>Another major impact was that it extended people’s average waking hours by nearly an hour. We found that people were awake for 50 minutes per day more on average because they had better access to lighting and entertainment devices.</p>
<p>People didn’t necessarily use this additional time to pursue income generating activities. In fact, we didn’t find that electrification affected how people, many of whom were farmers, generated income. </p>
<p>We found that it had only a tiny effect on micro enterprises like mills, hairdressers, copy shops and welding shops. Mills were the main beneficiaries of being connected to the grid. Most switched from diesel engines to electricity. And new mills emerged because input costs were dramatically reduced and productivity increased.</p>
<p>Hairdressing shops also benefited for cost and convenience reasons. They used electricity for razors, phone charging services and radio or TV to entertain. Before grid electricity they had used power sources such as car batteries which were expensive and cost a lot to run. </p>
<p>Small kiosks, bars and restaurants mostly used electricity for lighting and in a few cases for radio, TV or refrigeration. Electricity meant that they were more attractive to customers.</p>
<p>Overall, we observed only a slight increase in business activities in connected communities. Some enterprises emerged while existing operations marginally extended their operating hours or their range of products and services.</p>
<p>In the case of health centres, those that had been connected to the grid said their work had improved. According to answers to an open question, the main use of grid electricity was for lighting (100%), followed by use for medical machines (79%) and for administrative tasks (43%). Nearly 30% cited medicine storage and sterilising.</p>
<p>The most important benefit was that it reduced costs. Centres that weren’t connected paid three times more for power because they used diesel. </p>
<h2>A mixed solution</h2>
<p>Our research showed that electricity is highly appreciated by rural communities in Rwanda, often leading to cost reductions and increases in convenience. But it does not significantly transform economic activities and income generation in rural areas. </p>
<p>The fact that electricity consumption levels are generally very low raises the political question of whether the high investment cost of on-grid electrification is justified compared to the lower cost of off-grid solutions. Especially the cost of off-grid solar technologies have decreased considerably in recent years and, while their performance is obviously lower, they still <a href="https://academic.oup.com/wber/article/31/3/631/2433616">improve the living conditions quite substantially</a>.</p>
<p>These observations suggest that instead of rolling out the grid to every rural village, on-grid investments could be concentrated in certain thriving rural regions with high business potential to create industrial zones where firms could relocate to. Off-grid solar could serve as a bridging technology for the majority of rural areas, potentially accompanied by subsidies to ensure access for the poor who cannot afford paying <a href="http://www.rwi-essen.de/media/content/pages/publikationen/ruhr-economic-papers/rep_18_745.pdf">cost covering prices</a>. Such an integrated on-grid-off-grid strategy would enable industrial development and at the same time achieve broad access to electricity at relatively low cost.</p>
<p><em>Dr Maximiliane Sievert from <a href="http://en.rwi-essen.de/das-rwi/">RWI - Leibniz Institute for Economic Research</a> coauthored this article.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/91018/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jörg Peters does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>A massive rural on-grid electrification programme in Rwanda has delivered considerable benefits. But is it the most sensible way to deliver power to remote areas?Jörg Peters, Professor, University of PassauLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/883982018-01-14T19:03:42Z2018-01-14T19:03:42ZWhen a country’s towns and villages face extinction<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/201447/original/file-20180110-36031-1ajjfj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=7%2C574%2C5044%2C2871&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">In Nagoro, in Tokushima Prefecture, one resident has made around 300 dolls to replace villagers who are no longer around.
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/robertomaxwell/17154974869/in/photolist-s8VJmM-YcLpHH-Y9cnfw-rthhud-oNBEuA-Y9d4Dh-C7SZzU-s8NMbC-s8QwdP-ow9GxP-oNnyjX-ow9FfS-so7mX5-oLBCB3-YQ7z6b-Y9cjMW-Y9dxkj-ruYUH-YcNcTB-rtCK2F-rtughi-N2wXpD-Ah19uJ-znpuS6-Zb99CG-ow8XKM-ZdXhGR-ZdXXZP-Z9GZVS-owa4Rw-C7TeXG-Y9cdbQ-YQ7Ksd-Z9HeRN-Y9cku7-YQ8vT7-Y9d26S-YcLoBp-so2QTL-sqqsbZ-rNv3KW-nAQxf1-nyMGMs-s6Xd2e-sqooSt-qtk6zz-s8GCES-njkTGR-s8HoDf-rMrfUu">Roberto Maxwell/flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/">CC BY-NC-SA</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>It is predicted that 896 towns and villages across Japan will no longer be viable by 2040 (see map below or an interactive Japanese version <a href="https://www.nikkei.com/edit/interactive/population2014/map.html">here</a>). A former minister for internal affairs, Hiroya Masuda, <a href="https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2015/05/16/national/social-issues/japan-becoming-extinct/#.WlHK_iOB3aZ">describes this as “local extinction”</a>. </p>
<p>Visiting some of these towns and villages today is reminiscent of Alfonso Cuarón’s brilliantly observant movie <a href="https://www.sbs.com.au/movies/article/2017/11/27/why-children-men-most-relevant-film-2017">Children of Men</a>. The film is set in 2027, two decades after humanity has lost the ability to reproduce. Schools are dilapidated and their playgrounds forever quiet. Houses are empty and in disrepair.</p>
<p>While the situation in Japan is not as bleak (yet), Masuda notes that birthrates have fallen since the 1970s and currently stand at 1.4 children per family. The most <a href="http://www.ipss.go.jp/pp-zenkoku/e/zenkoku_e2017/pp_zenkoku2017e_gaiyou.html#e_zenkoku_II_A-1">recent projections</a> indicate that the population will shrink by 27 million between 2015 and 2053. That’s equivalent to the entire population of Australia vanishing.</p>
<hr>
<p><em><strong>Further reading:</strong> <a href="https://theconversation.com/australia-doesnt-have-a-population-policy-why-78183">Australia doesn’t have a population policy – why?</a></em></p>
<hr>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/201448/original/file-20180110-36009-1sq50t2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/201448/original/file-20180110-36009-1sq50t2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/201448/original/file-20180110-36009-1sq50t2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/201448/original/file-20180110-36009-1sq50t2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/201448/original/file-20180110-36009-1sq50t2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/201448/original/file-20180110-36009-1sq50t2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/201448/original/file-20180110-36009-1sq50t2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/201448/original/file-20180110-36009-1sq50t2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">In a simplified version of a map published by Hiroya Masuda in 2014, localities shown in red are predicted to become extinct by 2040.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://guzome.com/9679/日本地図-白地図-フリー-エクセル.html">guzome.com</a>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Masuda <a href="http://www.japanpolicyforum.jp/archives/politics/pt20140120152454.html">concluded</a> that municipalities experiencing a 50% decline in their young female population (aged 20-39) are most likely to go extinct.</p>
<p>At the same time, Japan is ageing rapidly. The over-65s are <a href="http://www.ipss.go.jp/pp-zenkoku/e/zenkoku_e2017/pp_zenkoku2017e_gaiyou.html#e_zenkoku_II_A-1">estimated</a> to rise from 26.6% of the population in 2015 to 38.4% in 2065. The population age imbalances are particularly acute in rural Japan, compounded by the young migrating to big cities.</p>
<h2>What does decline look like?</h2>
<p>Japan is viewed around the globe as a cool, vibrant and extraordinary place. It attracts <a href="https://www.tourism.jp/en/tourism-database/stats/">more than 24 million tourists each year</a>, many of whom visit Tokyo, Osaka or Kyoto and then travel via bullet train to other major cities. This urban core is the centre of population, economic and cultural activity, and it is all that most tourists see.</p>
<p>Only when you travel to rural Japan do the impacts of population decline become apparent. Last year, I spent time in two rural prefectures.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/201449/original/file-20180110-36040-fwxi4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/201449/original/file-20180110-36040-fwxi4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/201449/original/file-20180110-36040-fwxi4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=337&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/201449/original/file-20180110-36040-fwxi4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=337&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/201449/original/file-20180110-36040-fwxi4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=337&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/201449/original/file-20180110-36040-fwxi4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/201449/original/file-20180110-36040-fwxi4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/201449/original/file-20180110-36040-fwxi4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">An abandoned farm just outside Tsuwano in Shimane Prefecture.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Brendan Barrett</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In July I visited the small town of Tsuwano in Shimane Prefecture. According to Masuda’s projections, Tsuwano will experience a 75% drop in the number of young women and its population will more than halve to 3,451 in 2040 (down from 7,500 today). In October, I visited Tokushima Prefecture in Shikoku, where the picture is very similar for most towns and villages. </p>
<p>In both locations, I came across many abandoned farms and houses. Nationally, it is estimated that unclaimed land will reach <a href="https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2017/10/26/national/unclaimed-land-cost-japan-%C2%A56-trillion-extend-90-size-hokkaido-2040/#.WjcS5CNL1TY">7.2 million hectares in 2040</a> (almost the size of Hokkaido and bigger than Tasmania), with a value of close to ¥6 trillion (A$7 trillion).</p>
<p>Japan’s inheritance laws are partly to blame for this situation and also explain why <a href="http://www.fujitsu.com/jp/group/fri/en/column/message/2015/2015-06-30.html">8.2 million homes</a> are vacant across the country. Fixed asset taxes on empty lots are six times higher, so it makes sense not to demolish old houses or farmsteads.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/201450/original/file-20180110-36022-152hd4a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/201450/original/file-20180110-36022-152hd4a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/201450/original/file-20180110-36022-152hd4a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=337&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/201450/original/file-20180110-36022-152hd4a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=337&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/201450/original/file-20180110-36022-152hd4a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=337&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/201450/original/file-20180110-36022-152hd4a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/201450/original/file-20180110-36022-152hd4a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/201450/original/file-20180110-36022-152hd4a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A boarded-up house in Tokushima Prefecture.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Brendan Barrett</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Dealing with decline</h2>
<p>Everyone in Japan is aware of the challenges posed by a rapidly ageing, declining population with low birth rates. The media cover these concerns extensively.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/201451/original/file-20180110-36043-ycmtnl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/201451/original/file-20180110-36043-ycmtnl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/201451/original/file-20180110-36043-ycmtnl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/201451/original/file-20180110-36043-ycmtnl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/201451/original/file-20180110-36043-ycmtnl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/201451/original/file-20180110-36043-ycmtnl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=504&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/201451/original/file-20180110-36043-ycmtnl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=504&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/201451/original/file-20180110-36043-ycmtnl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=504&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">TV
presenters discuss the extinction of towns and cities.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Brendan Barrett</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Local governments have been trying to encourage people to move back to rural areas by providing work opportunities and sharing details of vacant houses.</p>
<p>This internal migration is known as “U-turn” or “I-turn”. The former describes someone returning to their hometown, while the latter refers to a person who decides to quit big city life.</p>
<p>Relocating to a small rural community, however, can be challenging. Villages and towns are close-knit communities and the returnee is expected to comply with local norms.</p>
<p>The Japanese have an expression, <em>Gō ni ireba gō ni shitagae</em>, which is equivalent to “When in Rome do as the Romans do”. Failure to do so can result in the returnee being, to use an English idiom, “sent to Coventry”. The Japanese term is <em>mura hachibu</em>, and it means you will be ignored and excluded.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/201452/original/file-20180110-36037-kq0rvd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/201452/original/file-20180110-36037-kq0rvd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/201452/original/file-20180110-36037-kq0rvd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/201452/original/file-20180110-36037-kq0rvd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/201452/original/file-20180110-36037-kq0rvd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/201452/original/file-20180110-36037-kq0rvd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=504&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/201452/original/file-20180110-36037-kq0rvd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=504&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/201452/original/file-20180110-36037-kq0rvd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=504&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A morning TV show provides examples of ‘U-turners’ who have been ‘sent to Coventry’ by their rural neighbours for not trying harder to fit in.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Brendan Barrett</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>More radical responses needed</h2>
<p>There are no simple answers to these challenges. The Japanese government has been very active but past policies have tended to focus on infrastructure development and construction of public facilities (roads, dams, town halls, libraries, museums, sport facilities), rather than on the economic needs and welfare of local people.</p>
<p>In this context, Masuda calls for a radical new approach with three core goals. </p>
<ol>
<li><p>Comprehensive measures are needed to help maintain existing populations in rural areas (through marriage, pregnancy, childbirth and childcare).</p></li>
<li><p>Measures should be implemented to promote population redistribution and reduce migration to big cities.</p></li>
<li><p>Policies should be introduced to enhance human resources and local skills. This includes immigration of highly trained individuals from overseas, which is <a href="https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2015/11/25/national/politics-diplomacy/japans-immigration-policy-rift-widens-population-decline-forces-need-foreign-workers/#.WlHQkSOB3aY">controversial</a>.</p></li>
</ol>
<hr>
<p><em><strong>Further reading:</strong> <a href="https://theconversation.com/migrants-are-stopping-regional-areas-from-shrinking-80740">Migrants are stopping regional areas from shrinking</a></em></p>
<hr>
<p>While lots of ongoing initiatives aim to attract young people back to rural areas, the biggest concern is one of livelihoods as long-term job prospects are limited. Yuusuke Kakei covers this topic in his 2015 book <a href="http://issueplusdesign.jp">Population Decline x Design</a>, presenting proposals for new local economic activity that puts women, creativity and community at the centre. To this we should add what Joseph Coughlin describes as “<a href="https://arstechnica.com/science/2017/12/do-we-need-a-tech-boom-for-the-elderly/">The Longevity Economy</a>” to respond to the economic and technology needs of an ageing population.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.nhk.or.jp/kokusaihoudou/catch/archive/2017/02/0213.html">Interest in the notion of the universal basic income</a> has also surged recently in Japan. Some commentators argue that it could play a significant role in revitalising Japan and in making rural life more attractive to young Japanese by providing them with long-term financial security.</p>
<p>One major challenge for local economies is access to finance, especially to support new businesses. While there are several <a href="https://asia.nikkei.com/Markets/Property/New-funds-turn-Kyoto-s-aging-town-houses-into-inns">innovative crowdfunding initiatives</a>, Japanese municipalities should also look at the <a href="https://transitionnetwork.org">Transition Town</a> movement for inspiration with its focus on “reclaiming the economy, sparking entrepreneurship, reimagining work”.</p>
<p>Specifically, it is worth exploring the potential of <a href="https://reconomycentre.org/home/lef/">local entrepreneur forums</a>. These bring together local investors from within the towns or villages with local entrepreneurs to support new, small business ventures.</p>
<p>The result is that communities pool their resources to support young people who have business ideas but lack financial resources. This is in line with both Masuda’s and Kakei’s recommendations to focus on local needs, rather than physical buildings and infrastructure.</p>
<hr>
<p><em><strong>Further reading:</strong> <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-government-should-pick-towns-not-industries-to-fund-78464">The government should pick towns, not industries, to fund</a></em></p>
<hr>
<p>While local communities search for a way forward, it is clear that Japan is leading the world in ageing, population decline and in how to respond. <a href="https://qz.com/162788/japan-is-rapidly-losing-population-and-half-the-world-is-about-to-join-it/">Many other countries</a> are set to follow this path. We can all learn a great deal by closely examining Japan’s experience.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/88398/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Brendan Barrett does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Across Japan, towns and villages are vanishing as the population ages and young people move to the cities. How the country manages this holds lessons for other developed nations facing a similar fate.Brendan Barrett, Senior Lecturer, Program Manager, Masters of International Urban and Environmental Management, RMIT UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/841462017-09-28T18:46:22Z2017-09-28T18:46:22ZHow land reform and rural development can help reduce poverty in South Africa<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/187171/original/file-20170922-13425-70orxn.PNG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Rural poverty affects a growing number of people in South Africa.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">REUTERS/Mike Hutchings</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>South Africa will need to review its land reform policy, with an eye to boosting productive land use among the rural poor, if it is to push back rising poverty levels.</p>
<p>The country’s <a href="https://theconversation.com/a-shift-in-thinking-is-needed-to-counter-south-africas-startling-rise-in-poverty-83462">poverty levels</a> have increased sharply over the past five years with an additional 3 million people now classified as living in absolute poverty. This means about 34 million people from a population of 55 million <a href="http://www.statssa.gov.za/?p=10334">lack basic necessities</a> like housing, transport, food, heating and proper clothing.</p>
<p>Much of the commentary on these sad statistics has emphasised the poor performance of urban job creation efforts and the country’s education system. Little has been said about the role of rural development or land reform.</p>
<p>This is a major omission given that about <a href="https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/SP.RUR.TOTL.ZS">35%</a> of South Africa’s population live in rural areas. They are among the worst affected by the rising poverty levels. </p>
<p>Large tracts of land lie fallow in the country’s rural areas, particularly in former homelands (surrogate states created by the apartheid government). They were fully integrated into South Africa in 1994 bringing with them large amounts of land under traditional authorities.</p>
<p>Research by the Human Sciences Research Council suggests that poverty levels can be pushed back significantly if policies are put in place that focus on food security and creating viable pathways to prosperity for the rural poor. This would be particularly true if land reform helped people develop the means of producing food, generating value and employing people. </p>
<h2>The problem</h2>
<p>Researchers <a href="http://www.hsrc.ac.za/uploads/pageContent/624/Poverty.pdf">investigating</a> the land needs of marginal communities, such as farm workers and rural households in the former homelands, have uncovered a considerable desire for opportunities on the land.</p>
<p>But they found that municipalities, government departments and banks were offering relatively little assistance to poorer would-be farmers seeking to improve their land and its value. </p>
<p>In the former homelands in particular, many families reportedly felt opportunities existed literally on their doorsteps but they lacked the means and support to grasp them. A common response among young people to the absence of such opportunities is to pick up and leave for the cities.</p>
<p>The need to rekindle rural development in South Africa is widely recognised even within the government. The country has lots of policies that speak to the ideal of lifting the rural poor out of poverty. Some policies are just not followed while others have proven to be inappropriate.</p>
<p>A fundamental problem underpinning successive rural development initiatives has been the split between the two main strands of government land reform policy: <a href="http://www.sahistory.org.za/article/land-restitution-south-africa-1994">land restitution</a> and <a href="http://www.plaas.org.za/plaas-publication/FC01">land redistribution</a>. </p>
<p>Land restitution was largely conceived as a means of addressing the colonial legacy of land dispossession. For its part, land redistribution was mainly designed to create a new class of black commercial farmers who would inherit existing white commercial farms. </p>
<p>Neither has been successfully implemented. Land restitution has been painfully slow, while land redistribution has been criticised for becoming increasingly <a href="http://www.fin24.com/Economy/South-Africa/land-reform-is-captured-20170224">elitist</a>. </p>
<p>To advance land redistribution the government put in place a land acquisition <a href="http://www.plaas.org.za/sites/default/files/publications-pdf/PP%2006.pdf">strategy</a> that acted as an enabler for entrepreneurs who wanted to get into large-scale, commercial agriculture. Once again the poor were left at the margins. </p>
<p>In the early years of democracy, the African National Congress adopted a <a href="http://www.cls.uct.ac.za/usr/lrg/downloads/Factsheet_CommunalTenure_IPILRA_Final_Feb2015.pdf">“do no harm”</a> approach in relation to land tenure in the former homelands. The reasoning was that this land served as a bulwark against poverty. </p>
<p>But that policy appears to have shifted to focus on bolstering the power of local chiefs to oversee land use. The ruling party is leveraging the clout of the chiefs to secure rural constituency <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2016/04/07/world/africa/jacob-zuma-under-siege-finds-political-refuge-in-rural-south-africa.html">support</a> during elections.</p>
<p>A sharp historical irony is that the present government is arguably reproducing patterns of land ownership that were originally justified by the <a href="https://www.africaresearchinstitute.org/newsite/publications/briefing-notes/land-law-and-traditional-leadership-in-south-africa/">colonial ideology</a>.</p>
<h2>What must be done</h2>
<p>A range of different models could be adopted in different localities. Recently there’s been a significant rise in the establishment of informal land markets. </p>
<p>This indicates that disregarded rural land has substantial value. But this value is being undermined by a lack of appropriate titling opportunities and land management systems.</p>
<p>What is required is a single and inclusive land reform programme. It must view all land as economically valuable and aim to maximise its potential without undermining people’s social and cultural rights and expressions of identity and belonging. Such a programme should recognise that unused land can be used to address poverty and stimulate growth if it is incorporated into rural value chains.</p>
<p>And to make farming easier and more worthwhile new mechanisms and arrangements must be designed to release productive land currently locked up in customary practices. Although individualist freeholding is an inadequate and often wildly inappropriate alternative to present tenure practices, chiefs and communities should be held accountable if they appear unable to improve their land.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/84146/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Tim GB Hart does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article. He has previously received funding from the Department of Science and Technology, the Department of Rural Development and the Belgian Technical Cooperation.
</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Leslie J. Bank does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>South Africa should review its rural development strategy and land reform policy to win the fight against rising poverty.Leslie J. Bank, Deputy Director in Economic Development and Professor of Social Anthropology, Human Sciences Research CouncilTim GB Hart, Senior Research Project Manager and Rural Sociologist, Economic Performance and Development, Human Sciences Research CouncilLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/842272017-09-25T16:58:33Z2017-09-25T16:58:33ZWhat’s driving multiple outbreaks of cholera in Nigeria<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/187354/original/file-20170925-17375-owq8gy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A woman takes an oral cholera vaccine in a hospital. But cholera vaccines are not always effective and never long lasting. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">REUTERS/Andres Martinez Casares</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>This year, 16 of Nigeria’s 36 states have experienced <a href="http://www.ncdc.gov.ng/reports/weekly">cholera outbreaks</a>. This has <a href="http://www.ncdc.gov.ng/reports/weekly">resulted in</a> 1,622 suspected cases of the disease and 33 deaths. This is a steady increase in cholera cases after a remarkable sharp decline, from a total of 5,301 cases (186 deaths) in 2015 to 768 cases and <a href="http://www.ncdc.gov.ng/reports/weekly">32 deaths in 2016</a></p>
<p>Lagos witnessed the last outbreak in <a href="http://www.ncdc.gov.ng/reports/15/2016-november-week-45">October 2016</a> but in the last couple of weeks there have been outbreaks in Nigeria’s Lagos, Kwara and Borno states.</p>
<p>Regional disparities in the death rates from cholera expose the different levels of emergency preparedness and health resources available. Understanding why this threat persists can help health authorities to reduce it, in Nigeria and elsewhere.</p>
<p>Cholera is an intestinal infection characterised by <a href="http://www.webmd.com/a-to-z-guides/cholera-faq#1">watery stool and diarrhoea</a>. It is caused by the Vibrio cholerae, a bacterium, which releases toxins in the human intestine. This toxin activates excess secretion of water from the intestinal lumen that often lead to severe dehydration and sometimes death. Conditions that can lead to outbreaks include a disruption in water supply, poor basic sanitation and poor hygiene. Infected people show symptoms within two to five days. They can spread the disease <a href="http://science.jrank.org/pages/1450/Cholera-Transmission-cholera.html">even when they are not ill themselves</a> by shedding the bacteria in their faeces. </p>
<p>As in other developing countries, <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3428179/">cholera outbreaks occur mainly during the rainy season in Nigeria</a> although they also sometimes occur in dry season. Flooding can cause septic tanks to contaminate surface water, especially open wells used for <a href="http://www.water-research.net/index.php/bacteria">drinking and food preparation</a>. Contaminated flood water from the rains can also flow to vegetables and fruits which, if not properly washed, can cause an outbreak. </p>
<p>Cholera outbreaks happen when groups of people share infected water or food. When this happens, many people will require help at the same time. Health facilities and resources are often inadequate and ill-prepared to deal with such pressure. </p>
<p>The outbreaks in different parts of Nigeria are often driven by different factors. What they all point to, however, is that the country has not yet taken sufficient steps to address the “epidemiological triangle” that drives cholera outbreaks – host, agent and environmental factors. This includes early detection, better and stronger sanitation infrastructure that can withstand heavy rains as well as basic health infrastructure.</p>
<h2>The outbreaks and what caused them</h2>
<p>Lagos is the commercial centre of the country, with a densely settled population of <a href="http://worldpopulationreview.com/world-cities/lagos-population/">over 20 million people</a>. It lies along the coast and is prone to <a href="http://www.ncfnigeria.org/about-ncf/item/81-lagos-ncf-call-for-actions-to-save-coastal-areas">flooding</a>. Despite the enormous efforts put into strengthening its primary health care system, it <a href="https://www.vanguardngr.com/2017/07/diarrhoea-outbreak-lagos-2-dead-25-quarantined/">recorded 27</a> suspected cases of cholera and two deaths in July 2017. The outbreak has been attributed to heavy rainfall which eroded water sources, and <a href="http://www.informationng.com/2017/07/cholera-outbreak-lagos-2-persons-killed-25-others-hospitalised.html">to people getting help too late</a>. </p>
<p>To reduce the number of outbreaks in the future, Lagos must tackle the factors that cause flooding. It must also take decisive steps to relocate residents from the most flood prone areas and improve on environmental sanitation and public health campaigns.</p>
<p>Kwara State recorded 17 deaths from over 1,000 suspected cases. Health authorities there attributed the outbreak to <a href="http://thenewsnigeria.com.ng/2017/06/kwara-confirms-cholera-outbreak/">contaminated fruit consumed to break the Ramadan fast</a>. In 2011, 12 deaths were recorded from cholera outbreak and although the health authorities were silent on the cause, the residents blamed it on <a href="https://www.dailytrust.com.ng/news/health/cholera-outbreak-claims-over-12-in-kwara/200744.html">heaps of refuse that had not been removed</a>. The state’s growing population seems to have surpassed its <a href="https://www.thecable.ng/cholera-kwara-environmentalist-perspective">waste disposal infrastructure</a> </p>
<p>Borno State recorded the most serious outbreak of the three states. This northeastern state is the epicentre of the battle against the Islamic militant group Boko Haram. The outbreak affected the camp set up to accommodate people who had been displaced by the conflict. About 20,000 people are sheltered in this camp on the outskirts of Maiduguri, the Borno capital. The camp is overcrowded and <a href="https://www.vanguardngr.com/2017/09/14-people-die-cholera-borno/">lacks good amenities</a>. People there are poorly nourished and don’t have clean drinking water and sanitation.</p>
<p>Conflicts usually result in the destruction of infrastructure and disruption of services. This has worsened the situation in Borno, which already lagged behind other parts of Nigeria in <a href="http://www.unocha.org/nigeria/about-ocha-nigeria/about-crisis">social development</a>. Health facilities are poorly equipped and staffed, and women in particular have low levels of education which usually means lower earnings, poor choices, slow reaction to illnesses and <a href="https://www.ahrq.gov/professionals/education/curriculum-tools/population-health/zimmerman.html">low problem solving abilities</a>. These factors add to the risk of disease outbreaks and deaths. </p>
<h2>Why cholera endures</h2>
<p>It has been difficult to eradicate cholera because of the “epidemiological triangle” of host, agent and environmental factors. </p>
<p>Humans are the hosts. They carry and spread the disease. A person who has received treatment and is healthy again is still capable of spreading the infection to others. Vaccines are <a href="http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs107/en/">not very effective or long-lasting</a>. </p>
<p>Vibrio cholerae is the agent. It is ingested from contaminated food or water. The organisms that survive the stomach’s acidity travel to the small intestine of the human host, where they multiply. The bacteria <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK8407/">attach to the mucous membrane of the intestines and can stay</a> there for years.</p>
<p>The environmental factors include poor access to clean, safe water and the lack of basic sanitation facilities. </p>
<p>To prevent and wipe out cholera, it’s necessary to interrupt the host-agent-environment relationship. This can be achieved through more effective vaccines, improved host immunity, water chlorination and better ways of disposing of sanitary waste. </p>
<p>In poor countries, the lack of standard infection prevention and control in health facilities adds to the risk of <a href="http://www.who.int/csr/resources/publications/4EPR_AM2.pdf">diseases spreading</a>. Health workers need to be continuously trained to detect, correctly diagnose and manage cases of cholera in a safe and effective manner. </p>
<p>Eradicating cholera and other diarrhoeal diseases in Nigeria will require a multi-sectoral approach. The ministries of water resources, rural development, urban planning and health must contribute, and government must show the political will to invest in infrastructure as well as health sector development.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/84227/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Doyin Ogunyemi does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Many states in Nigeria are reeling from cholera outbreaks. They need better health and sanitation infrastructure to disrupt transmission of the bacteria which cause the disease.Doyin Ogunyemi, Public Health Physician and Lecturer, College of Medicine, University of LagosLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/771352017-05-05T06:28:50Z2017-05-05T06:28:50ZParaguay’s population is booming, but where are all the jobs?<p>In recent weeks, Paraguay <a href="https://theconversation.com/paraguay-in-flames-protests-rage-as-president-seeks-to-remove-term-limits-75765">has been shaken</a> by a fierce parliamentary debate about a bill – <a href="https://theconversation.com/seeking-to-quell-civil-unrest-paraguays-president-says-he-will-not-seek-reelection-75765">recently killed</a> off in the House of Representatives – that would have allowed presidents to be re-elected. </p>
<p>And although photographs of the Congress building in flames and the murder of a young protester by security forces <a href="https://theconversation.com/should-paraguay-allow-its-presidents-to-be-reelected-68464">drew international attention</a> and clearly demonstrated the limits of Paraguay’s democratic system, political turbulence is just the most visible aspect of the deep economic and social problems facing this South American country.</p>
<h2>Paraguay’s boom</h2>
<p>The country’s situation could, in theory, be favourable. Paraguay is in the midst of a <a href="http://paraguay.sociales.uba.ar/files/2011/07/P_Cano_2010.pdf">demographic boom</a> that is transforming the shape of its <a href="http://revistascientificas.una.py/index.php/RE/article/view/761/pdf_72">population</a>.</p>
<p>According to <a href="http://www.dgeec.gov.py/Publicaciones/Biblioteca/proyeccion%20nacional/Estimacion%20y%20proyeccion%20Nacional.pdf">official projections</a>, almost 60% of the country’s almost seven million people are between 15 and 64 years old. That means an extraordinary proportion of Paraguayans are of working age, and a relatively small segment, consisting of children and the elderly, is dependent. </p>
<p>Unfortunately, these statistical data do not imply an upsurge in productivity and economic growth; the country’s current economic structure does not have room for so many new workers. The Paraguayan government has yet to create a plan for integrating th, much less for putting in place differentiated pathways to employment for young people and vulnerable groups.</p>
<p>Without such policies, Paraguay’s demographic bump, which is projected to continue through to 2025, will have the opposite effect to creating an economic boom. It will deepen inequality and poverty, boost the informal economy and actually spur emigration.</p>
<h2>Strong growth, weak fundamentals</h2>
<p>After recovering from a deep crisis in 2012, the Paraguayan economy has actually been growing at a steady clip, with GDP rising by <a href="https://www.bcp.gov.py/cuentas-nacionales-anuales-i406">4.7% in 2014 and 5.2% in 2015</a>.</p>
<p>But structural weaknesses are apparent. The mainstays of the Paraguayan economy are commodities and hydropower, which <a href="https://www.bcp.gov.py/cuentas-nacionales-anuales-i406">accounted for 25.6% and 24.9% of its GDP, respectively, in 2015</a>. After that comes the underground economy, Paraguay’s third most important economic sector, according to one Treasury Ministry official in an interview conducted by the author in 2010. This mainly comprises smuggling activities on different scales.</p>
<p>Despite a reduction in poverty, which <a href="http://www.dgeec.gov.py/Publicaciones/Biblioteca/eph2015/Presentacion%20Pobreza.pdf">dropped from 32% in 2011 to 22% in 2015</a>, Paraguay is still one of the poorest countries in Latin America. It ranks fourth in extreme poverty, after Honduras, Guatemala and Nicaragua, according to <a href="http://repositorio.cepal.org/bitstream/handle/11362/40972/4/S1601037_mu.pdf">a 2016 ECLAC report</a>. </p>
<p>Inequality is also widespread. Though the country’s GINI coefficient, which indicates economic inequality, has dropped <a href="http://www.dgeec.gov.py/Publicaciones/Biblioteca/eph2015/Presentacion%20Pobreza.pdf">from 0.5124 to 0.4714</a>, there’s still a significant gap between rich and poor Paraguayans. According to the <a href="http://www.dgeec.gov.py/">General Statistics Surveys and Census Bureau</a> (DGEEC), the poorest 40% of Paraguayans pocket only 12.5% of the nation’s revenues, while the richest 10% earn 37.1% of all income.</p>
<p>Finally, there’s underemployment, which hovers at 19% (only 5.34% of Paraguayans are fully unemployed). Among the 3.3 million people nationwide who have jobs, 664,000 either work less than 30 hours per week “but would like to work more, and are available to do so”, according to the above-mentioned DGEEC bureau. Or they work 30-plus hours but are paid less than <a href="http://www.dgeec.gov.py/Publicaciones/Biblioteca/eph-2015/Boletin%20Empleo%20EPH%202015.pdf">minimum wage</a>“.</p>
<h2>Rural exodus</h2>
<p>In rural parts of the country, these economic weaknesses are magnified. Unemployment for urban men can reach 55.12% in some areas, but it’s 64.19% in rural zones. Wages are also notoriously lower in rural areas – even bosses earn less. </p>
<p>The rural-urban economic gap is the result of large-scale agriculture steadily eating away <a href="http://www.fao.org/fileadmin/templates/ess/documents/meetings_and_workshops/IICA_2009/ppt/ESS-ALSLAC-09-15_E_Paraguay.pdf">at small-scale farming</a> in Paraguay. And it is increasingly prioritising high-tech monoculture enterprises.</p>
<p>Today, 90% of the land belongs to just 5% of landowners.</p>
<p>Thanks to a surge in inflows of <a href="http://www.baseis.org.py/mas-agroquimicos-para-paraguay-con-la-liberacion-de-su-23cultivo-transgenico/">transgenic crops</a> since 2012, agri-business revenues have multiplied in Paraguay.</p>
<p>In late March, about a thousand farmers <a href="http://www.efe.com/efe/america/sociedad/marcha-campesina-exige-reforma-agraria-para-la-distribuir-de-tierras-en-paraguay/20000013-3222554">converged on Asunción in an annual march</a>, demanding across-the-board agrarian reform. The protesters called for debt forgiveness for small farmers and condemned the widespread concentration of rural resources. </p>
<p><a href="http://www.seer.ufms.br/index.php/AlbRHis/article/view/2156">Studies have confirmed</a> that between 1991 and 2008, when the last National Agricultural Census was conducted, the total amount of productive land in Paraguay fell by some 5.7%. The number of farms and homesteads covering less than 100 hectares has shrunk, while those between 100 and 500 hectares has risen by almost 35%, and massive plantations covering more than 500 hectares are up by almost 57%.</p>
<p>Farmers’ deepening marginalisation in the countryside has made city living more attractive.</p>
<p>Asunción, the capital, has grown steadily, from <a href="http://www.dgeec.gov.py/Publicaciones/Biblioteca/Web%20Paraguay%20Total%20Pais/3%20Diagnostico%20poblacion.pdf">388,958 people in 1972</a> to 515,587 <a href="http://www.dgeec.gov.py/Publicaciones/Biblioteca/anuario2012/anuario%202012.pdf">in 2012</a>. Some 37% of the nation’s population is now concentrated in the city and the surrounding Central Department area.</p>
<p>Although complete official accounting of informal settlements are not available, the National Housing Bureau, SENAVITAT, estimates that the region now has some <a href="http://www.senavitat.gov.py/minurvi-py/wp-content/uploads/sites/8/2016/05/INFORME-PY-HA%CC%81BITAT-III.pdf">around 1,000 slum areas</a>.</p>
<p>Though wages are higher in the city, Paraguay’s labour market usually makes it hard for rural migrants to find jobs, so new arrivals often face underemployment, temporary joblessness or longer-term unemployment.</p>
<h2>The democratisation debate</h2>
<p>Underemployment and rural poverty are fuelling Paraguay’s current turbulent politics, highlighting a critical question that was first debated during South America’s democratic transitions in the 1980s: can political democracy truly exist in countries that haven’t also attained economic and social democracy?</p>
<p><a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/41479656?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents">Some thinkers</a> claim that economics and politics are independent dimensions, and that the social rights can be enshrined after democracy is established. </p>
<p>More critical – <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Transitions-Authoritarian-Rule-Conclusions-Democracies/dp/1421410133">or less optimistic – political scientists</a> contend that, to the contrary, <a href="http://www.redalyc.org/pdf/960/96016546007.pdf">there can be no real democracy</a> if it’s not accompanied by the steady spread of social and economic equality.</p>
<p>For Paraguay, the latter hypothesis has won out. </p>
<p>Paraguayan democracy is so lacking in social components that it has become a shrunken version of government. It consists almost exclusively to ensure that institutions function, elections are held regularly and transparently, ballot-box outcomes are accepted and, above all, that the population accepts the nation’s entrenched economic structure.</p>
<p>This is not really democracy. </p>
<p>What’s more, a steady stream of scandals has revealed widespread <a href="http://www.abc.com.py/edicion-impresa/judiciales-y-policiales/echan-a-comisarios-por-fraude-en-la-academia-y-el-colegio-de-policia-1567776.html">fraud</a> and <a href="http://www.ultimahora.com/paraguay-los-ultimos-percepcion-corrupcion-n1058062.html">corruption</a>, and there are deep-rooted processes of political and economic exclusion.</p>
<p>No matter who runs in the 2018 election, it will be merely a fiction of democracy – a mechanism that serves to continue the systematic uprooting of farm families for the benefit of agribusiness and bolstering an urban economy that pushes workers into underemployment or into the informal sector.</p>
<p>Until social justice, equality and rights are brought into politics, Paraguay’s turbulence can be expected to continue.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/77135/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Magdalena López receives funding from Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas-CONICET.</span></em></p>Too many able-bodied Paraguayans are underemployed, fuelling frustration and entrenching inequality.Magdalena López, Researcher at CONICET. Coordinator of the Group of Social Studies on Paraguay at the Institute of Latin American and Caribbean Research, Universidad de Buenos AiresLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/705812017-01-09T19:33:48Z2017-01-09T19:33:48ZWheat, sheep or Elvis Presley? Rural Australia has had to change its tune<p>Rural and regional Australia have had a hard time of late. The economies of Sydney and Melbourne are growing, but much of the rest of their states <a href="http://www.smh.com.au/comment/the-big-cities-strike-back-why-sydney-and-melbourne-are-closer-than-you-think-20160415-go7o9b.html">are not</a>. The population of regional areas <a href="http://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/abs@.nsf/Latestproducts/3218.0Main%20Features152014-15?opendocument&tabname=Summary&prodno=3218.0&issue=2014-15&num=&view=">is stagnating</a> and agriculture is struggling. </p>
<p>Perhaps worst of all there is a feeling that no-one in Canberra or in the booming coastal periphery cares about this. The people of Orange have <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-11-21/orange-by-election-won-by-shooters,-fishers-and-farmers-party/8043658">apparently spoken</a>.</p>
<p>Outside Sydney, behind what seems like an impervious sandstone curtain, not all is well. Even the largest towns in regional New South Wales are struggling to retain their populations and have faced difficult economic times through the present decade, although the drought years have faded away.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/150658/original/image-20161219-24265-1sg00b7.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/150658/original/image-20161219-24265-1sg00b7.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/150658/original/image-20161219-24265-1sg00b7.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=486&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/150658/original/image-20161219-24265-1sg00b7.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=486&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/150658/original/image-20161219-24265-1sg00b7.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=486&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/150658/original/image-20161219-24265-1sg00b7.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=610&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/150658/original/image-20161219-24265-1sg00b7.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=610&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/150658/original/image-20161219-24265-1sg00b7.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=610&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Outside the big cities, many populations in regional and rural Australia are declining or static.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/abs@.nsf/Latestproducts/3218.0Main%20Features152014-15?opendocument&tabname=Summary&prodno=3218.0&issue=2014-15&num=&view=">ABS, Regional Population Growth, Australia, 2014-15</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p><a href="https://theconversation.com/australias-five-strong-pillar-economy-agriculture-40388">Agriculture still matters</a>, for employment and exports, but mechanisation has cost jobs. Farming is still how people see rural and regional Australia, but it is certainly not the only thing.</p>
<p>There is more to rural Australia than agriculture, and most places have shifted away from the mass production of agricultural commodities – move over the wheat-sheep belt – towards the marketing of rural lifestyles and landscapes. Farming becomes valuable as scenery.</p>
<p>City people can be tempted for weekends away and old-fashioned farm stays have evolved. But that works most easily for NSW coastal towns – like <a href="http://berry.org.au/">Berry</a> and <a href="http://www.visitnsw.com/destinations/south-coast/kiama-area">Kiama</a> – that are within striking distances of capital cities. More distant inland places have had to work a little harder to diversify.</p>
<p>Ironically, Orange is one of the towns that have led the way in terms of change. An enormously successful <a href="http://orangefoodweek.com.au/">FOOD (Food of Orange District) festival</a> has drawn in city crowds and tempted some to remain. At the other end of the state, the <a href="http://www.tcmf.com.au/">Tamworth Country Music Festival</a> has grown every year and been a massive boost to regional income.</p>
<h2>Jumpsuiting on the bandwagon</h2>
<p>But it is probably even smaller towns that have benefited most from festivals. Most successful of all has been Parkes, otherwise simply a transport centre on the wheat and sheep plains. This week it celebrates the 25th anniversary of the <a href="http://www.parkeselvisfestival.com.au/">Elvis Festival</a>. </p>
<p>The whim of a handful of townsfolk, one of whom later changed his name to Elvis Lennox, the festival began in a tiny way in 1993. Parkes citizens were doubtful – what had Elvis to do with rural Australia? But the local newspaper, the tourism office and the rugby club – in jumpsuited style – got on board, and the festival boomed.</p>
<p>Once it lasted barely a weekend. Now it lasts five days. Two hundred people came to the first festival – now there are 20,000, almost twice the town’s population. Accommodation is booked five years in advance, home hosting extends to nearby towns like Forbes and even Orange, and tents overflow on Graceland on the Green. </p>
<p>The festival brings in more than A$10 million, employs many people, and has enabled even improbable local businesses to prosper. The local vet offers “Elvis costumes for the smaller dog”. The two tattoo parlours bring in new seasonal Elvis designs. Only the funeral directors appear to have failed to gain any trickle-down effects.</p>
<p>Certainly luck helps, but inspiration, patience and creativity – which are not only metropolitan traits – really work. Parkes now has its King’s Castle, an Elvis museum that ensures that Elvis and his famous gold lamé suit never leave town.</p>
<p>Where Parkes has succeeded, its neighbours have sought to follow. Trundle, once famous for having the <a href="http://www.visitparkes.com.au/about/our-towns/trundle.aspx">widest main street</a> in the country, is now more famous for its <a href="http://www.trundleabbafestival.com/">ABBA festival</a>. Kandos, not much further from Parkes, is working hard to develop its <a href="http://visitmudgeeregion.com.au/whats-on/bob-marley-festival">Bob Marley Festival</a>. </p>
<p>Who will claim Leonard Cohen? Unlike Elvis, he at least had visited Australia.</p>
<h2>Musters and other big celebrations</h2>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/150697/original/image-20161219-24310-109i7xt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/150697/original/image-20161219-24310-109i7xt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/150697/original/image-20161219-24310-109i7xt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=902&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/150697/original/image-20161219-24310-109i7xt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=902&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/150697/original/image-20161219-24310-109i7xt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=902&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/150697/original/image-20161219-24310-109i7xt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1134&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/150697/original/image-20161219-24310-109i7xt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1134&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/150697/original/image-20161219-24310-109i7xt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1134&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Utes in the Paddock has been so succesful in promoting tiny Ootha that the council is relocating it to the larger Condobolin.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/jasewong/6194677079/in/photolist-arpkFe-8Br3XD-6YaHUy-8Buv8o-6Y6SuK-6XYZSA-8Br3Xk-6XYZSC-6YaHTA-6YaHUq-8Br3XR-8BrbWV-8Br3Xz-8BqDfn-6Y6SuM-8BqDfx-6XYZSu-9L7FAw-8nn1hm-6Y6Sux-6XYZSq-6XYZSo-6Y6Sur-6Y6Sup-6YaHUC-aGafoV-7hZfMh-9L4S3H-7hTQLD-7i15VN-7i15VG-7i15VJ-7hZfMA-7bf1YS-7i15VS-7hZfMw-7hTQLx-7hZfME-7i1neN-arpmjn-9L4UGa-7hZfMq-7i1neU-7i15VQ-7i1ney-7i2P71-7hY213-7hY21b-7i2P79-7i15Vy">Jason Wong/flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/">CC BY-NC-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>There is music in the air in NSW and that music is creating employment, placing and keeping some small towns on the map and simply being a source of enjoyment when, as in the drought years of earlier this century, times were particularly tough.</p>
<p>The annual <a href="http://www.deniutemuster.com.au/">Deni Ute Muster</a> has spurred revival in Deniliquin. The more static <a href="http://www.visitnsw.com/destinations/country-nsw/parkes-area/condobolin/attractions/utes-in-the-paddock">Utes in the Paddock</a> – an open-air gallery of utes mounted in a parody of Stonehenge – breathed new life into tiny Ootha. Glen Innes remembered its Celtic ancestry and constructed an impressive circle of <a href="https://www.gleninnestourism.com/australian-standing-stones/">standing stones</a>. </p>
<p>Meanwhile, the citizens of Nyngan, at the centre of Bogan Shire, are trusting that the statue of the <a href="http://www.traveller.com.au/big-bogan-statute-unveiled-in-nsw-town-of-nyngan-gjk3ct">Big Bogan</a> (“who stands proud with his mullet, stubbies singlet and Southern Cross tattoo”) will breathe some new life into the town in the wake of the success of the <a href="https://www.australiantraveller.com/nsw/north-coast/coffs-harbour/the-big-banana/">Big Banana</a> in Coffs Harbour. And who could resist Priscilla Queen of the Desert’s birthday bash at Broken Hill’s <a href="http://www.bhfestival.com/">Broken Heel Festival</a>?</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"641385854481510401"}"></div></p>
<p>But it is not only festivals. <a href="http://www.bhmtb.asn.au/course.php">Mountain-biking trails</a> may work just as well. Silverton has protected its <a href="http://silverton.org.au/silvertons-heritage-walking-trail/">heritage buildings</a> and become a centre for the visual arts. Bowral <a href="http://www.visitnsw.com/destinations/country-nsw/southern-highlands/bowral/attractions/bradman-museum-and-international-cricket-hall-fame">can thank Don Bradman</a> for growing up there. Hill End has set the pace in reviving <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/local/stories/2015/07/01/4265620.htm">gold panning</a>.</p>
<p>None of these activities can ever effectively replace agriculture, but all have a part to play in making regional Australia a richer and more vibrant place.</p>
<p>Regional Australia cannot be written off. Services, tourism and the creative industries have become a vital part of the regional mix. And the smartest regions are those that have recognised this, sought diversity and flexibility, and become creative. </p>
<p>On January 12, the <a href="http://www.parkeselvisfestival.com.au/event/elvis-express/">Elvis Express</a> will roll into town, and Parkes will celebrate 25 years of a festival that has created employment, generated income, provided a degree of pleasure in the drought years and given one town more than a reason to hope.</p>
<hr>
<p><em>John Connell and Chris Gibson are the authors of <a href="https://www.newsouthbooks.com.au/books/outback-elvis/">Outback Elvis: The story of a festival, its fans and a town called Parkes</a>, which has just been published by New South.</em></p>
<p><em>This article has been amended to correct a reference to Bradman’s birthplace (he was born in Cootamundra but grew up in Bowral).</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/70581/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Chris Gibson receives funding from the Australian Research Council. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>John Connell does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Outside the capital cities and the coastal fringes, the towns and people of rural and regional Australia have had to be inventive to get through the tough times.John Connell, Professor of Human Geography, University of SydneyChris Gibson, Director, UOW Global Challenges Program & Professor of Human Geography, University of WollongongLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/590632016-06-28T19:33:11Z2016-06-28T19:33:11ZElection 2016: how well are the major parties meeting the needs of rural and regional Australia?<p>How far do policies announced during the 2016 federal election campaign go towards addressing <a href="https://theconversation.com/election-2016-the-issues-in-non-metropolitan-australia-59062">key policy issues for non-metropolitan Australia</a>?</p>
<p>Much of what we’ve heard has been packaged up in funding announcements. Most of these are followed by accusations of overspending, <a href="https://theconversation.com/election-2016-will-the-infrastructure-promises-meet-australias-needs-61140">pork-barrelling</a> and/or incompetence. </p>
<p>Still, there is a compelling simplicity to funding announcements. Dollar values take the complexity out of policy communication. Numbers in the millions say, “we’re serious about this”. Numbers in the billions say, “we’re really serious”. </p>
<p>Contrast this with more considered approaches to policy development. In recent years, federal governments have released white papers on <a href="http://agwhitepaper.agriculture.gov.au/">agricultural competitiveness</a>, <a href="http://industry.gov.au/ONA/WhitePaper/index.html">Northern Australia</a>, <a href="http://ewp.industry.gov.au/">energy</a> and the <a href="http://www.agriculture.gov.au/ag-farm-food/food/publications/national_food_plan/white-paper">food industry</a>. None of the major parties have promised to review or change the policy directions set out in these documents. Neither have they promised to initiate new white paper processes in other policy domains important to rural and regional Australia.</p>
<p>The obvious conclusion is that non-metropolitan Australia can expect little substantial policy reform regardless of who wins the election. True, planned changes may not have been announced. But there has been little to suggest over the last decade or more that the major parties have substantially different views on key areas like agriculture and trade. </p>
<p>What significant policy movement we did see following the last election had been clearly signalled during the 2013 campaign. We all knew the incoming Coalition government would be <a href="http://www.markcoulton.com.au/Portals/0/2013ElectionPolicies/The%20Coalitions%202030%20Vision%20for%20Developing%20Northern%20Australia%20-%20National%20Party.pdf">investing in Northern Australia</a>, paying farmers to <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-09-18/whats-in-the-coaltions-carbon-policy-for-farmers/4964636">store carbon in soils</a>, establishing the <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/pm/content/2013/s3797086.htm">Green Army</a> and <a href="http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/indigenous/tony-abbotts-indigenous-vision-takes-shape/story-fn9hm1pm-1226694578569">rationalising Indigenous programs</a> into one agency. </p>
<p>Many will be surprised at how little debate we’ve seen during the 2016 campaign about these initiatives. </p>
<h2>Infrastructure</h2>
<p>Despite (or because of) the potential for major infrastructure projects to create local opportunities there have been myriad like-for-like announcements. </p>
<p>All major parties are promising to fund road upgrades and to contribute A$100 million towards a <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-06-13/coalition-to-match-labor-funding-promise-for-townsville-stadium/7504276">new football stadium in Townsville</a>. All support extension of the <a href="https://www.communications.gov.au/what-we-do/phone/mobile-services-and-coverage/mobile-black-spot-programme">Mobile Black Spot Program</a>. None have proposed unwinding existing initiatives such as the $5 billion <a href="http://www.industry.gov.au/Industry/Northern-Australia-Infrastructure-Facility/Pages/default.aspx">Northern Australia Infrastructure Facility</a> or $2 billion <a href="http://www.agriculture.gov.au/ag-farm-food/natural-resources/nwilf">National Water Infrastructure Loan Facility</a>.</p>
<p>North Queenslanders will be happy about the stadium funding, just as other communities will be pleased to receive support for local projects. Lack of detail on energy and information and telecommunications (ICT) infrastructure, however, will be a disappointment.</p>
<p>Modern ICT offers substantial opportunity to improve the competitiveness of rural industries as well as to reduce social isolation. Rural people are acutely aware of this. They want more than finger pointing over who is responsible for <a href="https://theconversation.com/expert-panel-the-state-of-the-national-broadband-network-56073">problems in delivering the National Broadband Network</a>. </p>
<h2>Unemployment</h2>
<p>All major parties propose policies to promote national employment growth – for example, using trade agreements to expand exports and economic growth. However, place-specific strategies are also needed to deal with rural and regional unemployment due to variation in the composition and dynamics of non-metro labour markets.</p>
<p>Place-specific employment strategies have certainly not been absent from the campaign. They do, however, lack coherence. </p>
<p><a href="http://www.cairnspost.com.au/news/cairns/pm-flies-into-cairns-with-30m-plan-to-tackle-citys-shameful-jobs-record/news-story/aa4812c24ff153dc815ce1b91575f050">In Cairns</a>, for example, the Coalition has promised $20 million for businesses willing to employ local workers and $10 million for an Innovation Centre linking students, researchers and entrepreneurs. Cairns is my town and I’ll be happy to see projects like this go ahead. </p>
<p>Other electorates provide similar examples of nationally small, but locally significant, commitments to tackle unemployment. The question will be whether we can learn enough from these to generate more widespread impact. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.liberal.org.au/coalitions-policy-revitalise-jobs-and-growth-townsville">Townsville</a> is particularly interesting in this regard because there is an overarching conceptual framework that, if successful, could be replicated elsewhere. Following the lead of British cities, the Coalition has promised a “<a href="https://theconversation.com/city-deals-nine-reasons-this-imported-model-of-urban-development-demands-due-diligence-57040">City Deal</a>” for Townsville. This is intended to integrate long-term infrastructure investment across all tiers of government to boost productivity and employment growth.</p>
<p>Implementing City Deals (or something like them) will require bipartisan support and meaningful negotiation with local stakeholders. Such a process will stand as a direct challenge to ad hoc, announcement-driven campaigning in future elections.</p>
<h2>Diversification and new economy jobs</h2>
<p>Innovation and STEM (science, technology, engineering and maths) are very much terms in vogue. <a href="http://www.100positivepolicies.org.au/labors_positive_policies_for_agriculture_and_regional_australia">Labor</a> and the <a href="https://www.liberal.org.au/latest-news/2015/12/07/regional-and-rural-australia-reap-benefits-innovation">Coalition</a> alike are spruiking their role in the development of the rural R&D system and launching a host of additional innovation programs. Agriculture and mining will both rely heavily on research and innovation in ICT, robotics and (for agriculture) genetics to maintain their competitive edge.</p>
<p>This will mean that, regardless of whether or not they are profitable, agriculture and mining will also employ fewer and fewer people.</p>
<p>So what is the plan then to boost innovation and research in ways that diversify rural and regional economies? Is it enough to ensure that at least some of the national expenditure on research and higher education lands in the regions?</p>
<p>Labor is promising to <a href="http://www.100positivepolicies.org.au/labors_positive_policies_for_agriculture_and_regional_australia">create a network of 20 regional innovation hubs</a>. While it is difficult to imagine that expenditure of up to $500,000 per hub over three years will itself be transformative, at least it demonstrates awareness of the need for regional specificity. </p>
<p>Similar conclusions can be drawn about the Coalition’s <a href="http://www.industry.gov.au/industry/Industry-Growth-Centres/Pages/default.aspx">Industry Growth Centres</a> and promise of an innovation centre in far-north Queensland. </p>
<p>Both parties’ regional innovation commitments have merit, but greater and longer-term investment will be required, I suspect, to achieve any kind of scale outside established industries. City Deals (or let’s call them Regional Deals) that are as focused on knowledge and innovation infrastructure as they are on transport, energy and communication infrastructure might provide a useful framework.</p>
<h2>Indigenous participation</h2>
<p>A <a href="http://www.aph.gov.au/Parliamentary_Business/Committees/Senate/Finance_and_Public_Administration/Commonwealth_Indigenous/Report">Senate inquiry</a> into the federal government’s Indigenous Advancement Strategy identified multiple failures. The National Congress of Australia’s First Peoples released a <a href="http://nationalcongress.com.au/the-redfern-statement/">statement calling for urgent and far-reaching reform</a> of Indigenous affairs. </p>
<p>Yet we have heard nothing of substance from either the Coalition or Labor about their plans for Indigenous affairs. </p>
<h2>Health, education and social services</h2>
<p>Through this campaign we have heard many claims about how much money has been removed from the human services and health portfolios, or been misspent, by previous governments. </p>
<p>We have heard <a href="https://theconversation.com/is-medicare-under-threat-making-sense-of-the-privatisation-debate-61308">claims about secret plans to privatise services like Medicare</a>. But we have heard little of substance about rural health, education or social services.</p>
<h2>Climate change</h2>
<p>The <a href="https://theconversation.com/coral-bleaching-taskforce-more-than-1-000-km-of-the-great-barrier-reef-has-bleached-57282">bleaching of the Great Barrier Reef</a> ensured <a href="https://theconversation.com/great-barrier-reef-bleaching-would-be-almost-impossible-without-climate-change-58408">climate change figured somewhere</a> in this election. The Greens aside, though, no-one has campaigned hard on climate change. Nor have they released new policies. </p>
<p>Despite all the claims and counterclaims about climate policy, both <a href="http://www.100positivepolicies.org.au/carbon_capture_on_the_land">Labor</a> and the <a href="https://www.liberal.org.au/our-plan/protecting-our-environment">Coalition</a> have proven keen to talk up their support for carbon farming and revegetation. </p>
<p>It’s easy to see why the major political parties want to talk up carbon farming – it offers landholders a potential source of income while sidestepping politically messy arguments about the reality of climate change. </p>
<p>At some point, though, these arguments need to be had. </p>
<h2>Natural resource management</h2>
<p>Discussion about natural resource management through this campaign has been almost exclusively focused on how much money (those funding announcements again) will <a href="https://theconversation.com/policycheck-what-are-the-parties-really-offering-to-save-the-great-barrier-reef-60927">be spent to protect the Great Barrier Reef</a>. </p>
<p>Improving water quality <a href="https://theconversation.com/great-barrier-reef-pollution-controls-are-not-enough-heres-what-we-can-do-52861">by improving land management</a> in the reef catchments is an important thing to do, but lack of detail on how money will be spent makes it difficult to compare the real value of electoral promises. </p>
<p>We know even less about the implications of these promises for land and water management outside reef catchments. Will the politics of the Greater Barrier Reef revive our national commitment to sustainable resource management? Or will money be <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-06-13/turnbull-to-pitch-$1bn-plan-to-protect-great-barrier-reef/7503910">siphoned from other resource management programs</a> to pay for the reef’s protection?</p>
<h2>Agriculture</h2>
<p>Agriculture arguably receives more policy attention than any other predominantly non-metropolitan industry.</p>
<p>White papers, policy reviews and industry plans emerge with remarkable regularity. </p>
<p>Again, though, these do not reveal major policy differences between the major parties. Trade agreements, biosecurity, export support, agribusiness development, foreign investment and so on are shared priorities. </p>
<h2>To the election …</h2>
<p>Lack of policy differentiation on national issues will not necessarily be mirrored on an electorate-by-electorate basis. The importance of local projects – a road upgrade here, a boat ramp there – cannot be dismissed. Any local member capable (or seen to be capable) of getting things done will increase trust in themselves and their parties. </p>
<p>As the major parties blame their opponents for everything that is wrong with the world one moment and then echo each other’s policies the next, trust will be an important factor.</p>
<p>The wild card in all this is the independents. <a href="https://www.ausparty.org.au/our-plan/australia.html">Katter’s Australian Party</a> and the <a href="http://senatorlazarus.com/senator-lazarus-please-help-me-stop-the-sell-off-of-australia/">Glenn Lazarus Team</a> are campaigning to restrict foreign investment in land. In the event of a hung parliament the major parties will need to start negotiating. </p>
<p>Who knows what they’ll be willing to trade off?</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/59063/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Stewart Lockie receives funding from the Australian Research Council and the Australian Council of Learned Academies.</span></em></p>On the big national policies affecting non-metropolitan Australia, such as agriculture and trade, the major party differences are minor. That’s why the election focus turns to local projects.Stewart Lockie, Director, The Cairns Institute, James Cook UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/604232016-06-09T01:52:32Z2016-06-09T01:52:32ZTechnology is improving – why is rural broadband access still a problem?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/125166/original/image-20160603-11593-1123elo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Getting internet access to rural areas can be difficult.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.shutterstock.com/pic-210931219/stock-photo-a-tractor-with-trailers-is-laying-fiber-optic-cables-glass-fibers-are-employed-as-fiber-optic.html">Tractor laying cables via shutterstock.com</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>There is a well-documented “digital divide” between rural and urban areas when it comes to broadband access. As of 2015, 74 percent of households in urban areas of the U.S. had residential broadband connections, compared with only 64 percent of rural households. This gap has persisted over time.</p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/125047/original/image-20160602-23293-t67ir4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/125047/original/image-20160602-23293-t67ir4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=407&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/125047/original/image-20160602-23293-t67ir4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=407&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/125047/original/image-20160602-23293-t67ir4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=407&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/125047/original/image-20160602-23293-t67ir4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=512&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/125047/original/image-20160602-23293-t67ir4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=512&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/125047/original/image-20160602-23293-t67ir4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=512&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The urban-rural broadband adoption ‘digital divide.’</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.ntia.doc.gov/other-publication/2016/digital-nation-data-explorer">U.S. Census Bureau data, via NTIA</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>My own research reveals that broadband adoption can help improve the economy in these rural areas (including <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.telpol.2014.05.005">increasing income, lowering unemployment rates</a> and <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s00168-014-0637-x">creating jobs</a>). In addition, we know that roughly 40 percent of the rural-urban adoption gap is because rural areas <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.giq.2015.03.002">don’t have the same level of broadband access</a>. </p>
<p>Technology continues to improve, enabling <a href="http://www.jaxenergy.com/broadband/faq/downloads/FTTHQ&A.pdf">existing wiring to carry more and more data</a>. The federal government has historically tried to <a href="https://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/misc/RL30719.pdf">provide infrastructure in rural areas</a>. Its latest effort, known as the “<a href="https://www.fcc.gov/general/connect-america-fund-caf">Connect America Fund</a>” (CAF), initially <a href="http://www.connectednation.org/category/blog-tags/connect-america-fund">offered US$10 billion in subsidies</a> to the largest telecom companies to begin offering service in unserved areas.</p>
<p>In some states, those large providers rejected that offer – so that territory is <a href="http://www.telecompetitor.com/upcoming-caf-reverse-auctions-puts-markets-in-20-states-up-for-grabs-for-broadband-funding/">now available to smaller providers</a>. Clearly, it is still significantly more difficult to deploy broadband in rural areas. In fact, <a href="http://www.broadbandmap.gov/download/Broadband%20Availability%20in%20Rural%20vs%20Urban%20Areas.pdf">the latest data show</a> that only 55 percent of people living in rural areas have access to the speeds that currently qualify as broadband, while 94 percent of the urban population does. Why is this, exactly?</p>
<h2>What’s ‘broadband,’ anyway?</h2>
<p>Legally speaking, “broadband” is whatever the Federal Communications Commission says it is. In the early 2000s, the FCC defined “broadband” connections as those that could transfer data at a speed of 200 kilobytes per second (kbps) in at least one direction – either “downstream,” downloading from the internet to a user, or “upstream,” uploading data from the user back to the internet. That was roughly four times faster than historical dial-up modems (56 kbps). </p>
<p>In 2010, the FCC changed what it called “broadband” to require speeds at least five times faster still. The minimum downstream speed increased to <a href="https://www.fcc.gov/reports-research/reports/broadband-progress-reports/sixth-broadband-progress-report">4 megabits per second (mbps)</a>, with at least 1 mbps upstream. </p>
<p>Companies currently receiving Connect America Funds are required to provide at least <a href="https://transition.fcc.gov/Daily_Releases/Daily_Business/2014/db1211/DOC-330989A1.pdf">10 mbps down</a> and 1 up. However, in 2015, the FCC again upgraded the minimum broadband service to <a href="http://www.theverge.com/2015/1/29/7932653/fcc-changed-definition-broadband-25mbps">25 mbps down</a> and 3 mbps up. The fact that the CAF program will fund projects that do not meet the current official definition of broadband has been a <a href="https://potsandpansbyccg.com/2015/08/26/the-connect-america-fund-dilemma/">point of criticism</a>. </p>
<p>These thresholds will continue to get higher. As that happens, rural areas will require the most work to become – and stay – compliant, because their existing bandwidth is generally slower than their urban counterparts. Only 75 percent of rural Americans have access to fixed (not mobile) <a href="https://www.fcc.gov/reports-research/reports/broadband-progress-reports/2016-broadband-progress-report">connections of at least 10 mbps</a> download speeds, compared to 98 percent of urban residents. And only 61 percent of rural residents meet the current 25 mbps threshold for any type of technology, compared to 94 percent of their urban counterparts.</p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/125168/original/image-20160603-8272-1t0djw7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/125168/original/image-20160603-8272-1t0djw7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/125168/original/image-20160603-8272-1t0djw7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/125168/original/image-20160603-8272-1t0djw7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/125168/original/image-20160603-8272-1t0djw7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/125168/original/image-20160603-8272-1t0djw7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/125168/original/image-20160603-8272-1t0djw7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Cables have to cover whatever distance there is.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.shutterstock.com/pic-333328724/stock-photo-new-cables.html">Cables in the ground via shutterstock.com</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Distance matters</h2>
<p>It is still more efficient for telecommunications companies to install new communications lines in areas with high population density. This is basic economics related to how many customers there are to share fixed installation costs. There are typically around 2,000 people per square mile in urban areas <a href="https://www.ntia.doc.gov/files/ntia/publications/broadband_availability_rural_urban_june_2011_final.pdf">versus 10 in some rural areas</a>.</p>
<p>When companies switched data traffic from <a href="http://www.cablexpress.com/blog/5-reasons-why-it-professionals-choose-fiber-optic-cables-instead-of-copper/">copper lines to more efficient and reliable fiber-optic ones</a>, they did so first in the more profitable urban areas. Despite the many improvements in technology over the years, laying new line for wired internet connections still requires a significant amount of manual labor. Companies must weigh the cost of every mile laid against the expected profits from those lines. This works against rural areas, with fewer potential customers per mile. </p>
<p>For areas still served by copper wire, sending data at high speeds has <a href="https://blog.directcom.com/2012/04/23/are-there-any-limitations-to-dsl-service/">distance limitations</a>: The signals typically degrade after three miles. To get data traveling longer distances to and through rural areas, companies must install signal-amplifying equipment called “access multipliers.” That adds to the cost of serving rural customers.</p>
<p>Along these same lines, there is more competition among broadband providers in urban areas. Over <a href="http://www.broadbandmap.gov/download/Broadband%20Availability%20in%20Rural%20vs%20Urban%20Areas.pdf">60 percent of the urban population</a> has access to at least three wireline providers – a diversity of choice available to just 19 percent of rural residents. This competition can lead to <a href="http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1684236">lower prices and improved services</a> for consumers – which, when they happen, ultimately raise adoption rates.</p>
<figure class="align-left ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/125169/original/image-20160603-11585-y05zrd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/125169/original/image-20160603-11585-y05zrd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/125169/original/image-20160603-11585-y05zrd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/125169/original/image-20160603-11585-y05zrd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/125169/original/image-20160603-11585-y05zrd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/125169/original/image-20160603-11585-y05zrd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/125169/original/image-20160603-11585-y05zrd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">This isn’t the answer – yet.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/jesse/25894625123/">jesse/flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Going wireless</h2>
<p>Mobile wireless is not the same as wired (yet). Wireline broadband technology is still dependent on the expensive act of physically laying wires. It might seem that wireless coverage – which covers broad areas from antennas across the territory rather than needing to connect wires to every home – could be the answer for rural communities. It is true that mobile wireless coverage has seen dramatic improvements over the years. </p>
<p>As cellular networks have been upgraded over time (think 3G, 4G and 4G LTE), mobile upload and download speeds have also increased – and have made smartphone use much more commonplace. In fact, rural residents are among several groups who have started <a href="http://www.pewinternet.org/2015/12/21/home-broadband-2015/">shifting their internet connections</a> away from a landline residential connection and towards a smartphone.</p>
<p>The <a href="http://www.broadbandmap.gov/download/Broadband%20Availability%20in%20Rural%20vs%20Urban%20Areas.pdf">latest data from the National Broadband Map</a> show that 98 percent of rural areas have access to some type of mobile wireless internet connection. However, those connections aren’t necessarily fast enough to meet the formal FCC definition of “broadband.” </p>
<p>Specifically, 85 percent of U.S. wireline connections meet the current 25 mbps download threshold, while only <a href="http://www.broadbandmap.gov/summarize/nationwide">14 percent of wireless connections</a> do so. Satellite connections typically <a href="http://www.bandwidthplace.com/who-has-the-fastest-satellite-internet-article/">max out at about 15 mbps</a>. In addition, wireless coverage is sometimes spotty and can <a href="http://www.cellularmaps.com/4g_compare.shtml">vary by provider and geography</a>.</p>
<h2>A path forward?</h2>
<p>Rural broadband advocates have had some good news over the past couple of years with the continuing development of the <a href="https://www.fcc.gov/general/connect-america-fund-caf">Connect America Fund</a>. To help improve the program, the FCC set up several “<a href="https://www.fcc.gov/general/rural-broadband-experiments">Rural Broadband Experiments</a>” in 2015, with 14 projects ongoing (10 fiber and four wireless). These should provide some insight into the technological, administrative and logistical issues associated with funding rural broadband.</p>
<p>It is still worth noting, however, that even if rural broadband infrastructure were exactly the same as in urban areas, there would still be a “digital divide” in adoption rates, because rural populations are older, less educated and have lower income. Other programs, such as the recent <a href="https://www.fcc.gov/document/fcc-modernizes-lifeline-program-digital-age">Lifeline modernization</a> (which will provide a monthly $9.25 subsidy for low-income consumers to buy telecommunications services – including broadband) will seek to address this more demand-oriented aspect.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/60423/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Brian Whitacre has received funding from USDA Rural Utilities Service, USDA Economic Research Service, Department of Health and Human Services, Regional Rural Development Centers, the Institute of Museum and Library Sciences, Health Research Services Administration, and the Economic Development Administration. </span></em></p>Only 55 percent of people living in rural areas have access to the speeds that currently qualify as broadband, while 94 percent of the urban population does.Brian Whitacre, Associate Professor and Extension Economist, Oklahoma State UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/590622016-06-07T20:23:07Z2016-06-07T20:23:07ZElection 2016: the issues in non-metropolitan Australia<p>Rural and regional Australia is a big place. That’s obvious enough. Still, it’s easy to forget that the communities and industries of non-metropolitan Australia are diverse. They face a variety of challenges and often have different, if not competing, stakes in government policy. </p>
<p>But what are the issues that deserve attention leading up to the 2016 federal election? While not everyone living in rural and regional Australia will see eye-to-eye on how these issues should be resolved, I will return to this list closer to election day to see just how many have made their way onto the national political agenda.</p>
<h2>Infrastructure</h2>
<p>Government investments in transport, energy, telecommunications and water infrastructure are fundamental to the productivity of rural and regional industries. </p>
<p>Made well, these investments can enhance economic and social participation, minimise negative environmental impacts, and support adaptation to climate variability and change.</p>
<p>It follows that, when it comes to evaluating the case for public investment, one eye needs to be on the business case while the other needs to be on the potential for social and environmental co-benefits. This is where most of the issues listed below come into play. </p>
<h2>Unemployment</h2>
<p>Nationally, unemployment rates in non-metropolitan Australia are similar to those in the capital cities. However, rural and regional labour markets are volatile, with extremely high unemployment in particular locales. Place-specific strategies to assist these locales deserve consideration.</p>
<p>The loss of over <a href="https://docs.employment.gov.au/documents/australian-jobs-2015-publication">55,000 mining jobs</a> nationally since late 2012 hit a number of regional cities hard. In <a href="https://www.employment.gov.au/small-area-labour-markets-publication">Mackay</a>, unemployment rose from 11.7% to 18.9% in 2015. In <a href="https://www.employment.gov.au/small-area-labour-markets-publication">Muswellbrook</a>, it went from 9.8% to 14.9%. The sector is expected to shed another 31,900 jobs by late 2020.</p>
<p>Other non-metropolitan regions experience particularly high youth unemployment. In March 2016, <a href="http://lmip.gov.au/default.aspx?LMIP/LFR_SAFOUR">young people aged 15-24 were unemployed</a> at rates of 31.3% in western Queensland, 22.3% in Cairns, 19.7% on the NSW mid-north coast and 19.5% in the Hunter Valley. The national average for this age group was 12.2%. For all workers the <a href="http://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/abs@.nsf/Latestproducts/6202.0Main%20Features2Apr%202016?opendocument&tabname=Summary&prodno=6202.0&issue=Apr%202016&num=&view=">unemployment rate was 5.7%</a>.</p>
<p>Nowhere in the country, though, are unemployment levels higher than in predominantly Indigenous townships like <a href="https://www.employment.gov.au/small-area-labour-markets-publication">Aurukun, Palm Island and Yarrabah</a>. Unemployment today in these former forced relocation sites hovers above 50%. That’s nearly three times the already <a href="https://theconversation.com/eight-ways-we-can-improve-indigenous-employment-60377">high national unemployment rate for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people</a>.</p>
<h2>Diversification and new economy jobs</h2>
<p>Changing workforce profiles mean that growth in the value of traditional rural and regional industries won’t necessarily solve the problem of unemployment.</p>
<p>Agricultural produce <a href="http://www.abs.gov.au/AUSSTATS/abs@.nsf/0/58529ACD49B5ECE0CA2577A000154456?Opendocument">recorded an increase in value</a> between 2010-11 and 2014-15 of about 13%, or A$6 billion. Over roughly the same period, though, <a href="https://docs.employment.gov.au/documents/australian-jobs-2015-publication">agriculture, forestry and fisheries shed nearly 40,000 jobs</a>. Another 9,400 jobs are expected to go by late 2020. Innovation is driving improvements across many aspects of primary production, including labour productivity.</p>
<p>The same pattern is likely to be replicated in mining. Even if we assume a recovery in mineral and energy markets, we must equally assume that investment in labour-saving technology will continue to rise. </p>
<p>Innovations in remote sensing, ITC and robotics will enable the <a href="https://theconversation.com/robots-red-dust-and-the-future-of-mining-towns-5814">automation of more and more jobs</a> on site, favouring a concentration of operational jobs in metropolitan control centres. </p>
<p>By contrast, jobs in health care and social assistance and professional, scientific and technical services <a href="https://docs.employment.gov.au/documents/australian-jobs-2015-publication">grew 20.3%</a> nationally in the five years to November 2015. More than one-third of healthcare and social assistance employees (more than half-a-million people) are located in non-metropolitan regions. Of these, 45% work part-time and 79% are women. </p>
<p>Other human service industries, such as education and training, are also significant and growing regional employers.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, only 18% of professional, scientific and technical services employees (184,200 people) work regionally. Of these, 22% are part-time and 40% are women. </p>
<p>The national shift to professional, scientific and technical services is helping compensate for declining employment in traditionally male, blue-collar industries like manufacturing. However, the benefits of a rapidly growing professional and scientific workforce are concentrated in the major cities. This needs to change. </p>
<p>Both existing industries and industries of the future require access to high-level scientific and technical expertise. The more such expertise can be nurtured within non-metropolitan areas the better placed they will be to sustain their competitiveness, participate in the knowledge economy and diversify employment opportunities.</p>
<h2>Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander participation</h2>
<p><a href="http://www.abs.gov.au/AUSSTATS/abs@.nsf/DetailsPage/3238.0.55.001June%202011?OpenDocument">Two-thirds of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians</a> live in rural and regional areas. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.dpmc.gov.au/sites/default/files/publications/Closing_the_Gap_2015_Report.pdf">Closing the Gap</a> reports demonstrate little progress against commitments to do so something about the disadvantage many experience. I will focus here on two issues with particularly direct implications for economic and social participation: incarceration and native title.</p>
<p>The rate at which Aboriginal and Torres Strait people <a href="http://www.pc.gov.au/research/ongoing/overcoming-indigenous-disadvantage">were imprisoned</a> rose 57.4% between 2000 and 2013, while the rate for non-Indigenous Australians remained steady. This suggests multiple policy failures related both directly and indirectly to the criminal justice system. </p>
<p>By contrast, the last decade has also seen multiple native title determinations. More than one-third of the Australian land mass is either <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/may/26/indigenous-australia-is-open-for-business-but-we-need-investment-to-realise-our-potential">owned by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander</a> peoples or has those peoples’ interests formally recognised. </p>
<p><a href="https://theconversation.com/is-the-white-paper-a-game-changer-for-northern-australia-43458">Indigenous Ranger programs</a> have proven extremely promising as means to care for these lands and create meaningful employment opportunities. The opportunity to utilise native title assets to build businesses and yet more jobs is immense. Realising that opportunity will require genuine partnerships with native title rights holders and creative approaches to investment. </p>
<h2>Health, education and social services</h2>
<p>Coupled with unemployment, inadequate access to services is a key dimension of <a href="http://ruralhealth.org.au/documents/publicseminars/2013_Sep/Joint-report.pdf">rural disadvantage</a>. </p>
<p>It is no secret that access to services such as health and education diminishes the further you get from capital cities. The cost of delivery goes up and the task of recruiting high-quality staff gets harder. </p>
<p>The situation may not be so bad in large regional centres, but in rural and remote locales it is estimated that <a href="http://ruralhealth.org.au/sites/default/files/publications/fact-sheet-27-election2016-13-may-2016.pdf">lack of access</a> to GPs, dentists, pharmacies and other primary health facilities results in about 60,000 preventable hospitalisations every year. The National Rural Health Alliance identifies access to mental health, dental health, Medicare Locals, aged care and Indigenous health as urgent priorities. </p>
<h2>Climate change</h2>
<p>Almost certainly, climate change will prove a <a href="http://www.acola.org.au/PDF/SAF07/social%20and%20political%20context.pdf">major disruptive force for agriculture</a> and other rural industries. Existing strategies for dealing with climatic variability will help land managers adapt to low levels of temperature rise. As climate change intensifies, though, they will need to consider more fundamental shifts in land use. </p>
<p>Just as importantly, global efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions could increase the cost of fossil-fuel-based inputs or create barriers to the sale of produce seen as emissions-intensive. </p>
<p>Rural industries will need to work with government and research institutions to reduce their emissions, adapt to changing environments and develop new income streams.</p>
<h2>Natural resource management</h2>
<p>The environmental impacts of rural land use attract consistent media and political interest. Land clearing, habitat loss, damage to iconic ecosystems, water allocations etc make regular front-page news. </p>
<p>Natural resource management policy has been most successful when it has been less about penalising land users and more about long-term collaboration in support of environmentally and economically sustainable use. </p>
<p>For several electoral cycles, however, natural resource management programs have been <a href="https://theconversation.com/another-broken-promise-budget-switches-landcare-for-green-army-26818">renamed, reprioritised and/or replaced</a>. Regardless of the merits or limitations of individual programs, rural and regional Australia needs a return to coherent and stable resource management policy.</p>
<h2>Agriculture</h2>
<p>Agriculture utilises <a href="http://www.acola.org.au/PDF/SAF07/social%20and%20political%20context.pdf">more than half the land mass</a> and contributes more to the economic vitality of Australia than most people appreciate. Despite decades of declining terms of trade and periods of intense drought, the productivity and value of agriculture have continued to outperform many other parts of the economy. </p>
<p>At the same time, however, thousands of farmers have been forced out of the industry. Fewer people than ever are taking on farming as an occupation.</p>
<p>It is no longer reasonable to expect agriculture alone to support vibrant rural and regional communities. It is reasonable, though, to position Australian agriculture to capitalise on population and income growth in the Asia-Pacific region. </p>
<p>Policy needs both an eye to this potential and a sensitivity to the very real challenges those in the sector face.</p>
<h2>To the election</h2>
<p>Already in this campaign, a handful of non-metropolitan electorates and issues have attracted attention. It will be interesting to see if former independent MP Tony Windsor can pick off Deputy Prime Minister Barnaby Joyce <a href="https://theconversation.com/from-top-dog-to-underdog-tony-windsors-fight-in-new-england-59447">in New England</a>, but the dynamics here tell us little about what is going on in rural and regional electorates more generally.</p>
<p>The Great Barrier Reef has emerged as one of the <a href="https://theconversation.com/this-election-is-our-last-chance-to-save-the-great-barrier-reef-59381">more prominent election issues</a> so far. Politicians of all hues have been visiting North Queensland to announce or defend natural resource and climate policies relevant to its health. </p>
<p>The audience for these announcements is probably more national than local. Electorates within the Great Barrier Reef catchment have lost numerous mining jobs and voters there will be just as keen to know the plan for employment growth. Can <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-will-the-barrier-reef-recover-from-the-death-of-one-third-of-its-northern-corals-60186">reef health</a> and employment growth be reconciled?</p>
<p>I’ll comment more on how these issues are playing out closer to election day on July 2. A month is a long long time in politics.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/59062/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Stewart Lockie receives funding from the Australian Research Council and the Australian Council of Learned Academies.</span></em></p>What are the issues facing rural and regional Australia? The challenges are many and varied – and only some have made the national political agenda – but these areas deserve better than neglect.Stewart Lockie, Director, The Cairns Institute, James Cook UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/589422016-06-01T09:42:43Z2016-06-01T09:42:43ZWho will breathe life back into Europe’s dying villages?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/124302/original/image-20160527-888-1t2z8u6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The mountain village of Novara di Sizilia, Italy. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">from www.shutterstock.com</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Europe’s countryside is dotted with quaint, postcard-perfect small towns and villages. These are steeped in history – their strong stone buildings and breathtaking squares capture the essence and culture of the continent. Some of them have been inhabited for hundreds of years – but today, the future for many of them is bleak.</p>
<p>There has been a flight of populations from the countryside to urban centres during the past century. The twin attractions of big cities – mass industrialisation and easy access to jobs – have taken their toll on rural existence. Many architectural gems in these country towns and villages – and the lifestyles that they represnted – are being forgotten and cast aside, as time and technology speed past them toward a new, urban future. </p>
<p>Worse lies ahead: in coming decades, rural depopulation is set to accelerate. In 2014, the <a href="http://esa.un.org/unpd/wup/Publications/Files/WUP2014-Highlights.pdf">United Nations noted</a> that 54% of the world’s population was already residing in urban areas – up from 30% in 1950. This proportion is expected to increase to 66% by 2050. </p>
<p>What began as a post-war migration to richer urban areas – as well as international cities, which offered more attractive job prospects – has turned into a chronic problem, which now appears impossible to stop. As younger generations continue to move toward urban centres, the remaining elderly populations of Europe’s semi-abandoned villages and hamlets will pass away, taking a large portion of the region’s history, tradition and lifestyle with them. </p>
<p>The more that village populations shrink, the more birthrates plummet and economies slow down; the more schools are closed down; the more doctors are centralised into larger towns – and the more post offices and public services are relocated to urban centres. Community or public transport is vital for commuting to work or accessing higher level services or education – all too often, this final lifeline also succumbs. </p>
<p>The process creates a vicious downward spiral of further abandonment, which becomes increasingly difficult to combat. Areas characterised by spectacular medieval fortresses, beautiful abbeys and frescoed churches grow increasingly desolate, until eventually they are abandoned. As a result, the countrysides of <a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/us-portugal-villages-widerimage-idUSKCN0XP1HC">Portugal</a>, Spain and Italy are punctuated by the empty shells of once-thriving towns. </p>
<h2>Untapped potential</h2>
<p>In an interview, architect Isabelle Beaumont, the director and founder of Workplace Futures – an organisation that looks at the future of work and the built environment – highlighted the importance of these small villages:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Geographical differences have always brought irreplaceable creative variation to art and architecture; a source of inspiration for current and future generations. As cultures and society homogenise, retaining, and not just conserving, Europe’s diverse industrial and agricultural heritage becomes ever increasingly important.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>A <a href="http://www.agenziaentrate.gov.it/wps/file/nsilib/nsi/documentazione/archivio/normativa+prassi+archivio+documentazione/archivio+comunicati+stampa/cs+2013/cs+ottobre+2013/cs+04102013+case+fantasma/140_Com++st++Case+fantasma+04+10+13.pdf">seven-year study</a> carried out by the <a href="http://www1.agenziaentrate.gov.it/english/revenue_agency/index_revenue.htm">Italian Revenue Agency</a>, estimated that Italy’s 1.26m unregistered, abandoned homes could generate €589m worth of tax revenue. But unless they appear on the land registry, they are not registered as real estate units – and as such they are not taxable. </p>
<p>The funds would come in handy for the Eurozone’s third-largest economy – Italy has undergone radical changes, after suffering its longest recession since World War II. Factories across the nation have closed at an unprecedented pace. Years of a strong euro have made Italian exports more expensive for other nations, which led to a decrease in demand and hurt the economy. And unemployment levels have reached record highs: <a href="http://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/statistics-explained/index.php/Unemployment_statistics#Youth_unemployment_trends">youth unemployment rates</a> hit 45.5% in Spain and 36.7% in Italy earlier this year. </p>
<h2>This town, is becoming like a ghost town</h2>
<p>In Spain and in Italy, as in other European nations, recent drastic measures have attempted to combat this slow agony of rural abandonment. In Spain – where it is estimated that there are some <a href="http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2576711/Buy-ghost-village-50-000-Thousands-abandoned-Spanish-hamlets-sale-price-London-garage.html">2,900 abandoned villages</a> – entire hamlets <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-22409449">are being sold</a> for as little as €45,000. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/124313/original/image-20160527-864-aemd0h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/124313/original/image-20160527-864-aemd0h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=356&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/124313/original/image-20160527-864-aemd0h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=356&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/124313/original/image-20160527-864-aemd0h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=356&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/124313/original/image-20160527-864-aemd0h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=447&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/124313/original/image-20160527-864-aemd0h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=447&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/124313/original/image-20160527-864-aemd0h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=447&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Free, good home.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/rainshift79/6850056132/sizes/l">Rainshift/Flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In Italy, <a href="http://www.politico.eu/article/italy-ghost-towns-emigration/">some calculate</a> that there are 6,000 ghost towns nationwide, as well as 15,000 villages which are down to 10% of their original population. There, residents and local authorities have resorted to some rather original plans of action. </p>
<p>In the southern Italian medieval village of Sellia, local mayor and paediatrician Davide Zicchinella <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/blogs-news-from-elsewhere-33819117">published a decree</a> forbidding locals from falling ill and dying. While Zicchinella has admitted that he cannot fight the laws of nature, he’s hoping that his action will prompt elderly residents to take up healthier lifestyles. </p>
<p>Meanwhile, the mayors of Sicilian towns Gangi and Salemi, together with Carreghi Ligure in northern Italy, have resorted to <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2015/06/23/world/europe/sicilian-town-tells-outsiders-take-our-homes-please.html?_r=0">selling abandoned homes</a> for €1 each, providing that buyers agree to rebuild them within a given period of time. Others, such as Civita Bagnoreggia, have <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/italy/9971452/Crumbling-Italian-village-to-charge-entrance-fee-to-pay-for-foundations.html">started charging visitors</a> tourist entrance fees. And the town of Fillettino even said it would <a href="http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-pacific-14774526">seek to break free</a> of the Italian federal tax system, in a bid to cut down costs. </p>
<p>The effects of these measures have so far been limited. But the originality and inventiveness of such leaders kindles some hope for the future of Europe’s rural towns.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/58942/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>When villages across Spain, Portugal and Italy are abandoned, the regions’ unique culture and heritage is lost, too.Alina Trabattoni, Researcher, Anglia Ruskin UniversityDavid Arkell, Director of Business Development, Anglia Ruskin UniversityRobert Willis, Reader, Anglia Ruskin UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/576802016-04-15T03:45:00Z2016-04-15T03:45:00ZWhy urban agriculture isn’t a panacea for Africa’s food crisis<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/118719/original/image-20160414-2644-b0yplm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Food security efforts need to look beyond urban agriculture.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Jane Battersby</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Urban agriculture is widely <a href="https://books.google.co.za/books?id=2UFHcPig454C&printsec=frontcover&dq=Thornton+has+published+a+book+Urban+Agriculture+in+South+Africa&hl=en&sa=X&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q&f=false">promoted</a> as the solution to the growing problem of <a href="http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s12571-013-0295-3">urban food insecurity</a> in <a href="http://www.cabdirect.org/abstracts/20163005898.html">South Africa</a> and in <a href="http://www.fao.org/docrep/016/i3002e/i3002e.pdf">Africa</a> <a href="http://www.fao.org/3/a-i4141e.pdf">more broadly</a>. It is said to provide livelihoods and social cohesion, and have <a href="http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2212095513000552">environmental benefits.</a> But it’s also promoted as having additional food security benefits.</p>
<p>It is the primary, and usually the only, food security <a href="https://www.capetown.gov.za/en/Pages/Citylobbiesfoodgardensupport.aspx">policy of local governments</a>, and the focus of many NGOs and corporate social investment programmes.</p>
<p>There is, however, very little evidence to support this level of investment and focus.</p>
<p>It is thus important to critically assess whether the promotion of urban agriculture is warranted, particularly when it is at the expense of other potential solutions. We simply cannot afford to keep polishing the lamp and hoping the genie will appear.</p>
<h2>Research shows something else</h2>
<p>Proponents of urban agriculture offer figures suggesting that as many as <a href="https://theconversation.com/uprooting-patriarchy-gender-and-urban-agriculture-on-south-africas-cape-flats-55882">40% of African urban residents</a> are involved in some form of agriculture. Such figures require far greater interrogation. In the case of Cape Town in South Africa, research conducted in low-income areas of the city in 2008 found that <a href="http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/0376835X.2011.605572">less than 5% of poor residents</a> were involved in any form of urban agriculture. In reality, those most active in <a href="http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s12132-014-9219-3">urban agriculture</a> were found to be wealthier people in low-income areas. </p>
<p>Context is a further determining factor. <a href="http://www.afsun.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/Web-Battersby-et-al-Looking-Beyond-Urban-Agriculture.pdf">Research</a> shows that in towns where the municipal boundary extended into areas with more rural characteristics, urban agriculture was higher. </p>
<p>In South Africa this finding is supported by the <a href="http://www.afsun.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/Web-Battersby-et-al-Looking-Beyond-Urban-Agriculture.pdf">2011 census</a>, which identified more than 30% of the population practising urban agriculture in medium-sized towns like Mafikeng, Polokwane and Newcastle. In Mogale City and Johannesburg, larger settlements with large urban settlements adjacent, the practice was well below 10%. And in Cape Town it was <a href="http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/0376835X.2011.605572">below 5%</a>. Context, climate, soil fertility and spatial legacies all matter.</p>
<p>There is little evidence to suggest urban agriculture is contributing to food and nutrition security, either <a href="http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s12132-014-9219-3">locally</a> or <a href="http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2211912414000431">internationally</a>. The incomes from sales of produce are generally low, so the indirect food security benefits are limited.</p>
<h2>Assumptions without evidence</h2>
<p>The assumption in much advocacy work and policy is that urban agriculture benefits the most food-insecure households. But numerous case studies show <a href="http://www.sacities.net/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/Urban-Food-Security-Report.pdf">this is not the case</a>. </p>
<p>Two themes are implicit in motivations for urban agriculture. The first is <a href="https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=999878190080653&id=385292311539247">welfare driven</a>. The second is a narrative that calls for self-help interventions so that the poor initiate their own food security through urban agriculture. This assumes free time for the under-employed poor, who pursue multiple strategies to <a href="http://www.bartlett.ucl.ac.uk/dpu/latest/publications/dpu-working-papers/WP50.pdf">survive.</a></p>
<p>Linked to this is the assumption that the food insecure can get access to land, water, seeds and everything else they need. This misses the <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/262685535_URBAN_AGRICULTURE_AND_RACE_IN_SOUTH_AFRICA">reality of poverty</a>. State and NGO programmes do facilitate access to such resources, but the most vulnerable lack the knowledge or social networks to access these.</p>
<p>Urban agriculture is often promoted as <a href="http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/03768350120097478">a means of empowerment.</a> But expecting the urban poor, who have the least access to resources, to grow their own and lift themselves out of poverty and food insecurity fails to recognise the <a href="https://books.google.co.za/books?id=dw6iAgAAQBAJ&pg=PT34&dq=Slocum+Battersby+Urban+Agriculture+and+race&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwi4nqXvy_7LAhVCuxQKHcafDjgQ6AEIIDAB#v=onepage&q=Slocum%20Battersby%20Urban%20Agriculture%20and%20race&f=false">barriers constraining urban agriculture</a>. That isn’t empowerment; it’s the cruelty of false promises.</p>
<p>So where does the dogged pursuit of urban agriculture as the solution come from?</p>
<ol>
<li><p>Local governments have no direct food security mandate, as food insecurity is still considered by most states to be <a href="http://www.gov.za/sites/www.gov.za/files/37915_gon637.pdf">primarily a rural problem</a>. This means local governments wishing to address food insecurity adapt rural programmes to meet urban needs. </p></li>
<li><p>Food insecurity is seen as a <a href="http://www.nda.agric.za/docs/genreports/foodsecurity.pdf">household poverty problem</a> and not a systemic problem. The obvious household response is food production. </p></li>
<li><p>The state is largely unwilling to address the systemic drivers of food insecurity, which would entail regulating <a href="http://dspace.africaportal.org/jspui/bitstream/123456789/35493/1/PLAAS%20Rural%20Report%20Book%201%20-%20Stephen%20-%20Web.pdf?1">food companies</a> and challenging the <a href="https://nationalplanningcommission.files.wordpress.com/2015/02/ndp-2030-our-future-make-it-work_0.pdf">dominant development agenda</a>. </p></li>
</ol>
<p>Looked at in this light it is possible to view the increased promotion of urban agriculture as a politically reactionary response. It claims to be aimed at fixing the worst effects of structural poverty and food insecurity. But it doesn’t actually address the <a href="http://cdm15738.contentdm.oclc.org/utils/getfile/collection/p15738coll2/id/125712/filename/125743.pdf">root causes</a>.</p>
<h2>Changes that need to be made</h2>
<p>For as long as urban agriculture remains local government’s main entry point for addressing food insecurity, it is essential that programming be improved. </p>
<p>First, more effort needs to made in monitoring and evaluation of government-run initiatives. Though inputs are monitored well, outputs and impact monitoring are extremely weak. This means many programmes are failing and lessons are not being learnt.</p>
<p>Second, many NGOs working in urban agriculture have sustainable, viable projects. Local government should work more directly with these to increase the viability of state-initiated projects.</p>
<p>And if urban agriculture is to be a main focus area for food security programming, then suitable land should be identified and protected.</p>
<p>But urban food security efforts need to look beyond urban agriculture. For example, it is essential that local governments understand the food system in which urban agriculture operates to understand why producers struggle to find markets for their goods. This would allow them to develop a range of interventions based on their existing mandates, including integrating formal and informal food retailing spaces, and supporting fresh produce markets to increase their role in local, pro-poor food value chains.</p>
<p>Finally, local governments should develop food security strategies to guide their interventions. Through these measures, urban agriculture can remain integral to efforts to alleviate food insecurity and would be more likely to have the <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/284724553_Looking_beyond_urban_agriculture_Extending_urban_food_policy_responses">desired impact</a>.</p>
<p>It is clear that urban agriculture can have significant benefits for some participating <a href="https://theconversation.com/uprooting-patriarchy-gender-and-urban-agriculture-on-south-africas-cape-flats-55882">households</a>. But we are concerned about the absence of wider evidence supporting its potential to address food insecurity beyond those households. The assertion that urban agriculture can provoke systemic change is untested. Through their dogged promotion of urban agriculture, <a href="http://www.capetown.gov.za/en/Pages/Citylobbiesfoodgardensupport.aspx">the state</a> and the private sector can claim they are working towards food insecurity and have a good photo op with key personnel in wellington boots. At the same time they can absolve themselves from responsibility for the causes of food insecurity.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/57680/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Gareth Haysom received funding from from CIDA (AFSUN Programme) and currently receives funding from the ESRC/DFID (Consuming Urban Poverty Project) and IDRC (Hungry Cities Partnership programme).</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jane Battersby has received funding from CIDA (AFSUN Programme) and FORMAS (Ways of Knowing Urban Ecology Project). She currently receives funding from the ESRC/DFID (Consuming Urban Poverty Project).</span></em></p>It’s important to question whether the promotion of urban agriculture can actually help people, or whether other solutions should be explored.Gareth Haysom, Researcher at the African Centre for Cities, University of Cape TownJane Battersby, Senior Researcher in Urban Food Security and Food Systems, University of Cape TownLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/562142016-03-16T04:32:19Z2016-03-16T04:32:19ZEducation can’t be for ‘the public good’ if universities ignore rural life<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/115080/original/image-20160315-9276-13jh7qm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Nearly 20 million South Africans live in rural areas. Why are the country's universities so dismissive of rurality?</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Kim Ludbrook/EPA</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Education can and should change people’s lives. Education systems ought to operate with <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/ref/college/coll-howard-pres.html?8bl">the public good</a> in mind. But for many South Africans, this is <a href="http://www.section27.org.za/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/Spaull-2013-CDE-report-South-Africas-Education-Crisis.pdf">not the case</a>. I would suggest that part of the reason post-colonial and post-apartheid educational policies are not succeeding is because they are biased towards outcomes that are relevant only for and to urbanised contexts. They exclude rurality. </p>
<p>South Africa’s rural population is more than <a href="http://data.worldbank.org/indicator/SP.RUR.TOTL">19 million people</a> strong. Yet one must live, work and flourish in cities in order to find fulfilment as an “educated” individual. People who come from rural areas may however not “fit” or feel comfortable in urban settings, but their degrees may not be easily applied in their own home towns. </p>
<p>The education an accountant receives, for example, does not instil the desire to return to a rural area and help subsistence farmers manage their businesses and finances. Instead, their education encourages students to place more value on a corporate job managing big companies’ finances. This disconnect between educatedness and rurality may be one reason for the country’s graduate unemployment <a href="http://www.sajhrm.co.za/index.php/sajhrm/article/view/656">rate</a>. </p>
<p>Against this backdrop, several questions arise: for which “public” are South Africa’s universities educating the younger generation? For whose “good” are they receiving this education? Which “public” receives “the good” out of students’ education?</p>
<h2>Colonialism’s “hidden curriculum”</h2>
<p>Universities’ ideas of “educatedness”, progress, success and relevance are all underscored by a Western definition of what constitutes a good society (one in which an atomised individual rationally pursues his own selfish good). They do not take into account concepts like <a href="http://www.ubuntu.com/about/about-ubuntu">Ubuntu</a> – the idea that all people’s well-being is interconnected.</p>
<p>These definitions mean that the type of education graduates receive does not instil a love for the rural communities and contexts in which many of them grew up. They are not left with a desire to live and work in these spaces. This is because there are seeds inherent in the education they receive that have the potential to produce, in the long run, a disgust for rurality. Graduates are left with a bigger appetite for city life.</p>
<p>This, tragically, was exactly what lay at the heart of colonial education’s “hidden curriculum”. Professor Ali Abdi <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Dialectics-African-Education-Western-Discourses/dp/1433113783">writes</a> that colonial education:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>never had, in design or implementation, the interests of the colonised at heart, and even if few of the natives were presumably educated, the objective was, at least at the philosophical point of view, to create a corps … who were only trained to serve as mediating buffer … between the interests of the metropolis and the “illiterates”/“uneducated” colonised millions.</p>
</blockquote>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/115079/original/image-20160315-9282-1ygikd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/115079/original/image-20160315-9282-1ygikd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/115079/original/image-20160315-9282-1ygikd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=439&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/115079/original/image-20160315-9282-1ygikd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=439&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/115079/original/image-20160315-9282-1ygikd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=439&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/115079/original/image-20160315-9282-1ygikd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=552&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/115079/original/image-20160315-9282-1ygikd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=552&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/115079/original/image-20160315-9282-1ygikd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=552&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Swayimane, the village in KwaZulu-Natal where the author grew up. Rural areas like these are disparaged by the education system.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Emmanuel Mgqwashu</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Where the West’s real power lies</h2>
<p>When colonialism ended, Africa’s education systems were <a href="http://ehlt.flinders.edu.au/education/iej/articles/v2n5/4Wool/paper.pdf">not revised</a> to draw from local philosophies of education and knowledge generation. Post-colonial policies were not designed with an emphasis on restoring pride, confidence and dignity back to local traditional lifestyles, identities and knowledge systems. Their greatest aim was to increase the number of indigenous populations who received colonial education. This included sending people overseas to receive degrees from European universities.</p>
<p>These practices may seem positive and effective when taken at face value. After all, weren’t they preparing African graduates for the “global future”? The problem is that under post-colonial policies, such a future was going to be meaningful, beneficial and fulfilling only to those living in cities. The values underlying such education had no space for rurality, rural lifestyles or contexts.</p>
<p>This points to the persistent characteristics of Western imperialist and colonial vestiges and power over former colonies. In his book <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Orientalism-Concepts-Social-Sciences-Paperback/dp/0335202063">Orientalism</a>, theorist Ziauddin Sardar writes:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>The real power of the West is not located in its economic muscles and technological might. Rather, it resides in the power to define. The West defines what is, for example, freedom, progress and civil behaviour; law, tradition and community; reason, mathematics and science; what is real and what it means to be human. The non-Western civilisations have simply to accept these definitions or be defined out of existence.</p>
</blockquote>
<h2>Redefinition is crucial</h2>
<p>South African educationist Professor Jonathan Jansen has blamed what he calls “the theory of political symbolism” for limited or non-existent policy implementation after apartheid. This theory, Jansen <a href="http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/02680930110116534">explains</a>, is marked by “a struggle for the achievement of a broad political symbolism to mark the shift from apartheid to post-apartheid society”. In other words, passing many policies that had an anti-apartheid, democratic ‘flavour’ seems to be an end in itself, as most of them never truly liberate the previously oppressed. </p>
<p>Decolonisation should be seen as a much deeper project than replacing texts perceived to be colonial with texts seen as carrying a decolonising “flavour”. It’s too simplistic to merely add the work of theorists like Frantz Fanon or activists like Steve Biko to courses. Doing so remains symbolic of nothing more than academics’ <em>desire</em> and <em>aspirations</em> to decolonise. </p>
<p>The onus now is on academics in Africa across all fields to take back the power to redefine the purpose for which students are educated. This should involve redefining the concepts of “educatedness”, “progress”, “success” and “relevance”. What are these concepts’ purposes, functions and the roles they potentially have to play - not just in cities and urban contexts?</p>
<p>These redefinitions, along with a reimagining of curricula, represent a crucial aspect of decolonising the entire education system from primary school through to university. Academics must strategically bring back what Abdi <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Dialectics-African-Education-Western-Discourses/dp/1433113783">describes</a> as “intersections of life and learning”. At the moment, values that characterise rurality, rural lifestyles and contexts – such as the philosophy of Ubuntu – are absent from our idea of “educatedness”. This means that talent, resourcefulness, ideas and expertise from these spaces are silenced. </p>
<p>If the education system does not grapple with this exclusion, there will forever be a large population within the “public” for whom education can never be said to be “for their good”. Educatedness will persistently be for the private good – for “me”, “myself” and “I”.</p>
<h2>Academics have a choice</h2>
<p>Academics in Africa have a choice to take back the power to define. It is up to us to redefine educatedness, and indeed re-imagine an education system that will produce graduates with knowledge and skills that <em>also</em> speak to rurality. This system must affirm the uniqueness of rural life and the ever-present yet largely invisible wisdom that rural contexts could provide to South Africa. Such education can confidently be defined as being for the public good.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/56214/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Emmanuel Mgqwashu receives funding from National Research Foundation. </span></em></p>South Africa’s educational policies and curricula tend to be biased against rural lifestyles - even though nearly 20 million people live in the country’s rural areas.Emmanuel Mgqwashu, Professor of English Language Teaching and Literacy Development, Rhodes UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/556772016-03-08T04:39:18Z2016-03-08T04:39:18ZCan agriculture in Africa sustain a nourishing rural non-farm economy?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/114095/original/image-20160307-31289-1xi6ua8.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">When agriculture is disconnected from the local economy, its contribution to local economic development is limited.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">David Neves</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>After being out of fashion for a long period, agriculture has been coming back into the spotlight again as part of development policy. Amid rising concerns about food insecurity and high expectations from agribusiness, policymakers have started to emphasise the importance of agriculture as a <a href="http://dfid-agriculture-consultation.nri.org/launchpapers/roleofagriculture.pdf">source of employment</a>. </p>
<p>Across Africa interest in agricultural investment as a source of employment growth and profit <a href="http://www.nepad.org/foodsecurity/agriculture/about">is growing</a>. In South Africa, the National Development Plan identifies agriculture as the potential basis of <a href="http://www.gov.za/issues/government-priority-creating-decent-jobs">one million new jobs</a>. </p>
<p>But how realistic are these hopes? In our globalised and competitive world, agricultural development is not a great direct generator of jobs. In fact, increases in the intensity, efficiency or competitiveness of agriculture often push large numbers of people <a href="http://www.plaas.org.za/blog/land-grabbing-southeast-asia-%E2%80%93-what-can-africa-learn">off the land</a>. Farm workers, less efficient small farmers, and women often get the short end of the stick.</p>
<p>Policymakers often assume that this is an inevitable part of progress. In the past, displaced rural labour has often found alternative employment in the cities. But in many parts of the world, including sub-Saharan Africa, the prospects for this are slender. Agricultural development may enrich a few – but it can also swell the numbers of the urban poor. </p>
<p>Agricultural development can only serve inclusive growth if it contributes to an inclusive and diverse rural non-farm economy. Unfortunately, policymakers tend to ignore this issue. Agricultural policy is not much concerned with labour markets, while industry and trade ministers tend to concentrate on urban issues. </p>
<p>This is an important gap. Policymakers need to ask how different pathways of agricultural development affect non-farm employment.</p>
<h2>A different approach</h2>
<p>A recent multi-country <a href="http://www.plaas.org.za/smead">research project</a> funded by <a href="https://degrp.odi.org/">DfID and the ESRC</a> suggests that the right kind agricultural development can indeed stimulate rural non-farm job creation. But the links are neither simple nor direct. </p>
<p>The study by the <a href="http://www.plaas.org.za/">Institute for Poverty, Land and Agrarian Studies (PLAAS)</a> at the University of the Western Cape investigated linkages between agriculture and the non-farm economy. It focused on three rural districts: Weenen in South Africa, Mchinji in Malawi, and Mazowe and Masvingo in Zimbabwe. </p>
<p>Rather than the social accounting matrices usually used for this kind of research, PLAAS and its partners took a qualitative approach. They carefully mapped the flows of money and resources that connect local agricultural enterprises to upstream and downstream markets.</p>
<p>What has emerged is a complex picture. What is good for the farmer is not necessarily good for the non-farm economy. Farmers with deeper pockets may not always spend their gains in ways that benefit their neighbours. Rather, beneficial effects depend on the local political economy. </p>
<p>Three factors are particularly important:</p>
<ol>
<li><p>the scale and ownership of agriculture itself;</p></li>
<li><p>the pattern and design of upstream and downstream linkages between farmers and the rest of the economy; and</p></li>
<li><p>the nature of local social dynamics and power relations.</p></li>
</ol>
<h2>Different landscapes</h2>
<p>Each case study revealed a very different scenario. In <a href="http://www.plaas.org.za/plaas-publications/rr-45-smead-malawi">Mchinji</a> small-scale farmers on communal land accessed local fresh produce markets by venturing into horticulture. Many new local livelihood opportunities were created – but these were small and vulnerable. </p>
<p>In <a href="http://www.plaas.org.za/plaas-publications/pb37-smead-zimbabwe">Mazowe</a>, small-scale tobacco growers who benefited from Fast-Track Land Reform made good money from distant markets, particularly China. This in turn created many opportunities for specialised local entrepreneurs.</p>
<p>In Weenen, large-scale agriculture turned out to be disconnected from the local economy. It had upstream and downstream links to distant markets but contributed little to employment in the area.</p>
<h2>What works?</h2>
<p>An analysis of the spatial patterns revealed by these case studies suggested some important insights. Simply being connected to distant markets is not enough to guarantee that agricultural development benefits the local non-farm economy. </p>
<p>Access to distant markets can support local employment. But this only happens if such farms are located in dense local networks that are socially embedded and not characterised by highly unequal power relations. </p>
<p>Where there are such networks, the local economy can benefit from trade and income flows. These benefits accrue through the purchase of intermediate inputs, and from local consumption and investment expenditure. They also come about through local retail, processing and transport of agricultural produce.</p>
<p>The scale of agriculture is an important factor too. In the South African case study, large-scale commercial farmers gained good incomes from highly efficient farms that served distant markets. But they also bought their inputs from distant suppliers. They provided little employment locally, and most of their spending on goods and services took place elsewhere. In Malawi, the same tended to be true of large estate farms. </p>
<p>This contrasted strongly with Zimbabwe where, for instance, the opportunities linked to small livestock farming and to small tobacco farmers’ windfalls from trade with China circulated in the local economy. </p>
<p>In all these cases, a common pattern emerges. Where large-scale agriculture is owned by distant players or by a farming elite with few local political or social commitments, the economic networks they create are unlikely to stimulate local opportunities.</p>
<p>Similarly, some kinds of economic integration can actually worsen marginalisation and unemployment. The positive spin-offs of agricultural development in Zimbabwe and Malawi, for instance, seem to be strongly linked to the absence of powerful, vertically integrated and internationally owned corporate food retail chains and supermarkets. </p>
<p>When big supermarkets enter, they create some formal sector jobs. But they also marginalise local farmers, compete with local traders, and suck money out of the local economy. In contrast, small and locally owned retail enterprises and markets are a key element of the agrarian structure. While often modest and not very glamorous, they are crucial for circulating money and economic opportunities.</p>
<p>In all three countries, the research suggests that ensuring an inclusive rural economy is about much more than growth in agricultural trade. Aside from exporting agricultural produce, rural economies tap into national and urban economies via social grants and public service salaries.</p>
<p>Links are also developed through the expansion of the non-agricultural urban economy into rural areas. The existence of migrant networks and “stretched” households that straddle the urban-rural divide also helps. </p>
<p>Additionally, many agricultural entrepreneurs also depend on other, non-agricultural service industries. These include tourism, hospitality, the building trade and small town services.</p>
<p>So, while agriculture can contribute to local employment, it is better able to do so when there is a diverse, rural non-agricultural economy. This diverse economy can ensure that more money is circulating in the local markets, benefiting farmers and other entrepreneurs dependent on agriculture. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/114097/original/image-20160307-31289-apyntg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/114097/original/image-20160307-31289-apyntg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/114097/original/image-20160307-31289-apyntg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/114097/original/image-20160307-31289-apyntg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/114097/original/image-20160307-31289-apyntg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/114097/original/image-20160307-31289-apyntg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/114097/original/image-20160307-31289-apyntg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Zimbabwe’s non-farm economy has benefited from the profits of tobacco farmers.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">REUTERS/Philimon Bulawayo</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Implications</h2>
<p>These findings have important implications for agricultural and economic policy. </p>
<p>First, they suggest that agricultural policy should promote smallholder agriculture – not simply as a contribution to food security, but also as a source of employment, and as a powerful hub for forward and backward linkages into the local economy.</p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/114099/original/image-20160307-31277-jmw97r.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/114099/original/image-20160307-31277-jmw97r.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=392&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/114099/original/image-20160307-31277-jmw97r.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=392&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/114099/original/image-20160307-31277-jmw97r.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=392&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/114099/original/image-20160307-31277-jmw97r.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=492&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/114099/original/image-20160307-31277-jmw97r.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=492&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/114099/original/image-20160307-31277-jmw97r.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=492&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Better support for local retail and informal markets is often neglected by planners.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">David Neves</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In South Africa, while there has been lots of pro-small farmer rhetoric, agricultural and land reform policy is in practice still biased towards large scale farming. The time is overdue for genuine pro-small farmer land reform. </p>
<p>Where rainfall and markets allow, this kind of land reform can make an important contribution to the rural economy and the survival and welfare strategies of poor South Africans. Such a policy would also enable beleaguered medium-scale white farmers – who contribute little to food security anyway – to exit the market.</p>
<p>Elsewhere in Africa, land and investment deals that create large-scale farming enterprises, externally owned and plugged into distant export markets, are unlikely to contribute to local employment. They should not be supported in the mistaken belief that they do.</p>
<p>Maximising the economic benefit from agricultural development and smallholder farming requires better support for local retail and informal markets often disregarded by urban planners. These markets include those for livestock and fresh produce.</p>
<p>Finally, local planning, land use, zoning and anti-trust law and policy should be geared to protecting small informal growers, markets and retailers from being swamped by large-scale agriculture and the intrusion of powerful corporate retailers into rural markets.</p>
<hr>
<p><em>The study, done by PLAAS, on which this article is based was part of the <a href="http://degrp.squarespace.com/">Growth Research Programme</a> funded by the British Department for International Development and Economic and Social Research Council.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/55677/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Andries du Toit received funding from the UK Department for International Development and the Economic and Social Research Council to conduct this research. </span></em></p>Agriculture can only contribute to rural growth and development to the benefit of all if it links with an inclusive and diverse rural non-farm economy.Andries du Toit, Director, Institute for Poverty, Land and Agrarian Studies, University of the Western CapeLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.