Sustainable Peace and Security in Africa: Strategy for Attainment of Agenda 2063 of African Union (Published)
Armed conflicts have become a regular realism in Africa for so long and the continent is predominantly conflict-prone and has also accommodated more than one third of international violent conflicts in the last few years. The resurgence of conflict in Africa after the Cold War is mostly worrisome and disturbing. Despite these challenges and threats posed by conflict in the region, there is a lack of a common approach in terms of proper policy formulation for appropriate prevention and management of these conflicts that occurs in the continent. The presence of violence conflict and insecurity on the African continent is obvious and apparent. Therefore, the trust of this paper seeks to examine these overlapping issues and attempts to provide a possible solution in resolving them. Data were obtained using secondary sources and the data were analyzed qualitatively. The causes of conflict and insecurity were revealed. The paper also observed that the prospect of achieving Agenda 2063 of African Union is profoundly depends on proper mechanisms for conflict prevention, management and resolution in the region. Therefore, the paper recommends among others, that the putting into practice of the African policy on Governance Architecture must be given the required importance as APSA and AGA are two sides of one coin. Whereas AGA focuses on comprehensive questions of governance, APSA places importance on the instruments for conflict management, resolution, and peace-building. These two must work together, as this will not only bring about peace and security needed in the continent of Africa but, will also guaranteed and serve a lead way for the Attainment of Agenda 2063 of African Union.
Keywords: Africa, African Union, Conflict, Security, agenda 2063, sustainable peace
Cultural Communication, Gender Inequality and Sustainable Development in Africa: A Re-Appraisal (Published)
The perpetuation of gender inequality in Africa has remained prevalent and pervasive with costly implications (Azuh et al. 2017; African Human Development Report 2016). Against this background, the paper examined the critical role of cultural communication in achieving gender equality and sustainable development in Africa. The objectives of the study were to ascertain the reasons for the continued prevalence of gender inequality in Africa, identify the consequences of this practice for Africa’s sustainable growth and proffer solutions for achieving gender equality and sustainable growth in Africa. The study was anchored on the Agenda setting as well as Gender and Development theories. The methodological approach followed the qualitative analyses of related literature and documents in tying the nexus between gender inequality, cultural communication and development in Africa. The study found that culture-induced gender inequalities still exist and greatly impede sustainable growth in Africa. The paper, therefore, recommended that the ministries of information and cultural reorientation at all levels of government in Africa, should seriously strengthen and use the complementariness of the indigenous media, the traditional mass media and new mass media systems to reorientate and facilitate a positive attitudinal change to gender issues in Africa.
Citation: Odishika, Emmanuel Chukuka (2021) Cultural Communication, Gender Inequality and Sustainable Development in Africa: A Re-Appraisal, Global Journal of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences, Vol.9, No.8, pp.1-10
Keywords: Africa, cultural communication, gender inequality and sustainable development
African Research and Policy Development: Challenges and Solutions (Published)
There is an age-long relationship between research and policy development and vice versa. In recent years, research has assumed growing importance in Africa. However, this growing hunger for research has borne little policy development impact owing to lack of capacity and genuine desire to solve societal problems. Most often than not, African researchers are influenced by narrow immediate personal benefits of research without the desire to drive policy development. Similarly, most African policymakers are more mindful of acknowledging and promoting their personal interests than embracing research that benefits society. The fall out of these is the difficulty in the supply, uptake and use of quality research for policy development. This paper will discuss personal interests as the main challenge to African research and policy development and proffer suitable solutions.
Keywords: Africa, Policy Development, personal interests, research evidence
Understanding Rural-Urban Migration from the Perspectives of Migrants in Agbogbloshie, Ghana (Published)
About half of the urban growth in Africa is accounted for by migrants from rural areas yet we fail to understand migration from the perspectives of the migrants. This paper seeks to understand rural urban migration from the perspective of migrants and how this can inform rural development planning. A mixed research design was adopted to explore the decision making process around migration. In-depth interviews were held with migrants in Agbogbloshie and their families in Yendi where they have come from. The paper found that while rural-urban migration will persist for a long time because of the deprivation in rural areas, migrants have plans to return home. Planning would need to shift from the conventional approaches of general rural development towards a good understanding of rural development problems unique to certain areas.
Keywords: Africa, Development, Ghana, Migration, Planning, Urbanisation
Polygamy and Christianity in Africa (Published)
Whereas it is believed erroneously among many people that Polygamy implies the art of a man being married to more than one wife, the true definition of polygamy implies the idea of a man being married to more than one wife (Polygamy) or a woman being married to more than one man at the same time (Polyandry), or more than one man being married to more than one woman all at the same time which is communal marriage. It is the intention of this paper to examine Polygamy especially, which is the idea of a man being married to more than one wife concurrently at the same time. I shall, however, use the word ‘Polygamy’ because of its popular usage in spite of the fact that I am aware that the right word is Polygamy.
Keywords: Africa, Christianity, Polygamy
Africa in the eyes of Cable Network News (CNN) AND Aljazeera: A comparative analysis (Published)
The thrust of this study was to ascertain the frequency and nature of coverage given to the African region by CNN and Aljazeera. The objectives however were predicated on the ideology that the mass media can facilitate global peace and understanding through meaningful exchange of information and ideas. The news programmes of CNN and Aljazeera were content analysed for fifteen (15) days with a view to streamlining the pattern of coverage given to Africa by the two networks. Analysis was done quantitatively and qualitatively. Inter-coder reliability showed a correlation of r=86. Data revealed that much of Africa was not reported by CNN in contradistinction to Aljazeera. It was further found that CNN had a preponderance of unfavourable news (75%) while Aljazeera had a fairly equitable distribution of 47% across the favourable and unfavourable categories. A synthesis of the data showed Aljazeera to be more favourably disposed towards the reportage of Africa. It was however recommended that global news media should enrich their portals with penetration. This no doubt will ensure the coverage of areas considered too distant to reach. It was further recommended that there should be an emerging drive by the governments of African countries to develop communication facilities that will help launch Africa to the world so as to break the dependency on global media
Keywords: Africa, Aljazeera, CNN, Global media, News flow