My recent research article on Displacement-related land disputes in Burundi

June 7, 2017

Framing identity in contestations over land in post-repatriation settings: The case of southern Burundi

The shift from violence to peace in Burundi has been marked by heavy contestations over land as a result of mass displacement and repatriation (see Kamungi, Oketch & Huggins, 2005). To facilitate policy-making, these land disputes have been framed by different (inter-)national actors as opposing two major camps: repatriates vs occupants. In this dichotomist representation, repatriates refer mainly to former Hutu civilians who fled mass violence perpetrated by former Tutsi-dominated ruling regimes; while occupants involve civilians who took over refugees’ land in their prolonged absence. Yet, these land disputes are much more complex than that. More

Great memories from my PhD fieldwork in Burundi’s hills: Elections of community representatives

April 5, 2017

After a long history of violence and undemocratic governance, thanks to the constitutional reform, institutional changes and the promotion of human rights and gender inclusion by NGOs and civil society organizations in the aftermath of the 1993-2005 civil war, there have been new practices in local governance in Burundi. In 2014, during my fieldwork in rural communities of Burundi, investigating postwar land reform and land registration, I had the opportunity to witness local elections of community representatives who will participate in the land demarcation within the process of land registration. From the pictures (and short video through my Twitter account @RosinTchatchoua) below, transformations in gender relations and local governance practices are clearly visible. The election took place under the supervision of communal council representatives and NGO workers, as follows:

  1. Welcoming community members and explaining how the election will proceed;
  2. Nomination of candidates;
  3. Election: Each villager (including the nominees) gives the name of the person he/she is voting for to the NGO workers. At the end of the process, the names of the persons with the most votes are exposed to the community;
  4. Finally, each elected person has to confirm his/her commitment to complete the task assigned to him/her.

Link to the short video

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Fascinating and valuable insights about field work realities in African settings

March 31, 2017

Liz Storer is a 3rd year PhD researcher at the Department of International Development, LSE. Anna C. Shoemaker is a 4th year PhD researcher at the Department of Archaeology and Ancient History, Uppsala University. What’s the general area of your doctoral theses? Anna: I am looking at how pastoralists interacted with landscapes over the last […]

via Double post: On conducting fieldwork in East Africa —

Of Land and Poverty …

March 31, 2017

Lets talk development blog by Klaus Deininger Land and property lie at the center of many of today’s pressing development challenges. Consider that at most 10% of land in rural Africa is reliably registered. At this week‘s annual Land and Poverty Conference here at the World Bank, we will hear how this vast gap in documentation […]

via Women, cities, and opportunity: Making the case for secure land rights — Netherlands for the World Bank

Amazing, Isn’t it? Thanks for sharing this !

February 27, 2017

We are on a ten-day tour of Death Valley, Bryce Canyon and Zion National Parks. But first, after all twelve of us met in Las Vegas, we toured Valley of Fire State Park, about 90 minute drive north of Las Vegas. We timed our arrival time just an hour before the sunset to capture the golden hour colors […]

via Valley of Fire State Park, Nevada — Stephen Hung Photography

YARA : New Emerging Multi-disciplinary Scientific Network in Africa

February 7, 2017

The  Young African Researchers in Agriculture (YARA) network brings together young and early career African researchers in agriculture from all over the Continent in a new peer network.
The Initiative was launched in 2014 at the African Union Head Quarters in Addis Ababa and was inspired by the need to support and promote young scholars on the continent in order to secure the future of research, policy and practice in Africa’s rural transformation.

The aim of the Young African Researchers in Agriculture (YARA) network is to support young professionals in sharing information, concerns and working on the challenges they face in their career development. In doing this, the network helps address the critical shortage of rural development research capacity on African continent.

The Young African Researchers in Agriculture (YARA) network endeavours to enhance their research skills and knowledge base through networking, information sharing and collaboration. It promotes the evidence-base on context-specific rural development research, policy and practice in Africa in order to inform future programming in the area of economic inclusion on the African continent.

The youthful attribute of the members of the network gives the urge to the network members to undertake long term research work that can potentially provide the much needed robust panel data on the agrarian change in Africa thereby making available reliable and accurate information on rural transformation trajectories in Africa over time. This would play a crucial role in informing possible areas of intervention for policy engagement with much precision and efficacy in all policy making processes.

In concrete terms, the network undertakes the following activities: Publishing together various academic outputs such as journal papers, books, and policy briefs; Organizing conferences, seminars, panels in the academic and policy conferences to engage constructively in the debates on issues of common interests for the network; Organizing capacity building workshops and other initiatives to sharpen and optimize the human capital development of the members of the network; and finally mobilizing research funding for short, medium and long term research projects on various themes pertaining to rural transformation in Africa including: LAND GOVERNANCE AND ADMINISTRATION, PROPERTY RIGHTS, MODELS OF AGRICULTURAL COMMERCIALISATION, RURAL LIVELIHOODS, FOOD SECURITY, AND CLIMATE CHANGE.

On Twitter: @YARAnetwork

On LinkedIn: Young African Researchers in Agriculture network (YARA)

 

 

Of scientific fraud and its consequences…

February 7, 2017

In 2011, Diederik Stapel, a bright social psychologist at Tilburg University in the Netherlands, was suspended for fabricating data on a study that brought him much praise. At the Guardian, Stephen Buranyi profiles the team of researchers from the university’s psychology department, Chris Hartgerink and Marcel van Assen, who have since focused their research on scientific fraud.

via ‘It Was Too Good To Be True’: A Case of Scientific Fraud — Longreads

Cameroon Alert !?

January 14, 2017

As a Cameroonian, I feel very much concern about the recent (ongoing) situation within the country. Far from behind a mere social and political unrest, there is much greater complexity to this situation. I believe that potential solutions could only derive from a deeper understanding of our (post)colonial history …

Excerpt from the blog Counter Voices in Africa : Gradually we’re starting to get more information from West Cameroon, where a strike by lawyers has been evolving into a general strike among teachers and finally protests in several towns in this p…

Source: Cameroon Alert!