Entries by Christopher Reardon

We hope you've enjoyed our "Everyday Heroes" series. Over the last seven weeks we have profiled 14 inspiring women from seven African countries. Each in her own way, these civic leaders are working to end injustices and create better opportunities for women and girls.

You can scroll back through the entries here on the blog, or read the collected set in PDF format. Then ask yourself: What can I do to be a hero today — and everyday.

Sharing Your Research Findings with the Wider Public

Today and tomorrow in Kampala, Uganda, TrustAfrica is convening a workshop on communications for policy researchers who have received support from our Investment Climate and Business Environment Research Fund. We are share some reflections here in hopes of reaching an even wider audience.

Policy research is complex, important work. At its best, it can help societies make well-informed decisions about vital issues that shape the trajectory of democratic governance and national development and affect the livelihoods and opportunities for vast numbers of people.

Sadly, this work is often overlooked. Many researchers struggle to communicate their findings and recommendations. The media, lawmakers and the general public seldom understand the kind of work that researchers and analysts like you do. They may get confused by complex methodologies and findings, or grow bored with caveats and qualifications. They want to know the bottom line: what should we do?

So how can researchers reach a wider audience of policy makers, journalists and general public? The short answer is: Tell them a story. Continue reading "“You’re the Expert: What Should We Do?”"

Over the coming weeks, we'll be posting a series of profiles of inspirational women from French-speaking countries in West and Central Africa. The profiles were commissioned as part of TrustAfrica's MDG3 Project, which is working to curb gender violence and expand women's political participation in these countries.

The women we will be profiling are “Everyday Heroes.” They have demonstrated their outstanding capacities in fields ranging from law and higher education to journalism, music and business. In addition to committing themselves to their professional lives they have also dedicated themselves to their families and made contributions in support of numerous noble causes.

Younger generations, girls and young women in particular, need to know about these remarkable women and to be inspired by them as role models. For whether it is in Senegal or Burundi, Cameroon, Mali, Niger or the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the fight to promote women’s rights is similar. The future of the African continent rests in the hands of women, given the fact that they constitute 70 percent of the informal economy. This is the essence of the message presented here in “Everyday Heroes.”

Last week in Lilongwe, Malawi, TrustAfrica sat down with George Osei-Bimpeh, who works on policy research and advocacy at SEND–Ghana, for a conversation about smallholder farmers, food security, climate adaptation and development in Ghana. Read the transcript below, or click the image to watch some video excerpts.

What are small-scale farmers growing in your area?

Well, basically small-scale farmers are into crop production, food production. We mentioned rice, cassava, maize, vegetables such as tomatoes. These are the common crops they grow. A lot of them also combine many of these and other crops — cocoa, plantain — basically the staple foods in respect of the particular tribe or what the national food basket requires. We talk about small-scale farmers in respect of food crop production. That’s where the majority of them are.



What kind of tools do they use? And who do they sell to?

The small-scale farmers that we have been working with largely use rudimentary tools — basically cutlass and hoe — depending on the ecological zone where they find themselves. Recently there’s been a paradigm shift. Our research shows that about 16 percent of them are able to use or hire a tractor to plow their land, but that is largely those in the savannah belt who now use tractors to plow their land. But actual weeding and those things, they use hoes and cutlasses to do that.

There are three layers at which they sell: in their own community, in the nearest town — the district capital mostly — and the major urban centers. But there is a different arrangement in terms of how or where they sell it. Some who have the ability or the capability send their goods to the major consumer centers themselves. Others rely on middlemen and -women who then come to the communities to buy their produce.
Continue reading "George Osei-Bimpeh on small-scale farming in Ghana"

Last week in Lilongwe, Malawi, TrustAfrica sat down with Elizabeth Kharono, the founder and director of CLEAR–Uganda, for a conversation about smallholder farmers, food security, climate adaptation and development in Africa. Read the transcript below, or click the image to watch some video excerpts.

Can you tell us your name, where you’re from and what you do for a living?

I’m Elizabeth Kharono. I’m the founder and director of an organization called CLEAR–Uganda. CLEAR stands for the Centre for Land, Economy and Rights of Women. In Uganda we work in the eastern part of the country, in an area called Mbale District.



What are the small-scale farmers doing in your area? What kind of things are they growing, what kind of tools are they using?

In Mbale, like the rest of Uganda, about 80 percent of the population is dependent on subsistence farming, so it is an area where smallholder farmers really predominate food production and most of the food that comes to the town and the rural areas is done by small holder farmers, the majority of whom are also women, women smallholder farmers. Continue reading "Elizabeth Kharono on Farmers, Food Security and Development"

Despite the rapid pace of urbanization, farming remains the most common livelihood in Africa today. It’s also a crucial factor in ensuring food security, empowering women, driving economic growth and advancing national development on the continent. Yet efforts to strengthen the agriculture sector in Africa typically focus on commercial farming.

That’s why TrustAfrica launched an initiative in 2009 to build a stronger advocacy movement for sustainable, small-scale farming. The initiative has produced scoping studies of six countries and awarded grants to civil society organizations working to amplify the voices of smallholder farmers. This week in Lilongwe, Malawi, we’ve brought together dozens of civil society leaders from Ghana, Mali, Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda and Malawi for a training session designed to strengthen their capacity for policy analysis and advocacy on smallholder farming.
Continue reading "Who Speaks for the Farmers? Who Listens?"

By Cynthia Ryan

In January 2009, when my colleague Kumi Naidoo went on a 21-day hunger strike in solidarity with the people of Zimbabwe, who were starving because of the whims of their political leadership, I wanted to lend my support. As the head of a foundation that focuses internationally on human rights and peace and security, I arranged for a small grant to the coalition organizing these efforts, but I wanted to do more. This led to hosting the visit of Nomboniso Gasa to the US, as Briggs Bomba describes in his article. As he goes on to remark, it stimulated both of us to begin thinking about the relative lack of donor interest in civil society in Zimbabwe.

Read the full article online at Alliance Magazine.

View a PDF of the article here.

One of TrustAfrica's signature projects is an initiative to strengthen civil society in Liberia as it rebuilds from a long civil war. With our support, women in communities like Bambala — a village near the border with Sierra Leone — are learning to read, write and play a more prominent role in civic life. In January 2010, we spoke with Bendu Kamara, who has taken part in literacy courses sponsored by the United Muslim Women's Advocacy and Empowerment Organization (UMWAEO) and taught by local imams.




What was it that made women get together to start this group? Continue reading "Empowering Women in Liberia"

One of TrustAfrica's signature projects is an initiative to strengthen civil society in Liberia as it rebuilds from a long civil war. With our support, women in communities like Bambala — a village near the border with Sierra Leone — are learning to read, write and play a more prominent role in civic life. In January 2010, we spoke with Marietta M. Williams, executive director of the United Muslim Women's Advocacy and Empowerment Organization (UMWAEO), which coordinates these literacy courses in partnership with local imams.



What was life like for women here during the civil war? Continue reading "Empowering Women in Liberia"

Our friends at the Open Society Institute, OSI's Justice Initiative, and the Coalition for an Effective African Court on Human and Peoples Rights are circulating a petition to protest the recent threat by Gambian President A.J.J Jammeh to kill human rights advocates who set foot in the country.

I will kill anyone, who wants to destabilize this country. If you think that you can collaborate with so called human rights defenders, and get away with it, you must be living in a dream world. I will kill you, and nothing will come out of it. We are not going to condone people posing as human rights defenders to the detriment of the country. If you are affiliated with any human rights group, be rest assured that your security and personal safety would not be guaranteed by my Government. We are ready to kill saboteurs.” (Italics added)

Such comments by a public official are simply contemptible, as well as in violation of the African Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights. But Jammeh's threat is even more cynical considering that the African Commission on Human and Peoples' Rights maintains its headquarters in the Gambia's capital city, Banjul.

The petition thus urges the African Commission to move its secretariat to a safer, more deserving location elsewhere on the continent. It also asks that the commission cease holding sessions anywhere in the Gambia until this matter is resolved—and that civil society organizations abstain from attending any sessions that may be held there.

Click here to download the petition.

The goal is to secure as many signatures as possible before Monday, September 28, when the petition will be forwarded to the African Union. That same day, the organizers aim to hold simultaneous media briefings by African NGOs in Dakar (Senegal), Abuja (Nigeria), Johannesburg (South Africa), and Nairobi (Kenya).

Signed petitions may be sent to one of the following:

• Ibrahima Kane/Achieng Akena — aakena@osiea.org
  
• Chidi Odinkalu/Stanley Ibe — sibe@justiceinitiative.org
  
• Don Deya or Osai Ojigho at the African Court Coalition — askus@africancourtcoalition.org
  

TrustAfrica is launching a new blog and invites contributions from experts on Africa for short, analytical and incisive articles on development, civil society, philanthropy, economy and politics.

We envision the blog as a platform for reflection and debate on the current state of affairs in Africa. There are so many challenges facing the continent, including issues of political instability, issues of peace and security, migration and the new attacks of foreigners in various African countries, poverty, social injustices and a number of cataclysmic climate change related events. More crucially, for citizens of Africa, their democratic public space is being eroded and obliterated by some regimes. There are also many opportunities in the African landscape. How do we build on them?

We welcome interaction and robust debate on a number of topical areas. We are hoping for an intellectual exchange between contributors and readers. We appeal therefore for respect, maturity and enabling environment for everyone. Some guidelines will be useful in posting contributions and comments:

• Respect other people’s views and beliefs;


• Proof read your contribution before posting it;


• Avoid posting views that are not your own;


• When commenting on a contribution, please make sure that you are being constructive. We will not publish obscene arguments or contributions that contain racist, sexist or homophobic elements or anything that maybe interpreted as such.


• All contributions will first have to be approved by an editorial team based at TrustAfrica. The team will not change your arguments.


• Don’t advertise; contribute to the debate on Africa.

If you are interested in contributing to this platform, please send your short CV and a brief writing sample to webmaster@trustafrica.org.