Click the star to add/remove an item to/from your individual schedule.
You need to be logged in to avail of this functionality.
Log in
- Convenors:
-
Ewald Eisenberg
(University of Applied Sciences Kehl)
Mamane DJIBO (Université Abdou Moumouni)
Send message to Convenors
- Format:
- Panel
- Stream:
- Corona crisis and new world views
- Location:
- Room 1231
- Sessions:
- Wednesday 8 June, -
Time zone: Europe/Berlin
Short Abstract:
For African municipalities COVID was and is a huge challenge. The panel treats lessons learned from the pandemic situation for African local governments in comparison to their European counterparts: organizational, social, financial and other means of action in order to prevent further disruptions.
Long Abstract:
African countries are engaged in a movement of decentralization in order to stimulate inclusive socio-economic development and make the most of their potentials.
With COVID and also other scourges such as Ebola, new challenges have been created for young municipalities all over Africa.
People are affected in their health and local territories are hit by containments and decline in economic production. The pandemic has highlighted the importance of public services which worked in a context of total uncertainty and were forced to make difficult choices from a social and economic point of view.
Thus, to be better prepared for future crises, it is opportune to share strategies put in place by African municipalities and their European counterparts to anticipate, react and adapt to the disruptions created by health crises as well as to compare the approaches to effectively continue the missions of promotion of local development.
The objective of the panel will be to highlight different practices and share African and European experiences.
It will be a question of learning lessons of the situation created by the pandemic and issuing recommendations on the means of action in order to prevent further disruptions. We will try to learn about the administrative and financial organization of local governments and their legal status to deal with this kind of scourge. Many relevant elements, which justify research, from a critical and constructive perspective,in order to to analyze the management and practices of local stakeholder in the face of a major threat to local development.
Accepted papers:
Session 1 Wednesday 8 June, 2022, -Paper short abstract:
This paper argues that the Covid-19 pandemic in Uganda has significantly changed the perception and role of traditional herbal medicine in public discourse as well as in political and legal terms - as a source for public health care, income generation and a way out of dependence on Western medicine.
Paper long abstract:
Covid-19 posed major challenges for Uganda such as high morbidity and mortality rates in summer 21, accompanied by a lack of Western drugs, and inadequate supply of vaccines. Months of logdown, strict curfews and limited public transport further hampered access to public health care facilities and left the population in a “medical vacuum”.
This gave a boost to since colonial times strongly stigmatized traditional herbal medicine, which became noticeable in various areas:
People increasingly resorted to self-medication with plants, to increase immunity and control symptoms and rapidly disseminated respective information, beliefs, practices and experiences via social media.
The medicines generated hope and self-empowerment but also led to an inflation of "charlatans" and dubious TV advertising. At the same time, there were calls for raised quality control issues at the political-legal level. The government increasingly supported scientific research and commercial production of plants and herbal drugs. Some herbal drugs, such as Covidex, were approved by the government and led to large economic profits. The high production generated a high demand for plant material with corresponding ecological implications, which in turn increased public awareness of ecological issues.
Since the Covid-19 pandemic, traditional medicine is being renegotiated in public discourse and the stigma attached to it since the "Witchcraft act" of the 1950s is being shed.
In a collaborative project between the Uganda National Museum, the Igongo Cultural Center and the University of Zurich we investigate the role of museums as platform for exchange between the different stakeholders in the field of traditional medicine
Paper short abstract:
Le COVID-19 est venu s'ajouter aux défis que les collectivités locales font déjà face au Niger, entravant encore la gestion publique. Les collectivités ont adopté plusieurs stratégies de résilience, parmi lesquelles l’approche « Participation citoyenne » qui constitue l’objet de la présente étude.
Paper long abstract:
Au Niger, les collectivités territoriales sont confrontées à un triple problème des capacités : humaines, matérielles et financières. Ces insuffisances constituent un véritable frein à la mise en œuvre des actions de développement pour le mieux-être des populations au niveau local. A ces insuffisances, est venue s'ajouter la pandémie du COVID-19, aggravant ainsi la situation. Pour y faire face, les collectivités sont amenées, avec l'accompagnement des partenaires au développement, à développer des stratégies de résilience, parmi lesquelles la participation des citoyens dans la gestion de développement local.
L'approche de la participation citoyenne a été alors implémenter par bon nombre des communes au Niger et a abouti à des résultats probants dans beaucoup de cas.
La présente étude va explorer les avantages de la participation citoyenne dans la gestion publique locale, reposant deux expériences réussies au niveau de deux communes nigériennes : l’une relative à l’implication des jeunes dans la collecte des taxes locales et l’autre portant sur l’expérimentation de l’approche « Budget participatif ». Les deux communes ont réalisé des résultats satisfaisants, ayant conduit d’ailleurs à la reconduction des deux maires par leurs populations respectives, l’un à titre toujours du maire et l’autre à titre du vice-président du conseil régional.
Les différentes options qui sous-tendent la participation citoyenne peuvent alors constituer pour les collectivités territoriales des solutions efficaces et durables en matière de prise en compte des vraies préoccupations des populations, d'amélioration de la mobilisation des ressources financières locales et de renforcement des mécanismes de reddition des comptes.
Paper short abstract:
The Shock waves and disruptions by Covid-19 is global. In Africa, governments especially local stakeholders are still in huge shock due to disruptions by Covid-19 pandemic. This paper analyses new human rights issues precipitated by Covid-19 and how African authorities have responded to them.
Paper long abstract:
For over two years now, governments, non-governmental organizations, international institutions and the entire global public have come to realize that Covid-19 is the most severe disruption the world has experienced in recent memory. Although the record of Covid-19 incidents and fatalities is comparatively low in Africa than other regions of the world, the pandemic has profoundly altered the economic, socio-political and legal conditions of African States as in the rest of the world. Unfortunately, the full extent of these disruptions is still difficult to foresee, especially with the announcements of subsequent waves of the pandemic. The situation has impacted negatively on nations' economies, overwhelming the health-care, soci-political and legal systems, precipitating human rights challenges in every front, particularly in Africa. This paper sets to examine the socio-economic and governance fallout in Africa due to the Covid-19 pandemic crisis and its threats to humans, human rights and fundamental freedoms in the region. The work finds that the disruptions by Covid-19 pandemic have been exacerbated by fragile systems of governance, weak economy, corruption and abusive culture of security institutions in the guise of maintenance of law and order in Africa. This ultimately occasioned extreme injustice, inequality, insecurity and human rights abuses due to poor responses by relevant authorities. The paper argued on the imperative of effective legal and governance approach by authorities in Africa while responding to emergency and crisis situations as in the case of Covid-19, and other global pandemics like Ebola. It thereafter, concluded with useful recommendations.
Paper short abstract:
Au Mali, l’Etat a transféré certaines de ses compétences aux collectivités territoriales pour permettre à celles -là d’assurer le développement local.
Paper long abstract:
A partir de l’apparition de la pandémie de Covid-19, cet élan de développement assuré par les élus locaux et leurs partenaires s’est senti menacé et même entravé. Ainsi, l’Etat et certaines collectivités territoriales ont entrepris des stratégies de prévention et de gestion de la pandémie pour limiter ses conséquences sur le développement local.
Aussi, dans la commune rurale de Sokoura, un plan de prévention et de gestion de catastrophes naturelles est élaboré. Ce plan prend en charge tous les secteurs de développement. Il permet de prévenir et de limiter les catastrophes qui surviennent dans la commune, comme celle de la pandémie de Covid-19 pouvant freiner le développement local.