Malawi

This paper presents an overview of the Malawi energy situation and the potential of renewable energy resources including solar, wind, biomass, hydro and geothermal. Despite a range of efforts by local and international stakeholders to increase access to modern energy sources in the country, 89 per cent of Malawi's energy is still sourced from traditional biomass mainly fuel wood. Only 8 per cent of the population in Malawi have access to electricity but installed capacity of electricity generation is lower than demand. This leads to load shedding by the electricity supplier; consequently electricity supply in Malawi is unreliable and micro and macroeconomic activities are significantly affected. Solar, nontraditional biomass (crop residues and forest residues not burnt on three stone fireplaces, and biogas), hydro, wind and geothermal are potential energy resources that could enhance Malawi's energy security. However, unreliable financing mechanisms for large scale energy projects; shortage of trained human resource; lack of coordination among local institutions; unclear regulation enforcement; and sometimes political governance impede sustainable delivery of energy projects. The Malawi energy policy targets and drivers are also discussed in the paper. Based on the prevailing energy situation, a PESTLE analysis is provided in this paper outlining a novel thinking for addressing the political (P), economic (E), social (S), technological (T), legal (L), and environmental (E) challenges that constrain the development of renewable energy technologies in Malawi.

The study of profitability is important in assessing the health of organisations. However, profitability of the banking sector is particularly crucial as the soundness of the sector is closely related to the soundness of the entire economy. The current study attempts to evaluate the determinants of profitability of listed commercial banks in developing countries specifically focusing on Malawi during the period 2009-2012 using internal-based and external (market)-based profitability measurements. The study employed correlation and multivariate regression analysis. Return on Assets (ROA) and Earnings Yield (EY) are used as proxies of internal and external profitability respectively. The results of the regression analysis suggest that bank size, liquidity and management efficiency have a statistically significant impact on ROA however capital adequacy has insignificant effect. On the other hand results suggest that earnings yield is significantly influenced by bank size, capital adequacy and management efficiency, whereas liquidity is found to have insignificant influence on Earnings yield.

Experts acknowledge that communication projects would benefit from the use of open-ended interviews, focus groups, surveys, trials of behaviors, observation, and other research techniques to identify community and individual knowledge, beliefs, preferences, actual behavior, as well as a host of sociodemographic and economic characteristics necessary for planning and implementation. Communication planners often rely exclu sively on survey research for program planning, claiming ease of administration and reliability of results. Reliance on this single research method often results in less appro priate interventions than could be developed with multiple research methods. This article reports the use of multiple methods to examine the cultural and behavioral factors which influence the use of antimalarial chemoprophylaxis during pregnancy in Malawi, Central Africa. This article will demonstrate how quantitative techniques such as cross sectional interviews and chemical tests as well as...

This study investigated the challenges of decentralization in Malawi with emphasis on Lilongwe City Assembly. The objectives were to identify the constraints of decentralization in Malawi, as well as recommend ways to improve the decentralization process. The study targeted civil servants, local authority employees and citizens. It made use of secondary data and primary data collected through a survey. The findings of the study showed that despite introducing decentralization with good intentions like empowering local authorities and improving participation of the citizenry, cost cutting and improving local economic development, the process in Malawi has not been very successful. A number of constraints were identified which include reluctance by the central government to relinquish some powers and responsibility, inadequate funding, lack of human and technical capacity on the part of the local authorities themselves as well as faltering and diminishing political zeal and enthusiasm of the central government that existed at the implementation stage. The study recommends full devolution of functions by the central government, a review of revenue bases for the local assemblies in order to improve revenue collection and enhance local citizen participation so that their priorities are taken into account. Lastly the centre should continuously support the local assemblies, financially and technically, until they can ably manage the assemblies. It is recommended that the government continues to support capacity building and give assistance to assemblies that do not have strong resource endowments and revenue bases.

Since its rise to a prominent position as a key approach to understanding and explaining African politics, governance, and political economy, a number of critiques have been published on neopatrimonialism and its perspective
on African politics. This essay contributes to the emerging criticism of the neopatrimonial approach by addressing one of the key arguments of the theory concerning the intrinsic nature of African politics, its cultural underpinnings, and the ideas which form the basis of democracy and politics for the common
good in Africa. Although the underpinnings and ideational basis exist and are central to the dynamics of African politics, the neopatrimonial approach has treated them as nonexistent. In its discussion, this essay also describes the
sources and vital influence of African ideas on democracy and the common in African states.

In January 2015, Malawi faced its worst flood disaster on record that affected 15 of its 28 districts. A post-disaster needs assessment was conducted that culminated in the development of a national recovery framework. This paper presents results of a study conducted to assess the process of developing and implementing the framework. Data were collected through review of relevant documents, key informant interviews and participant observation. The paper finds that the development of the framework has facilitated a mindset shift from the traditional focus on response and risk reduction to factoring in recovery. However, the development process was largely government-driven vitiated by inadequate consultations with non-state actors and communities. Its overall focus on ‘visible’ recovery was another drawback. Implementation of the framework has also encountered several bottlenecks, to the extent that the majority of planned interventions have not been funded. In developing and implementing post-disaster recovery frameworks, the paper recommends reflexivity and flexibility, focusing on addressing vulnerability, consideration of ‘invisible’ recovery aspects, ensuring availability of adequate financial resources, and enhanced coordination and involvement of a wider stakeholder group. When not done properly, the recovery framework may just be another mechanical tick-box exercise that fails to speak to reality.

During a research trip to Malawi in 2012, a senior government official commented that nearly two decades after the government had renewed its commitment to democratic decentralisation, the working of local government was something of a ‘black box’. Ahead of local council elections in May 2014, the resulting study helps government and donors to understand how local government and service delivery work and to assess whether the return of local councils is likely to improve their functioning.

Well-known problems in Malawi’s health, education and water sectors arise largely from institutional and governance problems. The study focuses on the delivery of these services in Blantyre City and Dedza and Rumphi Districts, where local government is characterised by dual administration, unclear mandates and functional fragmentation. The competitive-clientelist political settlement crafted by elites is the underlying cause of local dysfunctions, for the settlement drives policy incoherence and undermines collective action at all levels of government. In turn, these shape the incentives, choices and behaviours of local officials and frontline providers and hamper the collaboration and coordination needed to delivery public goods. The return of local councillors in May 2014 is unlikely to improve governance and services significantly, and may further entrench clientelist politics in local administrations.

Our analysis is deeply pessimistic in many ways. Nevertheless, we suggest that it is possible to reform institutions to improve local governance and services. Given the prevailing conditions, the challenge is to identify the types of institutions that can support public goods provision and, in the longer term, will nudge Malawians towards a more developmental political settlement. In line with this approach, we provide both principles of assistance and concrete suggestions for policy and programming that can help improve the delivery of local services and administration.

Despite the tectonic changes that have taken place in Southern Africa since the demise of apartheid, South Africa is still widely considered a hegemonic regional power by scholars, practitioners and pundits. This article challenges this interpretation, asserting that both Pretoria’s foreign policy and that of its neighbours fit the concept of regional unipolarity with more precision. Since the early 1990s, South Africa has pursued leadership within binding regional institutions and invested resources in order to reinforce the sovereignty of second-tier states such as Angola, Mozambique and Zimbabwe, which have in turn disputed its diplomatic and military primacy, achieving impressive results. This behaviour is characteristic of unipoles rather than hegemons. In this article I revisit the evolution of South African relations with its more proximate neighbours in a transition from hegemony (1961–1990) to unipolarity. I start by defining both concepts and clarifying the behaviours that regional powers and small states are expected to have under hegemonic and unipolar settings. Then, I examine inter-state relations in the region, showing that the concept of unipolarity best describes power distribution and best predicts foreign policy in Southern Africa since the 1990s. Finally, I show that this exercise in concept rectification illuminates comparisons with other regional unipoles, and provides a useful framework to forecast the consequences of an eventual Southern African bipolarity, if Angola continues to catch up.

The present study was carried out to investigate on the contribution of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) towards agricultural information access among smallholder farmers. The study employed a cross-sectional research design to survey a total of 120 randomly selected household heads from 10 villages in Bembeke Extension Planning Area (EPA) in Dedza District, Malawi. The main data collecting instruments were semi-structured questionnaire and key informant interviews. Findings showed that the surveyed smallholder farmers had limited access to relevant and accurate information that would help them to boost their agricultural production and marketing of farm produce. This was shown by a significant percentage of the respondents who relied on their own previous experience or fellow farmers and extension officers as means of providing access to most of agriculture related information. A small percentage of respondents accessed agricultural information through radio, TV and mobile phones, which were the only ICT tools used. Some of the factors that affect the choice and use of ICT tools amongst respondents were high costs of acquiring the tools and poor enabling infrastructures. The study thus recommends that the Government through the relevant ministry should create awareness to smallholder farmers on the importance of accessing current agricultural information from credible sources and the opportunities that ICTs offer for timely access to information. Moreover, the Government should create an enabling environment for the growth of ICT industry and scale out the establishment of rural tele-centres, among other recommendations.

This is a collection of papers originally presented at a series of research seminars hosted by the Department of Media Studies in the Faculty of Humanities at the University of Botswana during September to November 2013.

The work presented recognises the wide spectrum of teaching and research that takes place within the department; ranging, in this collection, across print media, independent television production, the representation of dance on film, corporate social responsibility and development and media literacy.

The Media Studies Department is the major centre in Botswana for the teaching of vocational and theoretical media. It runs two undergraduate programmes in Media Studies and intends to launch a Masters programme in the not-too-distant future.

Martha Mosha investigates the key elements in the Botswana print magazine production industry. Her broad research is aimed at exploring elements such as market, failures and successes of magazines, advertising in the magazines, printing, circulation, and publishers, using secondary sources as the methodology.

Divya Nair investigates the relationship between corporate social responsibility (CSR) and community development in Botswana. Her study, based on field work in Botswana, analyses the role played by grant managing institutions in delivering CSR and the perspectives of the beneficiaries in this respect.  The study highlights the various challenges posed by the inadequate capacity of the grant managing institutions and the poor networking among the various nongovernmental organizations.

Penelope Kakhobwe explores the correlation which exists when it comes to media literacy democracy and development. She makes a case for media literacy for all and not just high school children but all sectors of society through cooperation with various non-governmental organisations in the field. She examines this in a case study of Malawi and concludes that it is the norm in African countries for media personnel to suffer persecution for their views. 

Tiny Constance Thagame, using a documentary film The Wandering Souls of Mendi, she herself directed, investigates the differences and similarities between dance and film. She explores some of the technical and philosophical aspects of documenting dance. The study explores the relationship between the choreographer and the filmmaker, and how they can work together to produce a successful dance film.

Bokang Greatness Ditlhokwa reports that contrary to the notion that Botswana’s independent television producers lack the professional skills to generate local television content, lack of finance is arguably the main challenge that continues to bedevil the producers. His research reveals that the local state broadcaster Botswana Television (Btv) continues to make attempts to empower the independent producers through licensing of existing intellectual properties, but that it lacks the necessary and transparent guidelines to acquire television content.
We hope this will be the first of a series of publications documenting the research work of the Media Studies Department, and we hope to present a further selection of papers later in 2014.

This book is a compilation of research papers written by authors from East and Southern African and American based social and
environmental advocacy groups. The papers were prepared and presented during the 2009 Skills Share and Learning Exchange
Conference and Outreach Visit Programme held in Harare, Zimbabwe. The Skills Share and Learning Exchange Programme was designed
to act as a forum for social and environmental justice practitioners to share skills and experiences on strategies to secure and protect the
rights of natural resource dependent communities in East and Southern Africa with the technical and financial support of the Ford
Foundation. Additionally, the programme was established in order to strengthen and broaden the capacities of social and environmental
justice activists to advocate, litigate and research on community rights. The 2009 edition was running under the theme “securing
environmental, economic, social and cultural rights of communities in mining areas”. It was aimed at ensuring that participants understand
and share their ideas about how best community assets and rights in mining areas can be promoted and protected.

There is a crying need for an in-depth study into the quality, quantity of corporate social disclosure and identification of areas for future improvement so that transparency can be ensured, especially in developing countries where CSR studies are limited. The study explores the corporate social responsibility reporting practices in the annual reports of commercial banks of Malawi. The study uses content analysis in examining the annual reports of the sampled commercial banks. The paper found that all the sampled banks (100%) made some sort of CSR disclosures. Furthermore the banks relatively placed more emphasis in disclosing community related activities (0.49) followed by products and customers activities (0.38) and human resources activities (0.2). The least disclosed theme was environmental activities (0.08). The overall disclosure level was low (0.3) meaning that less than one third of the items on the CSR disclosure framework were disclosed. The study provides insight and adds to literature regarding the level of CSR disclosures from a developing country focusing on the banking sector which is an important sector in the economy.

Information and communication technology (ICT) has been believed as one of the breakthroughs to addressing multiple global challenges in communication. ICT has demonstrated its potential in improving access to financial, health services and markets in Africa through such platforms as mobile money and other interactive mobile services, especially in east and west African countries. Despite this progress, the spread of ICT in most Sub-Saharan African countries, including Malawi, has been low. Analyzing the potential of integration of ICT in agricultural extension in Malawi, this review highlights the opportunities and challenges for rolling out ICT based agricultural extension service delivery. The review showed that a large population having low or no computer literacy, and residing in rural areas, with poor infrastructure such as electricity and roads, limited the exploitation of ICT potentials. Furthermore, the capacity of local institutions to generate adequate content for ICT is constrained by small number of ICT professionals and huge dependence on imports of both ICT content and equipment. On the positive note, the growth and spread of 3G internet coverage across Malawi, inability of extension staff to meet farmers’ demands for information, and improvements in flexibility to use and portability of ICT gadgets in remote areas makes ICT more appealing. Moreover, a favorable policy environment, which recognizes the potential of ICT to address the current challenges in the country, offers more opportunities for ICT integration in agricultural extension. A holistic approach is, therefore, recommended as an option for enhancing ICT integration in developing countries.

Studies on mobile phone usage indicate a rising trend of the same in many countries. Studies furthermore show an increasing use of Messaging or Chat Apps, which makes SMS passé for many smartphone users. While the use of mobile phones and Chat Apps are observed to increase in different parts of the world, little is known from the empirical point of view concerning social and pedagogical use of the same amongst university students in Malawi. It is in this line that the present study was conducted. The study used a cross-sectional research design, where Lilongwe University of Agriculture and Natural Resources (LUANAR) was used as a case study. A total of 125 respondents (undergraduate and Master's students), selected at random, were involved in this research. Questionnaires and interviews were used as instruments and methods for data collection. Findings showed that 99.2% of surveyed respondents own and use mobile phones, with more than half of them owning smartphones. Despite the fairly high extent of smartphone ownerships and usage, almost half of smartphone users have never used Chat Apps. Most of those who are using Chat Apps, use WhatsApp mainly for text messaging. Some of the identified social and academic uses of phones were searching for academic materials on the internet; communicating with lecturers, fellow students and families/friends; recording lectures and listening to them later; and storage device for academic materials. The study, among others things, recommends that higher learning institutions should consider the high rate of mobile phones ownership and usage among students as an opportunity that can be used to enhance delivery of academic matters.

In this article, I argue that Malawian TfD is little changed since it was first developed. The problem begins with the training of practitioners from Chancellor, who then end up working with NGOs, but without adequate training and even less a foundation in critical pedagogy to enable them to make theatre that is dialogical and truly participatory. I also claim that contemporary TfD has become increasingly message oriented, promoting only donor and NGO messages. Ultimately, my argument is that TfD in Malawi has never been taught or practiced for real empowerment and that for change to happen it must begin at Chancellor where almost all of those leading TfD work in the country have been trained.

ABSTRACT  At an understaffed and underresourced urban African training hospital, Malawian medical students learn to be doctors while foreign medical students, visiting Malawi as clinical tourists on short-term electives, learn about “global health.” Scientific ideas circulate fast there; clinical tourists circulate readily from outside to Malawi but not the reverse; medical technologies circulate slowly, erratically, and sometimes not at all. Medicine's uneven globalization is on full display. I extend scholarship on moral imaginations and medical imaginaries to propose that students map these wards variously as places in which—or from which—they seek a better medicine. Clinical tourists, enacting their own moral maps, also become representatives of medicine “out there”: points on the maps of others. Ethnographic data show that for Malawians, clinical tourists are colleagues, foils against whom they construct ideas about a superior and distinctly Malawian medicine and visions of possible alternative futures for themselves. [biomedicine, tourism, Africa, imaginaries]ZUSAMMENFASSUNG  In einem unterbesetzten, unterfinanzierten afrikanischen Lehrkrankenhaus werden malawische Medizinstudenten zu Ärzten ausgebildet. Auch ausländische Medizinstudenten studieren dort; sie besuchen Malawi als “klinische Touristen” für kurzfristige Aufenthalte, bei denen sie Wahlfächer belegen und etwas über “globale Gesundheit” lernen. Wissenschaftliche Ideen zirkulieren dort schnell. Medizinische Technologien verbreiten sich langsam, unregelmäßig, und manchmal überhaupt nicht: die ungleiche Globalisierung der Medizin ist unübersehbar. Ich erweitere die Literatur über moralische und medizinische Imaginationen und argumentiere, dass die Studenten sich diese Krankenhausabteilungen auf “moralischen Karten” vorstellen, entweder als Orte wo—oder von wo aus—sie eine “bessere Medizin” anstreben. Klinische Touristen (die ihren eigenen moralischen Karten folgen) repräsentieren außerdem die Medizin “da draußen”: Sie werden zu Punkten auf den “moralischen Karten” Anderer. Für malawische Medizinstudenten sind diese ausländischen klinischen Touristen Kollegen, ein Hintergrund, vor dem sie Ideen einer überlegenen und spezifisch malawischen Medizin und alternative Zukunftsvisionen für sich selbst konstruieren.RÉSUMÉ  Dans un hôpital d'enseignement africain, en sous-effectif et manquant de ressources, les étudiants malawiens apprennent àêtre médecins alors que les étudiants étrangers, «touristes cliniques » en visite au Malawi, s'informent sur la «santé publique mondiale ». Les idées scientifiques circulent rapidement; les touristes circulent facilement de l’étranger au Malawi mais pas vice-versa; quand les technologies médicales circulent, c'est lentement. La mondialisation inégale de la médecine est exposée. J'accrois la recherche sur les imaginations morales et imaginaires médicaux, argumentant que les étudiants dépeignent cette expérience comme étant un lieu où, et par l'intermédiaire duquel, ils recherchent une médecine meilleure. Les touristes affichent leur schème moral et représentent également la médecine de «là-bas »: des repères pour les autres. Les données ethnographiques démontrent que pour les Malawiens, les touristes sont des collègues à travers qui ils construisent les concepts d'une médecine malawienne supérieure et d'un avenir différent.

Between 2004 and 2005, the first multi-sited clinical trial tested whether an existing, marketed antiretroviral drug, Tenofovir (TDF), could prevent HIV transmission. Referred to as pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP), most of these trial sites prematurely
closed down. Two sites located in Cambodia and Cameroon received international media attention. But little attention was drawn to sites in Malawi and Nigeria, where university ethicists and research scientists extensively debated PrEP. This article
focuses on events that took place in Malawi where there was a prolonged dispute over the scientific rationales of PrEP and not trial specific ethics referred to as ‘bioethics’. Specifically, the article discusses debates pertaining to three PrEP trial protocols that
were refused ethics approval in Malawi between 2004 and 2009. It is argued that HIV science debates in Malawi are embedded in postcolonial politics
geopolitical histories and state and household economic dispossessions that have created the
structural possibilities for Malawi to become an offshore destination for HIV clinical research. As such, ethics in this case does not pertain to trial or bioethical ‘failures’. Rather, ethics is located at the scale of imperial relations that give rise to multiple,
often invisible, research concerns and constraints.

This study was carried out to investigate the extent and purposes of social media uses among higher learning students. The study was conducted at the Moshi Co-operative University (MoCU) in Tanzania and Lilongwe University of Agriculture and Natural Resources (LUANAR) in Malawi between May and October 2014. A total of 140 randomly selected students, 70 from each university, were surveyed using a cross-sectional research design. Results showed that more than 80% of students from each University use social networking sites (SNSs), with MoCU students being more active users when compared to LUANAR students. Facebook was the most popular SNS in both Universities, used by more than 90% of students. Students in both Universities use SNSs for both social and academic reasons. However it was interesting that 60% of students in each University use SNSs for social reasons. The study recommend that Universities should take the high rates of SNS uses among students as an opportunity within which academic uses can be applied.

This thesis addresses how Malawians engaged in the capitalist economy of Southern Africa on their own terms from 1935 to 1961. It firstly accounts for local motivations in emigration patterns by looking at the local economies of high-emigration areas, and demonstrating that migration complemented rather than underdeveloped independent agriculture, fishing and trade. It secondly highlights the importance of independent migration to South Africa, which accounted for the majority of Malawians heading to the Union until the mid-1950s. Finally, the history of urban 'Nyasas' in South Africa and the contracting urban spaces that they occupied are assessed. These three perspectives all contextualise the dominant narrative of recruited workers leaving economically backward areas to work on the mines, demonstrating both that Malawi itself was not a 'vista of inexpensive, docile tropical labour' and that Malawians integrated within South African society in numerous urban spaces.

In his book 'A demolidora das prazeres' ('A demolisher of the pleasures', 1993), the Mozambican Islamic scholar Shaykh Aminuddin Mohamad Ibrahimo deals, amongst others, with the Islamic concepts of death and life in the hereafter. He provides his insights into one of the long-standing historical debates in Mozambique over funeral rites, and what is permitted or forbidden. Most of the critique of the book is directed against the funeral practices of the Sufi orders, especially the Qadiriyya. The Shaykh criticizes them from a religious standpoint, using the Wahhabi language, as well as from a rational modernist position. In short, Shaykh Aminuddin Mohamad asserts himself as a 'legitimate' Islamic authority in the face of competition from the 'traditional' African Islam represented by the person of a Muslim chief, embodying the spiritual world of the ancestors, and from the Sufi order.

Single-to multiple-year drought episodes posed significant challenges for agrarian communities across southern Africa during the nineteenth century and hence are widely recorded in a variety of historical documents. However, the ways in which droughts are articulated, and the focus of individual accounts, vary considerably between different authors and historical source types. This study draws on a range of documentary source types-specifically newspapers, letters, reports and diaries-to explore the varied narratives associated with three protracted droughts (those of 1861-1863, 1876-1879 and 1895-1897) that affected large areas of the subcontinent. The analysis spans four case study areas-present day KwaZulu-Natal (South Africa), Lesotho, Malawi and the southern Kalahari (Botswana and South Africa)-which were investigated as part of different interdisciplinary projects. We explore issues common to all case study areas, including (i) how specific drought events are framed and (ii) what is and is not reported about individual droughts across different source types. We conclude that different source types in the subcontinent may be more or less appropriate for addressing the specific objectives of historical climatology, particularly in relation to historical drought. Sources such as newspapers and weather diaries are rich in qualitative and quantitative observations suitable for the reconstruction of temporal and spatial patterns of weather and climate, as well as climate-related natural disasters. In contrast, letters, reports and personal journals, especially those written by missionaries, provide additional qualitative narratives through which to investigate the vulnerability of past societies and economies to climate variations, and to explore past discourses and social representations of climate. While studies of this kind have been published for European and American source types, this is the first systematic exploration of documentary sources for the historical climatology of Africa. It should therefore provide a guide for climate history studies elsewhere in the continent, or other regions where written records are absent prior to the arrival of European colonists.

We investigated the relationship between Chichewa (L1) and English (L2) literacies in Malawi. Through our use of hierarchical linear modeling, we found that cross-language literacy transfer between Chichewa and English did occur, but that the pattern and the strength of the relationships varied depending on the literacy domain (i.e., reading or writing) and grade level. Our work has implications for students, teachers, and policy makers in countries like Malawi, where the language of the former colonial power is the official language (L2) of the country and students must be prepared to participate within a globalized society.

L’attuale  sistema  economico  si  fonda  sulla  produzione  di  massa.  Il  mercato  è  una  dimensione  costante  nella  vita  di  ogni  individuo.  I  contratti  che concludono nell’arco  di  una  giornata  sono  innu si merevoli:  dal  semplice  acquisto del  giornale  al  mattino,  alla  prenotazione  di  un  viaggio  on  line,  fino  alle  spese più  significative  della  nostra  vita.  Non  è  un  caso  che,  dalla  frase  di  cartesiana  memoria: «cogito, ergo sum», si sia passati a quella più recente coniata dal fa-moso sociologo Zygmunt Bauman: «consumo, dunque sono»2. In questa dimen-sione dove tutto ha un prezzo ci si pongono interrogativi sulla possibilità di mo-netizzare beni giuridici che, per loro natura, non sarebbero suscettibili di valuta-zione economica. La responsabilità civile extracontrattuale, in gran parte delle esperienze giuridiche occidentali, permette che chiunque sia vittima di un atto illecito possa agire in giudizio per ottenere il risarcimento dei danni patrimoniali e non patrimoniali. Per i primi il problema non si pone: nella gran parte dei casi, infatti, sarà sufficiente monetizzare un bene fungibile secondo le stime di mer-cato. I secondi, invece, destano perplessità, soprattutto se a dover essere quanti-ficati sono beni giuridici particolarmente intimi e personali come la vita. Ed è proprio sulla vita che le vicende giurisprudenziali italiane si sono concentrate negli sviluppi più recenti.  Il dibattito si è acceso a partire dalla decisione 1361/2014 della terza se-zione civile della Corte di Cassazione. Con una pronuncia eccentrica rispetto al monolitico orientamento giurisprudenziale pregresso, il Collegio ha riconosciuto la risarcibilità del danno da perdita della vita come bene giuridico in sé.

The following collection of assorted materials gives a brief overview of the composition of the LCBT (which obtained its first office space in 1976) along with a bit of its history, the various NTs and Bibles produced, plus a selection of related documents. The Centre reached a high point in terms of staff development, organization, and production in 2005-6, but then was soon diminished thereafter as a result of staff retirement, relocation (from the campus of Lusaka Lutheran Seminary to Bible House in town), and a change in Bible translation management strategy (from a regional, de-centralized, project-managed approach to a capital-city central administrative arrangement) and a shift in general focus from a qualitative to a quantitative method of operation and evaluation. In any case, due to a recent fire at Lusaka Bible House, which resulted in the loss of many project-related reports and records, I thought it would be helpful to leave this selective and very partial overview (ca. 2006) of the work that was carried out by the LCBT during these years.

This dissertation is about the people of Metangula, a small town on the shore of Lake Niassa in northwest Mozambique. It describes how they defined and navigated a meaningful existence, and where this manifested and took shape in local foodways. The work is based on 16 months of participant-observation in 2010 - 2011, interspersed with archival and library research, and complemented by a 97 homestead full-year dietary survey. Data suggest the population conceived of sustenance, and so wellbeing, to come in part from pro-social environments and affective states experienced and engendered while obtaining, cooking, and sharing meals. Acting in a sympathetic, self-abnegating, and peaceable manner underscored humanity.  Anti-social sentiment and anomic actions compromised an individual’s personhood, and with it his or her metaphysical existence. This moral imperative underlay common distinctions of humans from sorcerers and animals, often with reference to alimentary habit. Individuals minimized their own and others’ suffering in part by provisioning food. This required intelligence, conceived to rely on cerebral-dwelling grubs, without which gains destroyed rather than enhanced life. It also demanded vitality, which came from foods pleasurable to consume, sanctioned sexual relations, and other contexts through which individuals became content and interdependent. Vivacity manifested in strength, but also in corporal girth and mass, which in turn served as measures of happiness and participation in the social order. Taboos on salt pouring that protected from illness those without the mental and physical faculties to work further embedded compassion in both local foodways and the moral imagination. While the bulk of this dissertation is devoted to explicating local formulation of what food is and does to the body, its broader concern is related to the negotiation of existential dilemmas inherent in the human condition, namely controlling conflicting tendencies toward cooperation and competition, and balancing moral obligations to oneself and others. The dissertation is thus a contribution to anthropological scholarship on wellbeing. The study additionally offers an ethnographic introduction to the understudied Nyanja of Niassa Province, and a geographical and theoretical elaboration of food studies in relation to emotion, cosmology in the everyday, sensuality, and embodiment.

Analyses were done to assess the water requirements, sources and irrigation technology options for the Malawi's Green Belt Irrigation Programme (GBI). GBI is a Government of Malawi irrigation programme to increase hectarage under irrigation in Malawi. GBI was established with the aim to produce competitive crops for the domestic, regional and international export markets under irrigation. The aim of the assessment was to answer the question what are the crop water requirements of the GBI target crops; which is the most suitable water source to meet those requirements and what irrigation technology options exist to supply those requirements given the strategic objective of the GBI namely: overall low-cost competitive export production. The paper first reviewed the strategic objectives of the GBI and matched those to crop water requirements of the target crops including volumes and abstraction rates. We then reviewed the available water sources in Malawi and then selected the most suitable given the required water volumes and abstraction rates for the target crops. Thirdly, the authors reviewed the water delivery options available to GBI for the most suitable water sources considering water lifting devices, pumps and energy sources. Lastly, out of the selected water sources and delivery options, the paper assessed the overall low-cost irrigation option for the GBI. Results indicate that the GBI water extraction rates for a 50-ha scheme will range from 31.9 to 73.4 L/s/day while for an 8,000 ha scheme, it will range from 5,111.8 to 11, 749.1 L/s/day depending on the target crop grown. These large volumes of water required for the GBI can be extracted from within 10 to 20 km of the water source from the lakes (Malawi, Chilwa and Malombe) and water from large perennial streams and rivers with multi-purpose dam storage to cater for low dry season flows. These multi-purpose dams can also generate electricity as well as enable fish farming. Water from the Shire River, the outlet to Lake Malawi, can also be used but has the risk of many competing uses such as domestic water supply for Blantyre City and Hydro-Electric Power production and navigation in the Shire Valley. Given the target hecta range of 200,000 ha in first phase and large volumes of water required under GBI for the target crops and the need for competitive production low-cost production, realistic water lifting technologies include gravity river diversions with optional dam storage and water pumping using motorized pumps using energy sources of mains electricity, PV-solar, petrol and diesel. Manual devices such as watering cans, hand pumps and treadle pumps are not suitable on account of low pumping rates, small hectarage and higher labour costs. To decide which of the two (gravity river diversion and motorized pumps) is the lowcost option for the GBI will require full feasibility, design and economic analyses for each GBI target site

A B S T R A C T Future threats of climate variability and change and accelerated soil degradation in southern Africa have increased the need for more sustainable and " climate-smart " agriculture practices. Manual systems of conservation agriculture (CA) based on seeding into planting basins or direct seeding techniques have received increased attention over the last decade. However, a critical review of the pros and cons of the different manual seeding systems under different agro-ecologies has been lacking. This paper aims at analysing different manual seeding systems in areas extending from central Mozambique to central Malawi. Results show that CA systems perform differently in contrasting agro-ecological environments. Direct seeded treatments had greater maize yields than conventional tillage practices by an average of 12–27% and outperformed the conventional practice in nine out of fourteen yield comparisons. Basin planted treatments performed well only in Sofala and Manica (15%) with yield penalties of À9% in Tete. The strongest factor influencing maize grain yields in the more variable areas of Manica and Sofala was the quality of season and the location, whereas tillage treatment and location were more important in the higher rainfall areas of Tete. Direct seeding systems out-yielded other treatments in areas of higher rainfall and responded better to a favourable environment than conventional tillage practices. CA systems, especially direct seeding in Malawi, Manica and Sofala, showed greater financial returns to investments and labour productivity due to reduced labour costs and higher yields. Labour savings of up to 43 labour days ha À1 could be achieved with direct seeded treatments in Malawi. The results of this research clearly highlight the need for site-specific recommendations and adaptation of CA systems to different agro-ecological environments. Blanket recommendations of one CA system across many agro-ecologies, as has often been done in the past, will only lead to underperformance of CA in some areas and rejection by smallholder farmers if yield benefits are not achieved.

Una experiencia de vida, una novela, un documental, una PELICULA: el niño perdido en una aldea en medio de AFRICA que logra saltar de sus imposibilidades culturales a la construcción de un MOLINO DE VIENTO  que le permite generar energía y agua para su familia, para todos. Resiliencia pura. Y desde alli, su proyección al mundo , para seguir ayudando a muchos más. Propuestas para debatir, investigar y trabajar.

Establishing long-term records of rainfall variability is essential for understanding changes in the magnitude and frequency of extreme events. The need is particularly pressing for much of Africa, where the instrumental meteorological record rarely stretches back beyond the early twentieth century. This study extends the rainfall record for present-day Malawi back to the mid-nineteenth century through the analysis of historical documentary materials from British and African archives. Textual evidence within documents is used to construct a semi-quantitative chronology of rainfall variability spanning the period 1858-1900. Widespread and severe droughts are identified during the austral summer rainy seasons of 1861-63, 1877-79, 1885-88 and 1892-94, and two unusually wet periods in 1889-92 and 1894-98. Instrumental rainfall data from Cape Maclear, Bandawe and Kaningina, spanning the period 1876-80 – the earliest so far discovered for Malawi – are compared with nearby long-term records from the Global Historical Climatology Network database. These analyses confirm the classifications for the equivalent years in the semi-quantitative chronology. The results of this study are considered alongside other annually-resolved rainfall reconstructions for the southern African summer rainfall