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africa
22 regional focus
www.iiasa.ac.atoptions
â—Ľ summer 2017
Climate change will likely have negative
impacts on food production in West
Africa: projections for the region show that
crop yields and grass for livestock grazing are
likely to decline in the future. But a new study
led by IIASA researcher Amanda Palazzo shows
that strategic planning by decision makers in the
region could be the key to ensuring future food
supply. If ineffective institutions and political
instability limit investment in agriculture and
economic growth, the researchers found,
climate change would have even greater
impacts on regional food security.
The new study is the result of an intense
process where researchers worked closely
with local experts to develop plausible
futures for the region. Then they linked the
regional scenarios with global socioeconomic
projections developed for climate change
research—the Shared Socioeconomic
Pathways—and adapted them to provide
specific information for West Africa.
The study showed that investments in
agriculture, specifically to improve crop yields,
could lead to greater food production but
Expanded higher education in sub-Saharan Africa is leading to a new
generation of mobile, highly educated Africans. Yet experiences
vary wildly across countries in the region, according to a new book
edited by IIASA researcher Anne Goujon. The book explores current
trends and future prospects for education in the region, as well as the
outlook for the growing number of well-educated people. “The development of higher education could push forward change
and innovation, building capacity in sub-Saharan Africa where it is
direly needed,” says Goujon.
The book provides a timely summary given current trends. Today,
less than 6% of the working age population has a post-secondary
education in sub-Saharan Africa, but the potential for growth in
higher education is tremendous: the number of people of university
age—18-23 years—is projected to double from its 2015 level by 2050,
to 235 million people.
The book addresses many questions currently facing the region. For
one thing, the development of higher education should go hand in hand
with the development of opportunities for the highly educated. This also
applies to graduates returning from studying abroad. Yet studies in the
book show that some African countries provide far more opportunities
for graduates to return home to well-paying jobs than others.
Universities in sub-Saharan Africa also vary in quality, but
harmonization strategies at the African level and new linkages between
European and African universities are paving the way for more
consistent standards, improving compatibility between programs and
therefore mobility for students and graduates. KL
also to an expansion of agricultural area into
forest and other natural land within West
Africa. However, the region’s productivity
gains in the agriculture sector could help
to reduce the global need for land for
agricultural production: in some cases sparing
three times as much land outside West
Africa for each hectare of land converted to
agriculture within the region.
“Food security in the region could improve
even under the threat of climate change if the region takes a coordinated and long-term
approach to investment and development,”
says Palazzo. KL
Further info Goujon A, Haller M, & Kmet BM (2017). Higher Education in Africa:
Challenges for Development, Mobility and Cooperation. Newcastle upon Tyne:
Cambridge Scholars Publishing. [pure.iiasa.ac.at/14225].
Anne Goujon goujon@iiasa.ac.at
Higher education connects
sub-Saharan Africa to the world
Adapting to climate
change in West Africa
Further info Palazzo A, Vervoort JM, Mason-D’Croz
D, Rutting L, Havlik P, Islam S, Bayala J, Valin H, et al.
(2017). Linking regional stakeholder scenarios and
shared socioeconomic pathways: Quantified West
African food and climate futures in a global context.
Global Environmental Change: 1-16.
[pure.iiasa.ac.at/14465].
Amanda Palazzo palazzo@iiasa.ac.at
zurĂĽck zum
Buch options, Band summer 2017"
options
Band summer 2017
- Titel
- options
- Band
- summer 2017
- Ort
- Laxenburg
- Datum
- 2017
- Sprache
- englisch
- Lizenz
- CC BY-NC 4.0
- Abmessungen
- 21.0 x 29.7 cm
- Seiten
- 32
- Kategorien
- Zeitschriften Options Magazine