NEWSLETTER #29 - SOCIETY OF AFRICAN EARTH SCIENTISTS

Volume 7, Issue 3

July-December 2018


CONTENT

Chair's Foreword
The Sustainable Village Model: A Viable Way to Accelerate Development in Rural Africa?
Earth Science Events
References and selected reading


Chair's Foreword*

Welcome of Mr Damola Nadi to SAES Board of Trustees

In this issue we have the great pleasure of announcing the co-option on to the Society of African Earth Scientists Board of Trustees, of Mr Damola Nadi.  Damola is a young agroecologist, who will be an invaluable  addition to our board of trustees, bringing up our number  of personnel to a total of  six. The Society continues to encourage African scientists to join the board, with a special encouragement to prospective members from East Africa, which is not currently regionally represented on the board of trustees.

"Another Africa Is Possible", SAES and AAIP Networking Event and Agroecology Film Show, Thursday 15th November 2018

   In November, SAES hosted a networking event in London entitled  "Another Africa Is Possible" in collaboration with Explo Nani Kofi, the editor of Another Africa Is Possible (AAIP)  Newsletter. It included a presentation on AAIP's grassroots work addressing social justice  and historical issues in Ghana and also Cameroon, which was followed by an agroecology film showing and discussion, featuring the film "Ethiopia Rising: Red Terror to Green revolution".

Aba Hawe from Ethiopia Rising - Red Terror to Green Revolution

   Just shy of 20 people attended the networking event of a social justice organisation (AAIP) with a science organisation (SAES) - an untested and  novel combination which on the one hand introduces scientists to social justice issues, whilst also engaging social justice practitioners in the issues of environmental sustainability, energy, food sovereignty, etc.
   The discussion was notable for suggestions/proposals raised by the audience, including the idea that African and diaspora communities should acquire land on which to put the agroecology techniques learned from the film into practice. The land acquired need only be modest - a garden space, allotment, etc. This was seen as a good means of not only applying and transferring knowledge; but also of engaging youth in productive trans-formative activity, working with nature and with the land.
   The film featured astonishing statistics of achievement by the rural community of Abraha Atsbeha, in the Tigray region of Ethiopia, including moving more soil than the volume of the Great Pyramids,  planting nearly a million trees in 4 years, doubling crop yields, increasing the level of the water table by 15m to such a level as to create a natural spring of freshwater flowing from the ground 24/7, reforesting a previously desertified and barren landscape, terracing many hectares and building numerous check dams, etc. which all in the end helped to increase local water retention and help regenerate the environment.

 
The Sustainable Village Model: A Viable Way to Accelerate African Rural Development?

Imagine a sustainable village model in an African setting: Dwellings which are constructed from locally sourced materials - perhaps the local clay or mud to create mud bricks. There would be sufficient land area to practice traditional African farming, with an emphasis on agroecology. The cleanest freshwater would be collected by rainwater harvesting systems. Advantage would be taken to provide off-grid renewable energy, such as solar and/or wind power, as appropriate. Sanitation could be provided by composting toilets in a sustainable way which transforms harmful human waste into soil, which can be  safely handled and spread over agricultural land as fertilizer.
  The idea is that if one could develop these model villages successfully, it would then merely be a matter of replication to  upscale and reproduce such villages in every country, thereby alleviating poverty in the poorest and most vulnerable rural communities across Africa within a short time frame; as the majority of  the poorest African people live in a rural setting.
   Several initiatives have emerged to trial the idea of the sustainable village; but a number of these are pioneered from outside of the continent, leading to the risks that come with external agency, including  the loss of independence of development.
   Whatever the circumstances in which sustainable villages (SV) are trialed, it is arguably always a positive development, because the benefits for encouraging a development trend or momentum outweigh the dangers. The results of these developments seem positive; although this is tempered  with concern over the problem of upscaling the SV model. Overall, the prevalence of SV model trials all over Africa is a good thing, which can, if managed well by Africa states for the benefit of their citizens, succeed in accelerating African infrastructural Development. The danger when this is managed by external agencies, of diverting the purposefulness of infrastructure away from meeting African needs and towards improving the climate for corporate investors, is palpable, as in the case of the Columbia University Millenium Villages Project that incorporates the usual spectres of  reliance on "improved seeds" and western industrial fertilisers. In such cases, Africa traditional agriculture and agroecology are relegated as "backward", when in fact these approaches guarantee Africa's food sovereignty and environmental sustainability.
   As the first instance of one of these initiatives, the Ecosa Institute [1] created a plan for a sustainable village in Duayee, Liberia that included elements of sustainability mentioned above, among others:-

• Agricultural, food and energy sustainability
• Rainwater harvesting for freshwater
• Paper making and other craft industries

Sustainable Village Model. Duayee, Liberia

   In another instance, Ecovillage articulates the establishment of a Pan-African village development programme aimed at eradicating poverty [2].  The programme aims to accelerate progress by targeting the poorest and most vulnerable  populations which are rural communities. They cite work in Senegal, where the government is committed to establishing 14,000 ecovillages, having established a trial of 45 villages through the Global Ecovillage Network (GEN). They also report on projects in Egypt (Sekem Ecovillage) and Cameroon, where the local NGO, Better World Cameroon, create a sustainable village model with managed soil erosion, water retention, soil enrichment, composting and craft industry.

   Columbia University Earth Institute report in a review of their African Millenium Villages experiment [3], the building of 78 millenium villages in 12 sites across 10 African countries, each representing a major agroecological zone.  In early results the research villages in Kenya, Ethiopia and Malawi have reduced malaria incidence, met calorific requirements, generated crop surpluses, enabled school feeding programmes and provided cash earnings for farm families.

   Lastly, in Rwanda, the partnership of UNEP-UNDP and REMA(Rwanda Environmental Management Authority) resulted in Rwanda's first "green" village [4]. This has been scaled up to provide over 44 sustainable village models to halt environmental degradation, provide renewable energy, livelihoods and improved infrastructure for local people. A cost-benefit analysis revealed that the village at a cost of $636,000 to construct and $22,000 per year to run, the village generated an interest rate of return of 5.8%, 7.7% and 8.9% over 15, 20 and 30 years. Based on these results, the Rwanda government decided to scale up to build 44 villages based on the original model.

   There are many more examples of the sustainable village model in Africa being blueprinted in various countries and it is maintained that this is a positive development. Cabral et al [5] in their review of  the Millenium Village project conclude that such projects at least draw much needed attention to the chronic under-investment in rural areas where the majority of poor people live. A key challenge, they note is for the Millenium Village Project to be integrated into larger African-owned initiatives, such as that of CAADP or NEPAD. How this will happen, they note, still remains unclear.

Earth Science Events

 June 6-7, 2019

Zimbabwe Mineral Resources Conference

VISION: Pro- and preceded by geological field trips. Will be sub-divided into two morning and two afternoon sessions.
VENUE: Harare, Zimbabwe


July 11-13, 2019

World Congress on Geology and Earth Science

VISION: Providing innovative research methodologies for Earth Sciences.
VENUE: London, UK


August 4-9, 2019

70th Annual Meeting of International Society of Electrochemistry

VISION: Linking resources to sustainable development
VENUE:Durban, South Africa


October 6-9, 2019

16th SAGA Biennial Conference and Exhibition
"Current Informing the Future"

VISION: The conference, a staple of the geophysical fraternity in Africa provides a forum for engagement, idea generation and sharing
VENUE: Durban, South Africa

October 6-10, 2019

17th Africa Regional Conference on Soil Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering
"Innovation and Sustainability in Geotechnics for Developing Africa"


VISION: Innovative and sustainable infrastructure is crucial for Africa's economic integration. As such, the vision of improved geotechnics is a positive notion directed at the development of the continent.
VENUE: Cape Town, South Africa

References and Selected Reading

1. https://www.ecosa.org/model-sustainable-village/
2. https://ecovillage.org/our-work/consultancy/pan-african-ecovillage-development/
3. Sanchez, P., Palm, C., Sachs, J., et al, "The African Millenium Villages", Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the USA, October 23, 2001 104 (43) 16775-16780; https//doi.org/10.1073/pnas.0700423104
4. South-South World, "Sustainable Development Revolution through Rwanda's Green Villages", 30th May 2018.
5. Cabral, L, J. Farringdon, E. Ludi, "The Millenium Village Project - a new approach to ending rural poverty in Africa?", Natural Resource Perspectives 101, August 2006.

*Board of the Society of African Earth Scientists: Dr Enas Ahmed (Egypt), Osmin Callis (Secretary - Guyana/Nigeria), Mathada Humphrey (South Africa), Dr Chukwunyere Kamalu (Chair - Nigeria), Ndivhuwo Cecilia Mukosi (South Africa), Damola Nadi ( Nigeria).