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- Description:
- This paper argues that the self help or mutual aid association is an ideal partner for small scale development agencies. Indeed this African institution is the quintessential Non Government Organisation (NGO). It is embedded in the social fabric of the every day life of the poor. The self help voluntary association is the ordinary African's own response to the stresses and difficulties they face, part and parcel of their repertoire of coping mechanisms and adaptive strategies. This paper discusses the selfhelp voluntary association in the context of the Ethiopian situation, but this institution exists throughout the continent and much of what is discussed applies equally to self help associations that exist outside Ethiopia. The paper begins with a brief review of the literature concerning self help voluntary associations and then goes on to describe the evolution, adaptation, function androleofthis institution inEthiopia. In the second partof the paper some suggestions are made about the potential of the institution as a developmental agent or partner. Both International and Indigenous NGOs have, unfortunately, been unwilling or unable to find ways in which to model themselves on, or find mechanisms to assist, self help voluntary associations.
- Date Issued:
- 1991-01-01T00:00:00Z
- Data Provider:
- Michigan State University. Libraries
- Collection:
- Journal of Social Development in Africa
- Description:
- Civil society comprises various interest groups such as human rights groups, co-operatives, trade unions and the church through which individuals collectively carry out their social enterprises. The rise of the centrality of civil society in much of Africa, in both development discourse and the democratization process, has been in response to state weakness. As a result it has become the cutting edge of the effort to build a viable democratic order. This paper contends that the success of civil society in forcing political concessions in Africa relates to the availability of opportunity to mobilize, agitate and bargain with the state from a position of strength. However, the notion that ageneric civil society is uniformly progressive in challenging the African authoritarian state and advancing democratization may not be accurate. This comparative study attempts to bring out the underlying similarities and differences in the contribution of the Christian church and NGOs as civil society organizations to the democratization process in Kenya and Uganda.
- Date Issued:
- 2002-12-01T00:00:00Z
- Data Provider:
- Michigan State University. Libraries
- Collection:
- African Journal of Political Science
- Description:
- The arms trade is a symptom, not the cause of conflict. Yet a strong case can be made for the argument that stemming the flow of weapons to an area of armed conflict can have a positive, albeit limited, impact. A continuous flow of arms provides protagonists with the material and psychological means to sustain a conflict. This means that a ban on further shipment of arms to one or all sides to an armed conflict could advance the cause of peace. This paper attempts to offer a perspective on the nature of the arms trade as it affects Africa, list the supply-side measures (like an international code of conduct) that are currently making some headway, and propose a number of mechanisms that governments and nongovernmental organisations in Africa can activate in order to curb the inflow of weapons.
- Date Issued:
- 1998-06-01T00:00:00Z
- Data Provider:
- Michigan State University. Libraries
- Collection:
- African Journal of Political Science