Sustainable crop production intensification in the Senegal and Niger River basins of francophone West Africa

This paper reports on how the farmer field school (FFS) approach has been used to successfully catalyse important changes among stakeholders in the savannah zones of West Africa. Improved agronomic practices, better decision-making skills and diversification of smallholder farms in developing countries are shown to provide farmers the opportunity to rebuild soil fertility, optimize input use and introduce new sources of food and nutrition and marketable products for local populations. This is a knowledge-intensive endeavour best addressed through community-based processes of education. By the end of 2010, approximately 116,000 rice, vegetable, cotton and other farmers would have been involved in season-long FFS in four West African countries, resulting in improved yields and incomes and ushering substantial progress in both reducing the use of chemical pesticides and improving the use of fertilizers and organic amendments. The programme is increasingly being successfully integrated into local, provincial and national structures. Experienced personnel are being employed to initiate similar programmes in nearby countries. The evolving network of experienced actors and committed countries provides a platform for collaboration by a growing set of partners and represents a large-scale, long-term programmatic approach to helping sustainably intensify and develop agriculture in Africa.     

Teenage pregnancies and births in Germany: patterns and developments

We study the development of teenage fertility in East and West Germany using data from the German Socioeconomic Panel and from the German Mikrozensus. Following the international literature we derive hypotheses on the patterns of teenage fertility and test whether they are relevant to the German case. We find that teenage fertility is associated with teenage age and education, with the income of the teenager’s family, with migration status, residence in East Germany and aggregate unemployment. Our evidence supports counter-cyclical teenage fertility.     

ECONOMIC RELATIONS BETWEEN WOMEN AND THEIR PARTNERS: AN EAST AND WEST GERMAN COMPARISON AFTER REUNIFICATION

abstract

This article compares women's and men's economic relations in East and West Germany following the 1990 reunification to exemplify the impact of varying opportunity structures on women's relative contribution to family income. West Germany's takeover set in motion a rapid transformation of East German institutions and employment structures. The analysis shows that women in West Germany became less dependent on their partners in the 1990s, largely because fewer women were housewives without earnings. In contrast, the contributions of women to the family economy in East Germany fell between 1990 and 1996. Afterwards, women in East Germany regained some of their economic power because of their partners' increasing difficulties sustaining employment. A multivariate analysis showed that the fact that women in West Germany were more likely to work less or not at all – especially if they were married or had children – accounted for much of the difference.     

西部开发话物流

分析了物流业在西部开发中的地与作用,指出其影响和发展机遇,“心动“和“行动“相结合的基本思路和对策.     

A Local Reading of a Global Disaster

Abstract

This paper describes the events of 2001 in South West England and explores their wider messages for the management of tourism in the region. The year 2001 was an annus horribilis for the region, witnessing as it did, first of all, an outbreak of Foot and Mouth Disease (FMD) and later, as the region began to emerge from its first crisis, the unfolding events of 09/11. This sequence of events is used as a lens through which to inspect the interaction of three sets of obviously overlapping tourism management approaches. This fusion reveals that important contradictions and tensions exist between the claims, assumptions and practices of contemporary tourism governance. A more strategic approach to the concept of risk is required in the UK tourist “industry” since the prevailing principles and imperatives of tourism governance may have frustrated the response to events in 2001.     

The liquidity cost implications arising from the attraction of regional primary listings: Evidence from West Africa

This study reviews the liquidity costs for firms in outlying regions in primary listing on a centralized stock exchange. Using a unique hand-collected sample comprising all listed firms from across West Africa we find evidence that firms from outlying regions do have higher illiquidity costs although these can be mitigated from improvements in transparency that are associated with increasing familiarity amongst investment community of central exchange. This evidence has implications regarding the integration of stock exchanges in developing regions where this is likely to result in a greater concentration of liquidity mitigating intended optimal redistribution of capital and resources.     

士绅们的西湖放生梦——1927～1933年关于西湖放生池的争端

闻名天下的杭州西湖，在民国时期曾一度被作为放生池。这一现象的产生与江浙地区高僧和士绅们结成的信仰群体的努力有密切关系。该群体在民初对于戒杀护生理念的提倡，使其逐步得到官方认同，这种认同使西湖1922年被浙江省政府定为放生池。在其后日益激烈的局势变动中，高僧和士绅群体多次化解改变西湖放生池地位的企图；甚至在北伐后，面对当时杭州市政府对西湖的强力改造，该群体亦能保持部分西湖的放生功用。高僧和名流士绅结合所带来的较强的资源动员能力，是该群体维护行为生效的关键所在。     

扎麻什西沟地区化探异常特征及找矿方向

扎麻什西沟地区广泛分布的上奥陶统扣门子组(O3k)片理化凝灰岩地层,复杂多样的构造,频繁的岩浆活动,强烈的变质作用;为该区提供了有利的成矿条件。从水系异常浓集中心及地球化学剖面特征看,该区的次一级断裂破碎带、片理化凝灰岩中矿致元素易于富集,特别在褐铁矿化,黄铁矿化、绢云母化、绿泥石化蚀变带一带极易富集成矿。     

The Role of Multinational Enterprises in West African Regional Economic Integration

Abstract

Studies on regional economic integration in West Africa have concentrated on conventional accounts, which focused primarily on the activities of states and their agencies. The role and activities of actors who play a key function in the political economy of the integrating states and in the integration process are largely ignored or given limited attention. This paper contributes to a better understanding of the integration process in West Africa by exploring the role and the activities of multinational enterprises (MNEs) in the development and growth of the Economic Community of West African States (ECO-WAS). Further, this paper contends that MNEs are never passive in market integration. And through their membership in business associations, they participate in the creation, development and growth of the regional scheme. As the winds of economic liberalization and political reforms sweep across the West African subregion, it will become ever more crucial to forge partnerships between multinational enterprises and the host countries with the desire of fostering regional economic