OIDA International Journal of Sustainable Development
Open access peer-reviewed journal
Microfinance in a Conflict Zone: The Battle of Marawi
Md Kamrul Hasan Tarafder a, Barbara Bulahan Custodio b
a,b ASA Philippines Foundation, Prestige Tower,
F. Ortigas Jr. Rd., Ortigas Center, Pasig City 1605, Philippines.
Volume 11, Issue 09, Pg. 11-25, 2018.
Abstract
The Battle of Marawi was a five-month long fierce armed conflict between government troops on the one hand and Islamic State adherent groups on the other. Involving the heaviest urban fighting seen in the Philippines since World War II, the Battle of Marawi killed over 1,200 people, injured more than 1,400 government forces and displaced an estimated 350,000 people. It left the once-bustling and cultured Islamic City of Marawi in ruins.
In the midst of this conflict zone, a microfinance institution, ASA Philippines Foundation, attempted to help its clients and even some non-clients. The Foundation’s staff assisted people in evacuating from the conflict zone. The Foundation was the first NGO to give relief goods to clients and non-clients who were displaced by the Battle of Marawi. True to the Foundation’s motto of “Be With Your Client” during times of disaster, the Foundation’s staff never left clients in their time of need, and continued to operate in Marawi City. It was risky for the staff to enter Marawi City as they would then be within shooting range of both military and Islamic militant group snipers.
In the aftermath of the Battle of Marawi, the Philippine government is now focused on rebuilding Marawi City. Is there a role for microfinance institutions such as ASA Philippines Foundation to play in the reconstruction efforts? The Foundation believes that microfinance institutions have a distinct and necessary role to play in the rebuilding of a devastated place such as Marawi City, a role that is separate from and that builds upon what the government, other countries and other private sector entities have to offer. Microfinance institutions can act as a spark for social change, helping to change the mindsets of impoverished and calamity-stricken Filipinos who tend to look to their government for dole outs to tide them over.
Keywords: Conflict, Marawi, Microfinance, Rehabilitation, Relief
Determinants of Credit Acquisition and Utilization among Household farmers in the Drive towards Sustainable Output in Ekiti State, Nigeria
Oluwafemi John Aladejebi a, Raphael Ajayi Omolehin b , Mayowa Enoch Ajiniran c,
Amen Prince Ajakpovi d
a,b,c,d Department of Agricultural Economics and Extension,
Federal University Oye-Ekit, Ekiti State, Nigeria.
Volume 11, Issue 09, Pg. 25-38, 2018.
Abstract: Achieving sustainability in agricultural output will possibly reduce food shortage and create a stable and fibrant economy in Nigeria. This study adopted Three-stage sampling procedure to select hundred farmers in Ekiti State, Nigeria. Data collected were analyzed using Descriptive statistics, Gross margin and Regression analysis. The results showed that majority (84%) of the respondents were males with a mean age of 47 years. Farmers with formal education were 98%. The married respondents were 89% with majority (68%) having large household size of above 5 persons. Majority (79%) are primarily engaged in farming while the rest (19%) are secondary farmers. The study revealed the mean profit margin of credit users as N138,930.00 (385.92 USD) and N126,412.00 (351.14 USD) for non credit users (1 USD=N360). Also, the effect of credit on farmer’s productivity level for credit users was N255,232.41 (708.98 USD) while non-credit user was N232,345.76 (645.40 USD) with a percentage change of 9.0%. The results of the regression analysis indicated that household size, marital status, educational level, occupational status and farm size had positive signs and significantly affect the amount of agricultural credit acquired by the farmers. Hence, household farmers should have access to acquire adequate credit facilities. This would boost the production capacity of the farmers leading to sustainable agricultural output.
Keywords: Credit users, Credit facilities, Household Farmers, Productivity, Sustainable agricultural Output, Ekiti State, Nigeria.
Female Enrolment in Part – Time Programmes in College of Education, Agbor, Delta State: Implications for Women’s Acquisition of Higher Education
Bernadette Amukahara Egede a, Helen Ihieonyemolor Ajudeonu b
a,b College of Education Agbor, Delta State, Nigeria.
Volume 11, Issue 09, Pg. 38-49, 2018.
Abstract: Nigeria has been making concerted efforts by participating in regional and global interventions and campaigns aimed at achieving gender equality in education. An on-going international intervention is the African Women’s Decade (AWD) which gives regular report of the state of gender equality in participating nations. Review reports of AWD show that there is profound gender inequality in enrolment especially in higher (tertiary) education in disfavour of women in Nigeria. In the same vein, recent studies show the preponderance of females in some conventional part time mode of study in higher institutions, which is seen as a positive sign. To explore these issues, the College of Education, Agbor, is used as a case study. The study employed a descriptive survey design and drew upon available data from documents on enrolment for the five types of part time programmes run in the College; the sandwich (for Nigeria Certificate in Education (NCE), the Weekend NCE, the Outreach programmes (NCE); the regular part-time for first degree in Education and the Weekend degree programme. The study specifically determined the status of female enrolment in the programmes from documents which are officially available from 2010/2011 to 2014/2015 academic session. Five research questions guided the study. Simple percentages and Chi-square statistics were used to analyse the data. Bar Charts were used to make the female-male enrolment status more vivid. The results showed that female enrolment surpassed male enrolment significantly in all the part-time NCE programmes (sandwich, weekend and outreach) considered in this study. With the exception of physics political science and geography education subjects the disparity in enrolment status observed in the regular part time degree programme was in favour of the females, for the remaining 13 subjects, considered in this study. The weekend degree programme attracted more females than males also. It is hoped that the observed gender gap in favour of women in the part-time programmes will sensitize all stakeholders, the higher institutions, and the government on the inherent potential of this mode of study for the achievement of gender equality in education. Recommendations are made on the ways this potential could be harnessed in Nigeria, to achieve gender equality in higher education (tertiary education), without compromising standards. The major recommendations include: Subsidizing the cost of studying in various categories of part-time programmes in higher education for women, subjecting the part-time programmes to accreditation along side the full-time ones so as to ensure quality, and increasing the accessibility of these programmes in terms of location for women in Nigeria.
Keywords: Female enrolment status, gender equality, part-time programs, equal education
Human Stature and Development with special reference to Indian population
Rajesh K. Gautam a, Dipak K. Adak b, P. Bharati c, K.S. Mathur d, Jyoti Jhariya a,
Pardeep Kumar e , Sarabjit Mastana f
a Department of Anthropology, Dr. Harisingh Gour Vishwavidyalaya (A Central University), Sagar (MP), India.
b Anthropological Survey of India, Kolkata (WB), India.
c Biological Anthropology unit, Indian Statistical Institute, Kolkata (WB), India.
d Department of Mathematics and Statistics, Dr. Harisingh Gour Vishwavidyalaya (A Central University),
Sagar (MP), India.
e University of Delhi, Delhi, India.
f Human Genomics Lab., Centre for Global Health and Human Development, School of Sport, Exercise and Health Sciences, Loughborough University, Loughborough, LE11 3TU, UK.
Volume 11, Issue 09, Pg. 50-70, 2018.
Abstract: Background: Variation in human height around the globe as well as within a specific region or population is considered as reflection of health, wellbeing and long and short term adaptations. Human height is determined by a combination of genetic and environmental factors particularly diet and healthcare plays a significant role. Undernutrition during early childhood leads to stunting and poverty is one of the important causes of undernutrition. Still, it was reported that human height has steadily increased over the past two centuries across the globe. This trend is in line with general improvements in health and nutrition during this period. Historical data on heights tends to come from soldiers (conscripts), convicted criminals, slaves and servants. It is for this reason much of the historical data focuses on men. Recent data on heights uses additional sources including surveys and medical records. Here, the primary objective is to understand the variation of height around the globe with special reference to Indian population and to assess the relationship with human development index (HDI) and stature.
Material and Methods: For present investigation three dataset on stature were analyzed from three different databases. Primarily, the investigation is based on anthropometric data collected on adult males of 18+ years of age belonging to 118 caste/tribe/ethnic/religious groups residing in 161 districts of 14 states of Indian Union. The data was collected by the trained physical anthropologists of Anthropological Survey of India, following standard techniques using standard instruments. Measurements were taken on adult apparently healthy males. Efforts were also made to exclude closely related individuals. Verbal informed consent was obtained from the study participants and they were illustrated in detail about the study objectives. A total of 43952 adult males were measured for height. The representative samples were drawn from each of the district of the states. To achieve the goal of representative sample, data was collected from different caste/tribe/religious group residing in every particular district and state. These states covered for present investigation are homeland of 759 million populations, which is 62.7% of the total population of India.
The second database is based on two consecutive anthropometric surveys conducted in Sagar district of Madhya Pradesh (Central India). The first survey was part of Anthropometric survey conducted by Anthropological survey during 1970s. The second one was conducted during 2006 which was limited to 5 ethnic/caste/religious groups.
To understand the global variation and predictors of human stature, country-wise average heights were obtained from across the globe. To understand the secular trend and predictors of human stature the data on country-wise average stature around the globe was collected. Simultaneously, data on Human Development Index (HDI) were obtained to understand the impact of development on adult Human Stature.
Results: There is wide variation in stature of adult male and females around the globe on the basis of ethnic origin, geographical location, climate and socio-economic conditions. On the basis of Indian data, it was found that ethnic and regional variation in adult human stature is predominated by their ethnic origin.The tribes (ST) have shortest stature (161.45±5.95 cm) followed by scheduled castes (SC), other backward castes (OBC), Jain, Muslims and General Castes (GC). The Sikhs are tallest in India with an average height of 169.09±6.59 cm. Besides caste and occupation, nutritional status was also found to be determinants of adult stature. Significant regional variation in stature was observed in India with Meghalaya males being shortest and Haryana and Punjab males being tallest in this dataset. The regression analysis was computed to find out the role of development in determining the stature around the globe.
Conclusion: Variation of human height is modulated by both genetic makeup and environment predictors. Adult stature is an outcome of nutrition and health care available during infancy, childhood and adolescence. Income, occupation, caste (Indian), ethnicity, climate, geo-political environment and development etc. are main determinants of human stature. In Indian context Pan-Hindu caste stratification is one of the predominant determinants of stature.
Keywords: Height, caste, human development index, ethnicity, global variation.
Efficiency, Stability and Optimum Level of Bank Competition for Sustainable Development – A study of Sri Lankan Banking Sector
H.D.D. Champika Liyanagamage
Department of Management Studies, The Open University of Sri Lanka.
Volume 11, Issue 09, Pg. 69-81, 2018.
Abstract: Traditional Industrial Organization models predict that restraining competitive forces should unequivocally produce welfare losses. However, recent empirical literature questions the conventional wisdom on the topic, and reveals that there is a trade-off between competition and stability of financial market when it focuses on a banking sector which supports sustainable development. This paper attempts to assess whether the current level of competition in the Sri Lankan banking sector is optimum as far as efficiency and stability of the banking sector are concerned. The sample covers a comprehensive set of panel data for the period from 1996 to 2013. Using bank level accounting data and applying Panzar-Rosse approach the study reveals that Sri Lankan banking sector is moderately competitive on average. Further, by using non parametric approach (Data Envelopment Curve analysis) study reveals a moderate level efficiency and as per Z- score high level of instability in the Sri Lankan banking sector. The results of the core analysis provide evidence for U shape relationships of bank competition with efficiency and stability in the Sri Lankan banking sector during the sample period. However the findings of the study do not point out a specific point as an optimum level of competition that should prevail in the banking sector. Rather, it supports to specify a minimum level of competition that should prevail in the Sri Lankan banking sector in order to support sustainable development of the economy by keeping the banking sector more efficient and financially stable. Hence, in conclusion a different approach emerges with underdeveloped countries giving a stronger role to competition authorities to understand the complex relationships between competition, efficiency and stability in the financial sector. Understanding these complexities particularly will help in developing strategies to achieve sustainable development of developing economies.
Keywords: banking sector; efficiency; optimum competition; stability; underdeveloped countries