OIDA International Journal of Sustainable Development
Open access peer-reviewed journal
Strengthening Capacity Building In Nigerian Local Government System
Adekunle Meshack Awotokun
Department of Local Government Studies, Faculty of Administration, Obafemi Awolowo University, Nigeria.
Volume 06, Issue 05, Pg. 12-17, 2013.
Abstract: There is no doubt that the philosophy and the rationale behind the 1976 Local Government reforms in Nigeria were well-intentioned. However, these lofty ideas have been eroded by successive governments leading to paralysis of basic services to the people. This paper therefore takes a critical examination of the present state of Local Government. It strengthen (if any) and weakness with the view to re-invigorating it to meet the challenges of governance in the 21st century.
Source of data collection are based on the participant observation method and interview conducted or interaction with stakeholders over time. This work will also benefit from secondary data such as manuals, textbooks, periodicals etc. The overall philosophy of the paper is to contribute to political re-engineering of Nigeria State through the viability of Local Government as a panacea for political growth, economic stability and overall well-being of the citizenry.
Keywords: Capacity building, Challenges, Governance, Local government, Stakeholders
In-service Science Teachers’ Common Understanding of Nature of Science
Khajornsak Buaraphan
Institute for Innovative Learning, Mahidol University, 999 Salaya, Phuttamonthon, Nakhon Pathom, Thailand.
Volume 06, Issue 05, Pg. 18-43, 2013.
Abstract: Nature of science (NOS) has been underscored as a critical component of scientifical literacy. To help students attain adequate understanding of NOS; first of all, science teachers themselves must possess adequate understanding of NOS. This study aims to explore Thai in-service science teachers’ conceptions of NOS. The participants were 139 in-service science teachers from Nakhon Pathom, Thailand. A majority of the participants are primary (grades 1-6) (63.30%), secondary (grades 7-12) (20.10%), and educational extension school teachers (grades 1-9) (16.50%). The participants were responded to the View on Nature of Science (form C+) questionnaire (VNOS-C+). The data were read, coded, and categorized. The frequencies and percentages of each responses were counted and calculated, respectively. The results revealed these common understanding of NOS help by Thai in-service science teachers. Science is defined as a subject (35.51%), knowledge (27.54%), and process (10.14%). Science differs from other disciplines (99.32%) because it proves realities by experiments (28.77%), is a process for seeking knowledge (23.29%), and can be proven (22.60%). Scientific experiments are a process for proving realities (40.65%), testing hypotheses (37.42%), and seeking new knowledge (12.90%). Science needs experiments because experiments are a process for proving realities (40.65%), confirming knowledge (37.42%), and providing students direct experiences and deep memorization (11.72%). Scientific theories are tentative (89.60%) because of new evidences (16.80%), advancement of tools, methods, or technologies (15.20%), and the changing world (14.40%). Scientific theories differ from laws because scientific theories can be changed (25.60%) and they come from scientists’ thinking (6.40%). Scientists are confident in atomic models (66.95%) because the models come from experiments. Scientists use creativity and imagination (92.80%) during the designing experiments (39.20%), all steps (12.80%), and data collection (12.00%). Scientists provide different explanations within the same evidence because they have different ideas, beliefs, or imagination (57.25%). Science is culturally and socially influenced (62.48%) because science responds to social needs (11.20%), the advancement of science changes society and culture (10.40%), and the change of society and culture forces science to change accordingly (8.80%). These common understanding of NOS can be utilized as a basis for designing NOS-based science teacher professional development programs.
Keywords: Nature of science, In-service science teacher, Common understanding, Thailand
Factors Affecting Site Remediation of diesel contaminated soils using surfactants
A.K.Darban a, H. Ganjdoust b, E. Salehian c, A. Khodadadi d
a,b,c,d Faculty of Engineering,Tarbiat Modares University, Modares Environmental Research Center (MERC), Tehran, Iran.
d Alameh Tabatabee University, Iran.
Volume 06, Issue 05, Pg. 40-49, 2013.
Abstract: Oil spillage has a major impact on the ecosystem into which it is released pollutants into crops and aquacultures through contamination of the groundwater and soils which is one of the most concerns in term of sustainable development. In this study remediation of diesel contaminated soil in the column with 15 cm height and 4m diameter was investigated. Soil column was contaminated with diesel in amount of 10 000 and 20 000 ppm. After 72 hours washing of soil with SDS with concentration of 0.1, 0.2, 0.3 and 0.4 was started. For study the effect of the washing solution pH, all tests were repeated with 4, 7, 9 and 11 values for pH. Also for study the effect of surfactant on soil remediation, soil was washed with water without surfactant. All tests were continued up to 10 pore volume and the trend of remediation and permeability of soil during the test was investigated. Results showed that in all states the quantity of remediation for acidic states is very low and efficiency of remediation when using only water is about (1:3) of maximum amount. For soil with initial contaminant concentration of 10 000 ppm the maximum efficiency is for surfactant in the concentration of 0.3 and pH = 11 and for soil with initial contamination amount of 20 000 ppm the maximum efficiency is for surfactant in the concentration of 0.1 and pH = 11. By increasing the amount of surfactant concentration, the permeability of soil decreased and in pH = 11 the amount of permeability is maximum. With increasing initial contamination quantity rate of increasing of remediation and permeability decreased. Consequently in the low level of contamination the effect of washing solution pH value in soil remediation and permeability is more in comparing with high level of contamination.
Keywords: Soil Remediation; Surfactants, Solution pH; Diesel
An Analysis of Dynamic Econometric Relationship between R&D Input and Innovative Output in China
Yanan Yang a, Shuhua Zhong b
a, b College of Public Administration,
Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Luoyue Road, Wuhan, China.
Volume 06, Issue 05, Pg. 48-59, 2013.
Abstract: This paper is a further step toward closing the analytical gap in the extensive literature on the results of government and enterprises R&D efficiency on the innovative output by treating government R&D funding and enterprises R&D investment as inputs, considering patents and academic publications as outputs during 1990-2009 in China, which dynamics are adequately captured by the cointegration tests, error-correction models and Granger-causality tests. The empirical results evidently identified the long-lasting relationship between different R&D investment rate elasticity of respective innovative output, and the short-run rate elasticity and impact of government and enterprises R&D investment were smaller and statistically weaker than the long-run, while the Granger-causality tests were performed to determine the causal relationship between R&D inputs and outputs, the lag length tests were performed to facilitate the cointegration analysis, which indicated that both the government funding and enterprises investment had unidirectional granger relationships with scientific publication and patent application, however, the relationships between government funding and respective innovative output were stronger than enterprises investment, while the effect of enterprises investment on patent application was more direct and effective. Furthermore, the results also showed that it took two years for government funding, as for the enterprises investment it only took one year, which would have a significant impact on respective innovative output in China.
Keywords: Error Correction Model, Government Funding, Enterprises Investment, Patent application, Scientific Literature
Performance Assessment and the Decision to Participate in Small and Micro Agribusiness Enterprises in Delta State, Nigeria
Emmanuel O. Inoni a, Ogisi, O. Dicta b
a,b Department of Agricultural Economics & Extension, Delta State University, Abraka, Delta State, Nigeria.
Volume 06, Issue 05, Pg. 59-75, 2013.
Abstract: In order to examine the performance of small and micro agribusiness enterprises (SMAE) as well as factors that determine entrepreneur’s participation, 561 enterprises were randomly drawn from urban and peri-urban locations in Delta State, Nigeria. Data collected were analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistics Binary probit model was used to determine the effect of personal, family, farm and location characteristics on the decision to participate in small and micro agribusiness enterprises. The results of the probit analysis indicated that age of operator, household size, marital status, educational status positively affect the decision to operate a small agribusiness enterprise while wage employment and non farm income have a negative influence. Furthermore, the study found that majority of the enterprises were young with a median age of 6 years while about 50% of respondents were engaged in retail trading. About 30% of entrepreneurs had vocational and tertiary education; average household size was 9 persons per household with a mean age of 43 years. Food retailing had the highest average sales revenue/year (209,270.00) (USD1,268.30) while the least was crop farming (135,030.00) (USD 818.36). Income/worker/year ranged from 14,770.00 (USD 89.52 ) in food retailing to 27,850.00 (USD 168.79)5) in fish farming. The total workforce in the 561 SMAEs surveyed was 1971 persons; 1005 full-time staff and 966 casual workers with an average workforce of 3 persons/enterprise. Personal savings, friends and relatives, loans from cooperative societies, were the major sources of start-up capital. Lack of access to credit, high cost of credit and labour were the topmost constraints to SMAEs operations in Delta State, Nigeria. In order to expand their asset base and boost production, the development of business partnerships among SMAEs is recommended.
Keywords: Agribusiness enterprises; binary probi;t;; employment creation; marginal effects; participation decision
Religious Freedoms Under the Canadian Charter Of Rights and Freedoms: Do Religious Freedoms Permit Religious Autonomy?
Sharndeep Natt
Department of Political Science, York University, Canada.
Volume 06, Issue 05, Pg. 73-96, 2013.
Abstract: : The recognition and preservation of multiculturalism in Section 27 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedom’s has resulted in the perception that religious diversity is equated with cultural diversity. An analysis of noted Section 2 (a) cases, suggests that religious freedoms do not result in religious autonomy for religious minorities. The cases reveal that the Supreme Court of Canada’s justices have complicated Canada’s multiculturalism policy by exhibiting pessimistic views in matters concerning Section 2 (a) rights. The cases further show that the Supreme Court of Canada has perplexed the status of religion in Canadian society by associating the practices of religious minorities with harm and inconvenience. Concerns of Christian supremacy, decline of multiculturalism in Canada, social exclusion of religious minorities, and the viability of the Charter to advocate minority rights are also explored.
Keywords: Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, Religious freedoms, multiculturalism, Supreme Court of Canada, religious minorities
Institutional and Cultural Constraints on the International Harmonization of the Polluter Pays Principle as a Global Sustainable Development Strategy in the Indian, Chinese, and U.S. Environmental Law and Policy Regimes
Paul A. Barresi
Department of Social Sciences, School of Arts and Sciences,
Southern New Hampshire University, Manchester, NH 03106, U.S.A.
Volume 06, Issue 05, Pg. 95-119, 2013.
Abstract: The Polluter Pays Principle made its international debut in 1972 in a recommendation by the Council of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (“OECD”) to OECD Member States on the international aspects of environmental policies. Fifteen years later, the World Commission on Environment and Development recognized it as an economic strategy for achieving sustainable development. The Polluter Pays Principle requires polluters to bear the costs of the pollution prevention and control measures imposed by public authorities to achieve or to maintain an acceptable level of environmental quality, including the costs of environmental restoration measures, with certain narrowly defined exceptions. Its goals are to encourage the rational use and better allocation of scarce environmental resources and to avoid distortions in international trade and investment by ensuring that the costs of goods and services that cause pollution when produced or consumed reflect the costs of the pollution prevention and control measures required by public authorities.
If the Polluter Pays Principle is to achieve its goals globally, then it must be adopted and implemented effectively by a critical mass of States, especially the States with the world’s biggest economies or that stand out for the size of their current or likely future contributions to global environmental challenges such as anthropogenic climate change. India, China, and the United States all fall within this special group. The international harmonization of the adoption and implementation of the Polluter Pays Principle in the environmental law and policy regimes of these three States remains elusive, however, which substantially undermines its goals globally.
In India, the Union Government identified the Polluter Pays Principle as an essential vehicle for integrating environmental considerations into government decision-making more than twenty years ago. It took the Indian Supreme Court, however, in a characteristically activist move, to recognize the principle as a part of Indian law a few years later, albeit in expanded form. Unfortunately, the polluters in the seminal case succeeded in delaying the execution of the Court’s final judgment for fifteen years, which highlights how India’s unique legal culture and institutions can be as much a hindrance as a help in ensuring that even the Indian variant of the Polluter Pays Principle is implemented effectively.
In China, the Central Government has derived from the Polluter Pays Principle the principle of “who pollutes, who treats,” which purportedly serves as one of the pillars of China’s environmental law and policy regime. As implemented, the pollution discharge fee system that China has developed to operationalize this derivative expands the Polluter Pays Principle in some respects, but contracts it in others, the net effect being to neutralize its effectiveness as a sustainable development strategy. Essential elements of the Chinese legal tradition, as well as an institutionalized devolution of power from the Central Government to local governments in recent decades, which has mobilized cultural norms of behavior at the local level, have played crucial roles in producing this result.
In the United States, neither the Federal Government’s principal pollution control statutes nor the federal statute that declares a national environmental policy claim to embrace the Polluter Pays Principle per se. Moreover, to the extent that the U.S. environmental law and policy regime embraces the principle implicitly, it also does so inconsistently. The institutional fragmentation of the federal law- and policy-making process, in which special interest groups in civil society play an especially influential role, has produced an environmental law and policy regime that exempts certain types of pollution from some of its most important requirements for reasons that undermine the spirit, if not the letter, of the Polluter Pays Principle. The rise of traditional conservatism as a potent political force nationally in recent decades has helped to perpetuate, if not to exacerbate, this result.
As the examples of India, China, and the United States suggest, harmonizing the adoption and implementation of the Polluter Pays Principle as a global sustainable development strategy in a critical mass of States is at least as much a political and legal challenge as an economic one, even taking into account the special economic circumstances of less developed countries. The political and legal constraints that have blocked this harmonization to date are State-specific, and have both institutional and cultural dimensions. The most likely prescription for overcoming these constraints is sustainability leadership, not in the form of mere calls for economic rationality or the mustering of political will, but in the form of the acquisition and deployment of the institutional and cultural knowledge and skills needed to work each of the relevant municipal law- and policy-making and -implementation systems strategically in order to achieve the desired result.
Keywords: China, environmental law and policy, India, Polluter Pays Principle, United States
Women Empowerment as an Economic Force in Rural Employment in Nigeria: Need for the Empowerment Framework Approach
Tolulope Monisola Ola a, Folasade Olaitan Aladekomo b
a Department of Sociology, Faculty of the Social Sciences, Ekiti State University, Ado-Ekiti, Nigeria.
b Department of Agricultural Extension and Rural Sociology, Adeyemi College of Education,
Ondo, Ondo State, Nigeria.
Volume 06, Issue 05, Pg. 120-127, 2013.
Abstract: The fourth item on the agenda of the recently concluded International Labour Conference, 97th Session, 2008 was a general discussion on the promotion of rural employment for poverty reduction. Promoting decent work in rural areas is fundamental to achieving the MDGs. The bid to reduce poverty level worldwide led to the declaration of Millennium Development Goals in the year 2000. The Millennium Development Goal 3: Promote Gender Equality and Empowerment of Women (MDG.3) is recognized not only as a goal in itself but also as an essential step for achieving all other goals. In order to alleviate poverty and promote gender equality in rural employment, researchers, scholars, donors and policy makers have recognized the importance of empowering women. Women are central to overcoming rural poverty because of their role in productive activities and in the household economy. However, there are key challenges to achieving these goals at the country and local levels which military and democratic interventions, international expertise and financial resources have not adequately or sufficiently address. The paper therefore examines the need for the Empowerment Framework Approach (EMFA) towards empowering women in other to promote rural employment. Thus the paper spans two important interrelated themes: (a) A brief overview of the current field of rural employment with a focus on The World Development Review 2008, (b) Articulating the link between gender inequalities and rural employment, (c) Outline of EMFA which involves five interrelated steps. I) welfare level analysis; ii) access level analysis; iii) critical awareness level analysis; iv) participation level analysis level; v) control and ownership level analysis.
This paper will argue that women’s’ empowerment can come in a diversity of ways such as education which is deeply embedded in the African culture. The challenges of women’s empowerment are more cultural than technological, more about people and systems than about digital tools. This paper will offer suggestions for the future of rural employment and development. Lessons learned will form a firm foundation for the paper and a bibliography for the future study on this topic will be included.
Keywords: Empowerment, Gender Inequality, Household Economy, Nigeria, Rural Employment
Women and Reproductive Health Rights in Nigeria
Oluwakemi Amudat Ayanleye
Department of Business and Industrial Law, Faculty of Law,
Olabisi Onabanjo University, Ago-Iwoye, Ogun State, Nigeria.
Volume 06, Issue 05, Pg. 127-139, 2013.
Abstract: While motherhood is a thing of joy, it is a source of sadness to many households as many women lose their life giving birth in Nigeria. Every single day, Nigeria loses about 2,300 under-five year olds and 145 women of childbearing age. Discussions on reproductive and sexual health rights which had hitherto been a ‘taboo’ in traditional African societies are on the increase amongst African scholars. While the right to health has been an internationally recognised human right, reproductive health rights gained formal acceptance only in 1993 and the need for women to have access to quality reproductive health services such as medical care, planned family, safe pregnancy, delivery care and treatment and prevention of sexually transmitted infections, such as HIV/AIDS is increasingly gaining recognition in Africa at large and Nigeria in particular. This article focuses on reproductive health as a human rights issue and discusses the right of women to reproductive health information, education and services. The paper also looks at the right of women to safe motherhood, choice of fertility, contraception, protection against rape, sexually transmitted disease and female genital mutilation. Nigeria ranks amongst countries with the highest rate of maternal mortality and morbidity and in spite of the global recognition of the right to health as a human right, Nigeria is yet to embrace the concept as there is no specific legislation on the right to health in Nigeria. Chapter IV of the 1999 Constitution which provides for the fundamental human rights makes no provisions for the right to health in spite of the fact that the right to life is only meaningful to a person who is healthy and the right to freedom of movement has no value for a person who is rendered immobile by a preventable disease. Provisions for healthcare are contained in Chapter II of the Constitution which embodies the economic and social policies of the country. Section 17 (3) (c) provides that the State shall direct its policy towards ensuring that there are adequate medical and health facilities for all persons. However, the provisions of Chapter II have been excluded from adjudication by the courts, thus, no right of action can ensue from the breach of the provisions of the said chapter by the government. Further, there are statutory, cultural and religious factors militating against women’s reproductive health rights and they have been a major cause of women’s continued oppression. Issues in reproductive rights from the point of view of gender equality are also discussed. The paper concludes that promoting reproductive health and rights is indispensable for economic growth of and poverty reduction in the society.
Keywords: Access, Reproductive Health, Rights, Women
Towards the Evolution of Legal and Institutional Framework for the Protection of Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) in Nigeria
Adeejat-Kubra Adenike Kolawole
Department of Private Law, Faculty of Law, Olabisi Onabanjo University, Ago-Iwoye, Ogun State, Nigeria.
Volume 06, Issue 05, Pg. 141-154, 2013.
Abstract: The Refugee Convention (RC) 1951 and its 1967 Protocol (the current international legal regime on the protection of refugees) do not guarantee any legal protection for the category of persons who have been forced to migrate outside the boundaries of their countries due to incidences of inclement weather, famine, flood, earthquake and other natural disasters. To come under the protection of the RC, a person must have been forced to leave his home country “…owing to well-founded fear of being persecuted for reasons of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group or political opinion….” Persons who have been forced to leave their homes, homesteads, towns, cities, farms and familiar terrains due to incidences of inclement weather, famine, flood, earthquake and other natural disasters; but are trapped or displaced within the boundaries of their countries are often in more dire situations. These persons usually referred to as “Internally Displaced Persons” (IDPs) do not come under the protection or welfare of any internationally binding agreements. Apart from the 1998 UN Guiding principles on Internally Displaced Persons which is at best regarded as guiding and not binding and the recently adopted AU Kampala Convention, there is no internationally binding legal framework for the protection of IDPs. Unfortunately, most states have no municipal law to cater for their wellbeing. In Nigeria, for example, this category of persons is left to the whims and caprices of a local regulatory agency; the National Emergency Monitoring Agency (NEMA). This agency more often than not is not proactive in the welfare of such persons. The effect is mass human rights abuse often suffered by this class of persons most especially the children and the womenfolk as they often become beggars and objects of pity in the locality which they have been forced to migrate to. The recent and continuing incidents of flooding experienced in Lagos, Bayelsa and Kogi States of Nigeria, which has displaced millions of the inhabitants of such states from their homes coupled with loss of lives and damages to properties brings to the fore, the urgency of the need for legal and institutional framework for the protection of these persons in Nigeria. This paper assesses the emerging trend of legal protection for internally displaced persons in the African continent especially the very recently adopted African Union Kampala Convention on Internally Displaced Persons. It observes that the obligations imposed by the Convention on its member states is not limited to guaranteeing the welfare of IDPS only but also legislating and taking necessary administrative and incidental steps towards eradicating the causes of internally displacement in the African continent. The overarching objective of the paper is to prove that the non justiciability of economic, social and cultural rights as well as environmental rights in Nigeria is both a causal factor as well as one of the factors militating against adequate protection of IDPS in Nigeria. The paper demonstrates that the non justiciability of economic, social and cultural rights as well as environmental rights in Nigeria continues to impede good governance and sustainable development in the nation. The international implication is that this type of forced migration is a direct flow towards mass migration outside the boundaries of the country of origin of the IDPs. The effect is thus rebounding on nations’ international neighbours. The resultant effects task the social, economic and political resolve and foreign policy of such neighbours. The paper seeks out some recommendations and public policy implications which may be of international acceptance for addressing this issue within and outside Nigeria.
Keywords: African Union, Climate Change, Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, Internally Displaced Persons, Kampala Convention, Nigeria, Refugees