Masafumi Nagao

Could Japan Be a Good Math & Science Teacher for Africa?

This paper presents an ‘experience-sharing’ model of technical cooperation as a way to explain the increasing Japanese technical assistance to African countries for their math and science education development over the last several years. The distinguishing features of this model are the symmetric relationship between the technology supplier and recipient, the centrality of learning function and the importance of managing the cultural factor. The model contrasts with the usual technology transfer model of technical cooperation based on the supposed technological superiority of the supplying country, and takes account of the possible advantages offered by the Japanese assistance in math and science education as well as the revealed weaknesses associated with it. An illustration of the model is provided by Japan’s technical assistance to a secondary math and science teacher retraining project in South Africa.

The role of evaluation in achieving the SDGs

This paper proposes a framework on Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) evaluation, arguing that attainment of the 17 goals and 169 related targets depends significantly on practice-based monitoring and evaluation. The SDGs’ 15-year time frame can helpfully be divided into three 5-year phases: a planning phase driven by proactive evaluation and evaluability assessment, an improvement phase characterized by formative evaluation and monitoring, and a completion phase involving outcome and impact evaluations. Under these phases, in order not to miss the SDGs’ fundamental philosophy of “no one left behind,” local relevance must be considered when evaluating SDG programs, particularly to capture the overarching concepts applicable across the 17 goals, such as educational dynamics and resilience.

Process Considerations in Evaluating Educational Cooperation Projects

This paper reviews how process considerations have been treated in evaluation of educational cooperation projects. Although for a long time educational assistance has not been put to a close evaluation scrutiny owing to its ‘essentiality’ and inherent complexities, the spread of the Results-Based Management in donor countries is changing this, demanding donor agencies to account more strictly for education outcome and delivery, as in any other sectors. At the same time a growing force of local ownership discourse and spreading practice of sector-wide approaches is shedding increasing light on the importance of building technical and institutional capacities so that sustainability of the projects impact is assured beyond the termination of the project. This new concern has generated an impetus for participatory and interactive forms of evaluation. As a promising example pointing to this trend, the paper introduces a mathematics and science education project of a South African provincial department of education, supported by the Japan International Cooperation Agency and a local university, in which formative monitoring has been employed as a tool of project management.

Sustainability Science for Meeting Africa’s Challenges: Setting the Stage

Sub-Sahara Africa (SSA) is experiencing striking antitheses. Despite the long-term efforts to alleviate poverty, poverty still remains endemic in several of its regions (UNDP 2014). Currently, SSA contains a large fraction of the world’s poor and while poverty rates have declined drastically over time, it may take a substantial amount of time before chronic and multi-dimensional poverty is eradicated (World Bank 2016; UNDP 2014). This is particularly troubling as Africa is in fact blessed with abundant natural resources that could potentially assist its development. In reality, however, these resources are not always evenly distributed among segments of society or can have tremendous negative environmental impacts if mismanaged. For example, while large tracts of land are allocated across Africa for large-scale agricultural production to spur economic development (Schoneveld 2014), the continent registers some of the highest levels of under-nutrition and food insecurity globally (EIU 2015). At the same time some agricultural practices in SSA have been blamed for causing extensive land use change and environmental degradation (Reynolds et al. 2015). While, growth in the agricultural sector is challenged by an uncertain policy environment, poor infrastructural development and increasing post-harvest losses, among others (OECD/FAO 2016), enhancing the actual sustainability of the agricultural sector is a much more difficult puzzle to solve. Mining is another example of how the rich natural resource base of the continent does not always translate into positive sustainability outcomes. For example while mining has catalyzed economic development in some areas (UNECA 2011, 2013), it has often been detrimental to the natural environment (Edwards et al. 2013) and local communities (Hilson 2009). Several scholars have pointed that the paradigm of building development (let alone a sustainable development) based on resource extraction could, in fact, be misleading as attested by the signs of possible resource curse in some SSA countries (Badeeb et al. 2017). At the same time SSA host some pristine and highly biodiverse ecosystems, including eight of the 36 global biodiversity hotspots (Mittermeier et al. 2011). While the extent of protected areas has been increasing in SSA in the past decades (UNEP-WCMC 2016), protected and nonprotected areas are facing significant pressure as they cater for multiple human needs ranging from fuelwood to wild food and medicinal plants (Tranquilli et al. 2014; Brashares et al. 2011; UNEP 2010; Beresford et al. 2013; Laurance et al. 2012). In fact most African countries have little progress in meeting the Aichi Biodiversity Targets ratified during the 10th Conference of the Parties of the & Alexandros Gasparatos gasparatos@ir3s.u-tokyo.ac.jp

Sustainability assessment of mine-affected communities in Ghana: towards ecosystems and livelihood restoration

Since the 1980s, many regions in Africa that are rich in mineral resources have undertaken significant reforms to attract foreign investments. While the reforms have broadly boosted mineral production and spurred economic growth, there is a general feeling among stakeholders in the mining sector that such investments have not lived up to their rhetorical promise of improving human well-being. In Ghana, such concerns are particularly pronounced in localities that host mining activities. In such areas, mining can have a series of sustainability impacts that affect manifold the local environment and the local communities. However, there is very little effort to systematically assess the local impacts of mining in Ghana and Africa in general. Our study develops a composite sustainability index that can provide a holistic assessment of the local sustainability impacts of mining. We apply this index to understand the sustainability of three communities surrounding the gold mine of the Newmont Ghana Gold Ltd., in the Ahafo South District of Brong Ahafo region. We combine indicators that represent the key local environmental, social, economic, and institutional impacts of mining to assess local sustainability during the active stages of mine development and operation. We use a series of different methodologies and participatory techniques to arrive at the different indicators, as well as to rate them. Results suggest that despite some between-community similarities for some environmental impacts, the local communities often had radically different scores for social, economic, and institutional aspects of sustainability. Based on the findings, we argue that restoration efforts need to be customized to reflect the between-community variation and go beyond simple landscape reclamation to include interventions that improve human well-being, secure infrastructure, and enhance the collaboration among stakeholders to enable the affected local communities’ transition to sustainability.

Sustainability science for meeting Africa’s challenges

Africa is currently experiencing striking antitheses. Despite long-term efforts to alleviate poverty, poverty still remain endemic and multi-dimensional in several of its regions (UNDP 2014). Africa is, in fact, blessed with abundant natural resources that could assist its development (UNECA 2011, 2013). However, in reality, these resources are not always evenly distributed among the different segments of society (UNECA 2011), or can have tremendous negative environmental impacts if mismanaged (Evans et al. 2013). For example, while large tracts of land is allocated across Africa for large-scale agricultural production as a means of economic development (Schoneveld 2014), the continent registers some of the highest levels of under-nutrition and food insecurity globally (EIU 2015). At the same time, Africa’s biodiversity and largely pristine ecosystems cater for multiple human needs (Brashares et al. 2014; UNEP 2010), thus facing increasing pressure, especially outside of protected areas (Laurance et al. 2012; Beresford et al. 2013). The dual realities of a rapidly increasing population and global environmental change are expected to put further strain into the natural resource base of the continent. In fact, across Africa, there is a rapid urbanization (with unique patterns), low access of urban populations to basic amenities/materials (e.g., nutritional food, modern fuels), and increasing vulnerability of these population to environmental change (World Bank 2013). The combination of the above might take a significant toll on public health, and stifle development opportunities well into the future (UNHabitat 2015). These are only some of the multifaceted and intertwined sustainability challenges that Africa is currently facing, and will be facing for the decades to come. There is an urgent need to solve these challenges in a socially inclusive and environmentally friendly manner if a transition to a green economy is to be realized in the continent (UNEP 2015). Sustainability science has an interand transdisciplinary focus, a solution-oriented approach and an ability to link the social and ecological systems (Kates 2011; Komiyama and Takeuchi 2006). It is, thus, well positioned to lead the research agenda and to offer key insights to address these challenges in the African context. However, African voices and perspectives need to be more meaningfully integrated in current sustainability science practices, if these challenges are to be tackled effectively (Chilisa 2012).