Obas John Ebohon

Energy, economic growth and causality in developing countries: A case study of Tanzania and Nigeria

The debate about the precise role of energy in economic development remains contentious. Existing empirical studies have produced varying results: some have argued the complementarity between energy and other factors of production, and others have indicated that energy can be substituted for other factors of production. Commonly, these studies have focused primarily on the developed countries, one explanation being that supply constraints and price rigidities render any study on factor substitutions in developing countries meaningless. However, the functional relationship between energy consumption and income in developing countries is constantly investigated with the use of regression techniques. While such techniques are useful in empirical analysis, no mechanism exists for indicating causal directions between variables. This limits the scope for policy analysis and prescription. The need to identify causal direction between energy consumption and income growth in developing countries is overwhelming. Apart from providing further insights into the role of energy in economic development, it provides policy analysts with a clearer understanding of the likely impact of energy supply constraints on economic growth. This article examines the causal directions between energy consumption and economic growth (proxied by GDP and GNP) for Nigeria and Tanzania. The results show a simultaneous causal relationship between energy and economic growth for both countries, the implication being that, unless energy supply constraints are eased, economic growth and development will remain elusive to these countries. Given similar economic characteristics and profiling the same energy scenario for other developing countries, our finding supports the view that energy plays a key role in economic development.

Reducing Waste to Landfill in the UK: Identifying Impediments and Critical Solutions

Purpose – The UK construction industry produces up to one third of all waste to landfill. This study aims to identify specific project practices impeding the reduction of waste in construction projects as well as uncovering potential waste solutions throughout the project delivery process. The rationale being that for such a drastic reduction in waste to landfill, holistic and extensive measures would be required.Design/methodology/approach – A two‐way methodological approach was used. This comprised qualitative unstructured interviews and a quantitative questionnaire survey of three major stakeholders in the UK construction industry: clients, architects and contractors.Findings – Design factors remain the major cause of impediments to waste reduction to landfill. Critical impediments include clients making waste prevention a top priority in projects, overly complex designs, waste taking a low priority compared to project time and costs, lack of concerns by designers for buildability, among others. Critic...

Institutional deficiencies and capacity building constraints: the dilemma for environmentally sustainable development in Africa

SUMMARY The authors question Africas ability to achieve sustainable development in view of the erosion of its institution building capacity, a problem compounded by the alarming rate of Africas continuing marginalisation in the world economy. The situation has been provoked by inappropriate domestic policies which have not only compromised Africas competitiveness, but also made it particularly vulnerable given the increasing globalisation of markets and factors of production. The benefits associated with effective global economic participation transcend direct financial gains and include technology transfers, technical and managerial skills transfers, and other skills transfers associated with the ‘learning and doing’ process. These benefits are instrumental in the development of the economic, administrative, legislative and social institutions that prescribe the organisational and managerial structure of an economy and define its capacity for sustainable growth. In Africa, the absence of such structur...

Energy transition and its implications for environmentally sustainable development in Africa

SUMMARY Energy transition is the process whereby there is an increase in the volume and proportion of commercial energy, to the extent that it replaces traditional fuels as the main source of energy and having enormous implications for the physical and biotic environment. This energy-environment process has rarely been the focus of research investigation in Africa. Using cross-national data drawn from the African continent, this paper examines and accounts for intercountry variations in the nature and extent of the energy transition process. The empirical analysis reveals that, for the continent as a whole, the extent to which commercial energy replaces traditional fuels is quite low. It varies between 33% and 39%. However, inter-country variations were found to be as high as 90% in countries such as Algeria, Egypt, Libya, Mauritania, Morocco and South Africa; and less than 15% for such countries as Benin, Burkina Faso, The Central African Republic, Ethiopia, Lesotho and Uganda. The key factors explaining intercounty variations in the energy transition process are the level of urbanization and the extent of forest and woodland resources. Other factors of secondary importance include economic growth, incidence of poverty, affordability of electrical appliances, energy trade status of the country in question and the price of commercial fuel. Finally, the paper shows that the identification of these key energy transition-inducing variables is a necessary prerequisite to an effective energy and environmentally sustainable development policy formulation in Africa.

The scope and limits of sustainable development in Africa's built environment sector

SUMMARY The concept of sustainable development should be familiar to those who have had to contend with development issues in the developing world. This concept first emerged in the latter part of the 1960s because of the increasing frustration felt by policy makers regarding the proliferation of failed grandiose and ambitious development programmes and abandoned ‘white elephant’ projects in Africa and other developing countries. Consequently, ‘sustainable growth’ was to form the cornerstone of development programmes. Gigantic ‘white elephant projects’ that often overshoot budgets and cease to be operational with the ending of development assistance were abandoned. However, the current broader understanding of sustainable development does have a very strong environmental theme. It is gradually becoming apparent that an unqualified growth, measured by increases in gross domestic product, which is then used as proxy for development is contradictory. Given the present situation where more than 1 billion peop...

EXPLORING SUSTAINABLE TOURISM IN NIGERIA FOR DEVELOPMENTAL GROWTH

The problem of child work continues increasingly in developing countries. In Cote d’Ivoire, the practice of children exploitation becomes more and more extensive. Going from practiced activities during the days near the roads and public places, we now notice the increasing of some minors in the night activities and this in all the communes of Abidjan. Working sometime in miserable conditions, these young people are exposed to several dangers (moral, psychological, sociological, physical etc.) the analysis of the reasons of the use of these teenagers shows the problem of poverty crowned by ignorance as well as the lack of rigour of the authorities. It is necessary to act by an increased proximity sensitizing by stressing on the respect of children rights in a country. The fight against poverty could accompany this sensitizing by the creation of small community projects.State property has not had a proper legal regulation until the years of the Albanian Kingdom. Efforts for a package of laws to intervene in the determination of their legal regime, almost failed, so did the administrative structures set up for this purpose; they had failed to carry out the function for which they were set up. Assets have been constantly threatened from being ripped apart from private entities, which peaked in 1928. The period of the Albanian Kingdom gets the credit for establishing and developing comprehensive legal framework for the inventory and management of State Property. This intervention would be seen as closely associated with the efforts for the preservation and integrity of state property, the incomes of which constituted the basis for the beginning of every economic and social reform in the country.