This study attempts to provide some understanding about SMEs' access to finance within theWest African sub-region with particular interest in establishing whether there are similarities and/or ...differences in the determinants of SMEs access to finance across countries in SSA. For robustness sake, we developed both subjective and objective measures of access to finance. Using data from World Bank's Enterprise Survey data set, we examine the determinants of access to finance both at the sub-regional level and at the country-level. We found that, generally, at the sub-regional level, access to finance is strongly determined by factors such as firm size, ownership, strength of legal rights, and depth of credit information, firm's export orientation and the experience of the top manager. However, we found important differences in the correlates of firms' access to finance at the country level. The findings of this study therefore have important implications for policy.
This article analyses the contingent factors which influence the relationship between entrepreneurial passion and venture profit. While research on entrepreneurial passion is burgeoning, studies that ...analyse contingent factors and boundary conditions surrounding entrepreneurial passion theory are sparse. Moreover, we know very little about how the influence of entrepreneurial passion on venture outcomes might vary in emerging markets, typically characterised by higher levels of bureaucratic involvement and institutional deficiencies. We extend entrepreneurial passion theory by testing a contingent model that evaluates the influence of political connections and environmental dynamism on the relationship between entrepreneurial passion and venture profit. More specifically, we examine the role of passion on venture profit and the moderating impact of political connections and perceived environmental dynamism. Using time-lagged data from 231 small businesses in Ghana, we find that political connections amplify the potency of passion as a driver of venture profit. In addition, we find that this interaction is conditioned by environmental dynamism; specifically, the moderating effect of political connections on the relationship between entrepreneurial passion and venture profit is stronger when dynamism is high. Our fine-grained analysis increases the conceptual scope and generalisability of entrepreneurial passion to non-Western contexts.
Resilience in the global food system Seekell, David; Carr, Joel; Dell'Angelo, Jampel ...
Environmental research letters,
02/2017, Letnik:
12, Številka:
2
Journal Article
Recenzirano
Odprti dostop
Ensuring food security requires food production and distribution systems function throughout disruptions. Understanding the factors that contribute to the global food system's ability to respond and ...adapt to such disruptions (i.e. resilience) is critical for understanding the long-term sustainability of human populations. Variable impacts of production shocks on food supply between countries indicate a need for national-scale resilience indicators that can provide global comparisons. However, methods for tracking changes in resilience have had limited application to food systems. We developed an indicator-based analysis of food systems resilience for the years 1992-2011. Our approach is based on three dimensions of resilience: socio-economic access to food in terms of income of the poorest quintile relative to food prices, biophysical capacity to intensify or extensify food production, and the magnitude and diversity of current domestic food production. The socio-economic indicator has a large variability, but with low values concentrated in Africa and Asia. The biophysical capacity indicator is highest in Africa and Eastern Europe, in part because of a high potential for extensification of cropland and for yield gap closure in cultivated areas. However, the biophysical capacity indicator has declined globally in recent years. The production diversity indicator has increased slightly, with a relatively even geographic distribution. Few countries had exclusively high or low values for all indicators. Collectively, these results are the basis for global comparisons of resilience between countries, and provide necessary context for developing generalizations about resilience in the global food system.
Despite its epidemiological importance, the time Plasmodium parasites take to achieve development in the vector mosquito (the extrinsic incubation period, EIP) remains poorly characterized. A novel ...non-destructive assay designed to estimate EIP in single mosquitoes, and more broadly to study Plasmodium-Anopheles vectors interactions, is presented. The assay uses small pieces of cotton wool soaked in sugar solution to collect malaria sporozoites from individual mosquitoes during sugar feeding to monitor infection status over time. This technique has been tested across four natural malaria mosquito species of Africa and Asia, infected with Plasmodium falciparum (six field isolates from gametocyte-infected patients in Burkina Faso and the NF54 strain) and across a range of temperatures relevant to malaria transmission in field conditions. Monitoring individual infectious mosquitoes was feasible. The estimated median EIP of P. falciparum at 27 °C was 11 to 14 days depending on mosquito species and parasite isolate. Long-term individual tracking revealed that sporozoites transfer onto cotton wool can occur at least until day 40 post-infection. Short individual EIP were associated with short mosquito lifespan. Correlations between mosquito/parasite traits often reveal trade-offs and constraints and have important implications for understanding the evolution of parasite transmission strategies.
Africa is one of the most vulnerable continents to climate change. In the upcoming decades the occurrence of longer, hotter and more frequent heat waves could have a strong impact on human mortality ...and crop production. Here, by applying the heat wave magnitude index daily to temperature reanalysis data, we quantify the magnitude and the spatial extent of the most extreme heat waves experienced in Africa between 1979 and October 2015 across different seasons. Results show that in the recent years Africa experienced hotter, longer and more extent heat waves than in the last two decades of the 20th century. In the future, 50% of regional climateprojections suggest that heat waves that are unusual under present climate conditions will occur on a regular basis by 2040 under the most severe IPCC AR5 scenario (i.e. RCP8.5).
Energy poverty in developing regions is a major global concern, with the rural areas of South Asia, South-East Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa being the most affected. The major residential energy ...consumption in these regions is for cooking and lighting, which is basically covered with traditional biomass and fossil fuels. This situation acts as a development barrier, while implying stress on resources and the environment. Solar home systems (SHS) can play an important role in overcoming this problem. Recent technological advances and cost reductions in lithium-ion batteries favour their use in such application. Domestic electric devices with outstanding energy efficiency are becoming the standard around the globe. This paper focuses on exploiting these innovations to provide a solution for domestic energy poverty in developing regions. The layout of a SHS that integrates a lithium-ion battery-pack and is complemented with LED lamps and an energy efficient multicooker is presented. The paper assesses the SHS in contrast with existing practices under domestic energy poverty, with consideration of the learning curve. It is concluded that the cost of energy of the SHS is slightly cheaper than the business as usual case on the short term, and notably cheaper on the longer run. Furthermore, a financing scheme is proposed to overcome implementation barriers. Government support is considered, and quantified based on the SHS carbon abatement and saved fossil fuel subsidies. A substantial share of the initial investment can be covered under such scheme. This case study allows to draw general conclusions on the potential of SHS as a solution for domestic energy poverty in developing regions, on the financing gaps that hamper implementation and eventually on the required actions to overcome these.
•The state of the art of domestic energy poverty in developing regions is summarized.•A solar home system with lithium-ion battery is proposed as a solution.•The solar home system is assessed in contrast with current practices under energy poverty.•The solar home system is more cost effective and has an incremental cost advantage over time.•A financing scheme is suggested to overcome implementation barriers.
This article examines the role of institutional structures in the relationship between trade openness and financial development in sub‐Saharan economies. The study is based on empirical data from ...sampled sub‐Saharan African countries for a period of 1996–2017. The system generalized method of moment was employed to estimate the models. The findings suggest that, even though trade openness has a positive significant influence on the level of financial development in sub‐Saharan African economies, this relationship is enhanced through the presence of good institutions in these economies. Thus, for these economies to realize the full benefit of the effect of trade openness on financial development, they need to strengthen their institutions.
We analyze the potential effect of global warming levels (GWLs) of 1.5 °C and 2 °C above pre-industrial levels (1861−1890) on mean temperature and precipitation as well as intra-seasonal ...precipitation extremes over the Greater Horn of Africa. We used a large, 25-member regional climate model ensemble from the Coordinated Regional Downscaling Experiment and show that, compared to the control period of 1971−2000, annual mean near-surface temperature is projected to increase by more than 1 °C and 1.5 °C over most parts of the Greater Horn of Africa, under GWLs of 1.5 °C and 2 °C respectively. The highest temperature increases are projected in the northern region, covering most parts of Sudan and northern parts of Ethiopia, and the lowest temperature increases are projected over the coastal belt of Tanzania. However, the projected mean surface temperature difference between 2 °C and 1. 5 °C GWLs is higher than 0.5 °C over nearly all land points, reaching 0.8 °C over Sudan and northern Ethiopia. This implies that the Greater Horn of Africa will warm faster than the global mean. While projected changes in precipitation are mostly uncertain across the Greater Horn of Africa, there is a substantial decrease over the central and northern parts of Ethiopia. Additionally, the length of dry and wet spells is projected to increase and decrease respectively. The combined effect of a reduction in rainfall and the changes in the wet and dry spells will likely impact negatively on the livelihoods of people within the coastal cities, lake regions, highlands as well as arid and semi-arid lands of Kenya, Tanzania, Somalia, Ethiopia and Sudan. The probable impacts of these changes on key sectors such as agriculture, water, energy and health sectors, will likely call for formulation of actionable policies geared towards adaptation and mitigation of the impacts of 1.5 °C and 2 °C warming.
Migration is an important, but threatened ecological process. Conserving migration requires the maintenance of functional connectivity across sufficiently large areas. Therefore, we need to know if, ...where and why species migrate. Elephants are highly mobile and can travel long distances but we do not know if they migrate. Here, we analysed the movement trajectories of 139 savanna elephants (Loxodonta africana) within eight clusters of protected areas across southern Africa to determine if elephants migrate, and if so, where, how and why they migrate. Only 25 of these elephants migrated. Elephants are a facultative partially migratory species, where only some individuals in a population migrate opportunistically, and not every year. Elephants migrated between distinct seasonal ranges corresponding to southern Africa's dry and wet seasons. The timing of wet season migrations was associated with the onset of rainfall and the subsequent greening up of forage. Conversely, the duration, distance, and the timing of dry season migrations varied idiosyncratically. The drivers of elephant migration are likely a complex interaction between individual traits, density, and the distribution and availability of resources. Despite most migrations crossing administrative boundaries, conservation networks provided functional space for elephants to migrate.
Decent gig work in Sub Sahara Africa? Ayentimi, Desmond Tutu; Abadi, Hossein Ali; Burgess, John
Journal of industrial relations,
02/2023, Letnik:
65, Številka:
1
Journal Article
Recenzirano
Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) economies are entrenched in traditional economic and employment structures driven by the informal sector. There is a small and regulated formal sector, built upon public ...sector employment. Unlike the discussion of gig work in advanced capitalist economies, the development of gig work in SSA is within an environment where employment standards and labour regulations are largely absent. The concern in developed countries is that gig work erodes the norm of regulated employment; in developing economies gig work is part of the norm of informal and unregulated employment. Gig work in SSA offers the potential for formalisation of production and work, new forms of agency, and supporting decent work. However, the challenge is how to realise this potential. The role of platforms in developing and transmitting decent work protocols into gig contracts is discussed as a potential means for supporting decent work in SSA.
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