AFRICA: A CONTINENT WITH GREAT CHALLENGES

The world’s largest and most populous continent after Asia, Africa faces some of the world’s most intense development challenges. Africa’s recent history has been marked by political instability, violence, and authoritarianism, with post-colonial struggle, ethnic tensions, famine, civil war, and environmental challenges all impeding social and economic development. High levels of illiteracy, malnutrition, poor water and sanitation, and dismal health indicators make for the worst human development indicators in the world.

CULTURAL RICHNESS AND IMMENSE DIVERSITY

Even though Africa is often spoken of in terms of crisis and a place of failure and insurmountable problems, it is also a continent of cultural richness and immense diversity. Some countries are making great strides economically. Many more states are democratically governed versus twenty years ago. The rate of HIV infection appears to be stabilizing and child mortality appears to be declining while primary school completion is improving. At present, Africa is a continent whose economic and social orders and governance structures are undergoing extremely complex transformations. At the Center, capturing these transformations lies at the heart of our Africa-related research. Drawing on approaches from anthropology, sociology, political science, ecology, and biology, the Center's researchers are currently involved in projects in Nigeria, South Africa, Morocco, Ethiopia, Sierra Leone, Ghana, Tunisia, Namibia, Tanzania, Malawi, Zambia, and Zimbabwe. Our research covers topics ranging from the challenges of implementing renewable energies and the socio-cultural aspects of energy, biodiversity, livelihoods, and food security, to studies of governance and aid policy and global health issues including informed immunization, reproductive health, and health system development. We also promote the research and academic cooperation between the Center and African educational and research institutes via our Tools for Researchers under the Resources section of our website.

ASIA: ECONOMIC GROWTH WITH INCREASING INEQUALITY

The world’s largest and most populous continent is now set to transform into the new driver of the global economy. Asia is home to unparalleled rates of economic growth and prosperity that have lifted millions of people out of poverty over the last few decades. New avenues for social mobility and change have opened up in Asia’s emerging economies, and the growing middle classes in India and China in particular aspire to new lifestyles and patterns of consumption that both mirror and depart from those in the West. However, the political economy of development in Asia produces both winners and losers. India alone is still home to more than a third of the world’s poor, and inequalities across the rural-urban divide are on the increase in many countries, not least in China. Economic expansion is accompanied by new forms of marginalization, dispossession, and vulnerability across the continent, even as the benefits of growth and development are extended beyond the inner circles of national elites to include higher numbers of the population. Moreover, unequal gender structures persist in more or less undiluted form even though increasing flows of culture, images, and capital speak of mobility and flexibility. At the Center, the research strategically locates itself at the intersection of the political, economic, and social dynamics of development. Our research covers topics that address the core issues of contemporary development challenges and dilemmas as they are confronted and played out in various Asian contexts and under different regime types. These include rural-urban conflict; gender and inequality; consumption and class formation; democracy and development; poverty and vulnerability; and the local politics of development.

HOTSPOT RESEARCH IN SOUTHEAST ASIA

A keynote throughout Southeast Asia is it has become a well-worn foreign investment refuge from the after-effects of the global financial crisis of 2008. In the last decade, investors have continued to capitalize on the regional surges despite the slump in the West and state of readjustment in India and China. As confidence has grown in Southeast Asia newfound interest in its potential and success can be illustrated by many national-level advancements. Indonesia was the region’s first trillion-dollar economy and achieved an investment-grade credit rating for the first time in a decade and half in late 2011, something the Philippines attained in 2013; manufacturing continues to boom in Malaysia and Thailand; and the Philippines continues to challenge India as a top destination for offshore services. Nonetheless, the fate of the regional economy, in the next five years or so, probably will depend more on events in the United States, Europe, and other sectors of the global system than on the decisions of local governments and their citizens.

SOUTHEAST ASIA: ISSUES IN FOCUS

The region includes dense jungle, tropical beaches, and a vast array of wildlife. Its urban centers have been stimulated by massive economic growth and, in comparison to Western standards, open-door policies. The act of pulling people out of poverty and into the developed world often comes at the expense of the local environment. This is true to most developing countries, but is particularly acute in Southeast Asia, as their economic sectors, especially tourism, depend fundamentally on pristine natural resources. The Center has research expertise in environmental issues in Southeast Asia and continues to work with local researchers and institutions throughout Cambodia, Vietnam, Thailand, and Indonesia. Key issues in focus include: endangered species conservation, air pollution, coral reef destruction, deforestation, water security, and augmentation in urbanization.

DEVELOPED VERSUS DEVELOPING

At the surface, defining, the developing world predominately has been by economic, social, and demographic factors. The Human Development Index (HDI), created by the United Nations, recognizes that a country’s level of development is a function of all three of these factors. The HDI has put together three correlating sets of development indicators to match the measurements to construct this index. The United Nations HDI website has further information on this model and framework [hdr.undp.org/en/content/human-development-index-hdi]. Accordingly, from a geographical viewpoint, the countries of the world can be categorized into nine major regions according to their level of development. These regions also have distinctive demographic and cultural characteristics, differing in how people earn their living, how the societies use their wealth, and other economic characteristics. The Center has been increasingly concerned with both the similarities and differences in the economic patterns of these various regions.

PRIORITY RISKS AND FUTURE TRENDS IN DEVELDEVELOPINGOPING COUNTRIES

From longstanding to emerging hazards, environmental factors are a root cause of a significant burden of death, disease, and disability—particularly in developing countries. The resulting impacts are estimated to cause about 25% of death and disease globally, reaching nearly 35% in regions such as sub-Saharan Africa. This includes environmental hazards in the work, home and broader community, and living environment. A significant proportion of that overall environmental disease burden can be attributed to relatively few key areas of risk. These include: poor water quality, availability and sanitation; vector-borne diseases; poor ambient and indoor air quality; toxic substances; and global environmental change. In many cases, simple preventive measures exist to reduce the burden of disease from such risks, although systematic incorporation of such measures into policy has been more of a challenge.

LIFE ON LESS THAN USD1-USD2 PER DAY

Despite the encouraging progress of developing countries around the world, there is much work left to be done. Far too many people have not shared enough in the development progress to date. Some 2.5 billion people or 43 percent of the total population of the developing world lived on less than USD2 per day in 2018 according to World Bank calculations from February 2019. Of those, nearly a third or 800 million people struggled to survive on not even on USD1 per day. According the Center's research findings, current trends do not indicate an positive change.

INEQUALITY

Inequality plays an important role in evaluating development statistics. While country averages can indicate overall progress, they can also obscure large numbers of people who may have been left out of the gains enjoyed by others. The United Nations Development Programme has refined its approach to measuring human development by adjusting for several dimensions of inequality. The 2010 Human Development Report introduced three new multidimensional indices measuring just this: (1) inequality-adjusted HDI; (2) gender inequality; and (3) multidimensional poverty. The Center has closely examined these changes and has integrated a large amount of data and data projection research into its findings and conclusions. We have expert knowledge of the subject matter and strive to produce research and results that can alleviate priority risks and inequality.

FOOD AND AGRICULTURE

FOOD AND NUTRITION

Food and nutrition security is a complex issue with multiple environmental, social, cultural, political, and economic determinants. They encompass components of availability, access and utilization but also production, processing, distribution, and consumption. The globalization of food systems creates a wealth of conflicts and paradoxes, ethical considerations, and dilemmas both in developed and developing countries. The complex patterns shaping what we consume, how we eat, who goes hungry, why this occurs, and how food production and consumption shapes both planetary and human health is at the core the Center’s research in this field. Current explanations of food and nutrition security tend to focus either on food production systems or the culture of consumption. The Center examines an integrated understanding of food and nutrition security, adopting a more dialectic stance, that draws on both global political economy and social and cultural studies. Our researchers have observed that the full scale of food and nutrition must take into account local, national and global politics of food, its practices and cultural trends via the entire food chain from agricultural production to human consumption. Food and agriculture are primal aspects of life, they bind us to our planet and to one another. The Center understands the many cultural and religious celebrations various aspects of food and agriculture bring to our lives and the importance in the connection; our research is to the betterment and knowledge base of the discipline at large. Further research can be found under the Politics of Food under Interdisciplinary Societal Studies.

AGRICULTURAL ISSUES

The large body of research that makes up the state-of-the-art of agricultural issues includes a wide variety of topics within agricultural development, economics, and land use. Our agricultural research is broadly categorized into key topics that include: (1) commodities and markets in which emphasis is put on production, marketing, consumption, value added, trade, and price trends; (2) conservation and sustainability practices which is an overview of environmental policy, organic agriculture, concerns with climatic change, farmland conversion, impact and effectiveness of the agricultural easement from urbanization, and the increasing threat from invading insect, weed, and other alien pests or animal diseases; (3) costs and returns of production for many agricultural commodities; (4) food security for a nutritionally adequate diet; (5) internationalization relating to the effects of international markets and trade policy; (6) management in terms of mitigating strategies, covering areas such as crop choice, production, marketing, personnel, and hired labor health and safety, agricultural labor management and labour relations; and (7) public policy that deals with government policies affecting policies relating to science and technology developments and the challenges facing agriculture in an e-commerce world. These broadly mapped out topics encompass many of the direct contemporary concerns the Center has looked into. Specific research examples include: historical examinations of food crises, like the recent crisis that hit East Africa in 2018-2019; sustainable agricultural practices in Australia; consumerism studies in Europe, tobacco land use practices in South America, livestock land use practices and agricultural methane output research in the USA, genetically engineered (or modified) food and seed germination practices in Australia and Canada, and increases in obesity and the relationship to sugar consumption worldwide. The Center recognizes sound agriculture as a key to healthy living and its custodial balance with the land from where our food grows.

GIS

GEOGRAPHIC INFORMATION SYSTEMS (GIS) MAPPING

The Center combines orthorectified image mosaics with extracted vector and client-supplied attribute data to create single, data-rich images for GIS, and other mapping applications to achieve a multi-layered result for many types of analysis. The expertise and accuracy of our services precludes nearly all potential problems associated with GIS projects. One of the primary services provided by the Center during the implementation of a GIS project is the georeferencing of various data layers for mapping projection. Common research in GIS includes planning stage and mapping of minerals, pipeline corridors, transportation, land cover, urban development, environmental impact assessment, coastal erosion, and disaster analysis. GIS serves as a pathway to address major global challenges and make future technological breakthroughs via geospatial technologies. We provide exceptional expertise in the spatial sciences which can be used to acquire, represent, organize, analyze, and visualize mapping data. Our comprehensive background in advanced GIS techniques is applicable to today’s forward-thinking business and academic environments.

GIS: IMPORTANCE

As the need for spatial interconnectivity increases in the private and public sectors, so does the need for professionalism for GIS knowledge. Simply put, major global challenges—like sustainability, human health, and urbanization—demand a high comprehension-standard that GIS can assist in determining pathways of observation that otherwise would be virtually not possible. GIS can be timely and meaningful about the world around us. It can view life through a spatial lens and use a unique perspective to create responsible, sustainable and scalable solutions that benefit individuals and society. The Center provides a common spatial language that connects data to geography and people to places. To address global challenges our GIS experts, who have experience in environmental science and city planning, collaborate on an international, and interdisciplinary scale and network.

GLOBAL HEALTH

BACKDROP TO GLOBAL HEALTH 

Global health refers to problems that transcend national borders or that have a global impact. Global health research focuses on the interdependence of the health determinants, transnational health risks and policy responses of countries, role of international organizations, and many other actors in the global health field. While economic growth, technological development and globalization have brought unparalleled health and prosperity to some, these benefits have not been evenly distributed, and have come with significant social and ecological costs. More people are living under conditions of extreme poverty, hardship, and disease. Changes associated with overpopulation, pollution, ecosystem degradation, war, and conflict—remain a challenge to global health. The Center’s research on global health addresses the linkages between health and social, economic, political, and environmental factors. It acknowledges that solutions to health challenges will require contributions across disciplines, domains, and sectors. Drawing on perspectives from anthropology and political science, the major topics of our research are on global health governance, global health initiatives, epidemiology, and medical and health geography.

MEDICAL AND HEALTH GEOGRAPHY

Medical geography is well recognized as a subdiscipline within human geography. Its traditional focus is on the geography of diseases and medical resources. In recent years, medical geography has been relabeled as health geography where the new emphasis is on the geography of health and health care. These major themes emphasize the need to better understand and examine regional variation, cultural ecology, and spatial modelling. The Center has expert experience interlinking research between health and the environment; health and place; and health, health care, and public policy. We have first-rate experience to methodological developments in medical and health geography and emphasize the growing importance of geographical information systems (GIS), spatial statistics, telehealth, and qualitative approaches. The extent of our research consists of many varying aspects, including:

• diffusion of disease (e.g., via bodily fluids, airborne and food borne illnesses, and migration);

• sanitation (e.g., the number one way to stop influenza is to wash your hands);

• distribution and diffusion of medical services (e.g., relating to insurance and access); and

• epidemiology: the study of the causes, distribution, and control of disease in populations;

For example, if a disease is endemic, it is in its early stages and always present (e.g., dengue fever in Southeast Asia or yellow fever in South America); if a disease is epidemic, there are a few outbreaks and the situation gets more serious (e.g., recent regional Ebola outbreak in West Africa or SARS in 2003); and if a disease is pandemic, this is a serious situation and it means that there is a global outbreak (e.g., SAR-CoV-2/COVID-19—see COVID-19 Lab), HIV/Aids, or the bubonic plague in the middle of 14th Century travelling the Silk Road from Asia to Europe). 

LATIN AMERICA

LATIN AMERICA: CONTEMPORARY CHANGES

Latin America is a region of great significance for current global challenges related to development and the environment. It is a continent of diversity; with its immense rainforests containing a large share of the Earth’s biodiversity, it holds vital resources for climate mitigation as well as the conservation of species. Its rich natural resources have also been a requisite for the rapid industrialization and economic growth of rising economic powers whose demand for natural resources pose a significant challenge to Latin America’s own sustainable development. The last decade of innovative social policies and poverty reduction schemes in Latin America have become models for developing countries worldwide. Its historically rooted inequality continues to profoundly challenge Latin American societal development. On the global political scene Latin America and its emerging great power, Brazil, pose new challenges to the dominance of Western powers. Brazil, a member of the BRICS group—made up of Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa—is in a state of removing itself out of its historical dependence from the United States. Concurrently, this all occurs while indigenous populations that historically have been marginalized and oppressed have challenged the political control and ideological domination of the old elites and provided new visions for alternative development paths.

LATIN AMERICA: DEVELOPMENT TRENDS

The Center views Latin America development as of particular significance and balance to global trends. Our researchers have been investigating Latin America’s developmental trends for more than two decades and have a strong, capable expertise, and regional network. In Latin America we have research experience in sustainable consumption, socioeconomics and well-being, gender and agricultural vocation, social inequality, governance and nature conservation, alterations in political and economic elite-ship and public-private relations in regards to development, and environmental governance. The Center has been working closely with a number of Brazilian, Chilean, Mexican, and European institutions that foresee considerable variation among Latin American countries.

LATIN AMERICA MODERNIZATION

Throughout the last century, most of Latin America has experienced some form of sustained development. The crisis years of the 1980s may have been an irregularity, caused by policy errors, adverse industrial country-based policies or misfortune. Over the last decade, in particular, national markets have been created and fortified, production has been decentralized, and many Latin American countries have become well integrated with the global economy. A host of recent political, economic, and institutional transformations should facilitate a renewal of Latin American modernization at an accelerated pace. This overall argumentation is supported by considerable data and the Center's ongoing research.

Reference

Mekonnen, M. M., Pahlow, M., Aldaya, M. M., Zarate, E., and Hoekstra, A. Y. (2015). "Sustainability, efficiency and equitability of water consumption and pollution in Latin America and the Caribbean". Sustainability, 7(2): 2086-2112.

POPULATION MIGRATION

POPULATION STUDIES

Our research provides a broad, interdisciplinary coverage of population research, and offers an up-to-date and solid basis of information on the policy implications of recent research relevant to the causes and consequences of changing population size and composition. The Center's demographic expertise using ethnographic methods, comparative-historical methods, discourse analysis, and others methods considers population-related work as very important issue to global trends. The Center's population scope includes demographic, economic, social, political, and health research.

POPULATION DYNAMICS

Among population researchers, demographers are concerned with the empirical study of population dynamics; that is, demographers study population determinants and consequences including size, composition, how populations change over time and the processes influencing those changes. Demographers deal with the collection, presentation, and analysis of data relating to the basic life-cycle events and experiences of people: birth, marriage, divorce, household and family formation, migration, employment, ageing, and death. They also examine compositions of populations by sex, age, race, ethnicity, occupation, education, religion, marital status, and living arrangements. Demographers further assess the distribution of populations by region, country, province or state, urban or rural area, and by neighborhood. Most demographic data come from population censuses, vital registration systems, national registers, and surveys. The Center regularly utilizes national census data for many of its operations.

MIGRATION: WHY PEOPLE MOVE

Most people move for economic reasons, but some migrate to escape political or religious persecution or simply to fulfil a personal desire for change. Some experts divide the many reasons people leave their homes for a new one into push and pull factors. Push factors might be widespread unemployment, lack of farmland, famine, or war in their home area. The Great Depression (1929–1939) is a good example of a push factor, as hard times encouraged more residents to leave the United States than move in. In the 1980s and 1990s, hundreds of thousands of Africans were pushed out of their homelands to neighboring countries because of famine and civil war. Factors that attract migrants are called pull factors. These include a booming economy, favorable immigration laws, or free agricultural land to which the migrant is moving. For example, the labour shortage in Japan is pulling record numbers of legal and illegal immigrants to fill the low-status, low-paying, or dangerous jobs Japanese natives reject. In order to keep a working population that can support Japan's elderly, it would need 17 million new immigrants by 2050, according to recent United Nations reporting. Other estimates have said Japan would need 400,000 new immigrants each year; however, the idea of increased immigration is not favorable to most Japanese.

INTERNATIONAL MIGRATION

In absolute numbers, international migration is at an all-time high. About 145 million people lived outside their native countries in the mid-1990s and that number increased to roughly 244 million in 2015. At present, the largest immigration flows are from Latin America and Asia into North America, and from Eastern Europe, the countries of the former Soviet Union, and North Africa into Northern and Western Europe. The Middle East draws migrants from Africa and Asia and hosts millions of refugees from within the region. There is considerable migration within Asia, Africa, and Latin America. According to the United Nations Population Fund, migration is an important force in development and a high-priority issue for both developing and developed countries. In addition, almost half of all migrants are women, and most are of reproductive age. They have specific needs and human rights concerns. 

THE CENTER'S LOOK AT MIGRATION

The Center, in accordance with this issue, has been pushing for an increased understanding of migration issues, advocacy for better migration data, and promoting the incorporation of migration into national development plans. We also advocate for addressing the special concerns of women and other vulnerable migrants, and work to meet the emergency reproductive health needs of refugees, and internally displaced people. Furthermore, international migration is a global phenomenon that is growing in scope, complexity, and impact. Migration is both a cause and effect of broader development processes and an intrinsic feature of our ever globalizing world. While no substitute for development, migration can be a positive force for development when supported by the right set of policies. The rise in global mobility, the growing complexity of migratory patterns, and its impact on countries, migrants, families, and communities have all contributed to international migration becoming a priority for the international community.

REMOTE SENSING

REMOTE SENSING BACKGROUND

Remote sensing is the science of obtaining information about objects or areas from a distance, typically from aircraft imagery. Remote sensors collect data by detecting the energy that is reflected from Earth. These sensors are often found on mounted aircraft. Remote sensors can be either passive or active. Passive sensors respond to external stimuli. They record natural energy that is reflected or emitted from the Earth’s surface. The most common source of radiation detected by passive sensors is reflected sunlight. In contrast, active sensors use internal stimuli to collect data about Earth. For example, laser-beam remote sensing systems project a laser onto the Earth’s surface and measure the time that it takes for it to reflect back to the sensor. Remote sensing has a wide range of applications in many different fields.

APPLICATIONS

The Center has expertise in coastal applications, that is monitoring shoreline changes, tracking sediment transport, and mapping coastal features. Specifically, this type of data analysis can be used for coastal mapping and erosion prevention. We have worked closely with Brazilian experts on a project that mapped certain areas of the Amazon’s coastal features using RADARSAT-2, via the Canadian remote sensing Earth observation commercial program overseen by the Canadian Government. The Center also has applicative expertise in remote sensing of natural resource management by monitoring land use, mapping wetlands, and charting wildlife habitats. Data can be used to minimize damage and intrusion from urban centers and help decide how to best protect against natural resources. Other applications of using remote sensing include ocean and hazard assessment applications. Both specialize in tracking and monitoring changes and impacts to create preparedness strategies to be used before and after an investigation.

TRANSPORTATION

TRANSPORTATION GEOGRAPHY

Transportation geography is a branch of human geography that studies transportation and all aspects related to it and the geography of an area. This means that it examines the transportation or movement of people, goods, and information in or across different regions. It can have a local focus in a city, as well as a regional, national, or international. Transportation geography utilizes the different modes of transportation such as road, rail, aviation, and maritime and their relationship to people, the environment, and urban areas. Historically, in the early days of geography, explorers used known sailing routes to explore new areas and set up trading outposts. Presently, transportation capacity and efficiency is important since knowledge of the quickest route of moving either people and products is important and, in turn, understanding the geography of the regions in which these people and products are moving—vital.

EXAMPLE MODES AND WORK IN TRANSPORTATION GEOGRAPHY

Transportation geography is a very broad subject that examines many different transportation-related themes. For example, it can evaluate the link between the presence of a railroad in an area and the percentage of commuters using it to get to work. Social and environmental impacts of the creation of transportation modes are other topics within the field. Transportation geography also studies the constraints of movement across space. An example of this might be looking at how the shipment of goods varies at different times of the year due to weather conditions. Our fieldwork expertise extends to include a better understanding of transportation and knowledge base via its geographical relationship. Three important geographical branches that relate to transportation are: nodes, networks and demand. The Center’s research recognizes the importance of these branches of transportation geography and work with them accordingly.