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Since the ICPD conference in Cairo in 1994, women's autonomy has become a core element of the development agenda. This study examines the contextual level factors (especially the gender norms that legitimate violence against women), and the individual level factors (including education and employment status) in women's decision-making authority in four sub-Saharan African countries. Using multilevel structural equations modelling on DHS data from Ghana, Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda, we found good model fits in all four countries, confirmed by factor analysis, using a measure of gender norms based on the attitudes of women in the community towards domestic violence (specifically wife-beating). We found that one standard deviation of this contextual latent variable is associated with an increase of 54 % in Ghana, 45 % in Kenya, 48 % in Uganda and 25 % in Tanzania in the odds of a woman having low decision-making authority. Education and socio-economic status both at individual and contextual level did not show the same strong effect on women's decision-making authority. The results reinforce the need for more appropriate global policies to enhance women's autonomy in the sub-Saharan African context.

This article analyzes the changes which have occurred in land occupation and vegetation cover over the past few decades in a number of villages scattered along the bioclimatic gradient in the South-West of Niger, from the Tillabéry-Filingué line in the North to Gaya (on the Niger-Benin border) in the South. Diachronic analyses were performed based on satellite photographs (CORONA March and October 1965) or aerial photographs (IGN mission in March 1975) which were compared to current Google Earth photographs. These analyses were then confronted to interviews conducted in the various villages as well as to surveys of the state of the vegetation. If researchers emphasize the resumption of rainfall since the mid-1990s, they also show that the South-West of Niger paradoxically presents an increased socio-environmental vulnerability. It seems possible to generalize this observation at the scale of the two regions. However, the research undertaken here leads to a more nuanced conclusion : when data are disaggregated, the situation looks very diversified, revealing, independently from the bioclimatic gradient and from the meridian differentiation linked with the fossile valleys (dallols), situations where the vulnerability of both populations and ecosystems appears more or less pronounced.

Keywords: Sahel, Niger, gradient bioclimatique, changements, socio-environnementaux, dynamique, paysage, occupation, sol, couvert végétal, Sahel, Niger, bioclimatic gradient, socio-environmental, changes, landscape, dynamics, land cover, vegetation cover

Since 1960s, the Ivorian government care about his forest conservation. Thus, the Ivory Coast has set up a network of protected areas to conserve its forests and biodiversity. Located in Abidjan, the Banco National Park (PNB) and its periphery face a deeply environment changes in recent decades. This research aims to describe and analyze the various threats to urban pressure, including the risks of deforestation and pollution around and inside the PNB. To achieve these objectives, the analysis of the land cover and vegetation change help to understand the environmental dynamics of the Banco forest. The inventory and mapping of the types of risk and their impact on PNB enable to show the most vulnerable areas due to anthropogenic pressures and urbanization. The study of the types of human pressures in PNB is conducted through observations to detect spatial changes in recent years. The study also relies on an aerial photograph of 1955 and Spot satellite image taken in 1998. Aerial photography was acquired at the Centre of Cartography and Remote Sensing and the National Geographic Institute (IGN-Paris). The satellite image was obtained with the ISIS program of Spot Image. These data were used to map land cover in 1955 and 1998 and compare the evolution of the vegetation through a diachronic analysis.Indeed, in the year 1955, the land in the park and its periphery showed that the landscape was dominated by the forest despite the presence of a few urban space. The forest covered an area of 5462 ha while secondary forest covered an area of 9220 ha. These two types of forest represented nearly 90 % of the landscape of the study area. In 1998, 3450 ha of forest and 434 ha of forest plantations represente the vegetation of the PNB. Bordered by four towns, the Banco National Park suffers from the consequences of rapid urbanization. This rapid growth in the district of Abidjan has created many environmental problems, including the proliferation of shantytowns, inadequate facilities and transport infrastructure, sanitation and housing. The park is bordered to the north, east and south many poor neighborhoods without sanitation equipment. The PNB is to be the outlet for solid and liquid waste from households. Municipal storm water is discharged into the park. Multiple industrial units, informal activities and new residential areas bordering the park which is already facing since a decades to the creation of many facilities (creation of motorways, express roads, infrastructure and equipment necessary to meet demand of urban water, electricity etc..). In addition, many areas of PNB are subject to land claims, including the north-east and south of the park. These disputed areas are correlated with particular types of communities along the villages of Anonkoua Kouté Sagbé and north-Agban Attié and Agban-village southeast, and southwest Andokoi. In order to improve the protection of PNB and to enable his participation in economic development of people, its directors have established a policy of participatory management. This strategy involves local people in conservation. The association of local people in the community management of forest resources can empower them by involving them in monitoring missions, recovery and development. The development of the park through ecotourism, the development of alternative activities toward poachers and illegal loggers are among the many strategies implemented to save this threatened ecosystem. Ecotourism has become the most important policy of participatory management of public administrators of PNB.

Keywords: urbanisation, parc, gestion communautaire, conservation, biodiversité, abidjan, Côte d'Ivoire, écotourisme, urbanization, park, community management, conservation, biodiversity, abidjan, Ivory Coast, ecotourism

The trade unions' reluctance to accept the reforms envisaged in the Industrial Relations Act 1971 is cited as an important example of trade unions* intransigence and arrogance and of the fact that they consider themselves to be above law. But the way the trade unions fought the Act appears to be quite in keeping with the democratic procedure and the rule of law.

This article is an analysis of the discursive space surrounding the terms and conditions of belonging in the Franco-Manitoban community of Saint-Boniface (Manitoba) in 2005. The discourse that is herein analyzed appeared in La Liberté, a French language weekly newspaper. Daniel Lavoie, a Franco-Manitoban singer-songwriter who moved to Québec in the 1970s, addressed a letter to La Liberté expressing his disagreement with the construction of a high-rise, privately owned, residential building on historical ground (the “500 Taché” project). His statements became the center of a spirited debate in the newspaper's pages, as this construction project deeply divided the local community at that time. This analysis of the “500 Taché” project is part of a larger, ongoing analysis of the role of language in the creation of social boundaries in French Manitoba, and the legitimacy of people who left the province as social actors in present day community events and decisions.

Keywords: discours médiatique, légitimité, Manitoba français, Québec, La Liberté, patrimoine, appartenance, identité, mobilité, media discourse, legitimacy, French Manitoba, Québec, La Liberté, cultural heritage, belonging, identity, mobility

In this study, we test the hypothesis that domestic public debt affects economic growth through its impact on the activity of the banking system. For this purpose, we estimate a simultaneous equations model based on a panel of 20 Sub-Saharan African countries over the period 2000-2010. The results suggest that the holding of government securities has encouraged banks to take on more risk and to increase their loans to the private sector, especially in the presence of weak institutions. However, this beneficial impact of domestic public debt did not significantly influence economic activity as the African financial system has played a limited role in stimulating private investment and economic growth.