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243.More information
Between 1440 and 1640, from 300,000 to 350,000 African slaves were forcefully moved from sub-Saharan Africa to the Iberic Peninsula. Mostly female and young, this population was led to Portugal, to live among different cultural practices-in a society where the smallest religious, ethnic, or cultural difference was a cause of exclusion. How did men and women of foreign origins and cultures share a life, and have children, with the Portuguese, without sharing the society's values? Through exclusion, integration, and assimilation, the African presence in Portugal, from the sixteenth century onwards, created a plural nation and complex identities.
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246.More information
One criticism generally addressed to the system of commercial preferences in favor of developing countries is their unilateral character. By legitimizing their recourse to achieve its objectives, the World Trade Organization (WTO) has set minimum granting conditions. The commercial preferences thus become a case of developed countries whose different practices sometimes lead to discrimination among beneficiaries with equal levels of development. The African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) is a perfect illustration of this problem. Adopted in 2000 to promote trade between Sub-Saharan Africa and the United States of America, the AGOA goes beyond the traditional field of a law because of the relationships it is supposed to regulate. Its mixed results and its contestability before the Dispute Settlement Body of the WTO should encourage the beneficiaries and the donor to review the legal framework of the Afro-American cooperation.
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247.More information
The vulnerability of coastal zones to the impacts of climate change and risks is the result of the synergy of natural and human impacts on the natural environment, which together create a vulnerable socio-ecological system. In order to account for that duality, theoretical approaches such as the exposition/sensitivity or risk/hazard couples have been developed for the evaluation of climate vulnerability indices or in risk management. Often, these approaches are only implemented in a punctual manner and do not integrate the historical evolution of the territory and of its vulnerability. Here, we address the historical dimension of vulnerability, that is how the planning, use and vocation of the territories have contributed to create vulnerability. We will describe how the climate vulnerability of certain territories in France, Senegal and Atlantic Canada is determined by the evolution of land use, of demographic, economic, environmental, social and cultural aspects that evolve on different time scales, secular in some cases, more recent in others. It can be observed that different historical trajectories, e.g. the development of coastal tourism, the opening of the territory through new transport means, the evolution of coastal activities such as fishing or demographic change resulting from adverse climatic conditions in the hinterland can make a territory vulnerable to the impacts of climate change and hazards. The synergy between these different transformations of the coastal zone and the new element of climate change draw the portrait of a constantly evolving vulnerability.
Keywords: changements climatiques, augmentation du niveau de la mer, développement côtier, risque, aléa, vulnérabilité, adaptation, perception, climate change, sea level rise, coastal development, risk, hazard, vulnerability, adaptation, perception
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249.More information
Public administration in Benin is notoriously inefficient. The consequences are wasted time, lack of a basis for decision-making, undocumented repetition of previous studies or actions, lack of historical and institutional memory, compromised execution of development projects, and so on. One of the main dysfunctions is linked to the lack of control over administrative information, even though this information itself is produced. The inadequate skills of the archivist employed by the administration are one of the causes of this situation. This article presents the archivist's new skills and responsibilities following a revision of the archival training offered at the University of Abomey-Calavi in the Republic of Benin, skills that enable them to be an agent of change for the efficiency of public administration.