AGEP Summer-School "Natural resource based rural development in Africa"

INTERDISCIPLINARY AGEP-SUMMER SCHOOL

“Natural resource based rural development in Africa”

In cooperation with the Gustav-Stresemann-Institute, the AGEP hosts a Summer School from 04-06 September 2017 under the title: „Natural resource based rural development in Africa: Problems and best practice cases”.

The Summer School will bring together students from several of our academically diverse AGEP study programmes in order to allow for a multiperspective approach on the issues at stake.

The situation in Africa is characterized by a relatively high increase of the GDP in many countries and a strong contribution of natural resources to national development. This led to resource depletion with severe ecosystem destruction related to soils, climate, vegetation cover, resulting in decreasing land productivity. People are pushed out of rural areas, increasing migration and unsustainable resource use are interrelated, which have negative effects on rural development. Basic transformations are necessary from a destructive resource use to sustainable land management, rooted in value addition to natural resources, improvement of commercialization and markets as well as improvement of livelihood systems and subsistence production.

In the first part of the workshop, a diagnosis is planned in which the situation in Africa is documented with its development potentials, including negative trends and causalities.

In the second part of the workshop, the participants in collaboration with the supervisors look for successful cases of natural resource based rural development stories in Africa. Cases may be related to primary production as well as to value added strategies. The “success stories” will be documented in the final wrap-up of the third part as base for discussion and scenarios for future development initiatives, which should evolve out of this innovative concept.