Gendering the Rwanda Defence Force: A Critical Assessment

Over the past five years the Government of Rwanda has placed renewed emphasis on increasing the number of female military personnel and gender mainstreaming the Rwanda Defence Force (RDF). This article examines the efforts made by the RDF since 2007 to meet these strategic requirements and integrate women into the national security organ. It is suggested that, in spite of Rwanda's success in bringing women into the political sphere, women are still reluctant to join the military. It is argued that prevailing societal values and attitudes, conflicting narratives within official discourse about the role of women as security actors, resource constraints and the RDF's emphasis on ‘gender equality’ are barriers to achieving RDF goals. Drawing on in-depth interviews with RDF military personnel and government officials, as well as documentary research, the article first provides an overview of the Rwandan government's approach to mobilizing women to securitize the state, before examining how the RDF aims to progress the Women, Peace and Security (WPS) agenda nationally and within local communities. The article then reflects on some of the factors that are hindering the recruitment and retention of female military personnel.     

Participatory communication for development in practice: the case of community media

Since it emerged, the field of communication for development has undergone a constant process of redefinition. Since the 1990s, the importance of participation in social and communicative processes has been stressed, and studies carried out during those years focused on participation as an important component to be considered. The so-called community media are privileged forces driving the participatory communication for development approach. Since their emergence and up to the recent studies, community media have been characterised by the centrality of citizenship participation in the creation of widespread messages, and in the processes of social change that they promote.

Communication participative pour le développement dans la pratique : le cas des médias communautaires

Depuis son apparition, le domaine de la communication pour le développement a traversé un processus constant de redéfinition. Depuis les années 1990, l'importance de la participation aux processus sociaux et de communication a été soulignée, et des études effectuées durant cette période-là se sont concentrées sur la participation comme élément important à prendre en compte. Ces « médias communautaires » sont des forces privilégiées qui impulsent l'approche participative pour la communication pour le développement. Depuis leur naissance et jusqu'aux récentes études effectuées, les médias communautaires se sont caractérisés par la position centrale de la participation citoyenne à la création de messages généralisés, et aux processus de changement social qu'ils promeuvent.

Comunicación participativa para el desarrollo en la práctica: el caso de los medios comunitarios

Desde que inició, el ámbito de la comunicación para el desarrollo ha experimentado un proceso constante de redefinición. A partir de los años noventa, ha comenzado a insistirse en la importancia de participar en los procesos sociales y comunicacionales. Los estudios realizados durante esa década, se centraron en la participación como componente primordial que debía ser tenido en cuenta. Los llamados medios comunitarios constituyen fuerzas privilegiadas que impulsan el enfoque de la comunicación participativa para el desarrollo. Desde que iniciaron sus actividades y hasta las últimas investigaciones realizadas al respecto, los medios comunitarios se caracterizaron por la significación otorgada a la participación ciudadana en la creación de mensajes de amplia difusión y en el proceso de cambio social promovido por dichos mensajes.

Comunicação participativa para o desenvolvimento na prática: o caso da mídia comunitária

Desde que surgiu, a área de comunicação para o desenvolvimento tem passado por um processo constante de redefinição. Desde a década de 1990, a importância da participação em processos sociais e comunicativos tem sido ressaltada e estudos têm sido realizados durante estes anos tendo como foco a participação como componente importante a ser considerado. A chamada mídia comunitária constitui-se em forças privilegiadas que dirigem a comunicação participativa para a abordagem de desenvolvimento. Desde o seu surgimento até estudos recentes, a mídia comunitária tem se caracterizado pela ênfase na participação dos cidadãos na criação de mensagens disseminadas e nos processos de mudança social que elas promovem.     

The Evolution of Jihadist Terrorism in Morocco

Over the last few years, Moroccans have been disproportionately involved in jihadist terrorism. Morocco has been increasingly identified as one of the largest producers of terrorists and insurgents in Afghanistan, Iraq, and throughout Europe. This article examines the factors behind the emergence of jihadist terrorism in Morocco, and how this terrorist threat has gone beyond this country's borders. Three factors have contributed to this development: the influence of global jihad on potential Moroccan jihadists; the growing Islamization of the country; and deteriorating socioeconomic conditions. In analyzing these variables, special attention will be paid to the Casablanca terrorist attacks on May 16, 2003, marking the debut of suicide terrorism in Morocco. The article will also examine the principal counterterrorist initiatives Morocco has implemented in response to this threat.     

Remittances and the Brain Drain: Evidence from Microdata for Sub-Saharan Africa

Based on unique microdata from five Sub-Saharan African countries that contain comprehensive information on both migrants and their households at the origin country, we investigate the effect of migrants’ education on their remittance behaviour. Our results reveal that migrants’ education has no impact on the likelihood of sending remittances, but a positive effect on the amount of money sent, conditional on remitting. The latter effect holds for internal migrants and migrants in non-OECD countries, while it vanishes for migrants in OECD destination countries once characteristics of the origin household are controlled for.     

The Effect of New Legislation on the Disclosure of Performance Indicators: The Case of Spanish Local Governments

This article analyzes the effect of new accounting legislation on the disclosure of performance indicators in the financial statements of Spanish local governments. Based on agency and institutional theories, the article also assesses whether the disclosure of performance indicators is used to make the monitoring of local government performance easier for stakeholders or merely to project an image of good management. The results show that the enactment of new legislation has only led to a partial implementation, most local governments disclosing financial and budgetary indicators but very few providing indicators related to the performance of public services. The institutional theory (symbolic value) seems to be the rationale that best explains this pattern of disclosure.     

Do Electoral Risks Moderate the Effect of Partisan and Electoral Cycles on Debt-Financed Local Spending?

Governments’ use of debt as a political instrument has been widely studied from the perspective of partisan and electoral cycles, mainly concerning central government. On the whole, previous studies have attempted to determine the effects of political ideology and the proximity of elections on the opportunistic use of public spending. The current study aims to broaden the scope of attention to the effect of partisan and electoral cycles on debt, by means of a broader consideration of the motives that lead politicians to take on a deficit and that are usually linked to the associated electoral risk. More particularly, we examine whether, during the electoral period, greater confidence in re-election can modify party behaviour concerning the use of public spending, and if so, whether the change is greater or smaller depending on the ruling party’s ideology. The results obtained show that local administrations need to incur debt, although politicians take on more liability than is appropriate to their demographic and economic characteristics, especially in an election year. It was also found that political stability favours a reduction in the public deficit, a pattern that is maintained in electoral periods. This effect was found to be independent of the partisan cycle.     

Variation in poverty and household incomes in the Philippines

This article is concerned with the analysis of the possible causes of variation in the incidence of income-only poverty and incomes across the provinces of the Philippines using cross-section data in 1990 and 1991. Assuming all other things remaining the same, the analysis indicates that the incidence of land ownership, the level of sanitary toilet facilities and the proportion of non-agricultural earners in the labour force explains to a statistically significant degree variations in poverty levels across provinces. In addition, these variables along with the availability of irrigation facilities and being located in the island of Luzon were also found to be statistically significant in explaining variations in the level of household incomes across the provinces. The regression results also indicate that the proportion of non-agricultural earners, in turn, is influenced by the level of access to electricity, the level of urbanisation, the rate of illiteracy, having an academic degree and the availability of paved roads. These latter econometric results suggest, therefore, that the links, or lines of causation between the independent variables and the level of poverty possibly are more complex than may be inferred from the results presented in comparable studies of poverty — studies that do not allow for variables operating in an indirect way, through other variables, on the level of poverty. If the results derived from various regression equations turn out to be robust after using improved data sets, then they have implications for the design of poverty-alleviation programs in the rural areas of the Philippines.     

Members of Parliament representing Barcelona during the rise of the Spanish parliamentary system (1834–54)

SUMMARY

The province of Barcelona became one of the major industrial regions at the outset of the first industrial revolution in Spain. The province of Barcelona had a distinctive place in the Spanish monarchy and it was an area where agriculture was the most important economic activity. This situation coincided with the beginning of liberal parliamentarism in Spain and it determined the profile of the Catalan MPs. For this reason, this article explores the profiles of the 85 deputies elected by the province of Barcelona during the period of liberal parliamentarianism (1834–54). The date and place of birth, profession, parliamentary experience and political militancy are examined, as is the development of cursus honorum, the ladder of political career advancement, based on the ‘course of honours/offices’ that operated in ancient Rome for men of senatorial rank and comprised a mixture of administrative and political posts. A quantitative analysis indicates a characteristic profile that is also aligned to a general European pattern. For instance, liberal professionals and public officials were significant in the professional status of the MPs. Besides, this study also considers the issues and questions which attracted the attention of the Catalan MPs and which were also willingly used by the MPs to mobilize public opinion. Furthermore, the MPs chosen by the province of Barcelona during the rise of the parliamentary system acted in an autonomous manner. Important examples of this autonomous political behaviour include the defence of a unitary position concerning industrial issues, military intervention in the province of Barcelona, and with tax policies.