Weaknesses/Opportunities
W1, W2 to O1, O2 – Lack of capital and capacity will not facilitate better natural resources management, SME formation and ultimately economic development.
• Lack of capital and capacity inhibit SME formation and lifting millions out of poverty. African countries lack capital and capacity if these capacities are not developed urgently they will limit the use of GIS to make better decisions that results in better environment, disaster, education and health management that may lift millions out of poverty. Capital is available through private investors. However, African countries need to have political stability, business friendly environment and good infrastructure that may be expanded significantly by regional
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The risks and rewards of such efforts being borne by regional members. Scalability of infrastructure projects can be replicated and the lessons learned can be transferred from one regional group to another until all the continent has a robust GIS infrastructure and allow less dependence from image providers Because the regional groupings are already functional dialogue, planning and implementation of GIS projects would be much easier along already established regional …show more content…
African Union (AU) the body that unites all 54 African nations has a fundamental role to play in leadership in adopting GIS policies throughout the continent. Moreover, Africa has nations that have already launched their own satellites including Algeria, Nigeria, South Africa and Egypt. Nodes should be formed based on each region in Africa and these countries that have launched satellites should provide mentorship for infant space programs for these nodes. A fund can be set-up based on AU member countries, development partners and the private sector so that infant space programs can develop and eventually more joint space programs can take root in Africa. Additionally, more sharing of expertise, data and images, including training in GIS amongst African countries will reduce the bargaining power of image producers and the cost of images will be more affordable in the long run. Most of GIS initiatives in Africa are funded by donors and set up as Projects that have a schedule and deadline. During the financial crisis of 2007/08, some of African countries could not access funding for existing and new development projects due to the fact that the donor nations had a “credit crunch” in the home countries. It imperative African countries contribute financially, technically and have the political will in ensuring
Priscilla. “The World Economy and Africa.” JSpivey – Home – Wikispaces. 2010. 29 January 2010. .
The country of Uganda is a struggling nation and has adversities with their living conditions, economy, and politics. Uganda uses a republic form of government. It has a mixed legal system of English common law and customary law. The country has a plethora of natural resources “including fertile soils, regular rainfall, small deposits of copper, gold, and other minerals, and recently discovered oil” (“CIA World Factbook”).The country itself has the potential to become wealthy and more powerful, but before you can access and use these resources, you first need to improve the living conditions for the people of the country. In order to do this the country is currently attempting to stabilize the economy by undertaking an economic reform. However, “unreliable power, high energy costs, inadequate transportation infrastructure, and corruption inhibit economic development and investor confidence”(CIA World Factbook). Once again, many small things need to be changed and fixed before the achievement of the final goal of improving the economy is remotely possible. Overall the...
Wright, G. & Czelusta, J. (2004). Why Economies Slow The Myth ofthe Resource Curse. Challenge, 47 (2), 6–38.
Production efficiency levels are not being addressed. Overall efficiency and cost effectiveness at the production level, bottle-necks, material consumptions, etc.
...regarded GPS – an indispensable part of GIS. Discussions on cartographic principles, commercial GIS software programs, satellite images, aerial photos, and geodatabases are some of the other conspicuous omissions in this book. There is an inconsistency in the depth of topics explored; for example map projections are explored in great depth, while vector topology is merely glossed over. These omissions and inconsistencies would in my opinion make this book marginally less beneficial to all the three audiences together. However, there is something for all them; structure for engineers, equations for engineers and students, and GIS concepts for students, engineers and users. This book will therefore be undeniably valuable if used to complement the material in some of the other fundamental GIS books in the discipline. It has merits, but there is room for improvement.
Overall Central Africa’s dependence on agriculture could improve the wellbeing of the people but a long history of corruption, violence, and prevalent transportation issues have hindered an improvement in the economy resulting in poverty among the region. Poverty will not subside unless these issues are dealt with and improved.
Geographers plan new communities, decide where new highways should be placed, and establish evacuation plans. Computerized mapping and data analysis is known as Geographic Information Systems (GIS), a new frontier in geography. Spatial data is gathered on a variety of subjects and input onto a computer. GIS users can create an infinite number of maps by requesting portions of the data to plot.
Canadian Natural Resources is an oil and gas exploration, development and production company with its corporate head office in Calgary, Alberta. CNR is Canada’s largest oil and gas company and one of the world’s largest independent oil and gas producer. CNR was founded in Calgary, Alberta in 1989 but there is no specific man or women who have found the company. The company started off with drilling shallow gas basin, which is a big contributor of their success. Slowly they shifted into bitumen and crude oil. CNR headquarters are located in Calgary, Alberta and all the other offices are located in Alberta except for one, Fort St.John which is located in British Columbia. Their factories and offices are located in Alberta because Alberta is the
Building a GIS system from the ground up is a very time consuming and extremely expensive venture. This is why only large metropolitan areas have developed or are developing GIS systems.
Two internal barriers to economic growth and development are International trade and Political barriers. Barriers prevent and restrict development in some countries. While some things are barriers to economic growth some are barriers to economic development. In this case being international and having a political sense is a barrier to both thoughts. Change and the process of development is a multi-generational process.
Growth in Africa is not enough for its people to grow, which is leading to poverty and hunger in Africa. Today Africa is one of the leading countries having poverty and economic problems. One half of the Africans live below the poverty line which leads to low human development in Africa. The main cause of poverty in Africa is a problem in its economic system and environmental factors. Because of poverty people of Africa remain hungry as they don’t have enough money to buy their food and their basic needs. Some of the African countries have less poverty rate than others due to good government and economic system in those countries. Most of the African is facing challenges to survive and keep their family healthy.
In Africa, one important feature of the urbanization process is that a lot of the growth is taking place in the industrial increase. Urbanization also finds expression in external expansion of the built-up area and the changing of prime agricultural lands into residential and industrial uses (Saundry, 2008). An alternate to the present expansion of the urban population across a wide area of the country in order to save crucial land for agriculture is to construct high-rise buildings and support commercial development in specific zones, which would depend on efficiency, and the right technology and resources (Hanson, 2011). In Africa, the urbanization processes are largely driven by market forces and government policies. This will lead to methods at the same time of change in incomes, land use, health and natural resources management including water, soil and forests and often reactive changes in local governments (The Economist, 2010). So this is saying that government development policies and budget divisions, in which urban residents are often favorites over rural areas and will tend to pull more people into the urban areas. I...
GIS has been around the block far longer than the internet and the web, with the first GIS being developed by Roger Tomlinson in 1962. This was used for Canada’s Federal Department of Forestry and Rural Development. Other than for conventionally producing maps, GIS more importantly has powerful analytical functions that translate raw data into information that is useful.(Fu & Sun, 2010)
In order to grow, besides using technology, the economy also feeds on natural resources. This in turn emits waste that pollutes the air and threatens the climate, causes an overuse of natural resources such as oil and gas, and in the long run, this will create a skin hole which will swallow up the economy, environment and society.