Journal of Sustainable Development Studies

This study analyzed the trends of climatic parameters (temperature and precipitation) over the last three decades (1977-2008) and assessed vulnerability of households to climate variability, i.e., extreme weather events, using two sets of indicators, (1) livelihood assets as indicators of adaptive capacity, and (2) indicators of sensitivity and exposure. The study was carried out in two communities of Kailali district, Nepal, one susceptible to floods and the other to droughts. A vulnerability index, computed from livelihood assets indicators developed in consultation with local people, was used to categorize the surveyed households into three vulnerability groups. Indicators of adaptive capacity and indicators of sensitivity and exposure differed significantly across these groups. The rising trend of extreme rainfall events and drought conditions have increased the vulnerability of agriculture based livelihoods in the study area. Adaptation measures were adopted by households depending on their endowment with key livelihood assets. Annual income, training and land holding size were identified as major adaptive capacity indicators, while distance of households from rivers was the key sensitivity and exposure factor. The findings suggest that programs aimed at facilitating adaptation to climate change and variability have to be integrated with disaster risk management and need to incorporate strategies for improving local livelihoods.

The One Belt One Road (OBOR) initiative is a historical landmark which intends to connect more than two-thirds of the world population and opening up the windows for reviving global business, peace and infrastructural development across the countries. The main purpose of this paper is to discuss the OBOR initiative in general and also, to analyze its contribution towards economy and development. The sources of this paper are the published literature, newspaper articles and web information. The paper suggests that though some countries will be benefitted more due to the strategic location advantages, all the member countries will be advantageous if they can use the opportunity with better policy implementation. The authors hope that this paper will be useful for the academicians, policy makers and businessmen who want to study further and implement policies according to the OBOR plan.

That African states confront multi-dimensional challenges is obvious. In recent times, so much has been said about Sustainable development. However, no serious attention has been paid to the issue of solving the problems by tapping from our indigenous knowledge in the schemes of ensuring sustainability and development. This paper, therefore, investigates certain aspects of indigenous knowledge for the purpose of reducing poverty, corrupt practices, crimes and other related social vices. The paper aims at exposing us to native African conceptual skills/knowledge, building good moral, promoting and preserving our cultural heritage and core values, not only for entertainment but also for economic values using indigenous knowledge as a platform. We adopt field study as our methodology and sociological literary theory as our theoretical framework. This theory is applied because it considers the relationship between arts in general and the society, which produced such arts. The study reveals that there is the need to revisit and reinvest in the indigenous knowledge, as foreign cultures cannot guarantee our sustainability as Africans. This paper concludes that individuals, scholars, institutions, corporate organizations and government at various levels have roles to play in making indigenous knowledge a veritable tool for a happy living.

This paper is about the taxation of solar photovoltaic (PV) technologies in Malawi. It analyses and expose the reality about the benefits and beneficiaries of customs and excise duty waiver on these technologies. The principal aim for taxation is to raise revenue for the government, local authorities and other similar bodies. Taxes are also used to redistribute wealth whereby higher rates of income tax transfer wealth from the better-off to the state and the latter uses the resources to provide services to everyone. Sometimes, taxes are used to protect local industries from foreign competition. In such cases, the government levies duty on imported goods, which translates into higher prices. As a result of the high prices of the imports, people are forced to buy locally manufactured goods as substitutes. However, this analysis appears to be biased towards the end users of the technologies and completely ignores the suppliers, without whom there would be no solar PV market at all. This paper is therefore aimed at highlighting the shortcomings of this perspective and redefining the benefits and beneficiaries of such exemption.