News & Events

Rural households in Ethiopia are regularly confronted with a variety of risks and shocks that leave them vulnerable to economic deprivation. These shocks can be classified in to four main categories: health-related events, natural events, economic events and crime/conflict-related events. Conventional wisdom argues that by drawing on informal risk-sharing networks, households are more successful at insuring themselves against household-specific shocks, such as illness, compared to the common shocks that also affect other members of a village or region. Based on a 2011 survey of 1632 households in four Ethiopian regions – Tigray, Amhara, Oromiya and SNNPR – and event-history interviews, this ASC Infosheet provides details of a multi-shock analysis and an examination of the coping responses triggered by different types of shocks.

The African Studies Centre has been awarded  two research grants in the framework of the NWO-WOTRO programme on Inclusive Development. The first research project focuses on increasing the political influence of informal and formal workers’ organisations for inclusive development in Ghana and Benin. The second research project explores how Dutch multinationals can help promote sustainable productive employment and inclusive development in Sub-Sahara Africa, in particular Kenya and Nigeria.

The Africa Thesis Award is presented annually to a student whose Masters thesis has been completed on the basis of research conducted on Africa. The award consists of a prize of € 1.000 and publication of the winning thesis in the ASC’s African Studies Collection. Any final-year student who has completed his or her Masters thesis with distinction (80% or higher) at a university in Africa or the Netherlands may apply. The award aims to encourage student research and writing on Sub-Saharan Africa and to promote the study of African cultures and societies. Deadline for the 2014 award is 11 July! Read more about the application procedure.

Brazil is hosting the FIFA 2014 World Cup from 12 June to 13 July. Thirty-two teams are taking part in the tournament, including five from Africa: Algeria, Cameroon, Ghana, Ivory Coast and Nigeria. To mark this event, the Library of the African Studies Centre has compiled a web dossier on football in Africa. It contains titles from the library's collection published since 2004 including monographs, articles, films and web resources.

In Op de vleugels van de draak: Reizen tussen Afrika en China, Belgian author Lieve Joris travels between Africa and China, which is In keeping with the way in which she herself has increasingly worked over the years. She has submerged herself in the worlds of both Africans and Chinese who have ventured onto each other’s territory in the slipstream of big business contracts. On the occasion of the presentation she gave on Thursday 5 june at the ASC about this book, Op de vleugels van de draak is the subject of our latest Acquisition Highlight.