Christopher David Huggins- PhD Geography (specialization Political Economy)
- Professor (Associate) at University of Ottawa
Christopher David Huggins
- PhD Geography (specialization Political Economy)
- Professor (Associate) at University of Ottawa
About
83
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Introduction
Chris Huggins is an Associate Professor at the School of International Development and Global Studies, University of Ottawa. His main research project is currently 'Collaborative governance and dispute resolution in the mining sector in the great lakes region of Africa' which is being conducted with funding from SSHRC. Research for that project is being conducted in Tanzania and the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Current institution
Additional affiliations
June 2016 - present
Publications
Publications (83)
This article presents findings of the baseline survey for the project “Nature-based solutions for climate adaptation in the Guinean forests of West Africa” in the context of relevant legal, policy, institutional, and gender equity issues in six biodiverse and climate-change sensitive areas in three countries: Côte d’Ivoire, Ghana, and Guinea. Quant...
Nature-based climate adaptation in the Guinean forests of West Africa project is a 3-year collaborative initiative implemented by World University Service of Canada (WUSC) and Centre d’Études et de Coopération Internationale (CECI). It contributes to enhancing the adoption of gender responsive and inclusive nature-based solutions (NbS) for climate...
This article uses data collected from male and female miners and gemstone traders in an amethyst production zone in Zambia and tanzanite production zone in Tanzania to explore the gendered dynamics of investment of artisanal and small-scale mining profits in local communities. We investigated payment arrangements at mining sites and variations betw...
The role of the military in the mining sector in sub-Saharan Africa has been primarily examined through the lens of securitization of the artisanal and small-scale mining sector. In many cases, the military have been part of state-led efforts to prevent informal mining. We apply a theoretical framework based on three elements (securitization of the...
Canada's Feminist International Assistance Policy (FIAP) commits Canada to promote the land rights of women, and to provide at least 50 per cent of bilateral funding to sub-Saharan African countries by 2021. This article seeks to answer the question: What is the Government of Canada (GAC) currently doing to strengthen women's land rights in Africa?...
Canada’s Feminist International Assistance Policy (FIAP) aims to protect and promote the rights of vulnerable and marginalized groups, especially women, and disburse at least 50% of all funding in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). The FIAP commits the Government of Canada to promote, “land, inheritance and property rights for women”. Six years after the FI...
Artisanal and small-scale mining (ASM) is an important livelihood activity for millions of people across the globe. Often, small-scale miners operate in, or adjacent to large-scale mining (LSM) concessions, potentially leading to conflict. Multilateral organizations and some governments have encouraged collaboration between ASM and LSM, prompting a...
Central African Republic (CAR) has a history of brutal colonialism, patrimonial
postcolonial governance, violent regime change, and marginalization
within the global economy. Since 2012, CAR has been deeply affected by
new episodes of civil war. Multiple sources have identified control over high-value natural resources, such as diamonds, gold, and...
This systematic review analyzes all 260 studies published in the Web of Science on gender and climate change in Africa. While there is no strong methodological bias, comparative case studies and sex disaggregated analyses predominate from a limited set of countries. Many articles covered the agrarian sector by comparing women's and men's on-farm vu...
This study examines the interaction between formalization of the artisanal and small�scale mining subsector and the regulation of negative environmental impacts in Tanzania.
Formalization generally seeks to move the artisanal and small-scale mining subsector to legal status. Using documents, reviews, and interviews with key informants, the study s...
Minerals and other sub-surface resources (including some gemstones such as industrial
diamonds) are very significant within the contemporary manufacturing sectors.
The high-tech sector, associated with a shift towards ‘paperless’ and ‘virtual’ forms
of work and social interaction, is highly dependent on minerals and other resources
with a very visi...
Improved environmental management is key to several of the sustainable development goals (SDGs). This paper focuses on the interaction between formalization of the Artisanal and Small-scale Mining (ASM) sector in Tanzania, and the regulation of negative environmental impacts. Key environmental impacts associated with ASM in Tanzania include: defore...
The Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) is an emblematic case in the ‘Global Land Grab,’ with reports of 11 million hectares acquired by foreign firms between 2000 and 2020. However, this figure is an underestimate. The acquisition of land by domestic actors, often under coercive circumstances, appears equally significant. The role of domestic i...
African countries are subject to competing visions of agricultural
development. Efforts to “scale up” technocratic, market-based
approaches focus on productivist indices (yields, income) rather
than food access. Alternatives advocate agro-ecological practices,
re-adoption of indigenous crops and state investment in
agricultural extension. We introd...
African countries are subject to competing visions of agricultural development. Efforts to “scale up” technocratic, market-based approaches focus on productivist indices (yields, income) rather than food access. Alternatives advocate agro-ecological practices, re-adoption of indigenous crops and state investment in agricultural extension. We introd...
The Africa Mining Vision reiterates the importance of training centres or ‘centres of excellence’ (COEs) for artisanal and small-scale mining but historically, these have had mixed results, partly due to a lack of understanding of demand for services. Recently, understanding of artisanal and small-scale mining (ASM) organizational and financial str...
This article provides an overview of the contemporary land reform process in the Democratic Republic of Congo and presents strategies used by various local, national and international actors to influence the reform. It also indicates how initiatives in the forestry and agriculture sectors influence land reform. Using a conceptual framework of insti...
Disputes and dispossession of property rights in the mining sector are causes of injustice, violence and forced resettlement around the world. This collection examines mining, particularly what is often called ‘Artisanal and Small-Scale Mining’ (ASM), from a perspective of governance and rights. It focuses especially on rights to land, natural reso...
This article provides an overview of the contemporary land reform process in the Democratic Republic of Congo, and presents strategies used by local non-governmental organizations to influence the reform. It also indicates how initiatives in the forestry and agriculture sectors influence land reform. Using a conceptual framework of institutional br...
Tanzania is part of an African turn towards resource nationalism in the mining sector, but the potential impacts of recent policy and legal changes on artisanal and small-scale mining (ASM) have been under-researched. In 2018 the government attempted to formalize and control production of tanzanite, a gemstone unique to Tanzania, including by const...
Several African countries have recently enacted mining laws that could be described as resource nationalist: for example, increasing state investment in the sector, increasing royalty rates, and/or requiring local content. These laws mostly focus on large-scale mining (LSM). What implications do they have for artisanal and small mining (ASM)? Parti...
Several African countries have recently enacted mining laws that could be described as resource nationalist: for example, increasing state investment in the sector, increasing royalty rates, and/or requiring local content. These laws mostly focus on large-scale mining (LSM). What implications do they have for artisanal and small mining (ASM)? Parti...
Rwanda has embarked on an ambitious policy package to modernise and professionalise the agrarian and land sector. Its reform fits into a broader call – supported by major international donors – to implement a Green Revolution in Sub-Saharan Africa. After 10 years of implementation, there is increased production output and value-addition in commerci...
Participatory land-use planning (LUP) is often promoted as a solution to various environment-related challenges. In Tanzania, planning processes often represent a stage in the conversion of village lands to different uses, such as wildlife conservation or large-scale farming. LUP in Tanzania is frequently dominated by powerful local, national, or i...
International development programing is increasingly integrating agriculture and nutrition goals, while attempting to demonstrate ‘impacts at scale’ and value for money. These multiple goals create complexities, both from a conceptual viewpoint and a more operational perspective. This article uses systems theory to examine the mobile Nutrition prog...
International observers have lauded Rwanda as an example of an African country that has taken control of its own development trajectory, and thus as a market-friendly destination for investment. A key component of this has been an ambitious program of agricultural reform, involving private firms, NGOs, and international charities. The Rwandan gover...
This is the front cover of the book, Agricultural Reform in Rwanda: Authoritarianism, Markets, and Zones of Governance
Rwanda is widely seen as an African success story so far as government support for agriculture is concerned and has recently managed to dramatically increase yields for selected crops. However, the country’s agricultural policy is largely blind to climate change impact, and government-driven strategies of commercialization, regional crop specializa...
Critical academic research has yet to comprehensively identify conceptual linkages and tensions between information communication technologies (ICTs) and land governance projects. In order to make a contribution to these complex research fields, this article examines three Kenyan projects to illustrate different aspects of competing theoretical fra...
Over the last decade there has been renewed interest in food security and the state of the global food system. Population growth, climate change and food price spikes have combined to focus new attention on the technologies and institutions that underpin the production and consumption of food that is varied, nutritious and safe. Knowledge politics...
Recent efforts to promote orange-fleshed sweet potato (OFSP) across the Sub-Saharan Africa region demonstrate the strength of the idea that the production and marketing of new crop varieties can provide health and other benefits to farm families and consumers. Biofortification promotion campaigns are targeting millions of farmers in fifteen Sub-Sah...
Increase in ownership and use of radios and mobile phones in Uganda may present opportunities for interactive and efficient agricultural extension services. Yet the impact of interactive radio on rural development has rarely been evaluated. In a participatory project, the International Union for the Conservation of Nature together with Farm Radio I...
Disputes and dispossession of property rights in the mining sector are causes of injustice, violence and forced displacement around the world. Many artisanal and small-scale mining policy initiatives are embedded in problematic conceptual and institutional frameworks that implicitly stigmatise and discipline artisanal and small-scale miners. This c...
An ongoing academic debate examines the implications of ‘developmental patrimonialism’ for African citizens. Rwanda is a key case study in this debate, with proponents of developmental patrimonialism and ‘party capitalism’ arguing that companies owned by the ruling party or the military play positive roles in economic development. This debate often...
Sites of artisanal and small-scale mining (ASM) in sub-Saharan Africa are often places of contestation and dispossession, particularly because mining laws and policies have generally been crafted to foster large-scale mining. This paper builds on research mapping the multiple ways in which ASM is associated with various wrongs – criminality, illega...
Climate change, sometimes thought of as a problem for the future, is already impacting peoples lives around the world: families are losing their homes, lands and livelihoods as a result of sea level rise, increased frequency and intensity of storms, drought and other phenomena. Following several years of preparatory work across the globe, legal sch...
Abstract
Over the last ten years, the international media, and academic sources, have warned of a ‘land-grab’ by foreign actors in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).It has become apparent that the land-grab was not as extensive as initially thought, as some claims were poorly researched, some investors have re-considered, and the DRC governme...
Any attempt to completely plan a village, a city, or, for that matter, a language is certain to run afoul of the same social reality. A village, city, or language is the jointly created, partly unintended product of many, many hands. To the degree that authorities insist on replacing this ineffably complex web of activity with formal rules and regu...
Introduction
Land is of vital importance to the people of Rwanda and the Rwandan State, both in terms of ‘access’ to this scarce resource in a densely populated country, and in terms of the symbolic and practical ramifications of changes to different kinds of land ‘uses’ (subsistence or commercial, individual or cooperative, rural or urban, polycul...
The Rwandan government's ongoing reconfiguration of the agricultural sector seeks to facilitate increased penetration of smallholder farming systems by domestic and international capital, which may include some land acquisition (‘land grabbing’) as well as contract farming arrangements. Such contracts are arranged by the state, which sometimes uses...
Housing, land, and property (HLP) rights, as rights, are widely recognized throughout international human rights and humanitarian law and provide a clear and consistent legal normative framework for developing better approaches to the HLP challenges faced by the UN and others seeking to build long-term peace. This book analyses the ubiquitous HLP c...
Rwanda is in the midst of major land tenure reform involving significant donor support. A land policy gained cabinet approval in 2004, a land law was promulgated in 2005, and a pilot land registration project in four cellules ended in mid- 2008 (NLTRP 2008). Nationwide land registration commenced in June 2009 and major changes to agricultural produ...
Cette étude examine l’accès, l’utilisation et la gestion des terres ainsi que leurs rapports avec les causes principales de conflit dans les provinces du Nord Kivu, Sud Kivu et de l’Ituri dans l’est de la République démocratique du Congo (RDC). L’objectif principal de cette recherche est de mettre en évidence les principales lacunes présentes dans...
this initiative is funded by the european union about International alert international alert is an independent peacebuilding organisation that has worked for over 20 years to lay the foundations for lasting peace and security in communities affected by violent conflict. our multifaceted approach focuses both in and across various regions; aiming t...
The United Nations Interagency Framework Team for Preventive Action (the Framework Team or FT) is an internal United Nations (UN) support mechanism that assists UN Resident Coordinators (RCs) and UN Country Teams (UNCTs) in developing conflict prevention strategies and programmes. The FT works closely with UN departments and UN agencies, funds and...
T he population of most African cities have been growing since the 1960s at some of the fastest rates in the world, and by 2050, about 55% of Africans will be living in urban areas (up from 38% in 2000). 1 Over 90% of new urban development in Africa is informal. 2 While the locations, construction standards, population densities and other aspects o...
Many observers have identified land and agricultural reform as potential sources of instability and conflict in Rwanda. This is partly because of the central importance of agriculture to the economy, and structural constraints, which include rapid population growth and the highest population density in sub-Saharan Africa. This means little if any ‘...
The chapter describes some of the political challenges involved in managing the transition from emergency activities to longer-term 'developmental' policies in Rwanda and Burundi. In post-genocide Rwanda, uncompensated expropriation and a nationwide settlement policy may have reduced short-term problems over secondary occupation of property, but ha...
A variety of recent studies have revealed complex relationships between control over land (and land-based resources) and conflict. Combatants involved in conflict within states – by far the most significant kind of conflict today – often claim that unequal access to land is one of the causes of violence. During conflict, land access is affected not...
"Some analyses of conflict have drawn attention to the role that contested access to resources such as valuable timber, water or minerals plays in relation to wider conflict. Less has been said about access to land, but in some contexts it has undoubtedly been important. This paper reviews evidence from Rwanda, Burundi and Democratic Republic of th...
Introduction: A variety of recent studies have revealed complex relationships between control over land (and land-based resources) and conflict. Combatants involved in conflict within states – by far the most significant kind of conflict today – often claim that unequal access to land is one of the causes of the violence. During conflict, land acce...
1 The average land holding at the house- hold level has dropped from 2 hectares in 1960, to just 0.7 ha in the early 1990s.2 In 2001, almost 60 per cent of households had less than 0.5 ha. The Government of Rwanda has recently completed a long process of developing a National land policy, which is currently being considered by a parliamentary stand...
Over the last two decades, a plethora of studies have investigated the actual and potential links
between environmental change and violent conflict. In general, the idea of ‘environmental sources
of conflict’ has been highly influential, especially in Western countries. The claim that, “the wars of
the twenty-first century will be fought over water...
This review aims to synthesize information on the dynamic relationships between property rights to land and natural resources, water resource management and poverty in the Lake Victoria Basin of East Africa. It focuses on the way in which water management systems, under the conceptual umbrella of Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM), addres...
Access to land lies at the heart of social, economic and political life in most of Africa, and thus is part of the dynamics of conflict, peace-building processes and post-conflict reconstruction, particularly for conflicts involving lengthy population displacement. There has been increasing interest in recent years among both practitioners and acad...
This chapter examines the role of land and migration in the genesis
and perpetuation of conflicts in the East of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). The objective is to study how land issues have had an impact on the DRC conflict, either as a structural cause or as a dynamic of conflict. This analysis is based on a number of arguments. The firs...
This short document summarises some of the findings of recent ACTS research in Tanzania. It examines the current state of water availability in Arusha, Tanzania, and the conflicts which are emerging due to resource scarcity and other more complex factors. A full report on water policy issues in Kenya and Tanzania is soon to be published by ACTS. It...
Due to the importance of land for livelihoods and identity in Africa, governance of land is at the heart of the state-society relationship. This policy brief traces the history of land tenure in Kenya, especially as it relates to the areas most affected by the recent post-election violence. It is important to recognise that not all post-election vi...
This paper looks at the water policy of Tanzania, and makes comparisons with the situation in Kenya. It focuses especially on recent attempts to move towards a participatory, demand-management approach to rural water supply. The paper is based on research conducted by the author for the African Centre for Technology Studies (ACTS) in the Arusha Reg...
"In August 2008, the African Centre for Technology Studies (ACTS) launched the inception phase of a project on Land Tenure and Violent Conflict in Kenya. In the aftermath of the early 2008 post-election violence, it became clear that issues related to land tenure were perceived by many experts as key to understanding the root causes and dynamics of...
