- 06 Jun 2012
SCIENCE AND AGRICULTURE IN THE MIDDLE EAST
Abstract
Low productivity in Arab agriculture has had historical roots relating to colonial neglect and antiquated technology. Although the Arab world was a leader in early agricultural revolutions, it emerged outside the embryo of an industrial revolution and, apart from the early phase of post independence reconstruction. The possible combination of conflicts and production shortfalls opens the gateway to lower food consumption levels per capita and accentuates the problem of malnutrition. These complex circumstances also accentuate class and gender differences. The burden befallen women in the country side is doubly harsher.
About the Speakers
Dr. Vuyo Mahlati is the current President of the International Women’s Forum South Africa. In May 2010 she was appointed by the President to serve as one of the inaugural members of South Africa’s National Planning Commission for five years. In March 2009 she was a South African Delegate and Technical Advisor for the Presidency to the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women where she presented on the Financial Crisis theme. Mahlati obtained her PhD from the University of Stellenbosch focusing on the role of value chains in mainstreaming rural entrepreneurs into global markets.
An anthropologist and psychologist by profession, Labidi holds a doctorate in psychology and a PhD in anthropology from the University of Paris. Labidi was a professor of clinical psychology at the Faculty of Human Sciences at the University of Tunis, where from 1997-2001 she directed a program on The Construction of Public Morality in the Arab World and Africa. Lilia Labidi was Minister of Woman Affairs in the new Tunisian government of National Unity(January-December 2011), following the overthrow of the old regime.
Prior to joining the Middle East Institute, Ali Kadri was visiting fellow at the Department of International Development, London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) and head of the Economic Analysis Section at the United Nations regional office for Western Asia. Dr. Kadri is presently in the process of conducting research on the political economy of development in the Arab World. Dr. Kadri has published on issues of the labour process in the Arab world. His forthcoming work, entitled ‘Arab development denied,’ looks into the formidable obstacles facing development in the Arab world.
Matt Weiss has been researching the international politics of freshwater resources among Middle Eastern states dependent on the same river basins for their critical water supplies. His dissertation focused on the evolution of relations among states within the Jordan and Euphrates/Tigris river basins. Other research interests include the linkages between environmental degradation and political instability in the Middle East and the rise and transformation of political Islam in Turkey. He holds a PhD in Political Science from the University of California, Davis, with an emphasis in International Relations.
Event Details
Tower Block Level 2, Bukit Timah Campus
National University of Singapore
469A Bukit Timah Road, Singapore
259770
