A Camden Conference Event

Andrew Stancioff has spent his career assessing conditions in some of the more disadvantaged and distressed countries on earth. On Tuesday, February 11 Stancioff will focus on his experiences in Africa at the Rockland Library from 6:30-8:00 p.m.

Africa and specifically the Sahel, the area directly south of the Sahara, is the poorest place in the world. This region suffers from a lack of rainfall, deforestation, low crop yields, locust infestations, outbreaks of disease, malnutrition, and on top of everything it also has the world's highest birth rates.

The countries in the Sahel: Mali, Niger, Chad, Burkina, Senegal, Mauritania, Gambia, Sudan and parts of the horn of Africa are inhabited by more than 100 million people. In the last six decades international agencies have tried to help improve things but with little impact.

Stancioff believes that, although some positive change has occurred,  much harm has as well due to an outsider’s lack of understanding of conditions and cultures in that part of the world.

Says Stancioff, “Many Africans in the Sahel have, in spite of much going against them, developed coping systems to improve their lives and innovated through minor but important changes to the agricultural economy of the region.

I will address a few of the changes that have taken place in agriculture and the use of water in this region and will describe the problems that African agricultural economies face as a result of deficiencies in leadership and  because of  international aid programs that result in economic colonialism combined with the inexorable expansion of the Sahara.”

Andrew Stancioff is a geologist, natural resource planner, analyst, and manager with 45 years of experience in geology, hydrology, agriculture, fisheries, forestry, climatology, and oceanography. He has worked in North, Central and South America, Europe and South Asia. Much of his work in Africa involved assessing agricultural potential and food security.

This presentation is hosted by the Rockland Public Library and offered as a free community event in in anticipation of the 27^th Annual Camden Conference: The Global Politics of Food and Water,February 21-23, 2014, at the Camden Opera House with live streaming to the Strand Theatre in Rockland and the Hutchinson Center in Belfast.

The mission of the Camden Conference is to foster informed discourse on world affairs through year-round community events, public and student engagement, and an annual weekend conference. For more information, visit www.camdenconference.org, email info@camdenconference.org, or call 207-236-1034.