SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT
RESEARCH
Better Worl Cameroon have been discussing and designing, together with our stakeholders, strategies to achieve the UN Sustainable Development Goals by 2030, which voices the change we want to collectively bring into the world, and showcases the ancestral knowledge and sustainable alternatives it carries.
Better World Cameroon has worked with many youth and community projects over the past 25 years, spanning youth and women's networks, non-profit organizations, school systems, universities and others, shows us that this path is possible. Also collaborated with individuals and professional institutions that support research and education of and for change, as well as with youth and women leaders to deepen their capacity to realize the full potential of their missions and collective dreams.
Title: The Abin-fo’o and The Mandele Dances in the Bafut Kingdom: Some vital Issues Presented in Cultural Festival Activities and its Evolution and benefits from their Onset to the Twenty First Century
Author: Suh Hillary Sama
Citation: Sama, S. H. (2021). The Abin-fo’o and The Mandele Dances in the Bafut Kingdom: Some vital Issues Presented in Cultural Festival Activities and its Evolution and benefits from their Onset to the Twenty First Century. International Journal of Advanced Engineering Research and Science (IJAERS), 8(10), 241–251. https://dx.doi.org/10.22161/ijaers.810.28
Abstract or Excerpt: The Better World Cameroon's (Ndanifor) Permaculture Ecovillage Demonstration Land Trust in Bawum is a major contributor to the operations of the Bafut Ecovillage Vision 2020 working with the aim of reconnecting Bafut Youth to their cultural heritage. [...] Better World Cameroon works closely with the Cameroon Government and Global Ecovillage Network in Africa to protect natural heritage sites and cultural development through Permaculture Education and Social support as a means of preserving Path of Cameroon Patrimony. [...]
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Title: Comunità del futuro. Ecovillaggi, innovazioni e imprese sociali in Africa
Author: Sonita Mbah Neh
Citation: Neh, S. M. (2020). Comunità del futuro. Ecovillaggi, innovazioni e imprese sociali in Africa. Equilibri Rivista per Lo Sviluppo Sostenibile, (1/2020), 311–322. https://doi.org/10.1406/97561
Abstract or Excerpt: Sustainability at the local level is one of the foundations of climate change adaptation and mitigation (and especially effective when combined with indigenous knowledge systems and scientific/technological aspects/ adjustments). African Ecovillages are seeding a process of restoration, building the capacity of youths in Agriculture and designing community based approaches that spread the basic concepts connected to Agro-ecology, Regenerative Education, Peace Building and Social Innovation.
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Title: Ecovillaggi. Una prospettiva africana verso la sostenibilità
Author: Alessandra Manzini
Citation: Manzini, A. (2020). Ecovillaggi. Una prospettiva africana verso la sostenibilità. Equilibri Rivista per Lo Sviluppo Sostenibile, (1/2020), 278–293. https://doi.org/10.1406/97558
Abstract or Excerpt: In Africa, it is possible to endogenously design sustainable development scenarios and strategies in urban and rural context?» The traditional African villages still interconnected to the their environment are defined as ecovillages. The ecovillage is an intentional community of individuals focused to create sustainable human settlements integrated in their ecosystem. The evolutionary transitions in Africa are processes of future reinvention, based on African heritage and that engage communities in learning and socio technological innovation processes culturally related to local traditions.
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Title: Mapping Development in Cameroon: Challenging Dominant Narratives
Author: Hannah Skutt
Citation: Skutt, H. (2019). Mapping Development in Cameroon: Challenging Dominant Narratives (Scripps Senior Theses). Retrieved from https://scholarship.claremont.edu/scripps_theses/1350
Abstract or Excerpt: The permaculture organization “Better World Cameroon” located in the Anglophone region, specifically in Bafut has been relatively successful in garnering support for new sustainable agriculture practices, perhaps because permaculture comes with a clear set of principles, and BWC offers hands on intensive trainings for community members and people throughout Cameroon and surrounding countries to attend [...]
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Title: Defend the Sacred: If Life Wins, There Will Be No Losers
Author: Neuauflage Verlag Meiga
Citation: Verlag Meiga, N. (2019). Defend the Sacred: If Life Wins, There Will Be No Losers. The Grace Foundation.
Note: Joshua Konkankon, CEO of Better World Cameroon, was one of the contributors to this book with his article "We Shall Not Lose Our Youth to the Western Dream".
More info: here
Title: The Politics of Social Entrepreneurship in Cameroon
Author: Aaron Danowski
Citation: Danowski, A. (2015). The Politics of Social Entrepreneurship in Cameroon. Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection. Retrieved from https://digitalcollections.sit.edu/isp_collection/2154
Abstract or Excerpt: […]For Joshua Konkankoh, the founder of Better World Cameroon, a hybrid nonprofit social enterprise promoting a rural development strategy of permaculture, ecovillages, and youth engagement, the term social entrepreneurship hinges upon the idea of civic engagement and promoting grassroots solutions to community issues[…] Joshua aims to encourage youths from rural backgrounds studying at Cameroon’s major urban universities to take their knowledge and apply it to their home communities to improve agricultural output and improve standards of living: “My concept of entrepreneurship is actually for them to harvest from their communities what they have as indigenous knowledge, and in this enabling environment combine it with the science they have learned in school, and then adapt it to the situation that their communities. This is how I have seen it working and making impact, though at a local level, but it’s also an entrepreneurship where we think locally, and we act globally, because what we are doing has a global impact.”
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Title: The Potential of Efficient Improved Mud-Brick Cookstove in Cameroon: An Exploratory Study
Author: F. H. Abanda, M.B. Manjia, E. Cole, B. Mempouo
Citation: Abanda, F. H., Manjia, M. B., Cole, E., & Mempouo, B. (2015). The Potential of Efficient Improved Mud-Brick Cookstove in Cameroon: An Exploratory Study. Environmental Management and Sustainable Development, 4(1), 106–119. https://doi.org/10.5296/emsd.v4i1.6715
Abstract or Excerpt: The proposed Ndanifor Permaculture Eco village Project Better World Cameroon Cameroon1 is working with Bafut Council in supporting the development of a plan for sustainable growt h and development of the region. The organisation’s aim is to strike a balance relationship between farmland, housing, and commercial areas. Ndanifor Permaculture Eco village (NPE) is a Permaculture Demonstration Site and Center for environmental education and sustainable food production. NPE is a demonstration site and constitutes part of the Eco Village Vision for 2020 of Bafut. The improved cookstove project is one of the projects on NPE. One of the cookstove is the innovative mud brick cookstove recently built in some homes in Bafut.
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Title: A Better World is Possible
Author: Bruce Nixon
Citation: Nixon, B. (2011). A Better World is Possible. Changemakers Books. Retrieved from https://www.brucenixon.com/betterworld.html
Abstract or Excerpt: World Family has grown to include two other ground-breaking schemes in Africa: Better World Cameroon This community-based organisation focuses on training young people in bio-diversity conservation and natural resource management, raising public awareness of biodiversity and its great contribution towards food security and poverty alleviation in Cameroon. Many projects are planned particularly in the field of Permaculture. (p. 172-173)
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