Towards improving risk management in healthcare organisations in Africa: A review

This paper undertook a survey of existing literature in risk management and proposed a framework towards implementing an efficient risk management system in Africa’s healthcare organisations. The study recognises the relevance of risk management in healthcare organisations and asserts that there is no risk management system that can be said to be completely absolute. The main objective is to ensure that the healthcare institutions’ identified risks are managed within acceptable levels. It is suggested that healthcare  organisations should have a proactive risk management programme as opposed to a reactive one. This study identified Enterprise Risk Management (ERM) as involving the expansion of the role of risk management across the healthcare organisation by adopting a moreholistic approach. Finally, the study proposed an ERM model to be implemented for effective risk management of healthcare institutions in Africa. We noted that by establishing an effective risk management system, healthcare organisations would be well positioned to successfully promote quality of healthcare and enhance performance, while managing the turbulent times of change. Keywords: Risk management, Healthcare risk, Healthcare organisation

Medical Waste Management Practices in a Southern African Hospital

This study examined the medical waste management practices of a hospital in Southern Africa. The results revealed that the hospital does not quantify medical waste. Segregation of medical wastes into infectious medical waste and non-infectious medical waste is not conducted according to definite rules and standards. Separation of medical waste and municipal waste is however practiced to a satisfactory extent. Wheeled trolleys are used for on-sitetransportation of waste from the points of production to the temporary storage area. Staff responsible for collecting medical waste use almost completes personal protective equipment. Offsite transportation of the hospital waste is undertaken by a private waste management company. Small pickups are mainly used to transport waste daily to an off-site area for treatment and disposal. The main treatment method used in the final disposal of infectious waste is incineration. Noninfectiouswaste is disposed off using land disposal method. The study showed that the hospital does not have a policy and plan in place for managing medical waste. There are a number of problems the hospital faces in terms of medical waste management, including; lack of necessary rules, regulations and instructions on the different aspects of collections anddisposal of waste, failure to quantify the waste generated in reliable records, lack of use of coloured bags by limiting thebags to only one colour for all waste, the absence of a dedicated waste manager, and no committee responsible for monitoring the management of medical waste. Recommendations are given with the aim of improving medical waste management in hospitals

Alien Registration- Abor, Annie (Rumford, Oxford County)

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Students’ Responses to Multi-Modal Emergency Remote Learning During COVID-19 in a South African Higher Institution

COVID-19 pandemic forced several higher education institutions (HEI) to operate remotely. Emergency remote teaching, using synchronous and asynchronous instruction, was adopted by several HEIs. The experiences of students with remote teaching and learning in certain situations are not fully understood, thus need to be explored. This study explored the experiences of students with the emergency remote teaching and learning practices adopted at a selected HEI in South Africa. A cross-sectional and self-administered survey was used to gather data from 243 conveniently sampled returning students within the Department of Accounting and Finance. Descriptive statistics were used to make sense of the collected data. The study found that students preferred a face-to-face approach to learning to remote learning. The respondents underscored insufficient data, unstable network connection, unconducive home environments and loneliness as deterrents to effective remote learning. Despite these negative experiences, students appreciated the flexibility and convenience of recorded video lectures and acknowledged the compassion and support of lecturers during remote learning. An understanding of the experiences of students during remote learning provides a basis for future teaching plans, which would improve students' learning experiences. In its current format and students living in their home environments, remote learning greatly diminishes the chances of success for most students. Lecturers need to be compassionate and considerate of student’s struggles in their plans for remote teaching and learning as well as online learning

A Strategy for Rural Financial Market Reform: Applying the Financial Systems Approach in Ghana

We construct, using methods advocated in one strand of the Financial Systems Approach literature, a reform-and-renewal program for one of Ghana’s struggling Rural Banks--the Kaaseman Rural Bank. Questionnaire results, local informal financial practices, recent institutional innovations in Ghanaian finance, the experiences of successful “Nontraditional” rural finance institutions in developing countries, and the operating structure of the Rural Bank program indicate that this bank can implement a group-lending scheme that will reduce significantly its transaction costs and those of its customers. We thus demonstrate how the Financial Systems Approach can be employed to promote sustainable rural financial intermediation in a specific socioeconomic and institutional setting. The potential for our reform proposals to succeed in the local Ghanaian context is analyzed carefully

The Macroeconomic Landscape of Post-Apartheid South Africa A Critical Review of the Effect of the Broad-Based Black Economic Empowerment (BBBEE) Program on the Success of Female SMEs Operators

Previous business research has highlighted the impact of government policy in the processes of formulating business strategies and in the decision-making process of organizations. In the South African context, a review of this impact on organizational strategy is for the most part important especially after the fall of apartheid as businesses have been saddled with widespread institutional change the purpose of which is to redress historic inequalities that characterized the apartheid regime. Specifically, the introduction of a far-reaching B-BBEE policy aimed at increasing participation of PIDs in economic activities. Previous researchers have been focused on the impact of B-BBEE policy on mergers and acquisitions, strategic decisions and value chain structures, as well as ROEs. The current report from STATS-SA indicates that the failure rate for women-owned businesses remains at a high rate despite the implementation of the B-BBEE policy. Therefore, research on the impact of B-BBEE on business strategy and success of female SMMEs operators may provide an accurate and deep understanding that will be beneficial to policymakers because of the social pressures to emphasis more on a 'broad-based' BEE (B-BBEE) policy aimed at increasing the participation of the black population (and in particular women) in economic activities as well as increasing the number of black ownership in businesses or creating employment for the black population. This study used appropriate data tools and techniques to analyze the data drawn from a sample of female entrepreneurs in South Africa. The study applies culturally instantiated facets of the debate on gender entrepreneurship as part of a detailed and empirically sophisticated consideration of the status of female entrepreneurship within South Africa. This paper involves an in-depth survey using the ten dimensions of business performance as a basis to study small South African women-owned businesses given that the approach is useful in the development of a theory in fields where not much research has been undertaken. The businesses studied for this research are based on a setting where B-BBEE program is a principal factor in the strategic framework of the South African female business owner. This paper contributes to existing literature on the implications of the B-BBEE program on SMEs by studying the relationship between business strategies, outcomes, and the B-BBEE program. DOI: 10.5901/jesr.2017.v7n1p14

Notes on the description of join-distributive lattices by permutations

Let L be a join-distributive lattice with length n and width (Ji L) k. There are two ways to describe L by k − 1 permutations acting on an n-element set: a combinatorial way given by P.H. Edelman and R. E. Jamison in 1985 and a recent lattice theoretical way of the second author. We prove that these two approaches are equivalent. Also, we characterize join-distributive lattices by trajectorie

Banking Sector Developments in Emerging Markets: A Review of Recent Developments in Africa

Key to the economic transformation of developing economies is the banking sector developments. The banking sector in Africa has witnessed a steady growth in its core functional areas over the recent decades. This growth has implications on access to finance and stability in the financial system. This study reviews banking sector performance, competition, access to finance and stability in the context of sub-regional and comparator regional analysis with the view to informing and shaping policy directions. The North African economies recorded high levels of financial deepening than the rest of the regions.  With the same economic conditions like South Asia, East Asia Pacific and Latin America and Caribbean regions, African’s banking sector depth lags behind these regions.  Access to financial institutions is high in Southern African region than the rest of the sub-regions. Again, Africa records very low level of banking sector accessibility compared to its comparator regions. Moreover, the banking system in Africa is characterized by high costs, inefficiency and high margins. The banking system also exhibit high concentration and market power and relative stability than comparator regions. The North African economies exhibit low presence of foreign banks than sub-regional groupings. Keywords: Banking Sector, Efficiency, Performance, Stability, Financial Accessibility, Afric