Towards a framework for a collaborative support model to assist infection prevention and control programmes in low- and middle-income countries: a scoping review

Background: Infection prevention and control (IPC) in low- and middle-income countries (LMIC) is reported to be poorly supported because of limits in financial, human and physical resources and competing priorities in health budgets. As a result, there is often a role for external agencies to assist in strengthening IPC. While there are reports of how these partnerships have been put into practice, there are no reported frameworks or guidance documents to support the development of such relationships. Aim: The aim of this study is to identify the core elements of a collaborative support framework to assist LMIC in strengthening IPC. Methods: To achieve this, a systematic scoping review of available literature was conducted based on the guidelines for Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analysis (PRISMA 2020). The databases MEDLINE, CINAHL, Embase and Scopus were utilised. The search strategy included different combinations of Medical Subject Heading (MeSH) terms, Emtree and keywords that are relevant to IPC collaboration in LMIC. Literature was limited to that published between 2005 and 2020 in the English language only. Results: Six core elements of comprehensive IPC collaborative support were identified with five IPC programme areas as minimum requirements, namely: 1) Collaborative Projects, 2) Policies and Procedures, 3) Training and Professional Development, 4) Surveillance Systems and 5) Assessment and Feedback. The last element, 6) Partnerships, was identified as an enabling factor. Conclusion: These six core elements should be considered when building a collaborative support model to assist IPC in LMIC

Comparison of maternal health services and indicators in three districts of the Volta Region, Ghana

Background: Ghana’s maternal mortality ratio continues to decline, but is not expected to meet the Millennium Development Goal (MDG) 5 target. The Ghana Health Service and Ministry of Health have displayed a high commitment to the improvement of maternal health in the country. One of the most recent partnerships directed at this is with the Korea International Cooperation Agency.Methods: This study was conducted among women between ages 15 and 49 resident in Keta Municipal, Ketu North and Ketu South districts in the Volta Region of Ghana who were pregnant or who had children aged less than five. Ethical approval was obtained from the Ghana Health Service Ethical Review Committee. Data were collected using questionnaires, entered into Stata version 12 and analyzed using frequency distribution and assessment of means. Comparisons among districts were conducted using chi square test and one way analysis of variance (ANOVA).Results: The study covered 630 women whose mean age was 28.4 years. Almost all participants (99.1%) from Ketu North knew where to obtain family planning services. Use of modern contraception was highest in Ketu North with 31% of respondents using a modern method. Delivery in a health facility was highest in Keta Municipal (62.3%) with overall institutional delivery being 57.6%. Delivery by a skilled birth attendant (SBA) was also highest in Keta Municipal.Conclusion: Indicators used to assess maternal health services show a coverage of over 50% but we need to improve institutional delivery, use of modern contraception and education about danger signs in pregnancy. Funding: This work was supported by the National Research Foundation of Korea Grant funded by the Korean Government (NRF-2013S1A5B8A01055336) and the Korea International Cooperation Agency(2013).Keywords: Maternal Health, Ghana, Volta Region, Family Planning, Skilled Birth Attendan

Modelling the Nexus between Financial Development, FDI, and CO2 Emission: Does Institutional Quality Matter?

The present study draws motivation from the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, with a special focus on SDGs 7 and 13, which highlight the need for access to clean and affordable energy in an environment devoid of emissions; it addresses climate change mitigation in the context of Sub-Saharan Africa. To this end, a carbon-income function setting for Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) is constructed. The dynamic relationship between financial development and climate change is evaluated using three indicators and foreign direct investment and carbon dioxide emissions (CO2), while accounting for regulatory institutional quality using a “generalized method of a moment” estimation technique that addresses both heterogeneous cross-sectional issues. Empirical results obtained showed a positive statistical relationship between economic growth and CO2 emissions in SSA at the <0.01 significance level. This suggests that, in SSA, the economic growth path is pollutant emissions driven. This indicates that SSA is still at the scale phase of her growth trajectory. However, an important finding from the present study is that regulatory institutional indicators, such as political stability, government effectiveness, control of corruption, and voice and accountability, all exert a negative effect on CO2 emissions. This implies that regulatory measures militate against emissions in SSA. Based on the empirical findings of this study, it can be concluded that clean FDI inflows assist in ameliorating emissions. Thus, the need for a paradigm shift to cleaner technologies, such as renewables, that are more eco-friendly, is encouraged in Sub-Saharan Africa, as the current study demonstrates the mitigating role of renewable energy consumption on CO2 emissions. Further policy prescriptions are presented in the concluding section

Energy consumption, economic policy uncertainty and carbon emissions; causality evidence from resource rich economies.

The study uses the new World Uncertainty Index to analyze the causality and long-run effects of economic policy uncertainty and energy consumption in a carbon function for countries with high geopolitical risk over the period 1996 - 2017. The Kao test shows a cointegration association between energy consumption, economic growth, geopolitical risk, economic policy uncertainty, and carbon dioxide emissions (CO2). The results based on the Panel Pooled Mean Group-Autoregressive Auto regressive distributed lag model (PMG-ARDL) show that energy consumption and economic growth trigger carbon emissions. Additionally, there is a significant association between economic uncertainties and CO2 emissions in the long-run, while this relationship is negative for geopolitical risks. This implies that higher levels of economic policy uncertainties adversely affect environmental sustainability for countries with higher levels of geopolitical risks. The panel causality analysis by Dumitrescu and Hurlin (2012) identifies a bidirectional relationship between CO2 emissions and energy consumption, economic policy uncertainty and CO2 emissions, economic growth and CO2 emissions, but a unidirectional causality from CO2 emissions to geopolitical risks. Our findings call for the need for vital changes in energy policies to accommodate economic policy uncertainties and geopolitical risks

Energy Consumption, Economic Expansion, and CO2 Emission in the UK: The Role of Economic Policy Uncertainty

On the 23rd of June 2016, the United Kingdom voted to leave the EU, leading to months and years of economic policy uncertainties. Such uncertainties have not only characterized the UK but have become a center point for energy debate in recent times. Given the foregoing, this paper progresses to provide evidence on the role of Economic Policy Uncertainty in the Energy Consumption - Emission nexus in the UK. We use annual data spanning the period of 1985–2017 for the UK for CO2 emissions in tons per capita (CO2), real GDP (RGDP), energy use (EU), and economic policy uncertainty (EPU). The Autoregressive distributed lag model (ARDL) bound test is used to test the fitness of the model in the short and long term. Our model shows that EPU matters most in the short run, as it reduces the growth of CO2 emissions, while prolonged use of EPU in the UK, exhibit controversial influence, where CO2 emissions continue to rise. In addition, pairwise Granger causality shows a one-way causality running from energy use to CO2 emissions, CO2 emissions to economic policy uncertainty, and also from energy use to economic policy uncertainty. However, two-ways causality is found between real GDP and real GDP per capita. Overall, our results imply that EPU is likely to yield a positive effect on climate change for a short time, but continue dependent will, in the long run, create an unhealthy environment. We suggest that the UK government should consider implementing an additional long-run policy that will supplement the effort of EPU