Investigating the Usability and Quality of Experience of Mobile Video-Conferencing Apps Among Bandwidth-Constrained Users in South Africa

During the COVID-19 pandemic and mandated global lockdowns, people and busi- nesses started the extensive use of video-conferencing applications for staying connected. This surge in demand and the usability of video-conferencing services has been severely overlooked in developing countries like South Africa, where one-third of adults rely on mo- bile devices to access the internet, and the per-gigabyte data cost is among the highest in Africa. Considering these numbers, we conduct a two-pronged study where 1) we measure data consumption of different Android apps through data measurement experiments and 2) we conduct interviews and usability assessments with bandwidth-constrained users to bet- ter understand the usability and Quality of Experience (QoE) of mobile video-conferencing apps. Usability is the degree to which specified users can use a product to achieve specified goals. In contrast, QoE measures the subjective perception of the quality of an application and the level of delight or annoyance with a service. The key benefit of this study will be to inform organisations that seek to be inclusive about these tools’ relative usability by letting them know about the factors influencing users’ QoE

Modeling rain-fed maize vulnerability to droughts using the standardized precipitation index from satellite estimated rainfall-Southern Malawi case study

During 1990s, disaster risk reduction emerged as a novel, proactive approach to managing risks from natural hazards. The World Bank, USAlD, and other international donor agencies began making efforts to mainstream disaster risk reduction in countries whose population and economies were heavily dependent on rain-fed agriculture. This approach has more significance in light of the increasing climatic hazard patterns and the climate scenarios projected for different hazard prone countries in the world. The Famine Early Warning System Network (FEWS NET) has been monitoring the food security issues in the sub-Saharan Africa, Asia and in Haiti. FEWS NET monitors the rainfall and moisture availability conditions with the help of NOAA RFE2 data for deriving food security status in Africa. This paper highlights the efforts in using satellite estimated rainfall inputs to develop drought vulnerability models in the drought prone areas in Malawi. The satellite RFE2 based SPI corresponding to the critical tasseling and silking phases (in the months of January, February, and March) were statistically regressed with drought-induced yield losses at the district level. The analysis has shown that the drought conditions in February and early March lead to most damage to maize yields in this region. The district-wise vulnerabilities to drought were up scaled to obtain a regional maize vulnerability model for southern Malawi. The results would help in establishing an early monitoring mechanism for drought impact assessment, give the decision makers additional time to assess seasonal outcomes, and identify potential food-related hazards in Malawi

On the potential of Google AMP to promote local content in developing regions

The Google Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP) project has gained lot of interest from content providers as a means to improve user experience. It introduces a number of innovations to streamline the downloading, parsing and rendering of pages. Google recently announced the hosting of more than 2B+ web pages, covering more than 900K domains. Due to the constrained nature of Internet connectivity in developing regions, AMP offers particularly exciting potential for improving web user experience in these countries. This paper provides a first look at Google\u2019s AMP performance in Africa. We start by outlining the current web infrastructure provisioning in Africa, using local news websites as a case study. Discovering a sparse and low performance environment, we then evaluate the benefits that AMP can introduce in terms of accessibility to local content in developing regions. This study reveals that in Africa, AMP is able to reduce page load time and page size by a factor of 3 and 8 respectively. However, AMP is not a neutral technology as the search engine favours content that is using Google AMP. This raises an important question of search neutrality

Paleo-geohydrology of Lake Chilwa, Malawi is the source of localised groundwater salinity and rural water supply challenges

Meeting long-term rural community water supply needs requires diligent geohydrological conceptualisation. Study of Malawi’s Lake Chilwa Basin, including sampling of 330 water points in Phalombe District, enabled assessment of groundwater quality influence upon supply. The control of larger Lake Chilwa paleo-environments on current Basin groundwater quality is demonstrated. Lacustrine sediment deposition forming high-level deposits under open lake conditions and terrace deposits under open and closed lake conditions significantly control the groundwater major-ion quality and salinity now observed. Paleo-lake extent marks the transition between low-TDS (total dissolved solids) groundwater suitable for water supply at higher elevations and high-TDS brackish groundwater in areas overlain by lacustrine deposits closer to the current lake level. Low-TDS groundwater is limited to mid-to-low reach influent leakage of rivers incising terraces. Permeable fluvial deposits within the deeper paleo-river channel may possibly provide low-TDS water. The conceptual model, whereby paleo-lake controls groundwater salinity, provides science-based evidence to address policy to manage the significant water point functionality concerns quantified at the district and river basin scales. Targeting of the low-TDS groundwater alongside improved use of upland low-TDS stream/river sources with fewer, but larger capacity, and better maintained gravity-fed supply schemes are recommended. This study hence shows the value of paleo-geohydrology interpretation of the lake–groundwater system conceptualisation to inform Sustainable Development Goal 6 (SDG 6.5.1)—integrated water resources management policy for rural water supply

Drinking water quality from rural handpump-boreholes in Africa

Groundwater provides a vital source of drinking water for rural communities in many parts of Africa, particularly in the dry season when there are few safe alternative sources. This paper summarises results from a study (n = 428) assessing dry season water quality, both microbiological and inorganic chemistry, in handpump equipped boreholes (HPBs) across the Ethiopia Highlands (n = 142), Malawi (n = 162) and Uganda (n = 124) using a stratified, randomised sampling design. This study seeks to examine general water quality by randomly sampling rural groundwater supplies across larger areas with different geology and climate. The majority, 72%, of HPBs surveyed provide good quality dry season drinking water as defined by WHO drinking water quality criteria. Within this overall picture, the most notable constraints were from thermotolerant coliforms (TTCs), which exceeded the WHO drinking water guideline of zero colony forming units (cfu/100 ml) in 21% of sites (range 0–626 cfu/100 ml). TTC contamination was found to have a significant and positive correlation with annual average rainfall (ρ = 0.2, p = 0.00003). Across all three countries, WHO health based chemical drinking water quality values were exceeded at 9% of sites and were found for manganese (4%), fluoride (2.6%) and nitrate (2.5%); arsenic concentrations were below the guideline value of 10 μg l−1 (range 400 μg l−1) found in drinking water sources in Uganda challenges the decision by WHO not to formalise a health-based guideline for Mn. While the overall level of microbiological contamination from HPBs is low, results from this study strongly suggest that at a national and regional level, microbiological contamination rather than chemical contamination will provide a greater barrier to achieving targets set for improved drinking water quality under the UN-SDG 6. Efforts should be made to ensure that boreholes are properly sited and constructed effectively to reduce pathogen contamination

UPGro Hidden Crisis Research Consortium. Survey 1 Country Report, Malawi

Statistics on the functionality of water points from the Hidden Crisis project in Malawi are presented. The survey, undertaken in 2016, was focussed on boreholes equipped with handpumps (HPBs) within sedimentary and basement rock in Malawi across 5 districts. A stratified two-stage sampling strategy was adopted, and a tiered definition of functionality developed which enabled more nuanced definitions to be reported. The results from the survey indicate: • 74% of HPBs were working on the day of the survey (similar to national statistics) • 67% of HPBs passed the design yield of 10 litres per minute • 58% passed the design yield and also experienced < 1 month downtime within a year. • 41% of HPB’s passed the design yield and reliability and also passed WHO standards of water quality indicators (TTCs and inorganic chemistry). These figures provide a more detailed examination/understanding of the national functionality figures (MoWDI 2012 ). Both approaches show, that at any one point in time approximately 74% of HPBs in Malawi are working. The results from the more detailed Hidden Crisis survey across a sub-sample of HPBs across Malawi, indicate that 42% of the working HPB’s do not provide sufficient yield or reliability. This highlights the utility of carrying out more detailed assessments of functionality to help unpack national statistics. A linked survey of the performance of the water management arrangements at water points showed that for 86% of the survey sites water management arrangements were judged to be functional or highly functional

An analysis of hand pump boreholes functionality in Malawi

A survey on the functionality of boreholes equipped with hand pumps was undertaken in five districts in Malawi in 2016. The survey aimed at developing a robust evidence-base of the performance of hand pump boreholes by applying a tiered assessment of functionality: (1) working at the time of survey (2) producing the design yield of the borehole; (3) working for >11 months per year and (4) delivering water quality requirements from the World Health Organisation (WHO). This information would guide sustainable future investments in water and sanitation projects. A stratified two-stage random sampling strategy was adopted. The results from the survey indicate that 74% of hand pump boreholes (HPBs) were working at the time of survey; 66% of HPBs passed the design yield of 10 L per minute; 55% met the design yield and also experienced less than one month downtime within a year. Only 43% of HPBs met all the functionality requirements including WHOguidelines for drinking water quality. The survey also assessed the village-level Water Management Arrangements at each water point. Results indicate that the majority of the Water Management Arrangements (86%) are functional or highly functional. The initial exploration of the data shows no simple relationship between the physical functionality and Water Management Arrangements

Assessing the Impact of Vocabulary Similarity on Multilingual Information Retrieval for Bantu Languages

Despite the availability of massive open information and efforts to promote multilingualism on the Web, content in Bantu languages remains negligible. Additionally, Information Retrieval (IR) systems, such as the Google search engine, use algorithms that work well with languages that have the most content. Similarities across related languages such as vocabulary overlap can potentially be exploited to provide more opportunities for information access for languages with limited digital content. This study investigates how vocabulary similarity impacts on the quality of search results in Multilingual Information Retrieval (MLIR) environments. More specifically, the study evaluates indexing strategies for MLIR and their effect on the quality of retrieval for related languages. A multilingual test collection consisting of two Bantu languages, Citumbuka and Chichewa, and English was developed and used in the evaluation. The results show that when comparing related and unrelated language pairs, MLIR indexing strategies result in comparable or worse retrieval performance

Stopping the control arm in response to the DSMB: Mother's choice of HIV prophylaxis during breastfeeding in the BAN Study

The Data and Safety Monitoring Board (DSMB) for the Breastfeeding, Antiretrovirals, and Nutrition study, a clinical trial aimed to prevent postnatal HIV transmission, recommended halting randomization to the enhanced standard-of-care (control) arm. The 67 mother-infant pairs on the control arm and less than 21 weeks postpartum at the time of the DSMB recommendation were read a script informing them of the DSMB decision and offering them the the maternal or infant antiretroviral interventions for the remainder of the 28-week breastfeeding period. This paper describes the BAN study response to the DSMB decision and what the women on the control arm chose, when given a choice to start the maternal or infant antiretroviral interventions