Using Information Communication Technologies for Gender and *Development in Africa: A Case Study of UNIFEM and FEMNET

201 p.Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 2007.This dissertation argues that for ICTs to be used as a tool to empower women economically, socially and politically, there should be a bottom-up approach where poor, non-literate and rural women act as their own experts by actively using these new technologies in combination with the old (such as radios and videos) to address their own needs.U of I OnlyRestricted to the U of I community idenfinitely during batch ingest of legacy ETD

Using Information Communication Technologies for Gender and *Development in Africa: A Case Study of UNIFEM and FEMNET

201 p.Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 2007.This dissertation argues that for ICTs to be used as a tool to empower women economically, socially and politically, there should be a bottom-up approach where poor, non-literate and rural women act as their own experts by actively using these new technologies in combination with the old (such as radios and videos) to address their own needs.U of I OnlyRestricted to the U of I community idenfinitely during batch ingest of legacy ETD

The Socioeconomic Determinants of HIV/AIDS Infection Rates in Lesotho, Malawi, Swaziland and Zimbabwe

This paper uses data from the Demographic and Health Survey to analyze the relationship between HIV status and the socioeconomic and demographic characteristics of adults in Lesotho, Malawi, Swaziland and Zimbabwe. We construct the HIV/AIDS risk profile of the average adult, compute the values of age, education and wealth where the estimated probability of infection assumes its highest value, and we determine the percentage of adults for which age, education and wealth are positively correlated with the probability of infection. We find that in all the four countries: (i) the probability of being HIV positive is higher for women than for men; (ii) the likelihood of infection is higher for urban residents than for rural residents; and (iii) there is an inverted-U relationship between age and HIV status. We also find that unlike gender, rural/urban residence and age, the relationship between the probability of HIV infection and wealth, education and marital status varies by country. Our results provide support for country specific and more targeted HIV policies and programs.This manuscript of an article from Development Policy Review 30(3) May 2012: 305-326. doi: 10.1111/j.1467-7679.2012.00578.x. Posted with permission</p

Young Women's Marital Status and HIV Risk in Sub-Saharan Africa: Evidence from Lesotho, Swaziland and Zimbabwe

This paper examines whether marriage increases the risk of HIV infection among women aged 15-24 in Lesotho, Swaziland and Zimbabwe. We fi nd that in all the three countries, the risk of infection is signifi cantly lower for never-married young women than ever-married young women; however, the difference in risk disappears when we control for age, educational attainment, household wealth, and area of residence. Thus, our result highlights the importance of socio-economic and demographic factors in analyzing the link between marital status and HIV risk among young women. Particularly, our fi ndings show that age and education play a crucial role in determining the level of HIV/AIDS risk for young women. The result also implies that marriage as an institution does not necessarily elevate the risk of HIV infection among young women.This article is from Journal of African Development, 2010 12(2); 33-46. Posted with permission. </p