The effectiveness of selected financial inclusion strategies: Evidence a developing country

The global, regional and national level policy makers are increasingly embracing financial inclusion as an important priority for fostering economic and social development. Likewise, policy makers in Zimbabwe have identified financial inclusion as a pillar of re-invigorating the struggling economy. This realisation has culminated in the formulation of various strategies aimed at promoting financial inclusion. However, the effectiveness of these strategies is not well known, knowledge about the adopted strategies is needed so that informed policies can be crafted. Against this backdrop, a quantitative study was designed to establish the effectiveness of financial inclusion strategies which include National Micro finance Policy, Post Office Savings Bank loans, mobile financial services, Agency Banking, Shared Infrastructure Network, Insurance policy provisions. Using data from 118 Micro, Small to Medium enterprises owners/managers operating in Mashonaland East, the results show that National Micro finance Policy, Post Office Savings Bank loans, mobile financial services have statistically significant and positive effects on financial inclusion. The other three strategies: Agency Banking, Shared Infrastructure Network, and Insurance provisions showed a negative effect on financial inclusion. &nbsp

Street Multi-functionality and City Order: The Case of Street Vendors in Harare

The current invasion of the city center in Harare by street vendors has resulted in a plethora of urban headaches with varying responses from the city authorities. This paper examines the repercussions of street vending to city planning and order in Harare. This study uses mixed methods but is dominantly qualitative. Guided interviews and focused group dimensions (FGDs) were used to solicit rich qualitative data from thirty vendors operating in the city center. In addition, a mini-questionnaire was also utilized to collect quantitative data. Data were analyzed through content analysis and comparative analysis. The study found out that street vending in undesignated sites has caused pandemonium in the city despite being a source of livelihood to the majority of urbanites who have been plunged into poverty by economic doldrums. The vending market dynamics have played a part in the location of vendors in the ‘undesignated areas’ since these seem to give better returns as compared to the city’s designated vending sites. The efforts by city authorities to restore order has being partly hampered by political interference that seems to support street vending. In light of this, it is recommended that addressing the chaos in the city center does not require city planners alone, but the generality of socio-economic practitioners who should create a functional state that provides economic opportunities to the urban poor. Apart from that, licensing of all the vendors operating in Harare will greatly assist the move to make them pay taxes and levies that will help boost the revenue of the city. However, the levies should be kept at minimum level such as ‘a dollar a day’. Keywords: Street vending, urban poverty, urban livelihoods, vending markets, city revenu

Asuhan Kebidanan Berkelanjutan Pada Ny.W.L Di Puskesmas Sikumana Periode 04 Maret - 15 Mei 2019

Latar Belakang: Data yang diperolehdari Dinkes Kota Kupang pada tahun 2017, AKI di Kota Kupang, Untuk tahun 2017 Angka Kematian Ibu dari data yang dikumpulkan Bidang Kesehatan Keluarga terdapat 4 kasus dari 8.101 kelahiran hidup dengan Angka Kematian Ibu 2017 yang dilaporkan sebesar 49 kematian per 100.000 kelahiran hidup. Adapun rincian penyebab Kematian Ibu sebagai berikut 2 kasus disebabkan oleh perdarahan dan 1 kasus kematian karena cardiac acut 1 kasuskarenasepsis. Angka Kematian Bayi (AKB) di Kota Kupang pada tahun 2017 sebesar 4,57 per 1.000 kelahiran hidup.Data yang penulis peroleh di Puskesmas Sikumana pada tahun 2017, menunujukan tidak ada kematian ibu dan bayi.Oleh karena itu, salah satu upaya penurunan AKI dan AKB adalah dengan dilakukannya asuhan kebidanan berkelanjutan. Tujuan: Mampu melakukan asuhan kebidanan berkelanjutan pada Ny.W.L di Puskesmas Sikumana periode 04 Maret sampai 15 Mei 2019, dengan menggunakan metode pendokumentasian 7 langkah Varney pada pengkajian awal dan selanjutnya menggunakan metode pendokumentasian SOAP pada catatan perkembangan. Metode Penelitian: Dalam penelitian ini, penulis menggunakan metode kualitatif dengan pedekatan studi kasus, yang dilaksanakan pada Ny.W.L di Puskesmas Sikumana, teknik pengumpulan data terdiri dari data primer dan data sekunder. Hasil Penelitian: Selama penulismemberikan asuhan kebidanan berkelanjutan, ibu tidak mengalami penyulit apapun. Kesimpulan: Setelah melakukan asuhan kebidanan berkelanjutan pada ibu dari masa kehamilan sampai bersalin, ibu dan bayi dalam kondisi yang sehat dan ibu mau menerima dan mengikuti anjuran yang diberika

The Effectiveness of Selected Financial Inclusion Strategies: Evidence a Developing Country

Objectives: The study sought to establish the effectiveness of financial inclusion strategies namely National Micro finance Policy, Post Office Savings Bank loans, mobile financial services, Agency Banking, Shared Infrastructure Network, Insurance policy provisions. The study builds on previous work that has identified financial inclusion strategies but have not established their effectiveness. A Hypothetico-deductive approach was used to survey randomly selected 118 Micro, Small to Medium enterprises owners/managers in Zimbabwe. National Micro finance Policy, Post Office Savings Bank loans, mobile financial services have statistically significant effects on financial inclusion. Agency Banking, Shared Infrastructure Network, and Insurance provisions exhibited negative effects on financial inclusion. The results of the study provide inform financial services sector managers, policy makers as well as academics that National Micro finance Policy, Post Office Savings Bank loans, mobile financial services are statistically significant factors that influence financial inclusion. The results help them to effectively implement the strategies to ensure increased levels of financial inclusion. The majority of studies have only established financial inclusion strategies but have not gone further to establish the effectiveness of such strategies. The current study closed the gap by identifying the impact of each strategy

The roles and experiences of informal carers providing care to people with advanced cancer in Africa—A systematic review and critical interpretive analysis

There is an increasing prevalence of cancer in Africa with approximately 80% of cancers diagnosed at an advanced stage. High out-of-pocket healthcare costs and overstretched health systems lead to heavy reliance on informal carers for cancer care. This study aims to explore the roles and experiences of informal carers including the impact of cancer care on individuals and communities and support available for carers. We carried out a systematic review following PRISMA reporting guidelines and used critical interpretative synthesis to identify themes and develop an informal carers’ experience framework. We searched nine databases and screened 8,123 articles from which 31 studies were included in the review. Most studies were from Sub-Saharan Africa (29/31, 94%), particularly Uganda (9, 29%). Carers were mostly women, aged 30–40 years, and siblings, spouses, or children. Caring roles included care coordination, fundraising, and emotional support. Caring was time-consuming with some carers reporting 121 hours/week of caring, associated with the inability to pursue paid work and depression. Four themes demonstrated carers’ experiences: 1) intrapersonal factors: strong sense of familial obligation, and grappling with gender roles, 2) interpersonal factors: impact of a cancer diagnosis on households, changing social and sexual relationships, 3) community factors: navigating cultural norms on nature and location of care, and 4) health system influences: barriers to accessing healthcare services, and tensions between traditional and biomedical medicine. These themes aligned with Bronfenbrenner’s social ecological model which aided our development of a framework for understanding informal carers’ experiences’. Our review highlights multifaceted roles and experiences of informal carers in Africa, amidst cultural and community impacts. Carers experience a strong obligation and willingly undertake the role of carer, but at the expense of their social, economic, and psychological wellbeing. Support for carers, including flexible working hours/ carers’ allowance, should be incorporated as part of universal health coverage

Implementation lessons learnt when trialling palliative care interventions in the intensive care unit: relationships between determinants, implementation strategies, and models of delivery-a systematic review protocol

BACKGROUND: Heterogeneity amongst palliative care interventions in the intensive care unit (ICU) and their outcomes has meant that, even when found to be effective, translation of evidence into practice is hindered. Previous evidence reviews have suggested that the field of ICU-based palliative care would benefit from well-designed, targeted interventions, with explicit knowledge translation research demonstrating valid implementation strategies. Reviewing effectiveness studies alongside process evaluations for these interventions will give insight into the implementation barriers or constraints identified, and the implementation strategies adopted. METHODS: A systematic review to identify and synthesise knowledge on how models of integrating palliative care into the ICU have been implemented and provide critical recommendations for successful future development and implementation of complex interventions in the field. The search will be carried out using MEDLINE, Embase, Cochrane, CINAHL, and PsycINFO. The search strategy will combine terms related to palliative care, intensive care, and implementation. Only full-text articles will be considered and conference abstracts excluded. There will be no date or language restrictions. The Implementation Research Logic Model will be used as a framework for synthesis. Findings will be reported following the Preferred Reporting Items of Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) guidelines. DISCUSSION: This review will provide understanding of implementation facilitators, barriers, and strategies, when employing palliative care interventions within the ICU. This will provide valuable recommendations for successful future development of complex interventions using implementation frameworks or theories. This can increase the potential for sustained change in practice, reduce heterogeneity in interventions, and therefore help produce measurable and comparable outcomes. SYSTEMATIC REVIEW REGISTRATION: International Prospective Register of Systematic reviews PROSPERO (CRD42022311052)

A Time-Series Method for Automated Measurement of Changes in Mitotic and Interphase Duration from Time-Lapse Movies

Automated time-lapse microscopy can visualize proliferation of large numbers of individual cells, enabling accurate measurement of the frequency of cell division and the duration of interphase and mitosis. However, extraction of quantitative information by manual inspection of time-lapse movies is too time-consuming to be useful for analysis of large experiments.Here we present an automated time-series approach that can measure changes in the duration of mitosis and interphase in individual cells expressing fluorescent histone 2B. The approach requires analysis of only 2 features, nuclear area and average intensity. Compared to supervised learning approaches, this method reduces processing time and does not require generation of training data sets. We demonstrate that this method is as sensitive as manual analysis in identifying small changes in interphase or mitotic duration induced by drug or siRNA treatment.This approach should facilitate automated analysis of high-throughput time-lapse data sets to identify small molecules or gene products that influence timing of cell division

Die Ethnisierung internationaler Wirtschaftsbeziehungen und daraus resultierende Konflikte: Entwurf eines Forschungsprojekts

Available from Bibliothek des Instituts fuer Weltwirtschaft, ZBW, Duesternbrook Weg 120, D-24105 Kiel C 196950 / FIZ - Fachinformationszzentrum Karlsruhe / TIB - Technische InformationsbibliothekSIGLEDEGerman