African migrant traders’ experiences in Johannesburg inner city : towards the migrant calculated risk and adaptation framework

Abstract: Globally, migrants face numerous socio-economic and institutional impediments that hinder their participation in the labour market of host cities and/or countries. This motivates them to join the informal economic sector to make a living. Applying the concept of tactical cosmopolitanism to understand the social and economic agency of African migrants, this article reports on an explorative analysis of the experiences of informal African migrant street traders (African migrant traders) operating in Johannesburg inner city, Gauteng, South Africa. The study revealed that African migrant traders left their countries of origin to secure better opportunities and to escape hostile conditions in their home countries. Despite the host city turning out to be more hostile and xenophobic, making life and finding formal employment opportunities more challenging, the thought of the more difficult life conditions in their home countries has led them to trading on the streets..

The challenge of integrated water resource management for improved rural livelihoods: Managing risk, mitigating drought and improving water productivity in the water scarce Limpopo Basin

The Challenge of Integrated Water Resource Management for Improved Rural Livelihoods: Managing Risk, Mitigating Drought and Improving Water Productivity in the Water Scarce Limpopo Basin: Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM) is a systems approach to water management, based on the principle of managing the full water cycle. It is required, not only to balance water for food and nature, but also to unlock paths to sustainable development. A global hotspot area in terms of water for food and improved livelihoods is in the poverty stricken rural areas of water scarce semi-arid tropics, such as in the Limpopo basin. The improvement in resilience that the IWRM approach can impart to rural livelihood systems has been shown by a series of case studies in the Limpopo Basin

Opportunities for optimization of in-field water harvesting to cope with changing climate in semi-arid smallholder farming areas of Zimbabwe

Climate change has resulted in increased vulnerability of smallholder farmers in marginal areas of Zimbabwe where there is limited capacity to adapt to changing climate. One approach that has been used to adapt to changing climate is in-field water harvesting for improved crop yields in the semi- arid regions of Zimbabwe. This review analyses the history of soil and water conservation in Zimbabwe, efforts of improving water harvesting in the post independence era, farmer driven innovations, water harvesting technologies from other regions, and future directions of water harvesting in semi arid marginal areas. From this review it was observed that the blanket recommendations that were made on the early conservation method were not suitable for marginal areas as they resulted in increased losses of the much needed water. In the late 1960 and 70s', soil and water conservation efforts was a victim of the political environment and this resulted in poor uptake. Most of the water harvesting innovations which were promoted in the 1990s' and some farmer driven innovations improved crop yields in marginal areas but were poorly taken up by farmers because they are labour intensive as the structures should be made annually. To address the challenges of labour shortages, the use of permanent in-field water harvesting technologies are an option. There is also need to identify ways for promoting water harvesting techniques that have been proven to work and to explore farmer-led knowledge sharing platforms for scaling up proven technologies

Implementing the millennium development food security goals – Challenges of the southern African context

The Millennium Development Goals’ target to halve the proportion of people who suffer from hunger is extremely important in southern Africa, where food security has become increasingly problematic over the last 20 years. One “quick-win” proposal is replenishment of soil nutrients for smallholder farmers, through free or subsidised chemical fertilisers. Other proposals include appropriate irrigation technology, improved inputs and interventions targeted at women. Analysis of over 10 years of agro-hydrological and agro-economic studies from southern African show that a different approach is required to interventions proposed. There are sustainability problems with free chemical fertiliser due to transport costs and ancillary costs. Furthermore, recent studies in Zimbabwe and Mozambique show that significant increases in yield can only be obtained when soil fertility management is combined with good crop husbandry, e.g. timely planting and weeding. Ongoing replenishment of fertility would be dependent on a continued free or subsidised fertiliser supply, and transport system. Increasing access to irrigation will help, but is not the only solution and cannot reach even a majority of farmers. It has been determined that short dryspells are often the major cause of low yields in sub-Saharan Africa. Soil–water conservation approaches, e.g. winter weeding and conservation tillage, can reduce risk and increase yield..

Outcomes, infectiousness, and transmission dynamics of patients with extensively drug-resistant tuberculosis and home-discharged patients with programmatically incurable tuberculosis: a prospective cohort study.

BACKGROUND: The emergence of programmatically incurable tuberculosis threatens to destabilise control efforts. The aim of this study was to collect prospective patient-level data to inform treatment and containment strategies. METHODS: In a prospective cohort study, 273 South African patients with extensively drug-resistant tuberculosis, or resistance beyond extensively drug-resistant tuberculosis, were followed up over a period of 6 years. Transmission dynamics, infectiousness, and drug susceptibility were analysed in a subset of patients from the Western Cape using whole-genome sequencing (WGS; n=149), a cough aerosol sampling system (CASS; n=26), and phenotypic testing for 18 drugs (n=179). FINDINGS: Between Oct 1, 2008, and Oct 31, 2012, we enrolled and followed up 273 patients for a median of 20·3 months (IQR 9·6-27·8). 203 (74%) had programmatically incurable tuberculosis and unfavourable outcomes (treatment failure, relapse, default, or death despite treatment with a regimen based on capreomycin, aminosalicylic acid, or both). 172 (63%) patients were discharged home, of whom 104 (60%) had an unfavourable outcome. 54 (31%) home-discharged patients had failed treatment, with a median time to death after discharge of 9·9 months (IQR 4·2-17·4). 35 (20%) home-discharged cases were smear-positive at discharge. Using CASS, six (23%) of 26 home-discharged cases with data available expectorated infectious culture-positive cough aerosols in the respirable range (<5 μm), and most reported inter-person contact with suboptimal protective mask usage. WGS identified 17 (19%) of the 90 patients (with available sequence data) that were discharged home before the diagnosis of 20 downstream cases of extensively drug-resistant tuberculosis with almost identical sequencing profiles suggestive of community-based transmission (five or fewer single nucleotide polymorphisms different and with identical resistance-encoding mutations for 14 drugs). 11 (55%) of these downstream cases had HIV co-infection and ten (50%) had died by the end of the study. 22 (56%) of 39 isolates in patients discharged home after treatment failure were resistant to eight or more drugs. However, five (16%) of 31 isolates were susceptible to rifabutin and more than 90% were likely to be sensitive to linezolid, bedaquiline, and delamanid. INTERPRETATION: More than half of the patients with programmatically incurable tuberculosis were discharged into the community where they remained for an average of 16 months, were at risk of expectorating infectious cough aerosols, and posed a threat of transmission of extensively drug-resistant tuberculosis. Urgent action, including appropriate containment strategies, is needed to address this situation. Access to delamanid, bedaquiline, linezolid, and rifabutin, when appropriate, must be accelerated along with comprehensive drug susceptibility testing. FUNDING: UK Medical Research Council, South African Medical Research Council, South African National Research Foundation, European & Developing Countries Clinical Trials Partnership, Oppenheimer Foundation, Newton Fund, Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council, King Abdullah University of Science & Technology