Africa: Coping with Drought

The following interview with President Julius Nyerere of Tanzania, chairman of the Organization of African States, OAU, was conducted in Geneva by Djibril Diallo, editor-in-chief of Africa Emergency Report, a United Nations publication, where it was first published. The additional country fact sheets are courtesy of the U.N. Office for Emergency Operations in Afric

The Plea of The Poor: New Economic Order NeededFor the World Community

The following was taken from a major address at Howard University by Julius Nyerere, President of the United Republic of Tanzania on August 5, 1977. His arrival before a full-house at Cramton Auditorium was met by applause and words of praise from an audience that appeared mesmerized by the sheer presence of one of the most respected and admired leaders of Africa. He was interrupted by cheers and applause several times during his speech of more than an hour. Indeed, his appearance at Howard and his message to the world community marked a historic occasion that will not be forgotten. The university awarded the honorary Doctor of Humanities degree to the African statesman, who was visiting the United States at the invitation of President Jimmy Carter. Ed

The Plea of The Poor: New Economic Order NeededFor the World Community

The following was taken from a major address at Howard University by Julius Nyerere, President of the United Republic of Tanzania on August 5, 1977. His arrival before a full-house at Cramton Auditorium was met by applause and words of praise from an audience that appeared mesmerized by the sheer presence of one of the most respected and admired leaders of Africa. He was interrupted by cheers and applause several times during his speech of more than an hour. Indeed, his appearance at Howard and his message to the world community marked a historic occasion that will not be forgotten. The university awarded the honorary Doctor of Humanities degree to the African statesman, who was visiting the United States at the invitation of President Jimmy Carter. Ed

Spatial and spatio-temporal epidemiological approaches to inform COVID-19 surveillance and control: a review protocol

Introduction Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection that cause coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) have afflicted millions worldwide. Understanding the underlying spatial and temporal dynamics can help orient timely public health policies and optimize the targeting of non-pharmaceutical interventions and vaccines to the most vulnerable populations, particularly in resource-constrained settings. The review systematically summarises important methodological aspects and specificities of spatial approaches applied to COVID-19 in Africa. Methods Thematically selected keywords will be used to search for refereed studies in the following electronic databases PubMed, SCOPUS, MEDLINE, CINHAL, and Coronavirus Research Database from January 2020 to February 2022. Two independent reviewers will screen the title, abstracts, and full texts against predefined eligibility criteria based on the study’s characteristics, methodological relevance, and quality. The Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analysis (PRISMA) 2020 procedures will be adhered to during the reporting process. Discussion COVID-19 modeling remains in its infancy, and research is needed to characterize uncertainty and validate various modeling regimes appropriately. It is anticipated that the review will aid spatial, spatio-temporal modeling decisions necessary for mitigating the current and future pandemics

Exploring Citizens' Constitution Readability Profile in Selected Anglophone African Countries

A country's constitution describes the basic principles of the state, structures, and processes of government as well as fundamental rights of citizens. All of these make imperative the ability of the citizens to read and understand the document. This paper evaluates the readability profile of citizens of the English speaking African countries concerning their constitution. A descriptive research design was adopted while the stratified random sampling was implemented to select the chapters of the constitutions for analysis. The SMOG and FOG indexes were used to compute the readability scores. Measures of central tendencies, one-sample T-test, and one-way analysis of variance, with bootstrapping, were carried out with the results showing that the citizens found it difficult reading their constitutions when compared to the standard scores for public documents

Exploring Citizens' Constitution Readability Profile in Selected Anglophone African Countries

A country's constitution describes the basic principles of the state, structures, and processes of government as well as fundamental rights of citizens. All of these make imperative the ability of the citizens to read and understand the document. This paper evaluates the readability profile of citizens of the English speaking African countries concerning their constitution. A descriptive research design was adopted while the stratified random sampling was implemented to select the chapters of the constitutions for analysis. The SMOG and FOG indexes were used to compute the readability scores. Measures of central tendencies, one-sample T-test, and one-way analysis of variance, with bootstrapping, were carried out with the results showing that the citizens found it difficult reading their constitutions when compared to the standard scores for public documents

Savings, investment and economic growth in Namibia

This study examined the interaction between saving, investment and economic growth in Namibia. The relationship between these variables is central to Namibia’s guiding macroeconomic framework. However, empirical evidence has shown that the relationship between saving, investment and economic growth depends on the country context. This makes it important to understand the policy implications of the interaction between these variables in Namibia. The specific objectives of the study were to investigate the causal relationship between saving and investment and the impact of the saving-investment relationship on economic growth in Namibia. The diagnostic testing using the Johansen cointegration test revealed a long-run relationship between the study variables with one cointegrating equation. The long run analysis was followed by Granger causality tests to understand short-run causal relationships between the variables. Impulse response functions and variance decompositions were also estimated to examine the interaction between the variables. The results from the Vector Error Correction Model showed that there was a positive long-run relationship between economic growth and investment, & savings and investment in Namibia. The Granger causality test revealed a causal relationship between saving and investment, consistent with the long-run analysis. The study implications are that a pro-saving policy can achieve increased investment. However, the long run relationship between investment and economic growth implies that investment should be made on a longer term for it to impact on economic growth. It is therefore recommended that Namibia implements policies to encourage long term investments. This can be achieved through waiving duty on capital goods and offering tax incentives to investors in strategic sectors of the economy

Mapping of anaemia prevalence among pregnant women in Kenya (2016-2019).

BACKGROUND: Reducing the burden of anaemia is a critical global health priority that could improve maternal outcomes amongst pregnant women and their neonates. As more counties in Kenya commit to universal health coverage, there is a growing need for optimal allocation of the limited resources to sustain the gains achieved with the devolution of healthcare services. This study aimed to describe the spatio-temporal patterns of maternal anaemia prevalence in Kenya from 2016 to 2019. METHODS: Quarterly reported sub-county level maternal anaemia cases from January 2016 - December 2019 were obtained from the Kenyan District Health Information System. A Bayesian hierarchical negative binomial spatio-temporal conditional autoregressive (CAR) model was used to estimate maternal anaemia prevalence by sub-county and quarter. Spatial and temporal correlations were considered by assuming a conditional autoregressive and a first-order autoregressive process on sub-county and seasonal specific random effects, respectively. RESULTS: The overall estimated number of pregnant women with anaemia increased by 90.1% (95% uncertainty interval [95% UI], 89.9-90.2) from 155,539 cases in 2016 to 295,642 cases 2019. Based on the WHO classification criteria, the proportion of sub-counties with normal prevalence decreased from 28.0% (95% UI, 25.4-30.7) in 2016 to 5.4% (95% UI, 4.1-6.7) in 2019, whereas moderate anaemia prevalence increased from 16.8% (95% UI, 14.7-19.1) in 2016 to 30.1% (95% UI, 27.5-32.8) in 2019 and severe anaemia prevalence increased from 7.0% (95% UI, 5.6-8.6) in 2016 to 16.6% (95% UI, 14.5-18.9) in 2019. Overall, 45.1% (95% UI: 45.0-45.2) of the estimated cases were in malaria-endemic sub-counties, with the coastal endemic zone having the highest proportion 72.8% (95% UI: 68.3-77.4) of sub-counties with severe prevalence. CONCLUSION: As the number of women of reproductive age continues to grow in Kenya, the use of routinely collected data for accurate mapping of poor maternal outcomes remains an integral component of a functional maternal health strategy. By unmasking the sub-county disparities often concealed by national and county estimates, our study findings reiterate the importance of maternal anaemia prevalence as a metric for estimating malaria burden and offers compelling policy implications for achieving national nutritional targets

Spatio - temporal modelling assessing the burden of malaria in affected low and middle-income countries: a scoping review.

INTRODUCTION: Spatio - temporal modelling of malaria has proven to be a valuable tool for forecasting as well as control and elimination activities. This has been triggered by an increasing availability of spatially indexed data, enabling not only the characterisation of malaria at macrospatial and microspatial levels but also the development of geospatial techniques and tools that enable health policy planners to use these available data more effectively. However, there has been little synthesis regarding the variety of spatio - temporal approaches employed, covariates employed and 'best practice' type recommendations to guide future modelling decisions. This review will seek to summarise available evidence on the current state of spatio - temporal modelling approaches that have been employed in malaria modelling in low and middle-income countries within malaria transmission limits, so as to guide future modelling decisions. METHODS AND ANALYSIS: A comprehensive search for articles published from January 1968 to April 2018 will be conducted using of the following electronic databases: PubMed, Web of Science, JSTOR, Cochrane CENTRAL via Wiley, Academic Search Complete via EBSCOhost, MasterFILE Premier via EBSCOhost, CINAHL via EBSCOhost, MEDLINE via EBSCOhost and Google Scholar. Relevant grey literature sources such as unpublished reports, conference proceedings and dissertations will also be incorporated in the search. Two reviewers will independently conduct the title screening, abstract screening and, thereafter, a full-text review of all potentially eligible articles. Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analysis Protocols guidelines will be used as the standard reporting format. A qualitative thematic analysis will be used to group and evaluate selected studies around their aim, spatio - temporal methodology employed, covariates used and model validation techniques. ETHICS AND DISSEMINATION: Ethical approval is not applicable to this study. The results will be disseminated through a peer-reviewed journal and presented in conferences related to malaria and spatial epidemiology. PROSPERO REGISTRATION NUMBER: CRD42017076427