School attendance at basic education in West Africa

The proportion of children entering primary school at the stipulated age in 2010 in Sub-Saharan Africa was 57%. For the same year, the net attendance ratios for primary and lower secondary education were 76% and 47% respectively. These figures are correlated in that delayed school enrolment increases the risk of dropout which in turn shortens the school life expectancy for children. These observations are the motivation behind this research. By writing this thesis, three substantive research questions have been explored: (1) what is Sierra Leone’s progress towards achieving universal basic education (2) what are the determinants of school attendance at basic education in West Africa and (3) does living in a community with more educated mothers enhance children’s school attendance at basic education. Three countries have been used: Sierra Leone, Liberia, and Ghana. Sierra Leone and Liberia have been used to reflect poor and post-conflict states with transitional and premature education systems respectively. Ghana is representative of middle income and politically stable countries with more advanced education systems in the region. The most recent Demographic and Health Survey for the three countries are used for analysis.Four empirical chapters are presented. The first chapter addresses research question 1. It applies simple statistical analyses to United Nations indicators for evaluating progress towards universal education. The second and third chapters answer the second research question and the final chapter answers the third research question. These three chapters employ multilevel statistical techniques to model the determinants of primary and junior secondary school attendance. The second empirical chapter focuses on the interaction between household and community poverty with the aim of investigating whether the attendance of poor children suffers more than affluent children by residing in a poor community. The third empirical chapter explores the determinants of junior secondary school attendance with the aim of deducing whether there are significant differences between post-conflict countries and more stable countries. The final chapter focuses on the relationship between mothers’ education and school attendance at basic education, arguing that living in a community with a high proportion of more educated mothers enhances the likelihood that a child will attend school, irrespective of the child’s background.The results from the first chapter show that the realisation of UBE is distant in Sierra Leone. There has been a decline in the number of children entering primary education; junior secondary education has however doubled although it remains low at 21%. Children from the poorest households are the most excluded from school followed by rural children and girls. The results from the second empirical chapter showed that there is a significant interaction between household and community poverty where poor children living in poor communities experience a greater depreciation in their probability of attending school than more affluent children who live in the same deprived environment in Sierra Leone. No such interaction was found in Liberia or Ghana. In the third empirical chapter, the sex of the child, agricultural livelihood within a community, household wealth and area of residence were significant in Sierra Leone and Liberia. In Ghana, sex of the household head and maternal orphanhood were significant. The hypothesis of the relationship between mothers’ community education and children’s school attendance for the final empirical chapter was confirmed

Does living in a community with more educated mothers enhance children’s school attendance? Evidence from Sierra Leone

In Sierra Leone girls are 23.4% less likely to attend secondary education than boys. This difference between sexes increases the gender gap in educational attainment since women's education is positively associated with children's educational wellbeing. This paper investigates the relationship between children's school attendance, their mothers’ level of education, as well as the overall level of women's education at the community level in Sierra Leone using multilevel statistical modelling techniques and the country's 2008 Demographic and Health Survey data. The findings suggest that, regardless of a child's own mother's education, an increase in the proportion of mothers with secondary or higher education in a community by 10% improves the probability of attending junior secondary school significantly by 8%; a 50% increase improves the likelihood of attending school by 45%. There was no significant relationship between the proportion of better educated mothers in a community and primary school attendance. However, relative to children whose mothers had no formal education, children whose mothers had attained primary, secondary or higher education were 7%, 14% and 22% more likely to attend primary school respectively. Future policies should seek to promote girls’ education at post-primary education and develop community based programmes to enable the diffusion and transmission of educational messages

A comparison of all-cause and cause-specific mortality by household socioeconomic status across seven INDEPTH network health and demographic surveillance systems in sub-Saharan Africa

Background: Understanding socioeconomic disparities in all-cause and cause-specific mortality can help inform prevention and treatment strategies. Objectives: To quantify cause-specific mortality rates by socioeconomic status across seven health and demographic surveillance systems (HDSS) in five countries (Ethiopia, Kenya, Malawi, Mozambique, and Nigeria) in the INDEPTH Network in sub-Saharan Africa. Methods: We linked demographic residence data with household survey data containing living standards and education information we used to create a poverty index. Person-years lived and deaths between 2003 and 2016 (periods varied by HDSS) were stratified in each HDSS by age, sex, year, and number of deprivations on the poverty index (0–8). Causes of death were assigned to each death using the InterVA-4 model based on responses to verbal autopsy questionnaires. We estimated rate ratios between socioeconomic groups (2–4 and 5–8 deprivations on our poverty index compared to 0–2 deprivations) for specific causes of death and calculated life expectancy for the deprivation groups. Results: Our pooled data contained almost 3.5 million person-years of observation and 25,038 deaths. All-cause mortality rates were higher among people in households with 5–8 deprivations on our poverty index compared to 0–2 deprivations, controlling for age, sex, and year (rate ratios ranged 1.42 to 2.06 across HDSS sites). The poorest group had consistently higher death rates in communicable, maternal, neonatal, and nutritional conditions (rate ratios ranged 1.34–4.05) and for non-communicable diseases in several sites (1.14–1.93). The disparities in mortality between 5–8 deprivation groups and 0–2 deprivation groups led to lower life expectancy in the higher-deprivation groups by six years in all sites and more than 10 years in five sites. Conclusions: We show large disparities in mortality on the basis of socioeconomic status across seven HDSS in sub-Saharan Africa due to disparities in communicable disease mortality and from non-communicable diseases in some sites. Life expectancy gaps between socioeconomic groups within sites were similar to the gaps between high-income and lower-middle-income countries. Prevention and treatment efforts can benefit from understanding subpopulations facing higher mortality from specific conditions

A systematic review of the status of children's school access in low- and middle-income countries between 1998 and 2013: using the INDEPTH Network platform to fill the research gaps

Background: The framework for expanding children's school access in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) has been directed by universal education policies as part of Education for All since 1990. In measuring progress to universal education, a narrow conceptualisation of access which dichotomises children's participation as being in or out of school has often been assumed. Yet, the actual promise of universal education goes beyond this simple definition to include retention, progression, completion, and learning. Objective: Our first objective was to identify gaps in the literature on children's school access using the zones of exclusion of the Consortium for Research on Educational Access, Transition, and Equity as a framework. Second, we gave consideration to how these gaps can be met by using longitudinal and cross-country data from Health and Demographic Surveillance System (HDSS) sites within the International Network for the Demographic Evaluation of Population and Their Health (INDEPTH) in LMICs. Design: Using Web of Science, we conducted a literature search of studies published in international peer-reviewed journals between 1998 and 2013 in LMICs. The phrases we searched included six school outcomes: school enrolment, school attendance, grade progression, school dropout, primary to secondary school transition, and school completion. From our search, we recorded studies according to: 1) school outcomes; 2) whether longitudinal data were used; and 3) whether data from more than one country were analysed. Results: The area of school access most published is enrolment followed by attendance and dropout. Primary to secondary school transition and grade progression had the least number of publications. Of 132 publications which we found to be relevant to school access, 33 made use of longitudinal data and 17 performed cross-country analyses. Conclusions: The majority of studies published in international peer-reviewed journals on children's school access between 1998 and 2013 were focused on three outcomes: enrolment, attendance, and dropout. Few of these studies used data collected over time or data collected from more than one country for comparative analyses. The contribution of the INDEPTH Network in helping to address these gaps in the literature lies in the longitudinal design of HDSS surveys and in the diversity of countries within the network

Does living in a community with more educated mothers enhance children's school attendance? Evidence from Sierra Leone

In Sierra Leone girls are 23.4% less likely to attend secondary education than boys. This difference between sexes increases the gender gap in educational attainment since women's education is positively associated with children's educational wellbeing. This paper investigates the relationship between children's school attendance, the mother's level of education, as well as the overall level of women's education at the community level in Sierra Leone using multilevel statistical modelling techniques and the country's 2008 Demographic and Health Survey data. The findings suggest that, regardless of a child's own mother's education, an increase in the proportion of mothers with secondary or higher education in a community by 10% improves the probability of attending junior secondary school significantly by 8%; a 50% increase improves the likelihood of attending school by 45%. There was no significant relationship between the proportion of mothers with secondary or higher education in a community and primary school attendance. However, relative to children whose mothers had no formal education, children whose mothers had attained primary, secondary or higher education were 7%, 14% and 22% more likely to attend primary school respectively. Future policies should seek to promote girls' education at post-primary education and develop community based programs to enable the diffusion and transmission of educational messages.JRC.DDG.01-Econometrics and applied statistic

Sick and stuck at home – how poor health increases electricity consumption and reduces opportunities for environmentally-friendly travel in the United Kingdom

Research on the determinants of direct and indirect energy use has identified a range of relevant socio-economic factors. However, we still know little about possible influences of people's health on their energy use. Do people in poor health use less energy because they are on lower incomes, or do they have additional domestic energy needs as they spend more time at home? Does poor health reduce mobility for all or just some (environmentally-friendly) modes of travel? This paper examines these questions through analysis of the representative UK Understanding Society survey. We find that poor health is generally linked to lower home energy use and lower engagement in all forms of travel. However, once we control for income and other socio-demographic factors, poor health is related to higher electricity consumption. These findings have important policy implications as it means that people in poor health would be additionally burdened by higher cost of electricity but, due to their low mobility, less so by higher cost of energy-intensive forms of travel. While promoting good health could support environmentally-friendly travel, additional measures would be required to prevent a rise of energy-intensive modes of travel.</p

Using health and demographic surveillance systems for teratovigilance in Africa.

info:eu-repo/semantics/publishe

The Lancet NCDI Poverty Commission: bridging a gap in universal health coverage for the poorest billion

For the poorest of our world, non-communicable diseases and injuries (NCDIs) account for more than a third of their burden of disease; this burden includes almost 800000 deaths annually among those aged younger than 40 years, more than HIV, tuberculosis, and maternal deaths combined. • Despite already living in abject poverty, between 19 million and 50 million of the poorest billion spend a catastrophic amount of money each year in direct out-of-pocket costs on health care as a result of NCDIs. • Progressive implementation of affordable, cost-effective, and equitable NCDI interventions between 2020 and 2030 could save the lives of more than 4·6 million of the world’s poorest, including 1·3 million who would otherwise die before the age of 40 years. • To avoid needless death and suffering, and to reduce the risk of catastrophic health spending, essential NCDI services must be financed through pooled, public resources, either from increased domestic funding or external funds. • National governments should set and adjust priorities based on the best available local data on NCDIs and the specific needs of the worst off. • International development assistance for health should be augmented and targeted to ensure that the poorest families affected by NCDIs are included in progress towards universal health care