The Welfare State Within the Context of Liberal Globalisation in Africa: Is the Concept Still Relevant in Social Policy Alternatives for Africa?

Africans are struggling to reclaim their rights to wealth, liberty, and democracy as mechanisms of articulating social progress. Is the concept of the welfare state still relevant within the existing dominant paradigms of liberal globalisation? In this study, using a historical-structuralist framework, I examine the nature of the arguments about the welfare state. I categorize three types of regimes, namely, social welfare state, liberal welfare state, and transitional democracy and I compare their performances in selected sectors. My main objective is to search for correlative explanations between the ideological foundation of each regime and its social program policy. Based on the data used, it was demonstrated that global liberal democratisation has not yet created any conditions for greater social development and equity in Africa. In all sectors, transitional democracies have performed poorly as compared to other democracies. Liberal democracies have performed lower than social democracies. And social democracies have been systematically ranked higher in the selected social indices. It was concluded that the concept of welfare is still relevant, and thus should provide the epistemological and social basis for rethinking African democracies

Reflections on Liberal Democracy and International Debt in Post-Cold War Africa1

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Can a ‘Realist Pan-Africanism’ Be a Relevant Tool Toward the Transformation of African and African Diaspora Politics? Imagining a Pan-African State

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Perspectives of the inaugural medical research and mentorship symposium for medical students and junior doctors in Zambia, Southern Africa: planning, outcomes and lessons learnt

Africa is the second largest continent, with about 13% of the world's population yet bears 24% of the global disease burden.1 Despite this  unacceptably high disease burden, only less than 1% of healthrelated research originates on the continent.2 In a cross-sectional study of six sub-Saharan African countries with 424 participants, Ngongalah et al explored the challenges faced by African researchers2. Their results showed areas of weakness including lack of training and awareness of the importance of research, inadequate support and collaborations amongst researchers in Africa. Thus, initiatives are needed to build a foundation for research that are home grown. In another study of medical schools in Sub-Saharan  Africa, 168 medical schools were identified, 145 surveyed, 105 responded, reporting that of the approximately 10,000 medical student graduates on the continent, 68% leave the African continent workforce.1 Some of the challenges reported were lack of mentorship and career structure. Mentorship is an integral part of our educational structure and career development. Mentorship can be formal with pairing of the mentee/mentor or informal by mentees seeking out a mentor. Mentorship provides an opportunity for trainees to gain constructive criticism, develop career goals and an opportunity for overall support through the learning process.3 With this background in mind we sought to organize a medical research and mentorship symposium targeted towards both medical students and junior resident doctors. This was a collaborative event by the Pan-African Organization for Health, Education and Research (POHER), Young Emerging Scientist Zambia (YES Zambia), and Copperbelt University School of Medicine (CBU-SOM) Mentorship Program. POHER is a non-governmental organization (NGO), co-founded by Drs Asombang and Mazimba, with a focus on the soundness of the health sector as the cornerstone of social and economic development of all African countries. YES Zambia is an  initiative by Drs Kabwe and  Lubeya, which has envisioned the creation of a renowned career and research hub for the young scientists that is cardinal in underpinning their career progression and leverage science to solve global challenges. CBUSOM mentorship program is a formal program co-founded by medical students and faculty at CBUSOM whose core value is to culture a pool of medical personnel that can receive andimpart knowledge for academic and professional excellence. &nbsp

Empirical analysis of the relationship between real exchange rate and real interest rate differentials in inflation targeting countries

This study empirically tests the long-run relationship between real exchange rate and real interest rate (RERI) differentials using quarterly panel data over the period 1993- 2018 employing cointegration methods for a panel of 12 inflation targeting countries. The theoretical relationship of a long-run equilibrium relationship between real exchange rates and interest rate differentials is essentially derived from the Purchasing Power Parity (PPP) and uncovered interest parity theories. This theoretical relationship has become a standard and acceptable theory in open economy macroeconomics. Even so, empirical evidence on this long-run relationship has been mixed. Our study differs from previous studies in two respects. First, we investigate this relationship only for countries that have the same monetary policy framework (inflation targeting) (interest rates and exchange rates are theoretically important in the transmission of monetary impulses to the real economy). Second, we use both multivariate and panel cointegration methods in our investigation. The results show some evidence of cointegration in the country-by-country cases that we investigated using multivariate cointegration tests and weak evidence of cointegration between real exchange rate and real interest rate differentials for the sample of inflation targeting countries using panel cointegration tests. The findings in this study corroborates early works and recent studies on the long-run relationship between real exchange rate and real interest rate differentials. The empirical evidence from this study conclude that there is no clear evidence that the real interest rate – real exchange rate relationship in inflation targeting countries are different from other countries with well-developed financial markets.https://journals.co.za/content/journal/aa_ajber2021-04-08hj2020Economic

Role of Caustic Addition in Bitumen-Clay Interactions

Coating of bitumen by clays, known as slime coating, is detrimental to bitumen recovery from oil sands using the warm slurry extn. process. Sodium hydroxide (caustic) is added to the extn. process to balance many competing processing challenges, which include undesirable slime coating. The current research aims at understanding the role of caustic addn. in controlling interactions of bitumen with various types of model clays. The interaction potential was studied by quartz crystal microbalance with dissipation monitoring (QCM-D). After confirming the slime coating potential of montmorillonite clays on bitumen in the presence of calcium ions, the interaction of kaolinite and illite with bitumen was studied. To represent more closely the industrial applications, tailings water from bitumen extn. tests at different caustic dosage was used. At caustic dosage up to 0.5 wt % oil sands ore, a negligible coating of kaolinite on the bitumen was detd. However, at a lower level of caustic addn., illite was shown to attach to the bitumen, with the interaction potential decreasing with increasing caustic dosage. Increasing concn. of humic acids as a result of increasing caustic dosage was identified to limit the interaction potential of illite with bitumen. This fundamental study clearly shows that the crit. role of caustics in modulating interactions of clays with bitumen depends upon the type of clays. Thus, clay type was identified as a key operational variable

Medicinal plants with antimicrobial, larvicidal, and repellent properties: An ethnopharmacological survey from the Democratic Republic of the Congo

Introduction Infectious diseases (IDs) constitute a real public health problem in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). Purpose This survey aimed to gather more information about the plants used in the DRC for anti-infective, larvicidal, or repellent treatments. Methods The study spanned 4 months (from April 1 to July 31, 2022) within 11 provinces in the DRC and was conducted among 20 traditional healers (TH), 105 vegetable growers (VG), and 953 other plant users (OU) of traditional plants scattered across the country. The survey consisted of a simple interview with an inventory of the plants used. Results The results showed that the average age of the respondents was between 39 and 43 years old. The VG were mainly illiterate. As for TH and OU, literacy rates up to the primary level were 60% and 78%, respectively. The knowledge of the use of plants by the various actors of traditional medicine in this survey emanates from the cultural heritage. For this study, 132 plant species (104 identified and 28 unidentified based on their botanical name or family) were reported. 33 antimicrobial species and 7 larvicidal species belonging to 22 botanical families have been reported among TH, while 1 and 75 antimicrobial species, 6 and 16 larvicidal species, and 13 and 30 repellent species were respectively identified among VG and OU. This study identified Morinda morindoides, Cymbopogon citratus, and Boswellia sacra as the plant species most used by the individuals surveyed for anti-infective, larvicidal, and repellent treatments, respectively, by their citation frequencies, which were the highest. Additionally, the leaves represented the plant parts most used by the respondents. Conclusion This ethnobotanical analysis revealed that most herbal antimicrobial recipes are used to treat malaria. This study confirms the richness of the Congolese flora concerning anti-infective, larvicidal, and repellent treatments

Consistent patterns of common species across tropical tree communities

Trees structure the Earth’s most biodiverse ecosystem, tropical forests. The vast number of tree species presents a formidable challenge to understanding these forests, including their response to environmental change, as very little is known about most tropical tree species. A focus on the common species may circumvent this challenge. Here we investigate abundance patterns of common tree species using inventory data on 1,003,805 trees with trunk diameters of at least 10 cm across 1,568 locations1,2,3,4,5,6 in closed-canopy, structurally intact old-growth tropical forests in Africa, Amazonia and Southeast Asia. We estimate that 2.2%, 2.2% and 2.3% of species comprise 50% of the tropical trees in these regions, respectively. Extrapolating across all closed-canopy tropical forests, we estimate that just 1,053 species comprise half of Earth’s 800 billion tropical trees with trunk diameters of at least 10 cm. Despite differing biogeographic, climatic and anthropogenic histories7, we find notably consistent patterns of common species and species abundance distributions across the continents. This suggests that fundamental mechanisms of tree community assembly may apply to all tropical forests. Resampling analyses show that the most common species are likely to belong to a manageable list of known species, enabling targeted efforts to understand their ecology. Although they do not detract from the importance of rare species, our results open new opportunities to understand the world’s most diverse forests, including modelling their response to environmental change, by focusing on the common species that constitute the majority of their trees.Publisher PDFPeer reviewe

Consistent patterns of common species across tropical tree communities

Trees structure the Earth’s most biodiverse ecosystem, tropical forests. The vast number of tree species presents a formidable challenge to understanding these forests, including their response to environmental change, as very little is known about most tropical tree species. A focus on the common species may circumvent this challenge. Here we investigate abundance patterns of common tree species using inventory data on 1,003,805 trees with trunk diameters of at least 10 cm across 1,568 locations1,2,3,4,5,6 in closed-canopy, structurally intact old-growth tropical forests in Africa, Amazonia and Southeast Asia. We estimate that 2.2%, 2.2% and 2.3% of species comprise 50% of the tropical trees in these regions, respectively. Extrapolating across all closed-canopy tropical forests, we estimate that just 1,053 species comprise half of Earth’s 800 billion tropical trees with trunk diameters of at least 10 cm. Despite differing biogeographic, climatic and anthropogenic histories7, we find notably consistent patterns of common species and species abundance distributions across the continents. This suggests that fundamental mechanisms of tree community assembly may apply to all tropical forests. Resampling analyses show that the most common species are likely to belong to a manageable list of known species, enabling targeted efforts to understand their ecology. Although they do not detract from the importance of rare species, our results open new opportunities to understand the world’s most diverse forests, including modelling their response to environmental change, by focusing on the common species that constitute the majority of their trees

Consistent patterns of common species across tropical tree communities

Trees structure the Earth’s most biodiverse ecosystem, tropical forests. The vast number of tree species presents a formidable challenge to understanding these forests, including their response to environmental change, as very little is known about most tropical tree species. A focus on the common species may circumvent this challenge. Here we investigate abundance patterns of common tree species using inventory data on 1,003,805 trees with trunk diameters of at least 10 cm across 1,568 locations1,2,3,4,5,6 in closed-canopy, structurally intact old-growth tropical forests in Africa, Amazonia and Southeast Asia. We estimate that 2.2%, 2.2% and 2.3% of species comprise 50% of the tropical trees in these regions, respectively. Extrapolating across all closed-canopy tropical forests, we estimate that just 1,053 species comprise half of Earth’s 800 billion tropical trees with trunk diameters of at least 10 cm. Despite differing biogeographic, climatic and anthropogenic histories7, we find notably consistent patterns of common species and species abundance distributions across the continents. This suggests that fundamental mechanisms of tree community assembly may apply to all tropical forests. Resampling analyses show that the most common species are likely to belong to a manageable list of known species, enabling targeted efforts to understand their ecology. Although they do not detract from the importance of rare species, our results open new opportunities to understand the world’s most diverse forests, including modelling their response to environmental change, by focusing on the common species that constitute the majority of their trees