Literacy Gaps by Educational Attainment: A Comparative Study of 19 Countries

Using data of literacy skills among adults aged 26 to 35 from the International Adult Literacy Survey, we compare the degree of literacy gaps between those who completed tertiary education and those who did not graduate from high schools across 19 countries. The result of ordinary least square regression shows that although those with a higher level of educational attainment tend to have a higher level of literacy skills in all countries, countries substantially vary in the degree of literacy gaps by educational attainment. The cross-national variation in the literacy gap is mainly driven by between-country differences in the level of literacy skills among those who did not graduate from high school. The result of two-level hierarchical linear models, furthermore, shows that the cross-national variation in the literacy gap by educational attainment is in part attributable to between-country differences in standardization of educational systems and the extent to which adult education and training are offered to the low educated. We discuss theoretical and policy implications of the findings for addressing inequality of literacy skills

Transitions from Primary to Lower Secondary School: A Focus on Equity

This background paper explores the dynamics that affect transitions from primary to lower secondary school, with a focus on equity. It forms part of series of papers contributing to a broader initiative of tracking the demand and supply sides factors that influence access to secondary education and prepare African youth for the future of work. Whilst case studies have been drawn from Ghana and Rwanda to assess their strengths and weaknesses to educational reforms, emphasis is on transitions from primary to lower secondary schools in the whole of sub-Saharan Africa. The background paper is in two main sections: review of factors affecting transitions in sub-Saharan Africa, and case study analyses for Ghana and Rwanda with the following themes guiding the discussions: Theme 1: Access to education, progression and completion rates in primary and secondary schools; Theme 2: Trends and realities in secondary education: Equity in progression and transitions – from primary to lower secondary and upper secondary schools and equal opportunities for children with disabilities, members of religious and ethnic minorities and other forms or multiple cases of vulnerabilities; Theme 3: Learning outcomes, employability and well-being of youth with and without secondary education; Theme 4: Actionable recommendations to policymakers, implementers, donors and other stakeholders on how to improve transitions from primary to lower secondary for the marginalized populations

The dynamic relationship between bank risk and corporate governance in Africa

This paper investigates the nexus between corporate governance and bank risk in Africa using annual data of 635 banks from 48 countries for the period 2000 to 2019 in a panel GMM approach. Our bank risk variables are loan loss provision to net interest revenue (LLPNR) and loan loss reserve to gross loan (LLRGL). The corporate governance variables are board size, female directors, role duality, board meetings, and independent directors. Findings indicate that bank risk measured by LLPNR has significant negative association with female directors, role duality, and frequent board meetings. However, bank risk measured by LLRGL has significant negative connections with board size, and independent directors, but positive connections with female directors and board meetings. This study provides a guide to regulators, shareholders, and management of banks in adopting appropriate corporate governance practices to reduce risk

Research capacity building integrated into PHIT projects: leveraging research and research funding to build national capacity

Background: Inadequate research capacity impedes the development of evidence-based health programming in sub-Saharan Africa. However, funding for research capacity building (RCB) is often insufficient and restricted, limiting institutions’ ability to address current RCB needs. The Doris Duke Charitable Foundation’s African Health Initiative (AHI) funded Population Health Implementation and Training (PHIT) partnership projects in five African countries (Ghana, Mozambique, Rwanda, Tanzania and Zambia) to implement health systems strengthening initiatives inclusive of RCB. Methods: Using Cooke’s framework for RCB, RCB activity leaders from each country reported on RCB priorities, activities, program metrics, ongoing challenges and solutions. These were synthesized by the authorship team, identifying common challenges and lessons learned. Results: For most countries, each of the RCB domains from Cooke’s framework was a high priority. In about half of the countries, domain specific activities happened prior to PHIT. During PHIT, specific RCB activities varied across countries. However, all five countries used AHI funding to improve research administrative support and infrastructure, implement research trainings and support mentorship activities and research dissemination. While outcomes data were not systematically collected, countries reported holding 54 research trainings, forming 56 mentor-mentee relationships, training 201 individuals and awarding 22 PhD and Masters-level scholarships. Over the 5 years, 116 manuscripts were developed. Of the 59 manuscripts published in peer-reviewed journals, 29 had national first authors and 18 had national senior authors. Trainees participated in 99 conferences and projects held 37 forums with policy makers to facilitate research translation into policy. Conclusion: All five PHIT projects strongly reported an increase in RCB activities and commended the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation for prioritizing RCB, funding RCB at adequate levels and time frames and for allowing flexibility in funding so that each project could implement activities according to their trainees’ needs. As a result, many common challenges for RCB, such as adequate resources and local and international institutional support, were not identified as major challenges for these projects. Overall recommendations are for funders to provide adequate and flexible funding for RCB activities and for institutions to offer a spectrum of RCB activities to enable continued growth, provide adequate mentorship for trainees and systematically monitor RCB activities. Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (10.1186/s12913-017-2657-6) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users

Data-driven quality improvement in low-and middle-income country health systems: lessons from seven years of implementation experience across Mozambique, Rwanda, and Zambia

Well-functioning health systems need to utilize data at all levels, from the provider, to local and national-level decision makers, in order to make evidence-based and needed adjustments to improve the quality of care provided. Over the last 7 years, the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation’s African Health Initiative funded health systems strengthening projects at the facility, district, and/or provincial level to improve population health. Increasing data-driven decision making was a common strategy in Mozambique, Rwanda and Zambia. This paper describes the similar and divergent approaches to increase data-driven quality of care improvements (QI) and implementation challenge and opportunities encountered in these three countries

Research capacity building integrated into PHIT projects: leveraging research and research funding to build national capacity

Background: Inadequate research capacity impedes the development of evidence-based health programming in sub-Saharan Africa. However, funding for research capacity building (RCB) is often insufficient and restricted, limiting institutions’ ability to address current RCB needs. The Doris Duke Charitable Foundation’s African Health Initiative (AHI) funded Population Health Implementation and Training (PHIT) partnership projects in five African countries (Ghana, Mozambique, Rwanda, Tanzania and Zambia) to implement health systems strengthening initiatives inclusive of RCB. Methods: Using Cooke’s framework for RCB, RCB activity leaders from each country reported on RCB priorities, activities, program metrics, ongoing challenges and solutions. These were synthesized by the authorship team, identifying common challenges and lessons learned. Results: For most countries, each of the RCB domains from Cooke’s framework was a high priority. In about half of the countries, domain specific activities happened prior to PHIT. During PHIT, specific RCB activities varied across countries. However, all five countries used AHI funding to improve research administrative support and infrastructure, implement research trainings and support mentorship activities and research dissemination. While outcomes data were not systematically collected, countries reported holding 54 research trainings, forming 56 mentor-mentee relationships, training 201 individuals and awarding 22 PhD and Masters-level scholarships. Over the 5 years, 116 manuscripts were developed. Of the 59 manuscripts published in peer-reviewed journals, 29 had national first authors and 18 had national senior authors. Trainees participated in 99 conferences and projects held 37 forums with policy makers to facilitate research translation into policy. Conclusion: All five PHIT projects strongly reported an increase in RCB activities and commended the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation for prioritizing RCB, funding RCB at adequate levels and time frames and for allowing flexibility in funding so that each project could implement activities according to their trainees’ needs. As a result, many common challenges for RCB, such as adequate resources and local and international institutional support, were not identified as major challenges for these projects. Overall recommendations are for funders to provide adequate and flexible funding for RCB activities and for institutions to offer a spectrum of RCB activities to enable continued growth, provide adequate mentorship for trainees and systematically monitor RCB activities. Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (10.1186/s12913-017-2657-6) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users

Essays on the economic and social demography of households

This dissertation in multi-paper format, studies three aspects of the demography of households. The first paper explores the pathways through which female headship positively influences educational outcomes using data on Black South African households from the Cape Area Panel Study. I hypothesize that supplementary economic resources, child-oriented resource allocation and social support are the main explanations for the female headship advantage. The findings indicate that external transfers to female-headed households allow them to compensate somewhat for their socio-economic disadvantage while non-monetary support from extended family members provide the additional resources that positively affect child outcomes. In the second paper, pooled data from the 2000 Census and 2001 to 2007 American Community Surveys are used to determine whether a parenthood wage gap, comparable to that for heterosexual parents, exists for same-sex unmarried partners (SSUP). I hypothesize that there would be differences in the parenthood gaps by partnership type because same-sex parents are a more select group, specialize to a lesser extent than two-sex couples and may face different discrimination than heterosexual parents. The results show a significant wage premium for White female SSUP full-time workers with dependent children, contradicting what is generally known about the motherhood wage penalty. For other SSUP groups, the wage differences are not significant. The final paper determines whether failure to consider the bans on gay marriage bias estimates of the gay pay gap. I use data on partnered workers from the 2000 census to estimate wage differentials between married and unmarried same-sex (SSUP) workers focusing on the effects of marriage arising from specialization, selection and discrimination. The results confirm that not accounting for marriage underestimates the pay gap for men and overestimates that for women. I find influences on the gap of selection (using prior marriage to represent marriage selectivity) and specialization (using allocation of household paid work hours to represent intensity of labor market specialization) but no conclusive evidence on the influence of discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation (using state variation in workplace anti-discrimination policy)

Patterns of interethnic marriage in Ghana: 2000 – 2010

Patterns of assortative mating are informative because they reflect the strength of social boundaries across groups. Ethnic homogamy is particularly important as it provides a useful measure of social cohesion in multi-ethnic societies. This paper investigates the patterns of interethnic marriage in Ghana using the census data of the 2000 and 2010 censuses. Ethnic homogamy is strong in Ghana with 12.3% of the sample being married to a spouse of a different ethnicity. The likelihood of being in an interethnic marriage varies widely by demographic characteristics. Younger people are significantly more likely to intermarry suggesting that ethnic boundaries tend to become more open over time. Educational attainment significantly increases the propensity for intermarriage supporting the hypothesis that education offers opportunities to join more ethnically diverse networks. Intermarriage is more prevalent in urban areas likely due to the greater ethnic diversity of urban populations. Ethnic minorities tend to intermarry more, which is consistent with the theory that smaller groups face greater marriage market constraints

Essays on the economic and social demography of households

This dissertation in multi-paper format, studies three aspects of the demography of households. The first paper explores the pathways through which female headship positively influences educational outcomes using data on Black South African households from the Cape Area Panel Study. I hypothesize that supplementary economic resources, child-oriented resource allocation and social support are the main explanations for the female headship advantage. The findings indicate that external transfers to female-headed households allow them to compensate somewhat for their socio-economic disadvantage while non-monetary support from extended family members provide the additional resources that positively affect child outcomes. In the second paper, pooled data from the 2000 Census and 2001 to 2007 American Community Surveys are used to determine whether a parenthood wage gap, comparable to that for heterosexual parents, exists for same-sex unmarried partners (SSUP). I hypothesize that there would be differences in the parenthood gaps by partnership type because same-sex parents are a more select group, specialize to a lesser extent than two-sex couples and may face different discrimination than heterosexual parents. The results show a significant wage premium for White female SSUP full-time workers with dependent children, contradicting what is generally known about the motherhood wage penalty. For other SSUP groups, the wage differences are not significant. The final paper determines whether failure to consider the bans on gay marriage bias estimates of the gay pay gap. I use data on partnered workers from the 2000 census to estimate wage differentials between married and unmarried same-sex (SSUP) workers focusing on the effects of marriage arising from specialization, selection and discrimination. The results confirm that not accounting for marriage underestimates the pay gap for men and overestimates that for women. I find influences on the gap of selection (using prior marriage to represent marriage selectivity) and specialization (using allocation of household paid work hours to represent intensity of labor market specialization) but no conclusive evidence on the influence of discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation (using state variation in workplace anti-discrimination policy)