The Potential of Public Private Partnerships in the Urban Development Challenge of Affordable Housing in Africa: The Case of the Social Housing Sector in Cameroon

This Master's thesis explores how Cameroon, a sub-Saharan African state, has been trying to face-up to one of the most acute urban development challenges in the continent today: meeting the housing needs of its urban population in the midst of an urban housing crisis that arises from a population explosion and high rates of rural urban migration that have resulted in the proliferation of informal settlements and slums in her cities. It does so by means of using the Global Strategy for Shelter (GSS) by the Year 2000 as an analytical framework that emphasizes private sector involvement in public infrastructural provision of housing, to make a critical review and analysis of both the historical trajectory that Cameroon's public housing efforts have taken and the current social housing programmes that are being developed and implemented by the government in the context of what it has described as a gigantic project to provide 10.000 housing units and 50.000 developed plots for residential buildings to be provided to Cameroonians by 2013, without the effective participation of the private sector as partner. The study compares the government's project implementation on her ambition to provide these 10.000 housing units so far with that of a small public-private partnership (PPP) between a local government (the Douala Urban Council) and private investors in a company called the Societe d'Amenagement de Douala (SAD), even as the latter was confronted with several structural issues that could have been reduced with stronger government involvement. The study situates these on-going efforts by the Cameroonian administration towards the provision of affordable housing in the backdrop of an urban housing deficit estimated at more than a million housing units, in the major cities of Yaoundé and Douala. Pointing out the current financial and technical difficulties encountered by the government in the execution of its affordable housing policy ambitions, the study concludes that the exclusion of the private sector and public-private partnerships has so far proven to be a strategic mistake that grinds the government's ambitions. On the basis of these assessments, the study recommends that the government should pursue more vigorously a strategic initiative that prioritises partnership with private sector actors in models of PPPs that can enable her to more effectively leverage the financial and technical expertise that these have to offer, as well as suggesting some institutional .reforms that the Cameroonian administration should consider her housing policy goal of promoting affordable housing for the majority of Cameroonians

Nursing interventions in preventing obstetric fistula in adolescents in East Africa

Women in developing countries, particularly young girls experience difficult childbirth which results in the loss of their babies and a significant injury to their sexual and reproductive organs, a condition called obstetric fistula. According to the World Health Organization, an estimated 2 million women in sub-Saharan Africa, Asia, the Arab region, and Latin America and the Caribbean are living with this injury, and some 50,000 to 100,000 new cases develop each year. Statistics from United Nations Population Funds (UNFPA) presents that nine out of ten births are from adolescent girls and these births occur with a marriage or a union. Cultural practices of early marriages and early deliveries present a major risk factor for the development of obstetric fistula (OF) as a result of obstructed labour. Sub-Saharan Africa has the highest prevalence of teenage pregnancies in the world. Births to teenage mothers account for more than half of all the births in the region with an estimate of 101 births per 1000 women aged 15 to 19. The purpose of this thesis was to describe nursing interventions that have been and could be used in the prevention of obstetric fistula in adolescents in East Africa. Literature review methodology was used. 16 articles were retrieved from EBSCOHOST and PROQUEST databases by use of inclusive and exclusive criteria. Inductive content analysis was used to analyse the data which gave rise to several sub-categories and further narrowed to two main categories for interventions which have been done and two main categories for interventions which could be used to prevent OF in adolescents. The results showed that although there has been efforts to prevent obstetric fistula, more resources are aimed at treatment and management of obstetric fistula among women, not adolescents as a high-risk group. Findings also indicate that there is need to educate more nurses and midwives specialized in fistula prevention. There were also recommendations of what should be done in the prevention of obstetric fistula. Preventive measures for obstetric fistula should aim for root causes which provide long-term and sustainable solutions. Further research is recommended on obstetric fistula prevention in adolescents, defining the role of nursing intervention as an important component