No. 18: The State of Food Insecurity in Blantyre City, Malawi

Chronic food insecurity is considered to be one of the most important challenges facing the people and government of Malawi. Most attention tends to be given to the rural areas where the majority of the population live and where the prevalence of food insecurity is highest. However, Malawi is urbanizing at a rapid rate and those who move to the cities do not automatically become food secure. Urban food insecurity is likely to increase and therefore it is important for policy-makers to begin to think about this issue. AFSUN’s study of food insecurity in the city of Blantyre, Malawi’s industrial hub, formed part of its baseline survey of 11 Southern African cities. The study established that household dietary diversity is very low with most consuming a monotonous diet dominated by grain foods, especially maize. While the dependence on maize and its availability on the market means that absolute levels of food insecurity are lower here than in many other cities surveyed by AFSUN, there is also a clear seasonality to food security that coincides with the rural agricultural cycle. When maize prices rise, households immediately feel the pinch and levels of insecurity rise. Female-centred households, households with large family sizes, households that have lost a breadwinner through death, households with a sick member, and low-income households are more food insecure than the rest

Reflecting the divine image: The crux of Umunthu in contemporary Africa – Foundation of true humanity

The purpose of this article is to articulate the implications of the nature of the image of God in humans; thereby pointing out that its proper understanding is the basis of true humanity and human relationships and interactions. This will be done by analysing the thrust of the Bible in its own voice when it comes to how humans are to relate and interact with each other. At a minimal level, this article is aimed at “re-humanizing the human” from a theological point of view. The aim is to emphasise that pursuing Umunthu divorced from the fundamental nature of humanity, humans, institutions, government and government agencies, become prone to serious dilemmas and problems. In other words, dehumanizing tendencies multiply when there is no proper understanding of what humanity constitutes. The article seeks to argue that the foundations of Umunthu, in whatever form it exists or is expressed in Africa, must be within the parameters of theological category based on the proper understanding of the nature of the imago Dei and what it means to be human.Keywords: Divine, functional, imago Dei, image of God, substantive, relational, Umunth

Telecommunications development and economic growth in Namibia

The telecommunications sector is one of the industries that provide an enabling environment for other sectors to increase efficiency and productivity. With the emergence of Covid-19, which forced the world to adopt a new way of doing things, the telecommunications sector ensured minimum disruption to productivity by enabling remote working, online trading, and providing the connectivity required for online learning. The telecommunications sector is one of the key sectors identified by the Namibian Government as critical to the global and the Namibian economy, and the expansion of which has been included in the government planning documents such as the Vision 2030, Harambee Prosperity Plans, and the National Broadband Policy. However, the country had a low penetration rate of 41% in 2020 and there are interventions required to improve access to telecommunication services. This study employed the Autoregressive Distributed Lags (ARDL) bound test techniques and the Granger causality test based on secondary data obtained from the World Data Indicators (WDI), covering the period between 1995 and 2020. The results found no evidence of a long-run relationship between the telecommunications variables and economic growth, and this is attributable to the fact that the industry is still at an infant stage. The results of the Vector Autoregression (VAR) also didn't find a significant relationship between telecommunication variables and economic growth, except for number of individuals using the internet. The Granger causality tests revealed that there is no evidence of Granger causality between telecommunications development and economic growth in Namibia. The government should direct efforts towards implementing policies aimed at encouraging investments in telecommunication infrastructure and by further looking at complementary factors, which include investments in research and development aimed at improving the low internet penetration rate

Gender and Intra-Household Use of Fertilizers in the Malawi Farm Input Subsidy Programme

The Farm Input Subsidy Programme targets households for subsidized farm inputs, and usually it is the head of the household who receives the coupons. Since households tend to have multiple plots which are controlled by different members of the household, there may be intra-household issues that arise in the use of farm inputs available to the household. We find that while male-headed households are more likely to receive coupons than female-headed households, there seems to be less bias in intra-household use of subsidized fertilizers (or fertilizers in households receiving subsidy) between plots controlled by female and male members. This is despite the fact that, more generally, household incomes from various sources tend to be controlled and allocated by men. It also contrasts with evidence that plots controlled by female members were less likely to be applied with fertilizers when we consider all fertilizers in subsidized and unsubsidized households

Preparation and solid state properties of cyclodextrin complexes of selected drug molecules

Includes bibliographical references.A large number of pharmaceutically important drugs are poorly soluble in water. This study focuses on the 'smart' molecule that can enhance the solubility and hence increase the bioavailability of these drugs. This molecule is a cyclodextrin and is known to form inclusion compounds with various drug molecules. The preparation of β-cyclodextrin CP-CD), y-cyclodextrin (y-CD), heptakis(2,6-di-OJ, methyl)-β-cyclodextrin (Dimeb) and heptakis(2,3,6·tri-0-methyl)- β-cyclodextrin (Trimeb) 3, complexes with clofibric acid as well as the heptakis(2,3,6j·tri-O-methyl)- β-cyclodextrin (Trimeb) complex with clofibrate is reported. The complexes were characterised by thermogravimetric analysis (TG), differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), ultraviolet spectrophotometry (UV), infrared spectroscopy (IR), X-ray powder diffraction (XRD) and single crystal X-ray analysis

Exploring Organizational Recidivism With A Focus On Federal Environmental Crime

This dissertation explores the recidivism rates of organizational offenders convicted of federal environmental crimes. Individual recidivism has received considerable attention from re-searchers over the years. This is not so with organization recidivism. This dissertation aims at put-ting greater light on this subject. The study focuses on environmental crime because of the critical need to preserve the earth’s ability to sustain life. Federal environmental criminal prosecution da-ta maintained by the EPA was the study population. The population included prosecutions of organizational offenders from 1994 to 2013. The total number of organizational prosecutions was 73625 and the total number of organizational offenders convicted was 788. While the study’s main aim was to provide a descriptive analysis of the recidivism rates of organizational offenders convicted of federal environmental crimes, it also provides analysis of the organizational offenders, their statutory violations and the sanctions meted out by the courts. The analysis yielded recidivism rates far lower than those that typically apply to individual offenders. These results raised a number of questions and observations that should be of interest to policy makers and future researchers

Challenges of Access to Farm Input Subsidy by Vulnerable Groups in Malawi

The targeting guidelines of the Farm Input Subsidy Programme (FISP) in Malawi identify special target groups as guardians looking after physically challenged persons and vulnerable groups such as child headed, female-headed or orphan headed or physically challenged-headed households and those households with infected or affected with HIV and AIDS. This paper documents experiences of communities and most vulnerable households in accessing coupons and subsidized farm inputs. The most vulnerable groups captured in the study include female-headed, child headed and elderly headed households. We find that the problems in accessing coupons were isolated while the difficulties in redeeming coupons were most severe for most households, particularly the most vulnerable groups. With respect to access to coupons the main challenges were sharing of coupons, fewer numbers of coupons relative to the number of qualifying beneficiaries, malpractices by officials and the process of identification, particularly use of identification cards. Access to subsidized inputs was more problematic due to long queues, frequent stock outs, long distances to markets and payment of tips and bribes. These raised the transaction costs and opportunity costs which most vulnerable groups could not afford. The most vulnerable households had particular challenges in finding money to redeem the coupons let alone payment of tips to purchase subsidized inputs