Considering childbearing in the age of highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART): Views of HIV-positive couples

Objectives: Based on a qualitative study conducted in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe, this article examines how the availability of HAARTsince April 2004 may impact the views and choices of HIV-positive couples on childbearing.Methods: In-depth interviews were conducted with 15 couples where at least one partner was HIV positive. All respondents were ofreproductive age and had or were confronting reproductive and sexual decision-making.Results: HAART seems to have had a profound impact on the subject of childbearing among those who still desire to have children.Where hitherto individuals had only a desire for a child many are now, as a result of the availability of HAART, actively planningto have one. HAART has not only transformed their physical state but it has also transformed mostly what had been desire intointention. The impact, however, has not been uniform. Some respondents still desired to have a child but were not yet convincedabout the efficacy of HAART in preventing vertical transmission. Some respondents felt that HAART may have a negative impact onthe foetus and as such were against childbearing by HIV-positive people. No respondent indicated that their desire or intention tohave a child had been extinguished by the advent of HAART.Conclusion: Based on the findings of the study, HAART seems to have had a differential but nonetheless significant role in thereproductive plans of HIV-positive couples. The study also notes that there is a need to make available complete and unbiasedinformation on HAART, mother-to-child transmission risk (MTCT) and pregnancy to HIV-positive couples so as to enable them tomake informed decisions

Femininities amongst resident female students at the University of Zimbabwe

A research dissertation on the problems facing female resident students at the University of Zimbabwe.This chapter is a result of research that was carried out at University of Zimbabwe, based on resident female students’ responses to questions and discussions on gender equity, democracy and human rights. This research indicates that the institutions of higher learning are not always the places of tranquillity, rational debate and free exchange of ideas as portrayed by the gatekeepers of the images of these institutions. The University of Zimbabwe is complex as it embodies different kinds of discrimination on the basis of gender, ethnicity, religion and class. The voices and experiences of resident female students have been highlighted to analyse and explain their navigation of the university system and Zimbabwean society as a whole. The extent of gender equity, democracy and human rights at the University of Zimbabwe is discussed, largely based on female students’ responses to questions and discussions with the writer of this chapter. Also highlighted is their understanding of the deteriorating economic environment in Zimbabwe, which, according to them, is the major reason for a lot of hardships that student women have had to deal with in their lives. They partly attribute the erosion of gender equity, democracy and human rights at the university to the troubled economic environment in Zimbabwe. The research largely dwells on issues of accommodation, student politics and other problems that are experienced by female students who have varying class, religious and ethnic backgrounds. The women’s experiences are juxtaposed to those of their male counterparts.The Ford Foundation funded the research and publication of this volume

“Supply and demand trends for fertilizer in Zimbabwe: 1930 to date”: Key drivers and lessons learnt

The fertilizer sector in Zimbabwe has evolved over the years in response to different policy changes based on the government’s priorities on agricultural development. The industry grew from the 1930s that targeted primarily large scale commercial farmers, through the liberalization period of the mid 1990s, and recent changes that have introduced controls on the marketing system. Since 2000, following the fast track land reform program, Zimbabwe has faced food insecurity challenges that have been exacerbated by the political and economic crises. This prompted the government to adopt policies that have reduced private sector interests in fertilizer supply. In this situation where explicit fertilizer markets have been absent, relief programs have been leading in facilitating deliveries of fertilizers to poorer smallholder farmers located even in remote areas. The supply of fertilizers in Zimbabwe has been driven by government policy, finance and infrastructure while the demand has primarily been a function of farmer’s capacity to acquire fertilizers, availability of water and farmers knowledge of fertilizer use. There is need for a policy shift that promotes a competitive fertilizer marketing to support a broader range of farmers in Zimbabwe leading to agricultural productivity growth. Investment in infrastructure is critical to reduce marketing costs and to boost fertilizer demand; policies that strengthen farmer’s capacity to acquire fertilizers and increase their knowledge on fertilizer use complemented by technologies that promote water use efficiencies are needed.Fertilizer, supply and demand, policy reform, consumption trends, Crop Production/Industries,

Conservation Agriculture Practices and Adoption by Smallholder Farmers in Zimbabwe

This study is based on a panel survey interviewing 416 farmers practising conservation agriculture for at least five cropping seasons. Farmers obtained higher yields on conservation agriculture plots than on nonconservation agriculture ones. The mean maize yield on conservation agriculture was 1546 kg/ha compared to 970 kg/ha for non-conventional draft tillage plots across all 15 districts. However, the contribution of conservation agriculture to total household food security requirements was limited due to small plot sizes. Labor and land still remains a major challenge that limits the expansion of conservation agriculture area. Winter weeding remains a challenge, with 63% of farmers practicing it. Application of residues is still limited (56% of farmers practising it). Fertilizer application is largely dependent on access to free fertilizer. The survey results show that the 78 % of the respondent farmers were initially selected by the NGOs and were provided with inputs such as seed and fertilizer. The other 22% of the farmers in the sample were selected as spontaneous adopters, who did not initially receive any NGO support to implement conservation agriculture practices. Eleven percent of the interviewed farmers had stopped conservation agriculture practices by the 2008/09 cropping season due to withdrawal of input support by NGOs. Research should continue to explore different recommendations for different areas as farmers face dynamic agro-ecological and soil environments. Conservation agriculture should not be introduced as a blanket technology for all areas, but should be flexible and adaptable to local conditions.conservation agriculture, planting basins, yield gains, adoption labor, and fertilizer, Farm Management, Research and Development/Tech Change/Emerging Technologies, Resource /Energy Economics and Policy,

The Influence of Experience and Owner-Managers Education on SME Performance: Case of Motor Spares Enterprises at Kelvin Light Industries in Bulawayo

The continued failure of small to medium enterprises and lack of growth of those that survive, continue to pose some challenges to the Zimbabwean economy. Lack of experience and education by ownermanagers of SMEs, is one of the major challenges impeding their survival and growth. The study sought to establish the influence of experience and owner-managers education on SME performance specifically focusing on motor spares SMEs at Kelvin Light Industries in Bulawayo.  The objective of this study, therefore, was to analyse the relationship between experience and owner-managers education and the performance of SMEs. The descriptive research design was employed in this study. The researcher adopted stratified sampling technique supported by simple random technique to select participants from the population. Closed-ended questionnaires were used to collect data from owner-managers operating at Kelvin Light Industries. SPSS version 20 was used to analyse and present the data. The results of the study showed that there was a strong relationship between both education and experience of owner-managers on SME performance. The researcher recommends that owner-managers should continuously receive training on how to run and manage their SMEs. Owner-managers should employ human capital on merit which would give them a competitive advantage in business.  &nbsp

Keynote 1 — The Unfinished Black/African Struggles for Liberation

The ongoing Black Lives Matter, Rhodes Must Fall, Indigenous people, and Black women/feminist movements among many other subaltern formations are clear signifiers of the unfinished struggles for liberation, reverberating within Global Africa. The unfinished struggles include the abolitionist, anti/decolonial, Black womanist/feminist, Indigenous people, civil rights movements and initiatives aimed at delivering development for dispossessed and destituted peoples. At the centre of the unfinished struggles has been overlapping historical (a people denied of history, dismemberment & Black condition), existential (coloniality of being & antiblackness), material (dispossession & destitution), epistemic (cognitive empire & coloniality of knowledge), and identity (self-definition & selfdetermination) concerns and questions. These are constituent elements of initiatives aimed at reworlding the world from the vantage point of Global Africa. This keynote address revisits the fundamental unresolved concerns and issues of the Black/African struggles for liberation and reflects on the trajectories of liberation struggles as it simultaneously critiques notions of human rights, discourses of development, and limits of decolonization of the 20th century as they continue to fail to deliver Black lives which matter

Assessing the nutritional status of beef cattle: current practices and future prospects

Accurate determination of nutritional and health status of animals is invaluable in modern animalagriculture. Body weights and body condition scoring are the commonly used methods of assessingnutritional status of animals. This paper discusses drawbacks these methods have and highlights thebenefits for using blood metabolites in assessing nutritional status of beef cattle. Blood metabolitelevels indicate the extent of metabolism of energy, proteins and other nutrients in animals. Glucose,cholesterol, non-esterified fatty acids, protein, urea, creatinine, albumin, globulin, minerals, liverenzymes and haematology can be used objectively, reliably and routinely to assess the nutritionalstatus of cattle. In Southern Africa, the use of these metabolites is rare due to lack of equipment forblood analysis and the high cost of analyzing the blood parameters. However, use of high value Ngunicattle in Southern Africa requires the use of blood parameters to accurately assess their nutritionalstatus. Several factors, such as physiological status of an animal, breed, nutrition, season and ageaffect levels of blood metabolites. Combining body weights, body condition scores and bloodmetabolites increase accuracy of assessing the nutritional state and welfare of beef cattle

Effects of Maternal Suicidal Ideation on Child Cognitive Development: A Longitudinal Analysis.

This study aimed to assess the association between suicidal ideation among mothers living with HIV in Zimbabwe and the cognitive development of their children. Participants were mother-child dyads recruited from two rural districts in Zimbabwe. Data were collected at baseline and 12 months follow-up. Suicidal ideation was assessed using item-10 from the Edinburgh postnatal depression scale. Mixed-effects linear regression was used to assess the association of child cognitive outcomes at follow-up (using the Mullen scales of early learning) with maternal suicidal ideation. Mothers with suicidal ideation at baseline (n = 171) tended to be younger, unmarried, experienced moderate to severe hunger, had elevated parental stress and depression symptoms compared with non-suicidal mothers (n = 391). At follow-up, emerging maternal suicidal ideation was associated with poorer child cognitive outcomes (adjusted mean difference - 6.1; 95% CI - 10.3 to - 1.8; p = 0.03). Suicidal ideation affects child cognitive development and should be addressed, particularly in HIV positive mothers

The Effect of Black Tax on Employee Engagement: The Mediating Role of Idiocentrism-Allocentrism-A Case of Pharmaceutical Industry in Zimbabwe

Employees in the Pharmaceutical industry are coming late to work and knocking off early. These actions unveiled by the employees are likely to incur economic costs on the employer, occasioned by low employee productivity. Owners of production have expressed concern over the general low staff morale in the pharmaceutical sector. While most studies have concentrated on internal job-related factors as drivers of employee engagement, this study seeks to assess employee engagement as being influenced by black tax, an external factor. The main aim of the research was to establish the influence of black tax on employee engagement, being mediated by idiocentrism-allocentrism, particularly focussing on the pharmaceutical manufacturing and retailing industry in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe. The study employed the philosophical approach of pragmatism to guide the whole research. The researcher adopted a multi-stage sampling technique supported by the census technique to pick participants from the population. Closed and open-ended questionnaires were used to collect data from qualified pharmacists who are working in both the manufacturing and retailing industry in Bulawayo. Statistical Package for Social Sciences v23 (Process v3.5 by Andrew F. Hayes) was used to test the hypothesized relationship among variables. Qualitative data were analyzed using thematic analysis. The results suggest that black tax directly influence employee engagement in the presence of a mediator (idiocentrism-allocentrism). Furthermore, the results indicate that the indirect coefficient was partially significant, which means that idiocentrism-allocentrism has a partial influence on employee engagement. The researchers recommend that management should ensure that employees are motivated all the time. They should implement an open-door policy so that employees can share their issues that affect their engagement level at work

Productivity and efficiency analysis of maize under conservation agriculture in Zimbabwe

This study assesses the productivity and efficiency of maize production under conservation agriculture (CA). The analysis is based on a three year (2008–2010) panel sample of small holder farming households across 15 rural districts in Zimbabwe. We make a comparison of CA with alternative conventional farming methods. Our empirical strategy consists of two methods. First, using a fixed effects model, we estimate maize production functions and derive technical change estimates under CA and conventional farming. Second, we estimate a joint stochastic production frontier to compare productivity and technical efficiency between CA and conventional farming. Under CA, technical progress has been land-saving but seed and fertilizer-using, while it has been land-using but seed-saving in conventional farming. Lastly, the results of the efficiency analysis show that that farmers produce 39% more in CA compared with conventional farming, but technical efficiency levels are essentially equal in both technologies. Overall, the results show significant yield gains in CA practices and significant contributions to food production. CA is land-saving, and this is an important issue for land constrained farmers because they can still have viable food production on smaller area. However, high labor and fertilizer demands in CA present some problems in adoption amongst resource-constrained farmers