The inequality of maternal health in urban sub-Saharan Africa

Numerous studies document the urban poor disadvantage in child health conditions in African cities. This study uses DHS data from 23 countries in sub-Saharan Africa to examine whether the urban poor experience comparable disadvantages in maternal health. The results show that although the urban poor on average receive better antenatal and delivery care than rural residents, they consistently have poorer maternal health indicators than the urban non-poor. Further analyses based on a multilevel approach reveal significant variations in urban maternal health inequalities across countries of sub-Saharan Africa. The urban poor disadvantage is more pronounced in countries with better average maternal health indicators, where the urban poor tend to be even worse off than rural residents

A Reflective Evaluation of Group Assessment

There is a general agreement in the literature that groupwork helps to develop important interpersonal and personal skills (Race, 2001; Visram & Joy, 2003; Elliot & Higgins, 2005; Kench et al, 2008). However, one of the problems with groupwork for both students and lecturers is how the work should be assessed (Parsons & Kassabova, 2002). The possibility of having ‘free-riders’ and the difficulty of fairly awarding marks to reflect the level of students’ contribution to a group output are some of the key problem areas in groupwork assessment (Race, 2001). Peer assessment is seen as one of the methods to deal with these problems. It can generally involve students assessing each other’s level of contribution to the group’s output (Visram & Joy, 2003). This paper provides our reflection on the use of peer assessment on a student group project

Zambian Cotton in a Regional Context: Performance under Liberalization and Future Challenges

This paper is directed toward policy makers and private stakeholders in Zambia’s cotton sector. Its purpose is: 1) to assess key elements of the performance of Zambia’s cotton sector relative to other selected African countries; 2) to develop preliminary insights into the driving forces behind Zambia’s performance and also the threats to improved future performance; and 3) to identify key issues within the sector that merit continued applied research and dialogue with stakeholders.food security, food policy, Zambia, cotton, Crop Production/Industries, Q18,

Sustainability awareness and practices in the Zambian construction industry

The construction industry makes a significant contribution to the global green-house gas emission. It is, therefore, critical that construction industry professionals should be aware of and practise sustainable construction. However, there is a paucity of studies on the awareness of sustainability and their practices in developing countries, with some results seemingly contradicting. This article explored the awareness and practices of sustainability in the Zambian construction industry. Data was collected from construction industry professionals through a questionnaire survey and a total of 112 responses were received. The relative importance index (RII) and a series of linear regression analyses were used to analyse the data. The participants’ perception of sustainability was primarily enviro-centric as opposed to the economic or social context. However, social and economic sustainability practices ranked highest, while environmental sustainability practices ranked in the bottom five of the 16 practices. While the participants perceived the environmental context as more critical in their understanding of sustainability, their practice reflected a focus on the social and economic sustainability context. The findings imply that merely increasing the level of knowledge and awareness of environmental sustainability may not lead to gross improvements in environmental sustainability practices. Therefore, studies that recommended increasing knowledge and awareness, in order to increase the implementation of environmentally sustainable construction, may have neglected the effect of the other barriers to sustainable construction which may be more critical. Studies with multivariate analyses such as structural equation modelling are needed to establish the contributory effect of the various barriers to environmental sustainability practices and so establish the extent to which knowledge and awareness alone, and other factors, can improve environmental sustainability practices.&nbsp

Recent growth in African cassava

According to the authors, "Cassava serves as a staple food for 200 million Africans, second only to maize in its calorie contribution. In response to a series of devastating attacks by cassava diseases and pests over the past several decades, the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) and several national agricultural research services have launched successful cassava research programs... " This brief describes some of the programs, their impact and the drivers of change. It concludes with an analyis of the key lessons learned for building future successes. From Brief

Gaining an understanding of Umnyama from the Zionist churches: a case study of Zimbabwean migrants in Johannesburg, South Africa

M.A., Faculty of Humanities, University of the Witwatersrand, 2011When migrants move, they move with their religious beliefs and practices. What happens to those religious beliefs and practices in the country of migration? Is there change or continuity in religious affiliation? While much of the literature on Zimbabweans is largely focused on their reasons for migration, the policies, laws and difficulties they encounter in South Africa; this study examines how Zimbabwean migrants use religion in the host country. This study investigates if and how migration affects Zimbabwean migrants’ religious beliefs and practices. This study explores how Zionist churches respond to the existential needs of migrants and their worldviews; specifically looking at the responses offered to metaphysical challenges like umnyama (misfortune) of Zimbabwean migrants in Johannesburg

Smallholder Household Maize Production and Marketing Behavior in Zambia: Implications for Policy

CSO/MACO nationally-representative rural surveys provide important insights on smallholder crop marketing behavior from the 2001 and 2004 harvests. Only about 25 percent of smallholder farmers in Zambia sold maize in both seasons, and about 15-20 percent of smallholders sold fresh horticulture as well as groundnuts, with 11-13 percent selling cassava. From 6-10 percent of farmers produced and sold cotton. Overall, Zambian smallholder agriculture has become more diversified over the past decade, with maize, cassava, groundnuts, cotton, horticultural crops, and animal products all becoming important sources of cash revenue as well as production for home consumption (except, of course, cotton). Importantly in both seasons studied, horticulture crop sales are roughly equivalent to the value of maize sales nationwide There is substantial variation in farm income and off-farm income across small farm households, owing to disparities in landholding size, other productive assets, and variables affecting access to markets. Two percent of all smallholder farms nationwide accounted for over 40% of all the maize sold by smallholder households in Zambia in 2000/01 and 2003/04. This same two percent of smallholder households also accounted for about 17% and 20% of the total value of all crop sales of the smallholder sector. Poverty reduction policy options are severely constrained by these production and marketing patterns especially if operating though programs that raise market prices for sellers and buyers.food security, food policy, Zambia, maize, production, marketing, Crop Production/Industries, Q20,

Review of the performance of Zambia's national system of innovation for the period 2001 to 2010

It is widely agreed globally that innovation, knowledge and learning is a vital part of economic development. It creates and promotes competitiveness at the firm level, national and regional levels. Furthermore, innovation processes are dependent on relationships and the interaction of various actors thus, it is necessary for policy makers to strengthen the innovative environment so that collaboration is encouraged and facilitated. However, in order to develop relevant policies, the innovation system in question needs to be reviewed; in this case, Zambia's national system of innovation (NSI). Science, technology and innovation (STI) in Zambia is described as relatively underdeveloped. The country gained independence in 1964 and only after 32 years of independence (1996) did it draft its first STI policy document. Sound economic policy accompanied by efficient institutions plays a key role in shaping a country's economic development. Therefore, it is believed that a timely national STI policy and mobilization of supporting institutions in Zambia could have helped the country exploit its abundant natural resources, to drive sustainable economic development. This study, which is the first of its kind, provides a review of the performance of Zambia's NSI during the period 2001 to 2010. The study starts by examining comprehensive literature on STI and NSI, particularly in relation to developing countries such as Zambia. Thereafter, key concepts from the literature are applied to the Zambian case to formulate a framework for analyzing the country's NSI. The framework involved organizing the NSI into three hierarchal levels namely; micro, meso and macro. Under these levels, system functions were selected namely; knowledge development at the micro level, business, industrial and entrepreneur activities at the meso level and resource mobilization at the macro level. Thereafter, indicators were selected to measure the performance of each system function. Subsequently, trend analysis was conducted on the set of indicators. The results of the analysis suggest that during the period 2001 to 2010, there has been significant increase in innovation input (government funding of R&D activities) and a significant growth in output (scientific research publications) at the micro level. The rise in the ratio of input to output suggests a level of efficiency in knowledge development, because the output indicator was increasing more rapidly than the increases in the input indicator. On the contrary results at the meso level, particularly with regards to exports of goods and services, revealed comparative advantage of merchandise exports, manufactured exports and high-technology exports, suggest that knowledge and innovation is not being exploited efficiently and effectively for commercial purposes. These results imply that there are some significant constraints and factors in scarce supply. In addition, the policy environment may not be favourable. Finally despite significant growth in government funding at the macro level, the results of this study show that it is still limited. The National Science and Technology Policy initially proposed that government allocates 3% of GDP annually as funding for science, technology and innovation activities. However, this has not been the case. The study indicates that an average of only 0.04% was annually allocated during the period under analysis