Contingent Valuation in Community-Based Project Planning: The Case of Lake Bamendjim Fishery Restocking in Cameroon

The study examined the usefulness and relevance of the contingent valuation method (CVM) in community-based (CB) project planning and implementation. To elicit willingness to pay (WTP) values for the restocking of Lake Bamendjim with Tilapia nilotica and Heterotis niloticus fish species, the study used pre-tested questionnaires interviewer-administered to 1,000 randomly selected households in the Bambalang Region of Cameroon.The datawere elicitedwith the conventional referendumdesign and analysed using a referendum model. Empirical findings indicated that about 85% of the sampled households were willing to pay about CFAF1,054 (US$2.1) for the restocking project. This amount was found to be significantly related to the starting price used in the referendum design, household income, the gender of the respondent, the age of the respondent, household poverty status, and previous participation of a household in a community development project.The findings prompted the following recommendations. Firstly, in order to reduce community burden due to cash constraints, it is advisable for the mean estimate obtained for the scheme to be split into four instalments over a year. Secondly, since the success of the scheme largely depends on the governing roles of the scheme, it is further advisable for the community to allowthemanagement of the scheme to be handled by the elderly community members. Finally, it will be important during the financing of the scheme, to levy wealthier household heads an amount sufficient to subsidize poorer household heads who cannot afford to pay the threshold price.

Estimating the willingness to pay for community healthcare insurance in rural Nigeria

Health care financing in Nigeria is dominated by private out-of-pocket payment that is not affordable to the poor. This has greatly reduced access to quality health care for the predominantly rural poor. Insurance schemes as options for increasing access to health care services have not received considerable attention in Nigeria. In this regard, a community health prepayment scheme is proposed, and the Contingent Valuation Method is used to investigate the willingness of rural households to pay for this scheme. Contributing through agricultural commodities produced statistically higher estimates than through direct cash. Also, by incorporating uncertainty in responses using the Random Valuation Model, higher contribution amounts were obtained. This provides an option for its use in healthcare contingent valuation studies where respondents are uncertain about their true responses. The groups that are willing to pay lesser amounts into the scheme as compared with their counterparts are women, the less educated, and the less wealthy households.Health care financing, Prepayment scheme, contingent valuation, willingness to pay, dichotomous choice, uncertainy, random valuation, stochastic payment card

Total Factor Productivity Dynamics in Sub-Saharan Africa: Malmquist Index Approach

A panel dataset of 30 countries in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) is used to analyze the total factor productivity (TFP) growth pedigree over the period 1999-2011. We initially compute the output-oriented Malmquist productivity indexes and their decomposition using data envelopment analysis approach. The curiosity is to ascertain whether Malmquist indexes are catching-up or lagging behind. The results indicate that the marginal source of TFP growth is technical progress and that the regional disparities in TFP growth deteriorated over time. Fourteen countries representing 46.7% of the number under study have positive trend in both pure technical efficiency and scale efficiency each (53.3% lagging behind negatively). Also the efficiency change component (catch-up effect) result shown that only six countries representing 20% of the number under study have positive trend with 80% lagging behind negatively in the sub-region. The second-stage regression results using tobit model show that the eleven (11) identified GCI pillars globally advocated by the World Economic Forum Report 2011/2012 be the policy priorities for improving efficiency in particular and TFP in general for the SSA to optimally harvest the opportunities of the 21st century. Key words: Total factor productivity; SSA; Malmquist productivity indexes and Tobit Mode

Climate Change and Plantation Agriculture: A Ricardian Analysis of Farmlands in Nigeria

This study used the Ricardian approach that captures farmer adaptations to varying environmental factors to analyze the impact of climate change (CC) on plantation agriculture in Nigeria. By collecting data from 280 farm households in seven different agro-ecological zones of Nigeria (Cross River, Abia, Edo, Ondo, Ekiti, Oyo and Ogun States), the quantity of crops produced over time and land value proxied by net revenue per hectares (NR), were regressed on climate, household and soil variables. The results suggest that these variables have a significant impact on the net crop revenue per hectare of farmlands under Nigerian conditions. Specifically, seasonal marginal impact analysis indicates that increasing temperature during summer and winter would significantly reduce crop net revenue per hectare whereas marginally increasing precipitation during spring would significantly increase net crop revenue per hectare. Furthermore, the net crop revenue impact of predicted climate scenarios from three models (CGM2, HaDCM3 and PCM) for the years 2020, 2060 and 2100 suggest drastic decline in future net revenue per hectare for plantation crops in Nigeria. However, these marginal impacts are not uniformly distributed across the different agro-ecological zones in Nigeria

Evaluating the Technical Efficiency of Hospitals in Southeastern Nigeria

Efficient utilization of health resources is a critical requirement for attaining health system goals particularly in low income countries. Inefficiency in health resource utilization may imply death for the next child in the queue in a resource constrained environment. This study analyzes the technical and scale efficiencies in hospitals in low income countries using Nigeria as a case study. The study uses primary data sample of 200 hospitals to estimate technical and scale efficiencies using the Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA). The results clearly indicate large variation in the efficiency of hospitals with average efficiency score of about 59% under the constant returns to scale assumption and about 72% under variable returns to scale. This raises some concerns about the level of technical and scale efficiencies in utilization of scarce health resources in the hospital sector particularly in low income countries

Terrorism and investment in Africa: Exploring the role of military expenditure

The aim of this study is to investigate the inuflence of military expenditure on the relationship between terrorism and investment in twenty-four African countries for the period 2001 to 2018. The study utilizes xfied eefcts regression with Driscoll and Kraay standard error and cushions the eefct of simultaneity and reverse causality us ing the lags of the regressors as instruments. eTh empirical results reveal the negative eefct of terrorism on both domestic investment and foreign direct investment (FDI). The study further reveals a negative net eefct of military expenditure on the relation ship between terrorism and investment. Furthermore, it was discovered that a threshold of 2% to 5% of military expenditure in GDP is required for military expenditure to osfet the negative eefct of terrorism on FDI. eTh study recommends that counterterrorism initiatives be tailored more towards inclusive growth policies, increasing access to education, and improving the quality of governance

SPATIAL DISTRIBUTION OF POVERTY IN MULTIPLE DIMENSIONS IN DELTA STATE OF NIGERIA

This paper investigates the spatial factors that influence distribution of poverty in multiple dimensions in Delta State. The work was informed by the spatial nature of the State in terms of geographical characteristics and how these influence incidence of poverty which has not been investigated in multidimensional framework. The paper employs spatial regression analysis in order to estimate the effects of spatial factors on prevalence of poverty in Delta State. The study employs the Harmonised Nigeria Living Standards Survey 2008/2009 (HNLSS) published in 2010 by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) and the Generalized Household Survey (2013).  The results show that some spatial variables such as households distance to the nearest major road, annual precipitation, precipitation of the wettest month significantly determine spatial distribution of poverty in Delta State.  One key policy message from the findings of this research work is that spatial factors need to be considered during distribution and allocation of resources to eradicate or alleviate poverty in the state

Scaling up maternal and child healthcare delivery among mission hospitals in Southeast Nigeria: An Empirical application of data envelopment analysis for setting benchmarks and targets

The health system in many parts of Nigeria has been dysfunctional in several domains including financing, human resources, infrastructure, health management information system and hospital services. In an attempt to scale up Maternal and Child Health (MCH) services and ensure efficiency, Ebonyi State Government in Southeast Nigeria provided funding to mission hospitals across the State as a grant. This study used nonparametric method to assess the effect of this public financing on the efficiency of the mission hospitals. Operational cost and number of hospital beds were used as the input variables, while antenatal registrations, number of immunization doses and hospital deliveries were the output variables. The hospitals were disaggregated into 15 hospital-years. The mean overall technical efficiency of the mission hospitals was 84.05 22.45%. The mean pure technical efficiency was 95.56±6.9% and the scale efficiency was 88.05±22.20%. About 46.67% of all the hospital-years were technically and scale efficient. Although, 55.33% were generally inefficient, only 33.33% of hospital-years exhibited pure technical inefficiency. Low immunization coverage was the major cause of inefficiency. The study showed increased maternal health service output as result of public funding or intervention; however, the mission hospitals could have saved 16% of input resources if they had performed efficiently. It also shows that data envelopment analysis can be used in setting targets/benchmarks for relatively inefficient health facilities, and in monitoring impact of interventions on efficiency of hospitals over-time.Dans de nombreuses régions du Nigéria, le système de santé est dysfonctionnel dans plusieurs domaines, notamment le financement, les ressources humaines, les infrastructures, le système d‘information sur la gestion de la santé et les services hospitaliers. Dans le but de renforcer les services de santé maternelle et infantile et d'assurer l'efficacité, le gouvernement de l'État d'Ebonyi, dans le sud-est du Nigéria, a octroyé une subvention aux hôpitaux des missions de l'État. Cette étude a utilisé une méthode non paramétrique pour évaluer l‘effet de ce financement public sur l‘efficacité des hôpitaux de mission. Le coût opérationnel et le nombre de lits d'hôpitaux ont été utilisés comme variables d'entrée, tandis que les variables de sortie étaient les enregistrements prénatals, le nombre de doses d'immunisation et les accouchements à l'hôpital. Les hôpitaux ont été ventilés en 15 années d‘hospitalisation. L‘efficacité technique moyenne globale des hôpitaux de mission était de 84,05 ± 22,45%. Le rendement technique pur moyen était de 95,56 ± 6,9% et le rendement d'échelle de 88,05 ± 22,20%. Environ 46,67% de toutes les années d‘hospitalisation ont été efficients sur le plan technique et sur l‘échelle. Bien que 55,33% aient été généralement inefficaces, seulement 33,33% des années d‘hospitalisation ont montré une inefficacité technique pure. La faible couverture vaccinale était la principale cause d'inefficacité. L'étude a révélé une augmentation de la production de services de santé maternelle résultant d'un financement ou d'une intervention publique; toutefois, les hôpitaux de mission auraient pu économiser 16% des ressources en intrants s‘ils avaient fonctionné efficacement. Il montre également que l‘analyse de l‘enveloppement des données peut être utilisée pour fixer des objectifs/critères pour des établissements de santé relativement inefficaces et pour surveiller l‘impact des interventions sur l‘efficacité des hôpitaux à terme.Keywords: Mission hospitals, Data envelopment analysis, Efficiency, Setting targets, Southeast NigeriaAfr J Reprod Health 2019; 23[3]: 57-6

Does investment in education and health impact youth employment outcomes? Evidence from Sub-Saharan Africa

AbstractLabour engagement, underutilization and unemployment has dominated discourse in development literature in developing economies. It tangentially dictates the direction of migration, gross domestic output and in some cases, youth restiveness. This study investigated the unique relationship between investment in human capital proxied by spending in education and health and its effects on youth employment outcomes in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). Annual data spanning 1995–2017 were obtained from 40 SSA countries comprising 920 macro panel observations. The bootstrap-based bias correction for the panel fixed effects estimation technique was employed to improve on the analytical corrections. Findings suggest that human capital investment comprising private and government health expenditures, primary, secondary and tertiary education expenditures were found to have varying significant impact on youth employment in SSA. The policy implication is that to reverse the perennial problem of youth unemployment in SSA would require serial consistent disproportionate investment more in education than in health