Understanding the role of social capital in enhancing community resilience to natural disasters: a case study of Muzarabani District, Zimbabwe

The central focus of the study was to seek an understanding of the role that Social Capital plays in enhancing the resilience and adaptive capacity of the community to floods and droughts in Muzarabani District of Northern Zimbabwe. The study was conducted in two of the wards in Muzarabani District namely Chadereka and Kapembere. In addition, the study sought to understand the coping and adaptation strategies employed by the most vulnerable groups such as the elderly, child heads, women and single heads of households. The specific objectives of the study were: to understand the effects of floods and droughts on residents’ livelihoods and food security, examine residents’ perceptions on droughts andfloods and to document community-based strategies utilised by women, child-headed families and the elderly to improve their livelihood and food security in the face of floods and droughts, explore different types of Social Capital that exist in the study area especially with regard to household resilience to disasters, comprehend the basis of residents’ resilience to floods and droughts and the extent to which vulnerable groups rely on Social Capital when coping with these disasters and to examine the repercussions of residents’ strategies on the community’s institutional structures. The study was informed by Social Capital theory and the social network analysis. Social Capital plays a pivotal role in enhancing the resilience of the community to floods and droughts. Different types of Social Capital that exist and help people to deal with floods and droughts include linking, bonding, and bridging and victim Social Capital. Inhabitants within and outside villages support each other. Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs) and the government are also working hand in hand with community members to reduce the negative impacts of floods and droughts. Volunteerism, generalised reciprocity and mutual understanding are also at the centre of interventions. The study employed both quantitative and qualitative approaches to achieve its objectives. Questionnaires, focus groups discussions, observations, transect walks, key informant interviews and some participatory methods were used to collect data. SPSS, content and thematic analysis were used to analyse data. The study found that floods and droughts negatively impact on human security, causing acute food shortages, intensifying poverty, spread of water related diseases, increasing divorce rates, children dropping out of school, reduced livestock and crop production, family disintegration, chaos in religion, exacerbating local unemployment as well as negatively affecting the wellbeing of community members. On a positive note, floods in Chadereka cause the deposition of alluvial soils that are good for crop production. However, in Kapembere, volunteerism is not very common; inhabitants are not yet trained about the concept. Community members have also formed cooperatives where they would give each other money or grain. In Chadereka, women have formed a mother-support-group to assist children with food in schools. Strategies being employed by the most vulnerable groups include casual labour, joining cooperatives, migration, taking children from school, hiring out cattle, selling of assets, riverine farming, growing drought-resistant crops, making use of indigenous knowledge systems, skipping meals and exploiting natural resources among others. Some women have resorted to prostitution to increase their resilience to floods and drought impacts such as poverty and acute food shortages. The elderly also hire out their cattle. They also rely on support from the government and NGOs. There are a number of challenges faced by residents in dealing with floods and droughts. Community social relationships, migration, casual labour and the sale of assets are the basis of the people’s resilience against the impacts of floods and droughts. The study identified the following issues which all stakeholders involved could take note of: the government should not always be suspicious of disaster-risk reduction strategies implemented by NGOs as this scares away some of them that are willing to offer untied or unconditional assistance; timely and impartial distribution of agricultural inputs to inhabitants would be extremely useful. Moreover, the government needs to provide resources that support local organisations (formed by the local people) to assist the most vulnerable people in communities. Community leaders, together with the government and NGOs, are encouraged to hold awareness campaign programmes that dispel tribal and ethnic stereotypes, to promote local Social Capital among members of the community. Further investigations in the following areas are critical: A more comprehensive assessment of the determinants of resilience to droughts and floods in Zimbabwe is necessary.A study on the challenges faced by the disabled people and women in polygamous marriages and how they are adapting to floods and droughts, needs to be conducted and a critical investigation on the Zimbabwean government’s strengths and weaknesses in enhancing the resilience of the community to floods and droughts is necessary among others

Effect of training traditional birth attendants on neonatal mortality (Lufwanyama Neonatal Survival Project): randomised controlled study

Objective To determine whether training traditional birth attendants to manage several common perinatal conditions could reduce neonatal mortality in the setting of a resource poor country with limited access to healthcare

Costs and Cost-Effectiveness of Training Traditional Birth Attendants to Reduce Neonatal Mortality in the Lufwanyama Neonatal Survival Study (LUNESP)

The Lufwanyama Neonatal Survival Project (“LUNESP”) was a cluster randomized, controlled trial that showed that training traditional birth attendants (TBAs) to perform interventions targeting birth asphyxia, hypothermia, and neonatal sepsis reduced all-cause neonatal mortality by 45%. This companion analysis was undertaken to analyze intervention costs and cost-effectiveness, and factors that might improve cost-effectiveness.We calculated LUNESP's financial and economic costs and the economic cost of implementation for a forecasted ten-year program (2011–2020). In each case, we calculated the incremental cost per death avoided and disability-adjusted life years (DALYs) averted in real 2011 US dollars. The forecasted 10-year program analysis included a base case as well as ‘conservative’ and ‘optimistic’ scenarios. Uncertainty was characterized using one-way sensitivity analyses and a multivariate probabilistic sensitivity analysis. The estimated financial and economic costs of LUNESP were $118,574 and$127,756, respectively, or $49,469 and$53,550 per year. Fixed costs accounted for nearly 90% of total costs. For the 10-year program, discounted total and annual program costs were $256,455 and$26,834 respectively; for the base case, optimistic, and conservative scenarios, the estimated cost per death avoided was $1,866,$591, and $3,024, and cost per DALY averted was$74, $24, and$120, respectively. Outcomes were robust to variations in local costs, but sensitive to variations in intervention effect size, number of births attended by TBAs, and the extent of foreign consultants' participation.Based on established guidelines, the strategy of using trained TBAs to reduce neonatal mortality was ‘highly cost effective’. We strongly recommend consideration of this approach for other remote rural populations with limited access to health care

Trust Funds as Localized Strategies for Sharing Mining Benefits in Ghana: Experiences with Transparency, Participation, and Community Development Practices

This thesis examines the role of trust funds in the extractive industry in Ghana. Since the 1990s, mining companies have increasingly adopted trust funds as approaches to enhance the flow of mineral wealth to host communities, especially in resource-rich developing countries. Drawing on a qualitative case study of the Obuasi Community Trust Fund and Newmont Ahafo Development Foundation (NADeF) in Ghana, the thesis examined the two trust funds with a focus on transparency and participation as key components of good governance, and their potential as corporate approaches to community development. Trust funds have often been established when there has been a pressing need for enhanced transparency and stakeholder participation in the management and use of resource revenues targeting host communities. In Ghana, for example, large scale gold mining has had diverse negative consequences and despite the large revenues generated over several decades, the mining communities are among the poorest in Ghana. Conclusions drawn by a number of researchers suggest that in Ghana, and elsewhere, lack of accountability, patronage, local power dynamics, corruption, and local elite capture in the responsible institutions have contributed to misappropriation of funds, which has left host communities with no significant benefits while at the same time they bear the environmental and social costs of large-scale mining. Against this background, the thesis addresses five key questions: (1) How is the practice of transparency embedded in the management of the trust funds, (2) How are participatory practices embedded in the management of the trust funds, (3) How are the trust funds’ transparency and participatory practices perceived by the various stakeholder groups, (4) How are the shared benefits perceived by the host communities, (5) What is the potential of using trust funds as a corporate-led strategy for community development and what are the main challenges of this approach? This thesis shows that the Obuasi Community Trust Fund and NADeF have mechanisms for disseminating information that should enhance transparency and ensuring the representation of all stakeholders. They both also have participatory governance platforms that seek to foster participation in decision making processes in their governance structures. However, a number of challenges and limitations remain for the trust funds to meet their objectives efficiently. Based on three articles, the thesis finds that the trust funds lack expedient ways to disseminate sufficient and relevant information to the beneficiaries, ensure suitable conditions for participation practices that would foster equal opportunities for all stakeholders to influence decision-making, and include community members in assessing their needs and wishes with regards to the trust fund funded projects and programs. The thesis contributes to the academic scholarship of natural resource revenue governance in general, and particularly to the literature on transparency and corporate-led community development in two key ways. First, it improves our understanding of transparency with respect to how representation and participation should be integrated into its operationalization in order to elevate transparency’s effectiveness. Second, the thesis enhances our knowledge of revenue distribution at local community level and the dynamics of localizing global corporate-led community development strategies in the context of resource-rich developing countries. In conclusion, the findings suggest that mining companies should place emphasis on improving the local institutional quality and capacity. This is important because the trust funds operate in a context in which the outcomes of benefit sharing, and the redistribution of mineral wealth, are characterized by numerous compromises and challenges

Impacts of climate change on crop production practices among small holder farmers in Guruve district, Zimbabwe

This research was carried out in Guruve district with the aim of documenting local people’s experiences and perceptions towards climate change impacts on crop production and their responses. Qualitative and quantitative methodologies were used in an attempt to analyze the impact of climate change on crop production practices and the strategies that people invent to ensure improved crop productivity. The Sustainable Livelihoods Framework, Structure-Agency and the Actor-oriented perspective (AOP) were the chief analytical tools employed to explore the phenomenon under study. Primary data was collected from small scale crop producers using semi-structured questionnaires with farmers, interviews with farmers and key informants as well as observations. Published and unpublished data were also consulted. The study revealed that climate change affects crop productivity due to insufficient rains and sometimes too much rain which results in various crop diseases and failure in Guruve. The farmers have however not been passive victims as they have adapted in several ways mainly through conservation farming thereby managing to sustain their livelihoods. The study concludes that the wealth of knowledge on coping and adaptation that farmers have should form the foundation for designing crop production innovation systems to deal with impacts of climate change on crop production practices

There is no one amongst us with them! Transparency and participation in local natural resource revenue management

To redistribute natural resource revenues back to local communities and to promote equitable benefit-sharing and inclusive decision-making, companies and governments increasingly use local benefit-sharing trust funds (LBSTFs) in resource-rich developing countries. Many LBSTFs manage substantial amounts of money, often in regions far from the central government and amongst politically and economically marginalized groups. Focusing on two LBSTFs in Ghana, this article examines the challenges for meaningful participation by local residents. The findings indicate that local residents lack access to relevant information, that the representation mechanisms in place restrict their opportunities to voice their opinions, and that they have no real influence on decision-making. In general, local residents feel a low sense of ownership towards the funds and the funded projects. The results suggest that to enhance meaningful participation, an LBSTF should be independent from the mining company and the intended beneficiaries themselves should be able to choose their representatives for the fund

Physico-mathematical Conceptual Difficulties among First Year Students Learning Introductory University Physics

Abstract This descriptive survey at Kwame Nkrumah University in Kabwe, Zambia, explored difficulties that first year students (n= 116) experienced and perceived with physico-mathematical concepts in an introductory physics course. The data on difficulties was collected using a physics achievement test and a focus group discussion session while a questionnaire was employed to assess perceptions of difficulties associated with the physico-mathematical topics and concepts in the test. The students' performance in the test was unsatisfactory where the scores ranged from 16% to 46.9% and averaged 33.0% in the five-question test. They had difficulties in creating and interpreting formulae and data and unsatisfactorily identified, combined and applied physico-mathematical concepts in the test items. The questionnaire survey, more than 60% of the students were likely to rate lecture topics on topics such as speed, work, and energy as not difficult. This number significantly decreased to around 35% when asked to rate the use, application or derivation of specific physico-mathematical concepts in the test. For example, 69.8% rated topic or concept 'acceleration' not difficult and 35.4% expressed having to formulate the equation a= (v f -v i )/t using information from a graph in the test as 'difficult'. The findings of this study suggest that students need close support to comprehend physico-mathematical relations and their interpretation deeply

There is no one amongst us with them!:transparency and participation in local natural resource revenue management

Abstract To redistribute natural resource revenues back to local communities and to promote equitable benefit-sharing and inclusive decision-making, companies and governments increasingly use local benefit-sharing trust funds (LBSTFs) in resource-rich developing countries. Many LBSTFs manage substantial amounts of money, often in regions far from the central government and amongst politically and economically marginalized groups. Focusing on two LBSTFs in Ghana, this article examines the challenges for meaningful participation by local residents. The findings indicate that local residents lack access to relevant information, that the representation mechanisms in place restrict their opportunities to voice their opinions, and that they have no real influence on decision-making. In general, local residents feel a low sense of ownership towards the funds and the funded projects. The results suggest that to enhance meaningful participation, an LBSTF should be independent from the mining company and the intended beneficiaries themselves should be able to choose their representatives for the fund