Effects of Ill Health and Weather Variability on Savings

This paper examines the effects of households’ shocks on saving behaviour. It investigates the possibility that households save ex ante to buffer against adverse weather and health shocks. The relatively high prevalence rate of HIV/AIDS in Kenya combined with rain fed agriculture implies great uncertainty for rural livelihoods. Adopting a methodology previously used on cross-sectional data (Paxson, 1992), the paper examines the level of households precautionary behaviour. This is done by estimating the marginal propensity to save out of transitory income over a period of 18 months. The results show that while households may exhibit some level of prudence, the marginal propensity to save out of transitory income is about a third of what the permanent income hypothesis postulates. Seasonality influences prudence behaviour, with stressful seasons likely to depress substantially the level of precautionary saving. The presence of HIV/AIDS illness lowers savings and raises per capita consumption. While reduced savings may seem to jeopardize future investments, the rise in consumption when the human asset is threatened, is in accordance with behaviour of forward-looking agents when future income is endogenous to current asset shock. The desire to smooth the health (asset) stock outweighs the desire (ability) to smooth future consumption and therefore savings decline. As a consequence, consumption for the HIV-afflicted households is relatively more volatile. While these findings are in agreement with a buffer stock model, they go against previous predictions that, AIDS medical costs will be met by reducing both consumption and savings in a balanced manner, and not necessarily be drawn disproportionately from own savings. A rise in consumption and a drop in savings may be a signal that the relationship is likely to be disproportionate.Household, Shocks, Savings, HIV/AIDS, Agricultural and Food Policy, Community/Rural/Urban Development, Demand and Price Analysis, Food Consumption/Nutrition/Food Safety, Food Security and Poverty, International Relations/Trade, Marketing, Productivity Analysis, Research and Development/Tech Change/Emerging Technologies,

The Effects of HIV/Aids on Agricultural Production and Poverty in Kenya

Although HIV/AIDS prevalence in Kenya has shown a downward trend in the recent years, it continues to impact negatively on agricultural production and food security in rural areas. The declining trends in crop production remain a challenge for development efforts. This study examines the extent to which AIDS has impacted on agricultural production, incomes and food security. Using a sample of 212 households, the study examines changes in welfare of households experiencing death and illness associated with HIV/AIDS condition. Poverty incidence and severity are observed to be higher among affected and non-affected households. The higher poverty levels among the affected cohort can partly be explained by lower crop and livestock production. In the absence of formal insurance mechanisms, medical costs take precedence over crop and livestock intensification; any credit that may be available goes to cater for medicare; the few assets available are disposed for purposes of meeting health needs. There is less land under crops and more fallow among the affected households. The effects are worse for farm households in the marginal areas an indication that there may be need for special programmes for arid and semiarid areas. Given that poverty seems to reinforce the spread of the HIV/AIDS and that once AIDS strikes it becomes a driver of poverty, the study adds further support to views that intervention strategies need to deal with poverty and HIV/AIDS problems concurrently.Food Security and Poverty, Health Economics and Policy,

Does the environment in which ICT-based market information services (MIS) projects operate affect their performance? Experiences from Kenya

The need to provide agricultural information to farmers has led to emergence of numerous ICTbased MIS projects in developing country. These projects aim at promoting commercialization of smallholder agriculture and subsequently their welfare. This study examines the how the environment in which such ICT-based MIS affect their performance. It specifically uses the DrumNet project, an ICT-based MIS, to assess how the socio-economic, physical, political and physical environment in the project areas affected its performance. The study finds that those transaction-related problems, especially strategic default, deriving from these environmental factors greatly undermined the performance of DrumNet forcing it to relocate severally. It discusses policy implications of these findings.ICT-based MIS projects, the DrumNet model, operational environment, performance, Kenya, Research Methods/ Statistical Methods,

Seasonality, precautionary savings and health uncertainty: Evidence from farm households in central Kenya

The high prevalence of risks in low income economies makes managing uncertainty critical for productivity and survival. This paper analyzes seasonal changes in farm households’ per capita consumption and saving in response to weather and health shocks. Using a sample of 196 households in central Kenya, it tests the notion that people save most of their transitory income, and examines their precautionary saving motives. The results show that the propensity to save out of transitory income is about a fifth of what the permanent income hypothesis postulates. The propensity to save differs by wealth, with the poor exhibiting stronger precautionary motives towards rainfall variability. But the wealth effect is weak, suggesting that the asset base is vulnerable even for the better-off. However, precautionary savings tend to increase with wealth among HIV/AIDS affected households. Since illness is associated with higher consumption, and therefore less investment, we find more volatile consumption for HIV/AIDS affected households

Successful paediatric HIV treatment in rural primary care in Africa

<p>Objective: Clinical outcomes of HIV-infected children on antiretroviral treatment (ART) in a decentralised, nurse/counsellor-led programme.</p> <p>Design: Clinical cohort.</p> <p>Setting: KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa.</p> <p>Patients: HIV-infected children aged <= 15 years on ART, June 2004-2008.</p> <p>Main outcome measures: Survival according to baseline characteristics including age, WHO clinical stage, haemoglobin and CD4%, was assessed in Kaplan-Meier analyses. Hazard ratios for mortality were estimated using Cox proportional hazards regression and changes in laboratory parameters and weight-for-age z scores after 6-12 months' treatment were calculated.</p> <p>Results: 477 HIV-infected children began ART at a median age of 74 months (range 4-180), median CD4 count (CD4%) of 433 cells/mm(3) (17%) and median HIV viral load of log 4.2 copies/ml; 105 (22%) were on treatment for tuberculosis and 317 (76.6%) were WHO stage 3/4. There were significant increases after ART initiation in CD4% (17% vs 22%; p<0.001), haemoglobin (9.9 vs 11.7 g/l; p <= 0.001) and albumin (30 vs 36 g/l; p <= 0.001). 32 (6.7%) children died over 732 child-years of follow-up (43.7 deaths/1000 child-years; 95% CI 32.7 to 58.2), 17 (53.1%) within 90 days of treatment initiation; median age of death was 84 (IQR 10-181) months. Children with baseline haemoglobin <= 8 g/l were more likely to die (adjusted HR 4.5; 95% CI 1.6 to 12.3), as were those aged <18 months compared with >60 months (adjusted HR 3.2; 95% CI 1.2 to 9.1).</p> <p>Conclusions Good clinical outcomes in HIV-infected children on ART are possible in a rural, decentralised service. Few young children are on ART, highlighting the urgent need to identify HIV-exposed infants.</p&gt

Assessing the livelihood impacts of a livestock disease outbreak: An alternative approach

Because of the substantive role played by livestock in the income and asset portfolios of the poor, livestock diseases can be an important threat to livelihoods. Yet for a variety of reasons, there are few applicable methods and consequently scant literature to assess the impacts of livestock diseases on livelihood outcomes. Existing literature comprises small-area studies and computable models with wider geographic focus, both of which have limitations in this specific context. We propose an alternative approach for estimating the impacts of livestock diseases on livelihoods. This proposed approach is an adaptation of a quasi-experimental impact evaluation method, namely propensity score matching, which uses features available in large-scale datasets with wide geographic coverage to create counterfactual scenarios that could mimic outcomes of a disease outbreak. By its construction the method is well suited for ex ante impact assessment. As an illustration we apply the method to the hypothetical case of an avian flu outbreak in Kenya.Impact assessment, Livelihoods, livestock disease, Propensity score matching,

EFFECTS OF PARENTAL INVOLVEMENT IN THEIR CHILDREN’S ACADEMIC ACHIEVEMENT IN PUBLIC SECONDARY SCHOOLS IN KIENI-WEST DISTRICT, NYERI COUNTY- KENYA

Parental involvement in children’s education from an early age has a significant effect on educational achievement and continues to do so in adolescence and adulthood (Siraj-Blatchford & Taggart, 2004). This study was set to investigate the effects of parents’ involvement in their children’s academic achievement in twenty one public secondary schools in Kieni West District in Nyeri County-Kenya. The objectives of the study were to: (i) Investigate the nature of parents’ involvement in their children’s academic achievement; (ii) Establish to what extent factors influencing parental involvement contribute to their children’s academic achievement; (iii)Investigate teachers’ views about parents’ involvement in the learners’ academic achievement; (iv) Explore the learners’ views about parents’ involvement in their academic achievement. The literature reviewed indicates that parents are concerned with the education of their children and that parents and teachers talk together about problems concerning students. This study used a descriptive survey design because it was a onetime study seeking the opinion of parents, teachers and students. Mugenda and Mugenda, (2003) support the use of descriptive survey because it gives the researcher a chance to create rapport with the respondents as the researcher gets to the bottom of the study. Twelve public secondary schools were randomly selected. The population of the study was five thousand three hundred and eighty one students. In total, 130 form three students, 76 teachers and 113 parents participated in this study. The research study employed both qualitative and quantitative techniques in collecting and analyzing data. The study purposively sampled form three students. The study used two sets of instruments namely: questionnaire for teachers and students and a structured interview schedule for parents. These instruments were piloted for reliability and validity. Once piloted, the instruments were administered and data collected was analysed using the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS).The findings of the study were presented using statistical and graphical techniques. Results based on research area indicated that 45% of the teachers agreed that parents are positive about the school in which their children are. Students strongly agreed (89%) that their parents attend all school programmed meetings while70.8% of their parents check homework. The study showed that 76% of the students strongly agreed that their parents had high hopes in them. The findings of the study indicated that 84.7% of the parents interviewed participated in school events and activities while 71.6% monitored homework. Parents’ responses indicated that 92% believed that their involvement is beneficial to the teachers in aiding in their children’s education progress. In addition 98.2% felt that organized parental involvement programmes can improve their relationship with their children. The findings further indicated that lack of school fees, poor education background of the parents, and lack of adequate time to assist their children affected their level of involvement. Major recommendations included among others identifying the type of parental involvement in place, parent’s awareness programmes through seminars and workshops and holding teacher parents conferences. Areas of further research were identified

Institutional norms in east African conference interpreting contexts

A research report submitted to the Faculty of Humanities, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in Translation, (interpreting option) Johannesburg, 2016In any specialized field,the practioners of an art or science tend to develop norms that govern their practice.Such norms are developed in certain contexts and thereafter professionals operating in different spaces try to adapt them in their practice. Given the differences in socioeconomic and cultural contexts, in different geographical spaces it may be difficult to take norms developed in a particular context in their original form and superpose their use in another context. Institutional conference interpreting norms provide one such example. Institutional norms in East African Institutions tend to influence the way interpreting is done in East African institutions and these norms seem very different from “established/ international” norms.The overall aim of this research is to study the geopolitics of interpreting by examining the differences in interpreting norms in different geopolitical spaces and to consider whether (East) Africa is a special geopolitical space in this context and if so,what the particularities are.This study particularly uses the perceptions of practising interpreters in order to establish whether the current work environment proposed in these institutions requires any improvement. The study reveals that (East)Africa is a different geopolitical space with its own particularities and hence the answer to the questions as to whether AIIC norms and standards are inclusive and whether they take into account the needs and interests of all interpreters in the world today, is negative. At least with regards to (East) Africa, AIIC still has a lot to do for its impact to be felt and also in terms of taking into account the needs and interests of all interpreters.MT201

The importance of HIV specialist services for African women living with HIV in Nottingham: results of a qualitative study

This article reports the results of a qualitative study of the experiences of African women living with HIV in Nottingham, UK. Globally, sub-Saharan Africa is the region most severely affected by the HIV pandemic [1]. This pattern is also reflected in the UK where African migrants make up 27% of those diagnosed with HIV despite the fact that they constitute less than 1% of the population [2-4]. Healthcare staff play a central role in meeting the prevention and care needs of people living with HIV/AIDS [5]. In contexts of increasing migration, health workers are called upon to recognise the diverse cultural, social, economic and political histories of their patients, and to understand how these interface with their current living situation, including their HIV-related health and treatment needs [6]. Relatively little research has been conducted to investigate the health experiences of migrant populations living with HIV in the UK, or on their patterns of access to, and utilisation of, HIV treatment and care [7]. Findings from the available, but limited, studies indicate that African migrants tend to present later than other population groups for HIV testing and treatment [8]. This is attributed to a number of obstacles to seeking or accessing care, including individual/community characteristics (such as AIDS-associated stigma, lack of perceived risk and denial), and factors associated with service and welfare provision in the host country--such as perceived discrimination, language and cultural differences, financial constraints and uncertain legal/immigration status [8-10]