Aims: We examined whether first-hand experience of ill-health and economic hardship during the CO... more Aims: We examined whether first-hand experience of ill-health and economic hardship during the COVID-19 pandemic might strengthen public support for vaccination, and for the reallocation of health sector funding towards health emergency preparedness in South Africa - a country in which high rates of vaccine hesitancy go hand in hand with widespread discontent regarding public service delivery. Methods: Using data from 1,600 South African respondents who were surveyed during 2021 for the Eighth Round of Afrobarometer (AB-R8), discrete measures of household- and individual-level sociodemographic and economic factors were generated to permit confounder-adjusted analyses of probabilistic causal relationships between self-reported measures of: personal/household COVID-19 illness and job/income/business loss as a result of COVID-19; and the likelihood that respondents would accept a (government-approved) COVID-19 vaccine, or support the reallocation of health sector funding towards health...
In South Africa, demand for housing close to viable/sustained sources of employment has far outst... more In South Africa, demand for housing close to viable/sustained sources of employment has far outstripped supply; and the size of the population living in temporary structures/shacks (and in poorly serviced informal settlements) has continued to increase. While such dwellings and settlements pose a number of established risks to the health of their residents, the present study aimed to explore whether they might also undermine the potential impact of regulations intended to safeguard public health, such as the stringent lockdown restrictions imposed to curb the spread of COVID-19 in 2020 and 2021. Using a representative sample of 1381 South African households surveyed in May–June 2021, the present study found that respondents in temporary structures/shacks were more likely to report non-compliance (or difficulty in complying) with lockdown restrictions when compared to those living in traditional/formal houses/ flats/rooms/hostels (OR: 1.61; 95% CI: 1.06, 2.45). However, this finding ...
Abstract: Extracted from text... Anthropology and epidemiology: a case study of health andenviron... more Abstract: Extracted from text... Anthropology and epidemiology: a case study of health andenvironment in Alexandra, Johannesburg1Thea de Weta Angela Matheeband Brendon Barnesb1 INTRODUCTIONThe critical link between health and development is often neglected orignored by researchers and practitioners working in the field of devel-opment. This is a lost opportunity, because good health is not only aresource for social, economic and personal development, but also thebasis for living a quality life. Agenda 21 ...
Birth to Ten now Birth to Twenty (BT20), is the largest and longest running longitudinal birth co... more Birth to Ten now Birth to Twenty (BT20), is the largest and longest running longitudinal birth cohort study in Africa. In this paper, the methods, magnitude and significance of recruitment, follow-up and attrition are described. Although more than 5000 births were notified in the area in the 7-week enrolment period in early 1990, only 3275 children were established to have been born to women who were residents in the Greater Johannesburg Metropolitan area for at least the first 6 months of the child's life. Seventy per cent of these children and their families have been followed up for more than 12 years, indicating an average attrition rate of less than 3% per annum, with most attrition occurring in the first 2 years of the study. The most common reason for attrition was movement out of the study area, although detailed follow-up, and the extent of contact reestablished at later points, indicate very high levels of circular migration among women and young children between urban and rural areas, as well as very high levels of residential mobility within urban areas. There has been no differential loss of vulnerable families and children. African women living in Soweto are the most consistent participants in the study. A bias, by population group membership and residential area, was introduced in the recruitment phases of the project by the difficulty of enrolling the small proportion of people in the metropolis, largely Whites, who used private delivery services in 1989-90.
The systematic application of rigorous evidence to inform the design and implementation of develo... more The systematic application of rigorous evidence to inform the design and implementation of development policies and programmes has the potential to positively influence development outcomes. To achieve such evidence-informed development, a process of generating, transmitting, and using high-quality, policy-relevant evidence of development effectiveness is required. This article focuses on the final step in this casual chainthe use of evidence by national development policymakers. It proposes a people-and demandfocused approach to capacity building for the use of research evidence by policymakers. This support in building personal as well as team capacity and demand is assumed to encourage a growing institutionalisation of evidence use. The article integrates these capacity-building efforts into the wider theory of change for evidence-informed development, highlighting the importance of effective mechanisms to encourage research use in order to achieve the objective of improving lives through research evidence.
This forum addresses conceptual, methodological, and professional issues that arise in the UX fie... more This forum addresses conceptual, methodological, and professional issues that arise in the UX field's continuing effort to contribute robust information about users to product planning and design. --- David Siegel and Susan Dray, Editors
Big international development donors such as the UK’s Department for International Development an... more Big international development donors such as the UK’s Department for International Development and USAID have recently started using systematic review as a methodology to assess the effectiveness of various development interventions to help them decide what is the ‘best’ intervention to spend money on. Such an approach to evidence-based decision-making has long been practiced in the health sector in the US, UK, and elsewhere but it is relatively new in the development field. In this article we use the case of a systematic review of the impact of micro-finance on the poor in sub-Saharan African to indicate how systematic review as a methodology can be used to assess the impact of specific development interventions.
Background Urban Agriculture is considered to contribute to improved food security among the inco... more Background Urban Agriculture is considered to contribute to improved food security among the income poor in urban contexts across developing countries. Much literature exists on the topic assuming a positive relationship. The aim of this review was to collect and analyse available evidence on the impact of urban agriculture in low and middle-income countries. Methods We employed systematic review methods to identify all relevant and reliable research on UA’s impact on food security and nutrition. Only impact evaluations that set out to measure the effectiveness of UA interventions on food security, as compared to the effects of not engaging in UA, qualified for inclusion. Studies had to have a comparison group and at least two data points. Results Systematic searches resulted in 8142 hits, and screening of abstracts resulted in 198 full texts identified. No studies met the review’s inclusion criteria. Therefore, the review found no available evidence that supports or refutes the sug...
ABSTRACT Relevant systematic reviews and impact evaluations were systematically sought and descri... more ABSTRACT Relevant systematic reviews and impact evaluations were systematically sought and described in order to assess the size and nature of the evidence-base about the effectiveness of interventions for smallholder farmers in Africa. A total of 21 relevant systematic reviews and 415 reports of impact evaluations were identified. This paper describes this African evidence-base in terms of the interventions and outcomes assessed, and the geographical spread of the primary research across the continent. Gaps in the evidence-base are identified and recommendations made for future research.
This paper is based on a systematic review of evidence of the impact of microfinance on the lives... more This paper is based on a systematic review of evidence of the impact of microfinance on the lives of poor women, men and children in sub-Saharan Africa. It focuses specifically on longer-term non-financial outcomes related to health and nutrition and education. The paper contrasts microfinance's early days' initially refreshing and encouraging promises of a development initiative that empowers people to help themselves while 'paying for itself'with a more gloomy picture that derives from the synthesis results of our systematic review. It ...
Abstract The futures of children around the world are often hampered by a lack of education. Two ... more Abstract The futures of children around the world are often hampered by a lack of education. Two millennium development goals (MDGs) aim to address this situation. In South Africa, although the targets set for universal access to primary education for boys and girls (MDG 2) and gender equality at all levels of education (MDG 3) are reportedly on track, there is a disparity in educational solutions for hospitalised children. In the KwaZulu-Natal province, where scores of children are hospitalised with HIV, tuberculosis, and other critical ...
Aims: We examined whether first-hand experience of ill-health and economic hardship during the CO... more Aims: We examined whether first-hand experience of ill-health and economic hardship during the COVID-19 pandemic might strengthen public support for vaccination, and for the reallocation of health sector funding towards health emergency preparedness in South Africa - a country in which high rates of vaccine hesitancy go hand in hand with widespread discontent regarding public service delivery. Methods: Using data from 1,600 South African respondents who were surveyed during 2021 for the Eighth Round of Afrobarometer (AB-R8), discrete measures of household- and individual-level sociodemographic and economic factors were generated to permit confounder-adjusted analyses of probabilistic causal relationships between self-reported measures of: personal/household COVID-19 illness and job/income/business loss as a result of COVID-19; and the likelihood that respondents would accept a (government-approved) COVID-19 vaccine, or support the reallocation of health sector funding towards health...
In South Africa, demand for housing close to viable/sustained sources of employment has far outst... more In South Africa, demand for housing close to viable/sustained sources of employment has far outstripped supply; and the size of the population living in temporary structures/shacks (and in poorly serviced informal settlements) has continued to increase. While such dwellings and settlements pose a number of established risks to the health of their residents, the present study aimed to explore whether they might also undermine the potential impact of regulations intended to safeguard public health, such as the stringent lockdown restrictions imposed to curb the spread of COVID-19 in 2020 and 2021. Using a representative sample of 1381 South African households surveyed in May–June 2021, the present study found that respondents in temporary structures/shacks were more likely to report non-compliance (or difficulty in complying) with lockdown restrictions when compared to those living in traditional/formal houses/ flats/rooms/hostels (OR: 1.61; 95% CI: 1.06, 2.45). However, this finding ...
Abstract: Extracted from text... Anthropology and epidemiology: a case study of health andenviron... more Abstract: Extracted from text... Anthropology and epidemiology: a case study of health andenvironment in Alexandra, Johannesburg1Thea de Weta Angela Matheeband Brendon Barnesb1 INTRODUCTIONThe critical link between health and development is often neglected orignored by researchers and practitioners working in the field of devel-opment. This is a lost opportunity, because good health is not only aresource for social, economic and personal development, but also thebasis for living a quality life. Agenda 21 ...
Birth to Ten now Birth to Twenty (BT20), is the largest and longest running longitudinal birth co... more Birth to Ten now Birth to Twenty (BT20), is the largest and longest running longitudinal birth cohort study in Africa. In this paper, the methods, magnitude and significance of recruitment, follow-up and attrition are described. Although more than 5000 births were notified in the area in the 7-week enrolment period in early 1990, only 3275 children were established to have been born to women who were residents in the Greater Johannesburg Metropolitan area for at least the first 6 months of the child's life. Seventy per cent of these children and their families have been followed up for more than 12 years, indicating an average attrition rate of less than 3% per annum, with most attrition occurring in the first 2 years of the study. The most common reason for attrition was movement out of the study area, although detailed follow-up, and the extent of contact reestablished at later points, indicate very high levels of circular migration among women and young children between urban and rural areas, as well as very high levels of residential mobility within urban areas. There has been no differential loss of vulnerable families and children. African women living in Soweto are the most consistent participants in the study. A bias, by population group membership and residential area, was introduced in the recruitment phases of the project by the difficulty of enrolling the small proportion of people in the metropolis, largely Whites, who used private delivery services in 1989-90.
The systematic application of rigorous evidence to inform the design and implementation of develo... more The systematic application of rigorous evidence to inform the design and implementation of development policies and programmes has the potential to positively influence development outcomes. To achieve such evidence-informed development, a process of generating, transmitting, and using high-quality, policy-relevant evidence of development effectiveness is required. This article focuses on the final step in this casual chainthe use of evidence by national development policymakers. It proposes a people-and demandfocused approach to capacity building for the use of research evidence by policymakers. This support in building personal as well as team capacity and demand is assumed to encourage a growing institutionalisation of evidence use. The article integrates these capacity-building efforts into the wider theory of change for evidence-informed development, highlighting the importance of effective mechanisms to encourage research use in order to achieve the objective of improving lives through research evidence.
This forum addresses conceptual, methodological, and professional issues that arise in the UX fie... more This forum addresses conceptual, methodological, and professional issues that arise in the UX field's continuing effort to contribute robust information about users to product planning and design. --- David Siegel and Susan Dray, Editors
Big international development donors such as the UK’s Department for International Development an... more Big international development donors such as the UK’s Department for International Development and USAID have recently started using systematic review as a methodology to assess the effectiveness of various development interventions to help them decide what is the ‘best’ intervention to spend money on. Such an approach to evidence-based decision-making has long been practiced in the health sector in the US, UK, and elsewhere but it is relatively new in the development field. In this article we use the case of a systematic review of the impact of micro-finance on the poor in sub-Saharan African to indicate how systematic review as a methodology can be used to assess the impact of specific development interventions.
Background Urban Agriculture is considered to contribute to improved food security among the inco... more Background Urban Agriculture is considered to contribute to improved food security among the income poor in urban contexts across developing countries. Much literature exists on the topic assuming a positive relationship. The aim of this review was to collect and analyse available evidence on the impact of urban agriculture in low and middle-income countries. Methods We employed systematic review methods to identify all relevant and reliable research on UA’s impact on food security and nutrition. Only impact evaluations that set out to measure the effectiveness of UA interventions on food security, as compared to the effects of not engaging in UA, qualified for inclusion. Studies had to have a comparison group and at least two data points. Results Systematic searches resulted in 8142 hits, and screening of abstracts resulted in 198 full texts identified. No studies met the review’s inclusion criteria. Therefore, the review found no available evidence that supports or refutes the sug...
ABSTRACT Relevant systematic reviews and impact evaluations were systematically sought and descri... more ABSTRACT Relevant systematic reviews and impact evaluations were systematically sought and described in order to assess the size and nature of the evidence-base about the effectiveness of interventions for smallholder farmers in Africa. A total of 21 relevant systematic reviews and 415 reports of impact evaluations were identified. This paper describes this African evidence-base in terms of the interventions and outcomes assessed, and the geographical spread of the primary research across the continent. Gaps in the evidence-base are identified and recommendations made for future research.
This paper is based on a systematic review of evidence of the impact of microfinance on the lives... more This paper is based on a systematic review of evidence of the impact of microfinance on the lives of poor women, men and children in sub-Saharan Africa. It focuses specifically on longer-term non-financial outcomes related to health and nutrition and education. The paper contrasts microfinance's early days' initially refreshing and encouraging promises of a development initiative that empowers people to help themselves while 'paying for itself'with a more gloomy picture that derives from the synthesis results of our systematic review. It ...
Abstract The futures of children around the world are often hampered by a lack of education. Two ... more Abstract The futures of children around the world are often hampered by a lack of education. Two millennium development goals (MDGs) aim to address this situation. In South Africa, although the targets set for universal access to primary education for boys and girls (MDG 2) and gender equality at all levels of education (MDG 3) are reportedly on track, there is a disparity in educational solutions for hospitalised children. In the KwaZulu-Natal province, where scores of children are hospitalised with HIV, tuberculosis, and other critical ...
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