Achieving sustained improvements in health outcomes remains a challenge for sub-Saharan Africa, where diarrhoea remains a leading cause of death in children under the age of five. This paper examines ...the impact of foreign aid to the health sector on diarrhoea mortality in children under five in 47 sub-Saharan African countries, using panel data on the sectoral allocation of official development assistance in conjunction with country-level data on health outcomes. After controlling for fixed effects and the potential endogeneity of health aid, we find that increased health aid and increased public health expenditure are associated with lower diarrhoea mortality in children under five. In addition, health aid increases government spending on health, suggesting that the overall impact of health aid on diarrheal death rates could exceed the direct effect. Furthermore, increased access to improved sources of water and sanitation are important in reducing child mortality from diarrhoea.
This study addresses important issues in infant and child mortality in Zimbabwe. The objective of the paper is to determine the impact of maternal, socioeconomic and sanitation variables on infant ...and child mortality. Results show that births of order 6+ with a short preceding interval had the highest risk of infant mortality. The infant mortality risk associated with multiple births was 2.08 times higher relative to singleton births (p<0.001). Socioeconomic variables did not have a distinct impact on infant mortality. Determinants of child mortality were different in relative importance from those of infant mortality. This study supports health policy initiatives to stimulate use of family planning methods to increase birth spacing. These and other results are expected to assist policy makers and programme managers in the child health sector to formulate appropriate strategies to improve the situation of children under 5 in Zimbabwe.
This research seeks to enhance the current literature by exploring the nexus among environmental contamination, economic growth, energy use, and foreign direct investment in 6 selected sub-Saharan ...African nations for a time of 34 years (1980-2014). By applying panel unit root (CADF and CIPS, cross-sectional independence test), panel cointegration (Pedroni and Kao cointegration test, panel PP, panel ADF), Hausman poolability test, and an auto-regressive distributed lag procedure in view of the pooled mean group estimation (ARDL/PMG), experimental findings disclose that alluding to the related probability values, the null hypothesis of cross-sectional independence for all variables is rejected because they are not stationary at levels but rather stationary at their first difference. The variables are altogether integrated at the same order I(1). Findings revealed that there is a confirmation of a bidirectional causality between energy use and CO
in the short-run and one-way causality running from energy use to CO
in the long run. There is additionally a significant positive outcome and unidirectional causality from CO
to foreign direct investment in the long run yet no causal relationship in the short run. An increase in energy use by 1% causes an increase in CO
by 49%. An increase in economic growth by 1% causes an increment in CO
by 16% and an increase in economic growth squared by 1% diminishes CO
by 46%. The positive and negative impacts of economic growth and its square approve the EKC theory. To guarantee sustainable economic development goal, more strict laws like sequestration ought to be worked out, use of sustainable power source ought to be stressed, and GDP ought to be multiplied to diminish CO
by the utilization of eco-technology for instance carbon capturing, to save lives and also to maintain a green environment.
Major new opportunities abound from energy integration among regions in Africa with the sole aim of reducing transaction costs and with the role of Information Communication Technology (ICT), it ...would take energy from where it is easily affordable to places where it is needed. Given the hullabaloo over the net energy-saving impact of ICT, this study takes on a new perspective, that is, employing household energy consumption, to ascertain the use of ICT by household in accessing energy. The study reconnoiters the degree to which Energy integration among the five regional power pools in Africa can achieve ending energy poverty among regional adherents by means of three measures of energy sustainability, explicitly: energy security, energy equity and environmental sustainability. The study utilizes the Pooled Ordinary Least Squares technique on data from the SSA economies over the period 2000-2019. The study expects the results to help in suggesting the need for the acceleration of ICT development in Africa (Sub-Saharan) nations, given the universal communal mission of sustainable energy consumption.
Kenya is one of the leading countries in the development and commercialization of clean bioenergy stoves in Sub-Sahara Africa. However, due to a series of interconnected factors, the adoption and ...sustained use of clean bioenergy stoves remains low in the country. This study synthesizes the current knowledge about clean and efficient bioenergy stoves in Kenya through a comprehensive review that brings together the disparate knowledge about the context, status, adoption and impacts of clean bioenergy stoves in Kenya. We start by outlining the main national policies technological, options and stakeholders involved in the clean bioenergy stove value chain such as government agencies, private companies, research organisations, and the civil society. Despite their different roles and interests, there is a shared expectation among all involved stakeholders that clean bioenergy stoves will curb the negative sustainability impacts of traditional cooking options on energy security/poverty, human health, rural livelihoods, gender equality, and the environment. However, a series of factors affect the adoption and sustained use of clean bioenergy stoves such as market structure, consumer awareness, stove design/performance, and the socioeconomic status and cultural practices of stove users. We develop a conceptual framework that illustrates the interlinkages between these factors of adoption and impacts, and outline their varying degree of importance in Kenya. We finish this review by suggesting six policy and practice domains that need to be targeted by policies and research if an effective transition towards universal clean cooking is to be achieved in Kenya. These include to (a) adopt integrated policy approaches and enhance stakeholder collaboration; (b) raise awareness of the benefits of clean bioenergy cooking options; (c) facilitate access to funding and establish appropriate economic incentives; (d) implement quality assurance mechanisms; (e) facilitate behavioural change among stove users; (f) enhance research, development, and technical capacity.
•The promotion of clean cookstoves is a major policy priority in Kenya.•Clean bioenergy stoves have been promoted extensively in last decades in Kenya.•Various interlinked factors affect the adoption of clean bioenergy stoves in Kenya.•Clean bioenergy stoves have multiple environmental and socioeconomic impacts in Kenya.•Coordinated policy support and stakeholder engagement is needed to scale up clean stove adoption.
The spatial distribution and fractional cover of plant functional types (PFTs) is a key uncertainty in land surface models (LSMs) that is closely linked to uncertainties in global carbon, hydrology ...and energy budgets. Land cover is considered to be an Essential Climate Variable because changes in it can result in local, regional or global scale impacts on climate. In LSMs, land cover (LC) class maps are converted to PFT fractional maps using a cross-walking (CW) table by prescribing the fraction of each PFT that occurs within each LC class. In this study we assess the largest plausible range of PFT uncertainty derived from remotely sensed LC maps produced under the European Space Agency Land Cover Climate Change Initiative on simulations of land surface fluxes using 3 leading LSMs. We evaluate the impact of uncertainty due to both LC classification algorithms, and CW procedure, on energy, moisture and carbon fluxes in LSMs. We investigate the maximum plausible range of uncertainty deriving from both LC and CW within the context of a potential biomass scale (bare ground-grass-shrub-tree), representing a gradient from low to high biomass PFTs. More specifically, plausible alternative land cover maps and associated PFT fractional distributions were produced to prioritise low or high biomass vegetation in the LC classification (uncertainty in LC), and subsequently in the assignment of PFT fractions for each LC class (uncertainty in CW), relative to a reference PFT distribution.
We examined the impact of PFT uncertainty on 3 key variables in the carbon, water and energy cycles (gross primary production (GPP), evapo-transpiration (ET), and albedo), for 3 LSMs (JSBACH, JULES and ORCHIDEE) at global scale. Results showed a greater uncertainty in PFT fraction due to CW as opposed to LC uncertainty, for all three variables. CW uncertainty in tree fraction was found to be particularly important in the northern boreal forests for simulated LSM albedo. Uncertainty in the balance between grass and bare soil fraction in arid parts of Africa, central Asia, and central Australia was also found to influence albedo and ET in all models. The spread due to PFT uncertainty for albedo was between 30 and 105% of inter-model uncertainty, for GPP between 20 and 90%, and for ET 0–30%. Each model had a different sensitivity to PFT uncertainty, for example, GPP in JSBACH was found to have a much higher sensitivity to PFT uncertainty in the tropics than JULES and ORCHIDEE, whereas the inverse was true for ET.
These results show that inter-model uncertainty for key variables in LSMs can be reduced by more accurate representation of PFT distributions. Future efforts in land cover mapping should therefore be focused on reducing CW uncertainty through better understanding of the fractional cover of PFTs within a land cover class. Efforts to reduce LC uncertainty should particularly be focused on more accurate mapping of grass and bare soil fractions in arid areas. In the context of Land Surface Models, these results demonstrate that prescribed vegetation distribution in models is a key source of uncertainty that is comparable to the spread between models for key model state variables.
•Plant functional types (PFT) mapped using land cover (LC) and cross-walking (CW).•African & South American savannahs are key to reducing carbon cycle uncertainty.•Uncertainty in bare soil & grass PFTs drives uncertainty in Europe & N America.•Northern high latitude tree cover uncertainty impacts surface albedo.•Clear need to better constrain CW fractions of PFTs using high resolution mapping.
One of the greatest enigmas in the study of Bronze Age China is the source of highly radiogenic lead discovered in the copper-based objects of the Shang period (ca. 1500-1046 BC). Although being ...relatively rare in nature, such lead contributed over half of the lead consumed across a vast area from the Yellow River to the Yangtze. Identifying its source and supply network would significantly contribute to our understanding of how China achieved the largest metal production across Eurasia. The past thirty years of research have seen various proposals for the origin of this lead, including south-western China, the middle Yangtze River valley, the Qinling and Zhongtiao mountains, and even Africa. This paper attempts to illustrate the tempero-spatial pattern of this highly radiogenic lead using the largest possible databank. Furthermore, by going beyond the bronze data and investigating lead isotopes in non-metal objects, we confirm that multiple sources of highly radiogenic lead must have been used across Chinese history. In turn, this implies the feasibility of a multi-source model for the lead in the Shang bronzes.
Sub Saharan Africa (SSA) has the greatest proportion of its population without access to electricity, especially those in rural communities. Efficiency of the power sector is another obstacle, ...characterised by rise in the ratio of electricity transmission and distribution losses (RETDL) and high levels of electricity-related CO2 emissions. In view of these challenges, this study analyses the extent of electricity shortage, efficiency, key sources and opportunities for SSA in comparison with other regions. Two Stage Least Squares (2SLS) is used to examine the economic growth effects of electricity consumption (stock) and RETDL (quality), and how electricity-related CO2 emissions alter the growth contributions of both electricity consumption and RETDL. Our analysis indicate that SSA is mainly coal energy driven while the proportion of renewable energy is very low. Among the solid fuel sources, coal is the major cause of high levels of electricity-related CO2 emissions. The percentage of electricity from renewable sources (excluding hydro) is very low in SSA, second lowest from Middle East and North Africa (MENA). However, the region presents a great opportunity from its abundant renewable resources that can be exploited. Furthermore, electricity consumption has a positive impact on economic growth whereas the RETDL exerts a negative pressure on growth. Thus, deterioration in electricity quality reduces economic growth. High levels of electricity-related CO2 emissions lower the growth contributions of electricity consumption and exacerbate the negative growth impact of electricity quality. For the sake of sustainability and clean energy, SSA must invest substantially in renewable energy, which reduces its reliance on non-renewable energy in the long-term.
•Sub Saharan Africa is mainly coal energy driven, which is also the major emitter of CO2 emissions.•Electricity stock (quantity) has a positive impact on economic growth whereas its quality exerts a negative pressure on growth.•High levels of electricity-related CO2 emissions lower the growth contribution of electricity stock.•High levels of electricity-related CO2 emissions exacerbate the negative growth impact of electricity quality.•The negligible percentage of electricity from renewable sources is a cause of concern in SSA.
In The Gambia, as in many other African countries, rural areas rarely profit from the turnover earned in the country's tourism sector. In academic and political literature, however, rural tourism is ...frequently identified as a diversification strategy that may trigger local economic development in remote communities. To promote rural tourism development, further knowledge is required to understand why tourists are motivated to engage in distinct tourism market segments. In this study, survey data was collected from 450 tourists in The Gambia using a self-administered questionnaire. The questionnaire was constructed to identify the key characteristics and motivations of tourists so that the significant market segments could be categorized and the (latent) tourist demand for rural tourism activities could be gauged. This study identified four distinct segments of tourists in The Gambia: heritage & nature seekers, multi-experiences seekers, multi-experiences & beach seekers, and sun & beach seekers. Drawing on our key findings, we conclude by identifying a development path that could diversify Gambia's tourism sector. The development path would also include event-based rural tourism initiatives that align with the motivations of the identified market segments and may additionally benefit rural communities by reducing economic leakage rates.
•We conduct a survey of 430 tourists in The Gambia to find out about market potential for rural tourism.•We employ a combined factor-clustering method to extract distinct market segments for tourism activities in The Gambia.•We find four distinct market segments.•There is high (latent) market potential for rural tourism businesses in The Gambia.•We sketch out a ‘development path’ on how an event-based rural tourism can actually be implemented.
More than a quarter of earth's land surface is used for grazing domestic livestock. Livestock grazing is generally assumed to negatively affect wildlife, however, a number of studies have found ...positive impacts as well. We conducted an evidence-based review of the existing literature using a series of livestock- and wildlife-related search words to systematically query Google Scholar and Web of Science. A total of 807 sources were included in the final list, including 646 primary sources which reported original data. The majority of studies were conducted in North America (338) or Europe (123), with many fewer from Africa (57), Australia (54), Central/South America (43), or Asia (31). Most studies examined birds (330) and mammals (262), with fewer including reptiles (91) or amphibians (58). We extracted further information from studies that included mammals on positive, negative, and neutral effects of livestock grazing on mammals. We found that livestock change vegetation structure and cover in ways important to small mammals, while ungulates may be affected more by interference competition and changes in forage quantity and quality. Community-level total abundance of small mammals typically declines with grazing. Species richness of small mammals either declines or stays the same, as many studies found a change in species composition from ungrazed to grazed sites while the number of species remained similar. Individual species responses of small mammals vary. Voles, harvest mice, cotton rats, and shrews show consistently negative responses to grazing while deer mice, kangaroo rats, ground squirrels, and lagomorphs show positive or variable responses. In general, species adapted to open habitats are often positively affected by grazing, while species needing denser cover are negatively affected. Studies of wild ungulates are more variable in methodology and quality than those for small mammals. We found more negative (n = 86) than positive (n = 34) ungulate responses overall, however, most studies have been on browsers and mixed feeders, namely deer and elk, and there is little available data for other groups. Although data is limited, several of the grazing species in Africa may show a trend toward positive responses, suggesting possible facilitation. For a number of species, responses varied by season. We find a strong need for additional research on ungulates of varying diets and body sizes, especially in the developing world, and across longer time scales to examine possible tradeoffs between competition and facilitation from livestock.
PDF
