The use of radio and television as means to spread reproductive health awareness in Sub-Saharan Africa has been extensive, and its impacts significant. More recently, other means of communication, ...such as mobile phones, have received the attention of researchers and policy makers as health communication tools. However, evidence on which of the two types of communication (i.e. passive communication from TV/radio, or active communication through phones) is more effective in fostering better reproductive health choices is sparse. This study aims to identify the potential influence of TV or radio ownership as opposed to cell phone ownership on contraceptive use and access to maternal healthcare. Cross-sectional, individual analysis from eleven high-maternal mortality Sub-Saharan African countries is conducted. A total of 78,000 women in union are included in the analysis. Results indicate that ownership of TV or radio is more weakly correlated to better outcomes than mobile phone ownership is. Results are stronger for lower educated women and robust across all levels of wealth. Interestingly, the study also finds that decision-making power is a relevant mediator of cell phone ownership on contraceptive use, but not on maternal healthcare access. A key takeaway from the study is that, while the role of television and radio appears to have diminished in recent years, mobile phones have become a key tool for empowerment and behavioural change among Sub-Saharan African women. Health communication policies should be designed to take into account the now prominent role of mobile phones in affecting health behaviours.
Globally, 21 percent of young women are married before their 18th birthday. Despite some progress in addressing child marriage, it remains a widespread practice, in particular in South Asia. While ...household predictors of child marriage have been studied extensively in the literature, the evidence base on macro-economic factors contributing to child marriage and models that predict where child marriage cases are most likely to occur remains limited. In this paper we aim to fill this gap and explore region-level indicators to predict the persistence of child marriage in four countries in South Asia, namely Bangladesh, India, Nepal and Pakistan. We apply machine learning techniques to child marriage data and develop a prediction model that relies largely on regional and local inputs such as droughts, floods, population growth and nightlight data to model the incidence of child marriages. We find that our gradient boosting model is able to identify a large proportion of the true child marriage cases and correctly classifies 77% of the true marriage cases, with a higher accuracy in Bangladesh (92% of the cases) and a lower accuracy in Nepal (70% of cases). In addition, all countries contain in their top 10 variables for classification nighttime light growth, a shock index of drought over the previous and the last two years and the regional level of education, suggesting that income shocks, regional economic activity and regional education levels play a significant role in predicting child marriage. Given the accuracy of the model to predict child marriage, our model is a valuable tool to support policy design in countries where household-level data remains limited.
ObjectiveHIV-related stigma still remains a major barrier to testing and a significant burden for people living with HIV (PLWH) in sub-Saharan Africa. This paper investigates how mobile phone ...ownership can influence HIV-related stigma.DesignThis is an observational study using both cross-sectional and pseudo-panel data. Analysis is conducted at both community and individual levels.SettingThe analysis is run for the country of Ghana using data from 2008 and 2014.ParticipantsIndividual-level and household-level data were obtained from Ghana’s Demographic and Health Survey.Primary and secondary outcome measuresThe analysis measures the impact of mobile phone ownership on prejudice against people with HIV. Secondary outcomes are knowledge of HIV, which is included as a mediating element.ResultsCommunity-level analysis finds that a 10% increase in the share of mobile phone owners reduces the prevalence of discriminatory attitudes towards PLWH/AIDS by up to 3%. Results are consistent at the individual level. Additionally, mobile phone-enabled HIV knowledge is found to mediate about 26% of the effect of mobile phones on public stigma.ConclusionsThese findings shed light on the role played by access to mobile technology on HIV-related stigma and discrimination and can support the development of future awareness raising and health communication campaigns in Ghana and other West African countries.
Abstract
Cash transfer programs are the most common anti-poverty tool in low- and middle-income countries, reaching more than one billion people globally. Benefits are typically targeted using ...prediction models. In this paper, we develop an extended targeting assessment framework for proxy means testing that accounts for societal sensitivity to targeting errors. Using a social welfare framework, we weight targeting errors based on their position in the welfare distribution and adjust for different levels of societal inequality aversion. While this approach provides a more comprehensive assessment of targeting performance, our two case studies show that bias in the data, particularly in the form of label bias and unstable proxy means testing weights, leads to a substantial underestimation of welfare losses, disadvantaging some groups more than others.
Despite growing concern over the potential consequences of migration for the “left behind,” few systematic attempts have been made to document the relationship between the migration of an adult child ...and the well-being of his or her elderly parent(s) remaining in the country of origin. This article proposes a multidimensional elderly well-being index that enables the identification and comparison of outcomes between elderly individuals with and without adult migrant children in Moldova and Georgia, two former Soviet states that are both experiencing demographic and mobility transitions. The outcomes of elderly individuals with and without children living abroad are compared to illustrate in what domains child absence through migration corresponds to differing well-being outcomes. The findings suggest that the migration of an adult child is not as significant a factor in shaping well-being outcomes as would be expected based on past literature; other factors may play much stronger roles in shaping of well-being.
The Latin America and Caribbean region exhibit some of the lowest undernutrition rates globally. Yet, disparities exist between and within countries and countries in the region increasingly face ...other pressing nutritional concerns, including overweight, micronutrient deficiencies and inadequate child feeding practices. This paper reports findings from a regional analysis to identify the determinants and drivers of children's diets, with a focus on the complementary feeding window between the age of 6-23 months. The analysis consists of a narrative review and descriptive data analysis, complemented with qualitative interviews with key informants in four countries: Guatemala, Paraguay, Peru and Uruguay. Findings indicate that poverty and inequality (disparities within countries by wealth and residence), unequal access to services, inadequate coverage of social programmes and lack of awareness on appropriate feeding practices are important drivers for inadequate diets. We conclude that countries in the region need to invest in policies to tackle overweight and micronutrient deficiencies in young children, considering inequalities between and within countries, enhance coverage of social protection programmes, improve coordination between sectors to improve children's diets and expand the coverage and intensity of awareness campaigns on feeding practices, using iterative programme designs.
In the European Union, carminic acid and its ammonium, calcium, potassium or sodium salts and its aluminium lakes are approved as food additive E120. In beverages obtained from the German market ...4-aminocarminic acid (“acid-stable carmine”) was detected by HPLC–PDA and LC–MS/MS. Isolation of the colorant from a liquid dye preparation used for the production of a beverage sample and subsequent NMR analysis confirmed the presence of 4-aminocarminic acid. Synthesis of ¹⁵N-4-aminocarminic acid clearly demonstrated that “acid-stable carmine” is not the ammonium salt of carminic acid, which is approved as food additive in the European Union. In fact, nitrogen in “acid-stable carmine” is covalently bound. The molecular structure of carminic acid is chemically modified and 4-aminocarminic acid does not comply with the specifications laid down for E120 in Commission Regulation (EU) No 231/2012. 4-Aminocarminic acid was also detected in the red-colored glaze of a raspberry cake and in the liquid dye preparation used for coloring this glaze.
Prior research has established that both perceived and actual inequality matter for redistributive preferences. Hence, misconceptions can alter public demand for government intervention. Survey ...experiments have found systematic biases in people's inequality perceptions and found that, in some contexts, the provision of correct information may alter their preferences for redistribution. This literature has, however, centered around high-income, Western nations. This paper uses an experimental survey design to understand the effect of perceived poverty and inequality on the preferences for redistribution in the Kyrgyz Republic. Using primary survey data collected from 2000 households, we first analyze the attitudes of different socio-economic groups towards the poor and the extent to which attitudes predict preferences for redistributive policies. Secondly, we focus on how the perceived socio-economic position influences support for redistribution. Finally, using an experimental survey design, we estimate the effect of correcting misconceptions about individuals' socio-economic position on the support for redistribution. We find that the relationships between poverty attitudes and demand for government redistribution is similar to a high-income, Western context. Overall, demand for redistribution remains robust to new information about the position in the income distribution. The correction of biased perceptions only altered stated preferences for people with specific already-held beliefs.
•Initially poor urban households in Nigeria, Tanzania and Ethiopia experience an increase in well-being, while richer households are vulnerable to falling back into poverty.•Despite this convergence, ...there is considerable movement into and out of poverty over time.•The consumption floor remains relatively sticky, meaning there may be a poverty trap at the lowest level of well-being.
Despite considerable achievements in the reduction of poverty over the last decades, poverty remains conspicuously high and profound. While fast urban population growth, especially in Sub-Saharan Africa, has contributed to poverty reduction, new development challenges like the urbanisation of poverty emerge. However, little is known about the state and persistence of poverty in urban areas. This study investigates urban poverty within the theory of poverty traps among urban households in Nigeria, Tanzania and Ethiopia, three countries in Sub-Saharan Africa with large urban populations and fast urban population growth. Using household panel data from the World Bank’s Living Standard Measurement Study between 2008 and 2015, we test whether consumption-based poverty traps exist in these contexts. Our results show that initially poor households experience an increase in well-being over time, while richer households face a decline and remain vulnerable to falling back into poverty. As households converge to consumption levels around the $3.20 poverty line, there is considerable movement into and out of poverty over time. However, a sticky consumption floor shows that despite upward dynamics amongst the poor, some are being left behind. Finally, we argue that improved urban data is needed to identify the vulnerable middle, and to design structural policies preventing them from falling back into poverty.
•Analysis of energy subsidy removal on household welfare.•Removing subsidy would result in real income decline of 6%.•Poverty would increase with 3.2% points.•Transfers targeted to families with ...children are more progressive than lifelines.
This paper describes an analysis of the impact that higher energy tariffs would have on households in the Kyrgyz Republic using micro-data from the 2009 Kyrgyz Integrated Household Survey. This analysis was conducted to determine which households would be most affected by higher energy tariffs and to what extent mitigation measures, such as lifeline tariffs or direct cash transfers, might lessen the impact for poor and vulnerable households. The analysis focused on first-order effects and used benefit incidence analysis and static micro-simulation to estimate the expected costs and benefits of higher energy prices and the corresponding mitigation measures. The results suggest that both the type of energy and the level of connectedness matter. Increasing tariffs for thermal power used for central heating and hot water mainly affects richer households in urban areas. Reducing implicit electricity subsidies affects the entire population due to nearly complete country coverage with electricity connections. Both lifeline tariffs and direct cash transfers could mitigate the effect of higher electricity tariffs at lower costs than universal subsidies.
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