Managing Non-Revenue Water in Mwanza, Tanzania: A Fast-Growing Sub-Saharan African City

Background: Malaria is still endemic in sub-Saharan Africa, with a high disease burden. Misconceptions about malaria contribute to poor attitudes and practices, further increasing the burden in endemic countries. Studies have examined the knowledge, attitudes, and practices (KAP) of malaria among different populations. However, there seems to be no available literature reporting on the perspectives of day and night market traders. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first report on malaria KAP with a focus on day and night market traders. Methods: A descriptive cross-sectional study involving day and night market traders in 10 selected markets within the Greater Accra Region of Ghana was carried out. Data were collected from consenting respondents using a structured questionnaire. Results: Of the 760 respondents (33.3% (n = 253) night and 66.7% (n = 507) day traders) interviewed, there was no significant difference between the day and night market traders in terms of malaria KAP. Although the market traders had an overall moderate knowledge (54.0% of the day traders and 56.5% of the night traders), misconceptions about malaria (especially that it could be caused by exposure to the sun) still existed among the traders. Moreover, the majority of the traders who demonstrated high knowledge (43.98%, n = 250) did not always take laboratory tests to confirm their suspicion, indicating poor attitude. Furthermore, the market traders’ choice of drug for malaria treatment (p = 0.001) and preferred malaria treatment type (orthodox or herbal) (p = 0.005) were significantly associated with their knowledge level. Conclusions: Despite the observation that no significant difference in KAP exists between day and night market traders, appropriate health education programs and interventions still need to be directed at misconceptions, poor attitudes, and poor practices revealed by this study. This will ultimately help in the prevention and control of malaria in Ghana, and globally.

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Rwanda as a Knowledge Society

Developing Knowledge Societies for Distinct Country Contexts - Advances in Knowledge Acquisition, Transfer, and Management ◽

10.4018/978-1-5225-8873-3.ch003 ◽

2021 ◽

pp. 63-84

Author(s):

Rehema Baguma

Keyword(s):

Sustainable Development ◽

Cyber Security ◽

Knowledge Society ◽

Sub Saharan Africa ◽

African Countries ◽

Resource Base ◽

Fast Growing ◽

Sub Saharan ◽

Natural Resource Base ◽

Telecom Sector

Generating and developing knowledge societies is a key element for sustainable development as defined in the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development Goals adopted by the United Nations in 2015. Based on a limited natural resource base, Rwanda chose to take an approach to development that differs from that of its neighbours by making ICTs the cornerstone of its development. With this focus, government of Rwanda (GoR) took a Pro-ICT led public policy that has led to several public reforms such as but not limited to liberalization of the telecom sector, enactment of laws to govern electronic messages, signatures, transactions, data protection, cyber-security and ICT usage, development of relevant infrastructure and establishment of key institutions such as the Rwanda Utilities and Regulatory Agency (RURA) and Rwanda Information Society Authority (RISA). These reforms have in turn led to a fast-growing ICT sector in Rwanda compared to that of the neighbours. To-date, Rwanda is one of the fastest growing African countries in ICT. In 2015, Rwanda emerged as the third best ICT country in Sub-Saharan Africa behind South Africa and Seychelles. In 2016, it moved one position up and emerged 2nd behind Seychelles. The fast-growing ICT sector has stimulated entrepreneurial creativity and growth across the economy. This chapter examines the best practices that Rwanda has applied in her journey to a knowledge society that could possibly help other countries in the region pursuing the same objective. The chapter also briefly reviews challenges and gaps in Rwanda's journey to a knowledge society and suggests recommendations for further improvement.

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Testes Tumors in a Sub-Saharan African City (Yaounde)

European Urology ◽

10.1159/000474194 ◽

1996 ◽

Vol 30 (3) ◽

pp. 345-348 ◽

Cited By ~ 7

Author(s):

Fru F. Angwafo III ◽

S. Talongmo ◽

A. Mbakop ◽

V.A. Ngu

Keyword(s):

African City ◽

Sub Saharan

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Epidemiological transition in morbidity: 10-year data from emergency consultations in Dakar, Senegal

BMJ Global Health ◽

10.1136/bmjgh-2019-001396 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 4 (4) ◽

pp. e001396 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Bamba Gaye ◽

Massamba Diop ◽

Kumar Narayanan ◽

Lucile Offredo ◽

Peter Reese ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Low Income ◽

Emergency Service ◽

Mixed Model ◽

International Classification Of Diseases ◽

Primary Diagnosis ◽

Sub Saharan Africa ◽

Low Income Countries ◽

Epidemiological Transition ◽

African City ◽

Sub Saharan

BackgroundIt is thought that low-income countries are undergoing an epidemiological transition from infectious to non-communicable diseases; however, this phenomenon is yet to be examined with long-term data on morbidity.MethodsWe performed a prospective evaluation of all emergency medical consultations at a major emergency service provider in Dakar, Senegal from 2005 to 2014. Using standardised definitions, the primary diagnosis for each consultation was classified using the International Classification of Diseases-10 and then broadly categorised as ‘infectious’, ‘non-communicable’ and ‘other’ diseases. Morbidity rates for each year in the 10-year observation period were plotted to depict the epidemiological transition over time. To quantify the yearly rate ratios of non-communicable over infectious diagnosis, we used a generalised Poisson mixed model.ResultsComplete data were obtained from 49 702 visits by African patients. The mean age was 36.5±23.2 and 34.8±24.3 years for women and men, respectively. Overall, infections accounted for 46.3% and 42.9% and non-communicable conditions 32.2% and 40.1% of consultations in women and men, respectively. Consultation for non-communicable compared with infectious conditions increased by 7% every year (95% CI: 5% to 9%; p<0.0001) over the 10 years. Consultations for non-communicable condition were more likely in women compared with men (RR=1.29, 95% CI: 1.18, 1.40) and at older ages (RR=1.27; 95% CI 1.25, 1.29 for 10-year increase in age).ConclusionUsing high-quality disease morbidity data over a decade, we provide novel data showing the epidemiological transition of diseases as manifested in emergency service consultations in a large Sub-Saharan African city. These results can help reorientation of healthcare policy in Sub-Saharan Africa.

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Residents vulnerability analysis and explanation of development-induced disasters in a Sub-Saharan African city

International Journal of Disaster Resilience in the Built Environment ◽

10.1108/ijdrbe-05-2019-0024 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 11 (1) ◽

pp. 71-84

Author(s):

Olasunkanmi Habeeb Okunola

Keyword(s):

Disaster Preparedness ◽

Quantitative Research ◽

Sampling Technique ◽

African City ◽

Content Type ◽

Factors Influencing ◽

Resilient Communities ◽

Sub Saharan ◽

Household Heads ◽

Major Factors

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to identify and analyze indicators for measuring residents’ level of social and physical vulnerability to human-induced disasters in disaster-prone communities of Lagos, Nigeria. Design/methodology/approach The study adopted the quantitative research method. Questionnaires were administered to household heads in three disaster-prone communities of Lagos, Nigeria. Using systematic random sampling technique, household heads’ opinions were sampled in 10 per cent of the buildings. This effort culminated in the sampling of 288 household heads in the three communities. Findings The study identified flood, fire outbreak and environmental pollution as the most prevalence disasters in the communities. State of infrastructure, housing conditions and residents’ socioeconomic characteristics were identified as the major factors influencing residents’ level of vulnerability to disasters in the communities. Research limitations/implications The study could be strengthened by looking at other disaster-prone communities in Nigeria with different cultural and political settings. Hence, the view presented in this paper may not be considered generalizable to other parts of the country with different cultural settings. Originality/value To build resilient communities in cities of developing countries, the paper of this nature is important to determine factors influencing residents’ level of vulnerability to disasters. This will aid in strengthening community-disaster preparedness in these countries.

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Earning a living, but at what price? Being a motorcycle taxi driver in a Sub-Saharan African city

Journal of Transport Geography ◽

10.1016/j.jtrangeo.2015.11.010 ◽

2016 ◽

Vol 55 ◽

pp. 165-174 ◽

Cited By ~ 24

Author(s):

Lourdes Diaz Olvera ◽

Assogba Guézéré ◽

Didier Plat ◽

Pascal Pochet

Keyword(s):

Taxi Driver ◽

African City ◽

Sub Saharan ◽

Motorcycle Taxi

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Scale Matters: Spatially Partitioned Unsupervised Segmentation Parameter Optimization for Large and Heterogeneous Satellite Images

Remote Sensing ◽

10.3390/rs10091440 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 10 (9) ◽

pp. 1440 ◽

Cited By ~ 21

Author(s):

Stefanos Georganos ◽

Tais Grippa ◽

Moritz Lennert ◽

Sabine Vanhuysse ◽

Brian Johnson ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Parameter Optimization ◽

Classification Accuracy ◽

Urban Areas ◽

Landscape Patterns ◽

Unsupervised Segmentation ◽

African City ◽

Local Approach ◽

Sub Saharan ◽

Land Cover Maps ◽

Segmentation Parameters

To classify Very-High-Resolution (VHR) imagery, Geographic Object Based Image Analysis (GEOBIA) is the most popular method used to produce high quality Land-Use/Land-Cover maps. A crucial step in GEOBIA is the appropriate parametrization of the segmentation algorithm prior to the classification. However, little effort has been made to automatically optimize GEOBIA algorithms in an unsupervised and spatially meaningful manner. So far, most Unsupervised Segmentation Parameter Optimization (USPO) techniques, assume spatial stationarity for the whole study area extent. This can be questionable, particularly for applications in geographically large and heterogeneous urban areas. In this study, we employed a novel framework named Spatially Partitioned Unsupervised Segmentation Parameter Optimization (SPUSPO), which optimizes segmentation parameters locally rather than globally, for the Sub-Saharan African city of Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso, using WorldView-3 imagery (607 km2). The results showed that there exists significant spatial variation in the optimal segmentation parameters suggested by USPO across the whole scene, which follows landscape patterns—mainly of the various built-up and vegetation types. The most appropriate automatic spatial partitioning method from the investigated techniques, was an edge-detection cutline algorithm, which achieved higher classification accuracy than a global optimization, better predicted built-up regions, and did not suffer from edge effects. The overall classification accuracy using SPUSPO was 90.5%, whilst the accuracy from undertaking a traditional USPO approach was 89.5%. The differences between them were statistically significant (p < 0.05) based on a McNemar’s test of similarity. Our methods were validated further by employing a segmentation goodness metric, Area Fit Index (AFI)on building objects across Ouagadougou, which suggested that a global USPO was more over-segmented than our local approach. The mean AFI values for SPUSPO and USPO were 0.28 and 0.36, respectively. Finally, the processing was carried out using the open-source software GRASS GIS, due to its efficiency in raster-based applications.

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