scholarly journals Education, anthropogenic environmental change and sustainable development: A rudimentary framework and reflections on proposed causal pathways for positive change in low and lower middle‐income countries

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Colin Bangay
2018 ◽  
Vol 7 (11) ◽  
pp. 448 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert Chew ◽  
Kasey Jones ◽  
Jennifer Unangst ◽  
James Cajka ◽  
Justine Allpress ◽  
...  

While governments, researchers, and NGOs are exploring ways to leverage big data sources for sustainable development, household surveys are still a critical source of information for dozens of the 232 indicators for the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). Though some countries’ statistical agencies maintain databases of persons or households for sampling, conducting household surveys in LMICs is complicated due to incomplete, outdated, or inaccurate sampling frames. As a means to develop or update household listings in LMICs, this paper explores the use of machine learning models to detect and enumerate building structures directly from satellite imagery in the Kaduna state of Nigeria. Specifically, an object detection model was used to identify and locate buildings in satellite images. In the test set, the model attained a mean average precision (mAP) of 0.48 for detecting structures, with relatively higher values in areas with lower building density (mAP = 0.65). Furthermore, when model predictions were compared against recent household listings from fieldwork in Nigeria, the predictions showed high correlation with household coverage (Pearson = 0.70; Spearman = 0.81). With the need to produce comparable, scalable SDG indicators, this case study explores the feasibility and challenges of using object detection models to help develop timely enumerated household lists in LMICs.


Author(s):  
Mary McCauley ◽  
Nynke van den Broek

Maternal morbidity describes complications that have a significant effect on women during and after pregnancy, and are a leading cause of ill-health among women of reproductive age, especially in low- and middle-income countries. With the introduction of the new Sustainable Development Goals, the scope of global maternal health targets has been expanded, moving from a focus on preventing maternal mortality to formulating targets and emphasising the importance of maternal health and wellbeing. This chapter introduces the new concept of maternal morbidity, suggests how this relates to maternal mortality, and summarises what is known about the burden of maternal morbidity globally and what interventions and research are needed to improve maternal health during and after pregnancy, with an emphasis on the context of low- and middle-income countries.


Author(s):  
Joy Belinda Nabukalu ◽  
James Avoka Asamani ◽  
Juliet Nabyonga-Orem

Background: The Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) availed opportunities for scaling up service coverage but called for stringent monitoring and evaluation (M&E) focusing mainly on MDG related programs. The Sustainable Development Goals 3 (SDGs) and the universal health coverage (UHC) agenda present a broader scope and require more sophisticated M&E systems. We assessed the readiness of low- and middle-income countries to monitor SDG 3. Methods: Employing mixed methods, we reviewed health sector M&E plans of 6 countries in the World Health Organization (WHO) Africa Region to assess the challenges to M&E, the indicator selection pattern and the extent of multisectoral collaboration. Qualitative data were analysed using content thematic analysis while quantitative data were analysed using Excel. Results: Challenges to monitoring SDG 3 include weak institutional capacity; fragmentation of M&E functions; inadequate domestic financing; inadequate data availability, dissemination and utilization of M&E products. The total number of indictors in the reviewed plans varied from 38 for Zimbabwe to 235 for Zanzibar. Sixty-nine percent of indicators for the Gambia and 89% for Zanzibar were not classified in any domain in the M&E results chain. Countries lay greater M&E emphasis on service delivery, health systems, maternal and child health as well as communicable diseases with a seeming neglect of the non-communicable diseases (NCDs). Inclusion of SDG 3 indicators only ranged from 48% for Zanzibar to 67% for Kenya. Although monitoring SDG 3 calls for multisectoral collaboration, consideration of the role of other sectors in the M&E plans was either absent or limited to the statistical departments. Conclusion: There are common challenges confronting M&E at county-level. Countries have omitted key indicators for monitoring components of the SDG 3 targets especially those on NCDs and injuries. The role of other sectors in monitoring SDG 3 targets is not adequately reflected. These could be bottlenecks to tracking progress towards SDG 3 if not addressed. Beyond providing compendium of indicators to guide countries, we advocate for a more binding minimum set of indicators for all countries to which they may add depending on their context. Ministries of Health (MoHs) should prioritise M&E as an important pillar for health service planning and implementation and not as an add-on activity.


2020 ◽  
Vol 44 (2) ◽  
pp. 267-284
Author(s):  
Julia M Docherty ◽  
Feng Mao ◽  
Wouter Buytaert ◽  
Julian RA Clark ◽  
David M Hannah

Hazards often do not occur in isolation and, for this reason, a multi-hazard approach is vital in realising their impact and providing solutions for disaster risk reduction and sustainable development. We present a novel framework that emerges from a bibliometric analysis of the multi-hazard literature and a critical appraisal of the existing approaches. It was found that multi-hazard research has expanded greatly over the last 20 years, furthering our understanding of the subject with important applications in risk assessment and management. These studies have contextualised multi-hazards, developed models and frameworks to analyse them, provided case studies to test multi-hazard-based approaches and produced reviews. It was found that landslides and floods are the most frequently co-occurring hazards within the bibliographic dataset, yet understanding of their interactions, hydrometeorological drivers and landscape controls remains poorly conceptualised. Therefore, we propose a new framework for investigating water-related multi-hazards that leverages and synthesises existing methods to address the challenges identified to date. We also find a geographical bias, with less multi-hazard research in lower- and middle-income countries and remote environments due to data scarcity and limited accessibility. Our framework therefore includes the ability to address geographically specific key considerations including available and accessible data, community variability and cross-sectoral collaborations. In doing so it offers guidance on structuring future analyses to improve our understanding of multi-hazards, reduce disaster risk, increase community resilience and make progress towards sustainable development.


2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 19-28
Author(s):  
Nguyen Thuan ◽  
Dang Bac Hai

A key concern when constructing sustainable development policy is reducing the negative impact on environmental systems and maximizing human welfare. In this study, we assess how energy consumption effected on Carbon intensity of human well-being (CIWB). Using two-way fixed effects in panel regression, this relationship has been investigated during 2000-2018 for 9 lower middle-income countries including Algeria, Bangladesh, Egypt, India, Morocco, Pakistan, Philippines, Uzbekistan and Vietnam, while adding GDP and FDI per capita as control variables. The study reveals that the use of energy for economic development is ineffective and inconsistent with the overview of sustainable development due to the result of increasing CIWB. However, the sign of negative coefficients of GDP and FDI per capita in control variables have given the striking findings that these factors will be helpful for lower middle - income countries to pursue sustainable development by reducing CIWB.


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