High-resolution weather simulation for sub-Saharan Africa on the World Community Grid

Rainfall in Africa is difficult to estimate accurately due to the large spatial variability. Most of the monsoon rainfall is generated by convective rainstorms that can be very localized, sometimes covering less than 100 km2. The goal of the African Rainfall Project is to run the Weather and Research Forecast (WRF) model for sub-Saharan Africa at a convection-permitting resolution in order to better represent such rainfall events. The resolution will be 1km, which is finer than most studies over Africa, which typically use resolutions of 3km or more. Running WRF for such a large area at such a high resolution is computationally expensive, which is where IBM&#8217;s World Community Grid comes in. The World Community Grid (WCG) is part of the Social Corporate Responsibility of IBM that crowdsources unused computing power from volunteers devices and donates it to scientific projects.The simulation was adapted to the WCG by dividing the simulation of one year over sub-Saharan Africa in many smaller simulations of 48h over 52 by 52 km domains. These simulations are small enough to be calculated on a single computer of a volunteer at the required resolution. In total, 35609 overlapping domains are covering the whole of sub-Saharan Africa. During the post-processing phase, the smaller simulations are merged back together to obtain one consistent simulation over the whole continent.Our main focus is rainfall, as this is the variable with the highest socio-economic impact in Africa. However, the outputs of the simulations include other variables such as the 2m-temperature, the 10m-wind speed and direction. These variables are outputted every 15min. At the end of this project, we will have over 3 billion files for a total of 0.5 PB. The data will be reorganized so that the different variables can be stored, searched and retrieved efficiently. After the reorganization, the data will be made publicly available.The first validation step will be to examine the impact of dividing sub-Saharan Africa into many smaller domains. This will be done by comparing the simulation from this project to one large simulation. This simulation is obtained by running WRF at a 1km resolution on a large domain (500km by 1000km) for a shorter period, using Cartesius, the Dutch national computer. The second validation step will be to compare the simulations with satellite data and with in-situ measurements from the TAHMO network (www.tahmo.org).

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The impact of African-trained neurosurgeons on sub-Saharan Africa

Neurosurgical FOCUS ◽

10.3171/2019.12.focus19853 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 48 (3) ◽

pp. E4 ◽

Cited By ~ 8

Author(s):

Claire Karekezi ◽

Abdeslam El Khamlichi ◽

Abdessamad El Ouahabi ◽

Najia El Abbadi ◽

Semevo Alidegnon Ahokpossi ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Low Income ◽

National Income ◽

Sub Saharan Africa ◽

World Federation ◽

Neurosurgical Procedures ◽

Ct Scanner ◽

The Past ◽

The World ◽

Sub Saharan ◽

The Impact

OBJECTIVESub-Saharan Africa (SSA) represents 17% of the world’s land, 14% of the population, and 1% of the gross domestic product. Previous reports have indicated that 81/500 African neurosurgeons (16.2%) worked in SSA—i.e., 1 neurosurgeon per 6 million inhabitants. Over the past decades, efforts have been made to improve neurosurgery availability in SSA. In this study, the authors provide an update by means of the polling of neurosurgeons who trained in North Africa and went back to practice in SSA.METHODSNeurosurgeons who had full training at the World Federation of Neurosurgical Societies (WFNS) Rabat Training Center (RTC) over the past 16 years were polled with an 18-question survey focused on demographics, practice/case types, and operating room equipment availability.RESULTSData collected from all 21 (100%) WFNS RTC graduates showed that all neurosurgeons returned to work to SSA in 12 different countries, 90% working in low-income and 10% in lower-middle-income countries, defined by the World Bank as a Gross National Income per capita of ≤ US$995 and US$996–$3895, respectively. The cumulative population in the geographical areas in which they practice is 267 million, with a total of 102 neurosurgeons reported, resulting in 1 neurosurgeon per 2.62 million inhabitants. Upon return to SSA, WFNS RTC graduates were employed in public/private hospitals (62%), military hospitals (14.3%), academic centers (14.3%), and private practice (9.5%). The majority reported an even split between spine and cranial and between trauma and elective; 71% performed between 50 and more than 100 neurosurgical procedures/year. Equipment available varied across the cohort. A CT scanner was available to 86%, MRI to 38%, surgical microscope to 33%, endoscope to 19.1%, and neuronavigation to 0%. Three (14.3%) neurosurgeons had access to none of the above.CONCLUSIONSNeurosurgery availability in SSA has significantly improved over the past decade thanks to the dedication of senior African neurosurgeons, organizations, and volunteers who believed in forming the new neurosurgery generation in the same continent where they practice. Challenges include limited resources and the need to continue expanding efforts in local neurosurgery training and continuing medical education. Focus on affordable and low-maintenance technology is needed.

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Does economic freedom improve health outcomes in sub-Saharan Africa?

International Journal of Social Economics ◽

10.1108/ijse-01-2020-0008 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 47 (12) ◽

pp. 1633-1649

Author(s):

Anand Sharma

Keyword(s):

Mortality Rate ◽

Life Expectancy ◽

Health Outcomes ◽

Economic Freedom ◽

Sub Saharan Africa ◽

African Countries ◽

Content Type ◽

The World ◽

Sub Saharan ◽

The Impact

PurposeThe purpose of this study is to examine the impact of economic freedom on four key health indicators (namely, life expectancy, infant mortality rate, under-five mortality rate and neonatal mortality rate) by using a panel dataset of 34 sub-Saharan African countries from 2005 to 2016.Design/methodology/approachThe study obtains data from the World Development Indicators (WDI) of the World Bank and the Fraser Institute. It uses fixed effects regression to estimate the effect of economic freedom on health outcomes and attempts to resolve the endogeneity problems by using two-stage least squares regression (2SLS).FindingsThe results indicate a favourable impact of economic freedom on health outcomes. That is, higher levels of economic freedom reduce mortality rates and increase life expectancy in sub-Saharan Africa. All areas of economic freedom, except government size, have a significant and positive effect on health outcomes.Research limitations/implicationsThis study analyses the effect of economic freedom on health at a broad level. Country-specific studies at a disaggregated level may provide additional information about the impact of economic freedom on health outcomes. Also, this study does not control for some important variables such as education, income inequality and foreign aid due to data constraints.Practical implicationsThe findings suggest that sub-Saharan African countries should focus on enhancing the quality of economic institutions to improve their health outcomes. This may include policy reforms that support a robust legal system, protect property rights, promote free trade and stabilise the macroeconomic environment. In addition, policies that raise urbanisation, increase immunisation and lower the incidence of HIV are likely to produce a substantial improvement in health outcomes.Originality/valueExtant economic freedom-health literature does not focus on endogeneity problems. This study uses instrumental variables regression to deal with endogeneity. Also, this is one of the first attempts to empirically investigate the relationship between economic freedom and health in the case of sub-Saharan Africa.

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Powering Jobs: The Employment Footprint of Clean Cooking Solutions in Kenya

10.21203/rs.3.rs-51733/v2 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

CHIH-JUNG LEE ◽

Rebekah Shirley ◽

Maureen Otieno ◽

Hope Nyambura

Keyword(s):

Group Discussion ◽

Sub Saharan Africa ◽

Liquefied Petroleum Gas ◽

Women's Participation ◽

Employment Impact ◽

Sub Saharan ◽

Data Gap ◽

Managerial Positions ◽

One Year ◽

The Impact

Abstract Background: Delivering clean cooking access to 1.2 billion people who cook with charcoal, kerosene and firewood may have a strong localized employment impact. With the challenge of a rapidly expanding youth population and growing job scarcity in sub-Saharan Africa, understanding the impact of clean cooking on employment as well as the skills gap is timely. However, there is little definitive data on clean cooking jobs. Recognizing this data gap, we sought to conduct a study focused specifically on employment from the clean cooking sectors in Kenya, covering liquefied petroleum gas (LPG), bioethanol, biogas and electric cooking solutions. This study provides an initial baseline and early estimate of clean cooking sectors’ direct formal and informal employment based on one year of company survey data, expert interviews, available literature, and local focus group discussion.Results: In Kenya, the clean cooking sector provided about 19,000 direct, formal jobs and potentially 15,000 to 35,000 direct, informal jobs in 2019. While the clean cooking sector provided many jobs, the level of compensation and retention is low. In the LPG and electric cooking sector, sales and distribution are the biggest part of the workforce, while for bioethanol and biogas, manufacturing and assembling is important. The majority of the direct, formal workforce is reported to be skilled. Management, finance and legal, and product development and research are the most difficult skills to recruit for. Women’s participation is lower than 30% in the clean cooking sectors. Managerial positions have higher women’s participation than non-managerial ones.Conclusion: This research exercise establishes a baseline for understanding the employment impact of the clean cooking sectors. However, a massive data gap persists. Our study shows that while the clean cooking sectors, especially LPG, are already providing tens of thousands of jobs, further studies are critically needed to map the employment impact of delivering universal clean cooking access.

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COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS OF THE IMPACT OF GLOBALISATION ON HUMAN WELFARE IN SUB-SAHARAN AFRICA

Polonia University Scientific Journal ◽

10.23856/3002 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 30 (5) ◽

pp. 25-42

Author(s):

Olukayode Emmanuel Maku ◽

Bolaji Adesola Adesoye ◽

Awoyemi Olayiwola Babasanya ◽

Oluwaseyi Adedayo Adelowokan

Keyword(s):

Comparative Analysis ◽

Random Effects ◽

Trade Openness ◽

Sub Saharan Africa ◽

Human Welfare ◽

Fixed And Random Effects ◽

The World ◽

Sub Saharan ◽

The Impact ◽

Ssa Countries

The world has become more linked owing to the increased intensity of globalisation across regions. Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) has become more relatively integrated into the world economy as shown by increasing degree of trade openness and foreign direct investment. Over the same period, quality of life of people in SSA in terms of access to basic necessity, monetary and non-monetary indices of poverty have been on the declining trend. This study adopted endogenous growth theory in analysing the comparative effects of globalisation between the highly and weakly globalised economies in SSA countries. Four channels of transmission of impact of globalisation were considered: trade openness, financial and capital flows labour mobility and access to telephone. Data for 16 SSA countries – 8 weakly globalised and 8 strongly globalised countries based on KOF globalisation index, were sourced from the world Development indicator for the period of 1980-2012. The feasible generalised least square (GLS) estimator was utilized to estimate the fixed and random effects panel regression models. Hausman test was used to determine the efficient estimator between fixed and random effects. All estimated coefficients were evaluated at 5% level of significance. The outcome of the comparative analysis revealed a mix result in some cases and unidirectional in some. In all, countries with higher intensity of globalisation have a greater improvement in their human welfare indicators compared to countries with weak globalisation indices. The study then recommended an improved reform in global integration to enable the region maximize the immense benefits inherent in global connections.

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Powering Jobs: the Employment Footprint of Clean Cooking Solutions in Kenya

10.21203/rs.3.rs-51733/v1 ◽

2020 ◽

Author(s):

CHIH-JUNG LEE ◽

Rebekah Shirley ◽

Maureen Otieno ◽

Hope Nyambura

Keyword(s):

Sub Saharan Africa ◽

Liquefied Petroleum Gas ◽

Women's Participation ◽

Employment Impact ◽

Company Survey ◽

Sub Saharan ◽

Data Gap ◽

Managerial Positions ◽

One Year ◽

The Impact

Abstract Background Delivering clean cooking access to 1.2 billion people who cook with charcoal, kerosene and firewood may have a strong localized employment impact. With the challenge of a rapidly expanding youth population and growing job scarcity in sub-Saharan Africa, understanding the impact of clean cooking on employment as well as the skills gap is timely. However, there is little definitive data on clean cooking jobs. Recognizing this data gap, we sought to conduct a study focused specifically on employment from the clean cooking sectors in Kenya, covering liquefied petroleum gas (LPG), bioethanol, biogas and electric cooking solutions. This study provides an initial baseline and early estimate of clean cooking sectors’ direct formal and informal employment based on one year of company survey data, expert interviews, available literature, and local focus group discussion.Results In Kenya, the clean cooking sector provided about 19,000 direct, formal jobs and potentially 15,000 to 35,000 direct, informal jobs in 2019. While the clean cooking sector provided many jobs, the level of compensation and retention is low. In the LPG and electric cooking sector, sales and distribution are the biggest part of the workforce, while for bioethanol and biogas, manufacturing and assembling is important. The majority of the direct, formal workforce is reported to be skilled. Management, finance and legal, and product development and research are the most difficult skills to recruit for. Women’s participation is lower than 30% in the clean cooking sectors. Managerial positions have higher women’s participation than non-managerial ones. Conclusion This research exercise establishes a baseline for understanding the employment impact of the clean cooking sectors. However, a massive data gap persists. Our study shows that while the clean cooking sectors, especially LPG, are already providing tens of thousands of jobs, further studies are critically needed to map the employment impact of delivering universal clean cooking access.

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The Impact of the World Health Organization Essential Newborn Package on Newborn Care Practices and Survival Rates in Sub-Saharan Africa: A Systematic Literature Review

International Journal of Childbirth ◽

10.1891/2156-5287.9.1.19 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 9 (1) ◽

pp. 19-29

Author(s):

Andy Emmanuel ◽

Victoria Kain ◽

Elizabeth Forster

Keyword(s):

Systematic Review ◽

Health Workers ◽

Newborn Care ◽

Sub Saharan Africa ◽

World Health ◽

Essential Newborn Care ◽

The World ◽

Sub Saharan ◽

Health Organization ◽

The Impact

Sub-Saharan Africa, has the highest child mortality rate in the world (World Health Organization [WHO], 2016). However, there is a paucity of current systematic reviews on the impact of essential newborn care interventions in Africa. Therefore, the aim of this systematic review was to summarize evidence about the impact of essential newborn care interventions in Africa. Numerous databases were searched to retrieve articles that reported interventions in newborn care in Africa. The search was limited to the English language and to articles published between 2007 and 2017. Nine articles were selected for inclusion in this systematic review. Overall, these papers demonstrated an increase in performance of health workers (between 8 and 400%) following a test of knowledge, while health workers practical performance increased by 34%. Moreover, neonatal mortality was reduced by 45%, while perinatal mortality was reduced by 30%. Training healthcare workers is one of the most effective ways of improving newborn care and neonatal survival in Africa. However, there is a need for additional evidence to support this, because none of the reviewed studies assessed the impact of training by examining variables such as trainees' satisfaction with training, the knowledge and skills developed, and the health outcomes achieved.

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Impact of Covid-19 on Stock Market in Sub-Saharan Africa

International Journal of Entrepreneurship and Sustainability Studies ◽

10.31098/ijeass.v1i2.774 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 1 (2) ◽

pp. 41-70

Author(s):

Saifullahi Adam Bayero ◽

Babangida Danladi Safiyanu ◽

Zaitun Sanusi Bakabe

Keyword(s):

Stock Markets ◽

Negative Impact ◽

Virus Disease ◽

Selection Criterion ◽

Sub Saharan Africa ◽

World Health ◽

African Countries ◽

The World ◽

Sub Saharan ◽

The Impact

Corona virus disease (COVID-19) which was declared by the World Health Organization as a global pandemic caused serious economic problem to all the countries including Sub-Saharan Africa. Given the negative impact of COVID19 on the world economy, this paper examined the impact of COVID19 related cases and death on stock exchange markets volatility in Sub-Saharan African countries. The study used the number of reported cases and death from four Sub-Saharan African countries viz Nigeria, South Africa, Kenya, and Botswana, reported cases and death from China and U.S. and all share index as a proxy of stock markets in four countries from 28 February 2020 to 21 December 2020. The study estimated GARCH 11, TGARCH 11, and EGARCH 11 since the variables are heteroskadestic in nature which makes the application of ARCH lausible; the selection criterion was based on Akaike, Schwarz, and Hannan info Criteria. The result shows that COVID19 confirmed cases and death do not affect the operation of the stock markets in Sub-Saharan African countries, but the volatility of the markets has increased within the period of analysis. Furthermore, Botswana and Kenya stock markets were affected by external cases from China. We therefore recommended that stock markets stakeholders in Sub-Saharan Africa should be more concern about health safety measures and be ready for any future pandemic that might affect the markets.

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AIDS-Related Non-Hodgkin's Lymphoma in Sub-Saharan Africa: Current Status and Realities of Therapeutic Approach

Lymphoma ◽

10.1155/2012/904367 ◽

2012 ◽

Vol 2012 ◽

pp. 1-9 ◽

Cited By ~ 12

Author(s):

Peter M. Mwamba ◽

Walter O. Mwanda ◽

Naftali W. Busakhala ◽

R. Matthew Strother ◽

Patrick J. Loehrer ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Therapeutic Approach ◽

Hodgkin’S Lymphoma ◽

Sub Saharan Africa ◽

Hodgkin's Lymphoma ◽

Current Status ◽

Non Hodgkin’S Lymphoma ◽

Non Hodgkin's Lymphoma ◽

The World ◽

Sub Saharan ◽

The Impact

Today AIDS-related non-Hodgkin's lymphoma (AR-NHL) is a significant cause of morbidity and mortality in HIV-infected patients the world over, and especially in sub-Saharan Africa. While the overall incidence of AR-NHL since the emergence of combination antiretroviral therapy (cART) era has declined, the occurrence of this disease appears to have stabilized. In regions where access to cART is challenging, the impact on disease incidence is less clear. In the resource-rich environment it is clinically recognized that it is no longer appropriate to consider AR-NHL as a single disease entity and rather treatment of AIDS lymphoma needs to be tailored to lymphoma subtype. While intensive therapeutic strategies in the resource-rich world are clearly improving outcome, in AIDS epicenters of the world and especially in sub-Saharan Africa there is a paucity of data on treatment and outcomes. In fact, only one prospective study of dose-modified oral chemotherapy and limited retrospective studies with sufficient details provide a window into the natural history and clinical management of this disease. The scarcities and challenges of treatment in this setting provide a backdrop to review the current status and realities of the therapeutic approach to AR-NHL in sub-Saharan Africa. More pragmatic and risk-adapted therapeutic approaches are needed.

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The Impact of Hydroxyurea Use on Cognitive Functioning of Children with Sickle Cell Disease in Ghana

Blood ◽

10.1182/blood-2020-143377 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 136 (Supplement 1) ◽

pp. 22-22

Author(s):

Olubusola Oluwole ◽

Amma owusu-Ansah ◽

Seyed Mehdi Nouraie ◽

Enrico M Novelli

Keyword(s):

Working Memory ◽

Cognitive Functioning ◽

Sickle Cell ◽

Organ Damage ◽

Sub Saharan Africa ◽

Psychomotor Function ◽

Cell Disease ◽

Sub Saharan ◽

One Year ◽

The Impact

Introduction: Sickle cell disease (SCD) is a genetic blood disorder characterized by a mutated hemoglobin that polymerizes when deoxygenated leading to sickle-shaped red blood cells. Tissue hypoxia and organ damage are downstream effects of red blood cell sickling. A manifestation of end organ damage that is of increasing concern, given its devastating functional effects, is cognitive impairment. Sub-Saharan Africa accounts for the highest annual SCD burden in the world, yet little is known about cognitive impairment in children from Africa with SCD. This knowledge gap inhibits the development of targeted interventions to prevent or mitigate cognitive deficits in children with SCD. In particular, it is unknown if hydroxyurea, the oldest FDA-approved drug for SCD, preserves cognitive functioning. The primary objective of this study was to assess the potential cognitive benefits of hydroxyurea administered over at least one year in children with SCD from Ghana. Methods: We conducted a cross-sectional study funded by an ASH Minority Resident Hematology Award at both the general pediatric sickle cell clinic and the hydroxyurea clinic at Korle Bu Teaching Hospital in Ghana. Children with a diagnosis of SCD (HbSS, HbSC and HbS/β-thalassemia) between the ages of 5 and 13 were approached and enrolled in two arms of the study - non-hydroxyurea and hydroxyurea groups - under an IRB-approved protocol. Children without any exposure to hydroxyurea were included in the non-hydroxyurea group while children who had been taking hydroxyurea for at least one year were included in the hydroxyurea group. Children's demographic data were obtained via an ad-hoc questionnaire. Anthropomorphic and laboratory data were obtained from the patients' charts. Cognitive function was assessed using Cogstate, a computer-based neurocognitive testing tool. A brief battery of tests was administered consisting of Detection, Identification, One Back and Groton Maze Learning tests, which assess psychomotor function, attention, working memory and executive functioning, respectively. We used multiple linear regression analysis and inverse proportional to weight propensity score analysis to test the association between hydroxyurea treatment and cognitive test scores. Results: We enrolled 58 children with SCD in the study, including 28 in the non-hydroxyurea group (mean age 9.2 ± 2.40, 54% girls), and 30 in the hydroxyurea group (mean age 9.2 ± 2.17, 57% girls). Children taking hydroxyurea had higher hemoglobin (9.34 vs 8.32 g/dL, P=0.02) and mean corpuscular volume values (94 ± 9.2 vs 77 ± 9.1 fL, P=<0.01) when compared to the non-hydroxyurea group. Children in the hydroxyurea group performed significantly better in the area of working memory (adjusted difference 0.19, p=0.02, Table 1), while there was no significant difference in the other domains. Other confounders including age, nutritional status, gender and subject education level did not impact the findings.Within the hydroxyurea group, increased transcranial doppler velocity in the left internal carotid and left anterior cerebral arteries (a stroke risk factor) was associated with worse psychomotor function (correlation coefficient 0.41, p=0.047). Conclusion:To our knowledge, this is the first study conducted in Africa to explore the impact of hydroxyurea on cognitive functioning. While causality cannot be inferred in this observational study, our results support the findings of a study conducted in the United States showing that children withSCD on hydroxyurea had improved cognitive functioning as compared to those not on the drug (Puffer et al.Child Neuropsychology. 2007). It is possible that hydroxyurea may result in improved cerebral oxygenation, potentially by ameliorating anemia. In a prior study we found that higher cognitive functioning in children with SCD is associated with higher maternal education (Oluwole et al.Pediatr Blood Cancer. 2016), however, the difference in working memory remained significant after adjusting for this variable. Future longitudinal and interventional studies are needed to further assess the potential benefits of hydroxyurea on cognitive functioning, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa, where other interventions aimed at reducing neurological complications of SCD, such as blood transfusions, remain limited. Disclosures No relevant conflicts of interest to declare.

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