Bioethics in Kenya: Who is Interested in Certificate Courses

Inadequate training in matters of ethics renders health care providers unprepared for dilemmas faced in public health, research, and clinical practice. Certificate course training offer opportunities to gain more knowledge and skills on all matter ethics. Over the past decade, the increase in research activities in Kenya has not been proportionate to training in ethics. The centre of Biomedical Ethics and Culture (CBEC), Kenya Medical Research Institute (KEMRI) Bioethics training Initiative (CK-BTI) is a Forgaty funded program for building capacity in research ethics for Kenya and Pakistan. This paper evaluates the characteristics of participants that attended the CK-BTI certificate level courses in Kenya between 2017 to 2021. This data was analysed for this paper and utilized information from the training application process. Between November 2017 and July 2021, a total of 1,359 applications were received and 457 (33.6%) trained. The target countries were Kenya and Pakistan but interest was drawn from Tanzania, Uganda, Nigeria, and Zambia. The continued interest in the certificate level ethics courses may imply a need to increase the number of ethics training offered within the East African region.

Perceived Stress at Work and Associated Factors among E-Waste Workers in French-Speaking West Africa

Perceived stress at work is an important risk factor that affects the mental and physical health of workers. This study aims to determine the prevalence and factors associated with perceived stress in the informal electronic and electrical equipment waste processing sector in French-speaking West Africa. From 14 to 21 November 2019, a cross-sectional survey was carried out among e-waste workers in five countries in the French-speaking West African region, and participants were selected by stratified random sampling. Participants were interviewed on socio-demographic variables and characteristics related to e-waste management activities using a questionnaire incorporating Cohen’s Perceived Stress Scale (10-item version). Factors associated with perceived stress were determined by multivariate logistic regression. A total of 740 e-waste workers were interviewed. The mean age of the workers was 34.59 ± 11.65 years, with extremes of 14 and 74 years. Most of the interviewees were repairers (43.11%). The prevalence of perceived stress among the e-waste workers was 76.76%. Insufficient income, number of working days per week, perceived violence at work, and the interference of work with family responsibilities or leisure were the risk factors that were the most associated with perceived stress. The high prevalence of perceived stress and its associated factors call for consideration and improvement of the working conditions of e-waste workers.

PT INKA's Export Marketing Strategy Towards Competitive Advantage

This study aims to analyze PT INKA's export marketing strategy towards competitive advantage until 2018. Researchers use primary and secondary data sources with interview and documentation data collection techniques. The results of the study revealed that PT. INKA has: (1) Strength, very competitive pricing power and strong human resources, especially the marketing team, in addition to the influence of marketing assistance from the ambassador (RI for overseas); (2) Weaknesses in the export marketing strategy lie in production, one of which is engines and wheels which are still imported by China, which does not yet have the International Railway Industry Standard Certification (IRIS); (3) Opportunities, can make efforts to further strengthen the penetration of Indonesian companies in the African region; (4) Threats, to providers of facilities and infrastructure needs that must be obtained from imports from other countries, besides that competitors are afraid to dare to reduce interest costs or extend the tenor for the purchase of goods. The high taxes that must be issued for the delivery of goods are the biggest threat, this is confirmed by the informants.

Data-Driven Forest Cover Change and Its Driving Factors Analysis in Africa

Forest cover plays an important role in sustaining ecological security to realize Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The research target area is composed of the African region which is experiencing unprecedented deforestation based on the data collection from 54 countries and regions between 2000 and 2020. Spatial autocorrelation analysis, global principal component analysis, and geographic detector model have been used as the core research tool. The temporal and spatial patterns of forest cover change in Africa and the driving effects of population growth, economic and trade, social development, arable land expansion, and other factors on forest cover change in different periods have been demonstrated. The findings are as follows: 1) extremely unequal distribution of Africa forest has caused forest area reduction in 20 years. The reduction quantity of forest has been illustrated from strong to weak: Central Africa (strongest), East Africa (higher strong), West Africa (medium), South Africa (higher weak), and North Africa (weakest). However, the forest reduction area in West Africa with the original ratio is the most significant. More than 80% of the forest area reduction in Africa has occurred in 14 countries, just five national forest areas to achieve the net growth, but the increase amount was only 1% of loss amount. 2) The spatial pattern of forest cover change in Africa contracted and clustered gradually, especially after 2012. Algeria was the hotspot cluster of Morocco and Tunisia, forming the increase area of forest cover in North Africa. Zambia, the coldest point, gathers Angola significantly, while the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Tanzania form a significantly reduced forest cover area. 3) Total population, land area, cultivated land, urban population, consumer price index, and birth rate are the main factors influencing the temporal evolution of forest cover change in Africa. It can be divided into four stages to interpret the different explanations and significance of each factor for forest cover change in the study area.

Monitoring compliance with Senegal’s tobacco products packaging and labelling requirements 6 months after implementation of the law

IntroductionAs of December 2021, 22 countries and one jurisdiction in WHO African Region (AFRO) have adopted pictorial health warning labels on tobacco packaging, but only 13 have implemented them. In 2014, Senegal enacted a comprehensive tobacco control law, which requires strong provisions on tobacco packaging and labelling. The objective of this study was to assess the level of compliance with these provisions in Senegal 6 months after implementation.MethodsData collection took place in Senegal’s capital city of Dakar across 12 districts in February 2018, following the Tobacco Pack Surveillance System Field Protocol developed by the Institute for Global Tobacco Control at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. Unique tobacco packs were purchased from a total of 48 tobacco vendors, and compliance with new packaging and labelling provisions was assessed.ResultsIn total, seven unique cigarette packs were confirmed to be legally available for sale in Dakar, Senegal. All packs complied with all health warning provisions (type, size, location, language and quitline information) as well as bans on quantitative emissions yields. However, no pack complied with the descriptive constituents and emissions statement required on the lateral side, and four of the seven packs violated the ban on misleading brand descriptors.ConclusionsAFRO countries have made substantial progress in adopting comprehensive tobacco control laws that bring them closer into alignment with the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control. This study found areas of effective implementation of FCTC recommended packaging and labelling requirements, as well as areas in need of stronger enforcement.

Institutional Policies and Online Education in Developing Countries

This chapter aims to examine the effectiveness of institutional policies regarding online teaching and learning in some developing countries in the Southern African region. The study is informed by online teaching and learning principles, and it adopts qualitative and quantitative approaches. The data comprises answers of 231 students to the question: Did your institution encourage online learning before the lockdown? The sample was collected through a survey between the 1st July 2020 and the 11th March 2021, a period in which students were undertaking an online learning process as a strategy to overcome the negative impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. Over 67% of respondents confirm that their universities did not implement nor encourage online learning before the lockdown due to the pandemic. In this context, the study shows that aversive policies against online learning and lack of adequate equipment jeopardize the education goals to provide integrated and globalizing learning.

Quality Assurance Systems of Higher Education in Africa

The quality of higher education is currently the main challenge of public policies for higher education and research in many countries and regions of the world. Since their independence, African countries have made several efforts to ensure the quantitative aspects of higher education. But the big challenge concerns the qualitative aspects allowing to generate significant impacts of this sector for economic and social development. This chapter aims to analyze the current trends of quality assurance of higher education in the African region. Also, it plans to discuss constraints that affect development, implementation, and promotion of quality assurance systems in this region. Finally, it plans to give future perspectives to develop effective quality assurance systems of higher education which take into account African specificities.

The Impact of Job Demands Variables in the Job Demands Resources Model

The purpose of this chapter is to report on the findings of a study that was conducted by the author to investigate the impact of job demands variables on emotional exhaustion and emotional ill-health. A sample of 173 drawn from employees who worked for different organizations in the Pacific, mainly Australia, the African region, the Indian subcontinent of India, Nepal, Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Sri Lanka, and employees who professed Christian and Hindu religions. A broad range of ages, occupations, ethnicities, religions, and cultures was represented in the sample, that is, the targeted population were employees whose different contexts and characteristics (e.g., attitudes, occupations, ages, marital status, religion, opinions, behaviors, and other defined variables) could be measured and allowed to generalize the results. The study used a quantitative research design. A diversity of findings were established with some findings being consistent with the JD-R theory and previous studies across the cultures while other findings were not consistent with previous studies and the JDR theory.