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The recent Typhoid Fever Surveillance in Africa Program demonstrated an overall adjusted incidence of typhoid fever 2–3 times higher than previous estimates in Africa. Recently, a single-dose typhoid conjugate vaccine that allows infants as young as 6 months old to be vaccinated was prequalified by the World Health Organization (WHO). This Vi-based conjugate vaccine demonstrated robust immunogenicity after 1 dose in infants and children 6 through 23 months of age in India with no safety signal, and is currently being tested for the first time on the African continent in Malawi. The WHO Strategic Advisory Group of Experts recommends studies to evaluate co-administering Vi-typhoid conjugate vaccine (Vi-TCV) with routine childhood vaccines in typhoid-endemic countries. The Burkina Faso immunization schedule includes yellow fever vaccine (YFV) at 9 months and meningococcal A conjugate vaccine (MCV-A) at 15 months, in addition to measles-rubella vaccine at both 9 and 15 months. Co-administration testing of Vi-TCV with these routine vaccinations will provide the data needed to support large-scale uptake of Vi-TCV in sub-Saharan Africa. A randomized, controlled, Phase II trial of Vi-TCV co-administration with the vaccinations routinely given at 9 and 15 months of age is planned in Burkina Faso. The overall aim is to assess the safety and immunogenicity of Vi-TCV when co-administered with YFV at 9 months of age and with MCV-A at 15 months of age. A total of 250 participants (100 infants aged 9–11 months and 150 children aged 15–23 months) will be enrolled. Clinical Trials Registration. NCT03614533. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A conference paper about the regional strategies for the prevention, management and resolution of conflict in Africa is presented. It examines the preparedness of certain African regional actors to protect displaced persons in times of conflict and prescribes formulas to strengthen their capabilities. The author highlights the important role of these African regional actors in protecting the rights of displaced persons but asserts that they need to develop and institute new mechanisms and legal instruments as well as to strengthen those that pre-exist.

A conference paper that reviews the specific effects of the 1969 Organization of African Unity (OAU) Refugee Convention thirty years since its adoption within the context of refugee jurisprudence is presented. It shows that it brought about novel concept, most important of which are the influences on domestic refugee law and the migration of the expanded definitions to other regions. On the other hand, it also notes that despite the novelties, it missed opportunities to address a number of Africa-specific questions, and recommends its renovation.

The article presents the Comprehensive Implementation Plan (CIP) adopted during the Special Organization of African Unity (OAU)/United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) Meeting of Government and Non-Government Technical Experts on the 30th Anniversary of the 1969 OAU Refugee Convention, held in Conakry, Guinea on March 27-29, 2000. The plan of action for the ratification/accession to international instruments and their effective implementation and related activities is discussed. A table outlining the plan of action is also presented.

We are honoured to present this special issue of the I Refugee Survey Quarterly i on the contemporary role of the global refugee regime in Africa. THE GLOBAL REFUGEE REGIME IN AFRICA TODAY The global refugee regime remains difficult to define, with no legal or even agreed definition.[2] As a result, it is frequently left undefined in policy discussions and academic articles. Indeed, the papers show how different forms of State marginalisation instrumentalise refugee regime norms, categories and laws to realise broader political goals of African governments. The third theme that arises through the five papers is I resisting the refugee regime. i Supporting previous research on this topic, Hetaba et al. highlight how many forced migrants in Egypt prefer to settle informally due to the perceived barriers in obtaining refugee status through UNHCR and the host State. [Extracted from the article]

Background: Infertility affects over 50 million couples worldwide and impacts people's social and emotional wellbeing. In low- and middle-income countries, particularly across Africa, the inclusion of fertility care into reproductive health (RH) policies remains fragmented or non-existent.Objective and Rationale: This review aims to provide a framework for understanding the inclusion (or lack thereof) of fertility care in RH policies in African settings. It synthesizes the barriers and facilitators to such inclusion, with a view to uncovering the positioning of fertility care in broader health systems and on the agendas of key stakeholders such as health policymakers and practitioners.Search Methods: A qualitative evidence synthesis was performed, systematically searching papers and grey literature. Searches were conducted in MEDLINE, EMBASE, CINAHL, Web of Science and Scopus between February and April 2020. No date restrictions were applied. Language was limited to publications written in English and French. Two reviewers independently screened titles and abstracts, and extracted data, applying thematic coding. The quality of the included papers was evaluated using The Joanna Briggs Institute Checklist for Text and Opinion Papers.Outcomes: The search identified 744 papers, of which 20 were included. Findings were organized under four cross-cutting categories, namely: perceived importance of infertility; influence of policy context; resource availability and access; and perceived quality of care. Across these categories, key barriers to the inclusion of fertility care in RH policies were limited political commitment, under-recognition of the burden of infertility and high costs associated with ART. Conversely, facilitators comprised specialized training on infertility for healthcare providers, standard procedures for ART safety and guidelines and North-South/South-South collaborations.Wider Implications: The inclusion of fertility care in African RH policies depends upon factors that include the recognition of infertility as a disease, strong political engagement and proactivity and affordability of ART through opportunities for partnership with the private sector, which ease costs on the public health system. Further qualitative and quantitative research, including context-specific analysis and in-depth comparative approaches across diverse African countries, will help to delineate differential impacts of local and global factors on fertility care to address this neglected RH issue. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we analyze the drivers of firm innovation in 35 African and Latin American countries. We investigate how firm-level capabilities and national country characteristics affect firm innovation activities and innovation outputs. Using data from the World Bank Enterprise Surveys, we analyze the factors driving firm-level innovation distinguishing two stages in the innovation process: firm engagement with innovation inputs and the translation of innovation inputs into innovation outputs. The paper provides empirical support for the importance of country-level macro and institutional characteristics, in addition to firm-level capabilities, across a large number of countries in determining firm-level innovation. We demonstrate that capital investment and training are just as important innovation activities as research and development spending in developing economies. We highlight the heterogeneity in firm innovation across firm size, country- and firm-level characteristics, and economic sectors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Fairness or equity in health financing is critical to ensuring universal health coverage (UHC). While equity in health financing is generally about financing health services according to ability-to-pay, misconceptions exist among policymakers, decision-makers and some researchers about what constitutes financing health services according to ability-to-pay or an equitably financed health system. This commentary characterizes three misconceptions of equitable health financing-(1) the misconception of fair contribution, (2) the pro-poor misconception and (3) the misconception of cross-subsidization. The paper also uses these misconceptions to clearly illustrate what constitutes equity in health financing, highlighting the importance of income distribution. The misconceptions come from the authors' extensive engagements with policymakers and practitioners, especially in Africa. A clear understanding of equity in health financing provides an avenue to significant progress towards UHC and improving a country's income distribution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents the text of the opening statement by Soren Jessen-Petersen during the Special Organization of African Unity (OAU)/United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) Meeting of Government and Non-Government Technical Experts on the 30th Anniversary of the 1969 OAU Refugee Convention held in Conakry, Guinea on March 27-29, 2000. He asserts that the OAU Refugee Convention has demonstrated its relevance and resilience since its adoption. He also discusses the most obvious protection challenges that the UNHCR deals with in Africa.

The article presents the resolution on the growing number of internally displaced persons in Africa adopted during the Special Organization of African Unity (OAU)/United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) Meeting of Government and Non-Government Technical Experts on the 30th Anniversary of the 1969 OAU Refugee Convention, held in Conakry, Guinea on March 27-29, 2000. The meeting of experts urges OAU members states to adhere to the "Guiding Principles on Internal Displacement." It also urges OAU to take measures to address the problem.

This paper studies the relationship between the position of individual scientists within co-authorship networks and their scientific performance. Using co-authorship data from African scientists in the Health and Medical Sciences within a timespan of 15 years (2000–2015), we characterize the collaboration networks and calculate centrality measures for each scientist to explore how scientific production and impact can be associated with their position within the network. Our findings reveal that authors who occupy a better position within their network and are deemed to actively collaborate with others also have a higher research impact. In this regard, South African scientists do not differ from those in the rest of the world. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Modern humans originated in Africa 300,000 yr ago, and before leaving their continent of origin, they underwent a process of intense diversification involving complex demographic dynamics. Upon exiting Africa, different populations emerged on the four other inhabited continents, shaped by the interplay of various evolutionary processes, such as migrations, founder effects, and natural selection. Within each region, continental populations, in turn, diversified and evolved almost independently for millennia. As a backdrop to this diversification, introgressions from archaic species contributed to establishing different patterns of genetic diversity in different geographic regions, reshaping our understanding of our species' variability. With the increasing availability of genomic data, it has become possible to delineate the subcontinental human population structure precisely. However, the bias toward the genomic research focused on populations from the global North has limited our understanding of the real diversity of our species and the processes and events that guided different human groups throughout their evolutionary history. This perspective is part of a series of articles celebrating 40 yr since our journal, Molecular Biology and Evolution , was founded (Russo et al. 2024). The perspective is accompanied by virtual issues, a selection of papers on human diversification published by Genome Biology and Evolution and Molecular Biology and Evolution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although climate change is among the main ecological crisis the world is grappling with today, relevant discourses on the subject often focus exclusively on the existential threats it presents ignoring other associated risks, including how it exacerbates modern slavery vulnerabilities. Despite already constituting a major human rights challenge, climate change promises to further exacerbate the modern slavery conundrum in Africa. Thus, in this paper, two interconnected questions are engaged with. Firstly, the climate crisis is interrogated vis-à-vis the way it induces modern slavery vulnerabilities in Africa and undermines human rights. The second aspect assesses the utility of the human rights framework in climate change action and its potential to protect modern slavery victims. While African countries are obligated to implement mitigation and adaptation strategies within their jurisdictions, to effectively address the modern slavery challenge, the paper suggests a stronger focus on global climate action via international cooperation and debt-for-nature swap. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Does ambient infrastructural quality affect foreign direct investment (FDI) in developing countries? This paper investigates how the arrival of high-speed internet in Africa triggered FDI into the region. It also explores the role of complementary infrastructure, such as access to electricity and road connectivity, in amplifying the impact of internet connectivity on investment. To causally estimate impacts, the paper exploits plausibly exogenous variations in access to high-speed internet induced by the staggered arrival of submarine fiber-optic internet cables and spatial variations in terrestrial fiber cable networks across locations on the continent. Findings from the paper indicate that access to high-speed internet induces FDI, particularly in the service sector, with the finance, technology, retail, and health services subsectors as the main beneficiaries. Access to (hard) infrastructure, such as electricity and roads, amplifies the impact of internet connectivity on FDI, thus highlighting the role of complementarities in the impact of infrastructure. Further, the results suggest that improvement in quality of governance and increased performance of incumbent firms are plausible mechanisms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents the text of the opening statement by Ambassador Mahamat Habib Doutoum during the Special Organization of African Unity (OAU)/United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) Meeting of Government and Non-Government Technical Experts on the 30th Anniversary of the 1969 OAU Refugee Convention held in Conakry, Guinea on March 27-29, 2000. He asserts that the 1969 Convention was an African solution for an African Problem. He believes that it continues to be an important tool for protecting and solving the refugees in Africa.

The article presents the general resolution adopted during the Special Organization of African Unity (OAU)/United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) Meeting of Government and Non-Government Technical Experts on the 30th Anniversary of the 1969 OAU Refugee Convention, held in Conakry, Guinea on March 27-29, 2000. The experts adopt the Comprehensive Implementation Plan (CIP), Resolution on Internally Displaced Persons and on Statelessness. They appeal the adoption of the necessary measures for the implementation of the plan and resolutions.

The article presents the resolution on the growing problem of statelessness in Africa adopted during the Special Organization of African Unity (OAU)/United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) Meeting of Government and Non-Government Technical Experts on the 30th Anniversary of the 1969 OAU Refugee Convention, held in Conakry, Guinea on March 27-29, 2000. The meeting of experts recognizes the right of every person to a nationality. It proposes a detailed and systematic study of the causes and extent of statelessness in Africa.

This paper uses dozens of large-scale household surveys to measure average changes in fertility following hundreds of droughts, floods, earthquakes, tropical cyclones, other storms, and epidemics in Africa between 1980 and 2016. Droughts are the largest and longest-lasting type of disaster on average, and fertility decreases by between 3.5 and 6.8 percent in the five years after droughts. Fertility changes are smaller or less clear after other types of disasters. Comparisons between countries, rather than within countries, drive these findings. There is substantial geographic heterogeneity in the direction and magnitude of the changes in fertility after disasters, driven by characteristics of the disasters and survey respondents. Fertility decreases especially after more recent droughts and in areas prone to drought. Fertility also decreases after longer floods. Fertility decreases after epidemics for women near the start and end of their childbearing careers, but increases for women in their late twenties and early thirties. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Community is deemed a central resource for the improvement of health, across disciplines, contexts and conditions. However, what is meant by this term is rarely critically explored. In Global Mental Health, considerable efforts in recent years have been directed towards scaling up 'community' approaches, with variable success, creating the need to better understand approaches to its use. Our study contributes to this need, through a critical review of studies engaging with the term 'community' in relation to women's mental health services in African settings. Our review explored 30 peer-reviewed articles from the past 15 years, which were systematically evaluated for quality of evidence. Studies were then analysed using a blend of conventional and directed content analysis to unpack perspectives on the term's use in intervention and phenomenological studies. We identified four broad categories of community: (1) place (shared geographical location or institutional affiliation), (2) practice (belongingness to a shared activity or profession), (3) symbols (meanings and experiences associated with shared community life) and (4) identity (diagnostic identity around a mental health condition). Analysis identified community of place as the most common primary focus of interest across the sample, with 80% of papers referencing this dimension. We noted that in studies where communities of practice were the focus, this was in relation to leveraging local knowledge to inform or support service delivery of intervention programmes, often designed by outsiders. Implications for future policy and mental health services research are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Water will be a major limitation to food production in the 21st century, and drought issues already prevail in many parts of the world. Finding solutions to ensure that farmers harvest profitable crops, and secure food supplies for families and feed for animals that will provide for them through to the next season are urgent necessities. The Interdrought community has been addressing this issue for almost 30 years in a series of international conferences, characterized by a multi-disciplinary approach across the domains of molecular biology, physiology, genetics, agronomy, breeding, environmental and social sciences, policy, and systems modeling. This special issue presents papers from the 7th edition of the conference, the first to be held in Africa, that paid special attention to drought in a smallholder context, adding a 'system' dimension to the crop focus from the previous Interdrought events (Varshney et al. , 2018 ; Hammer et al. , 2021). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

SUMMARY: Earthquake hazard assessment is the first step towards implementing prevention, preparedness and response or faster recovery actions to reduce the risk of seismic disasters. In this paper, we present a comprehensive study on present-day seismicity in terms of the estimated waiting time and conditional probability in Africa by 2022–2072 using four competing distribution models (Brownian passage time (BPT), gamma, lognormal and Weibull). We also investigate how much Coulomb stress change $\ ({\Delta {\rm CFF}})$ induced by previous earthquakes that occurred in neighbouring active sources should revise the probability of occurrence at the location of the next events. We analyse large earthquakes with moment magnitude, ${M}_{\rm w} \ge 6.0$ , collating data from the Global Centroid Moment Tensor and from several published literature that list fault plane solutions of large African earthquakes since 1900. We assume that the data set is stationary and consists of independent events. First, the model's parameters are estimated and the results of the statistical analysis of the interevent times show clear evidence of quasi-periodic recurrence behaviour for large earthquakes ${M}_{\rm w} \ge $ 6.0 in different seismotectonic regions in Africa. Next, a comparison among the distribution models is performed with the aim of selecting the most suitable one. The results in terms of the maximum likelihood criterion and its extension (Akaike Information Criterion) indicate that, in general, the BPT and Weibull models had similar fits to each other, and performed slightly better than gamma and lognormal models. Then, we use Gaussian random distributions to treat parameter uncertainties (e.g. aperiodicity, maximum expected magnitude, slip rate and mean recurrence time) of the distribution models associated with each seismotectonic region. From repeated Monte Carlo draws, we assess uncertainties of the 50-yr conditional probability values for the next earthquake obtained from two distribution models (BPT and BPT + $\Delta {\rm CFF}$) related to the 50th percentile. The results of the BPT distribution indicate very high chances of future earthquakes in the study region where the conditional probability of a large earthquake reaches 99.5, 95.6, 83.1 and 82.2 per cent for the western branch of the East African Rift System (EARS), northwest Africa, the Afar region, and the eastern branch of EARS, respectively. Taking into account the effect of stress change from interacting sources (BPT + $\Delta {\rm CFF}$), these probabilities are slightly modified to 99.8, 98.4, 89.9 and 87.3 per cent for the western branch of EARS, northwest Africa, the Afar region and the eastern branch of EARS, respectively. These marginal increases suggest that the estimated effect of the earthquake interaction introduced by the coseismic slip of previous earthquakes on neighbouring active sources is minor if compared with the uncertainties affecting the renewal models used for the basic time-dependent conditional probability assessment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

If we cannot do this, if Classics remains the preserve of a White enclave, then it is hard to see a future for the subject in South Africa.[23] Twenty-five years later, people may well ask if Classics in South Africa, historically the country in Africa with the most extensive network of university Classics departments, and the most international, but almost wholly White, Classics ecosystem, still remains that "White enclave". But for what we have been able to produce, we hope that this attempt will lead to a more sustained and serious conversation on decolonizing Classics in Africa, including what we can learn from the history of Classics in Africa and what strategies, challenges, and prospects there are for us to navigate. B David van Schoor b 's paper, 'For an African elenchus: colonial and post-colonial misprisions and Classics in Africa', attempts a refutation (hence, an elenchus) of two prevalent errors of interpretation - Eurocentrism and Afrocentrism - to point the way forward for future Humanities and Classics in Africa. [Extracted from the article]

Priority setting represents an even bigger challenge during public health emergencies than routine times. This is because such emergencies compete with routine programmes for the available health resources, strain health systems and shift health-care attention and resources towards containing the spread of the epidemic and treating those that fall seriously ill. This paper is part of a larger global study, the aim of which is to evaluate the degree to which national COVID-19 preparedness and response plans incorporated priority setting concepts. It provides important insights into what and how priority decisions were made in the context of a pandemic. Specifically, with a focus on a sample of 18 African countries' pandemic plans, the paper aims to: (1) explore the degree to which the documented priority setting processes adhere to established quality indicators of effective priority setting and (2) examine if there is a relationship between the number of quality indicators present in the pandemic plans and the country's economic context, health system and prior experiences with disease outbreaks. All the reviewed plans contained some aspects of expected priority setting processes but none of the national plans addressed all quality parameters. Most of the parameters were mentioned by less than 10 of the 18 country plans reviewed, and several plans identified one or two aspects of fair priority setting processes. Very few plans identified equity as a criterion for priority setting. Since the parameters are relevant to the quality of priority setting that is implemented during public health emergencies and most of the countries have pre-existing pandemic plans; it would be advisable that, for the future (if not already happening), countries consider priority setting as a critical part of their routine health emergency and disease outbreak plans. Such an approach would ensure that priority setting is integral to pandemic planning, response and recovery. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives Artemisinin-resistant Plasmodium falciparum malaria is currently spreading globally, including in Africa. Artemisinin resistance also leads to resistance to partner drugs used in artemisinin-based combination therapies. Sequencing of kelch13 , which is associated with artemisinin resistance, culture-based partner drug susceptibility tests, and ELISA-based growth measurement are conventionally used to monitor resistance; however, their application is challenging in resource-limited settings. Methods An experimental package for field studies with minimum human/material requirements was developed. Results First, qPCR-based SNP assay was applied in artemisinin resistance screening, which can detect mutations within 1 h and facilitate sample selection for subsequent processes. It had 100% sensitivity and specificity compared with DNA sequencing in the detection of the two common artemisinin resistance mutations in Uganda, C469Y and A675V. Moreover, in the partner drug susceptibility test, the cultured samples were dry-preserved on a 96-well filter paper plate and shipped to the central laboratory. Parasite growth was measured by ELISA using redissolved samples. It well reproduced the results of direct ELISA, reducing significant workload in the field (Pearson correlation coefficient: 0.984; 95% CI: 0.975–0.990). Conclusions Large-scale and sustainable monitoring is required urgently to track rapidly spreading drug-resistant malaria. In malaria-endemic areas, where research resources are often limited, simplicity and feasibility of the procedure is especially important. Our approach combines a qPCR-based rapid test, which is also applicable to point-of-care diagnosis of artemisinin resistance and centralized analysis of ex vivo culture. The approach could improve efficiency of field experiments and accelerate global drug resistance surveillance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Advances in evolutionary theories (the Extended Synthesis) demonstrate that organisms systematically modify environments in ways that influence their own and other species' evolution. This paper utilises these theories to examine the economic consequences of human dispersal from Africa. Evidence shows that early humans' dispersal affected the adaptability of animal species to human environments and, through this, the extinction of large mammals during Homo sapiens ' out-of-Africa migration. Empirical analyses explore the variation in extinction rates as a source of exogenous pressure for cooperation and innovation among hunter-gatherers and examine the impact of extinction on long-run development. The results indicate that extinction affects economic performance by driving continental differences in biogeography, disease environments and institutions. Eurasia's location along the out-of-Africa migratory path provided human and animal populations with co-evolutionary foundations for domestication and agriculture, which gave Eurasians technological and institutional advantages in comparative development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper seeks to position the Scramble for Africa in the context of the continent's transformative, global nineteenth century. While imperial historiography develops apace, Africa-facing analyses of the continent's partition and the processes which led to it are increasingly rare. European expansion into Africa was characterized by an aggressive dynamism, and millions of Africans experienced profound crisis in the process of the establishment of colonial rule. Yet Africa's revolutionary nineteenth century was both driven by, and culminated in, complex processes of co-option on the part of Africans and Europeans. The paper proposes that a more Africa-centered assessment of the Scramble is possible, one which aims to contextualize the partition of the continent as part of an ongoing, endogenously shaped but often exogenously connected, transformation in political, economic, and social organization and behavior. While no single overarching theory can apply to the entire continent, it is possible to identify dynamics and processes for change that recur across Africa, from political and military reform to economic innovation. These point toward possibilities for reframing Africa's development in the late precolonial period, and enable us to challenge the hegemony long enjoyed by scholars of European empires. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Ascend West and Central Africa programme, funded by the UK Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) is supporting integrated preventative chemotherapy for up to five neglected tropical diseases (NTDs), including intestinal worms, lymphatic filariasis, river blindness, trachoma and schistosomiasis. The programme is implemented across 13 countries by a consortium of four leading international development partners: Sightsavers, Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine, Schistosomiasis Control Initiative Foundation and Mott Macdonald. This paper presents messages learnt from country assessments that took place prior to the global outbreak of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). These messages remain relevant post-COVID-19, with greater priority being given to the challenges for national NTD programmes in continuing to deliver mass drug administration (MDA) during the pandemic. Stakeholder coordination from the earliest stages of the pandemic has occurred at two levels: in the first mile with global partners of the NTD Supply Chain Forum and in the last mile with implementing partners in each country. This has been instrumental to manage delayed MDA, including the impact delays have on the shipment of NTD donated drugs and the distribution of stock held in country. The Ascend West and Central Africa programme is supporting countries with the resumption of MDA through a risk assessment and mitigation action (RAMA) process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As the United Nations inevitably embarks on the digital transformation of peacekeeping, it raises key questions—'technology' or 'human' first. This paper argues that narrowly focusing on technical solutions may move this world body closer to a modern infrastructure, but misses it opportunities for bigger, more impactful peacekeeping process improvement. Whereas, starting with 'humans' or peacekeepers, their goals and pain points and the context of their interactions, means that solutions are targeting meaningful outcomes, not just new software. Using the value sensitive design approach to technology design, the paper extends its application to peacekeeping by integrating human values and the values instantiated in existing or imagined technical designs. These values were distilled out of a mixed methods study carried out at a peace mission deployed in Africa. Analysis identified four horizontal themes (positive UX, integration, connectivity and privacy) across three use contexts (workplace productivity, personal physical safety and well-being). Core values were being safe, family connection, doing work well and being cared for by their organization. Such human-centred technological interventions will enhance the needed capabilities for the peacekeeping forces to win when they need to and to safely enforce lasting peace in a dominant but non-violent fashion where possible. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines how malaria control in Africa became a neoliberal enterprise that privileged market mechanisms as an ideal way to disseminate health interventions. It does so by tracking efforts to sell insecticide-treated nets on the continent as these tools transformed from cheap stopgap measures intended for primary health care programmes in the early 1980s to a major target of global health aid by the 2000s. Even though experience showed that selling insecticide-treated nets to African populations did not lead to high levels of uptake, malaria programme leaders continued to tinker with market mechanisms to scale up the intervention in line with the interests of prominent donors. Narrating this history as it unfolded across different African countries, this paper shows that the neoliberalisation of malaria control was a contingent and fragmented process that depended as much on local experiences with particular health technologies as it did on high-level policy-making. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While current levels of economic inequality in Africa receive ample attention from academics and policymakers, we know little about the long-run evolution of inequality in the region. Even the new and influential 'global inequality literature' that is associated with scholars like Thomas Piketty, Branko Milanovic, and Walter Scheidel has had little to say about Africa so far. This paper is a first effort to fill that void. Building on recent research in African economic history and utilizing the new theoretical frameworks of the global inequality literature, we chart the long-run patterns and drivers of inequality in Africa from the slave trades to the present. Our analysis dismantles mainstream narratives about the colonial roots of persistent high inequality in post-colonial Africa and shows that existing inequality concepts and theories need further calibration to account, among others, for the role of African slavery in the long-run emergence and vanishing of inequality regimes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There have been various infectious disease eradication programs implemented in various parts of the world with varying degrees of success since the early 1900s. Of all those programs, the one that achieved monumental success was the Smallpox Eradication Program (SEP). Most of the global health leaders and authorities that came up with the new idea of disease eradication in the 1980s tried to design and shape the new programs based on their experience in the SEP. The SEP had a very effective tool, vaccine, that did not require a cold chain system, and a relatively simple way of administration. The total cost of the eradication program was about US$300 million and the entire campaign took about 10 y. However, the Guinea worm and polio eradication programs that followed in the footsteps of SEP attained varying levels of success, consuming a huge amount of resources and taking a much longer time (>30 y each). This paper reviews the factors that played major roles in hindering the attainment of eradication goals and outlines possible recommendations for the way forward. Among other things, this paper strongly emphasizes that endemic countries should take the lead in all matters pertaining to making decisions for disease elimination and/or eradication initiatives and that 'elimination as a public health problem' is the preferred option rather than going for complete eradication at the expense of other health programs and thereby contributing to weakening of already fragile health systems, mainly in Africa. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ongoing global efforts to circumcise adolescent and adult males to reduce their risk of acquiring HIV constitute the largest public health prevention initiative, using surgical means, in human history. Voluntary medical male circumcision (VMMC) programs in Africa have significantly altered social norms related to male circumcision among previously non-circumcising groups and groups that have practiced traditional (non-medical) circumcision. One consequence of this change is the stigmatization of males who, for whatever reason, remain uncircumcised. This paper discusses the ethics of stigma with regard to uncircumcised adolescent males in global VMMC programs, particularly in certain recruitment, demand creation and social norm interventions. Grounded in our own experiences gained while conducting HIV-related ethics research with adolescents in Kenya, we argue that use of explicit or implicit stigma to increase the number of VMMC volunteers is unethical from a public health ethics perspective, particularly in campaigns that leverage social norms of masculinity. Ongoing global efforts to circumcise adolescent and adult males to reduce their risk of acquiring HIV constitute the largest public health prevention initiative, using surgical means, in human history. VMMC programs in Africa have significantly altered social norms related to male circumcision among previously non-circumcising groups and groups that have practiced traditional (non-medical) circumcision. One consequence of this change is the stigmatization of males who, for whatever reason, remain uncircumcised. This paper discusses the ethics of stigma with regard to uncircumcised adolescent males in global VMMC programs, particularly in certain recruitment, demand creation and social norm interventions. Grounded in our own experiences gained while conducting HIV-related ethics research with adolescents in Kenya, we argue that use of explicit or implicit stigma to increase the number of VMMC volunteers is unethical from a public health ethics perspective, particularly in campaigns that leverage social norms of masculinity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The illegal poaching of lions for their body parts poses a severe threat to lion populations across Africa. Poaching accounts for 35% of all human-caused lion deaths, with 51% attributed to retaliatory killings following livestock predation. In nearly half of the retaliatory killings, lion body parts are removed, suggesting that high demand for lion body parts may fuel killings attributed to human-lion conflict. Trafficked items are often confiscated in transit or destination countries far from their country of origin. DNA from lion parts may in some cases be the only available means for examining their geographic origins. In this paper, we present the Lion Localizer, a full-stack software tool that houses a comprehensive database of lion mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) sequences sourced from previously published studies. The database covers 146 localities from across the African continent and India, providing information on the potential provenance of seized lion body parts. Lion mtDNA sequences of 350 or 1,140 bp corresponding to the cytochrome b region can be generated from lion products and queried against the Lion Localizer database. Using the query sequence, the Lion Localizer generates a listing of exact or partial matches, which are displayed on an interactive map of Africa. This allows for the rapid identification of potential regions and localities where lions have been or are presently being targeted by poachers. By examining the potential provenance of lion samples, the Lion Localizer serves as a valuable resource in the fight against lion poaching. The software is available at https://lionlocalizer.org. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic has revealed the fragility of pre-crisis African health systems, in which too little was invested over the past decades. Yet, development assistance for health (DAH) more than doubled between 2000 and 2020, raising questions about the role and effectiveness of DAH in triggering and sustaining health systems investments. This paper analyses the inter-regional variations and trends of DAH in Africa in relation to some key indicators of health system financing and service delivery performance, examining (1) the trends of DAH in the five regional economic communities of Africa since 2000; (2) the relationship between DAH spending and health system performance indicators and (3) the quantitative and qualitative dimensions of aid substitution for domestic financing, policy-making and accountability. Africa is diverse and the health financing picture has evolved differently in its subregions. DAH represents 10% of total spending in Africa in 2020, but DAH benefitted Southern Africa significantly more than other regions over the past two decades. Results in terms of progress towards universal health coverage (UHC) are slightly associated with DAH. Overall, DAH may also have substituted for public domestic funding and undermined the formation of sustainable UHC financing models. As the COVID-19 crisis hit, DAH did not increase at the country level. We conclude that the current architecture of official development assistance (ODA) is no longer fit for purpose. It requires urgent transformation to place countries at the centre of its use. Domestic financing of public health institutions should be at the core of African social contracts. We call for a deliberate reassessment of ODA modalities, repurposing DAH on what it could sustainably finance. Finally, we call for a new transparent framework to monitor DAH that captures its contribution to building institutions and systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper empirically shows that the imbalance between an ethnic group's political and military power is crucial to understanding the likelihood that such a group engages in a conflict. We develop a novel measure of a group's military power by combining machine-learning techniques with rich data on ethnic group characteristics and outcomes of civil conflicts in Africa and the Middle East. We couple this measure with available indicators of an ethnic group's political power as well as with a novel proxy based on information about the ethnicity of cabinet members. We find that groups characterized by a higher mismatch between military and political power are between 30% and 50% more likely to engage in a conflict against their government depending on the specification used. We also find that the effects of power mismatch are non-linear, which is in agreement with the predictions of a simple model that accounts for the cost of conflict. Moreover, our results suggest that high-mismatched groups are typically involved in larger and centrist conflicts. The policy implication is that power-sharing recommendations and institutional design policies for peace should consider primarily the reduction of power mismatches between relevant groups, rather than focusing exclusively on equalizing political power in isolation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Debates about legitimizing human rights in Africa have centred on making universal human rights principles relevant to local social and cultural contexts. Localizing human rights norms requires seeing human rights in terms of relevance to specific situations rather than as the application of abstract principles. In this paper, scholars and advocates analyse the challenges in the practice of human rights, with a focus on mothers impacted by albinism, whether as mothers of children with albinism or as mothers with albinism themselves. Women and girls impacted by albinism are particularly vulnerable to human rights violations and reflect the unfulfilled promise of the United Nations principle to 'Leave no one behind'. On account of intersecting factors—including denial of humanity; gendered stigma, discrimination and disenfranchisement; lack of access to the social determinants of health; and violence—mothers impacted by albinism are truly amongst those 'furthest behind'. Drawing on the frameworks of vernacularization and culturalization, we conceptualize and contextualize human rights in relation to the unique experiences of mothers impacted by albinism in Tanzania, South Africa, and Ghana. Our analysis takes up four particularities that pose challenges to protecting the rights of mothers impacted by albinism: personhood as foundation for human rights; the communal nature of human rights; proportionality and human rights; and the intersectional nature of human rights. These particularities shed light on human rights practice for mothers impacted by albinism and carry implications for human rights practice more broadly. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates the determinants of the disparities in the levels of democracy in Africa. Taking the end of the Cold War as a quasi-natural experiment for African countries, we find a robust positive relationship between the share of the emigrant population in the 1970s–1980s and the outcome of democratic transitions in the countries of origin of emigrants. Additionally, the effect of emigration on democracy decreases according to the duration of the migrant population in the host countries: the longer the duration of the migrant population, the greater the impact on democracy, ceteris paribus. The supportive evidence demonstrates that a larger population of emigrants enabled citizens to develop an independent civil society. In contrast, a small emigrant population during autocratic rule did not allow such development. In this case, the incumbents retained their bargaining power and determined the agenda of the transitions; consequently, institutional changes were less likely to occur. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is a chronic systemic autoimmune disease characterized by inflammation, pain, and cartilage and bone damage. There is currently no cure for RA. It is however managed using nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, corticosteroids and disease-modifying anti-rheumatic drugs, often with severe side effects. Hidden within Africa's lush vegetation are plants with diverse medicinal properties including anti-RA potentials. This paper reviews the scientific literature for medicinal plants, growing in Africa, with reported anti-RA activities and identifies the most abundant phytochemicals deserving research attention. A search of relevant published scientific literature, using the major search engines, such as Pubmed/Medline, Scopus, Google Scholar, etc. was conducted to identify medicinal plants, growing in Africa, with anti-RA potentials. Key findings Twenty plants belonging to 17 families were identified. The plants are rich in phytochemicals, predominantly quercetin, rutin, catechin, kaempferol, etc. known to affect some pathways relevant in RA initiation and progression, and therefore useful in its management. Summary Targeted research is needed to unlock the potentials of medicinal plants by developing easy-to-use technologies for preparing medicines from them. Research attention should focus on how best to exploit the major phytochemicals identified in this review for the development of anti-RA 'green pharmaceuticals'. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Mapanoioideae are one of two subfamilies of Cyperaceae and consist of 186 species. Molecular phylogenetic relationships in subfamily Cyperoideae have recently been studied well, whereas evolutionary relationships in Mapanioideae remain little known. Subfamily Mapanioideae include two tribes. This study focuses on Hypolytreae, which is represented by three genera in Africa (Hypolytrum , Mapania and Principina). In this paper, we present the first molecular phylogenetic study of African Hypolytreae using a Sanger sequencing approach. We aim to (1) test whether Hypolytrum , Mapania and Principina are reciprocally monophyletic; (2) investigate whether the morphologically based sections in Hypolytrum and Mapania represent monophyletic taxa; (3) resolve species delimitation where multiple accessions could be sequenced and (4) explore the relationships of species occurring in West Tropical Africa vs. Central Africa. Our phylogenetic analyses strongly support Mapania and Hypolytrum as separate genera, but Principina is nested in Hypolytrum. This result is consistent with morphological differences. Mapania spp. are obligate rainforest species, but our results show that species from West Tropical Africa and species from Central Africa do not form separate clades. Dispersal between these regions may have happened during interglacial periods when the rainforest was continuous. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Information about several papers discussed at a symposium on the social and economic development in Africa is presented. The Council for the Development of Social Science Research in Africa has provided grants for research and a variety of national, regional, and transnational research programs and projects. Historian Yusuf Bangura discussed his ongoing research into ethnicity and democracy in Africa.

Objectives Our paper highlights areas of interest to psychologists studying aging in Africa and what has already been learned about aspects of psychological aging from studies done in the African context. We also considered whether there are issues that are unique about aging in the African context that might challenge how aging is typically considered in psychology research. Methods We reviewed articles recently published in major gerontology journals focusing on African older adults, with the goal of identifying key themes of current geropsychology in Africa. Results We identified a number of dominant themes including: subjective aging, psychosocial impact of widowhood at old age, aging in place, stress and caregiving, cognitive aging, interrelations between HIV and aging, and successful aging. Discussion The themes of psychological aging research identified as especially relevant in Africa provide a starting point for psychological aging researchers in general to engage with the African context. Many African countries may be facing common challenges, but the existing studies are not fully representative of the aging population in the continent. Creating a framework for organizing and coordinating funding will help to address the limited research on geropsychology in Africa. Collaborative research projects/programs, joint classrooms, and fellowships that support African geropsychology scholars will be helpful. Geropsychology will benefit from more engagement with the African context by applying innovative approaches such as the adoption of longitudinal designs, mixed-method research, Experience Sampling Methods, translation of measures into indigenous languages, involvement of rural samples, and implementation science and community-engaged research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The African region of the World Health Organization (WHO) recently adopted a strategy aimed at more comprehensive care for noncommunicable diseases (NCDs) in the region. The WHO's World Health Assembly has also newly approved several ambitious disease-specific targets that raise the expectations of chronic care and plans to revise and update the NCD-Global Action Plan. These actions provide a critically needed opportunity for reflection and course correction in the global health response to NCDs. In this paper, we highlight the status of the indicators that are currently used to monitor progress towards global goals for chronic care. We argue that weak health systems and lack of access to basic NCD medicines and technologies have prevented many countries from achieving the level of progress required by the NCD epidemic, and current targets do little to address this reality. We identify gaps in existing metrics and explore opportunities to realign the targets with the pressing priorities facing today's health systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reflects on the god Dionysus in the context of African explorations of the role and meaning of Classical traditions in and for Africa. The problem of decolonization entails the creative challenge to conceive an African modernity, but how we shall recognize what that is to mean remains open. Knowledge as claim and contestation are foregrounded with Dionysus and in his presence. He is a figure who is chronically misprised, so that misprision itself becomes a feature of his experience and meaning. Offering examples of two kinds of popular interpretive stances and arguing that they represent typical but weak readings, the idea is developed that Africa requires elenchus as hermeneutic ideal, an epistemic pessimism and commitment to seeking as it finds its own way. It ought not, from a peripheral position, to adopt or reject the popular and low-yielding misprisions and cultural contestations that obtain in the Western academy and offer little to a flowering African Humanities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Against the backdrop of growing public discourse about the usefulness, legitimacy and effectiveness of the investor-State dispute settlement (ISDS) system, this article reviews the participation of African States in international investment arbitration and analyzes some of the cases involving African States in claims initiated under the Convention on the Settlement of Investment Disputes Between States and Nationals of Other States (the "ICSID Convention"). Specifically, the article reviews ICSID cases involving African States in which decisions were reached on the merit [i.e. the tribunal determined whether the challenged measure breached any substantive obligation in an international investment agreement (IIA)]. Focus is on cases where claimants alleged violation of the fair and equitable treatment (FET) obligation and cases where expropriation, both direct and indirect were alleged. A review of cases involving African States suggests that there is no African peculiarity or specialty in terms of the awards and analysis of arbitral tribunals. In cases involving African States, ICSID tribunals appear to be guided primarily by the provisions of applicable texts (IIAs, contracts, and legislation) and ICSID case law rather than by the status of a Respondent State as developing or least developed. The paper raises important questions about the development dimension of the ISDS system or the lack thereof, and could contribute to current debates about ISDS reform and the need for sustainable development-oriented reform of IIAs more broadly. The paper also sheds light on the risks that broad and vague provisions in IIAs pose for host States and calls attention to the capacity constraints that limit meaningful IIA reform in Africa. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Announces the African Studies Center and the International Labor Organization's holding of a workshop on de-agrarianization and rural employment opportunities in the Sub-Saharan region. Date; Venue; Contact person.

A conference paper about the protection of refugees and asylum-seekers and the other aspects of the refugee situation in Africa is presented. The recurrent problems in the system of refugee protection and the efforts to reach appropriate solutions are identified. Also presented is an overview of the stipulations under the OAU Convention Governing the Specific Aspects of the Refugee Problem in Africa. The role of the national human rights institution in Africa in the promotion of refugee protection is also described.

In Bangladesh and West Bengal cholera is seasonal, transmission occurs consistently annually. By contrast, in most African countries, cholera has inconsistent seasonal patterns and long periods without obvious transmission. Transmission patterns in Africa occur during intermittent outbreaks followed by elimination of that genetic lineage. Later another outbreak may occur because of reintroduction of new or evolved lineages from adjacent areas, often by human travelers. These then subsequently undergo subsequent elimination. The frequent elimination and reintroduction has several implications when planning for cholera's elimination including: a) reconsidering concepts of definition of elimination, b) stress on rapid detection and response to outbreaks, c) more effective use of oral cholera vaccine and WASH, d) need to readjust estimates of disease burden for Africa, e) re-examination of water as a reservoir for maintaining endemicity in Africa. This paper reviews major features of cholera's epidemiology in African countries which appear different from the Ganges Delta. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article looks at the role of finance within a traditional form of capitalism. In essence, it was a component of a dynamic process which relied on classical production functions to create value. This contrasts with its more recent role in which financial value creation happens in isolation of production. It tries to tease out the implications for Africa as well as for the future of capitalism. The conclusion reached is that Africa is ripe for that traditional role of finance, but not for its modern variant. Policy choices will determine which options dominate investment decisions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Over 90% of deaths attributable to malaria are in African children under 5 years old. Yet, new treatments are often tested primarily in adult patients and extrapolations have proven to be sometimes invalid, especially in dosing regimens. For studies in severe malaria an additional complication is that the decline in severe malaria in adult patients precludes sufficiently powered trials in adults, before the intervention can be tested in the ultimate target group, paediatric severe malaria. In this paper we propose an alternative pathway to the development of drugs for use in paediatric severe malaria. We argue that following the classical phase I and II studies, small safety and efficacy studies using well-chosen surrogate endpoints in adult severe malaria be conducted, instead of larger mortality endpoint trials. If the drug appears safe and promising small pilot studies in paediatric severe malaria using the same endpoints can follow. Finally, with carefully observed safeguards in place to ensure high ethical standards, promising candidate interventions can be taken forward into mortality endpoint, well-powered, large paediatric studies in African children with severe malaria. Given the available research capacity, limited numbers of prudently selected interventions can be studied in phase III trials, and adaptive designs should be considered. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper compares the historical development of innovation systems related to biogas and improved cooking stove technologies in Rwanda and Kenya by applying the 'functions approach'. It argues that the accumulation of functions in these four renewable energy technological innovation systems (TISs) differed substantially. We find that the accumulation of TIS functions at early stages of development is determined more by national and international contextual factors than by specificities related to technologies or internal dynamics (interaction of functions). Further examination of the functional patterns of TISs suggests that differences in the accumulation rates of functions explain the differences in diffusion rates, with broader and more balanced TIS functional accumulation being related to higher diffusion rates. The paper concludes that systematic support, including well-directed international development assistance, would enable the development of mature and balanced TISs that nurture the diffusion of renewable energy technologies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]