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How do public procurement practices influence effective public financial management (PFM) in Africa? Notwithstanding the several public procurement reforms to improve PFM in Africa, outcomes have not been sustainable. Prior studies have failed to explain this phenomenon. With a descriptive case study design based on comprehensive datasets, this paper explains this situation with three key factors underlying the public procurement environment in three African countries: Ethiopia, Central African Republic, and Ghana. From the agency theory lenses, these factors affect the agency cost in public administrative systems necessary for addressing the agency problems in public procurement management towards desired PFM outcomes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates the geochemistry of bulk rock and infers the petrogenesis of ultramafic rocks in the Boali Precambrian terrane in Mbi Valley, in the North of the Central African Republic (CAR). The studied rocks comprise coarse primary olivine and orthopyroxene relics (dominant phase), magnesio-hornblende, magnetite, and antigorite. Whole-rock analysis indicates low SiO2 (average of 43.14 wt%) and high MgO (19.84–26.98 wt%) contents and their Mg number (Mg#) ranges from 74 to 82. They display high Ni (526–865 ppm), Cr (1500–3680 ppm) contents. AFM (Na2O-K2O)-FeO-MgO) and ACM (Al2O3-CaO-MgO) ternary diagrams have revealed that the studied samples correspond to arc-related ultramafic cumulates. Chondrite-normalized REE plots display an increasing trend from La to Sm (CeN/SmN: 0.74–1.81), weak negative to no Eu (Eu/Eu* = 0.72–1.05) and strong negative Ce (Ce/Ce* = 0.33–0.98) anomalies. Primitive mantle normalized of multi-element diagrams exhibit LREE enrichment and large ion lithophile elements (LILE) relative to high field strength elements (HFSE), and notable negative anomalies in Nb. This suggests the generation of the parent melt by slab dehydration and wedge melting processes. In addition, incompatible trace element composition and ratios assumed that the source magma had an enhanced mantle source associated with a prominent influence of continental crust. Metasomatism of mantle wedge by plate-dehydrated, LILE-rich fluids and the incorporation of sediments derived from subduction explain the enhancement of the source. Integrated major and trace element compositions jointly with the tectonic reconstruction of this region and LA-ICP-MS U–Pb data on zircon constrain the emplacement age at ca. 2099 Ma in a continental margin arc setting involving subduction of an oceanic plate beneath the continental lithosphere, dehydration of the slab and mantle wedge melting. This result intimate that the remnants of Paleoproterozoic oceanic crust or subduction event and subsequent basins closure extended from the Congo craton in Cameroon to CAR and NE Brazil. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives: With a fourth of all under-five children affected, stunting remains one of the biggest health challenges worldwide. Even though the main underlying factors are known, the exact pathways to stunting varying in affected regions, and interventions thus need to be tailored to the local contexts. This study aimed assessing and comparing factors associated with stunting in two understudied sub-Saharan urban contexts with some of the highest stunting prevalence globally: Bangui, Central African Republic (~ 36%) and Antananarivo, Madagascar (42%). Methods: We performed a case–control study on 175 + 194 stunted and 237 + 230 non-stunted control children aged 2–5 years and matched for age, gender and district of residency. Factors associated with stunting were identified using a standardized, paper questionnaire delivered by trained interviewers. Statistical analysis was done using logistic regression modelling. Results: In both sites, formal maternal education lowered the risk of being stunted and restricted access to soap, suffering of anaemia and low birth weight were associated with higher risk of stunting. Short maternal stature, household head different from parents, diarrhoea and coughing were associated with an increased risk and continuing breastfeeding was associated with a lower risk of stunting in Antananarivo. Previous severe undernutrition and dermatitis/ fungal skin infections were associated with higher and changes in diet during pregnancy with lower risk of stunting in Bangui. Conclusions: Our results suggest maternal education, antenatal care, iron supplementation and simple WASH interventions such as using soap and infection control as general and breastfeeding (Antananarivo) or better nutrition (Bangui) as area-specified interventions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines how innovative skills and knowledge are transmitted and acquired among adolescents in two hunter-gatherer communities, the Aka of southern Central African Republic and the Chabu of southwestern Ethiopia. Modes of transmission and processes of social learning are addressed. Innovation as well as social learning have been hypothesized to be key features of human cumulative culture, enhancing the fitness and survival of individuals in diverse environments. The innovation literature indicates adult males are more innovative than children and female adults and therefore predicts that adolescents will seek out adult males. Further, the mode of transmission should be oblique (i.e., learning from adults other than parents). Thus, learning of innovations should be oblique or horizontal rather than vertical, with adolescents paying particular attention to "successful" innovative individuals (prestige bias). The social learning literature indicates that complex skills or knowledge is likely to be learned through teaching, and therefore that teaching will be an important process in the transmission of innovations. In-depth and semi-structured interviews, informal observations, and systematic free-listing were used to evaluate these hypotheses. The study found that (1) cultural context patterned whether or not adolescents sought out adult male or female innovators; (2) oblique modes of transmission were mentioned with greater frequency than horizontal or vertical modes; (3) knowledge and skill bias was notable and explicitly linked by the adolescents to reproductive effort; and (4) teaching was biased toward same-sex individuals and was an important but not an exclusive means of transmitting complex skills and social knowledge. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyses the efficiency of public spending in the education and health sectors of Cameroon, Chad and Central African Republic. It also examines the institution and economic factors influencing spending efficiency in these sectors in the countries selected for the period 2000-2012. The public sector efficiency scores are estimated in the first stage by using the non-parametric Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) approach while in the second stage, the panel data Tobit and the Fractional Logit regression techniques are used to determine the effect of institutional and economic factors on public spending efficiency in the education and health sectors. The results from the estimation show that Cameroon is more efficient than Chad and Central African Republic in its public spending in education and health. Chad is least efficient in public spending in education, although it spends more on education as compared to the other countries in the study. The results also indicate that the quality of budgetary and financial management has a positive and statistically significant influence on efficiency while corruption has a negative and significant influence on public spending efficiency in the education and health sectors. The results put together recommend that efforts should be put in place to curb corruption and improve on the quality of budgetary and financial management. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The study aimed to estimate the prevalence and associated factors of undiagnosed hypertension (HTN) among adults in the Central African Republic (CAR). In the cross-sectional 2017 CAR (Bangui and Ombella M'Poko) STEPS survey, 3265 persons aged 25 to 64 years (non-pregnant and with complete blood pressure measurement), responded to an interview, biomedical and physical, including blood pressure, measurements. Undiagnosed HTN was classified as systolic BP ≥ 140 mmHg and/or diastolic BP ≥ 90 mmHg among adults who had never been told by a doctor or other health worker that they had raised blood pressure or hypertension and had not been taking antihypertensive medication. Binary logistic regressions are used to estimate factors associated with undiagnosed HTN. Among those with HTN (N = 1373), the proportion of undiagnosed HTN was 69.8% and 30.2% diagnosed HTN. In the adjusted logistic regression analysis, male sex (AOR: 2.12, 95% CI 1.39–3.23), current tobacco use (AOR: 1.58, 95% CI 1.03–2.42), and high physical activity (AOR: 1.93, 95% CI 1.00–3.71) were positively associated, and age (AOR: 0.75, 95% CI 0.59–0.96), and underweight (AOR: 0.58, 95% CI 0.37–0.90) were inversely associated with undiagnosed HTN. In addition, among men, ever screened for glucose (AOR: 0.07, 95% CI 0.02–0.27) was negatively associated with undiagnosed HTN, and among women, married or cohabiting (AOR: 1.20, 95% CI 1.00–1.44), current heavy drinking (AOR: 1.41, 95% CI 1.04–1.91) were positively associated with undiagnosed HTN. Seven in ten of the adult population with HTN had undiagnosed HTN in CAR. Efforts should be reinforced to screen for HTN in the general population. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We examine the opportunities children have for interacting with others and the extent to which they are the focus of others' visual attention in five societies where extended family communities are the norm. We compiled six video-recorded datasets (two from one society) collected by a team of anthropologists and psychologists conducting long-term research in each society. The six datasets include video observations of children among the Yasawas (Fiji), Tanna (Vanuatu), Tsimane (Bolivia), Huatasani (Peru), and Aka (infants and children 4–12 years old; Central African Republic). Each dataset consists of a series of videos of children ranging in age from 2 months to 12 years in their everyday contexts. We coded 998 videos and identified with whom children had opportunities to interact (male and female adults and children) as well as the number of individuals and the proportion of observed time that children spent with these individuals. We also examined the proportion of time children received direct visual gaze (indicating attention to the child). Our results indicate that children less than 5 years old spend the majority of their observed time in the presence of one female adult. This is the case across the five societies. In the three societies from which we have older children (Aka, Yasawa, Peru), we find a clear shift around 5 years of age, with children spending the majority of their time with other children. We also coded the presence or absence of a primary caregiver and found that caregivers remained within 2 ft of target children until 7 years of age. When they were in the company of a primary caregiver, children older than seven spent the majority of their time more than 2 ft from the caregiver. We found a consistent trend across societies with decreasing focal attention on the child with increasing child age. These findings show (1) remarkable consistency across these societies in children's interaction opportunities and (2) that a developmental approach is needed to fully understand human development because the social context is dynamic across the lifespan. These data can serve as a springboard for future research examining social development in everyday contexts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is still unclear to what extent animals possess knowledge of death. Primates display a large variety and often contradictory behaviors toward conspecific corpses, particularly those of infants (e.g., prolonged carrying and care). This study reports on reactions in a wild, habituated western gorilla group (Gorilla gorilla, 11–13 individuals) in the Central African Republic to an unanimated conspecific infant, and to an allospecific corpse. Individuals' reactions were compared to their usual behavior using both continuous focal animal sampling and 10-min instantaneous scan sampling. In the first observation, an infant gorilla fell out of a tree and looked dead. The mother retrieved it and remained unusually close to another adult female, until the infant started to move again, almost 1 h later. Cases of infants regaining consciousness after almost-fatal accidents may act as positive reinforcement for continued carrying by mothers, which might be socially learned. In the second case, three immature gorillas reacted to a dead red river hog. For 20 min they stared at the corpse from tree branches above, while chest beating, defecating, and urinating several times. They showed fear and did not approach the corpse. These observations show that non-predatory species, such as gorillas, may be able to acquire and develop some knowledge about death even though they do not kill other vertebrates. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Field Emission SEM (FESEM) textural observations, crystal size distribution (CSD) analyses, UV-excited luminescence imaging, and photoluminescence (PL) microspectroscopy excited by 488 nm laser were conducted on two texturally contrasting samples of carbonado, a kind of natural polycrystalline diamond from the Central African Republic (CAR). The investigated carbonado samples A and B show extremely different textures: sample A is made up of faceted crystals accompanied by abundant, small rectangular pores, whereas sample B has a granular texture with coarser crystals and scarce, large pores. Diamond crystals smaller than 2-3 µm are enriched in sample A but depleted in sample B. These textural features indicate that sample B diamonds were annealed under thermodynamically stable P-T conditions. The pore characteristics indicate that fluid permeability was higher for sample A than sample B. Photoluminescence (PL) spectra indicate that samples A and B correspond to Group A and B carbonados in the classification of Kagi et al. (1994), respectively, so that sample A reveals emissions from the H3 center without any N-V derived emission at 575 nm, whereas sample B shows emissions from the 3H center and the N-V defect. In addition, UV-excited luminescence images and photoluminescence spectra for sample B indicate that the rims of diamond crystals within several microns of a pore show luminescence features similar to those of Group AB carbonados (Kagi et al., 1994), indicating that this Group AB material was formed from Group B by irradiation from pore-filling, radioactive-element-bearing materials at a low temperature. The extent of the low-temperature irradiation is considered to depend on fluid permeability, and the Group A material was strongly irradiated due to its permeable texture whereas the Group B material was not significantly irradiated due to its less permeable granular texture. These results indicate that Group B carbonados have retained their original PL spectral features produced under high pressures and temperatures at mantle depths. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]