International Development Research Centre: IDRC Digital Library
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Improving traditional fish drying technology design for women fish vendors in Nigeria
Get PDFFishing is the main occupation of the people of Akwa Ibom state of Nigeria. Women constitute more than 90% of the personnel involved in traditional fish preservation, handling, and marketing. The study was concerned with improved and gendered design of traditional fish Drying Technology, to address some lagging challenges in operations in the traditional fish drying cottage industry. Traditional fish drying methods are inadequate, inconveniencing, and dangerous to health. The team used questionnaires, interviews, and focus group discussions to identify the main hazards and challenges experienced by women fish processors and vendors. With this data, they designed improved fish drying technology prototypes in hopes of changing the industry to improve conditions for women
Recovering from COVID : building resilience in select African economies
Get PDFThis policy insight is a synthesis of case studies of six middle- and low-income countries across sub-Saharan Africa, investigating the impact of, and policy responses to, the COVID shock of 2020–21. It also evaluates them against longer-term developmental objectives of social inclusivity and climate resilience. Comparative data analysis is undertaken with a view to developing financial capacity, climate-friendliness, and vulnerability–inclusivity indices. Policy recommendations are guided by the question of how to develop Africa’s resilience to shocks through the COVID recovery period (2021–2024) and beyond
Data balancing techniques for predicting student dropout using machine learning
Get PDFPredicting student dropout is a challenging problem in the education sector. This is due to an imbalance in student dropout data, mainly because the number of registered students is always higher than the number of dropout students. Developing a model without taking the data imbalance issue into account may lead to an ungeneralized model. In this study, different data balancing techniques were applied to improve prediction accuracy in the minority class while maintaining a satisfactory overall classification performance. Random Over Sampling, Random Under Sampling, Synthetic Minority Over Sampling, SMOTE with Edited Nearest Neighbor and SMOTE with Tomek links were tested, along with three popular classification models: Logistic Regression, Random Forest, and Multi-Layer Perceptron. Publicly accessible datasets from Tanzania and India were used to evaluate the effectiveness of balancing techniques and prediction models. The results indicate that SMOTE with Edited Nearest Neighbor achieved the best classification performance on the 10-fold holdout sample. Furthermore, Logistic Regression correctly classified the largest number of dropout students (57348 for the Uwezo dataset and 13430 for the India dataset) using the confusion matrix as the evaluation matrix. The applications of these models allow for the precise prediction of at-risk students and the reduction of dropout rates
Supporting continuous learning and education system resiliency in Latin America
Get PDFThis final technical report shows the results and findings of three specific projects that investigate various dimensions of the educational system that are associated with the impact the COVID-19 pandemic has had in the provision of quality and equitable education. The overall objective is to study critical factors in the educational system that can support continuous learning and education system resiliency in several countries in Latin America and the global south. Concretely, the first subproject conducted attempts to identify and improve the capacity of educational systems in the Global South to deliver quality and equitable education at distance. This is done by characterizing the level of preparedness countries have for providing distance Learning. This project is called Distance Learning Readiness Index for the Global South. It is conducted in 12 countries, in three regions: Latin America and the Caribbean, Africa and Asia
TPD at scale and innovation in teacher professional development - Russian
No full textFrench version available in IDRC Digital Library : TPD at scale and innovation in teacher professional development - FrenchArabic version available in IDRC Digital Library : TPD at scale and innovation in teacher professional development - Arabi
STEM classification of CBO-2002 occupations and Brazillian HEC fields of education
No full textWe provide .csv tables classifying CBO-2002 occupations (Classificação Brasileira de Ocupações) into STEM and non-STEM occupations, as well as INEP’s HEC's (Higher Education Census) fields of education classification of STEM degrees in Brazil. In addition to the tables, we also provide reports in .pdf format with a guide and full disclosure of the classification processes. In Brazil, there is no official taxonomy of STEM jobs or educational fields. As a result, the few existing analysis of STEM jobs and education in Brazil use their own, generally vague, classifications and are not transparent about the classification criteria. We seek to fill this gap in the STEM taxonomy and literature by providing unprecedented classification of STEM occupations and higher-education degrees in Brazil
Technologies for another form of construction : experiences by women from popular movements
Get PDFPortuguese version available in IDRC Digital Library : Tecnologias para outra forma de construção : experiências de mulheres de movimentos popularesThe research project is based on a housing movement called “Mutirão” which emerged at the end of the 1980s, where residential areas were constructed on the outskirts of populated cities in Brazil. This collective activity is usually led by women (around 80%) who organize, coordinate, and work on-site. This study deploys the female perspective that has been systematically erased by colonial and patriarchal orders, to redesign construction sites, materials, tools, and techniques and deconstruct the barriers created by sexual division of labour. Through participatory processes and workshops, this study uses female perspectives to resurrect ancestral construction techniques, such as the Pana: a fabric that serves both as an object for daily activities such as for carrying things around, and as a manual that outlines technologies and construction techniques from women in different territories of Brazil
Improving dietary and health data for decision-making in agriculture and nutrition actions in Africa
Get PDFChild malnutrition is one of the most used indicators for tracking progress towards attainment of Sustainable Development Goal 2 (SDG2) and the impacts of development interventions. Unfortunately, the current methods for collecting child nutrition indicators require considerable training, are slow and are expensive to collect data accurately. In this project, we developed and tested a mobile smartphone-based platform called Mbiotisho which means our health in Samburu, one of the local languages in Kenya), by which households can easily collect, submit, and access information on their and their children’s nutritional status in near-real time and at extremely low cost. Over the course of four years, we piloted and implemented the application in four locations
Is Senegal on the right track to achieve its NDC commitments?
Get PDFThis paper assesses the extent to which Senegal’s macroeconomic policy actions both during and after the COVID-19 pandemic have been in line with its commitments to its Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC) targets. For the past decade the country has developed various policies to address the effects of climate change. Access to finance has played an instrumental role in developing bankable projects, mainly through international funding support. However, the available funds are insufficient, given the needs of the country and the complexity of funding mechanisms. To date, the implementation of Senegal’s NDC has been largely unsatisfactory. A comprehensive national measurement reporting and verification and supportive monitoring and evaluation system could increase transparency and strengthen efforts made in terms of climate adaptation and mitigation