19 research outputs found
"All of the problems of poverty are brought because of being disabled": Particularities of poverty experienced by persons with disabilities in Western Province
No full textBACKGROUND: In qualitative research about the lived experience of disability in Western Province in Zambia, persons with disabilities spoke frequently and emphatically about poverty. This is unsurprising as this province is consistently identified as having high levels of poverty. However, in the participants’ narratives, it was striking that poverty was often presented as a condition experienced exclusively by persons with disabilities. This finding creates a dilemma for efforts to address poverty among persons with disabilities: should their poverty be thought of as distinct from, or similar to, the poverty experienced by persons without disabilities? Purpose: To explore how these people with disabilities discussed poverty, with particular attention to narratives that are particular to persons with disabilities and those that could be common to persons with and without disabilities. METHODS: This study was a secondary analysis of data generated for a constructionist qualitative research project. The participants were 81 persons with diverse forms of disability from an urban and a rural community in Western Province. Data were generated through eight focus group discussions and 39 interviews. In the primary analysis, emergent nodes were derived from the transcribed data using NVivo 10. Nodes related to poverty were reviewed through the secondary data analysis to address the study purpose. RESULTS: The secondary analysis identified multiple aspects of the experience of poverty that were particular to the situation of these persons with disabilities. These aspects included those where a disability reduced the ability to acquire resources through loans, income, or physical tasks. There were also increased expenses related to disability, such as paying for things that others just do, or the costs to mothers with disabilities to raising children after being abandoned by their husbands. Other aspects of the experience of poverty were not clearly traced to disability. Examples of these included restricted access to starter capital for small business ventures and cost barriers to education and skills training. CONCLUSIONS: This study helps to inform a “twin-track approach” to poverty alleviation and development. The aspects of the poverty experience that are particular to persons with disabilities are potential targets for disability-specific action. Other aspects could be common to the experience of poverty for persons with and without disabilities and therefore opportunities for persons with disabilities to seek inclusion into the mainstream movements
Health worker perspectives on user fee removal in Zambia.
No full textBACKGROUND: User fees for primary care services were removed in rural districts in Zambia in 2006. Experience from other countries has suggested that health workers play a key role in determining the success of a fee removal policy, but also find the implementation of such a policy challenging. The policy was introduced against a backdrop of a major shortage in qualified health staff. METHODS: As part of a larger study on the experience and effect of user fee removal in Zambia, a number of case studies at the facility level were conducted. As part of these, quantitative and qualitative data were collected to evaluate health workers' satisfaction and experiences in charging and non-charging facilities. RESULTS: Our findings show that health-care workers have mixed feelings about the policy change and its consequences. We found some evidence that personnel motivation was higher in non-charging facilities compared to facilities still charging. Yet it is unclear whether this effect was due to differences in the user fee policy or to the fact that a lot of staff interviewed in non-charging facilities were working in mission facilities, where we found a significantly higher motivation. Health workers expressed satisfaction with an apparent increase in the number of patients visiting the facilities and the removal of a deterring factor for many needy patients, but also complained about an increased workload. Furthermore, working conditions were said to have worsened, which staff felt was linked to the absence of additional resources to deal with the increased demand or replace the loss of revenue generated by fees. CONCLUSION: These findings highlight the need to pay attention to supply-side measures when removing demand-side barriers such as user fees and in particular to be concerned about the burden that increased demand can place on already over-stretched health workers
The Boom–Bust Cycle of Global Copper Prices, Structural Change, and Industrial Development in Zambia
No full textReview of Morten Jerven, Poor Numbers: How We Are Misled by African Development Statistics and What to Do about It
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Understanding the implications of the boom-bust cycle of global copper prices for natural resources, structural change, and industrial development in Zambia
No full textThis paper is about understanding the cycle of global copper price booms and busts over Zambia's economic history. We explore how the mining industry has been managed, and wider economic management during boom periods. We find that successive Zambian governments did not use copper revenues to accumulate productive assets, focusing instead on financing consumption subsidies and sustaining inefficient state-owned companies. In recent times, Zambia has accumulated worryingly high levels of sovereign debt with virtually no prospect of official debt relief. Nonetheless, a reasonable chance exists of avoiding debt distress, provided the authorities consistently pursue strong fiscal management and discipline. Ultimately, Zambia's ability to ringfence and prudently use the mineral revenues from copper mining in building productive capacities remains elusive. Instead recurrent consumption expenditure demands dominate the fiscal landscape and the agenda of the fiscal authorities
The role of the construction sector in influencing natural resource use, structural change, and industrial development in Zambia
No full textThe construction sector plays a critical role in delivering quality infrastructure, which in turn influences the use of natural resource revenues towards achieving structural change and industrial development. We use industrial organization and political economy lenses to describe and understand the organization of and changes in the construction industry in Zambia, focusing on demand-side factors; supply-side issues; market interactions through pricing and costs; and public institutions, regulations, policies, and structures. We establish the main firm-level, industry-wide, and macroeconomic bottlenecks affecting Zambia's construction sector and offer options for dealing with the key bottlenecks. In particular, we suggest: institutional reforms and legal and regulatory changes governing procurement and contracting rules and systems; training and other capacity-building programmes; greater access for local contractors to existing financing sources, including the Skill Development Levy; a review and update of the local content and subcontracting strategy and policy; and state-supported and -financed/-resourced research and development programmes
Are funding decisions based on performance? : a comparison of approaches as practiced by the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, the U.S. President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, and the World Bank's Multi-Country AIDS Program for Africa in Mozambique, Uganda, and Zambia
No full textWith contributions from William Okedi, Caesar Cheelo, Dirce Costa, Freddie Ssengooba, Eleásara Antunes, Bona Chitah, Elizabeth Ekirapa Kiracho, Lutangu Ingombe, Sylvia Mwamba, and David WendtTo better understand the relationship of funding decisions to demonstrated achievements, the report analyzes and compares approaches to performance-based funding of three of the largest global AIDS donors: the U.S. President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR); the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria (the Global Fund); and the World Bank’s Multi-Country HIV/ AIDS Program for Africa (the MAP). The recommendations offer ways for donors to improve their current systems while laying the groundwork for more performance-based funding systems in the future
The Developmental State in Zambia: Plausibility, Challenges, and Lessons from South Korea
No full textThe major focus of this occasional paper publication is on lessons drawn from a comparative analysis between Zambian and South Korean experiences as developmental states since the 1960s. This publication offers important insights to policy making in addressing issues of development and structural transformation in attempting to determine how a successful developmental state uses capable institutions to steer and govern transformation and sustainable, inclusive development.The Cornell Institute for African Development (IAD), Southern African Institute for Policy and Research (SAIPAR), African Development Bank (AfDB
Zeroing in : AIDS donors and Africa's health workforce; six tasks for the U.S. President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, and the World Bank's Multi-Country HIV/AIDS Program for Africa to Strengthen the Health Workforce in Mozambique, Uganda, and Zambia
No full textWith contributions from William Okedi, Caesar Cheelo, Dirce Costa, Freddie Ssengooba, Suzanne Kiwanuka, Elizabeth Ekirapa-Kiracho, Moses Arinaitwe, Aloysius Mutebi, Sylvia Mwamba-Shalumba, Martha Conkling, Brian Munkombwe, Abson Chompolola, Lillian Muchimba-Sinyangwe, and Manenga NduloA strong health workforce is necessary to expand and sustain progress on HIV/AIDS outcomes. In this report, local research collaborators in Mozambique, Uganda, and Zambia investigated how AIDS donors train and employ health workers for AIDS programs and how these activities have distorted the health workforce. The paper opens space for discussion regarding AIDS donors in terms of the imbalance of health care workers in countries with severe shortages of health personnel. Evidence from cross-country analysis and AIDS donor statements show that donors have relied more on task-shifting, in-service training, and community health workers than on training new health workers
