16 research outputs found
Impact of joint forest management on forest resource base and livelihoods of communities in Amani nature reserve, Muheza district, Tanzania
No full textJoint Forest Management (JFM) is an institutional arrangement considered to be a proper
way forward for alleviating forest degradation. However, since the inception of JFM in
Amani Nature Reserve (ANR), its impacts to the forest resource base and livelihoods of
surrounding communities is not clearly known. Therefore the study assesses the impacts of
JFM on both forest resource base and livelihoods of the local communities around ANR.
Forest inventory was carried out by laying out 30 sample plots systematically. In the plots,
diameter at breast height and heights of all the trees were measured, recorded and tree
species were identified. Livelihood attributes were collected using a questionnaire,
checklist for key informants and a number of PRA techniques. To assess impact, both
inventory and livelihoods data were compared between 2001 and 2005. Microsoft Excel
Software was used to analyse quantitative data for various forest parameters. Data
collected during PRA were analyzed with the help of the local community. Content and
structural-functional analyses were applied to analyse socio-economic qualitative data.
Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) was used to analyse the socio economic
quantitative data. Logistic regression analysis model was developed to identify socio-
economic factors influencing participation of local communities surrounding ANR in JFM.
The study found that 3043 ± 360 (SE) stems per hectare were obtained in 2005 compared
to 1762 ± 225(SE)) of 2001 indicating significant increase (t = 3.09; p=0.004) though,
dominated by small diameter class of 2.5-10cm. The basal area and wood volume
decreased suggesting that there was tree cutting in ANR. Species diversity indices
increased from 3.271 to 3.379 between 2001 and 2005 indicating that the forest is still
facing human disturbance. Training sessions in JFM, tree planting, income shared from
forest under JFM and engagement of household in economic groups significantly (p<0.05)
increased the odds of participation of local communities by factors of 17.986, 45.894,
10.658 and 7.671 respectively. Household income and improved housing standards
significantly (p<0.05) influenced JFM performance. Poor monitoring capability as an
indicator of weaknesses in governance contributed to JFM to have negative impact on
basal area and wood. The study observed a positive impact on livelihoods. The study
among other things recommended improvement of in governance by ensuring transparency
and clear responsibilities of Village Natural Resources Committees
Impact of joint forest management on forest resource base and livelihoods of communities in Amani nature reserve, Muheza district, Tanzania
No full textJoint Forest Management (JFM) is an institutional arrangement considered to be a proper
way forward for alleviating forest degradation. However, since the inception of JFM in
Amani Nature Reserve (ANR), its impacts to the forest resource base and livelihoods of
surrounding communities is not clearly known. Therefore the study assesses the impacts of
JFM on both forest resource base and livelihoods of the local communities around ANR.
Forest inventory was carried out by laying out 30 sample plots systematically. In the plots,
diameter at breast height and heights of all the trees were measured, recorded and tree
species were identified. Livelihood attributes were collected using a questionnaire,
checklist for key informants and a number of PRA techniques. To assess impact, both
inventory and livelihoods data were compared between 2001 and 2005. Microsoft Excel
Software was used to analyse quantitative data for various forest parameters. Data
collected during PRA were analyzed with the help of the local community. Content and
structural-functional analyses were applied to analyse socio-economic qualitative data.
Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) was used to analyse the socio economic
quantitative data. Logistic regression analysis model was developed to identify socio-
economic factors influencing participation of local communities surrounding ANR in JFM.
The study found that 3043 ± 360 (SE) stems per hectare were obtained in 2005 compared
to 1762 ± 225(SE)) of 2001 indicating significant increase (t = 3.09; p=0.004) though,
dominated by small diameter class of 2.5-10cm. The basal area and wood volume
decreased suggesting that there was tree cutting in ANR. Species diversity indices
increased from 3.271 to 3.379 between 2001 and 2005 indicating that the forest is still
facing human disturbance. Training sessions in JFM, tree planting, income shared from
forest under JFM and engagement of household in economic groups significantly (p<0.05)
increased the odds of participation of local communities by factors of 17.986, 45.894,
10.658 and 7.671 respectively. Household income and improved housing standards
significantly (p<0.05) influenced JFM performance. Poor monitoring capability as an
indicator of weaknesses in governance contributed to JFM to have negative impact on
basal area and wood. The study observed a positive impact on livelihoods. The study
among other things recommended improvement of in governance by ensuring transparency
and clear responsibilities of Village Natural Resources Committees
Impact of joint forest management on forest resource base and livelihoods of communities in Amani nature reserve, Muheza district, Tanzania
No full textJoint Forest Management (JFM) is an institutional arrangement considered to be a proper
way forward for alleviating forest degradation. However, since the inception of JFM in
Amani Nature Reserve (ANR), its impacts to the forest resource base and livelihoods of
surrounding communities is not clearly known. Therefore the study assesses the impacts of
JFM on both forest resource base and livelihoods of the local communities around ANR.
Forest inventory was carried out by laying out 30 sample plots systematically. In the plots,
diameter at breast height and heights of all the trees were measured, recorded and tree
species were identified. Livelihood attributes were collected using a questionnaire,
checklist for key informants and a number of PRA techniques. To assess impact, both
inventory and livelihoods data were compared between 2001 and 2005. Microsoft Excel
Software was used to analyse quantitative data for various forest parameters. Data
collected during PRA were analyzed with the help of the local community. Content and
structural-functional analyses were applied to analyse socio-economic qualitative data.
Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) was used to analyse the socio economic
quantitative data. Logistic regression analysis model was developed to identify socio-
economic factors influencing participation of local communities surrounding ANR in JFM.
The study found that 3043 ± 360 (SE) stems per hectare were obtained in 2005 compared
to 1762 ± 225(SE)) of 2001 indicating significant increase (t = 3.09; p=0.004) though,
dominated by small diameter class of 2.5-10cm. The basal area and wood volume
decreased suggesting that there was tree cutting in ANR. Species diversity indices
increased from 3.271 to 3.379 between 2001 and 2005 indicating that the forest is still
facing human disturbance. Training sessions in JFM, tree planting, income shared from
forest under JFM and engagement of household in economic groups significantly (p<0.05)
increased the odds of participation of local communities by factors of 17.986, 45.894,
10.658 and 7.671 respectively. Household income and improved housing standards
significantly (p<0.05) influenced JFM performance. Poor monitoring capability as an
indicator of weaknesses in governance contributed to JFM to have negative impact on
basal area and wood. The study observed a positive impact on livelihoods. The study
among other things recommended improvement of in governance by ensuring transparency
and clear responsibilities of Village Natural Resources Committees
ICT for Improving Financial Access in Informal Sector
No full textAccess to finance is an important factor for the sustainability and growth of business. Lack of finance means that, the business will operate under-optimal and cannot enjoy economies of scale. This article explores the difficulties of informal sector access to formal finance. The author offers means by which information and communication technology (ICT) can help bridge that gap. The study carried out asystematic literature review where several articles from Sub-Saharan Africa were reviewed. The findings show that access to finance is constrained by information asymmetry, lack of collateral, business informality, and bureaucratic procedures for accessing finance. ICT has potential to overcome these challenges by streamlining information flow, providing online collateral registration and reducing administrative processes for loan processing, disbursement and repayment. The findings suggest that, despite the big digital revolution in Africa, little has been done to align the digital world with the challenges of the informal sector.</p
Urogenital schistosomiasis elimination in Zanzibar: accuracy of urine filtration and haematuria reagent strips for diagnosing light intensity Schistosoma haematobium infections
No full textAbstract Background Urine filtration and microhaematuria reagent strips are basic standard diagnostic methods to detect urogenital schistosomiasis. We assessed their accuracy for the diagnosis of light intensity infections with Schistosoma haematobium as they occur in individuals living in Zanzibar, an area targeted for interruption of transmission. Methods Urine samples were collected from children and adults in surveys conducted annually in Zanzibar from 2013 through 2016 and examined with the urine filtration method to count S. haematobium eggs and with the reagent strip test (Hemastix) to detect microhaematuria as a proxy for infection. Ten percent of the urine filtration slides were read twice. Sensitivity was calculated for reagent strips, stratified by egg counts reflecting light intensity sub-groups, and kappa statistics for the agreement of urine filtration readings. Results Among the 39,207 and 18,155 urine samples examined from children and adults, respectively, 5.4% and 2.7% were S. haematobium egg-positive. A third (34.7%) and almost half (46.7%) of the egg-positive samples from children and adults, respectively, had ultra-low counts defined as 1–5 eggs per 10 ml urine. Sensitivity of the reagent strips increased significantly for each unit log10 egg count per 10 ml urine in children (odds ratio, OR: 4.7; 95% confidence interval, CI: 4.0–5.7; P < 0.0001) and adults (OR: 2.6; 95% CI: 1.9–3.7, P < 0.0001). Sensitivity for diagnosing ultra-light intensity infections was very low in children (50.1%; 95% CI: 46.5–53.8%) and adults (58.7%; 95% CI: 51.9–65.2%). Among the 4477 and 1566 urine filtration slides read twice from children and adults, most were correctly identified as negative or positive (kappa = 0.84 for children and kappa = 0.81 for adults). However, 294 and 75 slides had discrepant results and were positive in only one of the two readings. The majority of these discrepant slides (76.9% of children and 84.0% of adults) had counts of 1–5 eggs per 10 ml urine. Conclusions We found that many individuals infected with S. haematobium in Zanzibar excrete less than 5 eggs per 10 ml urine. These ultra-light infections impose a major challenge for accurate diagnosis. Next-generation diagnostic tools to be used in settings where interruption of transmission is the goal should reliably detect infections with ≤ 5 eggs per 10 ml urine. Trial Registration ISRCTN, ISRCTN48837681. Registered 05 September 2012 - Retrospectively registered
Additional file 1: of Urogenital schistosomiasis elimination in Zanzibar: accuracy of urine filtration and haematuria reagent strips for diagnosing light intensity Schistosoma haematobium infections
No full textPredicted sensitivity of reagent strips by infection intensity estimated by urine filtration. The sensitivity of the reagent strip method to detect microhaematuria increased significantly for each unit log10 egg count per 10 ml urine in children (odds ratio, OR: 4.7; 95% confidence interval, CI: 4.0â5.7, P < 0.0001) and adults (OR: 2.6; 95% CI: 1.9â3.7, P < 0.0001). The difference of the test sensitivity between children and adults (P = 0.001) as well as the population-egg-count interaction (P = 0.002) were statistically significant. (PDF 32 kb
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Population Health Metrics Research Consortium gold standard verbal autopsy validation study: design, implementation, and development of analysis datasets
No full textBackground: Verbal autopsy methods are critically important for evaluating the leading causes of death in populations without adequate vital registration systems. With a myriad of analytical and data collection approaches, it is essential to create a high quality validation dataset from different populations to evaluate comparative method performance and make recommendations for future verbal autopsy implementation. This study was undertaken to compile a set of strictly defined gold standard deaths for which verbal autopsies were collected to validate the accuracy of different methods of verbal autopsy cause of death assignment. Methods: Data collection was implemented in six sites in four countries: Andhra Pradesh, India; Bohol, Philippines; Dar es Salaam, Tanzania; Mexico City, Mexico; Pemba Island, Tanzania; and Uttar Pradesh, India. The Population Health Metrics Research Consortium (PHMRC) developed stringent diagnostic criteria including laboratory, pathology, and medical imaging findings to identify gold standard deaths in health facilities as well as an enhanced verbal autopsy instrument based on World Health Organization (WHO) standards. A cause list was constructed based on the WHO Global Burden of Disease estimates of the leading causes of death, potential to identify unique signs and symptoms, and the likely existence of sufficient medical technology to ascertain gold standard cases. Blinded verbal autopsies were collected on all gold standard deaths. Results: Over 12,000 verbal autopsies on deaths with gold standard diagnoses were collected (7,836 adults, 2,075 children, 1,629 neonates, and 1,002 stillbirths). Difficulties in finding sufficient cases to meet gold standard criteria as well as problems with misclassification for certain causes meant that the target list of causes for analysis was reduced to 34 for adults, 21 for children, and 10 for neonates, excluding stillbirths. To ensure strict independence for the validation of methods and assessment of comparative performance, 500 test-train datasets were created from the universe of cases, covering a range of cause-specific compositions. Conclusions: This unique, robust validation dataset will allow scholars to evaluate the performance of different verbal autopsy analytic methods as well as instrument design. This dataset can be used to inform the implementation of verbal autopsies to more reliably ascertain cause of death in national health information systems.Version of Recor
Population Health Metrics Research Consortium gold standard verbal autopsy validation study: design, implementation, and development of analysis datasets
No full textBackground: Verbal autopsy methods are critically important for evaluating the leading causes of death in populations without adequate vital registration systems. With a myriad of analytical and data collection approaches, it is essential to create a high quality validation dataset from different populations to evaluate comparative method performance and make recommendations for future verbal autopsy implementation. This study was undertaken to compile a set of strictly defined gold standard deaths for which verbal autopsies were collected to validate the accuracy of different methods of verbal autopsy cause of death assignment.Methods: Data collection was implemented in six sites in four countries: Andhra Pradesh, India; Bohol, Philippines; Dar es Salaam, Tanzania; Mexico City, Mexico; Pemba Island, Tanzania; and Uttar Pradesh, India. The Population Health Metrics Research Consortium (PHMRC) developed stringent diagnostic criteria including laboratory, pathology, and medical imaging findings to identify gold standard deaths in health facilities as well as an enhanced verbal autopsy instrument based on World Health Organization (WHO) standards. A cause list was constructed based on the WHO Global Burden of Disease estimates of the leading causes of death, potential to identify unique signs and symptoms, and the likely existence of sufficient medical technology to ascertain gold standard cases. Blinded verbal autopsies were collected on all gold standard deaths.Results: Over 12,000 verbal autopsies on deaths with gold standard diagnoses were collected (7,836 adults, 2,075 children, 1,629 neonates, and 1,002 stillbirths). Difficulties in finding sufficient cases to meet gold standard criteria as well as problems with misclassification for certain causes meant that the target list of causes for analysis was reduced to 34 for adults, 21 for children, and 10 for neonates, excluding stillbirths. To ensure strict independence for the validation of methods and assessment of comparative performance, 500 test-train datasets were created from the universe of cases, covering a range of cause-specific compositions.Conclusions: This unique, robust validation dataset will allow scholars to evaluate the performance of different verbal autopsy analytic methods as well as instrument design. This dataset can be used to inform the implementation of verbal autopsies to more reliably ascertain cause of death in national health information systems
A shortened verbal autopsy instrument for use in routine mortality surveillance systems
No full textDataset composition. (DOCX 120 kb
Using Verbal Autopsy to Measure Causes of Death: the Comparative Performance of Existing Methods.
No full textMonitoring progress with disease and injury reduction in many populations will require widespread use of verbal autopsy (VA). Multiple methods have been developed for assigning cause of death from a VA but their application is restricted by uncertainty about their reliability. We investigated the validity of five automated VA methods for assigning cause of death: InterVA-4, Random Forest (RF), Simplified Symptom Pattern (SSP), Tariff method (Tariff), and King-Lu (KL), in addition to physician review of VA forms (PCVA), based on 12,535 cases from diverse populations for which the true cause of death had been reliably established. For adults, children, neonates and stillbirths, performance was assessed separately for individuals using sensitivity, specificity, Kappa, and chance-corrected concordance (CCC) and for populations using cause specific mortality fraction (CSMF) accuracy, with and without additional diagnostic information from prior contact with health services. A total of 500 train-test splits were used to ensure that results are robust to variation in the underlying cause of death distribution. Three automated diagnostic methods, Tariff, SSP, and RF, but not InterVA-4, performed better than physician review in all age groups, study sites, and for the majority of causes of death studied. For adults, CSMF accuracy ranged from 0.764 to 0.770, compared with 0.680 for PCVA and 0.625 for InterVA; CCC varied from 49.2% to 54.1%, compared with 42.2% for PCVA, and 23.8% for InterVA. For children, CSMF accuracy was 0.783 for Tariff, 0.678 for PCVA, and 0.520 for InterVA; CCC was 52.5% for Tariff, 44.5% for PCVA, and 30.3% for InterVA. For neonates, CSMF accuracy was 0.817 for Tariff, 0.719 for PCVA, and 0.629 for InterVA; CCC varied from 47.3% to 50.3% for the three automated methods, 29.3% for PCVA, and 19.4% for InterVA. The method with the highest sensitivity for a specific cause varied by cause. Physician review of verbal autopsy questionnaires is less accurate than automated methods in determining both individual and population causes of death. Overall, Tariff performs as well or better than other methods and should be widely applied in routine mortality surveillance systems with poor cause of death certification practices
