Agricultural Research Management Training Needs in SADCC

An AEE Working Paper.Management capabilities in agricultural research have been diagnosed as extremely weak in East and Southern Africa. Many agricultural professionals including academics are involved in management but haye not had any formal background in management training. Improving management skills of agricultural professionals is becoming widely recognized as a means of improving productivity in agriculture. For example, the International Agricultural Research Centers including IRRI and CIMMYT are now viewed as being limited in their impacts by management constraints and the thirteenth international research centre, the International Service for National Agricultural Research (ISNAR) has been created to address agricultural research management issues

Household food insecurity in low rainfall areas of Zimbabwe: initial findings in Mudzi, Mutoko and Buhera Communal Areas

A conference paper on how the effects of drought have caused food shortages and reduced incomes for rural based households in Zimbabwe.Since 1980, drought has caused widespread crop failures in Zimbabwe. The majority of rural based households have experienced reduced incomes and food shortages, requiring them to rely on food transfers from the government. Approximately 350,000 households have received government support through commodity food aid or food-for-work programmes. Since 1981-82, the government has spent an estimated Z$800 million on these programmes, excluding costs borne by non-governmental organisations (Mhiribidi, 1987). In addition, households themselves have been forced to divert remittances from production investment to consumption, dispose of production assets, and migrate in search of alternative income sources,The research supporting the preparation the proceedings papers was financed by the U.S. Agency for International Development, Bureau of Science and Technology; Bureau for Africa; and the Southern Africa Regional Programme

The changing health impact of vaccines in the COVID-19 pandemic: a modeling study

Much of the world’s population had already been infected with COVID-19 by the time the Omicron variant emerged at the end of 2021, but the scale of the Omicron wave was larger than any that had come before or has happened since, and it left a global imprinting of immunity that changed the COVID-19 landscape. In this study, we simulate a South African population and demonstrate how population-level vaccine effectiveness and efficiency changed over the course of the first 2 years of the pandemic. We then introduce three hypothetical variants and evaluate the impact of vaccines with different properties. We find that variant-chasing vaccines have a narrow window of dominating pre-existing vaccines but that a variant-chasing vaccine strategy may have global utility, depending on the rate of spread from setting to setting. Next-generation vaccines might be able to overcome uncertainty in pace and degree of viral evolution

Perspectives on the use of modelling and economic analysis to guide HIV programmes in sub-Saharan Africa

HIV modelling and economic analyses have had a prominent role in guiding programmatic responses to HIV in sub-Saharan Africa. However, there has been little reflection on how the HIV modelling field might develop in future. HIV modelling should more routinely align with national government and ministry of health priorities, recognising their legitimate mandates and stewardship responsibilities, for HIV and other wider health programmes. Importance should also be placed on ensuring collaboration between modellers, and that joint approaches to addressing modelling questions, becomes the norm rather than the exception. Such an environment can accelerate translation of modelling analyses into policy formulation because areas where models agree can be prioritised for action, whereas areas over which uncertainty prevails can be slated for additional study, data collection, and analysis. HIV modelling should increasingly be integrated with the modelling of health needs beyond HIV, particularly in allocative efficiency analyses, where focusing on one disease over another might lead to worse health overall. Such integration might also enhance partnership with national governments whose mandates extend beyond HIV. Finally, we see a need for there to be substantial and equitable investment in capacity strengthening within African countries, so that African researchers will increasingly be leading modelling exercises. Building a critical mass of expertise, strengthened through external collaboration and knowledge exchange, should be the ultimate goal

A comparison of work values and motives among Zimbabwean and British managers

Work values and attitudes were compared for 117 African and 82 British managers and management students. It was predicted that Africans would place more importance on status, prestige and position as motivators, would be less likely to accept criticism, and rate courtesy, social approval and loyalty more favourably than British respondents. Existing scales of social approval and derived need satisfaction were modified and a third one constructed in order to obtain the measurements. The results confirmed the hypothesis relating to status, prestige, position, tentatively supported that relating to social approval, partly confirmed the hypothesis for loyalty and the results for courtesy and acceptance of criticism were not proven. These results are discussed in terms of the methodological issues associated with cross-cultural comparisons and the implications for motivation and management activities