Suchergebnisse

BackgroundSince the beginning of the HIV/AIDS epidemic, the perspectives of secondary and tertiary school graduates in sub‐Saharan Africa regarding the effectiveness of government and international HIV/AIDS policies and programmes have not been thoroughly examined. When extensive monetary aid is directed toward "development" in a country like Malawi, it is the educated elites ‐ secondary and tertiary graduates who are heavily involved and influential in the domestic re‐distribution and implementation of millions of dollars worth of aid ‐ on whom international expectations fall to decrease the transmission of HIV. Many Malawian jobs related to public health and HIV/AIDS are created as a direct result of this funding and are occupied by the few secondary and tertiary graduates. Thus, it is a practical venture to understand their perspectives on highly contentious and heavily funded HIV/AIDS issues that affect their nation.MethodsQualitative data was collected in this study in efforts to discover in‐depth perspectives on the HIV/AIDS epidemic. Thirty‐eight secondary and tertiary graduate Malawians took part in semi‐structured interviews. Data was analysed using an early grounded theory approach and subsequent themes of "global discourses" and "experiential knowledge of HIV/AIDS" emerged.ResultsThis group of Malawians frequently responded to questions regarding healthcare and access to medicine, sexual behaviours and methods of reducing the spread of HIV/AIDS by citing and explaining the widespread, international and "proper" responses. The secondary and tertiary graduate Malawians also discussed these same topics in terms of what they perceive or have experienced. Experiential responses, such as the counter‐productivity of circumcision and condoms, the overestimation of HIV/AIDS prevalence, and calls for more authoritarian policing of commercial sex work, were remarkably divergent from the HIV/AIDS discourse.ConclusionsThe opinions of this group of secondary and tertiary graduate Malawians do not always coincide with the current literature and policies. They give deeper insight into what is perceived and what may be taking place, and hint at what the future holds for their people. The widespread and divergent perspectives must be seriously considered because these experiences describe the potential positive and negative consequences that occur on the ground throughout Malawi as a result of HIV/AIDS policies.

Foreign-born migrants – a group rarely compared with both internal migrants and long-term residents – are often positioned as the most disadvantaged South African urban population. We use data from a 2008 cross-sectional household survey conducted in Johannesburg to compare a contextually relevant measure of social capital and livelihood advantages between foreign-born migrants, internal migrants, and long-term South African residents. Our findings are counterintuitive and emphasize the need to explore the heterogeneity of urban migrant populations, and the mechanisms in which they better their lives, by showing that (1) foreign-born migrants have better urban livelihood outcomes, and (2) indicators of social capital are not necessarily associated with improved livelihood outcomes.

Household living arrangements play a crucial role in survival efforts throughout sub-Saharan Africa. Household living arrangements foster the development of informal insurance that can mitigate economic or filial shocks, and potentially improve the overall well-being of kin. However, scholarship in sub-Saharan African settings has not been able to, or has not attempted, to track how households have changed and the coinciding changes in livelihood outcomes. We ask whether changes in overall household size and the addition of dependents and working-age individuals are associated with changes in household wealth, a signal of well-being. We use the Malawi Longitudinal Study of Families and Health (MLSFH) to exploit detailed data on changing Malawian household composition via a household roster matching technique and fixed effects regressions. The addition of members to a household and the presence of more boys and working-age men—to a certain point—are associated with having more durable goods and greater chances of acquiring a metal roof—key indicators of wealth in rural Malawi. The addition of girls and women of any age are seemingly not linked to changes in household wealth.

In the classic formulations of social capital theory, families employ their social capital resources to enhance other capitals, in particular their human capital investments. Social capital would seem to be especially important in the case of India, where, in recent years, higher education has been under considerable stress with rising educational demand, inadequate supply, and little parental experience to guide children's transition through the education system. We use the 2005 and 2012 waves of the nationally representative India Human Development Survey (IHDS) to show how relatively high-status connections advantage some families' chances of their children reaching educational milestones such as secondary school completion and college entry. The 2005 IHDS survey measure of a household's formal sector contacts in education, government, and health predicts their children's educational achievements by the second wave, seven years later, controlling for households' and children's initial backgrounds.

In the classic formulations of social capital theory, families employ their social capital resources to enhance other capitals, in particular their human capital investments. Social capital would seem to be especially important in the case of India where, in recent years, higher education has been under considerable stress with rising educational demand, inadequate supply, and little parental experience to guide their children's transition through the education system. We use the 2005 and 2012 waves of the nationally representative India Human Development Survey (IHDS) to show how relatively high status connections advantage some families' chances of their children reaching educational milestones such as secondary school completion and college entry. The 2005 IHDS survey measure of a household's formal sector contacts in education, government, and health predicts their children's educational achievements by the second wave, seven years later, controlling for households' and children's initial backgrounds.