Browsing by Subject "inequality"

Now showing 1 - 7 of 7
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    Open Access
    Accessibility to schooling in South African rural areas
    (2021) Narcy, Deisy; Vanderschuren, Marianne
    In developing countries rural communities are normally geographically isolated contributing to both poverty levels and the deficiency in the participation of social and economic activities. Accessibility to education constitutes one of the primordial links between the economic growth of a country and the development of high skilled population. Given South Africa's unique history, divisions throughout the landscape incapacitate inhabitants of rural communities in reaching opportunities and services, therefore, aggravating issues related to social exclusion and inequality. This study aims to determine accessibility levels in South African rural regions by looking at different aspects that entangle the theory behind it, specifically: the zone attractiveness and impedance. With that in mind, the investigations carried out are firstly directed towards accessibility at the provincial level and thereafter a focus area is determined. At the provincial level, it was found that the Northern Cape presented the greatest disadvantages. However, given insufficient resources and data related to this province, the Cape Winelands Municipality District was chosen as the area to extend the investigations. When assessing the focus area, the study deployed a GIS-based analysis wherein potential and real accessibility were determined. Initially using the gravity measure, and subsequently using a survey carried out in the region. The study has revealed that Stellenbosch and Robertson are the towns experiencing high accessibility levels. Notwithstanding, most principal towns still experience critically low accessibility indexes. The findings of this study can, therefore, be useful in indicating areas that need further studies or are experiencing disadvantages regarding accessibility.
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    Addressing Health Equity in Cost-Effectiveness Analysis: A Review of Distributional and Extended Cost-Effectiveness Analysis
    (2021) Lewis, Ian Storm; Sinanovic, Edina
    Background Equity is rarely included in health economic evaluations, partly because the techniques for addressing equity have been inadequate. Since 2013 health economists have developed two competing health economic technologies: distributional costeffectiveness analysis (DCEA) and extended cost-effectiveness analysis (ECEA). Both technologies represent a significant advance, and each provides a framework to address equity considerations in cost-effectiveness analysis. Methods A scoping literature review was used to identify and synthesise the relevant literature on incorporating equity concerns into economic evaluations. A second focused review identified literature which discussed or applied DCEA and ECEA. Key themes in the literature were identified using NVivo qualitative data analysis software. Results The review revealed three key areas of difference between DCEA and ECEA: First, the analysis of trade-offs between improving health and reducing inequity; second, the analysis of financial impacts of health policies; and third, the incorporation of opportunity costs. ECEA can analyse financial risk protection while DCEA can analyse opportunity costs and trade-offs between improving equity and reducing health. ECEA is designed for low- and middle-income countries, whereas DCEA is better suited to developed health systems such as the National Health Service in the United Kingdom. To date, there have been 27 studies using ECEA and five studies using DCEA. Future developments for DCEA and ECEA include incorporating alternative methods to simplify the data requirements for the techniques, providing methods to assist decision makers to clarify their equity concerns, and improving the presentation of outcomes to make them accessible to non-specialists. Conclusions DCEA and ECEA are both economic frameworks which address equity considerations in cost-effectiveness analysis. This study examines and compares these two techniques in order to assist policymakers and decision makers to determine which of the two methods is best able to address their specific needs for their particular circumstances.
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    Confronting inequitable power dynamics of global knowledge production and exchange : feature-opinion
    (Water Research Commission, 2015) Czerniewicz, Laura
    The research environment in the global South faces many pressing challenges given resource inequality. Technical and financial issues aside, Laura Czerniewicz asserts it is the values and practices shaped by the Northern research agenda which contribute just as much to the imbalance. In order to confront these inequities, perceptions of “science” and research outputs must be broadened, and the open access movement needs to also broaden its focus from access to knowledge to full participation in knowledge creation and in scholarly communication.
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    Considering inequality as Higher Education goes online
    (Association for Learning Technology, 2015) Czerniewicz, Laura
    This presentation explores the ways in which inequality manifests as the higher education sector increasingly moves to online and digitally-mediated forms of delivery.
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    Does Education Matter for Income Inequality? Evidence from Sub-Saharan Africa
    (2021) Panton-Ntshona, Sherine; Alhassan, Abdul Latif
    The issue of income equality has become of great concern on a global scale. Since the 2008 global financial crisis, economists and other socioeconomic analysts have observed the state of the income and wealth gap between the top ten percent rich and the lower forty percent poor of populations, and its far-reaching impact on the lives of ordinary people. Income inequality has become a global challenge and the effects are felt in both developed and developing countries. The socioeconomic disparity between the rich and poor is pronounced in developing countries, and recent trends of growing inequality are being observed in developed countries. This research examines the effect of education on income inequality and GDP per capita, using a panel dataset of 18 selected sub-Saharan countries for the period from 1994 to 2015. The panel models are estimated, using the fixed effects, random effects and generalised methods of moments estimation techniques. The results show that the relationship of education and its impact on income inequality is dependent on the level of education being assessed. High resource input in tertiary education increases income inequality, while high resource input in lower educational levels reduces income inequality. Overall, increases in government expenditure on education lead to increase in inequality and a fall in GDP per capita. These results show possible inefficiencies in the allocation of educational resources in sub-Saharan countries during the period of investigation. Government spending on education does not reduce inequality or boost income unless it is done efficiently. To reduce income inequality and increase average income, educational resources must be efficiently allocated with priority given to the educational levels of the highest proportions of the population.
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    Understanding Period Poverty: Socio-Economic Inequalities in Menstrual Hygiene Management in Eight Low- and Middle-Income Countries
    (2021-03-04) Rossouw, Laura; Ross, Hana
    Menstrual hygiene management and health is increasingly gaining policy importance in a bid to promote dignity, gender equality and reproductive health. Effective and adequate menstrual hygiene management requires women and girls to have access to their menstrual health materials and products of choice, but also extends into having private, clean and safe spaces for using these materials. The paper provides empirical evidence of the inequality in menstrual hygiene management in Kinshasa (DRC), Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Rajasthan (India), Indonesia, Nigeria and Uganda using concentration indices and decomposition methods. There is consistent evidence of wealth-related inequality in the conditions of menstrual hygiene management spaces as well as access to sanitary pads across all countries. Wealth, education, the rural-urban divide and infrastructural limitations of the household are major contributors to these inequalities. While wealth is identified as one of the key drivers of unequal access to menstrual hygiene management, other socio-economic, environmental and household factors require urgent policy attention. This specifically includes the lack of safe MHM spaces which threaten the health and dignity of women and girls.
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    Wealth, health, and inequality: a study of hyperinflation and households in Zimbabwe
    (2021) Kurasha, Flora Marvellous Nyasha; Leiman, Anthony
    This study focuses on Zimbabwe's first hyperinflation which began in March 2007 and peaked at 231 million percent in July 2008. Through a comparative pre-post analysis, the study investigates hyperinflation's effects on the well-being of households, its empirical chapters assessing changes in asset poverty, asset inequality and child malnutrition before and after the hyperinflation. The first empirical chapter assesses the shifts in asset poverty. Household holdings of physical assets and recorded access to public utilities are drawn from the 1994, 1999, 2005 (prehyperinflation) and the 2010 and 2015 (post-hyperinflation) Zimbabwe Demographic and Health Survey datasets. These are used to construct an asset index, with the 20th and 40th percentiles as relative poverty lines. Asset-derived poverty headcount and poverty gaps are measured and compared across the two periods. The national asset poverty headcount ratio decreased by 27 percent largely driven by of the experience of rural households whose asset poverty headcount fell by 31 percent. In contrast urban households experienced a 51 percent increase in asset poverty in this period. The second empirical chapter assesses the shifts in asset inequality during the hyperinflation. Rather than focus on income inequality, it continues using asset holdings and constructs pre- and post-hyperinflation asset Gini coefficients for urban and rural households. These show decreased asset inequality during the hyperinflationary period. At a national level, inequality decreased by 7 percent and in rural areas by 2 percent. The decrease in inequality on a national level was mainly attributable to the increase in private assets among rural households. However, there was a 2 percent increase in inequality among urban households, largely attributable to ownership of private assets. Land and livestock were the main drivers of inequality. The final empirical chapter focuses on the changes in child nutrition during the hyperinflation, and the factors contributing to these changes amongst children under the age of 5. Using Mosley and Chen's (1984) proximate determinants analytic framework, multivariate Logistic regression analyses revealed that wasting and stunting increased with inflation. Other related factors were poor access to electricity, safe drinking water, improved toilets and healthcare, as well as low levels of mother's education and asset wealth.