Josue Mbonigaba

HIV-positive pregnant women attending the prevention of mother-to-child transmission of HIV/AIDS (PMTCT) services in Ethiopia: economic productivity losses across urban-rural settings.

Abstract HIV/AIDS impacts significantly on pregnant women and on children in Ethiopia. This impact has a multiplier effect on household economies and on productivity losses, and is expected to vary across rural and urban settings. Applying the human capital approach to data collected from 131 respondents, this study estimated productivity losses per HIV-positive pregnant woman–infant pair across urban and rural health facilities in Ethiopia, which in turn were used to estimate the national productivity loss. The study found that the annual productivity loss per woman–infant pair was Ethiopian birr (ETB) 7,433 or United States dollar (US

The cost-effectiveness of major HIV/AIDS interventions in rural and urban areas in South Africa

) 378 and ETB 625 (US

Multiple-Choice Questions and Written Questions matched according to levels of cognitive ability in an applied course: Evidence and practical implications

32) in urban and rural settings, respectively. The mean patient days lost per year due to inpatient admission at hospitals/health centres was 11 in urban and 22 in rural health facilities. On average, urban home care-givers spent 20 (SD = 21) days annually providing home care services, while their rural counterparts spent 23 days (SD = 26). The productivity loss accounted for 16% and 7% of household income in urban and rural settings, respectively. These high and varying productivity losses require preventive interventions that are appropriate to each setting to ensure the welfare of women and children in Ethiopia.

The relative efficiency of South African municipalities in providing public health care

The shortage of resources required to address the high burden of HIV/AIDS disease in South Africa necessitates the adoption of efficient management strategies for major HIV/AIDS interventions in rural and urban areas. With a view to advising policy makers on the optimality of such management strategies, this paper uses Markov state transition models, the spectrum policy modelling system and sensitivity analysis to estimate the cost-effectiveness (CE) of these interventions. The study finds high variations in the CE of the interventions across rural and urban areas. These variations in CE can be reduced by addressing structural factors in these areas.

Exploring the Reliability of Self-Assessment and Peer-Assessment in Oral Presentations in Economics: A Sample of Postgraduate Students at a South African University

ABSTRACT Whether or not the scores for multiple-choice questions (MCQs) and written questions (WQs) in formative assessments are the same, has been a subject of intense scrutiny. However, the evidence for their similarity at different levels of cognitive ability in applied courses has not been sufficiently documented. This study analysed the comparability of scores for equivalent MCQs and WQs at each level of cognitive ability, namely, ‘application’, ‘analysis’, ‘synthesis’ and ‘evaluation’, in an applied course. It was found that MCQ scores were higher than WQ scores at the levels of ‘application’ and ‘analysis’, while they were the same as WQ scores at the levels of ‘synthesis’ and ‘evaluation’. Furthermore, MCQ ranking of students’ scores at the level of ‘evaluation’ was inconsistent with its ranking at lower levels of cognitive ability. Thus, it is recommended that MCQs be pitched for sufficiently high levels of cognitive ability, albeit not the highest, to achieve similar scores to WQs.

Effects of Historical Simulations as Narrative and Graphic Advance Organizers on Nigerian Junior Secondary School Students' Learning Outcomes in Basic Science

Previous studies in South Africa have not dis-aggregated efficiency analysis across municipalities which are health system components of the broader national health system. The purpose of this paper is therefore to assess whether the relative efficiency of South African municipalities in primary health care and hospital care is different and whether South African municipalities can learn from each other to improve on their efficiency. The paper employs efficiency scores, estimated with Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) using data from the District Health Barometer of the Health Systems Trust to rank South African municipalities across primary health care and hospital health care. The finding is that that the ranking of municipalities is not the same across both types of health care when efficiency scores and efficiency score growth are contemplated. These results imply that municipalities in South Africa are generally inefficient, but with the possibility of learning from each other’s practice in order to increase their technical efficiency. The health system authority should monitor service-specific best practices among municipalities so that they can use them as practice guidelines for other municipalities.

Nominal and real effective exchange rates for Southern African Development Community countries over the period 1980-2004: implications for the expansion of the Common Monetary Area

Abstract This paper explores the reliability of self- and peer-assessment at the University of KwaZulu-Natal, in a context of perceived negative intra-class relationships, using data collected from multiracial cohorts of postgraduate students in economics over the period 2007–2013. The analysis is done with descriptive and inferential methods in which reliability of the marks from these assessments is judged in relation to the lecturer’s marks. While peer-assessment marks agree in ranking pattern with the lecturer’s marks overall, self-and peer-assessment marks are biased in an undiscernible pattern in each of the racial groups making up the sample. These results imply that caution should be exercised in using these assessments for marks in contexts where there are perceived intraclass negative connections.

Economic Evaluation in Ethiopian Healthcare Sector Decision Making: Perception, Practice and Barriers

Uncertainty and importance of CE evidence of health care interventions more generally, and of HIV/AIDS interventions in particular have been two main reasons put forward to justify the need for cost-effectiveness analysis (CEA) of such interventions. However, CEA focused more on HIV/AIDS interventions, characterized by different set of activities and less on contextual HIV/AIDS interventions (CHIs), characterized by different contexts of implementation. Has the irrelevance of uncertainty and importance argument to CHIs been the reason for limited CEA of such interventions? Using uncertainty and importance of CE evidence arguments which have been used to motivate the conduct of CEA, this paper argues the case for CEA of CHIs and assesses the extent to which this case is relevant to South Africa. The paper finds that the case is strong and that it is relevant to South Africa to a great extent. It recommends more CEA of CHIs for the sake of efficiency-related policy advancement particularly in South Africa. DOI: 10.5901/mjss.2013.v4n3p743

Modeling the Cost-effectiveness of HIV/AIDS Interventions in Different Socio-economic Contexts in South Africa (2007-2020)

This paper computes both the nominal effective exchange rate (NER) and the real effective exchange rate (RER) for Southern African Development Community (SADC) countries for the period 1980–2004 with a view to identifying those countries that could join the Common Monetary Area (CMA) in the future. The NER and RER variations are used to analyse the suitability of non-CMA SADC countries for membership in the CMA. Variation in the NER suggests an expansion of the CMA to include Botswana and Malawi, while variation in the RER suggests an expansion of the CMA to Mauritius, Botswana and Seychelles. As suggested in the theory developed by Melitz, while the RER variation criterion should be more expansionist than variation in the NER, the RER-based expansion – as this study shows – does not necessarily include all countries suggested by the NER-based expansion.