Salut Muhidin

Urbanization and Fertility: An Event-History Analysis of Coastal Ghana

In this article, we undertake an event-history analysis of fertility in Ghana. We exploit detailed life history calendar data to conduct a more refined and definitive analysis of the relationship among personal traits, urban residence, and fertility. Although urbanization is generally associated with lower fertility in developing countries, inferences in most studies have been hampered by a lack of information about the timing of residence in relationship to childbearing. We find that the effect of urbanization itself is strong, evident, and complex, and persists after we control for the effects of age, cohort, union status, and education. Our discrete-time event-history analysis shows that urban women exhibit fertility rates that are, on average, 11% lower than those of rural women, but the effects vary by parity. Differences in urban population traits would augment the effects of urban adaptation itself. Extensions of the analysis point to the operation of a selection effect in rural-to-urban mobility but provide limited evidence for disruption effects. The possibility of further selection of urbanward migrants on unmeasured traits remains. The analysis also demonstrates the utility of an annual life history calendar for collecting such data in the field.

Comparing Internal Migration Between Countries Using Courgeau’s k

Building on recent work for the 2009 UN Human Development Report, this chapter aims to explore one of the measures identified in a recent review by Bell et al. (Journal of the Royal Statistical Society A 165(3):435–464, 2002), as originally proposed by Courgeau (Population 28:511–537, 1973a). The particular appeal of Courgeau’s ‘k’ statistic is that it purports to provide a single summary index of migration intensity which transcends the differences in zonal systems that commonly confound cross-national comparisons. Courgeau’s k is applied to examine differences in mobility between 27 countries, using census data drawn primarily from the Integrated Public Use Microdata Series (IPUMS) database maintained by the University of Minnesota. Our goals of the chapter are threefold: first, to establish the strengths and limitations of Courgeau’s k as a summary measure of internal migration; second, to identify the extent of international differences in mobility; and third, to determine the general trajectory of internal migration over time.

Advocate Program for Healthy Traditional Houses, Ume Kbubu, in a Timor Community: Preserving Traditional Behavior and Promoting Improved Health Outcomes

Families in the Timor society of Indonesia have customarily used traditional houses, called Ume Kbubu, for confinement practices of a newborn baby and the mother during the first 40 days after birth. The practice, known as Sei (smoke) tradition, involves retaining heat, which is believed to foster healing, inside the house by continuously burning a wood burning stove. Exacerbated by inadequate ventilation in the traditional house, this practice results in poor indoor air quality and negatively affects the health of the mother and baby. Preliminary findings from a baseline study conducted in 2009 identified high levels of indoor air pollution in Ume Kbubu where mothers practiced the Sei tradition. Many respondents expressed that they suffered from respiratory health problems during the practice. On the basis of those results, a follow-up study was conducted in 2011 to develop and test a communication-focused behavior change intervention that would foster conversion of traditional houses into healthy Ume Kbubu and promote changes to traditional practices for better health outcomes. The study suggests that redesigning an Ume Kbubu house could promote better air quality inside the house and involving the community in the health intervention program led to positive changes in the Sei practice (i.e., decreasing the Sei periods length from 40 days to 4 days on average and attempting to reduce household air pollution). The study resulted in several recommendations in relation to sustained transformation to improve health behaviors.

Planning for social inclusion in a multicultural urban South East Queensland

Abstract South East Queensland is projected to grow by an estimated 1.3 million people over the next 20 years. To date, much of the debate on how best to respond to this unprecedented rate of growth has focused attention on the need to provide better infrastructure, more housing and to sustain and protect ecosystems and habitats. Less attention has been paid to the human dimensions of growth, and how the needs of an increasingly diverse population are to be met – including planning for a more multicultural urban future. Utilising a social inclusion framework this article explores the challenges for planning where nearly half of South East Queenslands growth results from overseas migration. In providing a case study of Moorooka, Brisbane, we argue that the sustainability and liveability of a more urban South East Queensland depends greatly on the creation of a socially inclusive and progressive environment. This will inevitably involve renewing the very practices of planning itself.

Extending employment entitlements to non-standard workers: Alternative models for long service leave portability

This article contributes to the emerging scholarship on institutional and regulatory innovations to extend core employment protections to workers on non-standard contracts by examining different policy models that could potentially improve access to statutory long service leave entitlements in Australia. With the growth of casual, contract and short-term employment reducing access to this entitlement for many workers, there have been calls for the creation of a national long service leave scheme that would be portable between employers, so that the benefit is more generally available to workers over the course of their working life. The article proposes three possible models for implementing a portable long service leave scheme. These are evaluated with regard to the relative costs and benefits for employers and workers and implementation issues for governments. We find that the three models distribute risks, costs and benefits differently between the stakeholders, and any model adopted will involve trade-offs.