The influence of person-related and household related characteristics on the nutritional status of children were assessed, taking into account variables such as, gender of household head, de jure and de facto household head, relationship of child to household head, size of household, type of toilet facility and type of dwelling. Chronic malnutrition and underweight were significantly pronounced in children from households with de jure household heads.
Poverty and health
Child Nutritional Status And Household Patterns In South Africa
Bomela N: African Journal of Food, Agriculture, Nutrition and Development 7(5): 1684-5374, 2007
Food Insufficiency Is Associated with High-Risk Sexual Behavior among Women in Botswana and Swaziland
Weiser SD, Leiter K, Bangsberg DR, Butler LM, Percy-de KorteF, Hlanze Z, Phaladze N, Lacopino V, Heisler M: PLoS Medicine
This paper reports the association between food insufficiency (not having enough food to eat over the previous 12 months) and inconsistent condom use, sex exchange, and other measures of risky sex in a cross-sectional population-based study of 1,255 adults in Botswana and 796 adults in Swaziland using a stratified two-stage probability design. Associations were examined using multivariable logistic regression analyses, clustered by country and stratified by gender. Food insufficiency was reported by 32% of women and 22% of men over the previous 12 months. Among 1,050 women in both countries, after controlling for respondent characteristics including income and education, HIV knowledge, and alcohol use, food insufficiency was signficcantly associated with inconsistent condom use with a nonprimary partner, sex exchange, intergenerational sexual relationships and lack of control in sexual relationships. Associations between food insufficiency and risky sex were much attenuated among men.
Improving Child Survival Through Environmental and Nutritional Interventions
Gakidou E, Oza SB, Fuertes CV, Li AY, Lee DK, Sousa A, Hogan MC, van der Hoorn S, Ezzati M: Journal of the American Medical Association 298(16), 24/31 October 2007
This paper estimates the reduction in child mortality as a result of interventions related to the environmental and nutritional MDGs (improving child nutrition and providing clean water, sanitation, and fuels) and to estimate how the magnitude and distribution of the effects of interventions vary based on the economic status of intervention recipients.
Transport, (im)mobility and spatial poverty traps: issues for rural women and girl children in sub-Saharan Africa
Porter G: Overseas Development Institute, London, 2007
This paper produced for a conference at the Overseas Development Institute (ODI) reflects on the experiences of women and girls with poor accessibility to services and markets, and inadequate transport in rural sub-Saharan Africa. It uses examples from field research to look at the impact of these factors on girl’s education before going to examine access to health services.
Africa: Food production to halve by 2020
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), September 2007
Food security in Africa is likely to be "severely compromised" by climate change, with production expected to halve by 2020, according to climate change experts. The projections in a report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), said about 25 percent of Africa's population - nearly 200 million people - do not have easy access to water; that figure is expected to jump by another 50 million by 2020 and more than double by the 2050s, according to the report. This year drought-affected parts of southern Africa - Zimbabwe, Swaziland and Lesotho - experienced a 40 percent to 60 percent reduction in maize production, for which global warming was partly to blame, noted the World Meteorological Organisation (WMO). But the IPCC report was more cautious. "The contribution of climate to food insecurity in Africa is still not fully understood, particularly the role of other multiple stresses that enhance impacts of droughts and floods and possible future climate change".
Parched city braces for disease outbreak
Integrated Regional Information Network (IRIN), 19 September 2007
Desperate measures being taken by residents of Bulawayo, Zimbabwe's second city, to cushion the effects of acute water shortages are aggravating the health problems of its 1.5 million residents. Stringent water rationing has been introduced in a bid to make the contents of fast dwindling dams last until the onset of the expected rains in November, but the municipal council acknowledges that the poor inflows of water into the southern city's reservoirs has led to an increase in waterborne diseases.
Poverty, mental health and municipal services in South Africa
Swartz L, Breen A, Fisher A, Joska J, Corrigall J, Plaatjies L and McDonald DA: Municipal Services Project, Occasional Paper 12
There have been dramatic changes to municipal services such as water and electricity since the end of apartheid in South Africa, with considerable research having gone into the impacts of commercialisation and cost recovery on low-income households. The research has revealed complex and often negative relationships between the marketisation of services and access and affordability for the poor. It has also been shown to have direct and very negative public health implications, most acutely in low-income township and rural areas.Less obvious, and much less researched, have been the impacts of changes in service delivery on the mental health of low-income residents and household members. What, then, might be the links between poverty, mental health and the shift towards market-oriented reforms in basic services? This paper explores the relationship in the South African context with a detailed, ethnographic case study of ten low-income families in Cape Town coping with a serious mental disorder (schizophrenia).
The impact of maternal health on poverty
Falkingham J: ID21 Research Highlight, 2 August 2007
The links between poverty and poor maternal health are well established. Poorer countries experience the highest rates of maternal mortality, whilst maternal death and life-threatening and debilitating illness are higher amongst women from poorer households. However, there is now growing evidence that poor maternal health can also exacerbate poverty.
The Problem of Handwashing and Paying for Water in South Africa
Haffajee F, Chopra M, Sanders D: Municipal Services Project, Occasional Paper 13
Water-related diseases are widely recognised as a major threat to public health, especially in the developing world. An estimated 19% of all infectious diseases are related to water, sanitation and hygiene risk factors. In South Africa the provision of basic infrastructure such as water and sanitation has been an important part of the social contract between the government and its constituencies. In 2001 the government became a partner in the Water, Sanitation and Hygiene for All (WASH) campaign, which was designed to attract resources to address the situation of millions of people without access to adequate water supply and sanitation. In Johannesburg, a privately managed parastatal was contracted to deliver water and associated services in the city. As part of their water service delivery and improvement of services, the company opted to deliver services using prepaid water meters and yard taps. But do households respond differently to hygiene and handwashing interventions such as WASH depending on which water and payment systems they have? This paper explores that question.
$363 million Poverty Reduction Grant signed to improve healthcare systems, water resources, and private sector investment
Millenium Challenge Corporation, 23 July 2007
The five-year Millennium Challenge Compact with Lesotho aims to increase water supplies for industrial and domestic use, to mitigate the devastating affects of poor maternal health, HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and other diseases, and to remove barriers to foreign and local private sector investment. By 2013, the Compact will benefit the majority of the population of 1.8 million due to its broad geographic scope and focus on sectors that impact most Basotho such as health and the provision of potable water.