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Abstract The interplanetary origins of eight selected intense geomagnetic storms that occurred during solar cycle 24 and the responses of total electron content (TEC) at eight African equatorial/low‐latitude stations to these storms were investigated. The responses of scintillations at Dakar and Addis Ababa to the 2011 and 2013 storms were also studied. Six of the eight storms were driven by interplanetary coronal mass ejection (ICME) transients: sheath fields, magnetic clouds, or both. The...

The recent wave of large scale land acquisitions (LSLAs) in low-income countries has engendered intense debate partly because of its impact on livelihoods and ecology, with outcomes structured by complex unequal power relations at multiple scales. Together with the onslaught of climate change on livelihoods, LSLA is contributing to new, and exacerbating old vulnerabilities in ways that raise important questions for research. We examined the impact of LSLAs on food security disparities across...

An intense surface low pressure system and associated cut-off low (COL) that affected the south-western Cape of South Africa on 6–7 June 2017 are analysed. The storm, locally named Cape Storm, was associated with heavy rains, strong winds, runaway fires, storm surge and extremely large waves. These extreme meteorological conditions resulted in a loss of life and damage to infrastructure in various forms around the province. The societal impacts that occurred have been collected and...

Study Objective This study was designed to determine the prevalence and factors associated with vaginal douching among secondary school girls in a metropolitan city in Ogun State, Nigeria. Design A descriptive cross-sectional study was carried out using a semi-structured interviewer-assisted questionnaire adapted from previous studies. Setting Eight secondary schools in a metropolitan city of Ogun State. Participants A total of 818 secondary school girls aged 10-19 years. Main Outcome...

The Sidi Moussa lagoon, located in western coastal Morocco and ranked as a wetland of biological and ecological importance (Ramsar site), is contaminated due to its proximity to the industrial phosphate plants and other anthropogenic activities around it. This study was carried out to assess the current environmental state of the lagoon as well as historical inputs of pollutants over several decades. Three sediment cores were collected and analyzed for the determination radionuclide...

In Niger, one of the poorest countries in the world, 85 per cent of adults are unable to read or write, even in local languages. Adult education programmes can be a route to improving adult literacy rates, but non-governmental organisation (NGO) and government schemes are characterised with low enrolment, high dropout, and poor teacher attendance. In partnership with the Ministry of Education, Catholic Relief Services, the Sahel Group, and Tufts University, regular phone calls and...

This article presents an extensive comparison of survey data on tolerance attitudes of 1758 participants from two public universities in sub-Saharan Africa, the University of Ghana and North-West University. Multi-stage and other sampling procedures were employed to collect the data between 2016 and 2017. Data were analysed using frequencies, percentages and cross-tabulations for each institution separately. Overall, participants expressed a high level of tolerance to others of different...

Energy governance is at a critical juncture: facing unavoidable change and also potentially restructuring the energy regime towards greater social justice, equity, and innovation. Energy democracy is a novel form of energy governance and an emergent social movement; as a concept, it may prove to be instrumental for assessing socio-technical energy transition pathways towards the goals of democracy and decentralisation. This paper considers four possible energy transition pathways towards...

In the Democratic Republic of Congo, the education of midwives at a higher education level has recently been introduced as a strategy to improve maternal and neonatal health. However, little is known about the preconditions for such an education. To explore the barriers to delivering high-quality midwifery education programmes in the DRC and reflect on potential areas for improvement. Data was collected through 14 focus group discussions with 85 midwifery educators and clinical preceptors,...

Climate change poses a serious risk to the economic growth of sub-Saharan Africa. Sustainable enhancement of resilience and mitigation capacity of small farm households is a major political economy goal. This paper has the objective to assess the on-farm economic and mitigation benefits of climate-smart agriculture production and their cost-effectiveness to be used as a prioritization criterion for policy incentives. An interdisciplinary model which integrates elements of economics and...

Agroforestry is a promising adaptation measure for climate change, especially for low external inputs smallholder maize farming systems. However, due to its long-term nature and heterogeneity across farms and landscapes, it is difficult to quantitatively evaluate its contribution in building the resilience of farming systems to climate change over large areas. In this study, we developed an approach to simulate and emulate the shading, micro-climate regulation and biomass effects of...

Introduction. Soil-transmitted helminths (STH) remain a public health problem worldwide especially in low-income countries. Soil-transmitted helminths are known to affect both growth and haemoglobin levels. In this study, we determine the prevalence of intestinal parasites and explored its association with anaemia in school-aged children (SAC). Methodology. A cross-sectional study was carried out amongst pupils selected from 18 primary schools in four communities of the North West Region....

The midwifery and occupational health faculty of a U.S. university were approached by parish and health care leaders from Caldwell, Liberia, for assistance in addressing critical maternal health care needs in their community. Liberia has suffered setbacks in its efforts to improve health care for its people due to recent civil wars and the Ebola epidemic of 2014 to 2016. Initial discussions among international groups centered around realistic ways to help in the face of multiple compelling...

Lung function is adversely affected by exposure to household air pollution (HAP). Studies investigating the impact of prenatal and postnatal HAP exposure on early childhood lung development are limited, especially from Sub-Saharan Africa. We used oscillometry to investigate the impact on lung function of prenatal and postnatal HAP exposure of children born to Nigerian women who participated in a randomized controlled cookstove intervention trial. We performed oscillometric measurements (R:...