Biomass burning is an important source of trace gases such as CO2, CO and NO, which influence regional and global atmospheric chemistry. Biomass is burnt in bush fires as well as in households as an energy source. Even though there have been numerous studies on domestic biofuel use in Africa over the last two decades there is still a lack of consumption data on the continent. Biofuel is used in rural and urban areas in Africa, but this project focuses on rural consumption. This project aims to quantify biofuel use at representative rural sites around southern Africa and to investigate the spatial and temporal variation. Three sites, one in the south, central and northern parts were selected in each of seven countries (Botswana, Namibia, South Africa, Mozambique, Zambia, Zimbabwe and Malawi). Consumption rates for all fuel types were determined by weighing the fuel used throughout the day. The survey was conducted during the months of May 2003 to February 2004. The forms of biofuel used over southern Africa were found to be wood, charcoal and to a lesser extent maize residue. To obtain a consumption estimate for the whole of rural southern Africa consumption values for Swaziland and Lesotho from previously studies were included. The total annual rural fuelwood consumption in southern Africa is estimated to be 54.7 ± 3.5 Tg with an average daily consumption of 2.55 kg person-1 day-1 . South Africa has the highest consumption of wood and Swaziland the least. While fuelwood was used in all countries charcoal was only consumed in the rural areas of South Africa, Zambia and Mozambique. Rural southern Africa is estimated to consume 8.1 ± 0.8 Tg of charcoal per year. Malawi was the only country to consume maize residue at an average rate of 0.51 ± 0.16 kg person-1 day-1, leading to a consumption of 1.8 ± 0.1 Tg yr-1 over the whole region. The total rural biofuel consumption over southern Africa was estimated to be 64.6 ± 3.6 Tg yr-1. Namibia and South Africa had increased consumption rates between August and October, and Zambia shows slightly higher consumptions between May and July. The other countries show little monthly variation with no specific seasonal trends. There was a slight positive relationship (r2 = 0.168; p = 0.065) between consumption rate and altitude, but the data is very scattered due to monthly variation. Slopes are only shown to be significant between January and March. Altitude is therefore not shown to be a significant controlling factor of biofuel consumption in this study.

Student Number : 9813645X - PhD thesis - Faculty of Health Sciences / Epidemiological information on sexually transmitted infections (STIs) is necessary to assess the magnitude of the burden of infections, to identify vulnerable population groups, to mobilise resources for intervention activities and to monitor the impact of these activities. In addition, specific STI surveillance systems, such as studies on the relative prevalence of aetiological agents of STI syndromes and their antimicrobial susceptibility patterns, are aimed at improving patient care. The studies included in this thesis were designed and implemented to improve our understanding of the epidemiology of STIs and HIV infection in southern Africa. In all the study populations, we observed that high level STI epidemics preceded the explosive spread of HIV infection among high-risk individuals. The studies reported here also demonstrate the importance of triangulating data collected from different recommended STI surveillance components, using a tiered surveillance approach. The studies reported here also explored the bidirectional interactions of HIV and STIs. We observed that different STIs have shown different magnitudes of interaction with HIV infection. We found particularly strong interactions between genital herpes and HIV. At the individual level, HIV-seropositive patients with genital herpes were more frequently found to have atypical clinical presentations, delays in spontaneous healing, longer duration of HSV shedding and increased association with HIV shedding from ulcer and genital exudates. Mixed infections involving chancroid and genital herpes were found to be common, particularly in HIV-seropositive patients. The effectiveness of syndromic treatment targeting only bacterial causes of genital ulceration was significantly reduced due to persistent ulcerations as a result of co-infection with genital herpes. The successful treatment of herpes in men and women was found to be associated with a decline or cessation in HIV shedding into ulcer exudates or genital fluid. The studies have also shown that HIV plasma viral load is the main determinant for HIV shedding in both men and women presenting with STIs. As was the case with HSV infection, there was a strong association between HIV and HPV infection in both men and women. A higher prevalence of HPV infection was found among HIV-seropositive patients in our study population and this may reflect the higher frequency of recurrences and/or longer duration of infection (i.e. persistency). The studies also found that the biological false positive reactions in syphilis serology (i.e. RPR) are not a common occurrence in our HIV-seropositive study population. On the other hand, syphilis serology could be falsely negative in patients with PCR-confirmed primary syphilis who are co-infected with HIV and other aetiological agents causing GUD. In conclusion, the findings of our studies have supported the bidirectional nature of interactions between conventional STIs and HIV infection in southern Africa.

This thesis is submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Management in Finance and Investment. Faculty of Commerce, Law and Management 2017 / The vicious quest for higher risk-adjusted returns through diversification of portfolios has seen an enormous amount of foreign capital flows into new emerging markets. However, the success of any strategy profoundly depends on the degrees of comovements among markets - higher comovements limit the possible gains from diversification. It has been argued that the very act of chasing after these diversification benefits, which mainly includes financial globalisation, has actually resulted in the erosion of the benefits themselves. In addition, aspects such as international trade, the establishment of trade blocs and liberalisation of market controls has further reduced these diversification benefits. In this study, the long-run cointegration, short-run causality and volatility linkages were examined using six COMESA markets indices. The goal of the study was to ascertain whether the establishment of this bloc has resulted in increased association among the member markets. The astonishing rate at which globalisation has been growing at has drawn with it both opportunities and risks for investors. The Engle-Granger, the Johansen cointegration technique and the ARDL test methods revealed that the markets integrated in the long run, a result indicative of low diversification benefits across COMESA markets. However, the weak short-run causality from the causality tests revealed that despite the strong long-run relationship, an active investment strategy that seeks to diversify portfolios in the short-run could still yield enormous diversification benefits. A subsequent examination of the volatility linkages using generalised autoregressive conditional heteroscedasticity models revealed that uniformity of volatility structures in terms volatility persistence, leverage effects and risk premium across the markets, indicative of the high likelihood of volatility spill-overs across the markets. This implies that, despite the weak short-run causality, the benefits from short-run diversification can still be quite low due to the high likelihood of volatility spillovers across these markets. In light of these results, investors within the COMESA markets should rather focus on other markets outside the COMESA as diversification destinations. / MT2017

0009014A Msc thesis Science Animal plant and environmental sciences / Anopheles arabiensis is considered an important vector of human malaria in the southern African region where the disease is the major cause of morbidity and mortality. Gene flow plays an important role in malaria control with the spread of insecticide resistance. The main objectives of this study were to (i) measure the genetic variability within and between five populations (Botswana, Namibia, South Africa, Swaziland and Zimbabwe) of wild An. arabiensis and (ii) estimate the level of gene flow between natural populations across the Southern-limits of An. arabiensis. A total of 1225 An. arabiensis specimens were identified out of 1300 mosquitoes collected from 2000-2003 with the sample sizes ranging from 180-292 per country. Variation at four microsatellite markers was investigated on non-denaturing polyacrylamide gels. The results showed fewer variations between populations (2.96%) than within populations (82.60%) suggesting considerable homogeneity. However, estimates of gene flow (Nm) calculated from mean FST and RST statistics were relatively low, 1.14 and 1.19 respectively, suggesting somewhat restricted gene flow between populations. The occurrence of gene flow within subpopulations of An. arabiensis in Zimbabwe but not in South Africa is interesting with regard to the spread of insecticide resistance in Zimbabwe. The results presented here are obviously subject to the limitations inherent in manual, silver staining method of analysing microsatellite DNA markers. It is possible that a different set of results would be obtained if an Automated Sequencing Analyzer were used. ii

A inserção internacional de Moçambique é um processo que ocorreu em fases, tendo se iniciado com os esforços empreendidos na década de 1960 pelo Dr. Eduardo Chivambo Mondlane, Primeiro Presidente da Frente de Libertação de Moçambique (FRELIMO). Visando criar o isolamento internacional do regime colonial Português e obter o apoio necessário para a causa da independência de Moçambique, Mondlane estabeleceu contatos com governos de vários Estados do mundo incluindo países ocidentais, países progressistas africanos e países socialistas, projetando, deste modo, a imagem de Moçambique no mundo. Iniciada com as decisões tomadas no Segundo Congresso da FRELIMO realizado em 1968, a política externa de Moçambique tinha em vista “criar mais amigos e poucos inimigos”, num contexto de bipolaridade ideológica que caracterizava a guerra-fria. O novo contexto internacional emergente no período após o fim da guerra-fria viria a originar uma redefiniçao desta política que passou a ser definida como de “criar mais amigos e mais parceiras”. A nível da região da África Austral a FRELIMO considerou sempre que a independência de Moçambique só seria completa com a libertação de todos os países da região que ainda se encontravam sob a dominação de regimes coloniais e minoritários tendo dado o seu apoio incondicional à luta de libertação do Zimbábue, África do Sul e Namíbia, para além do seu grande empenho no processo de cooperação e integração regional. É neste contexto que se pode enquadrar esta tese cujo tema é “a política externa de Moçambique e sua inserção na região da África Austral” a qual procura, através de uma vasta revisão bibliográfica, analisar os contornos que estiveram à volta da afirmação de Moçambique como Estado reconhecido no concerto das nações tanto a nível regional como internacional. / The international insertion of Mozambique is a process that took place in phases, starting with the efforts made in the 1960s by Dr. Eduardo Chivambo Mondlane, First President of the Liberation Front of Mozambique (FRELIMO). In order to create the international isolation of the Portuguese colonial regime and obtain the necessary support for the cause of Mozambique's independence, Mondlane established contacts with governments in several states of the world including Western countries, progressive African countries and socialist countries, thus projecting the image of Mozambique in the world. Initiated by the decisions taken at the Second FRELIMO’s Congress held in 1968, Mozambique's foreign policy aimed to "create more friends and few enemies" in a context of ideological bipolarity that characterized the Cold War. The new emerging international context in the period after the end of the Cold War would lead to a redefinition of this policy, which was defined as "creating more friends and more partners". At the level of the southern African region FRELIMO always considered that Mozambique's independence would only be complete with the liberation of all the countries of the region that were still under the domination of colonial and minority regimes and gave its unconditional support to the liberation struggle in Zimbabwe, South Africa and Namibia, in addition to its strong commitment to regional cooperation and integration. It is in this context that one can frame this thesis whose theme is "the foreign policy of Mozambique and its insertion in the region of Southern Africa" which seeks, through a vast bibliographical review, to analyze the contours that were around the affirmation of Mozambique as State recognized in the concert of nations at both regional and international levels.

>Magister Scientiae - MSc / The reservoir quality of the Orange Basin, offshore South Africa is known to be immensely impaired by the presence of authigenic minerals. The collective effects of burial, bioturbation, compaction and chemical reactions between rocks, fluid and organic matter conclusively determined the quality of reservoirs within the Orange basin. The aim of this study was to provide information on the quality of reservoirs within the Orange Basin. Data used to conduct this study include wireline logs (LAS format), well completion reports and core samples from potential reservoir zones of wells K-A2, K-A3 and K-E1. To accomplish the aim, petrophysical parameters were calculated, such as porosity, permeability and water saturation. Besides, depositional environments were identified using gamma ray log and core logging techniques. Thirdly, petrographic studies were supporting techniques in understanding how various minerals and diagenetic processes play a role in reservoir characterisation. Geophysical wireline logs (Gamma ray, Resistivity, Bulk density and Caliper) allowed for the estimation of the three main reservoir properties; namely: porosity, water saturation and permeability. The porosity calculations revealed a range of 3-18% for well K-A2, 2%-13% for well K-A3 and 3%-16% for well K-E1. The permeability’s ranged from 0.08-0.1 mD and 0.001-1.30 mD for K-A3 and K-E1, respectively. Thus, the findings of the petrophysical evaluation of the wells in Interactive Petrophysics indicated that the reservoir intervals of wells K-A2, K-A3 and K-E1 are of poor to good quality. Based on the core analyses, the depositional environment is mostly shallow marine, specifically tide dominated for well K-A2, sandstone channel for well K-A3 and intertidal environment for well K-E1. These environments were confirmed by XRD, revealing glauconite as the prominent mineral.

<p>This study, in contrast to contemporary held views relating to the US policy premises, aimed to look at the inherent disabilities and inconsistencies of the policies of succesive Washington administrations. More so, it investigated the US interventionist strategies to perceived threats from communist regimes and their allies, especially in Southern Africa. To be able to embark on such an investigation, Namibia and the Soviet-Cuban involvement in Southern Africa were selected as a special focus of this study</p>

<p>The researcher has been working for CIAT, as a community development facilitator and research assistant for past five years (2001-2006). CIAT has been involved in testing tools and methods for promoting participation and tracking changes at community level under different pilot projects in Eastern and Central Africa in partnership with national research organizations of respective countries. One of CIAT&rsquo / s areas of research is developing participatory monitoring and evaluation systems that are appropriate for rural communities. The researcher has been involved in designing and setting up community-driven participatory monitoring and evaluation systems on a pilot basis with communities in Eastern and Southern Africa.</p>

Thesis (MTech (Business))--Peninsula Technikon, 2002. / Word processed copy. Summary in English. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 106-108). Also available online.

Namibia’s community based natural resource management program (CBNRM) integrates local participation in rural development and biodiversity conservation. This effort was launched through key legislation that devolved the right to manage wildlife and other renewable resources on communal lands from the state to community level conservancies. Local participation is dependent upon the capacity of the locals to self mobilize and establish conservancies, plan and implement their programs, and monitor and evaluate their progresses and impacts. Accordingly, this study examines the role of capacity development (CD) in CBNRM, particularly its processes, products, performance, and permanence at the individual, organizational (conservancy), and community levels. The research was carried out using interviews and participatory self-assessment exercises with various conservancy stakeholders. This study uncovers why and how capacity development has to be based on local realities and aspirations where capacity users need to have ownership of the process through partnerships with service providers in order to enhance endogenous capacity. However, such notion of “partnership” between CD stakeholders is challenging to translate into reality in the face of power imbalances, where government and NGOs are continuously influenced and coerced by donor interests, where NGOs are considered stronger than the government because they control more financial and human resources, and where conservancies tend to report upwards to NGOs and government instead of their constituents. Moreover, this research reiterates that CD has to be holistic enough to incorporate individual, organizational, and community level changes in order to create sustainable capacities and prevent problems of elitism, manipulation, and dependency on few individuals. With respect to CBNRM, the research argues that its basic premise of diversifying rural livelihoods using incentives to bring about sustainable resource management can only be achieved when conservancies have the capacity to create representative and participatory democratic processes, and when they are able to generate equitable and reliable tangible benefits with manageable costs to their constituents. As seen in this study, when such governance and benefit sharing structures are in place, they enhance local participation by promoting political empowerment, trust, ownership, and positive attitude towards living with wildlife. However, if such conditions are not met, local participation is reduced, while intra-community conflicts from marginalization to nepotism and members’ dissatisfaction and disinterest are inevitable.