With 663 million people still without access to an improved drinking water source, there is no room for complacency in the pursuit of Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) Target 6.1: “universal and equitable access to safe and affordable drinking water for all” by 2030 (WHO, 2017). All of the current efforts related to water supply service delivery will require continued enthusiasm in diligent implementation and thoughtful evaluation. This cannot be over-emphasized in relation to rural inhabitants of low-income countries (LICs), as they represent the largest percentage of those still reliant on unimproved drinking water sources. In that lies the motivation and value of this thesis research- improving water supply service delivery in LICs. Manually operated suction pumps, being relatively robust, low cost, and feasible to manufacture locally, are an important technology in providing access to improved drinking water sources in LICs, especially in the context of Self-supply. It seems widely accepted that the water-lifting limit of suction pumps as reported in practice is approximately seven meters. However, some observations by our research group of manually operated suction pumps lifting water upwards of nine meters brought this “general rule of thumb” limit into question. Therefore, a focused investigation on the capabilities of a manually operated suction pump (a Pitcher Pump) was conducted in an attempt to address these discrepancies, and in so doing, contribute to the understanding of this technology with the intent of providing results with practical relevance to its potential; that is, provide evidence that can inform the use of these pumps for water supply. In this research, a simple model based on commonly used engineering approaches employing empirical equations to describe head loss in a pump system was used to estimate the suction lift limit under presumed system parameters. Fundamentally based on the energy equation applied to incompressible flow in pipes, the empirically derived Darcy-Weisbach equation and Hydraulic Institute Standards acceleration head equation were used to estimate frictional and acceleration head losses. Considering the theoretical maximum suction lift is limited to the height of a column of water that would be supported by atmospheric pressure, reduced only by the vapor pressure of water, subtracting from this the model was used to predict the suction lift limit, also referred to herein as the practical theoretical limit, assuming a low (4 L/min) and high (11 L/min) flow rate for three systems: 1) one using 1.25-inch internal diameter GI pipes, 2) one using 1.25-inch internal diameter PVC pipes, and 3) one using 2-inch internal diameter PVC pipes. In all considered cases, with an elevation equal to sea level, the suction lift limit was estimated to be over nine meters. At a minimum, the suction lift limit was estimated to be approximately 9.4 meters for systems using 1.25-inch internal diameter pipe and 9.8 meters for systems using 2-inch internal diameter pipe, with essentially no discernable effects noticed between pipe material or pipe age. Additionally, laboratory (field) trials using a Simmons Manufacturing Picher Pump and each of the aforementioned pipe specifications were conducted at the University of South Florida (Tampa, FL, USA) to determine the practical pumping limit for these systems. Results from the pumping trials indicated that the practical pumping limit- the greatest height at which a reasonable pumping rate could be consistently sustained with only modest effort, as perceived by the person pumping- for a Pitcher Pump is around nine meters (9 meters when using 1.25-inch internal diameter GI or PVC pipe and 9.4 meters when using 2-inch internal diameter PVC pipe). Therefore, results from this research present two pieces of evidence which suggest that the practical water-lifting limit of manually operated suction pumps is somewhere around nine meters (at sea level), implying that reconsideration of the seven-meter suction lift limit commonly reported in the field might be warranted.

Although development organizations agree that reliable access to energy and energy services-one of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals-is likely to have profound and perhaps disproportionate impacts on women, few studies have directly empirically estimated the impact of energy access on women's empowerment. This is a result of both a relative dearth of energy access evaluations in general and a lack of clarity on how to quantify gender impacts of development projects. Here we present an evaluation of the impacts of the Solar Market Garden-a distributed photovoltaic irrigation project-on the level and structure of women's empowerment in Benin, West Africa. We use a quasi-experimental design (matched-pair villages) to estimate changes in empowerment for project beneficiaries after one year of Solar Market Garden production relative to non-beneficiaries in both treatment and comparison villages (n=771). To create an empowerment metric, we constructed a set of general questions based on existing theories of empowerment, and then used latent variable analysis to understand the underlying structure of empowerment locally. We repeated this analysis at follow-up to understand whether the structure of empowerment had changed over time, and then measured changes in both the levels and likelihood of empowerment over time. We show that the Solar Market Garden significantly positively impacted women's empowerment, particularly through the domain of economic independence. In addition to providing rigorous evidence for the impact of a rural renewable energy project on women's empowerment, our work lays out a methodology that can be used in the future to benchmark the gender impacts of energy projects.

Magister Bibliothecologiae - MBibl / This research explored how the Smart Cape Access Project in Delft Public Library is used by the Delft community and how it related to the Millennium Development Goals asset out by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO). This study also investigated the Smart Cape Access Project, as an initiative by the City of Cape Town to ensure access to Information Communication Technologies (ICTs) for all citizens of Cape Town, and how it is utilised as a tool for economic and personal development. The research took place at Delft Public Library in Delft. Delft is a residential area with no industries, whatsoever. The area has a high unemployment rate, high crime rate and more than 60% of those employed earn less than R1600. 00 per month. These factors and the fact that the City of Cape Town recognizes the importance of ICTs for economic and social growth made Delft ideal for this research. The study also investigated whether the information given via the Smart Cape Access project is relevant for sustainable development. Sustainable development is on the agenda of many countries and the concept can be taken as far back as the seventies with the first United Nations Conference on the Human Environment in Stockholm, Sweden and culminating in the World Summit on Sustainable Development in 2002 in Johannesburg, South Africa. In South Africa several initiatives were implemented to bring ICTs to those who do not have access to ICTs, as the importance of ICTs to improve and uplift the quality of life are recognised by different role-players e.g. government, private sectors and nongovernmental organisations (NGOs). The researcher regarded this as sufficient reason to embark on this study, though the scope of the study only concentrated on the Smart Cape Access Project in one public library.

Philosophiae Doctor - PhD / The United Nations (UN) Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) drafted eight goals to be achieved by the year 2015, namely: eradicating extreme poverty and hunger, achieving universal primary education, promoting gender equality and women empowerment, reducing child mortality, improving maternal health, combating HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases, ensuring environmental sustainability and lastly developing a global partnership for development. Many public health studies often result in complicated and complex data sets, the nature of these data sets could be clustered, multivariate, longitudinal, hierarchical, spatial, temporal or spatio-temporal. This often results in what is called correlated data, because the assumption of independence among observations may not be appropriate. The shared genetic traits in the studies of illness or shared household characteristics among family members in the studies of poverty are examples of correlated data. In cross-sectional studies, individuals may be nested within sub-clusters (e.g., families) that are nested within clusters (e.g., environment), thus causing correlation within clusters. Ignoring the structure of the data may result in asymptotically biased parameter estimates. Clustered data may also be a result of geographical location or time (spatial and temporal). A crucial step in modelling correlated data is the speci cation of the dependency by choosing the covariance/correlation function. However, often the choice for a particular application is unclear and diagnostic tests will have to be carried out, following tting of a model. This study's view of developing countries investigates the prospects of achieving MDGs through the development of flexible predictor statistical models. The first objective of this study is to explore the existing methods for modelling correlated data sets (hierarchical, multilevel and spatial) and then apply the methods in a novel way to several data sets addressing the underlying MDGs. One of the most challenging issue in spatial or spatio-temporal analysis is the choice of a valid and yet exible correlation (covariance) structure. In cases of high dimensionality of the data, where the number of spatial locations or time points that produced the observations is large, the analysis of such data presents great computational challenges. It is debatable whether some of the classical correlation structures adequately reect the dependency in the data. The second objective is to propose a new flexible technique for handling spatial, temporal and spatio-temporal correlations. The goal of this study is to resolve the dependencies problems by proposing a more robust method for modelling spatial correlation. The techniques are used for di erent correlation structures and then combined to form the resulting estimating equations using the platform of the Generalized Method of Moments. The proposed model will therefore be built on a foundation of the Generalized Estimating Equations; this has the advantage of producing consistent regression parameter estimates under mild conditions due to separation of the processes of estimating the regression parameters from the modelling of the correlation. These estimates of the regression parameters are consistent under mild conditions. Thirdly, to account for spatio-temporal correlation in data sets, a method that decouples the two sources of correlations is proposed. Speci cally, the spatial and temporal e ects were modelled separately and then combined optimally. The approach circumvents the need of inverting the full covariance matrix and simpli es the modelling of complex relationships such as anisotropy, which is known to be extremely di cult or Lastly, large public health data sets consist of a high degree of zero counts where it is very di cult to distinguish between "true zeros" and "imputed" zeros. This can be due to the reporting mechanism as a result of insecurity, technical and logistics issues. The focus is therefore on the implementation of a technique that is capable of handling such a problem. The study will make the assumption that "imputed" zeros are a random event and consider the option of discarding the zeros, and then model a conditional Poisson model, conditioning on all cases greater than 0.

Magister Public Health - MPH / Introduction: The Health Extension Program (HEP) is an innovative, community based comprehensive primary health care program that Ethiopia introduced in 2003. It gives special emphasis to the provision of preventive and promotive services at community and household level. However, utilization of the HEP packages is low and reasons for this underutilization are not well known. Aim: The aim of this study is to assess the availability and utilization of the Health Extension Program Service in Akaki District of Oromia Region, Ethiopia. Methodology: Quantitative study using a cross-sectional survey design. The study was conducted in Akaki District of Oromia Regional State in Ethiopia with 79,162 inhabitants. Random sampling was used to select 355 households. A structured data collection tool/ questionnaire was employed to collect data from the study participants. Data were analyzed using SPSS for Windows version 19. Descriptive statistics were used to analyze socio demographic characteristics of the study participants and to assess the availability and utilization of each service component. Result: The response rate of the study was 100% with complete data obtained from 335 (94.4%) of the households. The majority (93.1%) of respondents were women. The availability of HEP services as described by the household visit of Health Extension Workers (HEWs) is very high with 86.6% visiting at least monthly and 11.3% visited sometimes. There was a highly significant association between the health extension workers’ visit to households and health extension service utilization during pregnancy (OR=16.913, 95% CI 8.074-35.427 at p<0.001). HIV testing utilization showed a tenfold increase among households who received education. Participation of households in the Model family initiative was another key factor associated with high levels of HEP services utilization. Conclusion and Recommendations: Though HEP services are available for most households, the frequency of household visits by HEWs and the involvement of Households in model family training greatly influenced service utilization. Improving frequency of services availability at household level and consistent health education will greatly improve services utilization.

In the 1960s, Nigeria was on a par, in terms of aspirations to attain a very high level of economic growth and development, with its fellow-oil producing and exporting countries such as Malaysia and Indonesia, but has since failed to keep pace with them. Nigeria’s agricultural, manufacturing and mining and quarrying sectors have played a continuous and significant role in the development of the country’s economy. The approval of the millennium development goals (MGDs) by the United Nations General Assembly therefore raises three pivotal questions for Nigeria. 1) Why is Nigeria still an underdeveloped and lowincome country? 2) What should the country do to make rapid economic and social progress? and 3) How can it attain a high level of economic development and growth?. This is the background of this study, which is an empirical investigation into the factors affecting Nigeria’s bid to achieve sustainable economic growth and development with particular reference to such sectors as agriculture, manufacturing and mining and quarrying (solid minerals) over the period of 1970-2005. This involves the analysis of the relevance of the health care and education sectors and examination of impediments to past economic development, a development model applicable to Nigeria, the efforts made and the challenges facing the country in achieving the MDGs, and the role of foreign development partners in complementing Nigeria’s development efforts. The methodology adopted for this study is sectoral-econometric modelling, using the Engle- Yoo (1991) model, which contributes to bridging the gap seen in empirical studies in the application of a multivariate dynamic econometric cointegration model on the effect of domestic and foreign financial resources investment for the development of the growth sectors in the Nigerian economy. The model captures the essential linkages between the growth sectors and the country’s efforts to achieve a high level of economic development. The results from the simulations are broadly consistent with findings described in theoretical and empirical literature. There is a strong positive relationship between the gross output of the agricultural, manufacturing and mining and quarrying sectors and labour input and public capital expenditure for the growth sectors. Also there is a strong positive relationship between the agricultural credit guarantee scheme, fertiliser and the gross output of agriculture. Furthermore, the findings show a positive impact of the structural adjustment programme with the agricultural and manufacturing production. Dynamic simulation of results was undertaken to assess the path of the 10 percent dynamic adjustment (shocks) on the relevant exogenous variables and the response properties show remarkable and positive significant impact due to the shocks. The estimated actual and forecast values of the equations in the model show notable increase in the amount and growth of the gross domestic product of the real sectors in Naira billion from 2005 to 2008. The study calls to question rigid government control over the mining and quarrying sector. The importance of mining and quarrying in accelerating the pace of economic growth in Nigeria should rather motivate the government to deregulate and reform the sector. This will enable the government to attract investors into the sector, while effectively planning to encourage the proliferation of small-scale artisan, medium-scale and large-scale miners. The deregulation of the mining and quarrying sector will boost production, growth and development through employment creation, increased income of household miners and upliftment of the social and economic status of the vast majority of Nigerians. Some of the reasons identified for Nigeria’s poor economic performance include: the serious effect of “Dutch disease”, reflected in the country’s inability to manage and diversify its oil wealth to transform and achieve dynamic industrial (manufacturing), agricultural, mining, health and educational and other growth sectors. Nigeria also suffers the effects of a troubled political history, during which military rule persisted for extended periods. This study shows the importance of improving the knowledge base for policymaking, where intersectoral linkages between economic and social factors can be identified, and direct and indirect macroeconomic policy effects discerned. This distinguishes the study from earlier work in Nigeria on development policy. Achieving a high level of economic development through transforming the country’s real sectors will not only reduce poverty by providing food security, increased agricultural and industrial exports, increased per capita income and consumption, but will also bring about improved literacy and a healthy workforce and foster peace and security in Nigeria. In addition, success in transforming the real sectors will strengthen and broaden the productive base of the country, which currently relies heavily on the petroleum sector as the major earner of foreign exchange. In order to achieve a high level of economic development and growth, attention should be concentrated on channelling global financial resources to the above-mentioned sectors because of their strong linkages with and powerful value-added effect to the rest of the economy. Under the new democratic dispensation, there ought to be large investment into the growth and support sectors from domestic and external sources if the country is to attain the international growth target of achieving a high and sustainable level of economic development. Therefore, with a strong will to become a patriotic civil society, stable and prosperous, and enough wisdom to elect leaders with good will and fairly good knowledge of the country’s economy, great prospects lie before the Nigerian economy. / Thesis (PhD (Economics))--University of Pretoria, 2008. / Economics / unrestricted

Human African Trypanosomiasis (HAT) is an infectious, vector-borne protozoal disease which is amongst the so-called neglected diseases. In 2000, at a summit of the United Nations, eight Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) were set, to be achieved by 2015. MDG 6 states “to combat HIV/AIDS, malaria & other diseases”. With just under 2 years to go before the end of 2015, HAT is still thriving in developing countries. The drugs currently used for the treatment of HAT are in short supply, have severe side effects and those used to treat late stages of the disease are very difficult to administer. The aforementioned challenges call for research into this neglected disease in order to develop new, safe and easy-to-use medicines. Naphthoquinones are a class of compounds shown to possess anti-parasitic activity, amongst a variety of other biological activities, and therefore this pharmacophore was selected for this study. The purpose of this study was to synthesise derivatives of 2,3-dichloro-1,4- naphthoquinone to be tested for anti-trypanosomal activity and thereafter conduct structureactivity relationship studies. A series of reactions were carried out using thiophenol, phenol and aniline nucleophiles to synthesise thioether (-S-), ether (-O-) and amino (-NH-) derivatives of 2,3-dichloro-1,4-naphthoquinone with various halogen or methyl substituents. Purification of the products was carried out by recrystallisation. Nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR), infra-red (IR) and high pressure liquid chromatography coupled to an electro-spray ionisation mass spectrometer (HPLC-ESI-MS) were the analytical methods used for structural confirmation of the products. There were eighteen 1,4-naphthoquinone derivatives that were successfully synthesised using ethanolic solutions. Unfortunately, attempts to synthesise 1,4-naphthoquinones in reactions involving 2-(trifluoro-methyl)aniline and 2-isopropyl-5-methylphenol were unsuccessful, presumably due to steric hindrance by the bulky ortho-substituents. Although the aims of the synthetic procedures were to obtain both mono- and disubstituted products by nucleophilic displacement of the chlorine atom(s) of 2,3-dichloro-1,4- naphthoquinone, only monosubstituted products were obtained from substitution with aniline and phenol nucleophiles. Thiol nucleophiles, however, selectively yielded disubstituted products only. Synthesised naphthoquinone derivatives were tested against Trypanosoma brucei and calculation of the EC₅₀ values from the obtained dose-response curves was carried out using the four parametric equation. All the 1,4-naphthoquinones showed a degree of potency, except compounds 1b, 3c and 3e, which had little or lack of potency. Structure-activity relationship studies (SARs and QSARs) were carried out to determine which structural features or functional group substituents of the naphthoquinone derivatives contribute or take away from the desired anti-trypanosomal activity. It was found that compounds with the best in vitro anti-trypanosomal potencies in the series of analogous 1,4-naphthoquinone derivatives had EC₅₀ values in the range 2.137 to 2.884 μM. The most potent compound in the series was 2-chloro-3-(4-(trifluoromethyl)phenylamino)-1,4- naphthoquinone 1e; but it was 142-fold less potent than the reference standard of melarsoprol.

Goal 6 of the United Nations Development Program’s new Sustainable Development Goals aims to ensure availability of clean water and sustainable management practices to all by the year 2030. Peace Corps Panama partners with communities in order to help provide sustainable water solutions to communities in need. Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene (WASH) Volunteers spend at least two years living in a community to identify and implement solutions to water problems and train local water committees on how to maintain their improved systems. A common solution for unequal distribution of flow in the distribution network of a gravity flow water system is through the installation of flow reducers before each faucet. These can be sized with the help of NeatWork, a free, downloadable compute software. In Panama, flow reducers (also referred to as orifices) are manufactured to create a perforated plastic diaphragm fitting placed in the distribution pipe or union section upstream of a faucet. They help ensure longevity of the aqueduct by balancing the flows between houses, thus, enabling continuous water flow for all users. An important characteristic of flow reducers is that while they can be installed in new water sys-tems, they can also be installed in existing systems to fix inequalities from inadequate original designs or extensions to the systems. However, little guidance exists for volunteers or commu-nities to ensure the sustainability of these projects. Accordingly, the object of this thesis was to investigate how adding houses to existing aqueducts would affect its serviceability and how to determine a way for communities to size the flow reducers for future houses. The existing gravity flow water system in Santa Cruz, Panamá was surveyed including all the potential houses which were then analyzed using NeatWork. The results demonstrate that while it is better to include all potential locations during the initial survey, if it expands at an average growth rate, additional houses may decrease serviceability, but in a negligible way that will not affect the overall reliability of the distribution system. Utilizing NeatWork, this research showed it is able to determine ideal sizes of flow reducers for additional houses that could be added. Patterns were identified and used to simplify flow reducer sizing so that community members could do it themselves. While most of the time, the ideal flow reducer size for a new house will be the same size as the flow reducer size that is installed in the closest house that is already connected to the aqueduct, sometimes this is not the case. This typically occurs towards the end of branches and in areas where not all flow reducer sizes are present. These areas are clearly identified to the water committee on a map of the distribution system that was provided to various water committee members. With this map and simple instructions, the Santa Cruz water committee can continue correctly adding flow reducers to new houses. Through the research of this thesis, fabricating and installing flow reducers in the Santa Cruz water distribution system, and working alongside community members many lessons were learned about flow reducers and best practices. This knowledge has been converted into a guide about sustainable flow reducer projects. It has been left with current volunteers and the director of training for the WASH sector of Peace Corps Panama so that the volunteers can adapt the developed tools in their own communities.

In Peru, lack of water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) results in 6,600 deaths per year that represents approximately 3.9% of total deaths. Three thousand and nine hundred of these deaths were due to diarrheal diseases (Prüss-Üstün et al., 2008). Systematic reviews suggest that interventions to improve microbial quality of drinking water are successful in reducing diarrheal diseases (Fewtrell et al., 2005; Clasen et al., 2007; Fry et al., 2013). Interventions for household water treatment and safe storage to ensure safe drinking water reduce diarrhea by 31-52% (WHO/UNICEF, 2013). The SAWYER PointONE filter, a portable and adaptable membrane filtration device as small as the hand, is one point-of-use (POU) technology option for populations that rely on unsafe water from an improved source, or for areas that still rely on unimproved water sources for drinking and cooking. The filter functions strictly through mechanical exclusion accomplished by a hollow fiber membrane. The filters are certified for 0.1 μm as the largest pore size; therefore preventing diarrhea-causing bacteria such as E. coli, cholera, and typhoid to pass through the membrane. This research focuses on SAWYER water filter users who use a filter purchased through a sales agent in Independencia, Ica, Peru. Fifteen households in 9 communities and a total of 39 individuals were surveyed with the overall goal of better understanding the adoption of the SAWYER water filter as a POU water treatment technology in relation to three themes of: 1) household socio-economic factors 2) water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) related characteristic and behaviors of users, and 3) Health Belief Model factors. The results showed SAWYER water filter users to have higher socio-economic status on average. All households had a high Progress out of Poverty Index® (PPI®) score. The heads of households, both male and female, were found to be more educated than the national average. Female heads of house were more educated than the male heads of house. There was a significant difference in the education levels of the female heads of house as compared to the national levels (p =0.006), with the female heads of house in the study having superior university degrees at three times the national percentage. The heads of house were also married at a higher percentage than the national average. SAWYER water filter users also have greater access to media than the regional average. All homes were equipped with at least one TV with cable. Results showed a significant difference in households having a computer within the home as compared to the regional percentage (p < 0 .001) and also in having Internet in the home as compared to the regional percentage (p < 0.001). Most houses (13/15) have running water all the time and all have a sink, shower, and toilet. Indoor connection and sewage type were not found to be statistically different from national average. Most people (67%) reported to always use soap and several participants mentioned liquid handwashing soap. Users reported handwashing after going to the bathroom (64.1%) more than before eating (38.5%) or cooking (46%). The Health Belief Model survey revealed that SAWYER water filter users perceive diarrhea as more severe for children, even though they do consider themselves susceptible. Clear benefits of adopting the filter include saving money, improving water quality, and saving time, but the barriers to filter adoption were unclear. Most users had contact with another person who demonstrated or recommended the filter prior to adopting the filter, highlighting the importance of interpersonal contact for promoting filter use. Turbidity during rainy season was also found to be an important cue to action.

Le sujet porte sur le partenariat, son avènement et ses portées juridiques, de sorte que le champ temporel de cette approche descriptive et analytique couvre à la fois la veille et l'aube du troisième millénaire. Ainsi, cette approche afférente au partenariat au sein du système international se base notamment sur les instruments juridiques pré-onusiens à savoir le pacte de la SDN, et ceux onusiens, à commencer par la charte des Nations Unies et la déclaration du millénaire, ayant généré les objectifs du millénaire pour le développement. Ces deux instruments et bien d'autres ayant une nature thématique et dogmatique, sont évalués et surtout affinés par des documents de nature nettement plus pragmatique, notamment le document final du sommet mondial 2005. Par ce moyen, la nature juridique est mieux conjuguée avec les retombées socioéconomiques au niveau mondial. Par conséquent, la thèse tente une modélisation du partenariat, notion récente et peu consensuelle, apportant ainsi du pragmatisme sur le plan notionnel et empirique du droit du développement. / The subject deals the partnership, its emergence and its juridical range, as the temporal scope of this descriptive and analytical approach, covers both, the eve and the dawn of the third millennium, therefore, this approach related to the partnership within the international system, based especially on the pre-United Nations instruments in particular the pact of the League of Nations, and the united nations instrument, especially the Charter of this organization and the Millennium Declaration, which generate the Millennium Development goals In particular, the eighth goal, related to establishment of a global partnership for development. These two instruments and more others with dogmatic and thematic kind, are evaluated and refined by much more pragmatic documents, that is the, 2005 world summit outcome document, so the juridical nature is better combined with worldwide socioeconomic impact and its applications on a regional, multilateral and bilateral partnership . Thus, the thesis tries modeling the most consensual guidelines partnership, this recent and little consensual notion.