In this thesis, the relevance and practical value of discourses about reproductive rights to women living in a rural area of Zimbabwe are examined. Policy documents indicate that the Zimbabwe National Family Planning Council's (ZNFPC's) community based distribution service is based on principles of respect for particular definitions of reproductive rights and, concomitantly, a degree of women's reproductive self determination. In contrast, recent analyses of post Independence government action suggest that, as citizens of Zimbabwe, women are generally defined as dependants of men. This raises questions about the impact of the context of women's citizenship on the interpretation and realisation of reproductive rights through the family planning programme. Field work data focuses on the interpretation of policy and the consequent practices of local level health workers as well as women's interactions with health workers and their implications for reproductive self determination within household relations. It is suggested that health workers' actions result in the differential realisation of reproductive rights for particular social groups. Health worker relations with clients, in turn, reinforce differences between women in terms of the extent to which they are able to exercise reproductive self-determination within household relations. State employed health workers, in effect, act as policemen of private reproductive decision making. The use of an analytical framework of rights and citizenship highlights the relatively neglected issue of the political system in which family planning programmes are embedded. It is argued that health worker accountability to village populations is as important as the content of policy in determining the realisation and practical value of discourses about reproductive rights to rural women.

Submitted in fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Technology, Information Technology, Durban University of Technology, 2012. / This thesis reports on original exploratory study that is aimed at contributing towards understanding of factors that influence Africa users support for alternative object metaphors for user interface icons. One of the great impediments for efficient utilization of information systems is the existing gap between system designs that typically follow western cues for crafting user interfaces and actual users who use those systems within their diverse cultural frames. The problem remains important because of the wider penetration of information systems, which serve as modern technology tools to improve service provisioning worldwide. In order to overcome the problem of optimum utilization of information systems, previous studies have proposed culturally adaptive user interfaces. The basic principle behind culture adaptive interfaces is to develop intelligent user interfaces that can automatically adapt to user contexts. However, the challenges with the new proposals for adaptive user interfaces are how to best model information about users, how to access the cultural background of individual users and empirically examine the effects of culture on user interface preferences. In order to properly contribute to solving these problems, an exploratory study was conducted to empirically establish African rural users support for alternative village object metaphors, examine effects of culture on user support and investigate response characteristic among culturally diverse user groups. The synthesis of bodystorming and cultural probes methodology was applied to engage the participation of African rural users in the study. Technology support model was developed to measure user knowledge, comprehension, skills, performance and support for alternative African village metaphors as interface icons. The partial least square analytic modelling technique and finite mixture path segmentation model were used to test a set of research hypotheses and detect heterogeneity in 71 respondent data generated. Experimental results of this study show that human cognitive factors of technology knowledge, comprehension and performance influence African users support for alternative village object metaphors as interface icons. However, skill factor is not found to influence user support for alternative African village object metaphors. The factor of culture is found to moderate the effects of comprehension on user support and effects of user performance on user support. This study also identifies three segments of African users that result in heterogeneity within the inner path model.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of the Witwatersrand, Faculty of Architecture,1985.

Background: The underutilization of formal, facility-based maternal care is a major contributor to the high maternal mortality rates among women living in rural Africa. Increasing the use of formal maternal care requires exploration of important maternal health issues affecting community members and comprehension of how they perceive the use of formal and traditional maternal care. This thesis aimed to identify the key factors, challenges, and needs of rural populations for the uptake of formal maternal care. Paper 1 explored rural women's preferred choices for sources of maternal care as well as the factors that contribute to their preferences in Africa. Paper 2 explored elders' perceptions about reasons for the underutilization of maternal healthcare and maternal death, as well as potential solutions to improve formal care use in rural Nigeria. Methods: 1) In paper 1, a systematic search on Ovid Medline, Embase, CINAHL, and Global Health identified 40 qualitative studies that elicited women's preferences for maternal care in rural Africa. Reviewers collated the findings and reported on patterns identified across findings using the narrative synthesis method. 2) Data were collected through 9 community conversations with 158 elders in 9 rural Nigerian communities. The data were analyzed inductively through thematic analysis. Results: 1) A variety of preferences for formal, traditional and both formal and traditional maternal care during antepartum, intrapartum and postpartum periods were identified. The majority of the studies reported preferences for formal antenatal care or a combination of traditional and formal antenatal care. During intrapartum, rural women held a wide range of preferences, including facility-based births, traditional births in a domestic setting, as well as a combination of formal and traditional care depending on the onset of complications. The majority of the studies reported preferences for traditional postnatal care involving traditional attendants, self-care, and cultural rituals that fend off witchcraft. The factors that contributed to these preferences were related to the perceived need of formal or traditional maternal care, accessibility to formal or traditional care, and cultural and religious norms, beliefs and obligations. 2) The perceived reasons for the underuse of formal maternal care included poor qualities of care, physical and financial inaccessibility of facility-based services, and lack of knowledge and awareness. Reasons for women's maternal deaths included malaria and blood displacement, facility-based service deficiencies, uptake of traditional maternal care, and poor community awareness and negligence. Increased access to high-quality care, health promotion and education, community support and supernatural assistance were the proffered solutions. Conclusions: The major areas that need improvement across rural Africa include human and material resources availability, technical and interpersonal quality of care in health facilities, physical accessibility, financial accessibility, sociocultural accessibility, cultural and religious sensitivity, and community knowledge and awareness. Generally, the findings reflect the need for multifaceted interventions that engage target populations and consider local contexts, realities, and related needs in order to develop locally acceptable interventions. Such interventions will increase the likelihood of effective and long-lasting positive changes in healthcare utilization and maternal mortality.

No description available.

Thesis (MScAgric (Agricultural Economics))—University of Stellenbosch, 2005. / The study broadly assesses the usefulness of available digital spatial land resource data as a source for agritourism and ecotourism information by comparing the inventory of available spatial data sets for South Africa and the SADC region, with the needs for spatial data as derived from a literature study of travel motivations and demand determinants. Spatial land resource data have been collected, processed and stored for agricultural planning purposes, like land suitability assessment, agricultural production and infrastructural planning. Given a) the growth in agritourism and ecotourism, b) the more detailed information required by tourists to aid them during decision making processes like destination selection and c) the progress in information technology rendering access of information via the internet easier; the question arose whether the available land resource digital data can be processed to provide relevant tourism information on internet websites. Four tasks had to be done, namely: a) identifying tourists’ needs by means of a literature study on travel motivations and demand determinants; b) identifying the land resource data sets that could be processed into information to meet these identified needs; c) determining the accessibility of spatial information on internet tourism websites to potential agritourists and ecotourists, and d) exploring opportunities for adding value by looking at what information existing websites are offering in comparison with what can be obtained from repackaging the land resource data. Common ground was found between the spatial tourist information needs and the available spatial land resource data. This, coupled with the ability of combining meteorological and other humanmade environmental data in GIS modelling, suggests that repackaging land resource data seems to have the potential to offer useful tourism information in correspondence with confirmed tourist information needs.

Although there has been increasing research on HIV/AIDS and children, albeit mostly outside the school environment, most research in the area tends to view 'children as objects' (Christensen and James, 1999) in the research process whereby the change in the child is what is being observed. This view lessens the role of the child and as such means that the results are inadequate - mostly the researcher's perspective is represented. In Zimbabwe, with an estimated 1.1 million AIDS orphans and 115,000 children under 14 living with HIV/AIDS, not much empirical research has been conducted in school settings where they spend most of their time; the complexities of infected and affected students' experiences within the school-home-community spheres are mostly inferred due to lack of empirical research. Using Bronfenbrenner's Ecological System's Theory and the Capability Approach to adopt a holistic psychosocio-cultural lens, the research aims to understand the experiences of infected and affected students from their perspectives within their school, home and community environments. Added to observations, in-depth interviews based on data collected using photography, drawings, timelines, sociograms and student diaries were conducted with 65 boys and 27 girls aged 10 -13 years from a rural primary school during the months of August to December 2011. In-depth interviews were also conducted with 161 parents and caregivers. Also interviewed were 13 stakeholders comprising of a Senior Research Officer within the Ministry of Education, District Education Officer, 5 Teachers and their Principal, a District Councilor, the Chief, a village head, a local Baptist Minister and a research staff person from, FACT, a local NGO that works with AIDS orphans. Among children, findings point to dilapidating issues of stigma, abandonment, unaddressed emotional and physical needs; children relied on each other's advice more than that of teachers and caregivers. Among the adult community, the education authorities and community leaders who are custodians of their education, ignorance about infected and affected children is astounding. An ageing population of caregivers is barely able to deal with the complexities of infected children. Religion has a powerful negative influence on addressing HIV/AIDS issues. Teachers, citing taboo issues about sex and the fact that HIV/AIDS is not an exam at the school, refused to broach the subject. Education Officials at the time clearly pointed out that there has been no research nor any plans yet to address this population and their needs. Further research will need to be conducted for educational planning that will be most effective in implementing meaningful changes for this group and other rural primary school children.