MSc, Population-Based Field Epidemiology, Faculty of Health Sciences,University of the Witwatersrand / Introduction: The spread and prevalence of the HIV epidemic has resulted in extensive demographic, social and economic impacts among families in the communities affected in Sub Saharan Africa which increase with the severity and duration of the epidemic. The dramatic increase in adult mortality attributable to HIV/AIDS in households in these communities may increase the number of households that do not survive as a functional and cohesive social group in the years to come. The migration of household members and possible dissolution of these households are the challenges stemming from the epidemic. We therefore require rigorous empirical research on the socioeconomic effects of HIV/AIDS in order to develop appropriate strategies to mitigate these impacts and ultimately improve living standards in these communities. This report describes the extent at which these impacts are felt by a rural community using data from the Rufiji HDSS in rural Tanzania. Design: The study will use a longitudinal study design to identify antecedent events and dynamics and trans-temporal aspects in establishing the effects HIV/AIDS, and particularly how adult deaths from the disease determine migration of individual household members, controlling for other individual level and household factors. Objectives: The main objectives of the study include the description of the adult mortality patterns in the area with an emphasis on the HIV/AIDS related adult deaths, the description of the socioeconomic and demographic characteristics of households experiencing these adult deaths; the characterisation of the members migrating from the households as a result of these adult deaths or otherwise. We also estimate the proportion of household members migrating following the deaths of adult members and further compare these rates of migrations from households experiencing adult HIV/AIDS, Non-HIV/AIDS deaths and where there is no experience of death. Methods: Migrating individuals from 4,019 households that experienced at least one adult death were compared with migrating individuals from other households experiencing Non-HIV/AIDS deaths and those from households without deaths. A total of 32, 787 households were included in the study. An adult death was defined as a death of a household member aged 18 years and above. Those aged 60+ years were considered elderly deaths. A total of 4,603 adult deaths were recorded over the period 1st January 2000 to 31st December 2007. The mortality trends were shown by the rates calculated by Kaplan-Meier survival estimates expressed per 1000 PYO. Migration rates were computed while the association between adult mortality and out-migration of household members was assessed using Cox proportional Hazard model controlling for other individual level and household level factors. Results: Adult deaths increase by about 9% the chance of a child, male or female, to migrate within or without the DSA while HIV/AIDS adult deaths increase by a further 19 percentage point the risk of 5 the child to migrate out of the DSA. The results also show that HIV/AIDS adult deaths enhance the risk of adult female internal migration by 6% (adj. HR 1.06; 95% CI 0.91-1.23, p-value 0.01) but is not significantly associated with adult male migration. Non-HIV/AIDS adult deaths also enhance the risk for female internal migration by 5% albeit hardly significantly (adj. HR 1.05; 95% CI 1.0-1.10, pvalue 0.05) but decreases the chance of male internal migration by 13% (adj. HR 0.87; 95% CI 0.81- 0.93, p-value 0.01). Additionally, HIV/AIDS adult death is strongly associated with out-migration of adults, whatever the gender. They predispose female out-migration to 19% (adj. HR 1.19; 95% CI 1.09-1.30, p-value <0.001) and male migration to 30% increased risk (adj. HR 1.30; 95% CI 1.16-1.45, p-value <0.001). This gender difference is however non-significant (the confidence intervals overlap). Non-HIV/AIDS adult death has the inverse effect on out-migration, and the gender difference is significant: 18% increased risk for males (adj. HR 1.18 95% CI 1.14-1.22, p-value <0.001) and 29% for females (adj. HR 1.29; 95% CI 1.26-1.33, p-value <0.001). Conclusion: Adult deaths have a positive impact on out-migration, with some variation by gender. The effect of HIV/AIDS death on out-migration is not very different from other deaths‟ effect.

This dissertation describes an action research case study carried out at a sub-village school at Nyamakurukuru, Utete, Rufiji District, Tanzania. The study was a fully independent research activity funded and led by a female Irish environmental and community specialist who has fifteen years experience of working in rural Tanzania, five of which were in Rufiji District. The aim of the action research was to engage a community of villagers, teachers, students and district officers in a participatory process to adapt a module of a school curriculum to the local context, and teach it in order to describe one way in which contextualization, using local and indigenous knowledge and active discovery teaching-learning processes, can be done. The major research question, which I wished to answer for one specific case, was: Does integrating local environmental cultural knowledge into formal schooling contribute to curriculum relevance? If so, in what way? This document describes the background and context of the research, the motivation and the theoretical basis for the work, the methodology and methods, and the action research process itself. The results are interpreted and discussed in the light of current theoretical perspectives on education and environmental education. The main findings within the case are that: Contextualization improved relevance of education and thus its quality by: • breaking through traditional frames/barriers between teachers and students, students and elders and community and teachers, • allowing formal education to take place outside of the school, • necessitating a change in pedagogy1 to more learner-centered, discovery methods, • allowing indigenous knowledge to come into the classroom, • stimulating creativity and increased confidence, and • bringing local socio-political environmental issues into the classroom. This study provides a case example of how education processes, when engaging local cultural knowledge, can improve the relevance, and thus an aspect of the quality of teaching and learning in school-community contexts, while providing a conduit for integrating environmental education into the formal school curriculum. It provides insights into the key issue of relevance which currently faces educators of children in wetlands in Tanzania. Recommendations were made for the case studied and may be useful beyond the boundaries of the case: • Give more explicit government policy and strategic support for community involvement in educational content–epistemologies and pedagogies. • Weaken framing (hierarchical power positions) to encourage greater partnership between school, home and community to improve relevance. • Investigate the provision of education beyond schools. • Provide practical teacher and community training on use of learner-centered, discovery and active pedagogies. • Provide teacher and community education on biodiversity and the environment. • Provide relevant reference texts and research data on the ecology, biodiversity, vegetation, hydrology, agriculture, sociology, history and other relevant subjects. • Officially nurture a culture that learning should be enjoyable. • Allow the curriculum freedom, in these times of increasing risk for rural tropical wetland communities, to make the curriculum fit the local issues rather than vice versa. • Nurture critical analysis of the curriculum in local pedagogic discourse i.e., at the local contextualization level of the home, community and school.

Thesis (PhD)--Stellenbosch University, 2013. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: The Mount Rungwe ecosystem (MRE) has unique mountain resources. Its biological, hydrological, economic and cultural endowments offer many development opportunities for Tanzania. Since the 1970s, the MRE has experienced change in land use and means of acquiring livelihoods, calling for scientific investigation into the extent, nature, and magnitude of land use changes and their implications for communities’ livelihoods. The aim of the study was to investigate the major changes in land use, to identify the drivers responsible for these changes and to establish the interrelationship between land use change and communities’ livelihoods in order to suggest desirable management options towards improving rural livelihoods and the ecological integrity of MRE. A research design that integrates both qualitative and quantitative approaches was adopted. The fieldwork involved six villages representative of three ecological zones and 384 respondents were interviewed. Information on the past and present land uses, policies, institutions and processes that have influenced and are influencing land use change in the area was obtained through questionnaires, interviews, field observation, and analysis of documents. Satellite imagery of 1973, 1986, 1991 and 2010 were analysed for spatial and temporal statistics on land use and change. The findings indicate that MRE is experiencing land conversions from one land use category to the other especially in villages of the highland zone. Government policies on the use of and access to forests, agricultural land and energy have contributed to the past and current land use changes. Demographic, cultural, economic and natural factors singly or cumulatively have also induced changes in land use in MRE. Most of the changes in land use were noted between 1991 and 2010. At the district level there was a significant decrease in natural vegetation, particularly bushland and woodland, and an increase in cultivated land. Intensification of agricultural land use was more in the villages of the highland zone than in the middleland and lowland zones. Villages of the lowland zone showed a decline of cultivated land area, particularly in the tree crops category, and a constant or declining trend of the natural vegetation coverage – especially grasslands and woodlands. To reduce unplanned farm expansions into areas of natural vegetation, it is recommended that the Ministry of Agriculture should re-emphasise intercropping practices and provide extension services targeting crops such as potatoes and bananas which are now commercialised. This would be a step towards improving agricultural land productivity and addressing local food security. The ministry of Energy and Minerals could finance the ongoing tree planting efforts by local communities and enhance the use of more efficient charcoal stoves so as not only to protect the remaining forests but also as a way of diversifying the communities’ livelihoods. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Die Mount Rungwe ekosisteem (MRE) het 'n unieke berggebaseerde hulpbronbasis. Sy biologiese, hidrologiese, ekonomiese en kulturele erfenis bied vele ontwikkelingsgeleenthede vir Tanzanië. Sedert die 1970s het die MRE verandering in grondgebruik ervaar wat implikasies inhou vir bestaanswyses van sy bewoners. Daarom vereis die veranderingsverskynsel wetenskaplike ondersoek na die omvang en aard van grondgebruikveranderinge en die implikasies daarvan vir gemeenskappe se lewensbestaan. Die doel van die studie was om ondersoek in te stel na die belangrikste veranderinge in grondgebruik en om die drywers verantwoordelik vir hierdie veranderinge te identifiseer en die onderlinge verband tussen die verandering in grondgebruik en gemeenskappe se lewensbestaan te identifiseer. Daaruit word wenslike bestuursopsies duidelik vir die verbetering van landelike bestaansmoontlikhede en die handhawing van ekologiese integriteit van die MRE. 'n Navorsingsontwerp wat beide kwalitatiewe en kwantitatiewe benaderings integreer is gekies. Vir veldwerk is ses dorpe in drie ekologiese sones ondersoek en 384 respondente is ondervra. Inligting oor die grondgebruike, -veranderings, beleide, instellings en prosesse wat die gebied beïnvloed het, is verkry deur middel van vraelyste, onderhoude, veldwaarneming, en dokumentontleding. Satellietbeelde van 1973, 1986, 1991 en 2010 is ontleed vir ruimtelike en temporale patrone van grondgebruik en verandering. Die bevindinge dui daarop dat die MRE grondgebruik-omskakeling van verskillende kategorieë na ander in veral die hooglandsone ervaar. Regeringsbeleid oor die gebruik en toegang tot natuurlike woude, landbougrond en energiebronne het bygedra tot hierdie grondgebruike en hul veranderinge. Demografiese, kulturele, ekonomiese en omgewingsfaktore, enkel of kumulatief, het ook tot die veranderinge bygedra. Die meeste van die veranderinge in grondgebruik is tussen 1991 en 2010 aangeteken. Op distriksvlak het byvoorbeeld natuurlike plantegroei, veral bosveld en woud, beduidend oor die studietydperk afgeneem, terwyl die bewerkte grondoppervlak sterk toegeneem het. Intensivering van landbougrondgebruik was meer intens in die dorpe van die hooglandsone in vergelyking met die middelland en laer sones. Dorpe van die laer sone het weer 'n afname van bewerkte grond, veral boomagtige gewasse, en 'n konstante of dalende tendens van die natuurlike plantegroei ervaar – veral gras- en bosveld. Om ongewenste plaasuitbreidings na gebiede van natuurlike plantegroei te voorkom, beveel die studie aan dat die landbouministerie weer klem plaas op praktyk vir tussenverbouing van gewasse en voorligtingsdienste voorsien vir die verbouing van gekommersialiseerde gewasse soos aartappels en piesangs. Dit sou die verbetering van die landbou-produktiwiteit en die verhoging van plaaslike voedselsekuriteit in die hand werk. Die energieministerie behoort origens deurlopende boomplant-aksies deur plaaslike gemeenskappe te stimuleer deur verskaffing van finansies en moet die gebruik van meer doeltreffende houtskool stowe aanmoedig. Dit sal die oorblywende woude help beskerm en is ook 'n manier om die gemeenskappe se lewensonderhoudstelsels te diversifiseer en te verbeter.