Education And Hiv Aids Prevention Evidence From A Randomizedi Evaluation In Western Kenya

This study examines the role of culture in the adoption of measures and strategies for the prevention of HIV/ AIDS among girls and women in Western Kenya. It focuses on levels of awareness of HIV/AIDS prevention measures and patterns of adoption of five the measures that are currently being promoted in Kenya: the use of condoms; screening for HIV at Voluntary Counselling and Testing (VCT) Centres; prevention of mother-to-child transmission (PMTCT); the use of post-exposure prophylaxis (PEP); and the prompt treatment of sexually transmitted infections (STIs). This research is focused on examining the cultural context of HIV/AIDS research and programmes in Western Kenya and aims to reveal how limited has been the critical analysis of culture as a determinant of adoption of these measures despite the stated prioritization of culture as a key factor to consider

Top experts in the field discuss how to improve the effectiveness of foreign aid, proposing practical solutions to specific problems rather than a utopian master plan. The urgency of reducing poverty in the developing world has been the subject of a public campaign by such unlikely policy experts as George Clooney, Alicia Keyes, Elton John, Angelina Jolie, and Bono. And yet accompanying the call for more foreign aid is an almost universal discontent with the effectiveness of the existing aid system. In Reinventing Foreign Aid, development expert William Easterly has gathered top scholars in the field to discuss how to improve foreign aid. These authors, Easterly points out, are not claiming that their ideas will (to invoke a current slogan) Make Poverty History. Rather, they take on specific problems and propose some hard-headed solutions. Easterly himself, in an expansive and impassioned introductory chapter, makes a case for the “searchers”—who explore solutions by trial and error and learn from feedback—over the “planners”—who throw an endless supply of resources at a big goal—as the most likely to reduce poverty. Other writers look at scientific evaluation of aid projects (including randomized trials) and describe projects found to be cost-effective, including vaccine delivery and HIV education; consider how to deal with the government of the recipient state (work through it or bypass a possibly dysfunctional government?); examine the roles of the International Monetary Fund (a de-facto aid provider) and the World Bank; and analyze some new and innovative proposals for distributing aid. Contributors Abhijit Banerjee, Nancy Birdsall, Craig Burnside, Esther Duflo, Domenico Fanizza, William Easterly, Ruimin He, Kurt Hoffman, Stephen Knack, Michael Kremer, Mari Kuraishi, Ruth Levine, Bertin Martens, John McMillan, Edward Miguel, Jonathan Morduch, Todd Moss, Gunilla Pettersson, Lant Pritchett, Steven Radelet, Aminur Rahman, Ritva Reinikka, Jakob Svensson, Nicolas van de Walle, James Vreeland, Dennis Whittle, Michael Woolcock

It is widely acknowledged that youth unemployment is one of the most critical challenges facing countries in Sub-Saharan Africa. This volume brings together an eminent group of international scholars to analyse the extent and complex nature of this joblessness, and offer a set of evidence-based policy choices that could contribute to solving the problem in the short- and long-run. Part I reviews the existing literature on youth unemployment and underemployment in Sub-Saharan Africa from microeconomic and macroeconomic perspectives, while Part II goes on to present detailed country studies of Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya and South Africa. These studies offer a deep understanding of the situation on the ground and consider country-specific solutions. Throughout the book it is argued that the standard ILO definition of unemployment is too narrow to correctly portray employment situations in Sub-Saharan Africa. Several alternative measures of unemployment are presented, which show that joblessness is far more pervasive than commonly assumed in the literature. This volume will be of interest to academics and policy makers involved in African development.

This book focuses on the issues encountered by children and young people who are living with HIV/AIDS. It examines their lived experiences associated with HIV/AIDS, and studies groups of children and youngsters from around the globe. Connecting empirical information with real-life situations, the book brings together results from empirical research that relates to these children and young people. Its chapters can be used as evidence for health care providers to implement socially and culturally appropriate services to assist individuals and groups of children and young people who are living with HIV/AIDS in many societies. Many of these young people are from the most marginalized and vulnerable groups; and many have been orphaned by the death of their HIV-positive parents. Marginalized young people such as refugees, migrants and street children are most at risk due to the use of illicit drugs, their exposure to unprotected sex (in exchange for food, money and protection), and stigma associated with their marginalized lives. The impact that HIV/AIDS has on the opportunities for these young people to be able to lead healthy adult lives is considerable. This book gives a voice to these children and young people and advances our understanding of their lived experiences and needs.

Participation of beneficiaries in the monitoring of public services is increasingly seen as a key to improving their efficiency. In India, the current government flagship program on universal primary education organizes both locally elected leaders and parents of children enrolled in public schools into committees and gives these groups powers over resource allocation, and monitoring and management of school performance. However, in a baseline survey we found that people were not aware of the existence of these committees and their potential for improving education. This paper evaluates three different interventions to encourage beneficiaries' participation through these committees: providing information, training community members in a new testing tool, and training and organizing volunteers to hold remedial reading camps for illiterate children. We find that these interventions had no impact on community involvement in public schools, and no impact on teacher effort or learning outcomes in those schools. However, we do find that the intervention that trained volunteers to teach children to read had a large impact on activity outside public schools -- local youths volunteered to be trained to teach, and children who attended these camps substantially improved their reading skills. These results suggest that citizens face substantial constraints in participating to improve the public education system, even when they care about education and are willing to do something to improve it.

The field of development economics has evolved since volume 3 of the Handbook of Development Economics was published more than a decade ago. Volume 4 takes stock of some of the newer trends and their implications for research in the field and our understanding of economic development. The handbook is divided into four sections which reflect these developments, of which the first deals with agricultural and rural development. Section two is concerned with developments in the theory and evidence regarding public goods and political economy. The third section is focused on the behavior of households and individuals regarding various aspects of human capital investments, in the face of the various constraints, particularly market incentives and public goods. The final section contains papers that describe the different methods now available, both experimental and non-experimental, to conduct program evaluations, as well as describing papers that implement these methods. The authors of the chapters are all experts in the fields they survey and extend, and this volume promises to be an invaluable addition to the Handbooks in Economics series and a useful reference to graduate students, researchers and professionals in the field of development economics. Presents an accurate, self-contained survey of the current state of the field Summarizes the most recent discussions in journals, and elucidates new developments Although original material is also included, the main aim is the provision of comprehensive and accessible surveys