ABSTRACT
Many sub-Saharan African countries have experienced various challenges that threaten the quality of health services offered to the population. The COVID-19 pandemic disrupted access to healthcare services in many countries as they grappled with implementing measures to curb its spread. The consequences of COVID-19 have been catastrophic for maternal and newborn health. There is a dearth of information on expectant mothers' negotiation mechanisms to access maternal health services during COVID-19 in Kenya. This rapid qualitative study draws data from purposefully selected 15 mothers who were either pregnant or had newborn babies during the COVID-19 pandemic in Kilifi county in Kenya. Data were analyzed thematically and presented in a textual description. Women used the following alternatives to access maternal health: giving birth at the homes of traditional birth attendants (TBAs), substituting breastfeeding with locally available food supplements, relying on limited resources and neighbours for delivery and local savings and rotating credit associations. This study shows that urgent measures are needed to provide high quality maternal and child health services during and after the COVID-19 pandemic. These include but are not limited to developing special interventions for the pregnant women for any emergency and establishing trust between communities and individuals through the TBAs. © 2022, Women's Health and Action Research Centre. All rights reserved.
ABSTRACT
This edited volume examines the changes that arise from the entanglement of global interests and narratives with the local struggles that have always existed in the drylands of Africa, the Middle East, and Central Asia/Inner Asia. Changes in drylands are happening in an overwhelming manner. Climate change, growing political instability, and increasing enclosures of large expanses of often common land are some of the changes with far-reaching consequences for those who make their living in the drylands. At the same time, powerful narratives about the drylands as 'wastelands' and their 'backward' inhabitants continue to hold sway, legitimizing interventions for development, security, and conservation, informing re-emerging frontiers of investment (for agriculture, extraction, infrastructure), and shaping new dryland identities. The chapters in this volume discuss the politics of change triggered by forces as diverse as the global land and resource rush, the expansion of new Information and Communication Technologies, urbanization, the COVID-19 pandemic, and the spread of violent extremism. While recognizing that changes are co-produced by differently positioned actors from within and outside the drylands, this volume presents the dryland's point of view. It therefore takes the views, experiences, and agencies of dryland dwellers as the point of departure to not only understand the changes that are transforming their lives, livelihoods, and future aspirations, but also to highlight the unexpected spaces of contestation and innovation that have hitherto remained understudied. This edited volume will be of much interest to students, researchers, and scholars of natural resource management, land and resource grabbing, political ecology, sustainable development, and drylands in general. © 2023 selection and editorial matter, Angela Kronenburg García, Tobias Haller, Han van Dijk, Cyrus Samimi, and Jeroen Warner;individual chapters, the contributors. All rights reserved.
ABSTRACT
During the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown, face-to-face schooling could not be performed continuously, and alternative ways of learning had to be organized. Parents had to act as their children’s home schooling tutors while working from home, and schools had to deal with various alternatives to distance education. Since parents are by all means both important school users and partners, their perceptions of schools can be considered a central indicator for assessing school quality. In this respect, during school lockdown, parents’ school satisfaction may reflect schools’ ability to adjust and react to fast social changes with almost no time for preparation. To date, there is nearly no knowledge about school satisfaction or school support during this challenging situation. Using data from the COVID-19 survey of the German National Educational Panel Study, we identified central predictors of parents’ perceptions of school support during the national lockdown in Germany in spring 2020. All students (N = 1,587;Mage = 14.20;SD = 0.36;53% girls) and their parents (Mage = 47.36;SD = 4.99;91% women) have participated in the longitudinal survey for at least 8 years. The results of the structural equation model indicate that the perceived support and abilities of teachers have been especially relevant for parents’ school satisfaction during the time of the school lockdown. In contrast, factors relating to parents’ and children’s backgrounds seem to be less important. © Copyright © 2021 Haller and Novita.