This cross-sectional study was carried out in Jinja Town in Uganda in order to assess the level of awareness of occupational hazards and the use of safety measures among small-scale industrial welders in a low-income setting. A total of 218 roadside welders with a mean age of 31 years participated in the study. The researchers found that these roadside welders had a high level of awareness of occupational hazards (83%), but their use of safety measures was less than optimal. Awareness was positively influenced by age, educational status, marital status, work experience, type of training and supervision. The researchers speculate that the great discrepancy between the level of awareness and the use of personal protective equipment could be attributed to factors such as discomfort of wear, not being aware that even ‘simple tasks’ require protection and the unavailability of personal protective equipment because of the high costs associated with their acquisition, leading to sharing of the equipment available among colleagues. Strategies are therefore needed not only to enforce policy but also to cover the informal work sector, in order to ensure the safety of welders. Generally, their high level of awareness may be used as a window of opportunity for involving welders in decision-making as regards their working conditions.
Governance and participation in health
This blog discusses issues and seven lessions raised by evaluations of the theory of change and first four years of work by an East African NGO, Twaweza. The author comments that research by groups like the Africa Power and Politics Programme and Matt Andrews argues that both demand side (build the citizens) and supply side (build the state) have failed in generating change. What works, they think, is collective problem solving, bringing together citizens, states and anyone else with skin in the game, to build trust and find solutions. People on the ground, like Goreti Nakabugo, Twaweza’s Uganda coordinator, get this: ‘we know we need buy-in from the government, officials, local politicians. We are brokering relationships with them on a daily basis’. Not only that, but in practice, even differentiating between citizen and state can be problematic – neither category is a monolith, and in some cases, the most active citizens are themselves state employees, members of public trade unions etc.
Social capital is important to disadvantaged groups, such as sex workers, as a means of facilitating internal group-related mutual aid and support as well as access to broader social and material resources. Studies among sex workers have linked higher social capital with protective HIV-related behaviors; however, few studies have examined social capital among sex workers in sub-Saharan Africa. This cross-sectional study examined relationships between two key social capital constructs, social cohesion among sex workers and social participation of sex workers in the larger community, and HIV-related risk in Swaziland using respondent-driven sampling. Relationships between social cohesion, social participation, and HIV-related risk factors were assessed using logistic regression. HIV prevalence among the sample was 70.4%. Social cohesion was associated with consistent condom use in the past week and with fewer reports of social discrimination, including denial of police protection. Social participation was associated with HIV testing and using condoms with non-paying partners and was inversely associated with reported verbal or physical harassment as a result of selling sex. Both social capital constructs were significantly associated with collective action, which involved participating in meetings to promote sex worker rights or attending HIV-related meetings/ talks with other sex workers. Social- and structural-level interventions focused on building social cohesion and social participation among sex workers could provide significant protection from HIV infection for female sex workers in Swaziland.
The study reported in this video sought to understand the role of strong social cohesion in the cities of Cape Town and Rio de Janeiro, both of which suffer from high levels of inequality, poverty, and violence. In response, local governments and non-governmental organisations in both cities have tried to counteract these phenomena through a variety of strategies, programs, and projects. This work explored the role played by social cohesion in the cycle of inequality, poverty, and violence, noting that social cohesion can act as one of a number of violence-prevention factors. The project provides theoretical, methodological, and practical insights, which contribute to better public policies in the domain of poverty and violence reduction, replicable in other regions.
This article evaluats opportunities for action on social determinants of health (SDH) requires a historical perspective. Plans for addressing SDH should be developed with an awareness of past similar efforts and factors that contributed to their success or failure. The study was a review of published historical literature on analysis and action on SDH, in particular from the Latin American social medicine movement. Concluding comments state that opportunities exist today for significant progress in addressing SDH through national action and global mechanisms such as the Commission on Social Determinants of Health. Historical analysis suggests that civil society participation will be crucial for the success of these efforts.
Social enterprise – the use of market-based, civil society approaches to address social issues – has been a growing phenomenon for over twenty years. Gathering essays by researchers and practitioners from around the globe, this book examines, from a local perspective, the diverse ways in which social enterprise has emerged in different regions. Each chapter examines the conceptualisation, history, legal and political frameworks, supporting institutions, and latest developments and challenges for social enterprise in a given region or country. In the final chapter, the author presents a comparative analysis of the various models and contexts for social enterprise, showing how particular strengths in each environment lead to different enterprise initiative models.
Although infrastructure typically refers to physical characteristics, in this article it refers to social-cultural properties within which health decisions and communication may occur. An understanding of agency and identities is incomplete without situating them in social-cultural networks of relationships that give meaning to health behaviors and sociocultural practices. Airhihenbuwa (2007) describes social-cultural infrastructure as systems and mechanisms of culture that nurture social strengths by rendering them assets in containing epidemics. The focus on physical infrastructure in addressing the development levels offers a useful perspective on the nature and relationship people have with themselves, their people, and their environment (Beune, Haafkens, Schuster, & Bindels, 2006), but does not adequately explain how choices are made and have social impact. Understanding how choices are made offers insight into how individuals are able to maintain optimum health and function in spite of limitations on their social and cognitive capabilities. In this commentary, the authors offer a perspective on the continually changing and conflicting global agenda to reduce the disease burden by improving health and health care practices in Africa (Sambo et al., 2011). They argue for a discourse that can accommodate complexity, plurality, and contradictions and is anchored in sociocultural rather than physically referenced impulses in a framework for future strategies for African health and development.
Social Watch’s report calls for justice of all kinds, including climate justice, financial, fiscal and economic justice, and social and gender justice. The report addresses various thematic issues, and looks at international and national progress made on the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). It notes with concern that progress on poverty reduction has slowed down since the MDGs were set and notes that social progress does not automatically follows economic growth. It highlights that better (non-monetary) indicators are needed to more accurately monitor the evolution of poverty in the world. The report further calls for a complete transformation of society along the lines of a new logic that prioritises human needs over corporate profits; in other words, it calls for ‘a new social deal.’ Besides, it underlines the need to rethink macroeconomics and recognise the role of women in an extensive care economy; and addresses civil society concerns regarding the fundamental ambiguity surrounding the status of public banks such as the European Investment Bank (EIB). A new approach in the advocacy work of civil society organisations is recommended, called ‘critical shareholding’, which will allow civil society organisations and networks buy shares in companies that have negative social and environmental impacts, after which they can criticise these firms from the inside.
The South African government plans to launch a National Recordal System (NRS) to catalogue its indigenous knowledge. According to the South African Department of Science and Technology (CSIR) benefits could include community recognition, sustainable livelihood, economic value and improved quality of life. Most of the traditional knowledge in South Africa is oral, passed down from one generation to the next, and with older generations passing away, the need to record that knowledge is urgent. Much of this knowledge is medical and is based on traditional remedies and treatments for illnesses. The NRS includes the establishment of indigenous knowledge networks, provincial Indigenous Knowledge Systems Documentation Centers (IKSDCs) and an Information Communication Technology (ICT) knowledge platform. The NRS aims to enable and maintain a secure, accessible national repository for the management, dissemination and promotion of indigenous traditional knowledge, and achieve national intellectual property objectives for the protection of indigenous traditional knowledge.
The Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) says South Africa's responses to the impact of the disease on young people, are paying off. Releasing its latest report on the epidemic, the UNAIDS said HIV prevalence among teenagers in South Africa shrank between 1998 and 2001.