Participatory rural appraisal (PRA) research methods have historically been influential in generating knowledge for long-term adaptation of human groups to their biophysical environments. This influence is especially true for the African continent, where interest in Indigenous knowledge is growing regarding development and climate change…

Rural and remote communities are challenged by an incongruous combination of poorer health and deficits of health workers. Health professionals working in rural and remote practice contexts are largely educated with standardised curriculum content designed for urban-dominant systems, even though non-urban populations account for approximately half…

The rapid onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the SARS-CoV-2 outbreak, has brought to light how important technology may be to the socio-economic development of a nation, particularly in Africa. The study conducted a narrative review of pertinent literature to objectively assess the effects of two types of emerging digital technologies…

Lifelong learning is an established concept in international education, with the discourse surrounding it implying that it is globally relevant. Nevertheless, lifelong learning takes place in specific local contexts in which features such as language, location and content are distinctive. This raises the question: How is an understanding of the…

The unprecedented increase in the number of students enrolled in colleges and universities in Africa coupled with growing unemployment and underemployment of higher education graduates calls for a comprehensive and in-depth inquiry into the quality of higher education for the entire continent. The purpose of this study is to identify factors…

Southern Africa remains the epicentre of the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) epidemic with AIDS the leading cause of death amongst adolescents. Poor policy translation, inadequate programme implementation and fragmentation of services contribute to adolescents' poor access to sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR) services. This study…

The widespread school closures due to the COVID-19 pandemic have exacerbated the learning crisis for children living in Eastern and Southern Africa. The crisis has also shown the great need to develop resilient education systems that can provide learning when schools are forced to close. Understanding how to provide remote learning equitably…

The Sustainable Development Goals target of leaving no one behind has stalled because out-of-school children (OOSC) in Africa are generally poor, disabled, orphaned, minority, working, overaged, child-brides and are remote. Descriptive statistical analysis of quantitative secondary data was applied to investigate education issues. Comparisons…

Education systems in under-resourced environments face several challenges, some of them exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic. A possible way to address some of the challenges is to apply information and communication technologies. However, effectively integrating technology into education systems is a complex task. In this paper, factors…

Land Cover Land Use (LCLU) change affects land surface processes recognized to influence climate change at local, national and global levels. Soil organic carbon is a key component for the functioning of agro-ecosystems and has a direct effect on the physical, chemical and biological characteristics of the soil. The capacity to model and project…

This article, based on theoretical reflections and empirical examples, outlines dilemmas in the social positioning of postgraduate research when students are challenged with their locations as insiders and outsiders in terms of the issues they investigate in Development Studies. Encountering the "other" and oneself in, against and beyond…

Valid indigenous language assessments are needed to further our understanding of how children learn language around the world. We assessed the psychometric properties and performance of two caregiver-report measures of Wolof language skill (language milestones achieved and vocabulary knowledge) for 500 children (ages 0;4 to 2;6) living in rural…

School enrollment, mobility, and occupation are each important factors to consider when examining HIV (human immunodeficiency virus) infection risk among youth in sub-Saharan Africa. Through an analysis of narrative life histories from 30 HIV-positive and 30 HIV-negative youth (aged 15-24 years), matched on gender, age, and village and purposively…

This paper reports on a case study that explores how the integrative model of program planning can be applied to better understand the process of mobile learning efforts in diverse African contexts. The authors discuss how, Scientific Animations Without Borders (SAWBO), a Purdue University-based program, creates educational videos accessible in…

Studies conducted in Western countries document the special role of mother--infant face-to-face exchanges for early emotional development including social smiling. A few cross-cultural studies have shown that the Western pattern of face-to-face communication is absent in traditional rural cultures, without identifying other processes that promote…