The Luskin School of Public Affairs and the California Center for Population Research invites you for a Lunch Seminar with CEGA-EASST & BRAC Fellows next Thursday, November 14 from 12:30-1:30 pm in the CCPR Seminar Room. Lunch will be served, please RSVP here.
Ronald Mulebeke (EASST fellow), Research Fellow at Makerere School of Public Health
“Impact of Supportive Supervision and Behavior Change Communication to improve the quality of malaria care and data management in Uganda”
In Uganda, malaria contributes between 30 and 50% of outpatient visits, 15–20% of hospital admissions and 20% of hospital deaths, with most of this burden borne by children under 5 years and pregnant women. Most of these are seen in the private sector where approximately 60% of the population seek for malaria care at first need. There is growing evidence that supportive supervision (SS) is a sustainable intervention to achieve higher adherence to guidelines and overall improvement of quality of care. In this study, I propose a cluster randomized controlled trial to test the hypothesis that SS provided to private health facilities in combination with behavioral change communication (BCC) provided to the community improves the quality of malaria care. I will also determine the quality of data management as well as determine the cost-effectiveness of the intervention which will turn out to have an impact on quality of malaria care
Christina Fille (EASST fellow), Lecturer at the Institute of Social Work in Tanzania
“The Impact of Secondary School Certificate on Income, Teen Pregnancy and Cognitive Performance in Tanzania”
Students in Tanzania go through secondary school education which is four years and at the end they complete a national examination which is called the Certificate of Secondary Education Examination (CSEE). CSEE is an achievement test offered to candidates who have completed four years of secondary education. The objectives of this examination are to assess students’ skills and knowledge achieved in different subjects at secondary school and measure the extent to which the student can use the skills gained to meet the social, political, economic and technological challenges for the individual and the national development at large. This study will investigate if passing this examination and getting a certificate increases individual’s income in the sense of providing the individuals with formal employment versus low skill self-employment, if it improves the fertility and health outcomes of the individuals, and also if it improves the skills, knowledge and experience possessed by an individual. This study is going to react by investigate if passing the examination and getting a certificate is a signal in the labour market or do these candidates really possess the skills. Therefore, this will be a signaling versus skills debate paper using the Regression Discontinuity Design.
Esau Tugume (BRAC fellow), Research Associate at BRAC Uganda
“Effects of Vocational Education Training on labour productivity: an RCT in Northern Uganda”
Private sector in Uganda is largely affected by poor productivity resulting from poor managerial practices, low technology adoption, limited productive labour supply and finances to fund firm mechanization. The enrolment of students into vocational training programs to provide the productive labour has always been low recorded at 63,265 in 2016 and the quality of skills acquired has been insufficient to match the job market requirement. Ugandan government started implementing the “Skilling Uganda strategic plan” in 2011 that aimed to improve on supply of employable skills, competencies relevant in the labour market and overcome unproductive labour force achieve increase in productivity and growth in economy. Despite these efforts, unproductive and poor skilled labour force still exist in skill intensive sectors like carpentry, metal fabrication and grain milling, where technical skills are essential to increase firm productivity (Danish Report, 2016). This study proposes a randomized control trial experiment to enrol one group of trainees into vocational education training and the control group will attend firm training for six months respectively. The effect of the treatment on trainee productivity will be measured by time taken to complete a two panel door of particular quality.
