Intensive and extensive margins of mining and development: evidence from Sub-Saharan Africa

Intensive and extensive margins of mining and development: evidence from Sub-Saharan Africa

Crawford School of Public Policy | Arndt-Corden Department of Economics
ACDE Trade & Development Seminars

Date & time
Tuesday 26 September 2017
2.00pm–3.30pm
Venue
Seminar Room C, Coombs Building, Fellows Road, ANU

Speaker
Sambit Bhattacharyya, Sussex University.

Contacts
Ross McLeod
seminars.economics@anu.edu.au

“What are the economic consequences of mining in Sub-Saharan Africa? Using a panel of 3,635 districts from 42 Sub-Saharan African countries for the period 1992 to 2012 we investigate the effects of mining on living standards measured by night-lights. Night-lights increase in mining districts when mineral production expands (intensive margin), but large effects approximately equivalent to 16 per cent increase in GDP are mainly associated with new discoveries and new production (extensive margin). We identify the effect by carefully choosing feasible but not yet mined districts as a control group. In addition, we exploit giant and major mineral discoveries as exogenous news shocks. In spite of the large within district effects, there is little evidence of significant spillovers to other districts reinforcing the enclave nature of mines in Africa. Furthermore, the local effects disappear after mining activities come to an end which is consistent with the ’resource curse’ view.”

The Francophone Africans: A Last Frontier for Australia

The Francophone Africans: A Last Frontier for Australia

DATE:Tue, 17 Oct 2017
18:00 – 19:00. Refreshments available from 5.30 pm.

VENUE:  AIIA (ACT Branch), Stephen House, 32 Thesiger Court, Deakin ACT

SPEAKER

Mr William Fisher is the Special Envoy of the Australian Government for the Francophone States of Africa and La Francophonie. He is a former Australian senior diplomat. Mr Fisher is currently a Visiting Fellow at the College of Diplomacy at the Australian National University.

ABSTRACT

While Africa in general, and the French-speaking part of it in particular, may seem of distant interest to Australian preoccupations, there is an increasing number of issues where Australia will find it needs constructive partners in this region. The 24 Francophones constitute about half of the African bloc, and thus are an essential group in any contested UN vote, where they can act quite efficiently as a bloc. Each country is quite different, and state governance issues are often complicated. Terrorist threats can dominate in several, particularly the Sahel countries, while much of central and equatorial Africa suffers from years of often violent political instability and poor development outcomes. The Indian Ocean states, while not immune from political troubles of their own in the past, are generally now doing rather well. Australia has no assets in the region, and no resident Embassies other than, from just this month, Morocco.

COST: Free for AIIA members, $10 for non-members, $5 students. Payable at the door.

 

Mortality transition and associated socioeconomic differentials in Agincourt, rural South Africa, 1993-2013

Mortality transition and associated socioeconomic differentials in Agincourt, rural South Africa, 1993-2013: Findings from population surveillance
Date and time:
Fri, 22nd Sep 2017 – 3:00pm – 4:00pm
*****  Location: NOTE VENUE CHANGE

SEMINAR ROOM B, COOMBS BUILDING

Presenters:
Chodziwadziwa Kabudula (Caldwell Fellow, see below) and Brian Houle (Lecturer in Demography)

Link to Flyer: http://demography.anu.edu.au/seminars/tba-4

Abstract:

Understanding a population’s mortality burden and its variation by socioeconomic status (SES) is important for setting locally-relevant health and development priorities, identifying critical elements for strengthening of health systems, and determining the focus of health services and programmes. We examine changes in mortality levels, cause composition, and variation by socioeconomic status in Agincourt, rural South Africa over the period 1993-2013. The population experienced steady and substantial increases in overall and communicable disease related mortality from the mid-1990s to the mid-2000s, peaking around 2005-07 due to the HIV/AIDS epidemic. Overall mortality steadily declined afterwards following reduction in HIV/AIDS-related mortality due to the widespread introduction of free antiretroviral therapy (ART) available from public health facilities. By 2013, however, the cause of death distribution was yet to reach the levels it occupied in the early 1990s. Overall, the poorest individuals in the population experienced the highest mortality burden and HIV/AIDS and tuberculosis mortality persistently showed an inverse relation with SES throughout the period 2001-13. Although mortality from non-communicable diseases (NCDs) increased over time in both sexes and injuries were a prominent cause of death in males, neither of these causes of death showed consistent, significant associations with household SES. These findings highlight the need for integrated health-care planning and programme delivery strategies to increase access to and uptake of HIV testing, linkage to care and ART, and prevention and treatment of NCDs to achieve further reduction in mortality. Greater attention is especially needed for the poorest individuals to reduce associated socioeconomic inequalities.

Chodziwadziwa (Cho) Whiteson Kabudula is a Data Scientist and Researcher at the MRC/Wits Rural Public Health & Health Transitions Research Unit (the MRC/Wits-Agincourt Research Unit) at the School of Public Health, University of the Witwatersrand in South Africa. He is the 2017 John C Caldwell Population, Health and Development Visiting at the National Centre for Epidemiology & Population Health and School of Demography at the Australian National University. His research focuses on integrating population-level socio-demographical, behavioural, disease and risk factor prevalence data from surveillance populations with clinical, treatment and laboratory data and applying demographic, statistical, computational and informatics techniques to study population-level morbidity, mortality and utilisation of health services.

Exhibiting Biskra: Art, Photography and Tourism in an Algerian Oasis

The exhibition Biskra: sortilèges d’un oasis has been sparked by responses of
cosmopolitan avant-gardists who visited around 1900, including the  André Gide, Henri Matisse and  Béla Bartók

Wednesday 20 September 2017, 4.30 – 6pm

This public lecture is co-presented by the ANU Centre for European Studies and the Humanities Research Centre, ANU College of Arts & Social Sciences.

Enquiries: T 02 6125 9896 E europe@anu.edu.au

Speaker
Professor Roger Benjamin
Professor of Art History
University of Sydney

Professor Benjamin is a Canberra-born art historian and curator who trained in Melbourne, Bryn Mawr and Paris. His work has focused on Matisse studies,contemporary Aboriginal art, and the social history of European Orientalist painting.

Location
The Nye Hughes Room
ANU Centre for European Studies
The Australian National University
Building #67C, 1 Liversidge Street

Map reference
http://www.anu.edu.au/
maps#show=29321

Registration required on Eventbrite
https://rbenjamin.eventbrite.com.au

Download the event flyer (PDF 580.78KB)
http://politicsir.cass.anu.edu.au/sites/politicsir.anu.edu.au/files/09_20_Flyer_RogerBenjamin.pdf

Enquiries: T 02 6125 9896 E europe@anu.edu.au

Shared Experience and Learning from African Communities in Australia.

The Federation of Ethnic Communities’ Councils of Australia Winter (FECCA) publishes its national magazine, Australian Mosaic, three times a year.
Australian Mosaic is a plain English magazine, which discusses a wide range of contemporary issues associated with multiculturalism, social justice, community harmony, and cultural and faith pluralism in Australia.
Issue 46 (Winter 2017) is about Shared Experience and
Learning from African Communities in Australia.
The varied contents, which include articles on education, citizenship, sport, communication, and much more, can be found at
http://fecca.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/Issue-46.pdf

Tracking population, health and social transitions in Agincourt, rural South Africa

Tracking population, health and social transitions in Agincourt, rural
South Africa:
Overview of the Agincourt Health and Demographic
Surveillance System

SPEAKER: Chodziwadziwa (Cho) Whiteson Kabudula –

2017 John C Caldwell Visiting Scholar,
MRC/Wits Rural Public Health & Health Transitions Research Unit (the MRC/Wits-Agincourt Research Unit) at the School of Public Health, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa

DATE: Wednesday 13 September 2017, 12.30-1.30pm

VENUE: Bob Douglas Lecture Theatre, Building 62 NCEPH (entrance on Eggleston Road)

ENQUIRIES
rachael.rodney@anu.edu.au; Chatu.Yapa@anu.edu.au

 

Senator Lucy Gichuhi joining the Q&A panel for the first time.

I am passing on the message from Tanya Lyons ‘president@afsaap.org.au’ It is really for information only since the event is in Sydney. However if you want to register and attend please email david.lucas@anu.edu.au and Tanya’s message with a working link will be sent

Dear AFSAAP,

Hello, Anne Worthington here from Q&A at ABC TV.

This Monday September 11th we have Senator Lucy Gichuhi joining the Q&A panel for the first time.

I thought some of your members and other contacts who are based in and around Sydney might be interested in coming along and being part of the studio audience.

Can you please pass the below information out amongst your contacts?

Thanking you in advance.

Kind regards,
Anne Worthington

Kenyan born Independent SA Senator Lucy Gichuhi will join the Q&A panel on Monday 11th September from the ABC’s SYDNEY studios from 8.30pm.

Also joining host Tony Jones on the panel to answer YOUR questions;

Zed Sesilja – Liberal Senator & Assistant Minister for Social Services and Multicultural Affairs
Mark Dreyfus – Shadow Attorney General & Shadow Minister for National Security
A.C. Grayling – Author and Philosopher
Merav Michaeli -Visiting Israeli MP

We are currently taking audience bookings for the show.

To join the audience here’s what you need to do:

Register here.

In Q.13 (how did you hear about us) please write “AFSAAP” as a reference.

Someone from Q&A will then be in touch with more details.