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ANU Africa Network
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This website was established in 2013 by David Lucas, and renovated and relaunched in 2020 as part of a project to increase awareness of Africa and African studies in the ANU and the ACT, funded by the Australian Government’s Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade.
Another outcome of that project was a major research report, published in August 2021, African Studies at the Australian National University and in the Australian Capital Territory, analyzing the past, present and future of the study of Africa at the Australian National University and the wider Australian University sector.
The major innovation on this updated website is the creation of the ACT Africa Expert Directory which lists experts on Africa from institutions around the ACT, primarily the ANU. We will continue to curate this list, offering a key resource for media, government and non-government organizations seeking expert facts and opinions on Africa. Individuals can request to be added to the list by contacting the website managers.
Another notable addition is the expanded directory of PhD theses on Africa produced in the territory’s universities, a solid measure of the vitality of the study of Africa in the city of Canberra.
Reviewing these directories, it is revealing to note that the vast majority of research on Africa is produced by disciplinary experts (environmental scientists, economists, demographers, etc.) rather than area studies experts. This means that the study of Africa is woven into the fabric of the research culture of the ANU and the ACT’s other universities in ways that are not necessarily apparent.
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Title: Impact of diabetes on longevity and disability-free life expectancy among older South African adults
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Title: Impact of diabetes on longevity and disability-free life expectancy among older South African adults
Presenter: Collin Payne, School of Demography, ANU
Date and Time: about 1.20 -2.00 pm Tuesday 26 April
(after the presentation by Kim Xu)
Presentation: Room 4.69, RSSS Building, ANU, 146 Ellery Crescent, Acton and By Zoom (details below)
Abstract:
Understanding the coexisting effects of population aging and a rising burden of diabetes for healthy longevity is of key importance in South Africa. We used longitudinal data from the 2015 and 2018 waves of the “Health and Aging in Africa: A Longitudinal Study of an INDEPTH Community in South Africa” (HAALSI) study to explore life expectancy (LE) and disability-free life expectancy (DFLE) of adults aged 45 and older with and without diabetes in rural South Africa. We estimated LE and DFLE by diabetes status using Markov-based microsimulation. We find a clear gradient in remaining LE and DFLE based on diabetes status. At age 45, a man without diabetes could expect to live an additional 26.8 [95% CI: 25.22 – 28.44] years, compared with 19.4 [95% CI: 15.59 – 22.79] years for a man with diabetes. For women, these figures were 33.7 [95% CI: 32.44 – 35.08] years for those without diabetes and 29.8 [26.26 – 33.17] years for those with diabetes. Individuals with diabetes lived proportionately more years subject to disability than individuals without diabetes. Additional analyses using marginal structural models to control for sociodemographic and health differences between diabetic and non-diabetic populations suggests that these factors only minimally explain LE and DFLE differences between these groups. Our findings highlight the large and important shortfall in healthy aging for people with diabetes in South Africa. This finding should motivate efforts to strengthen prevention and treatment efforts for diabetes and its complications for older adults in this setting.
Join Zoom Meeting
https://anu.zoom.us/j/89587321433?pwd=MzhpUU1MRnRaNHovL0RTejJMeWpHUT09
Meeting ID: 895 8732 1433
Password: 306745
https://anu.zoom.us/skype/89587321433
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Georgia Troup on the Habitat Use of African Elephants
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Georgia Troup’s 2021 thesis is entitled
Understanding the influence of nutritional drivers on the habitat use of African elephants (Loxodonta africana) living in a semi-arid, anthropogenic landscape.
She concludes that her ‘Results also highlight the success of Rukinga in providing a safe refuge for elephants when travelling outside the national parks and into areas of human disturbance. Ultimately, the findings of this thesis highlight how the habitat use of elephants in Tsavo is influenced by nutritional drivers, specifically protein.’
For more details see
https://library.anu.edu.au/search~S1?/Ygeorgia+troup&Submit=GO&SORT=D/Ygeorgia+troup&Submit=GO&SORT=D&search=georgia+troup&SUBKEY=georgia+troup/1%2C2%2C2%2CB/frameset&FF=Ygeorgia+troup&Submit=GO&SORT=D&1%2C1%2C
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Fenner School Project: Transforming irrigation in southern Africa
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‘Transforming irrigation in southern Africa’ , a project at the Fenner School, is described at https://fennerschool.anu.edu.au/research/projects/transforming-irrigation-southern-africa
The Fenner School has advised that it has ‘received funding for an extension to June 2023, the aim of which is:
By June 2023, we propose to evaluate the extent to which gains comprising increased production, reduced irrigation, increased resilience, and reduced emissions are “climate smart ”, in the face of high climate variability, by evaluating and quantifying the climate change adaptation benefits from irrigation improvements (institutional, technical and non-technical) promoted by the Transforming Irrigation in Southern Africa (TISA) project.
We will receive $600,000 from the Australian Government from ACIAR / DFAT, our focal countries in SSA remain the same i.e. Tanzania, Mozambique and Zimbabwe. ‘