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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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Studying Africa in Australia – Report and Public Lecture
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Adjame Market, Abidjan, Eva Blue via Unsplash The results of research into the current situation of African studies in the Australian Capital Territory, are available online. A lengthy report, contextualizing the past and present situation of African studies in Canberra, with reference to international developments, and a shorter article recently published in the Australasian Review of African Studies, focusing on changes in Australian universities and academic life, reveal the importance of research methodologies rather than regional specialization.
A reminder that this research project will also be the focus on the Future of the Humanities and Social Sciences Annual Lecture, delivered online via Zoom at 5pm on Wednesday 25 May (Africa Day).
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ANU EXPERTS GUIDE
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The ANU Media Team is updating the experts guide for the media. At present ANU staff members interested in Africa are scarcely represented in the Guide.
To be listed in the Guide, this short survey should be completed as soon as possible. https://www.anu.edu.au/webform/expert-directory-entry
The survey has one tick box for Africa but unlike most other regions has no tick boxes for individual countries. In contrast, the Middle East and Central Asia has tick boxes for 20 countries while the Pacific region has 12.
If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to call James Giggacher (Associate Director, Media and Communications) on +61 436 803 488 or the team on +61 2 6125 7979.
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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.
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