District File Research Articles

Application of a PAR Model for Assessing Vulnerability to Drought Hazard in Kondoa District

The Tanzania Disaster Management act of 2015 defines Vulnerability as the extent to which a community, structure, services, or geographical areas is prone to a particular hazard. The objective of this paper to document the extent of which Kondoa District is vulnerable to drought. The district is located along the border of two regions, namely Manyara and Arusha. The paper employed secondary data as main sources of data. These data were obtained from the district files, profile, documents report and research report written about the district. The study was based on the Pressure and Release Model (PAR) which developed by author Blaikie, et al. and modified by Wisner, et al. The finding reveals that the population is vulnerable to drought because of land degradation, low production, poor transportation and infrastructure, low price of commodities, poor market and a poor method of cultivation and a weather-related problem such as shortage of rainfall. No significant measures were taken by authorities to address the matter.

Predicting absenteeism and turnover intentions in the health professions

The study examined the mediating influence of individual psychological reactions to work on the relationship between organisational climate and job withdrawal behaviours (viz, intention to leave and absenteeism). 1097 hospital employees were surveyed using the Queensland Public Agency Staff Survey (QPASS) to obtain measures of organisational climate, psychological reactions to work, job satisfaction, and self-reported levels of intention to leave. Group-level absenteeism data were provided from the Health Service District files. Two psychological states, quality of work life and job satisfaction, were found to fully mediate the relationship between the organisational climate variable, role clarity, and intention to leave, while individual distress was found to partially mediate the same relationship. However, the hypothesised mediation effect of psychological states on the relationship between organisational climate and absenteeism did not emerge. Skills shortages and increasing demands for health services make retention of staff in the health service industry vitally important. As a means of addressing this issue, this study presents an emergent mediating model defining relationships among individual psychological factors, aspects of organisational climate and intention to leave. Identification of the processes associated with staff withdrawal behaviours or intentions will assist in devising interventions to improve retention.

A Report on Some Archives in Equatoria Province, Sudan

Equatoria Province is the southernmost province in the Sudan. The province contains six districts, with each district having its own District Administration Archives situated in the District headquarters. Bigger towns or villages in the province have in addition their own Rural Council Archives arising from the Town Councils established in the late 1940s. There is normally only one Town Council in each district, situated in the town of the District headquarters. In some places the District Archives and the Rural Council Archives consist of files and boxes in different corners of the same storeroom and administered by the same clerk.The administration and filing systems have been inherited from the Condominium Period (1898-1956). Condominium administrative papers and public documents are thus incorporated in the papers used by the present administration. There is no sharp division between pre- and post-indepandent administrative papers; both are written in English (with a little interlude of Arabic in the 1960s) and many of the pre-independent files are still in use. In both the District and Rural Council Archives some of the files not in use are “closed.” At the time of my visit the Sudan Government had just started to bring in the closed District files to Juba, where they are under the care of the Southern Regional Ministry of Information and Culture. The open District files are under the District Commisioner, from whom permission to consult them must be obtained.After the establishment of the new Southern Regional Government in 1973, administration at the provincial level was changed. The Condominium papers from Equatoria Province were closed and made the responsibility of the Regional Ministry of Information and Culture. Thus the Condominium Archives at the Province level are not incorporated into the present administration files to the same extent as they are at the District and Town level.

Nonfood uses of plants in Usambara

The attempt here has been to discuss Shambaa use of wild nonfood plants primarily in terms of utility, but also with some attention to principles of classification and of the effects of human use of plants on the wider environment. The local system of classification emphasizes those plants which are useful to people. There are many of these, which may be surprising in an area that has been undergoing commercialization and socio-economic change since the early years of this century (P. Fleuret, 1979). Natural systems still provide the Shambaa with many useful, even essential products. But those plants that are useful are also being used up, and continued exploitation has ramifications for the other components of the ecosystem: fish vanished from the streams, wild date palms and tree ferns vanishing, deforestation, erosion, fuelwood shortages, increasing prices for many natural products. By all indications, the most crucial effects of human exploitation have occurred within the last 100 years. Contemporary accounts by missionaries and explorers describe the area as “... abound[ing] in forests of fine timber ...” (Krapf, 1860) or cite oral traditions indicating that the most seriously deforested areas of today were under forest just prior to the turn of the century. (Data obtained from Lushoto District files lodged at the Tanzania National Archives, Dar es Salaam.) As recently as 1975, one author, in writing of Usambara, suggested that a solution to agricultural crisis (especially land shortage) was to open the remaining forest reserve to human settlement and cultivation (Cliffe, 1975, pp. 149–150). This suggestion does not take into account the fact that the natural vegetation of Usambara continues to provide its residents with a great many vital materials and implements, even though human use of these resources is approaching, or has even reached, a critical point in terms of ecological consequences. Efforts should be made to preseve, not destroy, this vital natural resource.