French-speaking Africa Research Articles

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L’anémie et la carence en fer sont des questions de santé publique majeures au niveau mondial. Ce travail synthétise la situation existant chez l’enfant de 6 mois à 5 ans dans 11 pays d’Afrique francophone, à partir d’études démographiques de santé récentes et d’une recherche bibliographique complémentaire. La prévalence de l’anémie (taux d’hémoglobine [Hb] < 11 g/L) chez les enfants s’établit à 72,4 % (60,2–87,8 %) ; elle est légèrement plus élevée chez les jeunes enfants, notamment pour les formes sévères, que chez les enfants de plus de 3 ans. Près de 50 % des femmes en âge de procréer sont anémiées. Moins de la moitié des enfants consomment régulièrement des aliments riches en fer et seulement 12,6 % d’entre eux reçoivent des suppléments de fer. La malnutrition (protéino-énergétique et vitaminique) contribue à la survenue d’une anémie. L’existence d’un statut inflammatoire, d’origine infectieuse ou parasitaire, modifie certains critères d’évaluation de la carence en fer dont le diagnostic devient alors délicat. Dans les populations étudiées, le niveau de prévalence du paludisme et des infections intestinales et respiratoires, et leur distribution suggèrent toutefois qu’une large partie des anémies observées seraient ferriprives. Ceci justifie les vastes programmes de fortification en fer de la farine mis en œuvre dans la quasi-totalité de la zone étudiée. Bien que leur efficacité n’ait pas encore été formellement évaluée, une amélioration semble se dessiner. Elle reste cependant modérée et des actions complémentaires sont nécessaires.Anemia and iron deficiency are major public health issues worldwide and particularly in Africa. Reliable information about their prevalence and associated factors is required to allow for effective actions. In this study, we used data from recent (2006–2012) large population health surveys, carried out in 11 French-speaking African countries (Benin, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Congo Brazzaville, Ivory Coast, Gabon, Guinea, Mali, Niger, Democratic Republic of Congo, and Senegal). Hemoglobin (Hb) was assessed and demographic and health-related parameters were obtained from nation-representative samples of children aged 6–59 months. Anemia (Hb < 11 g/dL) was found in 72.4% of the children (60.2–87.8%), with no gender difference but a slightly lower incidence in older children (62% at age 4–5 years versus 85% at age 9 months), especially for the more severe forms (2.1% versus 8.7%, respectively). Anemia was only slightly but significantly affected by location (75.5% in rural areas versus 67.3% in towns), income (79.8% in lower quintile of income versus 62.3% in higher quintile), or maternal education (74.1% in children from non-educated mothers versus 62.4% in children whose mothers had secondary education). Nearly 50% of women of child-bearing age had anemia. In the countries that report this information, less than 50% (17–65%) of children consumed iron-rich foods regularly and only 12% (7.4–20.5%) received iron supplementation. Infection and parasitism are known to affect some markers of iron status, because of the inflammatory reaction, thereby making the diagnosis of iron deficiency difficult. In the study countries, acute respiratory diseases and diarrhea affected 6.2 and 15.6% of children aged between 6 and 59 months, respectively; their distribution according to age and location is very different from the one of anemia, which is also the case for the distribution of malaria. It is thus likely that a large part of the anemia observed in young children is due to iron deficiency, although further research is needed to confirm this. This fully justifies the nationwide programs of iron fortification of flour, currently undergoing in most countries of French-speaking Africa. Their formal evaluation is still pending but the initial data suggest some efficacy, although far from optimal. It is thus likely that a more holistic approach, including iron fortification, actions against undernutrition and parasitism in children, and actions in favor of improving young women's iron and nutritional status, together with appropriate communication and education objectives, would be more effective.

Cost Sharing in Higher Education Financing: Economic Perils in Developing Countries

and language remain important barriers to online access. There is a growing risk of overlapping activity in online and distance learning due to the proliferation of players in the market, and several e-university ventures have collapsed after the initial funding period ended. Until now, transnational higher education in French-speaking Africa has developed in relative isolation from the other language communities on the continent. One site where the anglophone and francophone worlds meet is the African Virtual University (AVU). In March 2004, the AUF formed a partnership with the AVU to collaborate in the development of course content in French. The AVU’s recent partnership with the agency might be viewed as an attempt to bridge the existing divide and promote institutional collaboration between the two language communities. The prospects of cross-fertilization (rather than ongoing separate development by language) remain unclear.

Trade unions and ‘responsible participation’: Dahomey, 1958–1975

The trade union movement in sub-Saharan Africa during the struggle against colonial rule in the 1950s has long commanded the attention of historians. Numerous books and articles have detailed the growing strength and critical role of trade unions in France's vast West African colonial federation, l'Afrique occidentale française (AOF). Far less is known about the fate of these trade unions in the nine newly independent countries that emerged from the demise of AOF. In the 15 years following independence, most autonomous trade unions in French-speaking West Africa were either marginalised or integrated into the political structures of ruling parties. With the exception of Burkina Faso, single national trade union federations controlled by ruling political parties existed everywhere in francophone West Africa by 1975. Whether capitalist, military or socialist, all political elites sought to create a trade unionism that would serve as a transmission belt for party control over the workforce, a type of unionism that was referred to as ‘participation responsable’. This article details the experience of Dahomey (now Benin), where independent trade unions struggled against responsible participation and continued to play a pivotal political role until 1975, when the state socialist regime of Mathieu Kérékou finally succeeded in imposing state-controlled trade unionism.

Evaluation of France's contributions to the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria: Ten years later

For 30 years, France has been very committed politically in the international combat against AIDS. The discovery of the AIDS virus at the Pasteur Institute in 1983, the AIDS summit meeting convened by Simone Veil in 1994, the excellence of research by French institutions on its virologic and other aspects as well as the socioeconomic and anthropological issues, and the strong commitment to international technical cooperation against this disease - all these have made (and continue to make) France a major political, technical, and financial participant in this battle against the combined pandemic of AIDS and tuberculosis. More than 10 years after the creation of the Global Fund, 5 years after the first evaluation of this Fund, and 2 years before the schedule for meeting the Millennium Development Goals, an assessment commissioned in 2013 from a French consulting firm of the French contributions is timely. The study was expected. Its results are disappointing. Why? Because the team chosen to conduct the assessment has a limited knowledge of the history of the interventions already funded by France and of the results of earlier assessments. The point was not to repeat the same observations but to move forward to see where they lead. In addition, the current and coming challenges are not considered. The countries to which France is providing cooperation are on the continent that after 30 years remains the most heavily affected by the pandemic. Several transitions are occurring there simultaneously: epidemiologic, demographic and urban. These metamorphoses influencing social values quite substantially, as well as risk factors for transmission of the AIDS virus; at the same time, they facilitate overcrowding and the propagation of tuberculosis. Nor do the authors consider the resistance of these infectious agents to the most commonly used drugs. The effects of the propagation of AIDS, of the expansion of armed conflicts in French-speaking Africa and of the sexual violence alongside them are not mentioned, while France is intervening militarily in Mali! I use the observations of this assessment to discuss all these questions.

Developing an item bank for use in testing in Africa: Theory and methodology

The author describes the steps taken by a research team, of which she was part, to develop a specific methodology for assessing student attainment in primary school, working with the Programme for the Analysis of Education Systems (PASEC) of the Conference of Ministers of Education of French-speaking Countries (CONFEMEN). This methodology provides the basis for an item bank that can be used for many assessment tests. It can also be applied outside the specific context of French-speaking Africa.

Supporting the implementation of curriculum reform through learning communities and communities of practice

This article looks at the role that teacher training can play in implementing curriculum reform, specifically in studies conducted in French-speaking Africa by researchers at the UNESCO Chair in Curriculum Development. After reviewing the effects that reform has on the school as an organization, it establishes a link between the concept of change and the notions of communities of practice and learning communities. As any change in organizations depends on human resources, the article describes how teacher training can enable teachers to develop such communities, as an effective strategy for implementing certain aspects of curriculum reform. It also outlines the importance of training that focuses on class management and the ways that such communities can empower teachers. Finally, it shows how a learning community that developed in one class extended throughout a school.

Beyond Fate and Hopelessness: The Need for a Contextual Approach to HIV/AIDS Prevention Programmes in the Evangelical Christian Community of French-Speaking Africa

Awareness, care and preventative action regarding HIV/AIDS, and those affected by it, is growing in the evangelical Christian Community in French-speaking Sub-Saharan Africa. Yet, even though the issues seem to be addressed through teaching and preaching in the churches, the real issues, questions and struggles of the people are not discussed. This article describes some of the most important outcomes of a qualitative research in this people group, looking at the values and beliefs around sexuality and community and what impact they have on current HIV/AIDS prevention practices and strategies. This description highlights the seeming discrepancy between people’s values and their daily lives, the role community can play – as both a community of grace and a countercultural yet contextually relevant community, and the role of leaders, grass-root communities and partnership processes in strategy development. This article argues for a contextual relevant approach in which the specific evangelical worldview is encountered as a possible strength, rather than a problem.

Usefulness of Child Development Assessments for Low-Resource Settings in Francophone Africa

Few tools are available to screen or assess infant's cognitive development, especially in French-speaking Africa. This study evaluated the use of the French translation of the Mullen Scales of Early Learning (MSEL), and the "Ten Questions" questionnaire (TQ) in 1-year-old children in Benin, a francophone country. A cross-sectional study was conducted in 3 health centers serving a semirural area in Benin. Three hundred fifty-seven children aged 12 months and their mothers were enrolled in 2011. Infant development was assessed at local health centers followed by a home visit to collect information on socioeconomic status, maternal Raven score, maternal depressive symptoms, and mother-child interactions (Home Observation for the Measurement of the Environment [HOME] Inventory), and to administer the TQ. The infant's gender (female), the HOME, and maternal education were associated with a higher Early Learning Composite score in multivariate analyses (p = .02, p = .004, p = .007, respectively). The HOME and family wealth were also associated with the Gross Motor Scale (p = .03 and p = .03, respectively). Mothers were more likely to report difficulties on the TQ when the child presented lower score on the MSEL. When considering the Gross Motor Scale as the gold standard to define moderate delays, the 2 combined motor-related questions on the TQ showed good sensitivity and specificity (76.5 and 75.7). In a low-resource rural setting in Africa, the TQ effectively identified 3 quarters of 1-year-old infants with delayed development. After this screening, the MSEL may be useful for further assessment as it showed good feasibility and sensitivity to known risk factors for poor child development.

Continuing Distance Education: A Capacity-Building Tool for the De-isolation of Care Professionals and Researchers

There are large disparities in access to health-care professionals (HCP) in low-income African countries, leading to imbalanced and suboptimal health delivery. Part of the difficulty is recruiting and retaining care professionals to work in isolated settings. To evaluate the impact of distance continuing education as a way to build capacity, increase satisfaction and enhance the performance of care professionals in these isolated health-care facilities. Care professionals using RAFT (Telemedicine Network in French-speaking Africa) in isolated care facilities. Within RAFT, an organizational framework and computer-based tools have been developed and evolved to provide useful, qualitative, applicable training material. The activity, satisfaction, perceptions and impact of RAFT on remote health-care workers are being monitored. RAFT's potential to improve the recruitment, satisfaction and retention of care professionals in remote settings is widely recognized; however, the actual impact on the performance and quality of care remains to be demonstrated.

Current Status of Marek's Disease in the United States and Worldwide Based on a Questionnaire Survey

A questionnaire was widely distributed in 2011 to estimate the global prevalence of Marek's disease (MD) and gain a better understanding of current control strategies and future concerns. A total of 112 questionnaires were returned representing 116 countries from sources including national branch secretaries of the World Veterinary Poultry Association, vaccine, breeder, and production companies, as well as MD researchers from various backgrounds. Each country listed on a questionnaire was recorded as an individual entry, and on average there were 2.0 entries per country (median 1; range 1-13). All flock types were listed as having increased MD incidence during the last 10 yr in close to 50% of countries by at least one respondent, with the majority of these countries located within French-speaking Africa, Eastern Europe, East Asia, and South America. Only 18 countries (16%) indicated increasing MD incidence was likely due to higher virulent strains, while the presence of other immunosuppressive diseases was a more common explanation. Increased use of CVI988/Rispens was cited as the most likely reason for decreasing MD incidence in 49 countries (42%). In the United States, MD incidence has continued to decrease during the last 10 yr, reaching a record low in 2007 (0.0008%) as measured by leukosis condemnation rates in broilers at slaughter. However, a recent increase of leukosis condemnations in North Carolina and Pennsylvania needs to be closely monitored.

Training in disaster medicine in Africa: Where we are in 2013

This retrospective study, conducted in 26 African countries where French is the first or second language, identified the postsecondary educational institutions teaching disaster medicine. This subject is taught in various institutions in 7 of the 26 countries (27%), including 3 of 47 colleges, 1 of 6 institutes, 1 military health and medical sciences school, and in civil defense agencies in 2 countries. Teaching disaster medicine is often confined to military physicians. This subject must be recognized as a subject in its own right and must be integrated into the medical school curriculum for doctors in French-speaking Africa.

The media economy in French-speaking Africa: When fragmentation threatens survival

The research objective of this article is to examine both the socio-economic contexts in which the media in French-speaking Africa are evolving and the financing methods of these media outlets, notably by focusing on the issues of advertising, state subsidies and unconventional funding methods. This portrait of the African media from within an economic framework sets out to reveal features that may help explain the editorial content and growth difficulties of the media in French-speaking Africa.

André-Jean Tudesq: A pioneer of the study of the media in French-speaking Africa

Professor André-Jean Tudesq (1927–2009), a historian specialising in the nineteenth century, is considered by some French-speaking media scholars to be the ‘founding father of African media research’. Tudesq based his research on media content in a socio-political framework. His research spans all media types: newspapers, radio (the most popular medium in Africa), television and the Internet. Tudesq focused on a number of themes underlining the peculiarities of the African context: from sports coverage to denominational media. Although his influence was particularly felt in French-speaking countries, Tudesq also positioned his research in an African continental perspective. This article traces his work and influence.

Denominational radio stations in French-speaking Africa: Emergence and development

Churches in Africa began using tools of social communication from the very beginning of the evangelisation process and, in so doing, helped introduce the Western press model on the African continent. Later on, cinema, radio, and, more recently, television channels and the Internet have been used as a means of communication and propaganda by diversified religious groups. Among these tools, denominational radio is currently undergoing unprecedented development. The article focuses on the diversity of these radio broadcasters, the legal framework, the way they operate and their content. It underlines the role played by some of them in development and civil society issues, and sometimes in political debate, far beyond questions strictly related to religious concerns.

Of Murder and Love: Peregrinations of the African Detective Writer

This article discusses the status of the African detective writer in francophone Africa, using examples by Driss Chraibi and Mongo Beti, two key figures of francophone African literatures. I offer a reading of L’inspecteur Ali and Trop de Soleil tue l’amour as novels that signal the shift of both writers from the realist novel to crime fiction. I also scrutinize the metafictional comments in the novels, that is, passages when fiction deals with the writing of fiction as a whole, and the conventions and potentialities of detective fiction in French-speaking Africa. I therefore propose that the practice of detective fiction does not necessarily lead to the popularity of the writer. Rather, I suggest that—given that the novels I have studied also expose love, murder, and politics, none of which seems to guarantee celebrity—the ultimate lesson with regard to the status of the French-speaking African detective writer is that he seems to only enjoy a post mortem popularity, one that clearly rests on profanation.

Multiple Actors and Contested Terrains Strategies of Pro-poor Action in Contemporary Urban Restructuring

Neoliberal approaches to urban restructuring may favor the wealthier and more powerful, but neoliberalism alone cannot account for the varied outcomes found among poor urban residents. Using field studies and documentary research on five cities in French-speaking West Africa and India, this study looks comparatively at how different groups use multiple forms of power to pursue individual and collective benefits. Dominant structures produced contradictory discourses that created spaces that served as terrains of struggle between the more and less powerful. Rich and poor created cross-class alliances that sometimes brought incremental benefits to the poor; the poor also used their agency to pursue individual advancement and collective resistance. These efforts have not changed the basic structures, but they have improved urban living conditions.

Can ICTs Contribute to the Efficiency and Provide Equitable Access to the Health Care System in Sub-Saharan Africa? The Mali Experience

The aim of this study is to demonstrate from actual projects that ICT can contribute to the balance of health systems in developing countries and to equitable access to human resources and quality health care service. Our study is focused on two essential elements which are: i) Capacity building and support of health professionals, especially those in isolated areas using telemedicine tools; ii) Strengthening of hospital information systems by taking advantage of full potential offered by open-source software. Our research was performed on the activities carried out in Mali and in part through the RAFT (Réseau en Afrique Francophone pour la Télémédecine) Network. We focused mainly on the activities of e-learning, telemedicine, and hospital information systems. These include the use of platforms that work with low Internet connection bandwidth. With regard to information systems, our strategy is mainly focused on the improvement and implementation of open-source tools. Several telemedicine application projects were reviewed including continuing online medical education and the support of isolated health professionals through the usage of innovative tools. This review covers the RAFT project for continuing medical education in French-speaking Africa, the tele-radiology project in Mali, the "EQUI-ResHuS" project for equal access to health over ICT in Mali, The "Pact-e.Santé" project for community health workers in Mali. We also detailed a large-scale experience of an open-source hospital information system implemented in Mali: "Cinz@n". We report on successful experiences in the field of telemedicine and on the evaluation by the end-users of the Cinz@n project, a pilot hospital information system in Mali. These reflect the potential of healthcare-ICT for Sub-Saharan African countries.

"Miss Eurafrica": Men, Women's Sexuality, and Métis Identity in Late Colonial French Africa, 1945-1960

The 1960 issue of the magazine VEumfricain (The Eurafrican) featured a cover photo of a woman announced as (figure l).1' Edited from Dakar under the auspices of the Union internationale des metis (International Union of MixedRace Persons), the magazine was written in French and printed in Paris. The membership of the union consisted of metis primarily from French-ruled sub-Saharan Africa. The primary mandate of the union was to advocate for financial, moral, and educational assistance to metis children. Published once or twice a year between 1945 and 1960, UEumfricain was the public face of the organization. The publication was a medium through which contributors sought to cultivate a sense of common identity among metis persons across geographical boundaries, facilitate communication among members, report on various metis social and cultural events, and promote the organization's lobbying efforts. Contributors to VEumfricain included metis across French-speaking Africa as well as some black and white benefactors. It is not clear from extant records whether an actual pageant was held, what the criteria for judging were, who witnessed the pageant, how many contestants competed, and from where in French Africa these contestants hailed. The photo is a headshot of a cafe au lait-toned woman identified as Miss Marie Celine, a young metisse (mixed-race woman) of Niger. A rather modest photo in comparison to those of post-World War II pageants in the United States, Miss L'Eurafrique looks at the camera in an unprovocative and grave manner. Her long hair is plaited into a single, neat

Cooperation between librarians of a North-South network of French speaking demographic research centres

The North-South cooperation presented here does not only concern libraries and librarians. It concerns cooperation within a network of institutions in which librarians are working and whose main objective is to promote the adoption of information and communication technologies by demographers in French-speaking Africa.This cooperation was implemented between six demographic research centres of which five are located in French-speaking sub-Saharan Africa and the other in Paris. Their activities are quite similar. Affiliated to national universities, they develop research activities in the area of population-development and train students in demography; most of them have a library managed by a professional. They are relatively small, with less than fifty employees (teachers, researchers and administrative staff) and welcome PhD students.

A Cross-Cultural Study of the Higher-Order Structures Underlying Personality Disorders in French-Speaking Africa and Switzerland

Most studies about the higher-order dimensions to be considered in order to parsimoniously describe Personality Disorders (PDs) have identified between two and four factors but there is still no consensus about their exact number. In this context, the cultural stability of these structures might be a criterion to be considered. The aim of this study was to identify stable higher-order structures of PD traits in a French-speaking African and Swiss sample (N = 2,711). All subjects completed the IPDE screening questionnaire. Using Everett's criterion and conducting a series of principal component analyses, a cross-culturally stable two- and four-factor structure were identified, associated with a total congruence coefficient of .98 and .94, respectively, after Procrustes rotation. Moreover, these two structures were also highly replicable across the four African regions considered, North Africa, West Africa, Central Africa, and Mauritius, with a mean total congruence coefficient of .97 and .87, respectively. The four-factor structure presented the advantage of being similar to Livesely's four components and of describing the ten PDs more accurately.