Papers by Fanan Ujoh (Ph.D)
Frontiers in Education, 2024
Background: Many health education institutions in African countries such as Nigeria face increas... more Background: Many health education institutions in African countries such as Nigeria face increasing enrolment of students but lack an adequate number of instructors to train them. If digital learning can be demonstrated effective in augmenting knowledge and skills, this approach could help fill this gap and improve education efficiency. A needs assessment in two Nigerian midwifery schools confirmed that digital learning would be feasible and welcomed. In this study, the Midwifery Active Digitization Empowerment Initiative (MADE-I) program was tested to determine if digital delivery of the Fundamental Interventions, Referral and Safe Transfer (FIRST) course is at least equally effective for training midwifery students compared to conventional small-group delivery.
Methods: A non-inferiority randomized controlled trial design was used,
enrolling 130 s-year students from 2 midwifery schools in Benue State, Nigeria. Students were randomly assigned into six cohorts. Each cohort received half of the course on a Learning Management Platform on their mobile phones, the other half through standard small-group teaching. Students’ knowledge, thinking, and technical skills were assessed using a pre-test, post-test, Objective Structured Clinical Exam (OSCE), and daily modular quizzes. The data was analyzed using the difference-in-difference method.
Results: The study revealed that post-intervention student knowledge and
thinking skills did not significantly differ between digital learning (75.26%) and small-group learning arms of the trial (75.02%, p = 0.404). Student knowledge improved significantly compared to the pre-test in both groups (by 25.03 points in the digital arm, 26.39, in small-group). Some differences were observed between digital and small-group learning in disaggregated analysis by specific module and midwifery school. Although there was a trend toward small group learning of technical skills being more effective than digital learning, no significant differences between groups were observed in the post-intervention OSCE. Students in both groups learned equally well regardless of age, gender, and midwifery school entrance exam score.
Conclusion: Digital learning is as effective as small-group learning, for
midwifery trainees, in augmenting knowledge, thinking, and technical skills
addressed in the FIRST course, and have lighter human resource requirements, an important consideration especially in LMIC. However, similar assessments would be needed to assess effectiveness for other digitally delivered clinical education programs.
African Scientific Reports, 2024
The understanding of the drivers of fine particulate matter of diameter less than or equal to 2.5... more The understanding of the drivers of fine particulate matter of diameter less than or equal to 2.5 micrometers (PM 2.5) in Nigeria will greatly assist policymakers and other stakeholders in developing appropriate air quality management strategies to protect the health of the public. This research analyzed the drivers of PM 2.5 threshold exceedance (PTE) in Nigeria from 2000 to 2022, employing a multivariate logistic regression (MLR) model. The work assessed aerosol emission variables (AEVs) and meteorology variables (MEVs) to understand their impact on PM 2.5 concentrations. Results showed a significant spatial heterogeneity in the trend of PM 2.5 concentrations, with increasing values in all the study areas. The estimated coefficients of black carbon emission (BCEM) and sulfate emission (SUEM) showed a significant positive response, exacerbating the threshold exceedance in Abuja and Lagos, while dust emission (DUEM) had a significant positive response in Kano and Lagos. On the other hand, OCEM had a negative association in all the study locations. The MEV variables of sea level pressure (SLP), relative humidity (RH), planetary boundary layer height (PBLH), and wind speed (WS) had significant negative responses in Abuja, while RH and WS were significant in Kano, and RH, PBLH, and precipitation (P) were significant in Lagos, indicating that the PM 2.5 concentrations decrease with increasing values of these factors; however, temperature (TMP) had a significant positive response in Lagos but was not significant in Abuja and Kano. The output of the study revealed complex relationships between aerosol emissions, climate, and other environmental variables driving the PTE in Nigeria.
Jalingo Journal of Social and Management Sciences, 2024
It has been clearly established that development of dams and associated user facilities (such as ... more It has been clearly established that development of dams and associated user facilities (such as irrigation, water transfer and hydro-power infrastructure, aquaculture , etc.) significantly impact the quality of the physical environment and established social networks of host communities. It is therefore, necessary that a holistic and sustainable approach is adopted in the process of planning these projects. This study reviewed the environmental and social impact status of the Gurara and Azara/Jere Irrigation Projects in the Upper Niger River Basin in Kaduna State, NorthWest Nigeria. The study focused on investigating key environmental and social attributes including soil quality, water quality, air quality and noise level, vegetation (landuse) cover analysis, health status, socioeconomic and livelihood appraisal, and social characteristics of host communities using various approaches such as laboratory analysis, insitu assessment, key informant interviews, and document analysis. The findings of the study reveal a range of risks which include pollution of water and soil as well as vulnerability to floods and erosion, and loss of livelihoods. Generally, the outcome of this study serves to advance the importance of assessing environmental impacts from anthropogenic activities, as well as measurement and intervention to relevant criteria/conditions. Among others, the study suggests periodic monitoring and assessment of key environmental and social risks components and the resolution of land related compensation issues at the project sites.
Results in Earth Sciences, 2024
This study investigated the circulation patterns associated with rainfall variations across Niger... more This study investigated the circulation patterns associated with rainfall variations across Nigeria's different climatic zones (2000-2022). Data was acquired from MERRA2, gridded ERSST5 provided by the NOAA, and observation data records obtained from the Climatic Research Unit (CRU). Principal Component Analysis (PCA) was employed to compare different precipitation types, while the Multinomial Logistic Regression Model was employed to examine the influence of SSTa on precipitation presenting regression coefficients with a significance level set at p < 0.05. Five distint standard precipitation index (SPI) classes: very dry, dry, normal, wet and very wet were categorised using prcipitation data. Analysis was done in R-studio and involved data preparation, model training, and evaluation, with emphasis on interpreting the coefficients to discern the impact of SST anomalies on precipitation for each specified level. The results show that TOP, AVP, LSP, and CNP varied: spatially, the northern region received low moisture budget from the Atlantic Ocean while the temporal distribution of precipitation across different climatic zones indicate high variability in precipitation across these zones. The mean SSTa in the WAf region were predominantly positive (0.5 and 1). The lowest (highest) global SST values were prevalent during the DJF (JJA) season(s) whereas, the monthly distribution of SSTa for the WAf region reveal neutral (2000-2016) and El Niño (2016-2022) episodes. The analysis of NIF values indicates a varied but generally stronger relationship between WAf SST anomalies and precipitation types compared to nino3.4 SST versus precipitation types. As a signal for prediction of seasonal and spatial distribution of precipitation across Nigeria's different climatic zones, this outcome can support planning for food security, water and biodiversity conservation, and climate change adaptation and mitigation.
Nigerian Journal of Theoretical & Environmental Physics 1(1):60-71 , 2023
Understanding and accurately determining the onset and end of the growing season is essential for... more Understanding and accurately determining the onset and end of the growing season is essential for crop management, forecasting yields, and assessing the impacts of climate change, which are crucial for various sectors such as agriculture, ecology, and climate science. The study investigates the start and end of seasons using the optimal threshold method in different climate zones from 2001 to 2022. The climate zones include Tropical Rainforest (Af), Tropical Monsoon (Am), Tropical Wet (Aw), Hot Semi-Arid (BSh), Hot Arid (BWh), and Hot Summer Mediterranean climates. The relationship between climate parameters (temperature and precipitation) and phenology was examined using cross-correlation analysis. Furthermore, the research explores the annual distribution of precipitation and temperature, highlighting the variable nature of precipitation compared to temperature. Climate zone-specific analyses reveal trends in precipitation and temperature changes, indicating potential impacts on vegetation growth. The results show that the Af (BWh) climate zone indicated the longest (shortest) season length, and longer zones with a larger Length of Season (LOS) experienced delayed End of Season (EOS) and/or an early onset of the season. Moreover, Af climate seasons start earlier and finish later than those in the other climate zones. The findings have shown that season length (LOS) in Af, Aw, BSh, BWh, and Csb increased at 1.2, 0.4, 0.2, 0.9, and 0.5 days/yr, respectively. However, it is noteworthy that Am experiences a contraction at-0.6 days/yr. The study found that climatic fluctuation has an impact on vegetation phenology throughout all climate zones of Nigeria. Changes in agricultural growing seasons should be studied to maximize agricultural output.
Journal of Rural and Development, 2020
Urbanisation is widely recognised as one of the major trends of this century that offers great op... more Urbanisation is widely recognised as one of the major trends of this century that offers great opportunities as well as significant challenges for poverty reduction in both urban and rural areas. In much of sub-Saharan Africa, the development of small and medium-sized towns remains largely linked to the nature of agricultural production systems. They nevertheless perform a number of essential functions from market nodes to providers of services, goods and non-farm employment to their inhabitants and that of the wider surrounding region. This research investigates the emerging urban system of the Benue Basin region of Nigeria. The data were collected on 80 urban functions across 140 settlements in the basin using a checklist, and analysed using principal component analysis and cluster analysis. The result of the Principal component analysis extracted 10 major functions out of the 80 variables that together explained 67.6% of the total variance. These functions are named workshop serv...
International Journal of Public Administration and Management Research, 2024
The study proposes a communications framework for disseminating action plans and polices relating... more The study proposes a communications framework for disseminating action plans and polices relating to mitigation of and adaptation to the impacts of climate change to relevant stakeholders. This is viewed from the point of efficiency in public administration of climate change policies to the numerous stakeholders who must support the Federal Government in attaining its Nationally Determined Commitments (NDCs) to the UNFCCC Paris Agreement of 2015 to which Nigeria is a signatory. The study is exploratory in nature, using secondary data from various published and documented sources. The study presupposes that the public sector has the largest contribution in the efforts towards boosting mitigation and adaptation to climate change impacts, hence the focus on public administration. Relying on qualitative data and document analysis, the study concludes that the challenges of climate change are real and will continue to escalate, and the efforts of government in mitigating the effects of climate change on the populace can only be meaningful when the people participate fully in the developed plans and policies to scale down the effects at all relevant levels (from different communities to the LGAs, States and National governments). The study concludes that, in isolation, the cognitive, experiential and normative approaches are unlikely to induce behavioural change needed for effective adoption of communication of climate change action plans and policies. Instead, the study suggest that future interventions are more likely to reduce the gap between public communication and behavioural change when public campaigns: (1) effectively integrate cognitive, experiential and normative aspects of human behaviour in their message design; (2) make the climate change context explicit; and, (3) foster a strong link between the behaviours that need to be changed and their psychological determinants.
Tropical Built Environment Journal, 2023
In terms of amount and diversity, the continual creation of Municipal Solid Waste (MSW) is a glob... more In terms of amount and diversity, the continual creation of Municipal Solid Waste (MSW) is a global problem. The community's financial situation, the time of year, population, culture, and way of life all impact MSW. Nigeria, in particular, is now grappling with the threat of an increase in the quantity of MSW in its main cities. However, it is primarily concerned with its collection, transportation, and disposal, ignoring the possibility of material recovery from MSW for recycling. On that basis, the study aims to describe MSW and examine the treatment methods available from recognised dumpsites and at the household level in Kano State Municipal Area Council Kano, Nigeria, in order to promote sustainable and efficient MSW management. The SWA-Tool approach was employed in this study, created by an EU-funded project to classify mixed household garbage in cities with no prior expertise in waste characterisation. More sub-fractions were examined while keeping REMASAB's basic categorisation into fractions. A granulometric analysis was introduced to get the data required for the evaluation of mechanical separation methods and the administration of questionnaires for data collection. The findings indicate that income level significantly affected the elements of MSW created at the district level. Finally, food waste/organics and plastic garbage are the most prevalent MSW types in Kano, Nigeria. Characterisation of MSW is required for longterm impact and sustainable solid waste management strategies to develop an acceptable and efficient waste-management system for society.
International Journal of Environmental Studies and Safety Research, 2019
This study examined the determinants of rural out migration in Benue Basin. The study used survey... more This study examined the determinants of rural out migration in Benue Basin. The study used survey research design. A sample size of 851 respondents was used for the analysis comprising of migrants in the Benue Basin across the five states viz: Adamawa, Benue, Nassarawa, Kogi and Taraba states. The study used percentages, graphs and binary logistic regression for the analysis. It was found that rural out migration in the Benue Basin is determined by both push and pull factors and household characteristics of people. It was also found that sex, age, household size, education, conflict, death of family member, lack of credit services, lack of basic social amenities at the sending communities and lack of job (search for job) were strong and significant determinants of rural out migration in Benue basin at 5% level of significance. The study therefore recommended that government should develop the rural areas in terms of formulating policies that would advance the education and health care facilities in rural areas and ensure provision of other basic facilities like electricity and portable water in the rural areas of the Benue basin while there should also be improvement in the establishment of information centers for providing reliable information and opportunities at the sending and host communities.
Journal of the Nigerian Society of Physical Sciences, 2022
Identification of suitable areas for yam production is critical for ensuring yield in yam product... more Identification of suitable areas for yam production is critical for ensuring yield in yam production in Nigeria. The study is aimed at determining suitable lands for yam production in Nigeria. Climate, soil, and environmental parameters that have a high contribution to yam production were used in developing a yam production suitability map using the Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP). The AHP was used in deriving weights through a pairwise comparison technique. According to the findings, highly suitable (HS), suitable (S), marginally suitable (MS), and not suitable (NS) regions accounted for 11.79, 82.68, 4.05, and 1.47% of the study area, respectively. The Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI), a measure of vegetation vigor, was higher in HS, followed by S regions, and then MS regions. Similarly, climate variables in HS regions were more favorable for plant growth, followed by S regions and MS regions. The correlation between precipitation and temperature is high and significant only in the HS class, despite the fact that NDVI and climate variables are significantly connected in all the suitability classes. The output map, thus determined, provides information on highly suitable, suitable or marginally suitable lands that are of practical importance to agriculturists.
Sustainability, 2019
Sustainable urban planning is essential in mediating the natural and built environments globally,... more Sustainable urban planning is essential in mediating the natural and built environments globally, yet, there is little progress as regards its attainment in developing countries. Rapid and unplanned urbanization continue to threaten the sustainability of many cities in Africa. By selecting Morogoro Municipal Council (MMC) in Tanzania as an example, this study applied well-known remote sensing techniques to understand the dynamics of urban growth and the implications for sustainable urban planning. The study analyzes spatio-temporal characteristics for eighteen years (2000–2018) based on urban land density using gradient and grid-based analysis to further examine land use and urban land density nexus. The results indicate declining urban land densities with distance to the city center, indicating a less compact and fragmented development at the urban fringes; and northward development with limited development to the south of MCC. The knowledge and understanding of the patterns of spa...
Geospatial Data Journal, 2022
This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which... more This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
The Nigerian Health Journal, 2021
Background: The prevalence of stillbirth in low-to-middle income countries (LMICs) is alarmingly ... more Background: The prevalence of stillbirth in low-to-middle income countries (LMICs) is alarmingly high. Nigeria has one of the highest stillbirth proportions worldwide, accounting for 12% of global stillbirths. At the population level, excessive stillbirth can be reduced with accessible prenatal and perinatal care. However, Nigeria lacks regional stillbirth data that would otherwise inform the allocation of obstetrical resources throughout rural areas.
Objective: To determine the prevalence of stillbirth in primary healthcare centres (PHCs) in Otukpo local government area (LGA) and to compare this with the stillbirth prevalence of other regions.
Methods: Perinatal records were retrieved from PHCs in Otukpo. Births were categorized according to outcome and year to ascertain differences in stillbirth proportions between 2014 and 2018. Data analysis utilized basic descriptive statistics and Chi-Square contingency test. Findings were expressed in frequencies and percentages; and presented in tables.
Results: A total of 1,047 birthing outcomes were recorded across 23 PHCs. Births were classified as: positive (live), low birthweight, stillbirth, macerated, or premature birth. Majority of births were positive (91.6%), with stillbirths representing 7.7% of outcomes. All other outcomes comprised less than 1% of births. There was no annual change in the proportion of stillbirths (p=0.93).
Conclusion: Stillbirth prevalence in Otukpo local government area is high. LMICs like Nigeria need better stillbirth data to improve prenatal and perinatal care.
Remote Sensing, 2021
Droughts are one of the world’s most destructive natural disasters. In large regions of Africa, d... more Droughts are one of the world’s most destructive natural disasters. In large regions of Africa, droughts can have strong environmental and socioeconomic impacts. Understanding the mechanism that drives drought and predicting its variability is important for enhancing early warning and disaster risk management. Taking North andWest Africa as the study area, this study adopted multi-source data and various statistical analysis methods, such as the joint probability density
function (JPDF), to study the meteorological drought and return years across a long term (1982–2018). The standardized precipitation index (SPI) was used to evaluate the large-scale spatiotemporal drought characteristics at 1–12-month timescales. The intensity, severity, and duration of drought in the study area were evaluated using SPI–12. At the same time, the JPDF was used to determine the return year and identify the intensity, duration, and severity of drought. The Mann-Kendall method was used to test the trend of SPI and annual precipitation at 1–12-month timescales. The pattern of drought occurrence and its correlation with climate factors were analyzed. The results showed that the drought magnitude (DM) of the study area was the highest in 2008–2010, 2000–2003, and 1984–1987, with the values of 5.361, 2.792, and 2.187, respectively, and the drought lasting for three years in each of the three periods. At the same time, the lowest DM was found in 1997-1998, 1993–1994, and 1991–1992, with DM values of 0.113, 0.658, and 0.727, respectively, with a duration of one year each time. It was confirmed that the probability of return to drought was higher when the duration of drought was shorter, with short droughts occurring more regularly, but not all severe droughts hit after longer time intervals. Beyond this, we discovered a direct connection between drought and the North Atlantic Oscillation Index (NAOI) over Morocco, Algeria, and the sub-Saharan countries, and some slight indications that drought is linked with the Southern Oscillation Index (SOI) over Guinea, Ghana, Sierra Leone, Mali, Cote d’Ivoire, Burkina Faso, Niger, and Nigeria.
CITIES, 2020
This study questions the frequent overemphasis on population growth aspects of African urbanizati... more This study questions the frequent overemphasis on population growth aspects of African urbanization with little consideration of the spatial extent by analyzing the influence of population growth on the spatial expansion of the Morogoro urban municipality (MUM) in Tanzania between 2000 and 2016. Shannon's Entropy, a random forest supervised classifier, and spatial analysis were adopted to analyze Multi-temporal Landsat images obtained through the Google Earth Engine platform to quantify the spatial and temporal distribution and pattern of land-use change. Findings from this research show that Shannon's entropy values for MUM increased from 0.522 in 2000, to 0.761 in 2007, and to 0.901 in 2016 with the urban land cover recording a considerable and consistent increase. Similarly, the municipality's annual rate of change in population decreased from 4.17% in 1967 to 3.81% in 2016, and is estimated to rise to 4.54% by 2030 with a corresponding population of 25,262 in 1967 and 622,000 in 2016. From the results, the rate of population growth is not commensurate with the rate of spatial expansion, as the spatial extent is more than twice the population growth. An important contribution from this research relates to the limited attention to the faster rate of urban expansion compared to population growth in African cities; a situation that is inconsistent with sustainable and resilient urban futures. It is recommended that municipal authorities should consider initiatives (e.g., environmental planning models) to reverse the current trend of urban growth in order to improve the health, density, sustainability and resilience of the urban environment.
Geo-spatial Information Science Vol. 23, No. 3, 2020
Urbanization is one of the most impactful human activities across the world today affecting the q... more Urbanization is one of the most impactful human activities across the world today affecting the quality of urban life and its sustainable development. Urbanization in Africa is occurring at an unprecedented rate and it threatens the attainment of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Urban sprawl has resulted in unsustainable urban development patterns from social, environmental , and economic perspectives. This study is among the first examples of research in Africa to combine remote sensing data with social media data to determine urban sprawl from 2011 to 2017 in Morogoro urban municipality, Tanzania. Random Forest (RF) method was applied to accomplish imagery classification and location-based social media (Twitter usage) data were obtained through a Twitter Application Programming Interface (API). Morogoro urban municipality was classified into built-up, vegetation, agriculture, and water land cover classes while the classification results were validated by the generation of 480 random points. Using the Kernel function, the study measured the location of Twitter users within a 1 km buffer from the center of the city. The results indicate that, expansion of the city (built-up land use), which is primarily driven by population expansion, has negative impacts on ecosystem services because pristine grasslands and forests which provide essential ecosystem services such as carbon sequestration and support for biodiversity have been replaced by built-up land cover. In addition, social media usage data suggest that there is the concentration of Twitter usage within the city center while Twitter usage declines away from the city center with significant spatial and numerical increase in Twitter usage in the study area. The outcome of the study suggests that the combination of remote sensing, social sensing, and population data were useful as a proxy/inference for interpreting urban sprawl and status of access to urban services and infrastructure in Morogoro, and Africa city where data for urban planning is often unavailable , inaccurate, or stale. ARTICLE HISTORY
World Environment 10(2): 45-51, 2020
The Barnawa district's settlement pattern is made up of several households in a set of built hous... more The Barnawa district's settlement pattern is made up of several households in a set of built houses generally regarded as compounds. A semi structured questionnaire was self-administered to a total of 166 households in 105 compounds in Barnawa districts. The compounds were selected through multilevel sampling procedure involving convenient and random techniques. Findings showed in general, households in Barnawa would be willing to pay for improved solid waste management (SWM) services irrespective of household size or their relative wealth-status as measured. However, willingness to pay for improved SWM services was generally common among households least satisfied with the current service they receive. Also household size, location of a household in relation to an existing official solid waste collection point are observed to be major drivers of how much households are willing to pay for improved SWM services in the district.
Urban Studies and Public Administration, Volume 3, Number 2, pp. 21-68, 2020
Nigeria is rapidly urbanizing and is forecasted to become the 3 rd most urbanized nation by 2100.... more Nigeria is rapidly urbanizing and is forecasted to become the 3 rd most urbanized nation by 2100. Expectedly, the rapid urbanization presents challenges in many areas including the management of municipal services such as solid waste. This yawning failure is reflected in the poor quality of waste services across Nigerian cities. The study reviewed municipal waste management governance and institutional frameworks, and financing arrangements in two major cities in the Northwestern and southeastern parts of Nigeria-Kano and Enugu cities. Key Informant Interviews (KIIs) using a number of structured questions checklist were conducted for the Heads of Government institutions responsible for waste management, Public Appropriation/Budget and Finance Units, as well as other key stakeholders including waste generators (residents and business owners), waste pickers and informal waste recyclers, and waste service providers. Additional, existing policy frameworks and infrastructure financing were reviewed. The findings reveal institutional and policy inadequacies, financing limitations, technical incapacity, infrastructural inadequacies, and socioeconomic and attitudinal barriers, that collectively impede effective and efficient waste management service delivery in both cities. The assumption is that the findings of this study reflects the status in many Nigerian cities.
Agricultural Water Management Volume 237, 106195, 2020
East African region is susceptible to drought due to high variation in monthly precipitation. Stu... more East African region is susceptible to drought due to high variation in monthly precipitation. Studying drought at regional scale is vital since droughts are considered a ‘creeping’ disaster by nature with devasting and extended impact often requiring long periods to reverse the recorded damages. This study assessed drought exceedance and return years over East Africa from 1920 to 2016 using Climate Research Unit (CRU) precipitation data records. Meteorological drought, where precipitation is the central quantity of interest, was adopted in the work. Standardize Precipitation Index (SPI) was used to study long term meteorological droughts and also to assess drought magnitude, frequency, exceedance probability and return years using Joint Probability Density Function (JPDF). Also, Mann-Kendall trend analysis was applied to precipitation and SPI to investigate the trend changes. Results showed that years with high drought magnitude ranged from 1920−22, 1926−29, 1942−46 and 1947−51 with values corresponding to 2.2, 3.2, 3.4 and 2.6, respectively while years with low drought magnitude ranged from 1930−31, 1988−89 and 2001−02 with values as 0.2, 0.12 and 0.15, respectively. The longest droughts occurred from 1926−29, 1937−41, 1942−46, 1947−51, 1952−56, and 1958−61 with values in years as 3, 4, 4, 4, 4, and 3 years, respectively, while the shortest droughts occurred in time period of 1 year and ranged from 1930−31, 1964−65, 1979−80, 1981−82, 1983−84, 1988−89, 1991−92, 1993−94, 1996−97 and 2001−02. Also, it was demonstrated that probability of drought occurrence is high when severity is low and such droughts occur at short time intervals and not all severest drought took longer periods. The SPI trends indicate high positive (negative) pixels above (below) the zero-trend mark, indicating that drought prevails in both low and high elevation areas up to 2000 m. There was no direct link between ENSO and drought but arguably the association of drought in most El Niño and La Niña years suggests that the impact of ENSO cannot be ruled out since peak ENSO events occur during October to March periods which coincides with the short (SON) and long (MAM) rainy seasons of East Africa. The study is particularly relevant in being able to depict continuous and synoptic drought condition all over East Africa, providing vital information to farmers and policy makers, using very cost-effective method.
American Journal of Rural Development, 2020
Urbanisation is widely recognised as one of the major trends of this century that offers great op... more Urbanisation is widely recognised as one of the major trends of this century that offers great opportunities as well as significant challenges for poverty reduction in both urban and rural areas. In much of sub-Saharan Africa, the development of small and medium-sized towns remains largely linked to the nature of agricultural production systems. They nevertheless perform a number of essential functions from market nodes to providers of services, goods and non-farm employment to their inhabitants and that of the wider surrounding region. This research investigates the emerging urban system of the Benue Basin region of Nigeria. The data were collected on 80 urban functions across 140 settlements in the basin using a checklist, and analysed using principal component analysis and cluster analysis. The result of the Principal component analysis extracted 10 major functions out of the 80 variables that together explained 67.6% of the total variance. These functions are named workshop services; security and banking services; industrial services; education and commercial services; administrative functions; judiciary and retail services; health/social services; agro processing services; primary health services, and tertiary/secondary health services. The factor scores of the 10 major functions were examined to showcase the performances of each of the 140 settlements in terms of the functions they perform. On the basis of identified major urban functions, the cluster analysis grouped the 140 settlements in a five-order hierarchical structure. Gboko town emerged as the dominant settlement in the system with the highest number of urban functions, and is regarded as the 1 st order settlement in the hierarchy. The study recommends provision of basic infrastructure in the emerging urban settlements of the Benue basin particularly settlements in the 3 rd , 4 th and 5 th order in the hierarchy to reposition them for rapid socio-econmic growth of the region.
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Papers by Fanan Ujoh (Ph.D)
Methods: A non-inferiority randomized controlled trial design was used,
enrolling 130 s-year students from 2 midwifery schools in Benue State, Nigeria. Students were randomly assigned into six cohorts. Each cohort received half of the course on a Learning Management Platform on their mobile phones, the other half through standard small-group teaching. Students’ knowledge, thinking, and technical skills were assessed using a pre-test, post-test, Objective Structured Clinical Exam (OSCE), and daily modular quizzes. The data was analyzed using the difference-in-difference method.
Results: The study revealed that post-intervention student knowledge and
thinking skills did not significantly differ between digital learning (75.26%) and small-group learning arms of the trial (75.02%, p = 0.404). Student knowledge improved significantly compared to the pre-test in both groups (by 25.03 points in the digital arm, 26.39, in small-group). Some differences were observed between digital and small-group learning in disaggregated analysis by specific module and midwifery school. Although there was a trend toward small group learning of technical skills being more effective than digital learning, no significant differences between groups were observed in the post-intervention OSCE. Students in both groups learned equally well regardless of age, gender, and midwifery school entrance exam score.
Conclusion: Digital learning is as effective as small-group learning, for
midwifery trainees, in augmenting knowledge, thinking, and technical skills
addressed in the FIRST course, and have lighter human resource requirements, an important consideration especially in LMIC. However, similar assessments would be needed to assess effectiveness for other digitally delivered clinical education programs.
Objective: To determine the prevalence of stillbirth in primary healthcare centres (PHCs) in Otukpo local government area (LGA) and to compare this with the stillbirth prevalence of other regions.
Methods: Perinatal records were retrieved from PHCs in Otukpo. Births were categorized according to outcome and year to ascertain differences in stillbirth proportions between 2014 and 2018. Data analysis utilized basic descriptive statistics and Chi-Square contingency test. Findings were expressed in frequencies and percentages; and presented in tables.
Results: A total of 1,047 birthing outcomes were recorded across 23 PHCs. Births were classified as: positive (live), low birthweight, stillbirth, macerated, or premature birth. Majority of births were positive (91.6%), with stillbirths representing 7.7% of outcomes. All other outcomes comprised less than 1% of births. There was no annual change in the proportion of stillbirths (p=0.93).
Conclusion: Stillbirth prevalence in Otukpo local government area is high. LMICs like Nigeria need better stillbirth data to improve prenatal and perinatal care.
function (JPDF), to study the meteorological drought and return years across a long term (1982–2018). The standardized precipitation index (SPI) was used to evaluate the large-scale spatiotemporal drought characteristics at 1–12-month timescales. The intensity, severity, and duration of drought in the study area were evaluated using SPI–12. At the same time, the JPDF was used to determine the return year and identify the intensity, duration, and severity of drought. The Mann-Kendall method was used to test the trend of SPI and annual precipitation at 1–12-month timescales. The pattern of drought occurrence and its correlation with climate factors were analyzed. The results showed that the drought magnitude (DM) of the study area was the highest in 2008–2010, 2000–2003, and 1984–1987, with the values of 5.361, 2.792, and 2.187, respectively, and the drought lasting for three years in each of the three periods. At the same time, the lowest DM was found in 1997-1998, 1993–1994, and 1991–1992, with DM values of 0.113, 0.658, and 0.727, respectively, with a duration of one year each time. It was confirmed that the probability of return to drought was higher when the duration of drought was shorter, with short droughts occurring more regularly, but not all severe droughts hit after longer time intervals. Beyond this, we discovered a direct connection between drought and the North Atlantic Oscillation Index (NAOI) over Morocco, Algeria, and the sub-Saharan countries, and some slight indications that drought is linked with the Southern Oscillation Index (SOI) over Guinea, Ghana, Sierra Leone, Mali, Cote d’Ivoire, Burkina Faso, Niger, and Nigeria.
Methods: A non-inferiority randomized controlled trial design was used,
enrolling 130 s-year students from 2 midwifery schools in Benue State, Nigeria. Students were randomly assigned into six cohorts. Each cohort received half of the course on a Learning Management Platform on their mobile phones, the other half through standard small-group teaching. Students’ knowledge, thinking, and technical skills were assessed using a pre-test, post-test, Objective Structured Clinical Exam (OSCE), and daily modular quizzes. The data was analyzed using the difference-in-difference method.
Results: The study revealed that post-intervention student knowledge and
thinking skills did not significantly differ between digital learning (75.26%) and small-group learning arms of the trial (75.02%, p = 0.404). Student knowledge improved significantly compared to the pre-test in both groups (by 25.03 points in the digital arm, 26.39, in small-group). Some differences were observed between digital and small-group learning in disaggregated analysis by specific module and midwifery school. Although there was a trend toward small group learning of technical skills being more effective than digital learning, no significant differences between groups were observed in the post-intervention OSCE. Students in both groups learned equally well regardless of age, gender, and midwifery school entrance exam score.
Conclusion: Digital learning is as effective as small-group learning, for
midwifery trainees, in augmenting knowledge, thinking, and technical skills
addressed in the FIRST course, and have lighter human resource requirements, an important consideration especially in LMIC. However, similar assessments would be needed to assess effectiveness for other digitally delivered clinical education programs.
Objective: To determine the prevalence of stillbirth in primary healthcare centres (PHCs) in Otukpo local government area (LGA) and to compare this with the stillbirth prevalence of other regions.
Methods: Perinatal records were retrieved from PHCs in Otukpo. Births were categorized according to outcome and year to ascertain differences in stillbirth proportions between 2014 and 2018. Data analysis utilized basic descriptive statistics and Chi-Square contingency test. Findings were expressed in frequencies and percentages; and presented in tables.
Results: A total of 1,047 birthing outcomes were recorded across 23 PHCs. Births were classified as: positive (live), low birthweight, stillbirth, macerated, or premature birth. Majority of births were positive (91.6%), with stillbirths representing 7.7% of outcomes. All other outcomes comprised less than 1% of births. There was no annual change in the proportion of stillbirths (p=0.93).
Conclusion: Stillbirth prevalence in Otukpo local government area is high. LMICs like Nigeria need better stillbirth data to improve prenatal and perinatal care.
function (JPDF), to study the meteorological drought and return years across a long term (1982–2018). The standardized precipitation index (SPI) was used to evaluate the large-scale spatiotemporal drought characteristics at 1–12-month timescales. The intensity, severity, and duration of drought in the study area were evaluated using SPI–12. At the same time, the JPDF was used to determine the return year and identify the intensity, duration, and severity of drought. The Mann-Kendall method was used to test the trend of SPI and annual precipitation at 1–12-month timescales. The pattern of drought occurrence and its correlation with climate factors were analyzed. The results showed that the drought magnitude (DM) of the study area was the highest in 2008–2010, 2000–2003, and 1984–1987, with the values of 5.361, 2.792, and 2.187, respectively, and the drought lasting for three years in each of the three periods. At the same time, the lowest DM was found in 1997-1998, 1993–1994, and 1991–1992, with DM values of 0.113, 0.658, and 0.727, respectively, with a duration of one year each time. It was confirmed that the probability of return to drought was higher when the duration of drought was shorter, with short droughts occurring more regularly, but not all severe droughts hit after longer time intervals. Beyond this, we discovered a direct connection between drought and the North Atlantic Oscillation Index (NAOI) over Morocco, Algeria, and the sub-Saharan countries, and some slight indications that drought is linked with the Southern Oscillation Index (SOI) over Guinea, Ghana, Sierra Leone, Mali, Cote d’Ivoire, Burkina Faso, Niger, and Nigeria.