How to cite: Moodley, T & Stofile, S 2026, ‘Holistic and inclusive education practice in early childhood development’, in T Moodley, S Stofile & R Govender (eds.), Holistic and inclusive education practices for young learners in South Africa: From early childhood to Foundation Phase, The University of the Western Cape Faculty of Education Book Series, vol. 2, AOSIS Books, Cape Town, pp. 3–22. https://doi.org/10.4102/aosis.2026.BK568.01
Background Surveillance of adverse events following immunization (AEFI) and appropriate reporting are essential ingredients of an effective immunization programme. Despite increasing recognition by caregivers, the response to it remains a major problem, with the majority being inappropriate. This study is therefore intended to determine the prevalence, pattern, and determinants of caregivers’ response regarding AEFI in Nigerian hospitals. Methodology A descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted among 368 caregiver-infant pairs across 3 Nigerian hospitals, using semi-structured questionnaires to document sociodemographic characteristics and the prevalence, pattern, and determinants of caregivers’ response. Statistical analyses were performed using SPSS version 27. Predictors of AEFI and determinants of caregivers’ response were assessed using Pearson’s chi-square and logistic regression. A p-value < 0.05 was considered statistically significant. Results The prevalence of AEFI was 71.7%, with inconsolable crying/irritability, fever, and swelling at the vaccination site as the leading cases. Infant age, weight, and gestational status at birth were predictors of AEFI occurrence. Only 8 (3.0%) caregivers presented at a healthcare facility when AEFI was noticed (appropriate response), while 360 (97.0%) did not (inappropriate). The relationship of the caregiver to the vaccinated infant (mother) was found to be a determinant of caregivers’ response to the occurrence of AEFI. Conclusion An increasing prevalence of AEFI that was not followed by an optimally appropriate response from caregivers has been demonstrated. This calls for more public enlightenment focusing on the need to report AEFI at healthcare facilities, as this will help in ensuring vaccine safety and improvement in the immunization programme.
Sunday Charles Adeyemo, Funso Abidemi Olagunju, Abimbola Ololade Odeyemi et al.
How to cite: Fagan, D 2026, ‘Integrating artificial intelligence into early childhood development: Afrocentric and inclusive approaches’, in T Moodley, S Stofile & R Govender (eds.), Holistic and inclusive education practices for young learners in South Africa: From early childhood to Foundation Phase, The University of the Western Cape Faculty of Education Book Series, vol. 2, AOSIS Books, Cape Town, pp. 63–78. https://doi.org/10.4102/aosis.2026.BK568.04
Hepatitis B is a leading preventable cause of liver cancer, and in high-burden settings most chronic infection is acquired around birth. Nigeria carries Africa’s largest hepatitis B burden. Preventing mother-to-child transmission requires a chain of antenatal steps: testing pregnant women, acting on the result, and vaccinating the newborn. No nationally representative study has assembled these into a single prevention cascade. We built the first national hepatitis B mother-to-child prevention cascade for Nigeria and measured how far it falls from the World Health Organization’s triple-elimination targets. We analysed the 2023-24 Nigeria Demographic and Health Survey, the first Nigerian survey to carry both a maternal hepatitis B module and infant birth-dose records. Among 13,341 women with a most recent live birth in the preceding three years, each linked to that child’s immunisation record, we estimated coverage at each cascade step (antenatal attendance, hepatitis B testing in antenatal care, result received, and the infant birth dose) using complex-survey methods, and examined patterning by wealth, education, residence, travel time, and region. Although 72% of mothers attended antenatal care, only 12.3% (95% CI 11.4-13.2) were tested for hepatitis B there, and among the few tested almost all received a result: the loss fell at testing, not at result-return. The infant birth dose reached 55.0% (53.1-56.9), 35 points below target, and ran at a level unrelated to maternal testing, consistent with universal, non-targeted delivery; place of delivery, not maternal testing, was the dominant correlate of an infant receiving it. Both steps were steeply patterned: antenatal testing ranged from 2.6% in the poorest wealth quintile to 32.4% in the richest, and was lowest in the North-West, the zone with Nigeria’s highest prevalence. Nigeria already reaches most mothers through antenatal care but rarely uses that contact to test for hepatitis B, and the universal birth dose is only half delivered. The country is far from elimination, and furthest where the virus is commonest. Integrating hepatitis B testing into antenatal care, made free and weighted toward the highest-burden north, would convert contact already achieved into protection.
Samson Ikenna Abanni, Bifom Melwin Ekure, Jean Omotosho
Malnutrition is a major cause of childhood morbidity and mortality, affecting children’s growth and development. This study aimed to identify the factors associated with malnutrition among children aged 0 to 59 months at Bonassama District Hospital in Douala. A descriptive and analytical cross-sectional study was conducted from July 2025 to April 2026 among children aged 0 to 59 months seen in the pediatrics and immunization units. Data were collected using a questionnaire administered to parents. Nutritional status was assessed according to WHO standards, and associated factors were identified through multivariate analysis. Among the children studied, 82.2% had normal nutritional status and 17.8% were malnourished. After adjustment, the factors significantly associated with malnutrition were type of housing (modern house: AOR = 2.10; 95% CI: 1.03–4.01; p = 0.044), tenant status (AOR = 3.01; 95% CI: 1.53–6.78; p < 0.001), history of respiratory infection (AOR = 2.12; 95% CI: 1.20–5.35; p = 0.019), and occasional use of health services (AOR = 2.23; 95% CI: 1.05–5.21; p = 0.030). Mothers’ knowledge of essential food groups was not significantly associated with malnutrition. Malnutrition remains a significant problem among children under five years of age in Bonassama. Prevention strategies should incorporate health, socioeconomic, and environmental factors to improve screening and management of at-risk children.
Godfroy Rostant Pokam Djoko, Murielle Tsobgny Nguefack, Devis Sobnang
Childcare burdens limit productivity among women in the informal sector, but we know little about the optimal design of childcare support. We randomize 883 women market vendors in Kampala, Uganda to receive free workplace- or community-based childcare. Free childcare redistributes caregiving away from household members, raises women’s hourly earnings, and improves child development and women’s well-being. Community centers achieve higher utilization and larger gains in development and well-being, while workplace centers generate larger economic impacts. Both models have a high marginal value of public funds. Community centers currently dominate, but workplace-based centers could prove superior if operated at scale.
Jacklyn Makaaru Arinaitwe, George Bogere, Anna Fiore et al.
Preterm birth remains a leading contributor to neonatal mortality and long-term morbidity worldwide, with Sub-Saharan Africa bearing a disproportionate share of the burden. Structural inequities, limited maternal healthcare access, and socioeconomic vulnerabilities are associated with higher model-predicted probability of preterm birth. Despite its significance, large-scale predictive modeling of preterm birth in this region remains limited. This study aimed to develop robust machine-learning–based prediction models and identify key factors associated with preterm birth using recent multi-country Demographic and Health Survey (DHS) data from (2019–2024). A pooled cross-sectional analysis was conducted using nationally representative DHS data from eleven Sub-Saharan African countries, including 411,863 women aged 15–49 years. Four supervised machine learning algorithms were trained and tested using an 80/20 train–test split. Model performance was evaluated using accuracy, precision, recall, F1-score, and ROC-AUC. Model interpretability was assessed using SHapley Additive exPlanations (SHAP). The Random Forest model demonstrated the highest predictive performance for preterm birth, achieving an accuracy of 90.20% and ROC-AUC of 96.92%, outperforming the Decision Tree (accuracy of 89.2% and ROC-AUC of 92.19%), and other classifiers. The use of SMOTE for class imbalance handling and evaluation with precision–recall metrics improved model robustness in identifying minority class outcomes. SHAP-based feature importance analysis identified key predictors of the outcome,including low maternal educational attainment,unmarried marital status, lack of media exposure, lower household wealth index, and advanced maternal age (≥ 35 years). Additional important predictors were substance use,rural residence,employed women,anemia, abnormal maternal body mass index, insufficient antenatal care attendance (< 4 visits), and short birth interval. Overall, all these factors were associated with an increased predicted probability of preterm birth. Machine learning models, particularly ensemble methods, demonstrated strong predictive performance for preterm birth in Sub-Saharan Africa. Random Forest performed best, highlighting the effectiveness of ensemble learning in handling complex and imbalanced datasets. Key socio-demographic and maternal health factors were consistently associated with preterm birth in a predictive (non-causal) framework. The integration of explainable artificial intelligence enhances model transparency and supports interpretation of predictive patterns in maternal health data. Findings should be interpreted as predictive associations rather than causal relationships, and caution is required when generalizing across heterogeneous country contexts.
Abstract Background Though many studies have discussed the impact of health insurance on access to medical services, few have considered Western Africa. Despite decades of targeted efforts, West Africa has the most elevated maternal mortality rates (MMR) and under-five mortality rates in the world. The solution to this issue is widely believed to be the implementation of universal health coverage (UHC) as most causes of death could be effectively dealt with through primary health care providers. It is possible that UHC without additional efforts to tackle important determinants of health such as education and poverty is insufficient. The objective of this study is to examine the link between being covered by health insurance and access to health services for mothers and children in West Africa. Methods A systematic literature review will be conducted. We will search the online databases MEDLINE complete, Embase, CINAHL complete, and Global Health from inception onwards. The focus will be on primary research studies and grey literature that examined health insurance in relation to access to maternal and child health services. Two reviewers will independently screen all citations, full-text articles, and abstract data. The primary outcome will be maternal and child access to health insurance and access to primary and secondary services such as attending the minimum number of prenatal visits and accessing services in emergency circumstances where catastrophic expenditures may have been an obstacle. A standardized data extraction form by the Cochrane library will be used. A narrative synthesis will be conducted with a summary of findings tables to be produced. Discussion The systematic review will present findings on the impact of access to health insurance on access to maternal and child health care. The findings will inform discussion around the pursuit of UHC as a key health systems policy. The final manuscript will be disseminated through peer-reviewed journal and scientific conferences. Systematic review registration PROSPERO CRD42020203859
Nigeria’s agricultural sector is central to food security, employment generation, economic diversification, and rural development, yet its transformative potential remains constrained by persistent structural, environmental, institutional, and socioeconomic challenges. This narrative review critically examines contemporary issues affecting Nigerian agriculture between 2020 and 2025, evaluates strategies for sectoral revitalisation, and draws lessons from relevant international experiences. Secondary data were obtained from peer-reviewed literature, policy documents, and national and international databases, including Scopus, Web of Science, Google Scholar, African Journals Online, and the Central Bank of Nigeria, the National Bureau of Statistics, FAOSTAT, the World Bank, and FEWS NET. Evidence was synthesised thematically around key agricultural problems, transformation models, international experiences, and policy recommendations. The review identifies declining land and labour productivity, weak input and extension systems, inadequate irrigation, poor rural infrastructure, high post-harvest losses, limited agro-processing capacity, climate variability, environmental degradation, insecurity, policy inconsistency, underinvestment, land constraints, and unequal access to digital technologies and agricultural finance as major barriers to agricultural transformation. Although initiatives such as the Anchor Borrowers’ Programme, NIRSAL, digital agriculture, climate-smart practices, and value-chain development have generated important opportunities, their impacts have been limited by weak implementation, institutional fragmentation, inadequate funding, and exclusion of smallholders, women, and youth. International experiences from Asia, Latin America, India, and the Sahel demonstrate the importance of sustained public investment, effective farmer organisations, community-led adaptation, integrated value-chain development, and stable policy institutions.
Abstract The place of residence is a major determinant of RMNCH outcomes, with rural areas often lagging in sub-Saharan Africa. This long-held pattern may be changing given differential progress across areas and increasing urbanization. We assessed inequalities in child mortality and RMNCH coverage across capital cities, other urban and rural areas. We analyzed mortality data from 162 DHS and MICS in 39 countries with the most recent survey conducted between 1990 and 2020, and RMNCH coverage data from 39 countries. We assessed inequality trends in neonatal and under-five mortality and in RMNCH coverage using multilevel linear regression models. Under-five mortality and RMNCH service coverage inequalities by place of residence have reduced substantially in sub-Saharan Africa, with rural areas experiencing faster progress than other areas. The absolute gap in child mortality between rural areas and capital cities, and that between rural and other urban areas reduced respectively from 41 and 26 deaths per 1000 live births in 2000 to 23 and 15 by 2015. Capital cities are losing their primacy in child survival and RMNCH coverage over other urban areas and rural areas, especially in Eastern Africa where under-five mortality gap between capital cities and rural areas closed almost completely by 2015. While child mortality and RMNCH coverage inequalities are closing rapidly by place of residence; slow trends in capital cities and urban areas suggest gradual erosion of capital city and urban health advantage. Monitoring child mortality and RMNCH coverage trends in urban areas, especially among the urban poor, and addressing factors of within urban inequalities are urgently needed.
Agbessi Amouzou, Dessalegn Y. Melesse, Fernando C. Wehrmeister et al.
