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Ethiopia has launched a pro-poor health services extension programme since 2003 to deliver preventive and basic curative health services to its inhabitants. Despite the massive support and recognition the programme has received, there has not been proper evaluation of its impact. This study has applied propensity score matching and regression adjustment techniques to evaluate the short-term and intermediate-term impacts of the programme on child and maternal health indicators in the programme villages. Empirical data for the study were collected from 3095 households from both programme and non-programme villages in rural Ethiopia. The estimated results indicate that the programme has significantly increased the proportion of children fully and individually vaccinated against tuberculosis, polio, diphtheria-pertussis-tetanus, and measles. The study finds heterogeneity in childhood immunisation coverage as a result of differences in terms of the number of health extension workers, in the quality of health posts and in terms of the educational achievement of mothers across programme villages. The proportions of children and women using insecticide-treated bednets for malaria protection are significantly larger in programme villages than in non-programme villages. The effect on preventive maternal care is rather limited. Whereas women in the programme villages appeared to make their first contact with a skilled health service provider significantly earlier during pregnancy, very little effect is detected on other prenatal and postnatal care services. Moreover, the programme has not reduced the incidence and duration of diarrhoea and cough diseases among under-five children.impact evaluation, health services extension, propensity scores, regression adjustment, Ethiopia,

Studies on input adoption consider education as one of the most important factors that affect adoption decisions. However, very little is known about the spill‐over effect of intra‐household education on the adoption process and about the impact of education on adoption decisions under different socioeconomic conditions. We investigate these two issues using a discrete choice model. The results indicate that the decision making process is a decentralised one in which educated adult members of the household actively participate in the decision making process. This casts doubt on the traditional assumption that the household head is the sole decision maker. The results reveal that there is a substantial and statistically significant intra‐household spill‐over effect of education on the adoption decision of households. The results of the study also show that the coefficient of the education and the environment interaction variable is negative and statistically significant. This demonstrates that education and socioeconomic environments could be substitutes in modern environments and complementary in traditional ones. This implies that the expansion of education in traditional areas may be more attractive than in modern areas since education is usually the only means to enhance the ability of farmers to acquire, synthesise and respond to innovations such as chemical fertiliser.

There has been a growing interest on the issue of child labour among the academic and professional circles in recent times. Estimates show that the number of under-aged working children in Africa could reach some 100 million in the next 10-15 years, posing serious challenges to African policy-makers. Little is known about the likely causes for the rise in child labour in Africa. The lack of data has seriously undermined the amount and quality of research on the topic particularly in sub-Saharan Africa. The intent of the present study is to examine the link between children's labour force participation and some macroeconomic variables using aggregated data from subSaharan Africa. The results show that the high incidence of child labour in sub-Saharan Africa could be explained, among other things, in terms of the high incidence of poverty, the predominance of a poorly developed agricultural sector, high fertility rates leading to high population growth, and low education participation. Contrary to some recent arguments, which questioned the direct link between poverty and child labour, the results of this study show that poverty is indeed one of the most important reasons for the high incidence of child labour in Africa. This complex problem calls for comprehensive and multi-faceted interventions including the adoption of poverty reduction strategies, introduction of labour-saving technologies for the agricultural production, an aggressive provision of primary education, and the mobilization of the communities for creating awareness.Résumé: Ces dernières années, la problématique du travail des enfants a suscité un intérêt croissant dans les cercles académiques et professionnels. Selon les estimations, le nombre d'enfants mineurs qui travaillent en l'Afrique pourrait atteindre quelque 100 millions au cours des dix à quinze prochaines années, ce qui pose un défi majeur pour les décideurs politiques africains. On sait peu de choses sur les causes probables de l'incidence croissante du travail des enfants en Afrique. Le manque de données a un effet négatif tant sur la quantité . The author would like to thank an anonymous referee for his/her constructive and helpful comments. que sur la qualité des recherches sur le sujet, en particulier en Afrique subsaharienne. La présente étude a pour objet d'examiner les liens entre la participation des enfants au marché du travail et plusieurs variables macroéconomiques en se basant sur des données agrégées provenant d'Afrique subsaharienne. Les résultats indiquent que la forte incidence du travail des enfants en Afrique subsaharienne découle notamment de la forte incidence de la pauvreté, la prédominance d'un secteur agricole peu développé, les taux de fertilité élevés entraînant une forte croissance démographique, et les faibles taux de scolarisation. Contrairement à ce que laissent entendre des arguments avancés récemment, qui mettent en cause le lien direct entre la pauvreté et le travail des enfants, les résultats de cette étude montrent que la pauvreté est en effet l'une des...

One of the means by which farm level productivity can be increased is through the introduction and dissemination of improved agricultural technologies to farmers. This is possible if and only if, information on the adoption and risk taking behaviour of farmers is known in advance. While some studies have attempted to assess the factors behind the adoption behaviour of farmers, they have either been limited in scope or they focused on few selected locations and/or commodities. The objective of this study is to identify the factors, which exert significant influence on the adoption behaviour of farmers and the intensity of adoption from a nation survey. A total of 1920 farm household heads drawn from four National Regional States were included in the survey. The result shows that younger farmers, famers with larger land size, farmer living closer to market, and farmers who had closer contact with the extension system are more likely to adopt new technology and use it more. The result underscores the need for research and extension programs to be sensitive to the needs of farmers when developing and disseminating technologies that are relevant to their agro-ecologies.