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Stellenbosch Working Papers

Working Papers

Roots and wings: Improved quality in subsidised housing

This project is a collaboration between Stellenbosch University, Theewaterskloof municipality and Western Cape Department of Human Settlements. The aim is to use upward and downward…

August 11, 2021 By: Marisa von Fintel, Natalie van Reenen (US), Brenda Mothibe (Theewaterskloof), Lenine Felix (Rooidakke), Francis Felix (Rooidakke) PDF

Benchmarking oral reading fluency in the early grades in Nguni languages

To prevent children from falling behind in the developmental sequence of reading, a shared vision of what reading success looks like is required. This paper provides the first benchmarks for early grade oral reading fluency that are necessary (albeit not sufficient) to read for meaning in three Nguni languages – isiZulu, isiXhosa and Siswati – belonging to the Southern Bantu family of African languages.

July 18, 2021 By: Cally Ardington, Gabrielle Wills, Elizabeth Pretorius, Nompumelelo Mohohlwane, and Alicia Menendeze PDF

How basic education has improved in the Western Cape in the past six years

Repetition is a serious problem in South Africa, and the Western Cape is no exception. In any given year between 2007 and 2019, repetition has ranged between 72,000 and 100,000, with notable enrolment bulges in grades 1, 4, 9 and 10. An important consequence of repetition—when not cancelled by dropout—is an increase in the proportion of children who are older than what would be considered appropriate for a particular grade. For example, at least a third of grade 12 learners in 2019 were overage.

June 28, 2021 By: RESEP Team PDF

Resilience key to improving your circumstances

When meeting Dumisani Hompashe and listening to his story, the word “resilience” automatically comes to mind. Because resilience is the silver thread running through his entire life, from his childhood to his part-time PhD studies in Economics at Stellenbosch University (SU).

May 20, 2021 By: Daniel Bugan PDF

The Economics of Health in South Africa

The remnants of the colonial and apartheid era are evident in the South African health system’s persistently higher levels of injury, mental health problems, disease and mortality amongst the poor and marginalized—mediated through a wide range of social determinants including environmental health factors such as hygiene, access to clean water, clean air and adequate sanitation, violent crime and trauma, occupational risk, alcohol abuse and tobacco dependence.

April 22, 2021 By: Ronelle Burger & Mosima Ngwenya PDF

Cost and cost-effectiveness of a universal HIV testing and treatment intervention in Zambia and South Africa: evidence and projections from the HPTN 071 (PopART) trial

The HPTN 071 (PopART) trial showed that a combination HIV prevention package including universal HIV testing and treatment (UTT) reduced population-level incidence of HIV compared with standard care. However, evidence is scarce on the costs and cost-effectiveness of such an intervention.

April 22, 2021 By: Ranjeeta Thomas, William Probert, Rafael Sauter, Lawrence Mwenge, Surya Singh, Sarah Kanema, Nosivuyile Vanqa, Abigail Harper, Ronelle Burger, Anne Cori, Michael Pickles, Nomtha Bell-Mandla, Blia Yang, Justin Bwalya, Mwelwa Phiri, Kwame Shanaube, Sian Floyd, Deborah Donnell, Peter Bock, Prof Helen Ayles, Sarah Fidler, Richard J Hayes, Christophe Fraser, Katharina Hauck PDF

Who is more likely to return for TB test results? A survey at three high-burden primary healthcare facilities in Cape Town, South Africa

In low- and middle-income countries with a high burden of tuberculosis (TB), a large proportion of people who are tested for TB do not return to the health facility to collect their test results and initiate treatment, thus putting themselves at increased risk of adverse outcomes.

April 22, 2021 By: Ronelle Burger, Judy Caldwell, Mareli Claassens, Khanya Mama, Pren Naidoo, Matthias Rieger, Laura Rossouw, Eddy van Doorslaer, Adam Wagstaff PDF

Testing an Incentive-Based and Community Health Worker Package Intervention to Improve Maternal Health and Nutrition Outcomes: A Pilot Randomized Controlled Trial

In order to address South Africa’s maternal and infant mortality and morbidity rates, patient and community-level preventable factors need to be identified and addressed. However, there are few rigorously implemented and tested studies in low- and middle-income countries that evaluate the impact of community-level interventions on maternal and infant health outcomes.

April 22, 2021 By: Laura Rossouw, Rulof Burger, & Ronelle Burger PDF

Underrepresentation of developing country researchers in development research

We present evidence of how researchers from developing countries are represented in three areas of research: conference presentations, articles in journals, and citations. We find that the bulk of research on development and development policies in the South is conducted by researchers from the North.

April 22, 2021 By: Verónica Amarante, Ronelle Burger, Grieve Chelwa, John Cockburn, Ana Kassouf, Andrew McKay, & Julieta Zurbrigg PDF

Changing Inequalities in Health-Adjusted Life Expectancy by Income and Race in South Africa

Trends in socioeconomic-related health inequalities is a particularly pertinent topic in South Africa where years of systematic discrimination under apartheid bequeathed a legacy of inequalities in health outcomes. We use three nationally representative datasets to examine trends in income- and race-related inequalities in life expectancy (LE) and health-adjusted life expectancy (HALE) since the beginning of the millennium.

April 22, 2021 By: Caryn Bredenkamp, Ronelle Burger, Alyssa Jourdan, & Eddy van Doorslaer PDF

Health and education: the building blocks of a thriving economy

Improving education outcomes and producing a skills revolution, as well as ensuring a healthy nation, are two of the key priorities of the sixth administration, as highlighted by President Cyril Ramaphosa in his 2019 state of the nation address (Sona). The complementarities between education and health are well documented: children who are healthy, stimulated and well-nourished from birth are better equipped to develop cognitively and learn than children who receive poor nutrition, are not stimulated often or suffer from poor health.

April 19, 2021 By: Eldridge Moses, Ronelle Burger PDF

Recent RESEP PhD graduates

Three RESEP doctoral candidates were capped at a recent Stellenbosch University (SU) Faculty of Economic and Management Sciences graduation ceremony for PhDs. Congratulations to Joel Gondwe, Dumisani Hompashe and Heleen Hofmeyr. Also in attendance were some of the candidates’ supervisors, Gabrielle Wills and Anja Smith. Ronelle Burger additionally supervised a successful candidate not involved with RESEP.

April 7, 2021 By: RESEP Team PDF