Social capital consists of characteristics of the relations and the interaction that happens between individuals and groups. It is perceived as an individual level where personal resources can emerge in various social networks where individuals have good access to support and services involved. On several occasions, social capital has been perceived as a factor that can affect health through numerous mechanisms. These are well-known norms and attitudes that influence health psychological networks and increases access to quality health systems thus enhancing self-esteem. The objective of this paper, therefore, was to assess the influence social capital has on the health of individuals. The study adopted a descriptive survey research design and targeted 840 respondents from 7 countries across sub-Saharan Africa. Data was collected through structured questionnaires and interview guides, which were pilot-tested before use and utilized the Cronbach alpha test on SPSS to measure both reliability of the research tool and the internal consistency. The data were analysed using descriptive statistics which includes correlation analysis aided by Statistical Package for Social Science for quantitative while the qualitative data was analyzed using narrative and thematic methods. Results showed that social capital indeed has an influence on the health of individuals. 54% of the respondents reported having fallen below their economic status at some point in their life and further provided insights on the importance of friends and family at this point in their life. 98% of them confirmed receiving aid and support (both moral and financial) from their family and social networks and this eased a lot of stress and further supported them in their search for new channels of earning their livelihoods. Also, 69.1% of the respondents reported belonging to a particular social network, among them, 95% confirmed that in multiple occasions, the social network influenced their health-seeking behaviors, diet, and general hygiene, eating and sleeping habits, etc. while noting that the network provides support (both financial, moral, care, etc.
Livestock in generally considered one of the actors of the agricultural production. Rural women play an important roles in livestock production and marketing in the rural economies of developing countries as unpaid workers. They embark on various activities of livestock management like feeding, cleaning, collecting manure for organic fertilizer and milking. However, their involvement as decision makers regarding various livestock activities is still dubious. Hence the present study was carried out, with main objectives to investigate the involvement of rural women in the management of livestock activities, and to examine the role of rural women in taking decisions related to livestock activities. A systematic random sample of 150 female wives respondents were selected from ELAbadia village, Damanhour district, El-Behira Governorate. Data were collected using interview guided by pre-tested interview questionnaire, and focus group discussions (FGDs) during November and December 2016. Data was analyzed using Statistical Package of Social Science (SPSS). The results revealed that rural women's involvement in livestock decision making activities was relatively high in activities like selling/ purchasing of egg, milk products, and selling/ purchasing of poultry. However, their involvement was relatively low in activities like cultivation of fodder for livestock, and number of livestock to be kept. Age, education status, years of women's livestock breeding experience, and household annual income, were the main socioeconomic factors which had affected the involvement of rural women in decision making process.
Egyptian rural women play critical, diverse roles in agricultural and non-agricultural activities in the rural economy as unpaid family workers, own-account farmers, and plantations.The multiple role of women in agriculture, allied occupations and household activities are generally, underestimated and undervalued. By and large, they have remained as invisible hands .The present study was undertaken to determine the nature and extent of participation of rural women in various agricultural and nonagricultural activities, and their contribution in generating household income.A sample size of 100 farm households of Manshiet Dahshour village were selected randomly, and the housewives of the households, who worked outside along with their household work, were the respondents of this study. Data were collected through structured interview questionnaire during September an October 2016. The obtained data were analyzed by using tabular and statistical techniques. The findings showed that most of the respondents constitute economically active age group who were mostly illiterate.Contribution of women to total family income in low, medium and high income household categories were 34.5 , 25.0 and 13.9 per cent respectively. It was evident that, female participation of low and medium income households is markedly higher in non-agricultural activities than the high income households. Women were involved in various agricultural and non-agricultural activities and largely took part in " rearing poultry"," harvesting croups ", " postharvest operations", "milking and milk processing", " petty trading ", " labor selling " and " sewing " (dress marketing).The values of correlation coefficient indicated that only household size is positively and significantly associated with women respondent participation in agricultural and non-agricultural activities.
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