Briefs

UCT's African Centre for Cities (ACC) has recently been awarded approximately R35-million from the ESRC/DfID Joint Fund for Poverty Alleviation Research (Poverty in Urban Spaces theme). Led by Professor Vanessa Watson, the research team will focus on urban poverty, specifically through the lens of food, in three secondary cities in Africa: Kisumu in Kenya, Kitwe in Zambia and Epworth in Zimbabwe. This work builds on existing ACC networks and partnerships, including the African Food Security Urban Network (AFSUN), the Association of African Planning Schools (AAPS), and Women in Informal Employment: Globalising and Organising (WIEGO).

UCT Graduate School of Business' Emeritus Professor Norman Faull is set to become an advisor for the Department of Performance Monitoring and Evaluation (DPME) within the Presidency, and will set in motion a programme to improve government departments' operations management, with the ultimate aim to boost service delivery in South Africa. Founder of the Lean Institute Africa (LIA) at the GSB, Faull will help the DPME roll out an Operations Management Support Programme on a trial basis. The programme is still in its initial stages, and consideration will be given to the most appropriate approaches in order to foster service delivery improvements while building the public service managers' skills.

Jacqueline Kariithi, a PhD researcher from Kenya in the Department of Environmental and Geographical Science at UCT, is one of 70 women to receive a two-year African Women in Agricultural Research and Development (AWARD) Fellowship in 2014. Currently supervised by Professor Michael Meadows, Kariithi's specialisation is ecotourism, a field that includes agritourism and nature-based tourism, and which - like other forms of niche tourism - has become a growth industry in many parts of the world. Her research is about managing natural resources via an integrated approach to nature-based tourism in the Mount Elgon region of Kenya and Uganda, which is renowned for its hot springs and caves.

A report on eight universities in Africa has judged UCT the only university of those studied to meet a set of 'flagship goals'. The other seven universities, each included as the highest-performing university in its country, were Botswana, Dar es Salaam (Tanzania), Eduardo Mondlane (Mozambique), Makerere (Uganda), Nairobi (Kenya), Ghana and Mauritius. The report found that two of the 'flagship goals' of each of the eight universities were firstly to engage in high-quality research and scholarship, and secondly to deliver knowledge products that will enhance national and regional development.

A paper on healthcare costs in the final year of life, authored by senior lecturer (actuarial science) Shivani Ramjee and research assistant Matan Abrahams, has won a 'best in category' prize at the 2014 International Congress of Actuaries (ICA) in Washington. The paper was one of two South African actuarial studies singled out for awards among the 225 actuarial papers and presentations delivered at the congress. Of these, only 16 papers received awards. The UCT academics highlighted key methodological considerations in an investigation into the costs incurred by health insurers as a result of the provision of benefits during the 12 months preceding a beneficiary's death.

Eleven UCT researchers out of a total of 56 finalists nationally have been nominated for the prestigious NSTF-BHP Billiton Awards for 2013/14. The national awards celebrate outstanding contributions to Science, Engineering, Technology and Innovation (SETI) in South Africa. Deputy Vice-Chancellor for Research Prof Danie Visser believes the nominations reflect the strength and depth of UCT's research, as well as the exceptional commitment of UCT researchers. UCT finalists include Eric Bateman, Jean Cleymans, Valerie Mizrahi, Keertan Dheda, Genevieve Langdon, Paul Barendse, Thomas Scriba and Grant Theron. The winners will be announced at the NSTF-BHF Billiton Awards Gala Dinner on 3 July 2014.