Student Support

A major part of the training support covered graduate studies in demography at the University of Pennsylvania where most students are encouraged to work on the archived census data as part of ACAP research activities. The most recent PhD graduates who have completed their studies and successfully defended their dissertations over the last five years are from Ghana, Malawi, Sierra Leone, South Africa, Tanzania and Uganda. ACAP has also hosted about seven postdoctoral fellows from Sierra Leone, Nigeria, Tanzania and Zimbabwe who worked on various aspects of African demography as part of ACAP research activities using the archived census data.

Titles of the recently completed PhD dissertations based on the archive census data at Penn include:

• Differentials in infant and child mortality in East Africa ( Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda)
• Health, well-being and mortality in Africa ( Botswana, Lesotho, Zambia)
• Mortality in twentieth-century Malawi
• The Demography of migrant population in South Africa
• Grandparents and the mortality of their grandchildren in the Gambia: Findings from the 1993 census
• Mortality in the era of HIV/AIDS in Tanzania
• Poverty in Post-Apartheid South Africa: Measurement, Trends and the Demographic of the Poor

Upon completion of their studies most of these students returned to their home countries and are currently working with their respective institutions or universities in Africa. They also retain the status of ACAP research collaborators for Africa. The return of most of these students is a demonstration of ACAP’s commitment to demographic capacity strengthening in Africa.