Human capital development and economic sustainability linkage in Sub-Saharan African countries: Novel evidence from augmented mean group approach.

Sustainable Development Goal number four (SDG-4) strongly emphasizes quality education, which is crucial to human capital development. The importance of human capital development for sustainable economic development has thus risen to the top of the global policy agenda. However, the empirical literature on the topic has several limitations, including utilizing inappropriate measurement of human capital development and being unable to investigate the quality dimensions of education. Therefore, this study used years of schooling and return on education to fill the gap, and also considered the role of institutional and political factors in its empirical estimation. The main objective of this study is to investigate the effect of human capital development on economic sustainability in 30 Sub-Saharan African countries, employing panel data from 2000 to 2020. The augmented mean group model was used in the empirical investigation. The findings of the study showed that human capital development negatively and significantly affects economic sustainability in Sub-Saharan African countries. Thus, among the policy alternatives that Sub-Saharan African countries and policymakers should pursue to attain the goals of economic sustainability is revisiting the entire human capital development architecture and putting more of an emphasis on quality education than on access to education.

Seroprevalence and Associated Risk Factors of Foot and Mouth Disease in Cattle in West Shewa Zone, Ethiopia.

Foot and mouth disease (FMD) is a highly contagious viral disease of cloven-hoofed animals and one of the endemic diseases in Ethiopia. The study was aimed to estimate the seroprevalence and to assess associated risk factors of foot and mouth disease seroprevalence in West Shewa Zone. A total of 384 sera samples were collected from randomly selected cattle and tested using ELISA for antibodies against nonstructural proteins of foot and mouth disease viruses based on IDEXX FMD Multispecies Ab Test (IDEXX Laboratories Inc, USA). The seroprevalence of foot and mouth disease in West Shewa Zone was found to be 40.4% (95% CI: 35.46-45.27) at an animal and 74.7% (95% CI: 65.58-83.85) at the herd level. Multivariable logistic regression analysis indicated that districts, breed, and animal composition were the potential risk factors of FMD seropositivity. Accordingly, cattle found in Abuna Ginde Beret (odds ratio (OR): 9.1, 95% CI: 2.4-34.1, p=0.001), Cheliya (OR: 8.8, 95% CI: 2.5-31.3, p=0.001), Bako Tibe (OR: 7.6, 95% CI: 2.1-28.3, p=0.002), Tokekutaye (OR: 5.8, 95% CI: 1.7-19.5, p=0.004), and Jeldu (OR: 5.3, 95% CI: 1.3-21.5, p=0.020) districts were more at risk to be infected with FMD than cattle from Ambo. The odds of FMD seropositivity was significantly higher in cattle kept with small ruminants (OR: 2.1, 95% CI: 1.3-3.3, p=0.003) than cattle alone. The analysis also revealed that the odds of seropositivity were 6 times higher in crossbred compared with local cattle (p=0.003). The current study found high seroprevalence of FMD in West Shewa Zone. Therefore, cattle should be vaccinated regularly after the identification of specific FMD serotypes circulating in the study area.