This article is an extension of the Chris-Jerry distribution (C-JD) in that a two-parameter Chris-Jerry distribution (TPCJD) is suggested and its characteristics are studied. Based on the determined domain of attraction and other major statistical properties, the proposed TPCJD seems to fit into the Gumbel domain. Additionally, it has been confirmed that the stress strength is reliable. The tail study suggests that the TPCJD’s substantial tail makes it suited for a range of applications. The study took into account the single acceptance sampling approach using both simulation and real-life situations. The parameters of the TPCJD were estimated by some classical and Bayesian approaches. The mean squared errors (MSE), linear-exponential, and generalized entropy loss functions were deployed to obtain the Bayesian estimators aided by the Markov chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) simulation. An analysis of lifetime data on two events justified the use of the proposed distribution after comparing the results with some standard lifetime models.

Choosing a suitable threshold has been an issue in practice. Based on the mean excess plot (MEP), the eyeball inspection approach (EIA) is mainly used to determine the threshold. This involves fitting the threshold at the point the plot becomes approximately linear solely using one’s sense of judgement in such a way that Generalized Pareto model is valid. This is a rather subjective choice. In this paper, we propose an alternative way of selecting the threshold where, instead of choosing individual thresholds in isolation and testing their fit, we make use of the bootstrap aggregate of these individual thresholds which are formulated in terms of quantiles.The method incorporates the visual technique and is aimed at reducing the subjectivity associated with solely using the EIA. The new approach is implemented using simulated datasets drawn from three different distributions. An application to the NSE All share Nigerian stock index is presented. The performance of the proposed model and the EIA are judged based on standard error, Negative log likelihood, the Akaike Information Criteria and the Bayesian Information Criteria. The results show that the new technique gives similar estimates as the EIA and in some cases it performs better. In comparison to other existing methods, the proposed model performs well.

The structure of climate finance flows from donors (multilateral sources) to recipients (sub-Saharan African countries) was studied. This is the first study to provide a comprehensive network structure of the climate finance flows into Africa, based on the global public climate finance governance system. Network theory and decision tree techniques were employed. The results obtained generally fit the multilateral funding units (MFUs) into two categories: central funding units (CFUs), which simultaneously attend to the climate-related projects of many African countries, and the boundary funding units (BFUs), which cater to only a few countries at once. An isolated region with no BFUs was identified. African countries within this group could be more exposed to climate financial risk as they rely on only the CFUs. In general, with the exception of mitigation REDD (reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation) climate finance, a disproportionate distribution of climate themes, with particular reference to adaptation finance, was observed across sub-Saharan Africa. This has real implications for equitable resource allocation of climate funds. The need for African-bred region-wide MFUs is recommended.

The study involved 1240 women covering the ten administrative regions of Ghana. The aim was to study the prevalence of maternal mortality and its distribution across the ten regions based on given demographic factors. Three main analytical methods were used: Direct estimation method, Fay-Herriot method and Binary Logistic regression. The study revealed that prevalence of maternal mortality in Ghana was high among women engaged in manual works, rural dwellers, women living without partners and women living in pro-poor families. The Northern region had the highest number of maternal deaths followed by the Western region whilst the Ashanti and the Upper East regions had the lowest number of maternal deaths. There is therefore the need for Ghana Health Service to engage all stakeholders in checking maternal mortality in the country.