R4D Kenya

Can agriculture support climate change adaptation, greenhouse gas mitigation and rural livelihoods? insights from Kenya

Mon, 20 May 2013 14:02 GMT

Production Year: 2013

Citation: Bryan, E.; Ringler, C.; Okoba, B.; Koo, J.; Herrero, M.; Silvestri, S. Can agriculture support climate change adaptation, greenhouse gas mitigation and rural livelihoods? insights from Kenya. Climatic Change (2013) 118 (2) 151-165. [DOI: 10.1007/s10584-012-0640-0]

Summary: Changes in the agriculture sector are essential to mitigate and adapt to climate change, meet growing food demands, and improve the livelihoods of poor smallholder producers. What agricultural strategies are needed to meet these challenges? To what extent are there synergies among these strategies? This paper examines these issues for smallholder producers in Kenya across several agroecological zones. Several practices emerge as triple wins, supporting climate adaptation, greenhouse gas mitigation, and profitability goals. In particular, integrated soil fertility management and improved livestock feeding are shown to provide multiple benefits across all agroecological zones examined. Triple wins of other agricultural practices are limited to specific agroecological zones. Irrigation and soil and water conservation, for example, are essential for adaptation, mitigation, and profitability in arid areas. The results suggest that agricultural investments targeted toward these triple-win strategies will have the greatest payoff in terms of increased resilience of farm and pastoralist households and global climate change mitigation. To reap the benefits of triple-win strategies will require that policymakers, researchers, and practitioners move away from isolated approaches focused on either adaptation or mitigation or rural income generation toward a more holistic assessment of joint strategies as well as their tradeoffs and synergies.

Socio-economic and cultural determinants of human African trypanosomiasis at the Kenya-Uganda transboundary

Thu, 09 May 2013 15:14 GMT

Production Year: 2013

Citation: Rutto, J.J.; Osano, O.; Thuranira, E.G.; Kurgat, R.K.; Odenyo, V.A.O. Socio-Economic and Cultural Determinants of Human African Trypanosomiasis at the Kenya – Uganda Transboundary. PLoS Neglected Tropical Diseases (2013) 7 (4) e2186. [DOI: 10.1371/journal.pntd.0002186]

Summary: The prevention and control of Human African Trypanosomiasis depends on application of knowledge and appropriate technologies to modify tsetse ecology by community members and relevant stakeholders. In our study Ugandan districts reported more T.b.r. than the neighboring districts in Kenya in the past 30–50 years. Historical, political, social and economic factors have influenced the ecology of HAT vectors and its prevalence in both Western Kenya and Southeast Uganda. The villagers' participation in different conventional and traditional methods of tsetse control influenced HAT occurrence and distribution in the study area. Cattle husbandry practices and marketing may affect the spread of HAT disease as reported in Western Kenya and Southeast Uganda. Land use had immense influence on the occurrence of the tsetse flies and wildlife carriers of trypanosomiasis. The modification of vegetation cover through bush clearing reduced habitats suitability to tsetse flies. The respondents' occupation and gender roles played a role in influencing the interaction between humans and tsetse flies. Human African trypanosomiasis could be controlled effectively by modifying both physical and socio-political factors that affect the interaction of tsetse flies and human beings.

Danger, disgust and indignity: Women's perception of sanitation in informal settlements

Thu, 09 May 2013 13:41 GMT

Production Year: 2013

Citation: Heise, L. Danger, disgust and indignity: Women's perception of sanitation in informal settlements. (2013) [14 min 44 sec]

Summary: Presentation from Dr Lori Heise (Senior Lecturer in Social Epidemiology at LSHTM; Chief Executive of STRIVE Consortium) on violence against women and WASH at "Making connections: Women, sanitation and health" event. This event took place on 29th April 2013 and brought together representatives from the WASH, gender and health sectors to present and debate critical issues linking gender, sanitation and health including violence against women and girls, maternal health and menstrual hygiene.

AFCAP Quarterly Report 13, January - March 2012

Wed, 08 May 2013 08:05 GMT

Production Year: 2012

Citation: Afcap Cmg. AFCAP Quarterly Report 13, January - March 2012. (2012) 52 pp.

Summary: This report details the activities undertaken by the African Community Access Programme (AFCAP) Core Management Group (CMG) during the period 1 January to 31 March 2012. This report provides updates regarding CMG performance against the programme logframe, as well as country and financial updates. Under AFCAP there are a range of projects which are reported upon in the body of the report.

AFCAP Quarterly Report 12, October - December 2011

Wed, 08 May 2013 07:58 GMT

Production Year: 2012

Citation: Afcap Cmg. AFCAP Quarterly Report 12, October - December 2011. (2012) 42 pp.

Summary: This report details the activities undertaken by the African Community Access Programme (AFCAP) Core Management Group (CMG) during the period 1 October to 31 December 2011. This report provides updates regarding CMG performance against the programme logframe, as well as country and financial updates. Under AFCAP there are a range of projects which are reported upon in the body of the report.

AFCAP Quarterly Report 10, April - June 2011

Thu, 02 May 2013 11:03 GMT

Production Year: 2011

Citation: Afcap Cmg. AFCAP Quarterly Report 10, April - June 2011. (2011) 84 pp.

Summary: This report details the activities undertaken by the African Community Access Programme (AFCAP) Core Management Group (CMG) during the period 1 April to 30 June 2011. The report provides updates regarding CMG performance against the programme logframe, as well as country and financial updates.

AFCAP Quarterly Report 9, January - March 2011

Thu, 02 May 2013 10:55 GMT

Production Year: 2011

Citation: Afcap Cmg. AFCAP Quarterly Report 9, January - March 2011. (2011) 67 pp.

Summary: This report details the activities undertaken by the African Community Access Programme (AFCAP) Core management Group (CMG) during the period 1 January to 31 March 2011. The report provides updates regarding CMG performance against the programme logframe, as well as country and financial updates.

Imagining a Silicon Savannah? Technological and Conceptual Connectivity in Kenya's BPO and Software Development Sectors

Mon, 29 Apr 2013 13:55 GMT

Production Year: 2013

Citation: Graham, M.; Mann, L. Imagining a Silicon Savannah? Technological and Conceptual Connectivity in Kenya’s BPO and Software Development Sectors. Electronic Journal of Information Systems in Developing Countries (2013) 56 (2) 1-19.

Summary: This is a paper about expectations surrounding a potentially highly transformative moment in East Africa’s history: the arrival of underwater fibre-optic broadband communications cables into the Indian Ocean port of Mombasa. It combines a media content analysis with findings from interviews with business owners in Kenya’s nascent business process outsourcing (BPO) and software development sectors in order to explore how such moments of technological ‘connectivity’ are imagined, marketed and enacted within economic development. It argues that connectivity is not just a matter of boosting physical/material capacity but also about redressing conceptual connectivity; bringing places ‘closer together’ involves rehabilitating the images of places in peoples’ minds and removing imagined senses of distance. As such, technologies of connectivity are marketed not just as tools of altered communications affordances, but more importantly, as momentary opportunities for revisiting the image of places from afar. Additionally, the cables reveal the importance of fostering internal linkages in order to better build international recognition and connections. ‘Moments of expectation’ that surround new ICT technologies reveal how discourse and representation play a strong role in enabling markets to form and change. The very idea of ‘connectivity’ itself is driving plans and policies throughout the region.

Predictors of Sexual Debut Among Young Adolescents In Nairobi's Informal Settlements

Fri, 26 Apr 2013 09:07 GMT

Production Year: 2013

Citation: Anon. Predictors of Sexual Debut Among Young Adolescents in Nairobi’s Informal Settlements. International Perspectives on Sexual and Reproductive Health (2013) 39 (01) 022-031. [DOI: 10.1363/3902213]

Summary: CONTEXT: There is a need to better understand the various social, psychosocial and behavioral factors associated with sexual activity among young adolescents in various settings in Sub-Saharan Africa.

METHODS: Data were drawn from Wave 1 (2007–2008) and Wave 2 (2009) of the Transition to Adulthood study, which collected information about key markers of the transition to adulthood and social, demographic and psychosocial characteristics of male and female youth living in two informal settlements in Nairobi, Kenya. Logistic regression analyses were used to examine variables associated with experience of sexual debut by Wave 2 among youth who were aged 12–16 and sexually inexperienced at Wave 1.

RESULTS: Of the 1,754 youth in the sample, 92 experienced sexual debut between survey waves. For both males and females, sexual debut was positively associated with having permanently dropped out of school (odds ratios, 6.9 and 21.8, respectively), having never attended school (8.6 and 39.4) and having experienced severe family dysfunction (2.8 and 5.7). Lack of parental supervision was a predictor of sexual debut among males only (10.1), whereas low aspiration was a predictor among females only (10.4). Surprisingly, young women, as well as men, who did not have high self-esteem, were less likely than those who did to initiate first sex between waves (0.4 and 0.3).

CONCLUSIONS: Study findings underscore the importance of school attendance, family dysfunction, parental supervision and self-esteem in driving sexual behavior in this age-group. Further studies are warranted to elucidate how these factors can be addressed in prevention programs for young adolescents.

Insights into Unmet Need in Kenya

Thu, 25 Apr 2013 14:09 GMT

Production Year: 2013

Citation: Machiyama, K.; Cleland, J. Insights into Unmet Need in Kenya. London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, London, UK (2013) 29 pp. [STEP UP Research Report]

Summary: The main aim of this project is to establish the relative importance of lack of access and attitudinal resistance towards use of family planning in accounting for unmet need among different population strata in Kenya. The results may be useful for policy makers in deciding the priority that should be given to behaviour change communication or improved access/information for different socio-economic strata and different geographic regions, and also helpful to interventions to reduce health concerns and fear of side-effects, such as provision of broader method mix and better counselling. This report presents the results of the analysis using the latest DHS data.

Data from the Kenya DHS 2008/9 were used for the analysis. Women who either want no more children or don’t want a child in the next two years but are not using any method of contraception are regarded as having an unmet need for contraception.

Among 2676 exposed women, 28% had unmet need. Of these, half were classified as possessing both access and a positive attitude and a further one-third as having access but no intention to use in the future. The majority in both groups had previously used a modern method, in most cases pills or injectables. The main self-reported reason for non-use in both groups was health concerns and fear of side effects. Small minorities (6-7%) of women with an unfavourable attitude reported that they were opposed to contraception or mentioned religious reasons for non-use. Lack of access was associated with unmet need in 16% of cases and lack of information was the most common reason for non-use among these women. With the exception of the North Eastern Province where access was very limited, regional variations were minor. However, lack of access (i.e. method and/or supply source), was much more common in women with no schooling and the poorest segment than among other strata. Lack of access also appeared to be one reason why postpartum women have higher unmet need than other women.