In more than 75% of households around the world in which water needs are fulfilled by retrieving water, women are typically tasked with this critical responsibility. This is true in Kenya, and the ...challenges women in rural areas of the country face are compounded by a lack of reasonable access to safe water by 56.5% of rural households. More than 25% of the population must travel at least 30 minutes to collect water, and 70% of all diseases in the country are water-borne (Kameri-Mbote and Kariuki 2015). Given their role as the primary household decision-maker about water, women have an astute understanding of water availability, access, quality and household use, and women's perspectives would enhance decision-making in groups that address water resource management. However, women have historically been marginalized from participation in such processes for numerous reasons related to lack of empowerment, leadership, and voice, and the practicalities of the demands on her time that prevent her from having discretionary time to devote to civic processes. In this study, we interviewed 153 women living in three different watersheds in the Laikipia region of central Kenya about their views on water resource management, and interest in participation in water resource user associations (WRUAs) as members and leaders. Our results are consistent with prior research in that marginalization of women from WRUA participation is steeped in entrenched normative beliefs and behaviors about women's roles and her domestic responsibilities, a lack of money to participate, and a lack of time given her other responsibilities.
In the face of climate change, achieving resilience of desirable aspects of food-energy-water (FEW) systems already strained by competing multi-scalar social objectives requires interdisciplinary ...approaches. This study is part of a larger effort exploring “Innovations in the Food-Energy-Water Nexus (INFEWS)” in the Columbia River Basin (CRB) through coordinated modeling and simulated management scenarios. Here, we focus on a case study and conceptual mapping of the Yakima River Basin (YRB), a sub-basin of the CRB. Previous research on FEW system management and resilience includes some attention to social dynamics (e.g., economic and governance systems); however, more attention to social drivers and outcomes is needed. Our goals are to identify several underutilized ways to incorporate social science perspectives into FEW nexus research and to explore how this interdisciplinary endeavor alters how we assess innovations and resilience in FEW systems. First, we investigate insights on FEW nexus resilience from the social sciences. Next, we delineate strategies for further incorporation of social considerations into FEW nexus research, including the use of social science perspectives and frameworks such as socio-ecological resilience and community capitals. Then, we examine a case study of the YRB, focusing on the historical development of the FEW nexus and innovations. We find that a resilience focus applied to the FEW nexus can inadvertently emphasize a status quo imposed by those already in power. Incorporating perspectives from the social sciences, which highlight issues related to inequality, power, and social justice, can address these shortcomings and inform future innovations. Finally, we use causal loop diagrams to explore the role of the social in the FEW nexus, and we suggest ways to incorporate social aspects into an existing stock and flow object-oriented modeling system. This project represents a starting point for a continued research agenda that incorporates social dynamics into FEW system resilience modeling and management in the CRB.
•The Local Agricultural Potential Index (L-API), a novel tool developed and applied to measure and enhance the impact of local extension educators.•Combining individual farmer access and agency, the ...L-API is used as a measure for adaptive capacity.•Simply by being rural, communities face barriers to access related to connectivity, social norms, and innovation.•Improvements to food security and adaptive capacity require understanding farmers’ intersectional challenges, holistically.•Gender was the primary intersectional challenge identified to influence adaptive capacity, specifically for women farmers.
Despite significant work to enhance women’s empowerment in agriculture, women remain marginalized across the globe. This includes gender gaps in agricultural extension and advisory service implementation that can lead to inequitable resource and knowledge access by farmers, specifically women. However, gender does not exist in isolation, it is place and time specific. This study investigated the impact of gender and geography on smallholder farmer access to and agency over resources/knowledge. The overarching question we explored was the role that extension providers might play in building farmer adaptive capacity and gender equity. To do so, a mixed-methods approach was used to develop a new multidimensional index from participant responses to 352 surveys and 44 focus groups. The index has four domains that represent farmer’s access to resources, leadership opportunities, household power, and time allocation; it is called the Local Agricultural Potential Index or L-API. The index was applied to a case study setting in rural Liberia due to its designation as a USAID-Feed the future country, and national investment in gender equality and poverty alleviation through agricultural development. Statistical and spatial analysis results indicate that women in Liberia, on average, have lower access to information and communication technology, leadership opportunities, and credit; as well, when compared to their male counter parts, less agency to make decisions at home and in the community. Further, a surprising spatial finding was that rurality did not have a diminishing impact on access. We concluded that the L-API is one example of a process and the resulting tool, informed by locally relevant indicators, to help improve farmer access to and agency over extension services. The L-API is meant to provide a baseline tool to be tailored in different locations based on local needs and can be used as a measure for adaptive capacity.
This study explores the intersection of gender and place with agricultural extension services to understand disparities in resource and information access and build community resilience in ...post-conflict Liberia. It emphasizes how such intersections may be further compounded by climate change and provides possible solutions.
Using a community-based research approach, 352 surveys and 44 focus groups were conducted in 22 communities in 3 counties in north-central Liberia. Subsequently, qualitative, quantitative, and spatial analyses were done to explore gender and place-based differences in farmer access to agricultural resources and household agency.
Study results show that women farmers have less access to technology, agricultural resources and information; higher, combined productive and domestic, labor burdens; and that farmers of both genders want more female extension officers.
This study provides critical data to help effectively target limited expenditures on national extension services to smallholder farmers in post-conflict settings. Further, solutions for practitioners to adaptively mitigate farming challenges enhanced by climate change.
Studying the intersection among gender, rural isolation and diminished capacity in post-conflict countries will enhance understanding of (extension service) capacity in settings with multiple drivers affecting gender inequalities.
Improve the overall understanding of how compounding factors such as gender and place effect extension service access and the ability of farmers to adapt to change, in Liberia and other post-conflict settings.
Traditional cooking with solid fuels (biomass, animal dung, charcoals, coal) creates household air pollution that leads to millions of premature deaths and disability worldwide each year. Exposure to ...household air pollution is highest in low- and middle-income countries. Using data from a stepped-wedge randomized controlled trial of a cookstove intervention among 230 households in Honduras, we analyzed the impact of household and personal variables on repeated 24-h measurements of fine particulate matter (PM2.5) and black carbon (BC) exposure. Six measurements were collected approximately six-months apart over the course of the three-year study. Multivariable mixed models explained 37% of variation in personal PM2.5 exposure and 49% of variation in kitchen PM2.5 concentrations. Additionally, multivariable models explained 37% and 47% of variation in personal and kitchen BC concentrations, respectively. Stove type, season, presence of electricity, primary stove location, kitchen enclosure type, stove use time, and presence of kerosene for lighting were all associated with differences in geometric mean exposures. Stove type explained the most variability of the included variables. In future studies of household air pollution, tracking the cooking behaviors and daily activities of participants, including outdoor exposures, may explain exposure variation beyond the household and personal variables considered here.
•Household and personal variables can explain variation in household air pollution.•We analyzed repeated measures of PM2.5 and BC over a three-year period•Stove type, season, electricity, and kerosene were linked to exposure differences.•Multivariable models explained between 37% and 49% of variation in exposures.
The disease burden related to air pollution from traditional solid-fuel cooking practices in low- and middle-income countries impacts millions of people globally. Although the use of liquefied ...petroleum gas (LPG) fuel for cooking can meaningfully reduce household air pollution concentrations, major barriers, including affordability and accessibility, have limited widespread adoption. Using a randomized controlled trial, our objective was to evaluate the association between the cost and use of LPG among 23 rural Rwandan households. We provided a 2-burner LPG stove with accessories and incorporated a “pay-as-you-go” (PAYG) LPG service model that included fuel delivery. PAYG services remove the large up-front cost of cylinder refills by integrating “smart meter” technology that allows participants to pay in incremental amounts, as needed. We assigned three randomized discounted prices for LPG to each household at ∼4-week intervals over a 12-week period. We modeled the relationship between randomized PAYG LPG price and use (standardized to monthly periods), analyzing effect modification by relative household wealth. A 1000 Rwandan Franc (about 1 USD at the time of the study) increase in LPG price/kg was associated with a 4.1 kg/month decrease in use (95 % confidence interval CI: −6.7, −1.6; n = 69 observations). Wealth modified this association; we observed a 9.7 kg/month reduction (95 % CI: −14.8, −4.5) among wealthier households and a 2.5 kg/month reduction (95 % CI: −5.3, 0.3) among lower-wealth households (p-interaction = 0.01). The difference in price sensitivity was driven by higher LPG use among wealthier households at more heavily discounted prices; from an 80 % to 10 % discount, wealthy households used 17.5 to 5.3 kg/month and less wealthy households used 6.2 to 3.1 kg/month. Our pilot-level experimental evidence of PAYG LPG in a rural low-resource setting suggests that further exploration of subsidized pricing varied by household wealth is needed to ensure future policy initiatives can achieve targets without exacerbating inequities.
•Cost of and access to cleaner cooking fuels are major barriers to improved health•Use of pay-as-you-go (PAYG) liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) may reduce barriers•We studied price sensitivity by randomizing discounted PAYG costs and measuring use•Relative wealth modified the association between the cost and use of PAYG LPG•Differences were driven by higher use in wealthier households at lower costs
The civil conflict in Liberia, in West Africa, caused significant social, infrastructural, and ecological changes across the country (1989-2003). Reconstructing the agricultural sector, with ...attention to the needs of women farmers, has been one of the government’s priorities for national recovery and development. In light of this initiative, a transdisciplinary study in north-central Liberia was conducted to investigate smallholder farmer challenges, access to resources, and household agency. Further, the study explores the potential for agricultural extension services to address the identified limitations toward greater farmer adaptive capacity and gender equality. Lastly, an adapted version of the Feminist Systems Thinking framework is used to carry out an introspection and process reflection of the Liberia project. The results of this dissertation advance knowledge of how extension services can improve connection between rural and urban populations, transform local gender contracts, and build farmer adaptive capacity in the Liberian study area, with lessons for other post-conflict settings. It also provides guidance for researchers, especially working in remote or post-conflict settings, to plan for and adapt to challenges that arise in inter and transdisciplinary research processes.
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