Semi-arid areas in Southern Africa are characterised by high rainfall variability, frequent droughts, low soil moisture and extreme events such as flash floods.
Vulnerabilities to impacts of climate change are gendered. Still, policy approaches aimed at strengthening local communities’ adaptive capacity largely fail to recognise the gendered nature of everyday realities and experiences.
High levels of poverty and a predominantly rural population raise questions of vulnerability to manipulation during large scale land acquisitions in Kenya.
People in southern Africa are facing escalating levels of risk, uncertainty and consequently vulnerability as a result of
Educational frameworks that leverage the value of ICTs need to be developed.
In the case of the 2014 Ebola outbreak in Western Africa which claimed over 11,000 lives, the virus propagated faster than reliable data. Local journalists faced an unprecedented epidemic and a shortage of credible information.
There is as yet no evidence that the Côte d’Ivoire lethal yellowing (CILY) disease phytoplasma is seed transmitted to cause disease in progeny palms.
Increased knowledge of insect vectors and alternative hosts contributes to developing an effective control strategy for phytoplasma diseases such as Côte d’Ivoire lethal yellowing (CILY) disease in Grand-Lahou.
Healthy chicken husbandry empowers women, feeds families and builds the resilience of the farming system as a whole. Up to 98% of families in rural Kenya keep small flocks of chickens, mainly local or ‘indigenous’ types.