Understanding social capital and the role it plays in food security in Malawi

This thesis aims to improve the understanding of bonding, bridging and linking social capital in Malawi and how they relate to food security and sustainable development. The gender and spatio-temporal differences that influence how social capital typologies are associated with food security and sustainable development are also considered. There is limited research that focuses on low-income countries or unpacks social capital into its bonding, bridging and linking social capital. Similarly, despite an acknowledgement that social capital, food security and sustainable development are influenced by gender and spatio-temporal variations, research is lacking that synthesises the concepts. Social capital’s link with food security is not properly understood due to the complexities of both concepts. Despite social capital being a potentially useful mechanism for improving food security, and sustainable development more broadly, the lack of research is a barrier to its inclusion in development policies and projects.This thesis employs quantitative and qualitative methods including regression modelling, spatial statistics, geographic information systems and rapid rural appraisals. The thesis has four broad findings. Firstly, bonding, bridging and linking social capital varies spatially across Malawi and diverges from the social capital that is expected in low-income countries. Secondly, social capital’s association with food security and sustainable development outcomes differ by gender of household head and by the social capital typology. Thirdly, gender differences exist in how social capital is used to access food, which links with broader gender inequality. Finally, there are long- and short-term differences in how bonding, bridging and linking social capital is used to access food, suggesting the typologies of social capital are interlinked and dynamic. This thesis provides sustainable development policymakers and practitioners with an improved understanding of the complexities of social capital in a low-income country and how it is associated with food security and sustainable development, whilst accounting for gender and spatio-temporal variations

Social capital typologies and sustainable development: spatial patterns in the central and southern regions of Malawi

Bonding, bridging and linking social capital can be a useful mechanism to promote sustainable development in low-income countries. Social capital typologies vary spatially, with the rural poor having a specific combination. Similarly, bonding, bridging and linking social capital’s association with sustainable development is also likely to differ spatially across a country, but there is limited research in low-income countries. This study aims to improve understanding of the spatial variation of bonding, bridging and linking social capital in low-income countries using Malawi as a case study. Using secondary data and spatial statistics, including kriging and geographically weighted regression, we explore the spatial variation of social capital typologies and their spatial associations with various sustainable development indicators. There were three key combinations of bonding, bridging and linking social capital, which differ from the standard model of social capital typologies for the rural poor. We also found social capital’s association with sustainable development indicators depends on the social capital typology, study area and the sustainable development indicator in question. With this in mind, development practitioners, researchers and policymakers should aim to understand the specific social capital context prior to sustainable development research or project implementation

Bonding, bridging and linking social capital combinations for food access: a gendered case study exploring temporal differences in southern Malawi

In 2018–2020, 82% of Malawian's were classed as moderately or severely food insecure. For decades, Malawian's have used their social capital as a coping mechanism to access food in times of need. Yet social capital has started to decline in other sub-Saharan African countries, questioning the usefulness of social capital to alleviate hunger. Food security status and a person's stock of social capital are also dependent on gender. Yet there is limited research that considers gender when exploring how social capital is used to access food. The study aimed to understand the link between social capital and food security, how this varies between men and women, and if social capital use to access food has changed over time. To improve the understanding of how social capital is used to improve food security, qualitative data collection was undertaken in three districts in the Southern Region of Malawi. Rapid rural appraisal methods, including focus group discussions, seasonal calendars and ranking exercises, were used to meet the aims of the study. We found that social capital can be used to alleviate hunger during periods of food insecurity. However, a lack of resources, weather variability, key community group disintegration and a reduction in active NGOs has resulted in changes in social capital and it could not be used as frequently as in the past to access food. This highlighted the importance of considering bonding, bridging and linking social capital separately in research as they are interlinked. The study found men and women have different types of social capital, with women being most active in village savings and loans groups, which were the most important group to improve access to food. Meanwhile, men can utilise their social capital from outside of the village to access food, something women could not do due to their restricted mobility. The changes to social capital use for food access that were uncovered in this study, as well as gender difference, are noteworthy given the increase in food insecurity in Malawi, and globally.</p

Linking household access to food and social capital typologies in Phalombe District, Malawi

Food security remains a major sustainability challenge in many parts of Sub-Saharan Africa. Food security has numerous determinants that are complex and interlinked, with one of them being social capital. Social capital reflects an individual’s, household’s, or community’s social networks, social interactions, and social support systems that can be mobilized in times of need to maintain, among others, livelihoods or food security. This study aims to further understand how typologies of social capital are associated with household food security in Southern Malawi, with a focus on access to food. We unpack social capital into three typologies, namely bonding, bridging, and linking social capital, and establish which one is most strongly associated with household access to food, and whether this varies by the gender of the household head. To achieve this, we analyze secondary data from 382 households collected through the Malawian Fourth Integrated Household Survey (IHS4), using principal axis factor analysis and logistic regression analysis. Our findings demonstrate that bonding and bridging social capital are associated with better household access to food, while linking social capital was associated with lower household access to food. Bonding social capital was most strongly associated for female-headed households and linking social capital for male-headed households, highlighting that there are differences between such households. This work confirms observations from other related studies in Sub-Saharan Africa exploring the interface of social capital and food security. It also highlights the importance of both acknowledging the gender of the household head and of unpacking social capital into its typologies when considering food security

Dataset in support of the Southampton doctoral thesis : Understanding social capital and the role it plays in food security in Malawi

Qualitative fieldwork notes from focus group discussions (FGDs) in support of Chapter 5 of doctoral thesis &quot;Bonding, bridging and linking social capital combinations for food access; A gendered case study exploring temporal differences in Southern Malawi.&quot; This research paper has been submitted to the Journal of Rural Studies.The FGDs were conducted with a seasonal calendar at the start, FGD and ranking exercise at the end (available in this data notes). The research themes in this data were conducted based on questions around food security, social capital, temporal changes, gender and weather, to explore how social capital typologies are used to access food. </span

Understanding the maize yield gap in Southern Malawi by integrating ground and remote-sensing data, models, and household surveys

Context: improving the productivity of smallholder farmers in sub-Saharan Africa is a key component in reducing poverty and increasing food security as crop production is a significant source of livelihood for the majority of the population. Still, crop yields show a huge variability in smallholder farming systems whose productivity is poorly measured and understood. Objective: in this work, we estimate maize (Zea Mays) yield gap in Southern Malawi (Phalombe district) and assess drivers of productivity gap under different socio-economic and biophysical contexts. Methods: we use a mixed-method approach which integrates multi-source datasets (including primary ground-truth data we collected in the maize growing season 2019–2020 and secondary remote-sensing data), empirical and process-based crop-growth models (AquaCrop) to calculate the water-limited yield gap. In addition, we analyse the relationship between the relative yield (defined as the actual yield observed at the farmers' plots normalised by the AquaCrop simulated water-limited potential yield) and possible socio-economic drivers which we collected through surveys administered to households iin the same season 2019–2020. Results and Conclusions: we obtained a water-limited potential yield for the maize hybrid SC649 of 9.5 t/ha during the season 2019–2020 in the Malawian trial site. The observed actual yield at the households in the season 2019–2020 varied from 0.8 to 10.9 t/ha. The estimate of the yield gap ranged between 15% and 85% thus showing a large variability due to the high resolution, but low accuracy of the empirical model. Results suggest that with higher income and increased fertiliser application there is potential to increase the relative yield and that the marginal increase is spatially differentiated. SIGNIFICANCE: Our spatially-explicit approach to yield-gap analysis is valuable in identifying high-productive areas and differentiated policy interventions aimed at closing the yield and income gaps for smallholder farmers.</p