Strengthening Food Systems Resilience and Agricultural Trade in Southern Africa

Climate change and its impact on agricultural production and productivity is a major factor of concern in the agricultural sector. Many indicators point to the significant depressing role that climate change has on the agricultural sector, spanning from production to marketing of the primary and secondary products. Women and youth comprise most of the rural population in the Southern African Development Community (SADC) region and likely to be more affected by the impacts of climate change in the agricultural sector. Therefore, any interventions must ensure deliberate efforts to empower these stakeholders to ensure their equitable participation and benefit from development interventions. Recent discourse on sustainable food systems heightened discussions on alternative productions systems. Some international development agencies such as Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) highlighted the possible role for agroecology to contribute towards achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) because it addresses climate change adaptation and mitigation simultaneously. Despite increasing interest by development partners and other stakeholders on agroecology, there has been limited dialogue on this subject at SADC region level. The Centre for Coordination of Agriculture Research and Development for Southern Africa (CCARDESA) is taking steps to raise the capacity of the region to adapt to climate change and improve resilience of the food systems of the region. This effort is being pursued through various programs, including the Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme (CAADP) ex-Pillar IV (CAADP-XP4) program, the Global Climate Change Alliance Plus (GCCA+) project and the Accelerating Impacts of CGIAR Climate Research for Africa (AICCRA) project. Therefore, CCARDESA convened a regional workshop to consult the region and give an opportunity to stakeholders to provide input to the work of CCARDESA relating to cross border trade, agroecology, and climate smart agriculture as well as the involvement of the private sector in promoting Climate Smart Agriculture (CSA). The meeting was also used to distil CSA issues for the forthcoming Conference of Parties (COP) 27

Towards a Replicable Innovative Tool for Adaptive Climate Monitoring and Weather Forecasting Using Traditional Indigenous and Local Indicators to Strengthen AgroWeather Resilience at Scale

This paper presents lessons of a replicable innovative decision support tool to systematize traditional indigenous knowledge base for local climate monitoring and weather forecasting. The methodological tool, herein called the traditional indigenous and local knowledge tool (TILKIT), was conceptualized under two training-of-trainers initiatives on Climate-Smart Agriculture (CSA) in East Africa from March 2016 to December 2021. The aim was to build local momentum for consensus-based ethnographic weather monitoring, local weather forecasting and agroweather advisory development for adoption by local stakeholders to improve agro-climatic extension service delivery. The objective was to strengthen local capacity of smallholder farmer leaders, agribusiness value chain partners, and field extension agents on the practical applications of indigenous climatology. Most of this indigenous traditional knowledge or local technical knowledge (ITK or LTK) is now getting lost due to climate change and loss of institutional memory but little effort is being made to identify and systematize the use of emerging ITK or LTK. It is against this background that these initiatives conceptualised and developed an innovative approach to bridge the gaps in order to address the challenges of salience, access, legitimacy, equity and integration of climate information to meet users’ felt needs. The study adopted a transdisciplinary, participatory learning and action research (PLAR) model to identify and confirm emerging local weather indicators and what they mean for local rainfall forecasting, and to drive self-organization processes to bring indigenous climate knowledge into practical use in each community. The tool emphasizes a consensus-based co-production of local weather forecasts and agro-weather advisories to improve climate information services and extension service delivery. Testing and validation were conducted with 1,127 participants among various communities across Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda. Results comprise identified ethnographic weather prediction indicators per locality, and their implications for local weather forecasting, which for the first time is presented in probabilistic terms in a way local communities can associate with, and which can compare and contrast empirically with conventional weather forecast language. The tool also provides actionable agro-climate/ agro-weather advisories with appropriate lead times for local response and a basis for strategic seasonal planning and operational risk management decision-making. Evidence from this work can be packaged for sensitization to influence policy reforms and decision-making at various levels among relevant stakeholders in the region

A model of COVID-19 pandemic evolution in African countries

We studied the COVID-19 pandemic evolution in selected African countries. For each country considered, we modeled simultaneously the data of the active, recovered and death cases. In this study, we used a year of data since the first cases were reported. We estimated the time-dependent basic reproduction numbers, $R_0$, and the fractions of infected but unaffected populations, to offer insights into containment and vaccine strategies in African countries. We found that $R_0\leq 4$ at the start of the pandemic but has since fallen to $R_0 \sim 1$. The unaffected fractions of the populations studied vary between $1-10$\% of the recovered cases.Comment: 27 pages, 9 figures and 1 tabl

Institutionalizing Provider-Initiated HIV Testing and Counselling for Children: An Observational Case Study from Zambia

Background: Provider-initiated testing and counselling (PITC) is a priority strategy for increasing access for HIV-exposed children to prevention measures, and infected children to treatment and care interventions. This article examines efforts to scale-up paediatric PITC at a second-level hospital located in Zambia’s Southern Province, and serving a catchment area of 1.2 million people. Methods and Principal Findings: Our retrospective case study examined best practices and enabling factors for rapid institutionalization of PITC in Livingstone General Hospital. Methods included clinical observations, key informant interviews with programme management, and a desk review of hospital management information systems (HMIS) uptake data following the introduction of PITC. After PITC roll-out, the hospital experienced considerably higher testing uptake. In a 36-month period following PITC institutionalization, of total inpatient children eligible for PITC (n = 5074), 98.5 % of children were counselled, and 98.2 % were tested. Of children tested (n = 4983), 15.5 % were determined HIVinfected; 77.6 % of these results were determined by DNA polymerase chain reaction (PCR) testing in children under the age of 18 months. Of children identified as HIV-infected in the hospital’s inpatient and outpatient departments (n = 1342), 99.3 % were enrolled in HIV care, including initiation on co-trimoxazole prophylaxis. A number of good operational practices and enabling factors in the Livingstone General Hospital experience can inform rapid PIT

Exploring water, sanitation, and hygiene coverage targets for reaching and sustaining trachoma elimination: G-computation analysis

BACKGROUND: Trachoma is the leading infectious cause of blindness. To reduce transmission, water, sanitation, and hygiene (WaSH) improvements are promoted through a comprehensive public health strategy. Evidence supporting the role of WaSH in trachoma elimination is mixed and it remains unknown what WaSH coverages are needed to effectively reduce transmission. METHODS/FINDINGS: We used g-computation to estimate the impact on the prevalence of trachomatous inflammation-follicular among children aged 1-9 years (TF1-9) when hypothetical WaSH interventions raised the minimum coverages from 5% to 100% for "nearby" face-washing water (<30 minutes roundtrip collection time) and adult latrine use in an evaluation unit (EU). For each scenario, we estimated the generalized prevalence difference as the TF1-9 prevalence under the intervention scenarios minus the observed prevalence. Data from 574 cross-sectional surveys conducted in 16 African and Eastern Mediterranean countries were included. Surveys were conducted from 2015-2019 with support from the Global Trachoma Mapping Project and Tropical Data. When modeling interventions among EUs that had not yet met the TF1-9 elimination target, increasing nearby face-washing water and latrine use coverages above 30% was generally associated with consistent decreases in TF1-9. For nearby face-washing water, we estimated a ≥25% decrease in TF1-9 at 65% coverage, with a plateau upon reaching 85% coverage. For latrine use, the estimated decrease in TF1-9 accelerated from 80% coverage upward, with a ≥25% decrease in TF1-9 by 85% coverage. Among EUs that had previously met the elimination target, results were inconclusive. CONCLUSIONS: Our results support Sustainable Development Goal 6 and provide insight into potential WaSH-related coverage targets for trachoma elimination. Targets can be tested in future trials to improve evidence-based WaSH guidance for trachoma

Exploring water, sanitation, and hygiene coverage targets for reaching and sustaining trachoma elimination: G-computation analysis.

BACKGROUND: Trachoma is the leading infectious cause of blindness. To reduce transmission, water, sanitation, and hygiene (WaSH) improvements are promoted through a comprehensive public health strategy. Evidence supporting the role of WaSH in trachoma elimination is mixed and it remains unknown what WaSH coverages are needed to effectively reduce transmission. METHODS/FINDINGS: We used g-computation to estimate the impact on the prevalence of trachomatous inflammation-follicular among children aged 1-9 years (TF1-9) when hypothetical WaSH interventions raised the minimum coverages from 5% to 100% for "nearby" face-washing water (<30 minutes roundtrip collection time) and adult latrine use in an evaluation unit (EU). For each scenario, we estimated the generalized prevalence difference as the TF1-9 prevalence under the intervention scenarios minus the observed prevalence. Data from 574 cross-sectional surveys conducted in 16 African and Eastern Mediterranean countries were included. Surveys were conducted from 2015-2019 with support from the Global Trachoma Mapping Project and Tropical Data. When modeling interventions among EUs that had not yet met the TF1-9 elimination target, increasing nearby face-washing water and latrine use coverages above 30% was generally associated with consistent decreases in TF1-9. For nearby face-washing water, we estimated a ≥25% decrease in TF1-9 at 65% coverage, with a plateau upon reaching 85% coverage. For latrine use, the estimated decrease in TF1-9 accelerated from 80% coverage upward, with a ≥25% decrease in TF1-9 by 85% coverage. Among EUs that had previously met the elimination target, results were inconclusive. CONCLUSIONS: Our results support Sustainable Development Goal 6 and provide insight into potential WaSH-related coverage targets for trachoma elimination. Targets can be tested in future trials to improve evidence-based WaSH guidance for trachoma

Independent and combined effects of improved water, sanitation, and hygiene, and improved complementary feeding, on child stunting and anaemia in rural Zimbabwe: a cluster-randomised trial.

BACKGROUND: Child stunting reduces survival and impairs neurodevelopment. We tested the independent and combined effects of improved water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH), and improved infant and young child feeding (IYCF) on stunting and anaemia in in Zimbabwe. METHODS: We did a cluster-randomised, community-based, 2 × 2 factorial trial in two rural districts in Zimbabwe. Clusters were defined as the catchment area of between one and four village health workers employed by the Zimbabwe Ministry of Health and Child Care. Women were eligible for inclusion if they permanently lived in clusters and were confirmed pregnant. Clusters were randomly assigned (1:1:1:1) to standard of care (52 clusters), IYCF (20 g of a small-quantity lipid-based nutrient supplement per day from age 6 to 18 months plus complementary feeding counselling; 53 clusters), WASH (construction of a ventilated improved pit latrine, provision of two handwashing stations, liquid soap, chlorine, and play space plus hygiene counselling; 53 clusters), or IYCF plus WASH (53 clusters). A constrained randomisation technique was used to achieve balance across the groups for 14 variables related to geography, demography, water access, and community-level sanitation coverage. Masking of participants and fieldworkers was not possible. The primary outcomes were infant length-for-age Z score and haemoglobin concentrations at 18 months of age among children born to mothers who were HIV negative during pregnancy. These outcomes were analysed in the intention-to-treat population. We estimated the effects of the interventions by comparing the two IYCF groups with the two non-IYCF groups and the two WASH groups with the two non-WASH groups, except for outcomes that had an important statistical interaction between the interventions. This trial is registered with ClinicalTrials.gov, number NCT01824940. FINDINGS: Between Nov 22, 2012, and March 27, 2015, 5280 pregnant women were enrolled from 211 clusters. 3686 children born to HIV-negative mothers were assessed at age 18 months (884 in the standard of care group from 52 clusters, 893 in the IYCF group from 53 clusters, 918 in the WASH group from 53 clusters, and 991 in the IYCF plus WASH group from 51 clusters). In the IYCF intervention groups, the mean length-for-age Z score was 0·16 (95% CI 0·08-0·23) higher and the mean haemoglobin concentration was 2·03 g/L (1·28-2·79) higher than those in the non-IYCF intervention groups. The IYCF intervention reduced the number of stunted children from 620 (35%) of 1792 to 514 (27%) of 1879, and the number of children with anaemia from 245 (13·9%) of 1759 to 193 (10·5%) of 1845. The WASH intervention had no effect on either primary outcome. Neither intervention reduced the prevalence of diarrhoea at 12 or 18 months. No trial-related serious adverse events, and only three trial-related adverse events, were reported. INTERPRETATION: Household-level elementary WASH interventions implemented in rural areas in low-income countries are unlikely to reduce stunting or anaemia and might not reduce diarrhoea. Implementation of these WASH interventions in combination with IYCF interventions is unlikely to reduce stunting or anaemia more than implementation of IYCF alone. FUNDING: Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, UK Department for International Development, Wellcome Trust, Swiss Development Cooperation, UNICEF, and US National Institutes of Health.The SHINE trial is funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation (OPP1021542 and OPP113707); UK Department for International Development; Wellcome Trust, UK (093768/Z/10/Z, 108065/Z/15/Z and 203905/Z/16/Z); Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation; US National Institutes of Health (2R01HD060338-06); and UNICEF (PCA-2017-0002)

Resource use efficiency of bambara groundnut landraces in response to soil water

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Opportunities for Underutilised Crops in Southern Africa’s Post–2015 Development Agenda

Underutilised crops represent an important component of Southern Africa’s agro–biodiversity that has potential to contribute to the region’s post–2015 development discourse. We reviewed the potential of underutilised crops with respect to how they can contribute to topical challenges, such as food and nutrition security, human health and well–being, climate change adaptation, the environment, and employment creation in poor rural communities. The fact that underutilised crops are the product of generations of landrace agriculture supports the idea that they are resilient and adapted to the needs of farmers in marginal agricultural environments. In addition, underutilised crops are also seen as offering economic advantages due to their uniqueness, suitability to environments in which they are grown and low input requirements. In certain cases, underutilised crops are associated with specific gender roles with women being seen as particularly significant in their production. Evidence also suggests that the inclusion of underutilised crops in cropping systems contributes to dietary diversity and improved nutrition. In the context of the post–2015 agenda, the potential of underutilised crops to generate income, address food security and their status as a “subset of biodiversity” links with a number of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) addressing social, economic and environmental issues