Perceptions of climate change and adaptation to microclimate change and variability among smallholder farmers in Mhakwe Communal Area, Manicaland province, Zimbabwe

Climate change and the related increasing variability are real phenomena in sub-Saharan Africa. They are exacerbating climatic risks associated with small-scale agriculture in tropical regions. This study seeks to assess smallholder farmers' perceptions of climate change and also their adaptive strategies at the microscale in Mhakwe Communal Area in Zimbabwe. A mixed method research design was employed to carry out the study. The design was a triangulation of quantitative and qualitative data collection methods. A sample of 43 smallholder farmers was purposively selected because the population of smallholder farmers was unknown. The study noted that government agencies and non-governmental organisations were providing information about climate change and variability to smallholder farmers. Farmers practiced a number of adaptation strategies such as timing in planting, zero tillage, mulching, agroforestry and gardening. The study recommended that external agencies should focus on strengthening existing adaptive strategies. There is also need to scale-up programmes on capacity building with regards to dissemination of analysed weather andclimate data.Key Words: Climate change; Adaptation; Agriculture; Smallholder farmers, Vulnerabilit

Gender Based Violence and its Effects on Women’s Reproductive Health: The Case of Hatcliffe, Harare, Zimbabwe

Gender based violence (GBV) negatively impacts on women’s reproductive health (R.H) and is contrary to human rights and RH statutory instruments. The study triangulates quantitative and qualitative research methods with women in the reproductive age group being the target group. The study noted that 95% of the respondents experienced physical violence, 31% rape by a stranger, 92% spousal rape and 65% forced marriages. Socio-cultural, religious, economic and policy implementation factors underlie a culture of silence that prevails among the victims of GBV. The study recommends economic empowerment of women and information, education, counselling pertaining to the negative effects of GBV to both males and females. There is need for education about grievance procedures and scaling up of policy enforcement in order to curb the gruesome effects of GBV. (Afr J Reprod Health 2014; 18[1]: 110-122).Keywords: physical abuse, sexual violence, forced marriages, Hatcliffe, Zimbabw

“We Used to go Asking for the Rains”: Local Interpretations of Environmental Changes and Implications for Natural Resource Management in Hwange District, Zimbabwe

In Hwange District, Zimbabwe, people living in the vicinity of the largest protected area of the country are facing rapid climate and environmental changes. Adopting an ethnoecological perspective, we sought to understand the way changes are understood locally in an area where people have interacted with their environment for centuries. In this chapter, we examine local people’s knowledge, expertise, and interpretative diagnoses about the environmental and climate changes they perceive around them. Qualitative fieldwork, including participant observation, semi-structured interviews, and structured free-listing interviews, was carried out over a three-month period in the communal lands of the district. Among changes related to wildlife interactions and landscape transformations, people mainly mobilize knowledge of trees and birds to predict rainfall and explain climate variability (related to seasons, precipitation, and temperatures). The most important findings of this research lie in people’s descriptions of ecological changes and their interpretations and explanations for these changes, which focus on arguments that are cultural (abandonment of ritual practices, access to ancestral sites), demographic (population growth), and political (wildlife management). For example, the disturbances in precipitation patterns are understood as a manifestation of the anger of ancestral spirits. We argue that these interpretive frameworks reflect the strong marginalization of the communities of the district from the national program of community-based natural resource management, CAMPFIRE, and that these discourses allow silenced voices to express themselves about sociopolitical concerns in an authoritarian context