Learning lessons from field surveys in humanitarian contexts: a case study of field surveys conducted in North Kivu, DRC 2006-2008

Survey estimates of mortality and malnutrition are commonly used to guide humanitarian decision-making. Currently, different methods of conducting field surveys are the subject of debate among epidemiologists. Beyond the technical arguments, decision makers may find it difficult to conceptualize what the estimates actually mean. For instance, what makes this particular situation an emergency? And how should the operational response be adapted accordingly. This brings into question not only the quality of the survey methodology, but also the difficulties epidemiologists face in interpreting results and selecting the most important information to guide operations. As a case study, we reviewed mortality and nutritional surveys conducted in North Kivu, Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) published from January 2006 to January 2009. We performed a PubMed/Medline search for published articles and scanned publicly available humanitarian databases and clearinghouses for grey literature. To evaluate the surveys, we developed minimum reporting criteria based on available guidelines and selected peer-review articles. We identified 38 reports through our search strategy; three surveys met our inclusion criteria. The surveys varied in methodological quality. Reporting against minimum criteria was generally good, but presentation of ethical procedures, raw data and survey limitations were missed in all surveys. All surveys also failed to consider contextual factors important for data interpretation. From this review, we conclude that mechanisms to ensure sound survey design and conduct must be implemented by operational organisations to improve data quality and reporting. Training in data interpretation would also be useful. Novel survey methods should be trialled and prospective data gathering (surveillance) employed wherever feasible

Europeanization of civil society organizations in times of crisis? Exploring the evolution grant-seeking strategies in the EU multi-level system

This article analyses how humanitarian and development Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) have responded to the alteration of public funding opportunities over a long time period. Analysing a long time period allows for a better understanding of the potential impact of external shocks, such as the European sovereign and debt crisis. Data show that many CSOs severely affected by budget cuts at the national level in the context of the euro crisis have adopted a compensation strategy consisting on turning more frequently to international and European funds. Thus, in some countries, the economic crisis has contributed to the Europeanization of CSOs. This in-depth comparative qualitative analysis is based on the study of national humanitarian and development CSOs based in France and Spain

Influence of pollen nutrition on honey bee health: do pollen quality and diversity matter?

Honey bee colonies are highly dependent upon the availability of floral resources from which they get the nutrients (notably pollen) necessary to their development and survival. However, foraging areas are currently affected by the intensification of agriculture and landscape alteration. Bees are therefore confronted to disparities in time and space of floral resource abundance, type and diversity, which might provide inadequate nutrition and endanger colonies. The beneficial influence of pollen availability on bee health is well-established but whether quality and diversity of pollen diets can modify bee health remains largely unknown. We therefore tested the influence of pollen diet quality (different monofloral pollens) and diversity (polyfloral pollen diet) on the physiology of young nurse bees, which have a distinct nutritional physiology (e.g. hypopharyngeal gland development and vitellogenin level), and on the tolerance to the microsporidian parasite Nosemaceranae by measuring bee survival and the activity of different enzymes potentially involved in bee health and defense response (glutathione-S-transferase (detoxification), phenoloxidase (immunity) and alkaline phosphatase (metabolism)). We found that both nurse bee physiology and the tolerance to the parasite were affected by pollen quality. Pollen diet diversity had no effect on the nurse bee physiology and the survival of healthy bees. However, when parasitized, bees fed with the polyfloral blend lived longer than bees fed with monofloral pollens, excepted for the protein-richest monofloral pollen. Furthermore, the survival was positively correlated to alkaline phosphatase activity in healthy bees and to phenoloxydase activities in infected bees. Our results support the idea that both the quality and diversity (in a specific context) of pollen can shape bee physiology and might help to better understand the influence of agriculture and land-use intensification on bee nutrition and health

Effect of pollen diet and <i>Nosema ceranae</i> infection on phenoloxidase.

<p>Box plots are shown for 3 pools of 3 bees/replicate (<i>n</i> = 9 replicates giving 81 bees total/pollen diet). Different letters denote significant differences between pollen diets in non-parasitized (white box plots) or <i>Nosema</i>-parasitized bees (grey box plots) (<i>p</i> < 0.05, Kruskal-Wallis and Dunn’s multiple comparison tests) and * indicate significant differences between parasitized and non-parasitized bees for each pollen diet (<i>p</i> < 0.05, Mann-Whitney U tests). Boxes show 1st and 3rd interquartile range with line denoting median. Whiskers encompass 90% of the individuals, beyond which each outliers are represented by circles.</p

Effect of pollen diet and <i>Nosema ceranae</i> infection on gut alkaline phosphatase.

<p>Box plots are shown for 3 pools of 3 bees/replicate (<i>n</i> = 9 replicates giving 81 bees total/pollen diet). Different letters denote significant differences between pollen diets in non-parasitized (white box plots) or <i>Nosema</i>-parasitized bees (grey box plots) (<i>p</i> < 0.05, Kruskal-Wallis and Dunn’s multiple comparison tests) and * indicate significant differences between parasitized and non-parasitized bees for each pollen diet (<i>p</i> < 0.05, Mann-Whitney U tests). Boxes show 1st and 3rd interquartile range with line denoting median. Whiskers encompass 90% of the individuals, beyond which each outliers are represented by circles.</p

Effects of pollen diet and <i>Nosema ceranae</i> infection on glutathione S-transferase.

<p>The enzyme activity was assessed in (A) the guts and (B) the heads of bees. Box plots are shown for 3 pools of 3 bees/replicate (<i>n</i> = 9 replicates giving 81 bees total/pollen diet). Different letters denote significant differences between pollen diets in non-parasitized (white box plots) or <i>Nosema</i>-parasitized bees (grey box plots) (<i>p</i> < 0.05, Kruskal-Wallis and Dunn’s multiple comparison tests) and * indicate significant differences between parasitized and non-parasitized bees for each pollen diet (<i>p</i> < 0.05, Mann-Whitney U tests). Boxes show 1st and 3rd interquartile range with line denoting median. Whiskers encompass 90% of the individuals, beyond which each outliers are represented by circles.</p

Effects of pollen diet and <i>Nosema ceranae</i> infection on bee survival.

<p>Data show the percentage of survival over 50 days for (A) non-parasitized and (B) <i>Nosema</i>-parasitized bees (9 replicates/pollen diet). Different letters denote significant differences between pollen diets in non-parasitized or <i>Nosema</i>-parasitized bees (<i>p</i> < 0.05, Cox proportional hazards regression model).</p

Effects of pollen quality and diversity on nurse physiology.

<p>(A) Size of hypopharyngeal gland acini, (B) <i>vitellogenin</i> and (C) <i>tansferrin</i> expression levels. Box plots are shown for 5 and 10 bees/replicate for the glands and each gene, respectively (<i>n</i> = 14 replicates giving 70 and 140 bees/pollen diet for the glands and each gene, respectively). Different letters indicate significant differences between pollen diets (<i>p</i> < 0.05, Kruskal-Wallis and Dunn’s multiple comparison tests). Boxes show 1st and 3rd interquartile range with line denoting median. Whiskers encompass 90% of the individuals, beyond which each outliers are represented by circles.</p