Research Results (AFS) / Résultats de recherche (ASA)

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    Favoriser des systèmes alimentaires résilients, équitables et durables : une synthèse du partenariat cultiver l’avenir de l’Afrique (CULTIVAF) 2013-2023
    (2023) Cartmell, Susanna; Frost, Olivia; Pattemore, Chantelle; Reeve, Sophie; Sawa, Pius; Smith, Georgina
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    Enabling resilient, equitable and sustainable food systems : a synthesis of the cultivate Africa’s future (CULTIAF) partnership, 2013-2023
    (2023) Cartmell, Susanna; Frost, Olivia; Pattemore, Chantelle; Reeve, Sophie; Sawa, Pius; Smith, Georgina
    This synthesis presents the 10-year journey that IDRC and ACIAR have taken together in the program and the results of that investment. Ig looks at how strong partnerships can navigate challenges to produce significant accomplishments. It is a comprehensive look at the innovations, the science, what worked, the outcomes, the challenges (including unexpected ones such as the Covid-19 pandemic_, the risks, the trade-offs, the partnerships, the recommendations, and the impact that was achieved for the livelihoods of farmers and the communities in which they live.
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    AdaptCoop : renforcement de la résilience des coopératives cacaoyères face aux changements climatiques en Côte d’Ivoire
    (2023-02-27) Brunelle, Renée; Okou, Alla Kouadio; Chérif, Mamadou; Koné, Daouda; Larrivée, Caroline
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    Agriculture and food security (AFS) : building a new generation of female PhD fellows in gender, agriculture and food security in East Africa
    (2023-03-31) Moejes, Fiona Wanjiku; Wachira, Maina; Mungai, Elaine
    The overarching goal of this project was to build a pipeline of experts who would l contribute to finding homegrown solutions to the pressing development challenges at the nexus of agriculture, food security and gender. Further, we sought to remedy the under-representation of women by investing in young female fellows in East Africa, who face unique barriers to their participation and advancement in knowledge sectors, and who are poised to contribute innovative ideas and unique perspectives. We also aimed to develop highly trained and policy-oriented female African thought leaders, who could add to timely and credible discussions relevant to this topic in the public and decision-making spheres. More specifically, we aimed to equip young African women to conduct high quality research in this critical nexus area, and position them to be future leaders in their fields.
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    Ariabilité climatique et devenir de la cacaoculture en Côte d’Ivoire d’ici 2050 : note de synthèse à l’attention des décideurs et décideuses
    (2023) M’bo, Antoine Alban Kacou; Adolphe, Mahyao Germain; Kouadio, Kouakou; Okou, Alla Kouadio; Brunelle, Renée; Cherif, Mamadou
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    Promoting quinoa in Morocco
    (2023) International Development Research Centre (IDRC); Mohammed VI Polytechnic University; International Center for Biosaline Agriculture
    This brief is addressed to policy makers in the Kingdom of Morocco and it is divided into three sections. The first reveals the importance of Quinoa as a super crop adapted to marginal and dry environments to improve the livelihood of disadvantaged smallholder farmers in Morocco. The second highlights what a Moroccan-Canadian collaboration realized to upgrade the Quinoa value chain in the country, and the third section summarizes the main steps to be undertaken to mainstream the development of Quinoa at the national level.
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    Scaling-up pathways of last mile climate information services for community resilience in Uganda and Kenya (CHAI-III)
    (2023) Gebru, Berhane; Kwena, Kizito; Mworozi, Edison; Sewankambo, Nelson
    There is a global consensus that unless urgent action is taken, the bad food security and extreme poverty situation in Kenya, Uganda and the rest of Africa will be aggravated by climate variability and change. According to the IPCC, the best way out for the two countries and the continent is to adapt to climate change because adaptation will guarantee benefits now and in future. However, adaptation is information intensive, and farmers in Kenya and Uganda and other parts of Africa lack access to climate information in user-friendly formats and within an acceptable lead time to enable them to make informed decisions to minimize losses and maximize on the opportunities presented by climate variability and change. The Scaling-up Pathways of Last Mile Climate Information Services for Community Resilience in Uganda and Kenya Project (CHAI III) project aimed to bridge this gap.
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    Improving nutrition and health data to and from remote regions
    (2020-06) Jensen, Nathaniel; Alulu, Vincent; Lepariyo, Watson; Madzivhandila, Tshilidzi; Mkandawire-Munthali, Bertha; Sibanda, Simbarashe
    Sub-Saharan Africa is not only experiencing high malnutrition rates, but many regions also lack the current, accurate and reliable data on nutrition and health that could help to forge effective solutions to reducing malnutrition (Development Initiatives, 2018). Such data are critical to determining if policies and interventions are working and to improving them.
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    Strengthening research and leadership skills of African women at the intersection of climate change, agriculture and food security
    (2022-07-31) African Women in Agricultural Research and Development (AWARD)
    The One Planet Women project aims to support women scientists from francophone West Africa working at the intersection of climate change and agriculture through a career development model that combines mentoring, scientific training, and networking opportunities. In the current context of a changing climate and search for innovative solutions for adaptation, mitigation, and resilience, it has become even more critical to increase investments for capacity building including for women scientists in Francophone Africa. With such investments, these scientists can benefit from available research and development opportunities, foster dialogue amongst themselves while also maximizing interaction and collaboration between male and female scientists/professionals from different linguistic and socio-cultural African backgrounds.
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    Assessing Mbiotisho : a smartphone application used to collect high‐frequency health and nutrition data from difficult‐to‐reach populations
    (Wiley Online Library, 2023) Jensen, Nathaniel; Lepariyo, Watson; Alulu, Vincent; Sibanda, Simbarashe; Kiage, Beatrice N.
    There is an urgent need for improved and timely health and nutrition data. We developed and tested a smartphone application that caregivers from a pastoral population used to measure, record and submit high‐frequency and longitudinal health and nutrition information on themselves and their children. The data were assessed by comparing caregiver‐submitted measurements of mid–upper arm circumference (MUAC) to several benchmark data sets, including data collected by community health volunteers from the participating caregivers during the project period and data generated by interpreting photographs of MUAC measurements submitted by all participants. We found that the caregivers participated frequently and consistently over the 12‐month period of the project; most of them made several measurements and submissions in at least 48 of the 52 weeks of the project. The evaluation of data quality was sensitive to which data set was used as the benchmark, but the results indicate that the errors in the caregivers' submissions were similar to that of enumerators in other studies. We then compare the costs of this alternative approach to data collection through more conventional methods, concluding that conventional methods can be more cost‐effective for large socioeconomic surveys that value the breadth of the survey over the frequency of data, while the alternative we tested is favoured for those with objectives that are better met by high‐frequency observations of a smaller number of well‐defined outcomes.
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    Improving dietary and health data for decision-making in agriculture and nutrition actions in Africa
    (2023-02-28) Sibanda, Simbarashe; Jensen, Nathaniel
    Child malnutrition is one of the most used indicators for tracking progress towards attainment of Sustainable Development Goal 2 (SDG2) and the impacts of development interventions. Unfortunately, the current methods for collecting child nutrition indicators require considerable training, are slow and are expensive to collect data accurately. In this project, we developed and tested a mobile smartphone-based platform called Mbiotisho which means our health in Samburu, one of the local languages in Kenya), by which households can easily collect, submit, and access information on their and their children’s nutritional status in near-real time and at extremely low cost. Over the course of four years, we piloted and implemented the application in four locations.
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    Factors influencing aflatoxin contamination in Haiti's peanut commodity chain
    (Institute of Caribbean Studies, 2022-06) Du Jour, Frantz Roby Point; Mundler, Patrick
    Aflatoxins in crops pose a risk to food safety and have been detected in samples of Haitian peanuts. Using an interdisciplinary commodity chain approach, this paper examines the factors that increase the likelihood of aflatoxin contamination in the country's peanut supply. The results indicate that contamination risk is influenced by political, organizational, institutional, socio-economic, technological, and environmental constraints. A systemic analysis was performed to examine how such factors affect the quality of peanuts as they pass through the commodity chain. The results of our study offer broad insights into the challenges of preventing aflatoxins and protecting food safety in Haiti.
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    Improving dietary and health data for decision-making in agriculture and nutrition actions in Africa : policy brief
    (2023-02) Kiage, Beatrice; Sibanda, Simbarashe; Jensen, Nathan; Lapariyo, Watson; Alulu, Vincent
    Traditional methods used to collect health and nutrition data depend on enumerators or use of health facilities. These approaches suffer from accessibility bias, are costly, and the infrequent data collection intervals under heterogeneous and fast-moving conditions may not accurately track changes in nutritional status and household coping mechanisms that occur over short periods of time. These can have serious implications on how practitioners and policy makers judge the impacts of shocks and of interventions aimed at improving household welfare. Furthermore, such data are often of little direct use to households themselves as they do not receive feedback on their own status or trajectories. This data inadequacy will continue to negatively impact the efforts of governments and development practitioners to effectively programme and monitor the performance of nutrition and health interventions, and ultimately, achievement of national and global nutrition and health targets.
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    Internal writeshop cum field visit
    (2022-11) Cabriole, Marie Aislinn E.; International Institute of Rural Reconstruction (IIRR)
    The internal writeshop and field visit in Cambodia was conducted on April 30 to May 7, 2022 to share the new knowledge and evidence generated by the Climate-Smart Villages as Platforms for Resilience Building, Women Empowerment, Equity, and Sustainable Food Systems project, a 26-month regional project funded by the International Development Research Centre (IDRC). Specifically, the activity allowed the participants to review and validate the 13 draft briefs along with the themes of resilience building, women empowerment, equity, and sustainable food systems following the writeshop process; and to get to know the Chhouk Climate-Smart Village (CSV) in Koh Kong, Cambodia. Overall, the activity can be divided into three parts: (1) pre-writeshop, (2) activity proper, and (3) post-writeshop.
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    Scaling up women’s agripreneurship through public-private linkages to improve rural women’s income, nutrition and the effectiveness of institutions in rural Ghana : appendix II costing for the two intervention packages
    (2022-10) Colecraft, Esi K.; Marquis, Grace S.; Addy, Nii; Dodoo, Naa Dodua
    Costing information for the two intervention packages : poultry package and horticulture package
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    Scaling up women’s agripreneurship through public-private linkages to improve rural women’s income, nutrition and the effectiveness of institutions in rural Ghana (Linking Up : women’s agripreneurship sustainability and scale-up project)
    (2022-09-16) Colecraft, Esi K.; Marquis, Grace S.; Addy, Nii; Dodoo, Naa Dodua
    Over one-third of rural Ghanaians live below the poverty line, with women and children living in poverty having the highest risk of poor nutrition and health. Sustained integrated approaches that increase agricultural productivity and value addition, diversify incomes, and enhance knowledge and skills among all stakeholders, notably women are required to improve the well-being of rural communities. The Scaling up women’s agripreneurship through public-private linkages to improve rural women’s income, nutrition, and the effectiveness of institutions in rural Ghana project (Linking Up) is a follow-up study to build on the results of the Nutrition Links project (NLP) funded by the Canadian Government (2013-18). The NLP’s multi-sectoral integrated livelihoods, nutrition, agriculture and health intervention with rural women groups in the Upper Manya Krobo District (UMKD) of the Eastern Region decreased household food insecurity, increased women’s access to income and improved young children’s diets and nutritional status. However, efforts to sustain the intervention through multisectoral collaborations by local institutions were unsuccessful due primarily to the lack of integration of sustainability mechanisms into the regular operations of the local institutions. In this report we note factors identified that facilitate or impede women’s participation in farming and agri-food entrepreneur associations supported by local institutions.