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Crops, Cellphones and T-Cells: Technology Change for Livelihood Security in Sub Saharan Africa

Crops, Cellphones and T-Cells: Technology Change for Livelihood Security in Sub Saharan Africa. Laura Murphy, Tulane University, lmurphy2@tulane.edu. Study questions.

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Crops, Cellphones and T-Cells: Technology Change for Livelihood Security in Sub Saharan Africa

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  1. Crops, Cellphones and T-Cells: Technology Change for Livelihood Security in Sub Saharan Africa Laura Murphy, Tulane University, lmurphy2@tulane.edu

  2. Study questions • How are African communities affected by HIV and AIDS actually responding through the adoption, adaptation, innovation of technologies to enhance their livelihood security? • How do development policies of governmental and non-governmental actors facilitate and/or hinder community-based technology innovation for livelihood security? • Funded by the John D and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation

  3. Technology change  HIV/AIDS • “Technology” = adoption, adaptation, innovation of artefacts & systems of knowledge • a “Livelihood security” framework • Human, natural, social, physical, $ capital • Diverse sources of goods, services • Prevention, Treatment & Care, Mitigation

  4. Livelihoods and AIDS mitigation Changes in “coping strategies”: land use, cropping, consumption, health care, mourning, school enrollment • Infection, chronic illness, death = loss of • Labor, knowledge • Remittances, wages • Assets • Burden of care • Orphans (single & double) • Widows & Child-headed households • Exclusion, discrimination Need to Mitigate Impacts of AIDS on all forms of capital, vulnerability context Labor-saving technologies Food & nutrition Vulnerable populations:”OVCs”

  5. Examples from inventory of technology changes surrounding for HIV & AIDS

  6. Information & Communication Technology (ICTs) Satellite-internet at Post Offices in Kenya Boda-Boda (bicycle taxi) Worldspace Radio Internet access through Open Knowledge Network • PDAs for health professionals • Text messaging reminders & market prices

  7. Mixed methods • Mapping, Timelines, Participant observation, in-depth interviews, focus group discussion, key informant interviews • Agency reports, email, field reports of technology changes • Secondary data on farm production, wage work, sugar industry, HlV/AIDS surveillance, IEC, VCT, HBC, ART programs Case studies Desk review

  8. Findings from field research • Western Province, Kenya • High prevalence, generalized epidemic • Lake Victoria, fishing, TZ/UG borders, truck routes, sugar industry, history of mobility, wage work BUNGOMA SOUTH NYANZA

  9. Suba District, south Nyanza

  10. Sub-question for land abundant south Nyanza Are labor-saving Animal Traction implements the answer to loss of labor due to AIDS? Rumpstad Multipurpose Lightweight Implement (plough, weed, ridge) Drawn by donkey or oxen: Does it meet needs of AIDS-affected communities?

  11. Excerpt from Nyapuodi Village Map 30% of 103 HH: HIV+, death, bed-ridden person, orphans, Only 1 improved plough Major loss of livestock to disease

  12. Policy implication (1) • Tsetse fly & trypanosomiasis control will help mitigate AIDS • Conservation policies (Ruma National Park) conflict with human and livestock health • Traps removed, bush cover (habitat) remains

  13. Kakichumma Village, Bungoma

  14. Kakichumma Village • Population 2005 ~ 350 households, ~2800 • HIV/AIDS • Arrived in 1991, widespread • about 30% directly affected, others indirectly • Poverty: thatch roofs, no hoe, no blankets • Remote: no bus, phone, electricity, extension services, official visits • One NGO (ACE) active, some HBC training • Health center: 5 miles away (foot); hospital (ART) in Bungoma town

  15. Changes in Gardens w/ HIV / AIDS concerns • Plants • Diversity of herbs, shrubs, grasses, trees, tubers, legumes • knowledge intensive (traditional and modern) • Techniques • Pile vs. pit composting, intercropping, terracing • Conservation agriculture • Permaculture, organic

  16. Use Hand Tools • Hoes (jembes) • Machete/pangas • maybe shovels, pickaxe, occasional ox-plow • Storage, Processing, Cooking • Non-chemical preservation • Nutritional Supplements  IGA • Seed bulking & banks

  17. New “adopters” and innovators • chronically ill, HIV +, orphans and vulnerable children, caregivers • New uses • social support, nutrition • social structures & norms • community organization for land, labor, distribution • School clubs

  18. Hybrid Systems responding to HIV & AIDS • New combinations • Neglected indigenous leafy vegetables and new “ProvitA” enriched sweet potato • For staple food, micronutrients, income-generation • range of HIV & AIDS-affected “brainwashed” to grow foreign kale Maize displaced millet & sorghum in 1950s

  19. Constraints to rural garden technology change • (the right) Seeds and Planting Material in short supply • Water: In the wrong place, wrong time • Tools: inadequate, worn, lacking • Technical information scarce • Labor & time Policy implications • Seed bulking • Soil & Water conservation • Agricultural Mechanization • SAP cutbacks “Demand-driven extension services” • Social safety nets • Silence among leaders, delayed response • Multisectoral programs

  20. “Appropriate technology” to combat HIV and AIDS is wide-ranging • Not only “labor-saving” –often capital intensive (animal traction) • more intelligent use of labor, more productive, multi-purpose outputs • hoes + cellphones, drip irrigation + HAART • Drudgery reduction, home based care

  21. Appropriate Technology to combat HIV and AIDS

  22. Diffusion & Adaptation • Social Networks • NGOS like ACE  trainees, friends, opinion leaders, neighbors • Mobility & Remittances  cash, ideas infusion • Constant adaptation, rejection, recombination • Constant recovery of old, and infusion of new • Rural innovations abound • Development, globalization, HIV/AIDS all bring challenges and opportunities • Information, better nutrition, Anti-retroviral therapy • Polarization and intensification of poverty • material goods, labor, cash, land, hope

  23. further conclusions • HIV/AIDS in generalized rural epidemic: everyone is affected • through networks and interconnections • Cumulative burden over time, prevention not enough • Eager to talk and learn • Household-level “AIDS affected” measures used in studies are inadequate • “chronically ill” , “presence of orphans” • Cumulative effects, missing, dissolved • need to view community as a whole over time

  24. Policy implication (2) Agency policies that are donor driven and single purpose might miss the point.

  25. Acknowledgements • Action in the Community environment (ACE Africa), Bungoma • Animal Draft Power Programme (ADPP), Homa Bay • Residents of Nyapuodi Village • Residents of Kakichumma Village • Paul Harvey, co-investigator, ODI

  26. Resources: HIV/AIDS, food and livelihoods • International Food Policy Research Institute • www.ifpri.org • FANTAproject.org (nutrition) • Food and Agriculture Organization • www.fao.org/hivaids

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