A framework for assessing the effects of shock events on livestock and environment in sub-Saharan Africa: The COVID-19 pandemic in Northern Kenya

Graham, Michael W.; Chelanga, Philemon; Jensen, Nathaniel D.; Leitner, Sonja; Fava, Francesco; Merbold, Lutz

doi:10.1016/j.agsy.2021.103203

Cited by 7 publications

(11 citation statements)

References 37 publications

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“… Graham et al (2021) outlined a framework to rapidly assess whether pandemic shocks have impacted GHG emissions from the livestock sector in Kenya. They described different pathways between the pandemic and emissions, including changes in herd sizes, feed availability and decreased animal movements due to COVID-19 mitigation measures and market closures.…”

Section: Regional Summaries and Articlesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…A desire to ‘Build Back Better’ can be observed in several submissions. Andrieu et al (2021) and Graham et al (2021) both estimated the impact of the pandemic on GHG emissions in agricultural systems. They showed both that the pandemic has impacted GHG emissions which are a significant agricultural policy target in many countries, but also that COVID-19 policy has the potential to undo progress made on climate mitigation policy for agriculture if the policy environment for agriculture is not examined more holistically.…”

Section: Emergent Themes From the Special Issuementioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

The immediate impact of the first waves of the global COVID-19 pandemic on agricultural systems worldwide: Reflections on the COVID-19 special issue for agricultural systems

Stephens

Timsina²,

Snow³

et al. 2022

Agricultural Systems

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Section: Regional Summaries and Articlesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Emergent Themes From the Special Issuementioning

confidence: 99%

The immediate impact of the first waves of the global COVID-19 pandemic on agricultural systems worldwide: Reflections on the COVID-19 special issue for agricultural systems

Stephens

Timsina²,

Snow³

et al. 2022

Agricultural Systems

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

“…Flexibility in data type and the ability to change tasks is a huge benefit in some situations. For example, at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, it was quick and easy to create a set of shock-specific tasks that were rolled out and completed despite the restrictions imposed on movement between the location where researchers and managers were, and where the data were (see Chelanga et al, 2020;Graham, 2021).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

KAZNET: An Open-Source, Micro-Tasking Platform for Remote Locations

Chelanga

Fava

Alulu

et al. 2022

Front. Sustain. Food Syst.

Self Cite

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Field surveys are the workhorse of social and environmental research, but conventional collection through monitors or enumerators are cost prohibitive in many remote or otherwise difficult settings, which can lead to a poor understanding of those environments and an underrepresentation of the people living in them. In such cases, micro-tasking can offer a promising alternative. By activating in-situ data collectors, micro-tasking avoids many of the large expenses related to conventional field survey processes. In addition to relaxing resource constraints, crowd-sourcing can be flexible and employ data quality protocols unheard-of for conventional methods. This study assesses the potential of using micro-tasking to monitor socioeconomic and environmental indicators in remote settings using a new platform called KAZNET. KAZNET leverages the network of people with smartphones, which are becoming ubiquitous even in the remote rural settings, to execute both long-term and short-term data collection activities, with flexibility to adjust or add tasks in real-time. It also allows for multiple projects, requiring different data types, to be rolled out in the same platform simultaneously. For the data-collector, KAZNET is effectively a wrapper for the commonly used and open source, Open Data Kit (ODK) software, which specializes in offline data collection. A web interface allows administrators to calibrate, deploy, and validate tasks performed by contributors. KAZNET has been used in several projects to collect data in remote pastoral regions of East Africa since its inception in 2017. KAZNET has shown to be effective for collecting high frequency and repeated measures from markets, households and rangelands in remote regions at relatively low cost compared to traditional survey methods. While the successes of micro-tasking are promising, there are clear trade-offs and complementarities between micro-tasking and standard surveys methods, which researchers and practitioners need to consider when implementing either approach.

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“…As shown by the health messaging during the Covid-19 pandemic, urban populations may be willing yet simply unable to follow health messages when their livelihoods are also at risk [ 29 ]. For zoonotic livestock diseases, this effect is compounded for those that rely on livestock in urban settings and suddenly lose employment, market access, and purchasing power from closure of livestock markets and restriction of animal movement [ 30 ]. As RVF outbreaks have occurred in a variety of ecosystems [ 31 ], understanding the key difference between rural and urban risk could allow for inclusive, targeted, public health responses.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Exploring potential risk pathways with high risk groups for urban Rift Valley fever virus introduction, transmission, and persistence in two urban centers of Kenya

et al. 2023

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Rift Valley fever virus (RVFV) is a zoonotic arbovirus that has profound impact on domestic ruminants and can also be transmitted to humans via infected animal secretions. Urban areas in endemic regions across Africa have susceptible animal and human hosts, dense vector distributions, and source livestock (often from high risk locations to meet the demand for animal protein). Yet, there has never been a documented urban outbreak of RVF. To understand the likely risk of RVFV introduction to urban communities from their perspective and guide future initiatives, we conducted focus group discussions with slaughterhouse workers, slaughterhouse animal product traders, and livestock owners in Kisumu City and Ukunda Town in Kenya. For added perspective and data triangulation, in-depth interviews were conducted one-on-one with meat inspector veterinarians from selected slaughterhouses. A theoretical framework relevant to introduction, transmission, and potential persistence of RVF in urban areas is presented here. Urban livestock were primarily mentioned as business opportunities, but also had personal sentiment. In addition to slaughtering risks, perceived risk factors including consumption of fresh milk. High risk groups’ knowledge and experience with RVFV and other zoonotic diseases impacted their consideration personal risk, with consensus towards lower risk in the urban setting compared to rural areas as determination of health risk was said to primarily rely on hygiene practices rather than the slaughtering process. Groups relied heavily on veterinarians to confirm animal health and meat safety, yet veterinarians reported difficulty in accessing RVFV diagnostics. We also identified vulnerable public health regulations including corruption in meat certification outside of the slaughterhouse system, and blood collected during slaughter being used for food and medicine, which could provide a means for direct RVFV community transmission. These factors, when compounded by diverse urban vector breeding habitats and dense human and animal populations, could create suitable conditions for RVFV to arrive an urban center via a viremic imported animal, transmit to locally owned animals and humans, and potentially adapt to secondary vectors and persist in the urban setting. This explorative qualitative study proposes risk pathways and provides initial insight towards determining how urban areas could adapt control measures and plan future initiatives to better understand urban RVF potential.

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A framework for assessing the effects of shock events on livestock and environment in sub-Saharan Africa: The COVID-19 pandemic in Northern Kenya

Cited by 7 publications

References 37 publications

The immediate impact of the first waves of the global COVID-19 pandemic on agricultural systems worldwide: Reflections on the COVID-19 special issue for agricultural systems

The immediate impact of the first waves of the global COVID-19 pandemic on agricultural systems worldwide: Reflections on the COVID-19 special issue for agricultural systems

KAZNET: An Open-Source, Micro-Tasking Platform for Remote Locations

Exploring potential risk pathways with high risk groups for urban Rift Valley fever virus introduction, transmission, and persistence in two urban centers of Kenya

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