Impact of the Sahelian Drought in Mauritania, West Africa

Greene, MarkH.

doi:10.1016/s0140-6736(74)90568-6

Cited by 23 publications

(20 citation statements)

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“…However, whether such dietary changes result in nutritional improvements is unclear, as studies investigating the nutritional consequences of sedentarization have revealed conflicting results. Greene (1974) found that the prevalence of malnutrition among nomads in Mauritania was twice that found in sedentary communities. By contrast, better nutrition among nomads, as compared to settled groups, has been reported among the Boran (Lindtjorn et al, 1993), Rendille (Nathan et al, 1996), Maasai (Nestel, 1986), as well as "migratory populations" in Burkina Faso (Seaman et al, 1973).…”

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confidence: 96%

Child nutrition in the transition from nomadic pastoralism to settled lifestyles: Individual, household, and community-level factors

Shell‐Duncan

Obiero²

2000

Am. J. Phys. Anthropol.

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The research reported here examines child nutrition in a population that is currently experiencing a transition in subsistence, shifting from nomadic pastoralism to a variety of settled lifestyles. We investigate the range of nutritional consequences of settlement both within and between communities by examining individual, household, and community-level predictors of child nutritional status. Data are drawn from the Rendille Demographic and Health Survey, which contains anthropometric data from 1,088 children ages 6 months to 10 years, as well as socioeconomic data from 640 households drawn from one nomadic and four economically and ecologically diverse settled communities. Comparisons allow us to test the widely held assumption that settlement results in nutritional improvements. The examination of individual and household-level factors highlights several important influences on child nutrition. We find a complex interaction between gender and birthorder, whereby firstborn sons have significantly higher weight-for-height scores than other children, potentially reflecting preference under a system of primogeniture. We also find a complex interaction between defacto female-headed households, where males are absent for over half of the year, and economic status. Young children from poor female-headed households have significantly lower weight-for-height than other children, possibly due to the fact that these households are amongst the poorest in the entire community. However, young children from economically sufficient female-headed households actually fare better than their counterparts in male headed households, suggesting that in households with any discretionary resources, female heads prioritize food acquisition relative to other concerns. Finally, our comparison of child nutritional status across communities, while controlling for individual and household-level variation, does not support the contention that settlement is associated with nutritional improvements. Rather, the effect of community, and its associated changes in subsistence and lifestyle, results in either no nutritional changes, or in the case of young children in the lowland desert community of Korr, diminished nutritional status. Our results underscore the importance of considering variation in sample composition and socioeconomic status when performing community comparisons, and highlight the central role of women in influencing the nutritional welfare of their families.

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confidence: 96%

Child nutrition in the transition from nomadic pastoralism to settled lifestyles: Individual, household, and community-level factors

Shell‐Duncan

Obiero²

2000

Am. J. Phys. Anthropol.

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“…The data could equally be taken to show no evidence for any excess deaths at all. Greene (1975) argued in exactly the same manner to conclude that 44,000 people had died in Mauritania. However, after critically scrutinizing the evidence, Caldwell (1977: 94) summed up the (scanty) available demographic statistics on the Sahelian famine thus: 'in fact one cannot certainly identify the existence of the drought in the vital statistics, and mortality fell slowly during the period'.…”

Section: The Epidemiology Of Famine Deathsmentioning

confidence: 87%

A Re‐assessment of Entitlement Theory in the Light of the Recent Famines in Africa

Waal¹

1990

Development and Change

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This paper is an attempt to re-assess the nature of famines, as conceptualized in Professor Sen's entitlement theory, in the light of empirical evidence concerning the recent African famines. The paper identifies two critical phenomena that entitlement theory fails to explain. First, during famines, many people choose not to consume food rather than sell vital assets. Secondly, most famine mortality is not directly related to undernutrition, but is caused by outbreaks of disease. Sen's more recent work on poverty provides a framework for understanding these phenomena. The price of this is that entitlements themselves form only part of a larger account of famine. Some aspects of a revised account include coping strategies of famine-affected people, social disruption, and violence. In this account, less severe famine is not theoretically distinct from acute poverty, and severe famine is distinct largely because of the severity of social collapse, which in Africa usually follows violence. 1NTWODUCTlONThis paper consists of an attempt to re-assess the value of the 'entitlement approach' to famines, and place it in a larger and more comprehensive account of famines, in the light of empirical evidence from the recent African famines.Famines are ugly events that lend themselves to superficial moralizing, but too often seem immune to incisive theoretical analysis. Amartya Sen's Poverty and Famines (1981) is the most clear-headed attempt to date to combine theoretical insight with empirical rigour on this subject. In this seminal work, Sen develops the 'entitlement approach' to famines, which stands in opposition to the approach holding that a decline in food availability is both a Developmen/ and Change (SAGE, London,

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“…Humanity survives upon the plant and animal species, soils, and other biotic and abiotic phenomena which, together, make up the natural ecosystems. Since the ecosystems and their natural species are difficult if not impossible to restore, it follows that their degradation amounts to erosion of the fundamental basis of human livelihood as exemplified in the Sahel where vegetation destruction accompanied by increasing aridity and soil erosion was reported to have so undermined farming, the basic occupation, as to cause widespread famine and emigration (Caldwell, 1975 ;Greene, 1975 ;Salifou, 1975 ;Swift, 1977 ;Toupet, 1975). A second example is the reported close relationship between environmental degradation and the growing agricultural breakdown culminating in the much publicised recent famine in Ethiopia, and the less publicised one among the Kamba people in Eastern Kenya .…”

Section: Prioritiesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Science Policy Priorities and Implementation Strategies in Sub‐Saharan Africa: The Experience of Ghana

Gyasi

1992

African Development Review

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The persistence of poverty in sub-saharan Africa constitutes a distressing paradox given the region's rich natural resources. To alleviate this endemic poverty and improve the well-being of the inhabitants on a sustainable basis, require the promotion of integrated national science and technology policy plans with prioritised objectives based primarily upon basic needs, namely improved food supply, better environment, and improved health, shelter and fuel energy supply through enhanced manpower. Prioritisation of the policy objectives appears necessary to optimise the limited investment resources. Severe financial limitations, weak job incentives, mismanagement, intersectoral rivalry, political-economic disunity, and a general lack of an enabling environment loom as a serious threat to the implementation of such S & T plans. But these problems could be surmounted by imaginative financial mobilisation arrangements, rational resource management, appropriate incentives and education, co-operation, and a will to succeed.

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Impact of the Sahelian Drought in Mauritania, West Africa

Cited by 23 publications

References 2 publications

Child nutrition in the transition from nomadic pastoralism to settled lifestyles: Individual, household, and community-level factors

Child nutrition in the transition from nomadic pastoralism to settled lifestyles: Individual, household, and community-level factors

A Re‐assessment of Entitlement Theory in the Light of the Recent Famines in Africa

Science Policy Priorities and Implementation Strategies in Sub‐Saharan Africa: The Experience of Ghana

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