Exploring the dynamics of social-ecological resilience in East and West Africa: Preliminary evidence from Tanzania and Niger.

BACKGROUND: Social-ecological resilience refers to the dynamic process of adaptive learning, reorganization and meaning-making demonstrated in linked human, animal, and plant ecosystems often organized in formal and/or informal social institutions, as they anticipate, withstand and/or judiciously engage with adversity while maintaining function without fundamentally losing their identity. OBJECTIVE: To present two sets of examples that illustrate the complex ways in which transformation and persistence, two key aspects of the adaptive cycle may work together to preserve established patterns of human and/or animal uses of water resources and food plant species, in rural East and West Africa, respectively around the Serengeti National Park (Tanzania), and "Park W" (Niger), with the aim of identifying possible indicators of social-ecological resilience. METHODS: Selective combinations of ecological and anthropological, quantitative and qualitative methods, including participatory tools of investigation and analysis. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION: Our preliminary results are presented with minimal commentary and discussion in order to avoid hasty and/or unwarranted interpretation of the ongoing purposely iterative processes of investigation and analysis in the two study sites. Nevertheless we have identified a number of possible indicators of social-ecological resilience that may be tested in other localities in Africa and elsewhere.

Recent developments in hygiene behaviour research: an emphasis on methods and meaning.

This paper discusses some of the recent developments in hygiene behaviour research, focusing on operational research. A series of "rapid' assessments of hygiene behaviour were carried out in Kenya, Tanzania and Ethiopia with a view to preparing a field handbook entitled Hygiene Evaluation Procedures (HEP). The HEP handbook is intended primarily for field personnel in water supply, sanitation and health/hygiene education projects who want to design and conduct their own systematic assessments of hygiene behaviour in their localities. The short studies provided useful practical insights into the concerns and needs of project staff for whom research allowances (human, material and time resources) are often very limited. In this paper emphasis is placed on both methodological and heuristic developments as the two are inseparable. It is suggested that in the domestic sphere, hygiene behaviour with respect to the disposal of children's faeces and domestic water use are two of the key areas that remain of universal relevance to water/sanitation related interventions. These can be assessed rapidly and effectively by using two indicators: means of disposal of children's faeces and handwashing at 'critical' times--after defaecation, after handling and/or disposing of children's faeces, before handling food and before feeding young children and eating. Appropriate combinations of anthropological methods and participatory tools for measuring these indicators are described. The practical relevance of the resulting data for project design and implementation is highlighted.

Constraints on weaning: evidence from Ethiopia and Sudan.

Evidence on infant weaning processes provided by field research in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, and among a refugee population of Eritreans in the Sudan is presented. The study in Addis Ababa, where households were economically disadvantaged but the situation was nutritionally stable, allowed the identification of factors constraining weaning, which includes both the introduction of supplementary foods and the termination of breast-feeding. While the timing of each aspect of weaning was the outcome of the interaction between mother and infant factors, 'infant-centred' factors were more important in the commencement and 'mother-centred' factors in the completion of weaning. The refugee population had in normal times a similar weaning regime, but under the unstable conditions of flight and life in a refugee camp the process had been significantly altered. Investigation of the factors which have led to altered weaning processes elaborates and confirms the model derived from the Addis Ababa study.