P1 - Effect of climate change and weather variability on child nutrition and health in Ethiopia: CLIFOOD

P1: Effect of climate change and weather variability on child nutrition and health in Ethiopia

Status:	Ongoing
Duration:	---
Keywords	---

Description

The global food system is being increasingly challenged by climate change. The impact of is more precarious in Africa where the existing food supply is already overstretched by multiple challenges including uncontrolled population growth, environmental degradation, and weak social institutions. Despite the general understanding on the negative consequences of climate change on the fragile food systems, there is paucity of data on how climate change and weather variability affect child health and nutritional status in the developing world.

The objective of the nutrition-subproject is (i) to model the relationship between climate change and child undernutrition in Ethiopia based on analysis of secondary panel data (ii) to determine the relationship between weather variability and incidence of undernutrition and child morbidity (acute respiratory infection, diarrhoea and inflammation) based on epidemiological and meteorological data coming from community-based longitudinal data in Southern Ethiopia; (iii) to assess the contribution of locally available climate-resilient crops to household food security and micronutrient adequacy of infants and young children in southern Ethiopia; and (iv) to estimate the effect of micronutrient status, dietary diversity, food insecurity and morbidity on the psychomotor development of children in Southern Ethiopia.

The nutrition subproject will enrol 1 PhD student and will help to strengthen the newly launched PhD program in Human Nutrition at Hawassa University, Ethiopia. Upon completion of the PhD training, the graduate of subproject is expected to critical analyse the climate–nutrition–health nexus; be able to formulate testable research hypotheses and conduct independent, original, and hypothesis-driven research. The graduate is also expected to demonstrate proficiency in critical soft skills including communication, leadership, ethics, and professionalism domains. The information generated by the subproject will serve as an important tool for advocating and pushing the climate change agenda forward. Specially, the information generated from the subproject will help to accelerate efforts towards the elimination of hunger, food insecurity and all forms of malnutrition and meeting the SDG goal to by 2030.

Involved persons

Assist. Prof. Dr. Samson Gebremedhin Gebreselassie
Derese Tamiru Desta

Involved institutions

School of Human Nutrition, Food Science and Technology