Your search found 11 records
1 Aihara, Y.; Shrestha, S.; Kazama, F.; Nishida, K. 2015. Validation of household water insecurity scale in urban Nepal. Water Policy, 17(6):1019-1032. [doi: https://doi.org/10.2166/wp.2015.116]
Water security ; Water scarcity ; Water supply ; Households ; Urban areas ; Gender ; Women ; Psychological factors ; Public health ; Socioeconomic environment / South Asia / Nepal / Kathmandu Valley
(Location: IWMI HQ Call no: e-copy only Record No: H047431)
(0.19 MB)
Water security is one of the central global issues today. This study aimed to describe and test the validity and reliability of a household water insecurity scale, and to assess the impact of household water insecurity on psychological distress among 371 women living in urban Nepal. A household interview survey was conducted using a structured questionnaire. Approximately 70% of the participants experienced collecting less water than they needed. Four domains of household water insecurity emerged from the principal components factor analysis: (i) difficulties in house-work related to water, (ii) lost opportunity costs and social interactions related to water, (iii) an insufficient safe water supply, and (iv) difficulties in basic activities related to water. Multivariate regression analysis showed that the domains of ‘lost opportunity costs and social interactions’, ‘difficulties in house-work’ and ‘difficulties in basic activities’ were associated with psychological distress among women. The impact of household water insecurity on psychological distress differed by water supply service levels. The current household water insecurity scale is a simple instrument which can be used to prioritise the target population for water interventions. Further research should be conducted towards the development of a universally applicable measurement tool.
2 Lalani, B.; Dorward, P.; Holloway, G.; Wauters, E. 2016. Smallholder farmers' motivations for using conservation agriculture and the roles of yield, labour and soil fertility in decision making. Agricultural Systems, 146:80-90. [doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.agsy.2016.04.002]
Farming systems ; Conservation agriculture ; Agricultural practices ; Smallholders ; Farmers attitudes ; Soil fertility ; Yield increases ; Labour ; Decision making ; Psychological factors ; Human behavior ; Adaptation ; Motivation ; Models ; Socioeconomic environment / Africa South of Sahara / Mozambique / Cabo Delgado
(Location: IWMI HQ Call no: e-copy only Record No: H047845)
(0.50 MB)
Conservation Agriculture (CA) has been widely promoted as an agro-ecological approach to sustainable production intensification. Despite numerous initiatives promoting CA across Sub-Saharan Africa there have been low rates of adoption. Furthermore, there has been strong debate concerning the ability of CA to provide benefits to smallholder farmers regarding yield, labour, soil quality and weeding, particularly where farmers are unable to access external inputs such as herbicides. This research finds evidence that CA, using no external inputs, is most attractive among the very poor and that farmers are driven primarily by strong motivational factors in the key areas of current contention, namely yield, labour, soil quality and weeding time benefits. This study is the first to incorporate a quantitative socio-psychological model to understand factors driving adoption of CA. Using the Theory of Planned Behaviour (TPB), it explores farmers' intention to use CA (within the next 12 months) in Cabo Delgado, Mozambique where CA has been promoted for almost a decade. The study site provides a rich population from which to examine farmers' decision making in using CA. Regression estimates show that the TPB provides a valid model of explaining farmers' intention to use CA accounting for 80% of the variation in intention. Farmers' attitude is found to be the strongest predictor of intention. This is mediated through key cognitive drivers present that influence farmers' attitude such as increased yields, reduction in labour, improvement in soil quality and reduction in weeds. Subjective norm (i.e. social pressure from referents) and perceived behavioural control also significantly influenced farmers' intention. Furthermore, path analysis identifies farmers that are members of a Farmer Field School or participants of other organisations (e.g. savings group, seed multiplication group or a specific crop/livestock association) have a significantly stronger positive attitude towards CA with the poorest the most likely users and the cohort that find it the easiest to use. This study provides improved understanding relevant to many developing countries, of smallholder farmers' adoption dynamics related to CA, and of how farmers may approach this and other ‘new’ management systems.
3 Stevenson, E. G. J.; Ambelu, A.; Caruso, B. A.; Tesfaye, Y.; Freeman, M. C. 2016. Community water improvement, household water insecurity, and women’s psychological distress: an intervention and control study in Ethiopia. PLoS ONE, 11(4):1-13. [doi: https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0153432]
Water supply ; Community development ; Water availability ; Households ; Water insecurity ; Gender ; Womans status ; Psychological factors ; Stress ; Socioeconomic environment ; Food insecurity ; Harvesting ; Villages / Ethiopia / Amhara Region / South Wello / South Gondar
(Location: IWMI HQ Call no: e-copy only Record No: H048338)
http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0153432&type=printable
https://vlibrary.iwmi.org/pdf/H048338.pdf
https://vlibrary.iwmi.org/pdf/H048338.pdf
(0.24 MB) (244 KB)
Background
Over 650 million people worldwide lack access to safe water supplies, and even among those who have gained access to ‘improved’ sources, water may be seasonally unreliable, far from homes, expensive, and provide insufficient quantity. Measurement of water access at the level of communities and households remains crude, and better measures of household water insecurity are urgently needed to inform needs assessments and monitoring and evaluation. We set out to assess the validity of a quantitative scale of household water insecurity, and to investigate (1) whether improvements to community water supply reduce water insecurity, (2) whether water interventions affect women’s psychological distress, and (3) the impacts of water insecurity on psychological distress, independent of socio-economic status, food security, and harvest quality.
Methods and Findings
Measures were taken before and one to six months after a community water supply improvement in three villages in rural northern Ethiopia. Villages similar in size and access to water sources and other amenities did not receive interventions, and served as controls. Household water insecurity was assessed using a 21-item scale based on prior qualitative work in Ethiopia. Women’s psychological distress was assessed using the WHO Self-Reporting Questionnaire (SRQ-20). Respondents were either female heads of household or wives of the heads of household (n = 247 at baseline, n = 223 at endline); 123 households provided data at both rounds. The intervention was associated with a decline of approximately 2 points on the water insecurity scale between baseline and endline compared to the control (beta -1.99; 95% CI’s -3.15, -0.84). We did not find evidence of impact of the intervention on women’s psychological distress. Water insecurity was, however, predictive of psychological distress (p <0.01), independent of household food security and the quality of the previous year’s harvest.
Conclusion
These results contribute to the construct validity of our water insecurity scale, and establish our approach to measuring water insecurity as a plausible means of evaluating water interventions. Improvements to community water supplies were effective in reducing household water insecurity, but not psychological distress, in this population. Water insecurity was an important predictor of psychological distress. This study contributes to an emerging literature on quantitative assessment of household water insecurity, and draws attention to the potential impact of improved access to water on women’s mental well-being.
Over 650 million people worldwide lack access to safe water supplies, and even among those who have gained access to ‘improved’ sources, water may be seasonally unreliable, far from homes, expensive, and provide insufficient quantity. Measurement of water access at the level of communities and households remains crude, and better measures of household water insecurity are urgently needed to inform needs assessments and monitoring and evaluation. We set out to assess the validity of a quantitative scale of household water insecurity, and to investigate (1) whether improvements to community water supply reduce water insecurity, (2) whether water interventions affect women’s psychological distress, and (3) the impacts of water insecurity on psychological distress, independent of socio-economic status, food security, and harvest quality.
Methods and Findings
Measures were taken before and one to six months after a community water supply improvement in three villages in rural northern Ethiopia. Villages similar in size and access to water sources and other amenities did not receive interventions, and served as controls. Household water insecurity was assessed using a 21-item scale based on prior qualitative work in Ethiopia. Women’s psychological distress was assessed using the WHO Self-Reporting Questionnaire (SRQ-20). Respondents were either female heads of household or wives of the heads of household (n = 247 at baseline, n = 223 at endline); 123 households provided data at both rounds. The intervention was associated with a decline of approximately 2 points on the water insecurity scale between baseline and endline compared to the control (beta -1.99; 95% CI’s -3.15, -0.84). We did not find evidence of impact of the intervention on women’s psychological distress. Water insecurity was, however, predictive of psychological distress (p <0.01), independent of household food security and the quality of the previous year’s harvest.
Conclusion
These results contribute to the construct validity of our water insecurity scale, and establish our approach to measuring water insecurity as a plausible means of evaluating water interventions. Improvements to community water supplies were effective in reducing household water insecurity, but not psychological distress, in this population. Water insecurity was an important predictor of psychological distress. This study contributes to an emerging literature on quantitative assessment of household water insecurity, and draws attention to the potential impact of improved access to water on women’s mental well-being.
4 Kumar, T.; Post, A. E.; Ray, I. 2018. Flows, leaks and blockages in informational interventions: a field experimental study of Bangalore’s water sector. World Development, 106:149-160. [doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.worlddev.2018.01.022]
Water supply ; Information dissemination ; Households ; Social welfare ; Income ; Pipes ; Political aspects ; Transparency ; Population ; Socioeconomic environment ; Psychological factors ; Stress ; Experimentation / India / Bangalore
(Location: IWMI HQ Call no: e-copy only Record No: H048795)
(1.14 MB)
Many policies and programs based on informational interventions hinge upon the assumption that providing citizens with information can help improve the quality of public services, or help citizens cope with poor services. We present a causal framework that can be used to identify leaks and blockages in the information production and dissemination process in such programs. We conceptualize the "information pipeline" as a series of connected nodes, each of which constitutes a possible point of blockage. We apply the framework to a field-experimental evaluation of a program that provided households in Bangalore, India, with advance notification of intermittently provided piped water. Our study detected no impacts on household wait times for water or on how citizens viewed the state, but found that notifications reduced stress. Our framework reveals that, in our case, noncompliance among human intermediaries and asymmetric gender relations contributed in large part to these null-to-modest results. Diagnostic frameworks like this should be used more extensively in development research to better understand the mechanisms responsible for program success and failure, to identify subgroups that actually received the intended treatment, and to identify potential leaks and blockages when replicating existing programs in new settings.
5 Chipfupa, U.; Wale, E. 2020. Linking earned income, psychological capital and social grant dependency: empirical evidence from rural KwaZulu-Natal (South Africa) and implications for policy. Journal of Economic Structures, 9:22. [doi: https://doi.org/10.1186/s40008-020-00199-0]
Household income ; Earned income ; Psychological factors ; Socioeconomic environment ; Grants ; Smallholders ; Farmers ; Living standards ; Rural communities ; Irrigation schemes ; Gender ; Women ; Development policies ; Motivation ; Models / South Africa / KwaZulu-Natal
(Location: IWMI HQ Call no: e-copy only Record No: H049776)
https://journalofeconomicstructures.springeropen.com/track/pdf/10.1186/s40008-020-00199-0
https://vlibrary.iwmi.org/pdf/H049776.pdf
https://vlibrary.iwmi.org/pdf/H049776.pdf
(1.07 MB) (1.07 MB)
Understanding the motivation that smallholders have for working and earning their livelihood is critical in enhancing the effectiveness of agricultural policies. This is especially important in a country like South Africa where social grant is an important source of unearned income. The study sought to find out what affects smallholders’ motivation to work by assessing the relationship between earned income, psychological capital and social grant dependency. We use data from 458 smallholders in four irrigation communities in rural KwaZulu-Natal and employ a complementary loglog fractional response model to analyse the data. The study revealed that endowment with positive psychological capital, gender, membership to an irrigation scheme and land ownership positively affect smallholders’ propensity to earn their livelihoods from farm and non-farm income. Social grant support and dependency ratio negatively affect the same. The findings support the thesis that, if not properly managed, social transfers can have a negative impact on smallholders’ motivation to work and earn their livelihoods, resulting in a dependency syndrome. Depending on the context, spatial differences can either positively or negatively affect farmers’ motivation to work. In conclusion, limited focus on the human and social capital development and hence psychological capital affect smallholders’ propensity to work. Small-scale irrigation schemes remain a viable option for increasing employment and incomes in the sector, whilst social and cultural norms continue to reduce women’s ability to engage in economic activities. The paper recommends the need to recognise the critical importance of psychological capital (mindset), streamline and improve targeting of social grant support, promote smallholder irrigation and invest in the infrastructure that enhances participation of women in economic activities.
6 Khoza, S.; de Beer, L. T.; van Niekerk, D.; Nemakonde, L. 2020. A gender-differentiated analysis of climate-smart agriculture adoption by smallholder farmers: application of the extended technology acceptance model. Gender, Technology and Development, 22p. (Online first) [doi: https://doi.org/10.1080/09718524.2020.1830338]
Gender analysis ; Climate-smart agriculture ; Technology transfer ; Smallholders ; Farmers' attitudes ; Women farmers ; Decision making ; Social aspects ; Psychological factors ; Climate change ; Resilience ; Disaster risk reduction ; Livelihoods ; Communities ; Models / Malawi / Zambia / Chikwawa / Gwembe
(Location: IWMI HQ Call no: e-copy only Record No: H050141)
(2.13 MB)
The low adoption of climate-smart agriculture (CSA) technologies by farmers in developing regions where agrarian livelihoods are threatened by climate-related disasters remains a concerning enigma. Adoption patterns are not commensurate with merits of CSA on food security and climate resilience and attention to gender in relation to behavioral and attitudinal patterns in CSA adoption remains scarce. An exploratory-sequential mixed methods study was conducted, using a socio-psychological theoretical lens to test the applicability of the extended technology acceptance model in predicting CSA adoption among at-risk smallholder farming communities in Malawi and Zambia. Spearman’s rho correlation results show that relationship strengths between socio-psychological factors—perceptions on ease of use, usefulness and climate risk—differed between men and women householdheads. Results also show that social processes are central in influencing women’s decision-making on adoption. For practitioners and policy-makers, these findings reflect a critical need for gender-specific behavioral change communication strategies and inclusive participatory engagement. This will promote dialogue with diverse groups of smallholder-farmers aimed at changing negative, and leveraging on positive, behavior and attitudes toward new CSA technologies. CSA technology development for smallholder-farmers needs to appreciate the role of socio-psychological factors in adoption decisions. Further scientific research is required to establish causality between related socio-psychological factors.
7 Cameron, E. C.; Hemingway, S. L.; Cunningham, F. J.; Jacquin, K. M. 2021. Global crises: gendered vulnerabilities of structural inequality, environmental performance, and modern slavery. Human Arenas, 22p. (Online first) [doi: https://doi.org/10.1007/s42087-020-00154-2]
Gender equality ; Human Trafficking ; Vulnerability ; Human rights ; Climate change ; Indicators ; Women ; Children ; Displacement ; Psychological factors ; Education ; Environmental health ; Air quality ; Sustainable Development Goals ; Agriculture ; Forests
(Location: IWMI HQ Call no: e-copy only Record No: H050283)
(1.01 MB)
Climate change and modern slavery are two of the most significant human rights crises of our time. Women and children are disproportionately vulnerable to such crises, which are intensified under inequitable social conditions and driven by structural barriers to female equality. No research has yet looked at the complex relationship between climate crisis, structural gender inequality, human insecurity, and vulnerability to modern slavery. Our research examined the relationship between environmental stressors associated with climate change, selected structural inequalities, and the estimated prevalence of modern slavery cases across 180 countries. Regression analysis revealed significant results. These findings suggest that indicators of poor environmental health may exacerbate structural social inequalities and increase women’s risk of falling victim to modern slavery. Results showed that women’s share of seats in parliament, education for women, tree cover loss, agricultural management, and air quality assumed more substantial roles in this prediction. Awareness of the unique relationship between environmental indicators of climate change, gender inequality, and modern slavery provides a meaningful contribution to our understanding of factors driving human exploitation. Additionally, we propose a gender analysis of environmental stressors to address both the climate crisis and structural inequalities that increases female vulnerability to insecurity.
8 Elgaaied-Gambier, L.; Mandler, T. 2021. Me trying to talk about sustainability: exploring the psychological and social implications of environmental threats through user-generated content. Ecological Economics, 187:107089. (Online first) [doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecolecon.2021.107089]
Climate change ; Sustainability ; Psychological factors ; Social aspects ; Environmental effects ; Environmental degradation ; Policy making ; Political aspects ; Empowerment ; Ecology
(Location: IWMI HQ Call no: e-copy only Record No: H050385)
(10.90 MB)
This research investigates citizen-consumers' representations of environmental issues by examining user-generated content. Using an exploratory approach, we collected and analyzed 856 internet memes related to various environmental topics. Our findings shed light on the human and social implications of environmental degradation. Although they use a humoristic tone, many memes suggest that the users who created and/or shared them suffer from psychological discomfort; they experience eco-anxiety, perceived lack of control, and lack of faith in the future. Our results also stress the social consequences in terms of in-group/out-group opposition. Environmental concerns emerge as an important component to categorize individuals and to define social identity. Moreover, our analysis emphasizes the existence of stereotypical representations of all the actors involved in the environmental crisis and the recurring tendency to anthropomorphize earth. Overall, we propose that engaging in content generation in the form of memes enables individuals to feel re-empowered and reduce the psychological distress they experience due to climate change. We discuss our findings in relation to relevant theoretical frameworks.
9 Coley, J. D.; Betz, N.; Helmuth, B.; Ellenbogen, K.; Scyphers , S. B.; Adams, D. 2021. Beliefs about human-nature relationships and implications for investment and stewardship surrounding land-water system conservation. Land, 10(12):1293. (Special issue: Towards Sustainable Land-Water Interactions in the Anthropocene: The Role of Stakeholder Engagement and Participatory Modelling) [doi: https://doi.org/10.3390/land10121293]
Water systems ; Human behaviour ; Ecological factors ; Beliefs ; Psychological factors ; Urban areas ; Rivers ; Ecosystem services ; Investment ; Stakeholders / USA
(Location: IWMI HQ Call no: e-copy only Record No: H050823)
(0.66 MB) (680 KB)
When engaging stakeholders in environmental conservation, it is critical to understand not only their group-level needs, but also the individually held beliefs that contribute to each person’s decisions to endorse or reject policies. To this end, we examined the extent to which people conceptualize the interconnected relationship between humans and nature in the context of a hypothetical urban waterway, and the implications thereof for environmental investment and stewardship. We also explored how these beliefs varied based on describing the waterway as having either local or global impacts, and as originating either naturally or through artificial processes. Three hundred and seventy-nine adults from the United States read vignettes about a polluted urban waterway and thereafter reported their investment in river clean-up, their stewardship of the river, and their beliefs surrounding human-nature relationships. Results revealed a common belief pattern whereby humans were believed to impact the urban river disproportionately more than the river impacts humans, suggesting that lay adults often weigh the impacts of humans on the natural world disproportionally. Critically, this disproportionate pattern of thinking inversely predicted investment of time and money in river clean-up. Results also revealed a potential solution to this psychological bias: highlighting local benefits of the waterway decreased the asymmetry of the human-nature relationship. We discuss the psychological factors contributing to this cognitive bias, and the implications of these findings on stakeholder engagement.
10 Hatch, N. R.; Daniel, D.; Pande, S. 2022. Behavioral and socio-economic factors controlling irrigation adoption in Maharashtra, India. Hydrological Sciences Journal, 67(6):847-857. (Special issue: Advancing Socio-Hydrology) [doi: https://doi.org/10.1080/02626667.2022.2058877]
Irrigation ; Adoption ; Socioeconomic aspects ; Psychological factors ; Farmers' attitudes ; Norms ; Risk ; Water scarcity ; Modelling / India / Maharashtra / Vidarbha / Marathwada / Nagpur / Wardha / Amaravati / Yavatmal
(Location: IWMI HQ Call no: e-copy only Record No: H051452)
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/02626667.2022.2058877
https://vlibrary.iwmi.org/pdf/H051452.pdf
https://vlibrary.iwmi.org/pdf/H051452.pdf
(3.48 MB) (3.48 MB)
Psychological frameworks are rarely used to understand irrigation adoption behaviour in developing countries. A Bayesian belief network (BBN) model was developed that integrated socio-economic characteristics and psychological factors to understand farmer behaviours with respect to irrigation practices in four districts of Maharashtra, India. Strong norms, risk perceptions of water scarcity, and attitude play roles in the adoption of irrigation technology and practices. Critically, it was found that no one factor can explain adoption behaviour; rather, an ensemble of factors is needed to understand farmer behaviour. A farmer who is highly educated, middle-aged, and moderately wealthy with a significant level of family help and an open well as their main water source, while receiving low promotional information related to water scarcity and irrigation adoption, is most likely to adopt irrigation technology. The application of the BBN in this study enables stakeholders and policymakers to better understand the linkages between different factors and behaviour.
11 Bush, S. S.; Clayton, A. 2023. Facing change: gender and climate change attitudes worldwide. American Political Science Review, 117(2):591-608. [doi: https://doi.org/10.1017/S0003055422000752]
Climate change mitigation ; Gender ; Women ; Men ; Attitudes ; Economic development ; Psychological factors ; Political aspects ; Policies / Europe / United States of America / Peru
(Location: IWMI HQ Call no: e-copy only Record No: H051478)
https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/38688C0CA6DF889475FDB52C06DD7FF9/S0003055422000752a.pdf/facing-change-gender-and-climate-change-attitudes-worldwide.pdf
https://vlibrary.iwmi.org/pdf/H051478.pdf
https://vlibrary.iwmi.org/pdf/H051478.pdf
(0.78 MB) (799 KB)
Gender differences in concern about climate change are highly correlated with economic development: when countries are wealthier, a gap emerges whereby women are more likely than men to express concern about our changing climate. These differences stem from cross-national variation in men’s attitudes. Men, more than women, tend to be less concerned about climate change when countries are wealthier. This article develops a new theory about the perceived costs and benefits of climate mitigation policy to explain this pattern. At the country level, the perceived benefits of mitigation tend to decrease with economic development, whereas the perceived costs increase. At the individual level, the perceived costs of mitigation tend to increase with economic development for men more than for women. Evidence from existing surveys from every world region, an original 10-country survey in the Americas and Europe, and focus groups in Peru and the United States support the theory.
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