Speaker
Description
Keywords: Nutrition, climate change, climate-induced natural disasters, theoretical framework, food systems
Introduction
Extreme weather events and climate change can affect the nutritional status of individuals and pose major risks to long-term food and nutritional security. There are different pathways through which climate-induced natural disasters affect nutrition and WASH outcomes. These pathways can be either direct or indirect. Direct pathways include the reduction of food availability due to washing away of stored food and crops in the field, shortage of potable water to drink, and reduction in food access. All of these factors affect household dietary diversity and ultimately lead to malnutrition. Indirect pathways can affect nutrition outcomes through reduced consumption of animal food as a consequence of livestock mortality, reduction of agricultural income as a result of heat stress, water scarcity, and poor sanitation. Indirect effects include changes in markets and supply chain infrastructure demanding more food production and food prices, thereby affecting the availability and accessibility of food by vulnerable groups such as women of childbearing age and children under five years of age.
The impact of climate-induced natural disasters on nutritional outcomes is complex and not always direct. There are several pathways through which climate-induced natural disasters affect nutritional outcomes. However, the reviewed literature presents a situation that implies that the pathways through which climate, including natural disasters, impact nutritional outcomes are independent of each other.
Objective
The objective of this paper is to propose a generic conceptual framework that shows the different pathways through which climate-induced natural disasters can impact nutrition outcomes and the possible interventions that can be implemented to reduce the impact.
Methodology
The development of the conceptual framework was based on theories and concepts derived from the literature and on findings from previous studies on the impact of climate-induced disasters on food heritage (Dembedza et al., 2022) and nutrition outcomes (Dembedza et al., 2023).
The proposed conceptual framework was based on two design principles. The first principle is the systems approach theory (Ackoff, 1971). The systems approach theory focuses on systems as a whole and not on individual components. Ackoff (1971) argued that the performance of any system is influenced by the ability of the different stages of the system to work together to achieve the desired output, that is, total system performance. Hence, a systems approach allows for an understanding of the several components that make up a system, and how and which factors can affect the performance of the system. Therefore, this theory advocates a holistic approach when trying to show the interlinkages between different components and how they influence the performance of a system. Thus, the system approach was adopted to design the conceptual framework.
The second design principle is based on contingency theory. This theory examines the interaction between the food system chain and its environment (Macheka et al., 2020). The theory suggests that interventions within a system should be tailored to the context in which the system operates. It is important to investigate the interaction between a system and its environment because its effectiveness depends on the interaction of the system with the environment (Luning and Marcelis, 2006).
Findings
The conceptual framework presented in this section draws primarily from elements of existing theoretical and conceptual frameworks to provide an understanding of the complex interlinkage between climate-induced natural disasters and nutritional outcomes. The conceptual framework was built using six pillars.
Based on theories from the literature, we categorized the impact of climate-induced natural disasters (Pillar 1) on nutrition outcomes. The food system (pillar 2) is central to the framework, as the pathways to impacting nutrition outcomes are either directly (pillar 3) or indirectly (pillar 4), which is through an influence on any stage of the food system. Pillar 5 of the conceptual framework is an outcome variable, in this case the nutrition indicators and outcomes, which provide measures that can be used to investigate the impact of climate-induced natural disasters. Lastly, Pillar 6 presents various interventions that can be implemented to minimize the impact of climate-induced natural disasters on nutritional outcomes. Therefore, the proposed conceptual framework provides a holistic assessment of the impact of climate-induced natural disasters on nutritional outcomes and intervention strategies that can be implemented. The conceptual framework is illustrative and can be tailored to specific contextual situations. This section discusses the pillars used in designing the conceptual framework.
Conclusion
Such a framework, as we have put forward in this study, can help inform measures to put in place to mitigate the effects of climate change and natural disasters on the impact of nutrition. However, it is important to note that the proposed framework should be tailored to a specific type of disaster and its impact. Moreover, there is a need to further evaluate the conceptual framework in different contextual settings involving climate-induced natural disasters. Future work can also be done to include operationalization of the conceptual framework into an assessment tool.
