Integrating climate in Ugandan health and subsistence food systems: where diverse knowledges meet
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RESEARCH ARTICLE
Open Access
Integrating climate in Ugandan health and subsistence food systems: where diverse knowledges meet Bianca van Bavel1* , Lea Berrang Ford1,2,3,4,5,6, Rebecca King2, Shuaib Lwasa3,4,5,6,7,8, Didacus Namanya3,4,5,6,9, Sabastian Twesigomwe10, Helen Elsey11 and Sherilee L. Harper3,4,5,6,12
Abstract Background: The effects of food insecurity linked to climate change will be exacerbated in subsistence communities that are dependent upon food systems for their livelihoods and sustenance. Place-and communitybased forms of surveillance are important for growing an equitable evidence base that integrates climate, food, and health information as well as informs our understanding of how climate change impacts health through local and Indigenous subsistence food systems. Methods: We present a case-study from southwestern Uganda with Batwa and Bakiga subsistence communities in Kanungu District. We conducted 22 key informant interviews to map what forms of monitoring and knowledge exist about health and subsistence food systems as they relate to seasonal variability. A participatory mapping exercise accompanied key informant interviews to identify who holds knowledge about health and subsistence food systems. Social network theory and analysis methods were used to explore how information flows between knowledge holders as well as the power and agency that is involved in knowledge production and exchange processes. Results: This research maps existing networks of trusted relationships that are already used for integrating diverse knowledges, information, and administrative action. Narratives reveal inventories of ongoing and repeated cycles of observations, interpretations, evaluations, and adjustments that make up existing health and subsistence food monitoring and response. These networks of local health and subsistence food systems were not supported by distinct systems of climate and meteorological information. Our findings demonstrate how integrating surveillance systems is not just about what types of information we monitor, but also who and how knowledges are connected through existing networks of monitoring and response. (Continued on next page)
* Correspondence: [email protected] 1 Priestley International Centre for Climate, University of Leeds, Priestley Building, Leeds, West Yorkshire LS2 9JT, UK Full list of author information is available at the end of the article © The Author(s). 2020 Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article's Creative Commons licence and
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