Priestley International Centre for Climate, University of Leeds, Priestley Building, Leeds, West Yorkshire, LS2 9JT, UK.
Nuffield Centre for International Health & Development, University of Leeds, Leeds, West Yorkshire, UK.
BMC Public Health. 2020 Dec 4;20(1):1864. doi: 10.1186/s12889-020-09914-9.
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 community-based 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.
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.
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.
Applying conventional approaches to surveillance, without deliberate consideration of the broader contextual and relational processes, can lead to the re-marginalization of peoples and the reproduction of inequalities in power between groups of people. We anticipate that our findings can be used to inform the initiation of a place-based integrated climate-food-health surveillance system in Kanungu District as well as other contexts with a rich diversity of knowledges and existing forms of monitoring and response.
与气候变化相关的粮食不安全问题将在依赖粮食系统维持生计和生存的自给社区中更加严重。基于地点和社区的监测形式对于建立公平的证据基础非常重要，该基础整合了气候、粮食和健康信息，并使我们了解气候变化如何通过地方和土著自给粮食系统影响健康。
我们展示了乌干达西南部卡农古区巴特瓦和巴基加自给社区的案例研究。我们进行了 22 次关键知情人访谈，以绘制与季节性变化有关的健康和自给粮食系统监测和知识的形式。伴随关键知情人访谈进行了参与式绘图练习，以确定谁拥有有关健康和自给粮食系统的知识。社会网络理论和分析方法用于探索信息在知识持有者之间的流动情况，以及知识生产和交流过程中涉及的权力和代理。
这项研究绘制了现有的值得信赖的关系网络，这些网络已经用于整合不同的知识、信息和行政行动。叙述揭示了正在进行的和重复的观察、解释、评估和调整循环的清单，这些循环构成了现有的健康和自给粮食监测和应对系统。这些本地健康和自给粮食系统网络没有得到气候和气象信息的明确系统支持。我们的研究结果表明，整合监测系统不仅涉及我们监测的信息类型，还涉及通过监测和应对的现有网络连接知识的人员和方式。
如果没有对更广泛的背景和关系过程进行刻意考虑，就应用传统的监测方法，可能会导致人民边缘化和群体之间权力不平等的再现。我们预计，我们的研究结果可以为在卡农古区启动基于地点的综合气候-粮食-健康监测系统以及其他具有丰富知识和现有监测和应对形式的背景提供信息。
