RAPID: Food security and community health during a period of transition

博士克雷格哈德利（埃默里大学）和爱德华史蒂文森（大学学院伦敦）将进行研究，以促进当地生态对人类福祉的影响的理解。他们的研究重点是正在进行重新安置和从农牧业向更密集农业过渡的社区，作为区域发展计划的一部分。这一计划将通过新建的运河进行灌溉，从而改变当地生态，但将限制进入牧场，并改变季节性人口流动。本研究采用调查、访谈和民族志的方法，为后续研究回答以下三个问题奠定基础：（1）当地生态的变化如何影响粮食安全、水安全和心理健康？(2)是先前的社会地位（如性别和教育）或经济地位（家庭财富）更好地预测后来的幸福？(3)在改善社区卫生方面，对教育和医疗服务的投资是否弥补了搬迁和人口密度增加的压力？这项研究将汇集来自公共卫生和人类学的研究人员。它有助于建立一个纵向研究项目，评估重大生态和社会变化期间的粮食安全和社区健康。这些变化对心理健康的影响特别重要。该项目将有助于重新安置政策，特别是对依赖畜牧业的人口而言。牧民社区约占东非土地面积的50%，但仅占人口的10%;国家经济发展举措越来越多地将这些土地用于其他用途，对当地生计产生重要影响。对粮食安全和社区健康的纵向研究应有助于为重新安置方案的最佳做法提供信息。

Drs Craig Hadley (Emory University) and Edward Stevenson (University College London) will undertake research to advance understanding of the effects of local ecology on human well-being. Their research focuses on communities which are undergoing resettlement and a transition from agro-pastoralism to more intensive agriculture as part of a regional development scheme. This scheme will alter local ecology by enabling irrigation through newly built canals, but will constrain access to grazing land and alter seasonal population movements. Using surveys, interviews, and ethnographic methods, the study will lay the groundwork for later follow-up to answer three questions: (1) How do changes in local ecology affect food security, water security, and mental health? (2) Is later well-being better predicted by prior social status (e.g. gender and education) or economic status (household wealth)? (3) Do investments in education and medical services compensate for the stresses of relocation and greater population density, in terms of improving community health?This study will bring together researchers from public health and anthropology. It contributes to establishing a longitudinal research project that will assess food security and community health during momentous ecological and social changes. The effects of such changes on mental health are particularly important to document. The project stands to contribute to policy regarding resettlement, especially with regard to populations reliant on livestock herding. Pastoralist communities occupy approximately 50% of the land area of East Africa, but constitute only 10% of the population; state economic development initiatives are increasingly targeting such land for alternative uses, with important implications for local livelihoods. Longitudinal research on food security and community health should help to inform best practice in resettlement programs.