13 pages., Via online journal., Access to food is a basic pillar of human development. It is therefore unsurprising that it features so centrally on global development agendas and that a robust, interdisciplinary literature seeks to examine its determinants. This study focuses on the relationship between mobile technology and food access. Specifically, we ask whether mobile technology can strengthen the relationship between food access and certain social and political factors such as remittance flows and political participation. We use Afrobarometer surveys and highly disaggregated data on 2G network coverage to estimate a multilevel model testing how increased connectivity measured by mobile technology influences food access. We show that mobile phone use and higher frequency of use are significantly and positively correlated with food access, but we do not find evidence that remittances and political participation levels can explain the mechanisms linking mobile technology and food access. The study highlights that connectivity can play a powerful role in shaping food outcomes even when controlling for commonly identified impediments such as income constraints or physical isolation. These findings suggest that policies aimed at improving food access should devote attention to strengthening both communication and physical infrastructure.
Van Beurden, Eric K. (author), Kia, Annie M. (author), Hughes, Denise (author), Fuller, Jeffery D. (author), Dietrich, Uta (author), Howton, Kirsty (author), and Kavooru, Suman (author)
Format:
Online journal article
Publication Date:
2011
Published:
Australia: Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
Location:
Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Box: 32 Document Number: D10631
7 pages., via online journal., Human health is indivisible from ecological health and there is
increasing focus on climate change as the major preventable threat
to the health of humanity. The direct associations between climate
change and population health are well documented, as are potential
co-benefits of climate action.1-6
Australia is entering a period of climatic extremes.7,8 The socially stable
and agriculturally productive Northern Rivers region of New South
Wales is set to experience increasing temperatures, storms, flooding and
erosion.9,10 This will likely be compounded by changes in socio/political,
environmental, agricultural and economic systems with resultant
impacts on social and environmental determinants of health.11,12
How might a rural population of 280,000 respond? In 2007,
community resilience to climate change was neither a state nor
federal health promotion priority. The former North Coast Area
Health Service Health Promotion (NCHP) adopted one promising
direction: to foster a collaboration of existing organisations to
accelerate regional action on climate change.13-15 The former NSW
Department of Climate Change funded the pilot project: Resilience:
building health from regional responses to climate change. The
project incorporated principles from Complex Adaptive Systems
(CAS) theory with emphasis on the concepts of resilience and
