| dc.description.abstract | Climate change (CC) has been defined as any significant change in the measures of climate variables lasting for an extended period of time (decades or longer). Approximately 34% of all juvenile (children under age 14) illnesses globally are due to CC mediated factors. The way juveniles perceive CC induced extreme weather events vary from one country or region to another. However, the impact of CC on juvenile diet and feasibility of a child-centred adaptation has largely been ignored in developing countries. In the Lake Victoria Basin (LVB) Kenya, for example, the potential of a child-centred adaptation (CA) does not feature in the broader discourse of the climate change agenda or the counties‟ strategic development planning. This study therefore envisaged to fill this existing gap by broadly investigating the impact of climate change on juvenile diet and health, and to explore the feasibility of integrating a child-centred adaptation into institutional policies in the LVB. This study specifically investigated (i) the impacts of climate change on juvenile diet (ii) the prevailing community‟s knowledge, attitude and practices (KAP) towards climate change (iii) the community-level adaptation, institutional strategic development plans and policies towards climate change and (iv) the feasibility of a child-centred climate change adaptation model. The study was conducted in Nyando and Gwasi sub counties within the LVB, Kenya. Mixed quantitative and qualitative methods were applied. The general approach for data analysis in the current study was qualitative. However, quantitative data from household survey was subjected to multivariate logistic regression analysis and descriptive statistics to generate frequencies. The results showed that households modify their eating habits during droughts, and maize meal dominated juvenile diet (100%). There was no gender difference in the level of KAP towards climate change among the respondents. Over 64.4% and 97.6% of Gwasi and Nyando residents, respectively, had heard about global climate change. About 40% of all respondents equated changes in crop planting seasons in the region to climate change. Over 39
% of respondents stated that climate change is caused by natural changes not human interference while 57.9% said that both human activities and natural changes are responsible for climate change. The attitude of 60% of the respondents in both Gwasi and Nyando was that climate change does not affect the rich and poor equally, however, majority (99%) of the respondents in both Gwasi and Nyando areas practiced non commercial local chicken husbandry. Community-level adaptation practices in Nyando include regularly opening flood water channels in the area, however, in Gwasi selling small livestock and chicken is a common adaptation practice. The development plans for Homa Bay and Kisumu Counties‟ reveal that the main planning and control mechanisms are policies, annual work plans and budgets. i.e. based on available resources. On the feasibility of CA 87% of the participating juveniles showed ability to talk about climate change adaptation. The current study concludes that CC is adversely affecting household‟s food options and juvenile diet in the LVB, Kenya. The local community‟s level of knowledge towards climate change is high; however, their attitude towards the phenomena is poor. The institutional strategic development plans and policies in the LVB, Kenya are restricted by available resources. Evaluation of the CA model showed juveniles as effective communicators and cost effective agents for perpetuating CC adaptation messages in the community. It is therefore recommended that; (i) the County governments around LVB reinforce agricultural extension in order to address the effects of climate change induced forcings on household‟s food options and juvenile diet (ii) the County governments around the LVB, Kenya conduct climate change awareness education in order to improve adaptation practices (iiii) the County governments should mainstream climate change adaptation education in all institutional strategic development plans and policies, and (iv) child-centred climate change adaptation education should be promoted in primary schools in order to diffuse adaptation messages in the region. | en_US |
