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In the climate-development interface, research for development gained a strong interest in climate-smart agriculture and sustainable forms of intensification. Moreover, the urgency to respond to climate change stimulates a strong and sometimes exclusive focus on mitigation, driven by research-based agricultural practices. In the livestock sector, this materialises in strategies to lower emissions from livestock, which centralises the adoption question: what can we do to stimulate the use of best practices by smallholder farmers? This paper flags the risk that this outlook may overlooksmallholder farmers' capacities to navigate sub-optimal conditions of drought or scarcity. The paper applies an alternative lens for understanding 'agriculture-as-performance' and highlights smallholder cattle owners' agency and resourcefulness. It aims to create a conceptual space to examine how adaptive capacities are grounded in the rhythms of agriculture under suboptimal conditions. Empirically, the study focuses on the cattle-feeding practices of five farming households evolving through seasons and lifetimes in a sedentary agricultural system in Kenya. Our frame identifies diverse affordances, conceptualised as opportunities for actions, emerging and disappearing in the immediate material environment, and we portray cattle feeding as a networked response anchored in practices of giving, sharing, and receiving. We use our insights into the dynamics and performance of entangled socio-technical practices to sketch the contours of an alternative pathway for agriculture for development. We argue in favour of a shift from an exclusive focus on the adoption of predefined optimal solutions to a diagnostic and catalytic approach integrating situated adaptive performances through which farming households respond to action opportunities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper we examine whether there are significant gender differences in the adoption of climate‐smart agricultural (CSA) practices in sub‐Saharan Africa. Using individual‐level data from four sites in Kenya, Uganda and Senegal, our empirical analysis provides robust evidence that men have a higher likelihood of adopting high‐return CSA practices including modern chemical fertiliser, improved high‐yielding varieties and drought/pest tolerant livestock practices. In contrast, women tend to have a higher likelihood of adopting low‐risk and low‐return traditional CSA practices such as water harvesting, crop covering, rangeland management and pest management. Our subsample analysis shows significant heterogeneity in the gender gap across countries. The results of the decomposition of the observed gender gap show that personal values and norms, access to weather and production information and farm characteristics are important factors that explain the gender differential in the likelihood of CSA adoption. Our findings imply that equalising access to key resources such as plots of land, information and decision making power will be crucial to close the gender gap in the adoption of CSA practices. This is particularly important given the differential impacts of climate change between men and women in sub‐Saharan Africa. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper argues that for any community transformation to be achieved, cultural values and legal frameworks, which influence issues relating to land rights and food security, must form an integral part of any policy intervention efforts. We adopted feminism as both a methodological and an analytical framework. The dominant research paradigm was qualitative. The study sample was 184 people obtained using a systematic sampling method. Data collection was through focus groups and interviews. We challenge contemporary development initiatives, in terms of their intentions and sustainability. Finally, it is important that any development initiatives facilitate the participation and involvement of all genders. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Lung health in Africa is of great public health concern. To exchange knowledge, communicate the latest scientific advances in lung health, build the capacity of young researchers, and provide a platform for networking of lung health stakeholders in Africa, the Pan African Thoracic Society (PATS), in partnership with the Respiratory Society of Kenya organized and held the 3rd Biennial PATS congress, from June 7–10, 2023 in Mombasa, Kenya. There were a total of 30 conference sessions, which included six skills building workshops, two research dissemination workshops, six plenary sessions, and five each of pediatric, adult, and thoracic surgery symposia. A total of 60 abstracts were presented, including 27 oral abstracts and 33 posters. A wide range of issues for lung health in Africa emerged. These include the emerging role of the environment, especially climate change and global warming, on lung health, the threat posed by the use of tobacco and other nicotine products in Africa, the high burden of lung infections, insecurity of medical oxygen supply systems, and high burden of chronic respiratory disease. In this paper, we summarize the proceedings of this conference and draw lessons that can be used to advance lung health in the African continent. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Climate change and variability have significant impacts on pastoral communities in Kenya. The effects include reduced livestock productivity, food insecurity, and increased conflicts over resources amongst other adverse effects. Examining such effects makes it possible to suggest adaptive and sustainable practices that can be used to improve the conditions of Arid and semi-arid areas in Kenya where majority of the pastoral communities live. The goal of this paper is to review the effects of climate change and variability on pastoral communities in Kenya. The study employs a desk review of recent journal articles that have comprehensively documented the research topic. As per the research findings, pastoral communities in Kenya face significant challenges due to climate change and variability. They have, however, used a variety of adaptation strategies, such as diversifying their sources of income, managing resources as a group, and using new technologies. The use of secondary sources of information and the potential biases in the selection of journal articles are the study's shortcomings. The study has generated relevant knowledge that policymakers and development agencies can use in designing climate change adaptation and mitigation interventions that are responsive to the specific needs and circumstances of pastoral communities in Kenya, Africa. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the diversification of pastoralist herding practices in the context of socio-climatic change and the ways in which mobile technologies shape this diversification. It does so to offer a plural perspective on the relation between climate change and human mobility, showing the heterogenous and socially embedded ways in which it unfolds. Pastoralists have been moving in response to rains and droughts for centuries. This mobility is, however, faced with numerous challenges, related to privatisation of land, processes of urbanisation impacting on pastoralist livelihoods and changing rainfall patterns making decision-making on livestock mobility increasingly complex. This paper examines how pastoralists are navigating these challenges through the use of basic phones, smartphones and social media, via a case study of the Kenyan Laikipia Highlands. It demonstrates how these mobile technologies enable herding practices to endure and for them to be reshaped by taking on a mix of physical and digital forms. This happens through social media platforms, virtual herding and through pluralised networks of information exchange on grazing strategies navigating the socio-climatic limitations imposed on them. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper aims to explore how the principles of participatory action research (PAR) articulate with questions of climate justice. Drawing on three qualitative case studies in Brazil, Fiji and Kenya, the paper explores university institutional capabilities, asking how the principles of mobilising PAR to support transformative outcomes can further climate justice. The paper argues that for participatory action research to become a pathway to build universities' capabilities, key considerations are needed. PAR needs to: (a) move beyond change in individual behaviour to respond to climate change and affect institutional norms, procedures and practices; (b) recognise and partner with marginalised groups whose voice and experiences are at the periphery of climate debate, enabling reciprocal flows of impact and knowledge between universities and wider societies; and (c) foster "relationships of equivalence" with actors within as well as outside university to influence university governance and wider climate-related policy-making processes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Agriculture depends in large part on relations with weather phenomena, such as rain and temperature. Anticipatory knowledge about the atmosphere therefore is vital in agricultural livelihoods. Based on an ethnographic case study of weather forecasting for small-scale farming in western Kenya, in this paper I discuss different ways in which knowledge about the future weather is produced. While development organizations promote expert forecasts that draw on meteorological sensing technologies as a solution to dealing with climate change, I show how knowing the weather is an entangled affair in a sensory assemblage that simultaneously draws on scientific instruments and on other entities such as animals, plants, clouds and embodied sensoria associated with experiential knowledge. Building on concepts related to science and technology studies that address the relations between humans and nonhumans, I suggest to treat scientific and experiential devices symmetrically by looking at their more-than-human sensoria, proxies and imaginations to understand how farmers attune to the weather. In practice, then, navigating the uncertainties of the weather is not enabled by scientific meteorology alone, but by combining different sensory devices and practices of interpretation that together mediate the weather as something to be known and acted upon. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the adoption of improved pigeon peas in female-headed households (FHHs) and male-headed households (MHHs) in semi-arid Kenya and its effect on yield as a proxy for household food security. Cross-sectional data were obtained from 450 households through a multi-stage sampling approach. We applied the endogenous switching regression model to establish the determinants of adoption decision and their effects on yield. Results showed that adoption increased crop yield. The adopting MHHs had significantly higher yield compared with the FHHs. The difference in yield was explained by both observed and unobserved characteristics in gender of the household head. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the rising threat of climate change, green hydrogen is increasingly seen as the high-capacity energy storage and transport medium of the future. This creates an opportunity for low- and middle-income countries to leverage their high renewable energy potential to produce, use, and export low-cost green hydrogen, creating environmental and economic development benefits. While identifying ideal locations for green hydrogen production is critical for countries when defining their green hydrogen strategies, there has been a paucity of adequate geospatial planning approaches suitable to low- and middle-income countries. It is essential for these countries to identify green hydrogen production sites which match demand to expected use cases such that their strategies are economically sustainable. This paper therefore develops a novel geospatial cost modelling method to optimize the location of green hydrogen production across different use cases, with a focus on suitability to low- and middle-income countries. This method is applied in Kenya to investigate the potential hydrogen supply chain for three use cases: ammonia-based fertilizer, freight transport, and export. We find hydrogen production costs of €3.7–9.9/kg H 2 are currently achievable across Kenya, depending on the production location chosen. The cheapest production locations are identified to the south and south-east of Lake Turkana. We show that ammonia produced in Kenya can be cost-competitive given the current energy crisis and that Kenya could export hydrogen to Rotterdam with costs of €7/kg H 2 , undercutting current market prices regardless of the carrier medium. With expected techno-economic improvements, hydrogen production costs across Kenya could drop to €1.8–3.0/kg H 2 by 2030. [Display omitted] • We develop a novel GIS method to identify least-cost green hydrogen production locations. • This is applied in Kenya for ammonia, freight transport, and export use cases. • Hydrogen production costs of €3.7–9.9/kg H 2 are currently achievable in Kenya. • The cheapest production locations are to the south/south-east of Lake Turkana. • Kenya could export hydrogen and undercut current market prices with any carrier. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cleaner production is preventive and should be integrated into every production process. Despite its huge contribution to climate change, cleaner production faces many adoption and implementation hurdles which make it harder for organizations to adopt the practice and reap the benefits that come with it. This paper highlights these hindrances, and the various motivations that organizations could take advantage of in their urge to achieve cleaner production. This research assesses the importance of regulations and finances in adopting cleaner production. Also, the research evaluates the role of firms' need to control environmental costs, improve relations with the community, keep up with competitors and achieve a competitive advantage in adopting cleaner technologies. The study uses a probit model to analyze data collected from 852 representative firms in Kenya. This study finds that regulatory constraints and financial resources limit firms. The need to control environmental costs, improve relations with the community, keep up with competitors and achieve a competitive advantage motivate firms to adopt cleaner technologies. These findings are particularly important to policy makers at national and firm levels. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Climate change adaptation requires understanding of complex social ecological systems (SESs). One source of uncertainty in complex SESs is ambiguity, defined as the range and variety of existing perceptions in and of an SES, which are considered equally valid, resulting in a lack of a unique or single system understanding. Current modelling practices that acknowledge the presence of ambiguity in SESs focus on finding consensus with stakeholders; however, advanced methods for explicitly representing and aggregating ambiguity in SESs are underdeveloped. Moreover, understanding the influences of ambiguity on SES representation is limited. This paper demonstrates the presence and range of ambiguities in endogenous and exogenous system drivers and internal relationships based on individual fuzzy cognitive maps derived from stakeholder perceptions of climate change adaptation in Kenya and introduces an ambiguity based modelling process. Our results indicate that acknowledging ambiguity fundamentally changes SES representation and more advanced methods are required. • Ambiguity is an important aspect of social ecological system understanding. • Fuzzy cognitive maps elucidate a range of ambiguities among stakeholders. • Ambiguity based aggregation was used to quantify ambiguity. • We found the greatest ambiguity in the presence (or lack of) of relationships. • More advanced ambiguity based modelling practices are needed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]