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Achieving climate-smart nutrition security in sub-Saharan Africa is an urgent challenge due to increasing climate risks to agricultural production, population growth and food price volatility This necessitates an integrated evidence base that takes into account not only future food system modelling but wider academic expertise and stakeholder knowledge and the plausible and desirable transformations that these information streams can provide. Accordingly, we use the integrated...

Climate change and climate extremes increasingly threaten agricultural production and thereby pose a serious risk to agricultural livelihoods, particularly in the Global South. In support of adaptation planning, science-based information on projected climate impacts and sound information on the suitability of adaptation options is needed. This study provides a comprehensive analysis of current and future climate-related risks in Zambia – a country that is highly vulnerable to...

The Africa Multi-Hazard Early Warning and Action System for Disaster Risk Reduction (AMHEWAS for DRR) is a joint effort, led by the African Union Commission (AUC) in coordination with Regional Economic Communities and Member States and with the technical and scientific support of UNDRR and CIMA Foundation, aimed at strengthening Africa's resilience to natural hazards. This comprehensive system encompasses a multi-scale approach, spanning from continental to regional and national levels, to...

Climate change is associated with increasing frequencies and intensities of extreme weather events. These can, directly and indirectly, shape human (im)mobility. While most research on migration in the context of climate change focuses on climate as a migration driver in origin areas, there is a gap in knowledge on the role of migration for climate resilience in the destination areas. This paper studies differences in resilience (resistance and recovery) to climatic shocks between migrant...

Background: In South Africa, medical students are expected to have acquired a generalist competence in medical practice on completion of their training. However, what the students and their preceptors understand by ‘generalist medical practice’ has not been established in South African medical schools.Aim: This study aimed to explore what the students and their preceptors understood by ‘generalist medical practice’.Setting: Four South African medical schools: Sefako Makgatho Health Sciences...

Droughts are characterized by periods of below-average precipitation leading to an imbalance in the hydrological cycle and reduced water availability.In the last decades, higher average temperatures and shifts in annual rainfall patterns have increased the frequency, intensity, and length of droughts across the globe. With the majority of its population living in rural areas and a high economic dependency on rain-fed agriculture, Mozambique is particularly vulnerable to droughts, as water...

Due to the impacts of climate change and global warming, Malawi has experienced severe droughts in recent years. Hydro-meteorological drought prediction has been underexplored in Malawi and Southern Africa. This study investigates key CMIP6 climate scenarios to characterize hydro-meteorological droughts in the Kasungu Agricultural Development Division (ADD). The objective is to assess and predict hydro-meteorological droughts in Central Malawi using a multi-model ensemble from eight CMIP6...

Fogo Island is an active volcano with at least 28 eruptions since 1460, the latest of which in 2014-2015. It is formed by a major conical and asymmetrical Quaternary strato-volcano with a summit depression (Chã das Caldeiras), within which a 1 km-tall cone rises to 2829 m, the maximum elevation of the island. The 8 km-wide Chã das Caldeiras is truncated by a large eastward flank collapse. Morphologically this depression is formed by two intersecting calderas, a northern and...

This paper examined the extent and nature of safety for teachers in their different school settings and further underscored the importance of safety for teachers in the school context. The current school environment is violent owing to the increasing lack of teachers’ ability to maintain order in schools due to the uncertain alternatives to corporal punishment. This creates a hostile learning environment that weakens the teachers’ position of power and prohibits them from using their...

Climate change impacts are expected to negatively affect crop productivity in several agricultural systems and agro-ecological zones of Africa, where the majority of the rural people derive their livelihood from rain-fed agriculture. In Uganda, mountainous and lake ecosystems are dominant growing areas for major annual and perennial crops, but are more susceptible to future changes in climate. This is likely to deteriorate agricultural livelihoods of these ecosystems through declining...

Increased urbanisation and inadequate awareness have affected the availability and subsequent use of freshwater resources in Uganda. Education can play a crucial role in providing support to and training for students on sustainable water use, both at home and at school. Thus, this research assesses the current state of Ugandan education on this subject, by identifying the water-related topics currently featured in the curriculum at different class levels, using questionnaires distributed in...

Air and noise pollution are significant emerging environmental health hazards in African cities, with potentially complex spatial and temporal patterns. Limited local data are a major barrier to the formulation and evaluation of policies to reduce air and noise pollution.We designed and carried out an innovative 3-year measurement campaign to characterise air and noise pollution and their sources at high-resolution within the Greater Accra Metropolitan Area (GAMA), Ghana. Our design used a...

Globally, climate change remains one of the most pressing challenges, and it is also an obstacle to the fundamental achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals. The purpose of the study was to examine the determinants of small-scale farmers’ participation in social capital networks to enhance adoption of climate change adaptation strategies. Multistage and purposive sampling were used to carry out the study. A cross-sectional research design was used to carry out the study and...

Cities in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) are undergoing significant economic and urban expansion. The rapid urban growth is shaping land use, housing, transportation, and energy for household and commercial use. Consequently, air pollution from diverse local and regional sources and with complex space-time patterns has emerged as a major environmental health concern for cities in SSA. Yet, limited city-scale data are a barrier to climate and health impact assessment as well as policy formulation...

This study sought to critically review and demystify the postgraduate research supervision in South African universities. There is unnecessary discrimination among scholars concerning the certification of lecturers in South African universities. Some lecturers are not recognized as academically fit to supervise doctoral students even when there is evidence that they have the capacity to supervise doctoral research. While there is a lack of recognition of some lecturers with regard to...

The ~74 ka Youngest Toba Tuff (YTT) eruption of Mount Toba in Indonesia is considered to be the largest volcanic eruption during the last 2.6 Ma. Its impact on global climate regimes and ecosystems, especially in tropical regions, is important due to possible consequences for the evolution and dispersal of early modern humans. In this study, we utilise the high-quality lake-sediment record from Lake Chala (Tanzania/Kenya), recovered by the ICDP DeepCHALLA project, to reconstruct the climatic...

Earthquakes are acknowledged as a potent force of nature that can cause substantial harm to populations and result in widespread damage. Therefore, having a seismic public alerting system is crucial for swiftly broadcasting warnings to the public and relevant risk agencies in the event of an earthquake. The system will send instantaneous notifications to users, allowing them to quickly implement protective measures for risk agencies, as well as offer feedback on individuals’...