Evaluation of a Training Program on Gender Mainstreaming in Health Research Evaluation at the Senegalese National Research Ethics Committee.

Health research must be of high ethical and scientific quality and consider the needs and experiences of women, men, and nonbinary individuals. National Research Ethics Committees (RECs) are in a strategic position to impede sex- and gender-blind research. In 2020 and 2021, training programs on gender mainstreaming and sex and gender approaches in research evaluation were launched in Senegal.

Using the Women Empowerment in Livestock Index (WELI) to Examine Linkages between Women Smallholder Livestock Farmers' Empowerment and Access to Livestock Vaccines in Machakos County of Kenya: Insights and Critiques.

Livestock diseases are a major barrier to productivity for both male and female livestock keepers in Africa. In Kenya, two of the most devastating livestock diseases are Newcastle Disease (ND) in poultry and Contagious Caprine Pleuropneumonia (CCPP) in goats. Female livestock keepers tend to own more small ruminants (goats, sheep, etc.

Gendered Barriers and Opportunities for Women Smallholder Farmers in the Contagious Caprine Pleuropneumonia Vaccine Value Chain in Kenya.

Most rural women smallholder farmers in Kenya generate income from the sale of small ruminant animals. However, diseases such as Contagious Caprine Pleuropneumonia (CCPP) prevent them from optimizing earnings. A crucial aspect for the control of CCPP is vaccination.

Participatory Epidemiology: Principles, Practice, Utility, and Lessons Learnt.

Participatory epidemiology (PE) evolved as a branch of veterinary epidemiology and has been largely employed for the control and early warning of infectious diseases within resource-limited settings. It was originally based on combining practitioner communication skills with participatory methods to facilitate the involvement of animal caretakers and owners (embracing their knowledge, experience, and motivations) in the identification and assessment of animal disease problems, including in the design, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of disease control programs, policies, and strategies. With the importance of understanding social perceptions and drivers receiving increasing recognition by epidemiologists, PE tools are being adapted for an increasingly wide range of settings and endeavors.

Helping to heal nature and ourselves through human-rights-based and gender-responsive One Health.

The health of our planet and humanity is threatened by biodiversity loss, disease and climate crises that are unprecedented in human history, driven by our insatiable consumption and unsustainable production patterns, particularly food systems. The One Health approach is a pathway to synergistically addressing outcomes in term of health and sustainability, but gender issues at the One Health and biodiversity nexus are largely ignored. By examining the roles and responsibilities of Indigenous and Local People, and especially women, in conserving natural resources, and the social costs of living at the Human-Animal-Environment interface under current conservation strategies, we show that women bear a disproportionate health, poverty and climate burden, despite having pivotal roles in conserving biodiversity.

Gender Roles and One Health Risk Factors at the Human-Livestock-Wildlife Interface, Mpumalanga Province, South Africa.

Gender sensitivity in health promotion has been widely recommended, yet attention to gender roles and gender-disaggregated studies is often lacking in disease research and public health intervention planning. In the rural Mnisi community of Mpumalanga, South Africa, where zoonotic pathogens are known to contribute to acute febrile illness, community and household tasks may increase an individual's risk of exposure, and these tasks are likely to be influenced by gender. This study described the roles and responsibilities of community residents, specifically those that have been identified as critical control points for infectious pathogen exposure, by gender.

Does Village Chicken-Keeping Contribute to Young Children's Diets and Growth? A Longitudinal Observational Study in Rural Tanzania.

There is substantial current interest in linkages between livestock-keeping and human nutrition in resource-poor settings. These may include benefits of improved diet quality, through animal-source food consumption and nutritious food purchases using livestock-derived income, and hazards of infectious disease or environmental enteric dysfunction associated with exposure to livestock feces. Particular concerns center on free-roaming chickens, given their proximity to children in rural settings, but findings to date have been inconclusive.

The chicken or the egg? Exploring bi-directional associations between Newcastle disease vaccination and village chicken flock size in rural Tanzania.

Newcastle disease (ND) is a viral disease of poultry with global importance, responsible for the loss of a potential source of household nutrition and economic livelihood in many low-income food-deficit countries. Periodic outbreaks of this endemic disease result in high mortality amongst free-ranging chicken flocks and may serve as a disincentive for rural households to invest time or resources in poultry-keeping. Sustainable ND control can be achieved through vaccination using a thermotolerant vaccine administered via eyedrop by trained "community vaccinators".

Characterising infant and young child feeding practices and the consumption of poultry products in rural Tanzania: A mixed methods approach.

Suboptimal breastfeeding practices, early initiation of complementary feeding, and monotonous cereal-based diets have been implicated as contributors to continuing high rates of child undernutrition in sub-Saharan Africa. Nutrition-sensitive interventions, including agricultural programs that increase access to nutrient-rich vegetables, legumes, and animal-source foods, have the potential to achieve sustainable improvements in children's diets. In the quest to evaluate the efficacy of such programs in improving growth and development in the first 2 years of life, there is a role for mixed methods research to better understand existing infant and young child feeding practices.

Determinants of Elongation of the Labia Minora in Tete Province, Central Mozambique: Findings of a Household Survey.

A WHO-supported provincial-level population-based survey was conducted in 2007 to understand the determinants and implications for health of vaginal practices. A total of 919 women aged 18-60 were selected randomly for enrolment. This is the first population-based study of females in Tete Province, Mozambique.

Transdisciplinary Project Communication and Knowledge Sharing Experiences in Tanzania and Zambia through a One Health Lens.

The project "Strengthening food and nutrition security through family poultry and crop integration in Tanzania and Zambia" brings together animal, crop, and human health specialists, economists, ecologists, social scientists, and practitioners to work with participating communities. It aims to increase poultry value chain, crop farming systems efficiency, and household food and nutrition security and thus requires understanding of, and ability to work effectively within, complex systems. In this context, communication knowledge sharing and synthesis between stakeholders from diverse backgrounds and a range of experiences, perspectives, agendas, and knowledge is a challenge.

Zambian Women in South Africa: Insights Into Health Experiences of Labia Elongation.

Labia minora elongation consists in the manual stretching of the inner lips of the external genitalia. This practice is documented in east and southern Africa. The experiences of African women in the diaspora practicing elongation are not thoroughly understood.

Perceptions of Men on Puxa-Puxa, or Labia Minora Elongation, in Tete, Mozambique.

Labia minora elongation has been documented as being practiced by 98.6% of the women in Tete province, Mozambique. Women engage in this procedure before the first menstruation.

Impact of avian influenza on village poultry production globally.

Village poultry and their owners were frequently implicated in disease transmission in the early days of the highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) H5N1 pandemic. With improved understanding of the epidemiology of the disease, it was recognized that village poultry raised under extensive conditions pose less of a threat than intensively raised poultry of homogeneous genetic stock with poor biosecurity. This paper provides an overview of village poultry production and the multiple ways that the HPAI H5N1 pandemic has impacted on village poultry, their owners, and the traders whose livelihoods are intimately linked to these birds.

Vaginal practices as women's agency in sub-Saharan Africa: a synthesis of meaning and motivation through meta-ethnography.

This paper reports on a systematic review of qualitative research about vaginal practices in sub-Saharan Africa, which used meta-ethnographic methods to understand their origins, their meanings for the women who use them, and how they have evolved in time and place. We included published documents which were based on qualitative methods of data collection and analysis and contained information on vaginal practices. After screening, 16 texts were included which dated from 1951 to 2008.

Prevalence, motivations, and adverse effects of vaginal practices in Africa and Asia: findings from a multicountry household survey.

Background: Women worldwide use various vaginal practices to clean or modify their vulva and vagina. Additional population-level information is needed on prevalence and motivations for these practices, characteristics of users, and their adverse effects.

Methods: This was a household survey using multistage cluster sampling in Tete, Mozambique; KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa; Yogyakarta, Indonesia; and Chonburi, Thailand.

A cross cultural study of vaginal practices and sexuality: implications for sexual health.

Between 2005 and 2006, we investigated vaginal practices in Yogyakarta, Indonesia; Tete, Mozambique; KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa; and Bangkok and Chonburi, Thailand. We sought to understand women's practices, their motivations for use and the role vaginal practices play in women's health, sexuality and sense of wellbeing. The study was carried out among adult women and men who were identified as using, having knowledge or being involved in trade in products.

Vaginal practices: eroticism and implications for women's health and condom use in Mozambique.

This paper analyses two female sexual practices in Tete Province, Mozambique: (1) the practice of elongating the labia minora and (2) what is sometimes called 'dry sex' involving the insertion of natural and/or synthetic products into the vagina or the ingestion of these products orally. These practices are fundamental to the construction of female identity, eroticism and the experience of pleasure. Notions such as 'closed/open', 'dry/damp', 'hot/cold', 'heavy/light', 'life/death', 'wealth/poverty' and 'sweet/not sweet' are central to local understandings of sexual practices and reproduction.