Research: Socio-cultural Dynamics of Transmission

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https://africarxiv.ubuntunet.net/handle/1/1391

Research that investigated how social behaviours and population movement patterns (including congested public transport) in Africa influence the risks of COVID-19 transmission within and between quarantine zones, rural/ peri-urban/urban zones, and transnational borders; how to deliver social distancing, self-quarantine, and isolation measures in high-density urban areas like informal settlements; and how migration, trade and investment, social networks and livelihoods (including in communities relying on income received daily to survive) impact transmission dynamics.

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Socio-Ecological Factors Associated with Preventive Behavior
(Brill, 2024-06-28) Engdawork, Kibur; Amdework, Ezana; Assefa, Samuel
Understanding factors influencing the adoption of preventive behaviors is crucial in pandemic prevention and control. This study employs the social-ecological model to examine the determinants of preventive actions against COVID-19 in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Data from a household survey were analyzed using a linear regression model. The findings indicate a moderate level of preventive behavior adoption among residents. Interpersonal behavior, community norms, and organizational-level factors are identified as significant predictors, while personal and demographic factors have little influence. These results highlight the need for context-specific health interventions, addressing social and structural aspects, to effectively combat COVID-19 in Addis Ababa and similar low- and middle-income settings.
Rural vulnerability and institutional dynamics in the context of COVID-19: A scoping review
(AOSIS, 2022) John, Sokfa F.; Okem, Andrew Emmanuel; Mubangizi, Betty Claire; Adekanla, Niyi; Ngubane, Londeka P.; Barry, Ibrahim
This study reviewed the impact of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) on pre-existing vulnerabilities in rural communities using the scoping review strategy. It focused on manuscripts published on the topic in 2020. Based on 39 studies that met our inclusion criteria (out of 507 studies), we note that COVID-19 is exacerbating pre-existing rural vulnerabilities, including poverty, remoteness, socio-economic marginalisation and high unemployment. There is limited evidence that rural communities are resilient to the pandemic. Reduction in household expenditures and the community food system are the only reported forms of resilience. Although local institutions are supporting rural communities in responding to the impacts of the pandemic, several institutional dynamics undermine the effectiveness of the response. The increased risk of the pandemic is likely to reduce incomes and standards of living amongst poor communities. Thus, coping strategies were identified such as starting small gardens in communities, diet changes, targeting community markets with produce rather than retailers and food swap using social media, with food swap being the most adopted coping strategy. Although this study does not offer a comprehensive picture of the levels and nature of vulnerability, resilience and institutional dynamics of rural communities in different parts of the world reveal the limitations of existing knowledge of the vulnerability of rural communities in the context of COVID-19. This underscores the importance of further studies on rural vulnerability in the context of COVID-19 that will enable evidence-based responses to the pandemic in rural contexts.
Optimizing COVID-19 Prevention Measures in the Face of Socia-cultural Behaviours and Population Movement Patterns in Developing Countries: Case Study of Zimbabwe
(2023-11-02) Pedro, Sansão Agostinho
Impacts of COVID-19 Regime on Labor Within Food Systems: Whither BRICS Now and Beyond?
(2022-01) Amusan, L.; Okorie, V. O.
The advent of COVID-19 has reconfigured foodscape across the globe, BRICS inclusive. Some of the familiar sites where people in BRICS found food in pre-pandemic period has become increasingly threatened while many have completely disappeared, leaving behind dark food deserts. Information on the extent of the devastation caused by the pandemic is still emerging. Such information is pivotal to the articulation of affirmative programs and policies. This article, therefore, explores the impact of the pandemic on food systems of BRICS to indicate how the alliance may positively influence the repositioning of each country member’s foodscape to achieve food security both now and beyond this pandemic. This article uses content analysis of relevant documents and draws from functionalist’s perspective to outline various impacts of the pandemic on food systems. It argues that creating enabling environment for labor, making food security a common goal of BRICS as a body as well as putting in place mechanisms supporting local food systems will invariably ensure food security across various levels in BRICS.
Youths’ Violent Resistance of Necropolitical Landscape of COVID-19 in Nigeria’s Vanishing Foodscapes and Waterscapes
(2021-07) Okorie, V. O.; Okorie, N.; Amusan, L.
This article interrogates the necropolitical landscape of COVID-19 in Nigeria. The article explores how the landscape emerges at the intersection of COVID-19 regime and structural violence and materializes in foodscapes and waterscapes of the country. It, also, analyzes ethical quandaries arising as the brutal violence of the regime is amplified by structural violence in places and spaces of residence, recreation, leisure and labor of ordinary people. Using qualitative data derived from primary and secondary sources, the article demonstrates that the necropolitical landscape reconfigures social relationships, meanings and identities embedded in places and spaces where people interact with each other and with food and water to produce youth’s violent resistance as well as varnishing foodscapes and waterscapes. These changes ultimately impose the status of a living-dead on ordinary people in Nigeria. The article concludes that without the provision of adequate palliative, devoid of food fraud, geography of corruption, gender and ethnic-biases to every citizen, the government loses its moral ground to implement its COVID-19 regime. To meet the gap between what Nigeria can afford and what is required to implement the regime, both the government and its financial elites must embrace economic justice. Finally, the government should opt for a modified regime that factors the extant material conditions of the havenots into the arrangement.
Unmaking Malnutrition-Related Attritional Deaths In Covid-19 Regime: Does Digital Extension And Youth Nexus Count In Africa?
(2022-07) Okorie, V. O.
The implementation of COVID-19 pandemic regime has created barriers between extension agents and farm families as well as between input suppliers and farmers. Farm families that hitherto relied on faceto-face extension education to make crucial nutrition-related decisions and navigate Africa’s unstable food system are apparently constrained by lockdown and physical distancing arising from the pandemic regime. Malnutrition crises, including installment death from hunger, have besieged many households. Experts are, however, suggesting the nexus between youth and digital extension as a game changer in the quest to address Africa’s nutrition insecurity. This paper, therefore, uses thematic analysis of relevant data to assess potentials, possibilities and limits of this emerging nexus to alter the continent’s grim nutritional landscape. The paper argues that the nexus has the potential not only to overcome the pandemic-induced malnutrition challenges but also prepare the continent for the present and future pandemics.
LA COVID 19 DANS LA VILLE DE TOUBA : DE LA RÉSISTANCE À LA RÉSILIENCE COMMUNAUTAIRE.
(harmattan, Sénégal, 2023-10-05) TOURE, Mamadou Ndong
This article comes from the research project "Transmission of Covid 19 in Senegal: analysis of the socio-spatial dynamics of the factors of propagation in the region of Dakar and the town of Touba", implemented by the LEIDI Laboratory of the Gaston Berger University from 2021 to 2022 (02 years). It analyses the problem of community perception of the COVID-19 pandemic and its evolution in the town of Touba. It takes stock of the factors involved in resistance to and denial of the disease, and of the occupational categories most affected (commerce and transport). The overall aim of the study is to contribute to a better understanding of the community dynamics that prevailed during the Covid 19 pandemic in the city of Touba. Specifically, the aim is to question community players about their perception of the disease, and then the characteristics that explain the spread of the pandemic, particularly in terms of trade and transport. The methodology is based on the overall methodology of the research project mentioned above. The tools of the Active Participatory Research Method were favoured because of their ability to capture socio-economic realities through focus groups, interviews and testimonials, which we combined with a survey of 500 individuals from different socio-professional categories. The main findings are that community-based approaches should be favoured to deal with pandemics and future epidemics. Community transmission is generally linked to the precarious living conditions of a population that is often hard-working and obliged to travel every day in search of daily expenses in places open to the public, notably markets and bus stations.
The state of teaching and learning during the outbreak of COVID-19 in East African Universities
(2024-04-23) Edward, Ombui; Tandika, Pambas; Fabian, Flora; Mongi, Hector; Moshi, Fabiola; Muchungi, Kendi; Mukami, Victoria; Kiguru, Mary
The primary concern about interruptions in teaching and learning in higher education institutions is no longer a question of internal conflicts like student strikes or staff demonstrations but whether universities and colleges are cultivating a resilient institutional culture to mitigate, adapt to, and survive external and global interruptions such as COVID-19. Respective government directives compelled East African learning institutions to abruptly terminate in-person learning in March 2020 in the wake of COVID-19 in the region. Instructors and university management officers of the sampled universities in Tanzania and Kenya shared their experience through individual and face-to-face interviews on the knowledge and skills of the instructors on alternative modalities of managing teaching and learning during this period? This study uses descriptive analysis to provide an in-depth understanding of the state of teaching and learning during COVID-19 pandemic in East African Universities. The analysis reveals that despite initiative invested by university management in training instructors for different modalities of teaching and learning, instructors were reluctant to adopt an online model of instruction. Consequently, workload increased after re-opening of the universities with development of policy guidelines and conducting research for appropriate ways of managing universities during pandemic being suggested.

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