Social Work Practice: Accounting for Double Injustices Experienced by Women Under the Confluence of Covid-19 Pandemic and Climate Change Impacts in Nyanga, Zimbabwe

Understanding the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and its control measures on women and children: A Zimbabwe case study

COVID-19 presented countries with unprecedented health policy challenges. For low-income countries in particular, policymakers had to contend with both the direct threats posed by COVID-19 as well as the social, educational, and economic harms associated with lockdown and other infection prevention and control measures. We present a holistic and contextualised case study of the direct and indirect impacts of COVID-19 on women and children, with some assessment of their uneven distribution across socio-economic, age and gender groups. We used different types of primary and secondary data from multiple sources to produce a holistic descriptive analysis. Primary data included: qualitative data obtained from 28 in-depth interviews of key informants, six focus group discussions; and 40 household interviews. We also extracted data from government reports and announcements, the District Health Information Software version 2 (DHIS2), newspaper articles and social media, as well as from published research articles. Our findings show that the direct and indirect adverse impacts of COVID-19 were compounded by many years of severe political economic challenges, and consequent deterioration of the healthcare system. The indirect effects of the pandemic had the most severe impacts on the poorest segment of society and widened age and gender inequalities. The pandemic and its accompanying infection prevention and control measures negatively affected health service delivery and uptake. The management of COVID-19 presented enormous challenges to policymakers and public health specialists. These included managing the greatest tension between direct and indirect harms; short-term and long-term effects; and the unequal distribution of harms across different segments of society.

The Covid-19 Pandemic: Limited Water Access and the Precarity of Women Fishers at Lake Kariba, Zimbabwe

Man-made reservoirs are constructed to meet certain purposes and Lake Kariba, Zimbabwe, was designed for hydroelectric power generation. However, it has developed other multiple uses, and the growth of fisheries on the lake has had a significant impact on the livelihoods of local communities. The declaration of Covid-19 as a pandemic in Zimbabwe in March 2020 was quickly followed by the imposition of national lockdowns with varying levels of severity up to the present day. This was done to curtail the spread of the disease, meanwhile enhancing the nation's capacity in terms of acquiring testing kits, constructing more admission and quarantine centres as well as educating the people about ways to keep safe. In response to the calls by the government to monitor the movement of people and compliance of the lockdown rules, the Zimbabwe National Parks and Wildlife Management Authority (ZNPWMA), the governing body of the Lake Kariba fisheries, imposed rules that have significantly impacted the fishing communities at Lake Kariba. Both gillnet fishers and rod and line fishers have been impacted, but our focus here is on women rod and line fishers. Using the precarious livelihoods conceptual frameworks, we show how the changes in water management during the Covid-19 pandemic lockdowns has generated high levels of precariousness on the livelihoods of women at Kariba. We define precariousness as the condition of uncertainties brought to the women fishers by changes in water restrictions. The precarity of women was induced by several factors. For instance, the women fishers reported that restrictions to accessing fish in areas with high catches impacted them. They are also now obliged to pay exorbitant fishing fees in a way to discourage them to fish; they were frequently chased away from the Lake by ZNPWMA officers; they had limited amount of time to fish due to curfews; and failure to comply results in heavy fines imposed on them among other challenges. We show how these challenges interact with the current Zimbabwe socio-economic crisis to worsen the precariousness and vulnerability of women fishers at Lake Kariba. Data presented in this manuscript are based on participant observation and interviews with women fishers at Lake Kariba.

Trends in maternal mental health during the COVID-19 pandemic-evidence from Zambia

The COVID-19 pandemic has increased social and emotional stressors globally, increasing mental health concerns and the risk of psychiatric illness worldwide. To date, relatively little is known about the impact of the pandemic on vulnerable groups such as women and children in low-resourced settings who generally have limited access to mental health care. We explore two rounds of data collected as part of an ongoing trial of early childhood development to assess mental health distress among mothers of children under 5-years-old living in two rural areas of Zambia during the COVID-19 pandemic. We examined the prevalence of mental health distress among a cohort of 1105 mothers using the World Health Organization's Self-Reporting Questionnaire (SRQ-20) before the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in August 2019 and after the first two infection waves in October-November 2021. Our primary outcome was mental health distress, defined as SRQ-20 score above 7. We analyzed social, economic and family level characteristics as factors modifying to the COVID-19 induced changes in the mental health status. At baseline, 22.5% of women were in mental health distress. The odds of mental health distress among women increased marginally over the first two waves of the pandemic (aOR1.22, CI 0.99-1.49). Women under age 30, with lower educational background, with less than three children, and those living in Eastern Province (compared to Southern Province) of Zambia, were found to be at highest risk of mental health deterioration during the pandemic. Our findings suggest that the prevalence of mental health distress is high in this population and has further worsened during COVID-19 pandemic. Public health interventions targeting mothers' mental health in low resource settings may want to particularly focus on young mothers with limited educational attainment.

Effects of climate-related risks and extreme events on health outcomes and health utilization of primary care in rural and remote areas: a scoping review

BACKGROUND

Rural populations are at risk of climate-related impacts due to ecological and geographical determinants, potentially leading to greater morbidity and health utilization. They are often highly dependent on primary care services. However, no rural- or primary care specific synthesis of these issues has ever been conducted. This review aimed to identify, characterize, and summarize existing research on the effects of climate-related events on utilization and health outcomes of primary care in rural and remote areas and identify related adaptation strategies used in primary care to climate-related events.

METHODS

A scoping review following PRISMA-ScR guidelines was conducted, examining peer-reviewed English-language articles published up to 31 October 2022. Eligible papers were empirical studies conducted in primary care settings that involved climate-related events as exposures, and health outcomes or utilization as study outcomes. Two reviewers independently screened and extracted relevant information from selected papers. Data were analysed using content analysis and presented using a narrative approach.

RESULTS

We screened 693 non-duplicate papers, of those, 60 papers were analysed. Climate-related events were categorized by type, with outcomes described in terms of primary, secondary, and tertiary effects. Disruption of primary care often resulted from shortages in health resources. Primary care may be ill-prepared for climate-related events but has an important role in supporting the development of community.

CONCLUSIONS

Findings suggest various effects of climate-related events on primary care utilization and health outcomes in rural and remote areas. There is a need to prepare rural and remote primary care service before and after climate-related events.

Development and validation of a lockdown preparedness scale: Understanding lockdown preparedness through a social vulnerability perspective

Millions of people around the world were subjected into nationwide or community wide lockdowns in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Scientists also predict that as we enter into a new normal, another pandemic is not impossible, and that lockdowns may be implemented again. Therefore, examining factors affecting lockdown preparedness (LDP) is important. Through a survey of 800 adult residents in Singapore during the pandemic, this study proposed and tested an LDP scale and found that quality of social interactions, news consumption, as well as education and income affect the extent of psychological and emotional preparedness for lockdowns.

Climate change and COVID-19: Interdisciplinary perspectives from two global crises

The repercussions of the COVID-19 pandemic and climate change - two major current global crises - are far-reaching, the parallels between the two are striking, and their influence on one another are significant. Based on the wealth of evidence that has emerged from the scientific literature during the first two years of the pandemic, this study argues that these two global crises require holistic multisectoral mitigation strategies. Despite being different in nature, neither crisis can be effectively mitigated without considering their interdependencies. Herein, significant interactions between these two crises are highlighted and discussed. Major implications related to the economy, energy, technology, environment, food systems and agriculture sector, health systems, policy, management, and communities are detailed via a review of existing joint literature. Based on these outcomes, practical recommendations for future research and management are provided. While the joint timing of these crises has created a global conundrum, the COVID-19 pandemic has demonstrated opportunities and lessons for devising sustainable recovery plans in relation to the climate crisis. The findings indicated that governments should work collaboratively to develop durable and adjustable strategies in line with long-term, global decarbonisation targets, promote renewable energy resources, integrate climate change into environmental policies, prioritise climate-smart agriculture and local food systems, and ensure public and ecosystem health. Further, differences in geographic distributions of climate change and COVID-19 related death cases revealed that these crises pose different threats to different parts of the world. These learnings provide insights to address the climate emergency - and potential future global problems with similar characteristics - if international countries act urgently and collectively.

Understanding Needs and Potentials for Gender-Balanced Empowerment and Leadership in Climate Change Adaptation and Mitigation in Africa

The past years were marked by the COVID-19 pandemic, economic downfall, the 5th anniversary of the Paris Climate Agreement, and the end of the African Women’s Decade. According to the latest projections, African countries will continue to face increasing inequalities, as well as risks to human health, water and food security, due to climate change. African countries are also struggling to reduce gender-related power imbalances in adaptation and mitigation that magnify existing vulnerabilities, particularly those of women. Therefore, any advances made in this narrative are significant. This paper investigates the needs and potential for gender-balanced leadership/empowerment in adaptation and mitigation based on climate change experts’ views on the advances made in Africa. This is complemented by a bibliometric analysis of the literature published on the topic between the years 2015 and 2022. The study suggests that although women’s influence on climate change related decisions is growing, a series of barriers need to be overcome, among which are lack of knowledge and political will. The COVID-19 pandemic is seen as having both positive and negative potentials for gender-balanced leadership/empowerment. The findings provide a premise for identifying possible directions of further actions towards gender-balanced leadership/empowerment in climate change in African countries.

Promoting Environmental Justice and Sustainability in Social Work Practice in Rural Community: A Systematic Review

Social work’s response to global climate change has dramatically increased over the last several years. Similarly, growing attention has been paid to rural social work; less clear, however, is how social work, responsive to global climate change, is developed, deployed, and understood in rural contexts; this systematic review elaborates on current social work contributions (research, practice, and policymaking), promoting environmental justice and sustainability in rural communities. Utilizing the preferred reporting items for systematic reviews and meta-analyses (PRISMA) approach, this article thematically analyzed and synthesized 174 journal articles on social work-specific interventions and environmental justice. The results illustrate insights into the experiences, practices, or objectives of rural social workers vis-à-vis climate change. Significant themes from the literature demonstrated that gender, age, and race limited access to social work services and climate-related disaster response support in rural settings; this article argues that rural community-driven social work practices focused on environmental justice and sustainability should be encouraged and that policy advocacy attentive to climate change and its impact on vulnerable and marginalized groups should be pursued. Current and prospective social work scholars, practitioners, policymakers, and other stakeholders should collaborate with local rural communities to address their unique needs related to climate change. In turn, grassroots strategies should be co-developed to promote climate change adaptation and disaster risk reduction, ultimately achieving the goal of building resilient, healthy, and sustainable rural communities.