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The paper examined the relationship between financial development and economic growth for the period 1996 to 2018 in Eswatini.

The Autoregressive Distributed Lag bounds test (ARDL) was employed to determine the long-run and short-run dynamics of the link between the variables of interest. The Granger causality test was also performed to establish the direction of causality between financial development and economic growth.

The ARDL results revealed that there is a long-run relationship between financial development and economic growth. The Granger causality test revealed bidirectional causality between money supply and economic growth, and unidirectional causality running from economic growth to financial development. The results highlight that economic growth exerts a positive and significant influence on financial development, validating the demand following hypothesis in Eswatini.

Policymakers should formulate policies that aims to engineer more economic growth. The policies should strike a balance between deploying funds necessary to stimulate investment and enhancing productivity in order to enliven economic growth in Eswatini.

The study investigates the finance-growth linkage using time series analysis. It determines the long-run and short-run dynamics of this relationship and examines the Granger causality outcomes.

Stunting, which refers to low height-for-age, is one of the most important public health problems in Ethiopia, and it more accurately reflects nutritional deficiencies and illness that occur during the most critical periods for growth and development in early life. Given this, this paper aims at determining the magnitude and factors associated with stunting among 6–59 month old children in Ilubabor Zone, Southwest Ethiopia.

This paper opted for a descriptive study using an interviewer-administered questionnaire and anthropometric measurements of 617 children aged 6–59 months. A systematic random sampling technique was used to select the study participants. Data was analyzed using Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 25 and World Health Organization (WHO) Anthro software. Multivariate logistic regression analysis was used to identify independent predictors of stunting.

About 33.7% of children aged 6–59 months included in this study were stunted. The proportion of moderate and severe stunting among the stunted children was 26.4% and 7.3%, respectively. Large family size (AOR = 4.0; 95% confidence interval [CI]: 2.5, 6.4), low dietary diversity score (AOR = 7.8; 95% CI: 4.6, 13.0) and household food insecurity (AOR = 16.4; 95% CI: 10.0, 26.7) were independent predictors of stunting.

Reporting and recall bias related to food groups consumed over the past seven days and seasonal variation may affect the findings related to factors associated with stunting.

Globally, it is estimated that nearly 165 million children under the age of five are stunted. Outcomes associated with stunting include increased risk of mortality, increased disease risk, developmental delays, diminished ability to learn and lower school achievement and reduced lifelong productivity. So, determining the level of stunting in a particular community is important to design strategies for curbing the contributing factors.

This study’s community-based design yields a representative sample of study subjects in the Hurumu district, which is valuable for intervention methods and actions. Standardized tools that are validated for use by the World Health Organization are used. Besides, anthropometric data were analyzed using the updated WHO Anthro software.

This study aims to document the hypogea churches in Lay Gayint Woreda, South Gondar, to provide information for future tourism development practices and serve as insurance against loss of value due to unmanaged deteriorative factors.

The study followed a descriptive research design with qualitative research approach. Data were collected through field observations, interviews and written sources examination.

The study explored the lesser-known hypogea churches, which have significant tourist attraction values, including environmental, historical and architectural significance. However, the use of these potential cultural resources for tourism development is not yet attempted, and their conservation status is found to be critical. This documentation work is significant both for the sake of future tourism development plans and as insurance against looming cultural losses.

This study did not record the ancient treasures of the churches because of the current political instabilities that hindered the access of data. However, it has implication for the need of an extensive documentation activity to trace the cultural resources in the remote areas of the country for future tourism development and conservation practices.

This paper documented the remote hypogea churches not only for the purpose of future tourism development plan but also as an insurance of their values against unmanaged destructive factors.

Change of climate is attributed to human activity that alters the composition of the global atmosphere observed over comparable periods. The purpose of this paper is to explore smallholder farmers' perceptions of climate change and compare it with meteorological data, as well as to identify perceived adaptation barriers and examine the factors that influence the choice of adaptation options in eastern Ethiopia.

In total, 384 sample households were chosen from four districts of the zone. A cross-sectional survey was used to conduct the study. Primary data was acquired through key informant interviews, focus group discussions and semistructured interviews, whereas meteorological data was collected from the National Meteorological Service Agency of Ethiopia. A Mann–Kendall statistical test was used to analyze temperature and rainfall trends over 33 years. A multivariate probit (MVP) model was used to identify the determinants of farmers' choice of climate change adaptation strategies.

The result indicated that temperature was significantly increased, whereas rainfall was significantly reduced over the time span of 33 years. This change in climate over time was consistently perceived by farmers. Smallholder farmers use improved varieties of crops, crop diversification, adjusting planting dates, soil and water conservation practices, reducing livestock holdings, planting trees and small-scale irrigation adaptation strategies. Moreover, this study indicated that sex of the household head, landholding size, livestock ownership, access to extension, access to credit, social capital, market distance, access to climate change-related training, nonfarm income, agroecological setting and poverty status of the households significantly influence farmers’ choice of adaptation strategies.

Further research is required to evaluate the economic impact of each adaptation options on the livelihood of smallholder farmers.

Institutional variables significantly influenced how farmers adapted to climate change, and all of these issues might potentially be addressed by improving institutional service delivery. To improve farm-level adaptation, local authorities are recommended to investigate the institutional service provision system while also taking demographic and agroecological factors in to account.

This study compared farmers' perceptions with temperature and rainfall trend analysis, which has been rarely addressed by other studies. This study adopts an MVP model and indicated the adaptation strategies that complement/substitute strategies each other. Furthermore, this study discovered that the choice of adaptation options differed between poor and nonpoor households, which has been overlooked in previous climate change adaptation research.