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Forests support human livelihoods and mitigate against climate change, yet they are at a risk of irreversible loss due to high degradation rates. The success of forest conservation mechanisms depends on involvement and support by forest dependent communities. In this paper, the authors assess forest dependent household's willingness to pay (WTP) labour or cash for a conservation programme seeking to restore degraded forestland in Mount Elgon Forest, Kenya.

Data were collected from 919 households in Mt Elgon forest reserve, Kenya. A double bounded contingent valuation approach was used to examine households' WTP and an ordered probit model to estimate the determinants of WTP.

The findings of the study show a higher WTP for conservation through labour days (12 days/month, equivalent to 1800 KES/month) compared to cash (KES 450/month). Forest dependence has a significant influence on households' willingness to support conservation activities. A higher WTP was observed amongst households with higher vulnerability (high shocks value, low asset value and those in the poorest wealth categories) implying that they are more willing to contribute for forest conservation.

While emerging literature on WTP for forest conservation is growing, few studies have paid attention on the influence of forest dependence on WTP for forest conservation. There are limited studies on use of in-kind contribution as a payment vehicle for WTP. The study's findings show a high WTP in form of labour suggesting the importance of embracing in-kind contribution as a mechanism of supporting forest conservation in contexts of developing countries.

This impact assessment provides empirical evidence from household producer surveys to test the assumptions surrounding the contribution of participatory varietal selection (PVS) activities on seed sector development. The purpose of this paper is to focus on household access and adoption of common bean varieties from seed provision services and local markets to determine if, and under what social conditions, PVS activities stimulated seed uptake and market participation.

The propensity score matching technique and simple regression analysis were used to estimate the impact and compare household performance across three farmer groups located in Hoima, Uganda.

PVS increased access to and adoption of improved varieties and supported additional intermediate development outcomes when farmer group characteristics were aligned with PVS efforts. Specifically, PVS was more likely to stimulate market purchases of newly introduced varieties in the farmer group located closest to markets. The project did not however, improve all the development objectives that were evaluated. PVS most critically, did not increase the probability that households received the specific varieties they desired.

This study found that PVS can support the key pillars of seed sector development. In addition to increasing household access to new varieties, free seed dissemination promoted market participation and stimulated local seed market development.

This study addressed the need to consider intermediate development outcomes in impact assessments of development interventions. The findings clarified the contribution of PVS in the context of broader development goals and identified farmer group dynamics associated with enhanced impacts among rural producers in Uganda.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the prevalence of household food insecurity among immigrant women connected to perinatal programs offered through a community-based organization in Edmonton, and to explore their experiences in coping with food insecurity.

This study utilized a mixed methods research design. A community-based participatory research approach was used to engage health workers who were connected to immigrant women and families through the Multicultural Health Brokers Cooperative in Edmonton. Through the health workers a sample of 213 immigrant women connected to their perinatal programs completed the Household Food Security Survey. Following the survey, 17 women completed semi-structured interviews which were analyzed using content analysis.

The vast majority of women (94 percent (n=199)) lived in food insecure households, and 53 percent (n=112) in severely food insecure. In semi-structured interviews, women specifically described not having enough money to buy vegetables, fruit and meat, and perceiving a lack of control over foods they ate and offered to their families.

This study highlights the need for support to be provided to immigrant families for acquiring healthy food in Canada.

The mixed methods design with a decent sample of often underrepresented research participants highlights an area in need of further research and greater support.

The purpose of this study results and recommendations will have a paramount significance for policymakers, policy advocates, development planners and practitioners who may be in need of such information for reconsideration, evaluation and inclusion into their respective development and humanitarian programming and operational strategies. Above all, the study result has further provided the local community with viable adaptation strategies to climate-induced changes in the study area.

This study was conducted to measure the livelihood vulnerability of Borana pastoralists to climate change and variability in southern Ethiopia. Pastoralists’ households were sampled using multistage sampling techniques. A total of 27 socio-economic and biophysical indicators were used to reflect vulnerability components: adaptive capacity, exposure and sensitivity. Principal component analysis was used to develop weights for indicators and to produce livelihood vulnerability index to classify households according to their level of vulnerability. Ordinal logistic regression was used to identify the determinants of vulnerability to climate-induced stresses.

The results showed that 24.4% of households were highly vulnerable, 60.3% were moderately vulnerable and 15.3% of households were less vulnerable to climate-induced stresses. Factor estimates of the logistic model further revealed that early warning information, bush encroachment, coping strategy, temperature, drought frequency, provision of humanitarian services and food shortage during the normal season of the year have a significant influence on vulnerability in the study area.

The study’s results and recommendations will be of great significance to policymakers, development planners, and practitioners who require such information for reconsideration, evaluation, and inclusion in their respective development and humanitarian program and operational strategies. Most importantly, the study’s findings have provided the local community with practical adaptation strategies to climate-induced changes in the study area.

The study explored pastoralist perception of climate change and variability and measured the livelihood vulnerability of pastoralists’ households to climate change and variability and finally investigated viable adaptation and coping strategies in the study area.

This study examines the adoption drivers of scale-appropriate mechanization in Nepal's maize-based farming systems. The authors also assess the contribution of scale-appropriate mechanization to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) of zero hunger (SDG2) and no poverty (SDG1).

Propensity score matching and doubly robust inverse probability-weighted regression adjusted methods were applied to estimate the effects of mini-tiller adoption. These methods control the biases that arise from observed heterogeneities between mini-tillers users and nonusers.

The study findings show that farm size, labor shortages, draft animal scarcity, market proximity, household assets and household heads' educational level influence the adoption of mechanization in Nepal. Mechanized farms exhibited enhanced maize productivity, profits and household food self-sufficiency. Reduced depth and severity of poverty were also observed. Nevertheless, these effects were not uniform; very small farms (≤0.41 ha) facing acute labor shortages benefited the most.

The study results suggest that policymakers in developing nations like Nepal may wish to expand their emphasis on scale-appropriate mechanization to improve farm productivity and household food security, reduce poverty and contribute to the SDGs.

This first-of-its-kind study establishes the causal effects between scale-appropriate farm mechanization and SDG1 (no poverty) and SDG2 (zero hunger) in a developing nation.

The authors estimate the reduction of electricity poverty in Vietnam. The essential argument is that human development is about subjective feeling as much as technology and income.

The authors use a self-reported satisfaction indicator as complementary to objective indicators based on national household surveys from 2008 to 2018.

In 2010, the fraction of households with access to electricity was over 96%. However, over 24% declared their electricity use did not meet their needs. Since 2014, the satisfaction rate is around 97%, even if 25% of the households used less than 50 kWh/month. Today there is electricity for all in Vietnam, but electricity bills weigh more and more in the budget of households.

The subjective energy poverty measure allows better international statistics: unlike poverty or needs-based criteria, self-assessed satisfaction of needs compares across income levels and climates.

Inequalities in electricity use among Vietnamese households decreased during the 2008–2018 period, but are not greater than inequalities in income, contrary to the findings of Son and Yoon (2020).

Engineering and econometric objectivist approaches dominate the literature on sustainability monitoring. Out of 232 sustainable development goal (SDG) indicators, only two are subjective. Yet the findings show that subjective indicators tell a different part of the story. Access is not grid building, but the meaningful provision of electricity to satisfy the needs.

Mombasa City in Kenya is one of the most vulnerable towns to flood risk due to its low-lying coastal location. Those at the highest risk in the city are households living in the flood-prone informal settlements. However, little is known about the perception of these vulnerable households to the flood risks and its health impacts, which is important for developing effective long-term adaptation strategies. The purpose of this paper is to examine the general perception of the residents regarding flood risks, its impact on their health and their adaptation strategies.

This study surveyed 390 randomly selected households in three informal settlements in the city of Mombasa using a semi-structured questionnaire. This was supplemented with six focus group discussions (FDGs) and six key informant interviews (KIIs).

The majority of respondent households perceive future flooding as high risk or severe with high negative health impact. Despite this, many do not evacuate their homes because they do not have alternative places to move to. Flooding was indicated to have had a negative physical and mental health impact on members of households. Although majority of households had taken some adaptation measures, most of these were short term, mainly due to financial constraints, lack of knowledge and government support. Perception of flood risk and gender were found to have a strong influence on taking long-term adaptation measures at the household level.

Reducing flood risk and averting its health consequences in flood-prone informal settlements require empowering and supporting those living in these areas with ability to initiate long-term adaptation measures and creating awareness about future risks.

This study provides evidence about how residents of flood-prone informal settlements perceive flood risk and how the exposures to perennial flooding impact their health. The paper augments existing knowledge of flood risk in poor urban neighborhoods of developing countries.

The purpose of this paper is to increase the understanding of customer share of wallet (SoW) based on research in customer characteristics and the retail service quality model. Specifically, this study adopts an asymmetrical modelling approach to provide insights into the necessary and sufficient conditions leading to increased customer SoW in the context of neighbourhood shops in Southern Africa.

This study uses fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis to analyse survey data collected from 523 current customers of the shops.

This study reveals that large household size and low income are necessary conditions for increased SoW. It also reveals five unique customer profiles, or casual recipes, associated with increased customer SoW. More generally, this study demonstrates that service quality constituents (personal interaction, reliability, policy and physical aspects of the shop) and customer characteristics, namely, relationship duration, household size, gender and income-level act in combination to lead to customer SoW.

This study illustrates how service quality constituents and customer characteristics compete and/or complement each other in relation to increased customer SoW. To the best of the author’s knowledge, this is the first study to provide evidence on the necessary conditions for increased SoW, especially in the neighbourhood shop context of a developing economy. Value-wise, this paper provides a more nuanced perspective to understanding how unique customer profiles are associated with increased SoW.

Out-of-pocket (OOP) payments continue to be a major method of financing healthcare in many low- and middle-income countries including Malaysia. Although macro-level data show that this is a substantial percentage of national health expenditure, at the grassroots level, the amount spent on health by households remains unknown in Malaysia. The purpose of this paper is to assess the validity and reliability of an adapted-for-purpose questionnaire designed to capture urban household health expenditures (HHEs) among Malaysian households.

This two-part study assessed content validity of the questionnaire using three experts and the reliability of the questionnaire through a test-retest study among 50 OOP-paying patients followed up at one private primary care clinic in Kuala Lumpur. This study was approved by the Malaysian Research Ethics Committee (NMRR-16-172-29311-IIR).

The validity of the 83-item questionnaire was high, with an item content validity index of 1.00 and a scale content validity index average score of 1.0 agreed to among the evaluating experts. In the test-retest reliability study, the majority of the categorical questionnaire items had perfect agreement values (k=0.81-1.00). Continuous questionnaire items were also found to be highly reliable with no significant differences between the test-retest segments and high correlation coefficient values (intra-class correlation coefficient>0.7).

The HHE questionnaire had excellent content validity and very high test-retest reliability. The results of this study suggest that this questionnaire could be used in Malaysian studies to determine actual urban HHE which is a first step toward developing universal health coverage for all.

Faced with the challenges of rural population decline, combined with the widespread expansion of homesteads in rural areas, local Chinese governments hope to strictly control and minimize rural housing land. Accurately decomposing the process of rural housing expansion and revealing its driving factors will be helpful for land-use regulation by the government.

In this study, an unusually rich dataset of rural housing registration from Pudong New Area in Shanghai is employed. The study aimed to decompose the fragmented accumulation process and its expansion determinants on rural housing assets. The dataset covers all samples of rural households and housing plots at 72 surveyed villages in six towns.

Housing offers profitable capital and earning assets to villagers at the urban fringe, so they have a powerful incentive to build and expand more. The results of this analysis showed that the expansion of rural housing is largely due to the haphazard construction of auxiliary rooms by villagers, especially on plots of arable land that are adjacent to their houses that have been stealthily converted into auxiliary rooms and sheds. Low costs and weak penalties have led to an increase in rent-seeking expansions to rural houses. Houses with the smaller initial areas, families with more laborers and household heads, and the proximity of villages to downtown with convenient living services were the main driving factors for expanding houses. A concerted effort is needed to control the disorganized and unlicensed expansion of housing. This effort should include formulating areas for free use by villagers, high taxes on overused areas, serious penalties for unlicensed housing expansion and effective land-use planning.

An understanding of the expansion status and control measures related to rural houses in Shanghai provides an important reference that can help to guide the formulation of rural housing policies, and the sustainable development of cities worldwide. Of course, this study cannot generalize about housing distribution and expansion status worldwide based on the study area in China, because China's land tenure policies are unique. But land registry data exists that makes research like this feasible. There is a need to carefully examine the detailed housing distribution in each country before it can be decided on how best to address the disorderly increase in rural housing stock, and promote the reduction of rural residential expansion.

First, the process of rural housing expansion by using an unique dataset which covers ten thousands of samples is revealed. Second, the results have policy implications for reducing the amount of idle and inefficiently rural homestead. The focus is on rural housing growth and its driving factors in Shanghai, and the villagers' motivations for housing expansion are explored.