Mercy Mutua - Academia.edu (original) (raw)

Papers by Mercy Mutua

East African journal of interdisciplinary studies, Nov 15, 2022

Background: In Kajiado County, water, sanitation, and hygiene interventions have been independent... more Background: In Kajiado County, water, sanitation, and hygiene interventions have been independently implemented in communities that have been targeted with sexual health rights interventions. This approach only achieves a set of disjointed achievements and thus the need for integration. This project implemented and tested the effectiveness of the Integrated Water Hygiene and Sanitation and Sexual Reproductive Health Rights (SRHR)Model to address harmful practices against young girls in the county. This model was implemented on the assumption that addressing a pressing need of the community through providing access to Water hygiene and sanitation services provides a platform to discuss SRHR matters leading to positive change towards WASH and SRHR behaviours such as reduction of FGM, teenage pregnancies and early forced marriages. Methods: A before and after design that compared baseline and endline evaluation data was used to establish the effectiveness of the model. The study was conducted in 4 sub-counties. Data was collected through household surveys. Adolescent Girls and Young Women (AGYW) aged 10-24 years were included. Data were analysed using proportions, frequencies, odds ratios, and adjusted odds ratios. Results: Prevalence of FGM/C dropped to 55.2% from 91% at baseline. More circumcised women (79.5% end line; 28% at baseline) reported that they wished they had not been circumcised. An increase in participants who had ever heard messages of ARP (91.6% end line; 47% baseline) was reported. Approximately 98.1% believed that ARP is acceptable to the community as a means of progressing girls to womanhood. Young girls and Women were more likely to undergo FGM/C if they did not have access to a toilet (AOR, 2.32; 95% CI, 1.50 to 3.59), had never heard of ARP (AOR, 2.50; 95% CI, 1.54 to 4.04) and were not sure if ARP would be acceptable in the community (AOR, 0.51; 95% CI, 0.27 to 0.97). Odds of ever being circumcised were less likely among those that stated that FGC should not continue (AOR, 0.11; 95% CI, 0.01 to 0.81) and had been part of the intervention (AOR, 0.25; 95% CI, 0.17 to 0.38). Conclusions: There is a link between addressing WASH gaps (community-felt needs) in Kajiado and the reduction of FGM/C. Addressing community pressing needs provides a

East African Journal of Health and Science

Neonatal sepsis contributes to increased rates of mortality among newborns during their first mon... more Neonatal sepsis contributes to increased rates of mortality among newborns during their first month of life. Chlorhexidine (CHX) has proven effective in the prevention of neonatal sepsis due to umbilical stump infection after birth. Despite shifting from dry cord care techniques to CHX use, there is still a high prevalence of improper cord care in low-resource settings in Kenya. This study sought to explore barriers and enablers to CHX use in Kwale, Vihiga and Machakos counties in Kenya. We adopted mixed methods cross-sectional survey with 582 women of reproductive age with a young child less than one year as respondents to the quantitative survey. Qualitative data entailed thirty (30) key informant interviews with healthcare workers and national policymakers. Six (6) focus group discussions with mothers, caregivers, community health volunteers (CHVs) and traditional birth attendants were conducted. An observation checklist was used to assess the availability of CHX services and sup...

Agriculture & Food Security, 2021

Background The notion of leisure became pronounced more than 20 years ago when women who worked o... more Background The notion of leisure became pronounced more than 20 years ago when women who worked on or out of the farm came home to a “second shift,” which entailed domestic work and childcare. This gap continues today not only between men and women but also among women and men. Women's challenges in terms of their leisure arise out of or are shaped by social norms and different life contexts. Method The Women's Empowerment in Agriculture Index (WEAI) was conducted to understand women's empowerment and disempowerment status in agricultural activities in five counties in Kenya in 2017. In 2019, focus group discussions were carried out in two of the five counties to understand how men and women farmers define leisure and assess the leisure gap and its effect on women's farm and household activities. We were also interested in understanding how men's and women's workload affects leisure and other productive economic activities, resulting in empowerment and how wo...

Titles in this Working Paper series aim to disseminate interim climate change, agriculture and fo... more Titles in this Working Paper series aim to disseminate interim climate change, agriculture and food security research and practices and stimulate feedback from the scientific community. The CGIAR Research Program on Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security (CCAFS), led by the International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT), brings together some of the world's best researchers in agricultural science, development research, climate science and Earth System science, to identify and address the most important interactions, synergies and tradeoffs between climate change, agriculture and food security. www.ccafs.cgiar.org This work was implemented as part of the CGIAR Research Program on Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security (CCAFS), which is carried out with support from CGIAR Fund Donors and through bilateral funding agreements. For details please visit https://ccafs.cgiar.org/donors. The views expressed in this document cannot be taken to reflect the official opinions of these organisations.

LJF conceived of the study, helped draft the manuscript and provided overall leadership for the r... more LJF conceived of the study, helped draft the manuscript and provided overall leadership for the research. ELG was responsible for data searching and sifting, data extraction and analysis, and drafting of the manuscript. BC was responsible for second sifting, and drafting of the manuscript. SK and CH were responsible for drafting of the manuscript. All authors critically commented on, and approved, the final version of the manuscript.

Agriculture & Food Security

Background: Gender-related constraints reflect gender inequalities in access to resources and dev... more Background: Gender-related constraints reflect gender inequalities in access to resources and development opportunities. Access to productive assets is a major issue in the gender empowerment discourse. Despite the significant roles women play in agriculture and food security in many developing countries, they continue to have a poorer command over a range of productive resources, including education, land, information and financial resources compared to their men counterparts. The purpose of the study was to establish the effect of access and control of productive resources on bean production. Results: Data collected from 412 households in the major bean corridors of Kenya (Homa Bay, Machakos, Bomet and Narok counties) were used to explain the importance of access to productive resources and income use in determining the quantity of beans produced by households. We found that the sex of the respondent was significantly correlated with bean production, with female-headed households producing less beans than the male-headed ones (p = 0.0.08). With regard to access and control of productive resources, households with more agricultural incomes and those who put a larger proportion of their land to agriculture produced more beans (p = 0.008; p = 0.000, respectively). Access and use of fertilized and hired labour was also highly significant. When assessing decision making on the use of income from bean sales was considered, households where the female spouse made decisions produced less beans compared to those that had the male household head being the main decision maker (p = 0.011). Conclusions: We concluded that access and control of productive assets are important in determining the quantity of beans produced at household level. There is a need therefore to come up with interventions which will benefit all the households but are targeted to the needs of the male-and female-headed households.

Food Security, 2014

The Michigan State University (MSU) International Development Paper series is designed to further... more The Michigan State University (MSU) International Development Paper series is designed to further the comparative analysis of international development activities in Africa, Latin America, Asia, and the Near East. The papers report research findings on historical, as well as contemporary, international development problems. The series includes papers on a wide range of topics, such as alternative rural development strategies; nonfarm employment and small scale industry; housing and construction; farming and marketing systems; food and nutrition policy analysis; economics of rice production in West Africa; technological change, employment, and income distribution; computer techniques for farm and marketing surveys; farming systems and food security research.