Work undertaken focused mainly on data collection and analysis in southern Africa and Basel. Project results are a collection, identification and analysis of more than ten key drought coping measures synchronized with ten principal actors in drought management. Interviewed individual male and female children, youths and adult farmers enriched the project with data about children gathering fruit, family austerity measures in limiting expenses and food consumption, trading/vending youths and labor migration. Extended family members provided assistance in cash or kind to alleviate effects of drought. Male and female elders, traditional leaders like village heads and chiefs chaperoned the management and provisioning of scarce food, water and incomes from community grain banks, water points and thrift societies, respectively. Localized firewood and mining investment schemes generated much needed incomes. The cultivation of drought resilient plants, (eg millet & sorghum), de=stocking, selling cattle and switching to rearing drought resistant animals (eg goats and chickens) stood out as the foremost and durable drought coping strategies, albeit in combination with other measures. Humanitarian aid from churches, non-governmental organisations, local and central governments, bilateral and multilateral donor agencies and governments supplemented the dominant grass-root based drought coping strategies. Donor-community collaborations enhanced water availability at boreholes, water harvests in homesteads and sand wells. Such partnerships also enabled the development of climate smart agriculture, petty trade and crop/income diversification, increased/reliable food/water storage, conservation farming, drip irrigation, furrowing and leveling of fields. Such methods, however, are often affordable for vulnerable resource-poor farmers. Drought data was also collected from newspapers, bulletins and policy papers, drought evaluations reports and the extant drought secondary literature.
The research findings are being exploited through further analysis, presentations and works for publication. The project met key requirements in deliverables such as ethics and data management. Research ethics addressed issues of voluntary subject participation, the purpose and procedure of the study, risks, benefits, confidentiality and informed consent. The data management plan provided key points on a qualitative summary, data origin, size, use, accessibility, findability, openness and interoperability. A personal career development plan was completed alongside the attendance and completion of research methods and scientific training programs at the Graduate Center, mostly via zoom sessions. Regular meetings were held with the supervisor and grant office staff regarding the project plans and work in progress. The research findings have been discussed and shared with colleagues at zoom seminar presentations at the universities of Basel, Botswana, South Africa and Zimbabwe. White Horse Press has invited the researcher to submit a book manuscript on the project likely to be published in early 2024. An application for funding will be made to place the book on open access.
