Semester Reflection GH

The research process has been going smoothly thus far. At first, Gabby and I were unsure about how gender rights, climate change, and livelihood resilience were connected, but we were able to find an ActionAid Zambia news article about the connections. We have learned that rain-fed agriculture is very important in Zambia and those crops are particularly vulnerable to climate change. Because agriculture is such a major contributor to GDP, climate change has a large socioeconomic effect. Furthermore, women face land ownership battles between customary and statutory laws so ActionAid provides them additional support with conservation agriculture and livelihood resilience techniques. As we move forward, we want to understand this relationship between gender rights, climate change, and livelihood resilience more specifically. It is not clear what interventions ActionAid specifically engages in and learning more about that could guide our research questions. Additionally, climate change affects other countries and it would be interesting to conduct a comparative study in countries who face climate change, but use different interventions both generally for smallholder farmers and specifically for women. In country, we aim to contact stakeholders to get a more targeted idea of obstacles facing Zambian farmers and women, as well as the organizations that propose solutions. I think a challenge of our research will be to cover all three variables with enough depth, given the breadth of the effect of climate change and of gender rights separately.

During the pre-departure course, I definitely learned more about more formal frameworks used in global health to evaluate problems and propose solutions, especially during Dr. Pelletier’s lecture. I gained some exposure to more diverse fields that work in global health. In particular, I learned a lot from the ILR students in the cohort about legal human rights issues in global health. I hope to expand this knowledge more in country, and learn more about health policy and governance in practice. As I got to know my cohort better I feel more confident that I can reach out and ask for help, as well as support my cohort. One of my personal learning goals was to become more at ease with uncomfortable situations and embrace the learning process more. I know that I will have to reach out to my cohort for support and I am eager to do that after going through the pre-departure course with them. I also hoped to be prepared before going in country with some basic knowledge of cultural practices, and historical and current events. Through the historical and current presentations and guest lecture with Professor Ndulo, I feel more prepared to enter Zambia with some background and sense of my own positionality. However, during the semester, I wasn’t able to engage with as many current events on my own as I had hoped. I hope that after the semester ends and before traveling into Zambia, I will have an opportunity to read more current news. I am excited, albeit a bit nervous, to travel to Zambia, meet my host family and work colleagues, engage in a new culture, and reexplore how I define service—all alongside my cohort.